Flexible carrier downlink and uplink pairing for advanced networks

Abstract

Various embodiments disclosed herein provide for flexible carrier uplink and downlink pairing for 4G, 5G and future networks. Downlink and uplink channels can be assigned to different bands that are not contiguous or bands that have different bandwidths. This enables base station devices to have the flexibility to assign uplink and downlink communications to bands that have lower load and thus improve the efficiency and throughput of the communication link for both uplink and downlink. The base station device can also assign uplink and downlink pairing in order to minimize passive intermodulation interference. Passive intermodulation interference from a transmission can cause interference in bands near the transmission band, and so the base station device can assign downlink and uplink bands that are separate from each other in order to reduce the passive intermodulation interference.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . First network equipment, comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
 receiving, from second network equipment, a first indicator that indicates uplink sub-bands supported by a user equipment and downlink sub-bands supported by the user equipment, 
 based on a determination that the user equipment has a capability to utilize sub-bands that are not contiguous and are asymmetric in bandwidth, selecting an uplink sub-band of the uplink sub-bands and a downlink sub-band of the downlink sub-band for a communication link between the second network equipment and the user equipment, wherein the selecting is further based on a characteristic of the uplink sub-band, and 
 selecting a replacement uplink sub-band to replace the uplink sub-band in response to the characteristic being determined to exceed a defined threshold. 
   
     
     
         2 . The first network equipment of  claim 1 , wherein the selecting is further based on a second indicator that indicates that the second network equipment has the capability to utilize sub-bands that are not contiguous and are asymmetric in bandwidth. 
     
     
         3 . The first network equipment of  claim 1 , wherein the selecting comprises selecting the uplink sub-band and the downlink sub-band that are not contiguous and are asymmetric in bandwidth. 
     
     
         4 . The first network equipment of  claim 1 , wherein the characteristic of the uplink sub-band comprises a load associated with the uplink sub-band. 
     
     
         5 . The first network equipment of  claim 4 , wherein the operations further comprise, monitoring the load associated with the uplink sub-band. 
     
     
         6 . The first network equipment of  claim 1 , wherein, based on the determination that the user equipment has the capability to utilize sub-bands that are not contiguous and are asymmetric in bandwidth is based on a third indicator received by the second network equipment from the user equipment. 
     
     
         7 . The first network equipment of  claim 6 , wherein the third indicator was received by the second network equipment in response to a fourth indicator sent by the second network equipment to the user equipment to indicate that the second network equipment supports flexible uplink and downlink pairing. 
     
     
         8 . The first network equipment of  claim 1 , wherein the downlink sub-band has a larger bandwidth than the uplink sub-band. 
     
     
         9 . The first network equipment of  claim 1 , wherein the selecting is further based on reducing passive intermodulation interference in response to a detected passive intermodulation interference being determined to exceed a defined interference. 
     
     
         10 . Access point equipment, comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
 receiving, from a network device, a first indication that indicates an uplink sub-band supported by the network device and a downlink sub-band supported by the network device, 
 based on a determination that the uplink sub-band is not contiguous and is asymmetric in bandwidth to the downlink sub-band, selecting the uplink sub-band and the downlink sub-band for a communication link with the network device, wherein the selecting is further based on a utilization of a selected sub-band of a group of sub-bands comprising the uplink sub-band and the downlink sub-band, and 
 selecting a different sub-band other than the selected sub-band in response to the utilization of the selected sub-band exceeding a defined utilization. 
   
     
     
         11 . The access point equipment of  claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise, signaling to the network device, a master information block comprising a second indication that the access point equipment supports flexible uplink and downlink pairing, and wherein receiving the first indication is based on signaling the second indication. 
     
     
         12 . The access point equipment of  claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise, transmitting information corresponding to the uplink sub-band and the downlink sub-band to the network device. 
     
     
         13 . The access point equipment of  claim 10 , wherein the utilization comprises a load of the selected sub-band, and wherein the defined utilization comprises a defined load of the selected sub-band. 
     
     
         14 . The access point equipment of  claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise, selecting a different downlink sub-band other than the downlink sub-band in response to a downlink load of the downlink sub-band exceeding the defined load. 
     
     
         15 . The access point equipment of  claim 10 , wherein the selecting is further based on an estimated passive intermodulation interference of the uplink sub-band and the downlink sub-band being less than a defined amount of interference. 
     
     
         16 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a base station device, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
 signaling, to a user equipment, a master information block comprising a first indication that the base station device supports flexible uplink and downlink pairing;   receiving a second indication from the user equipment that indicates a group of uplink sub-bands supported by the user equipment and a group of downlink sub-bands supported by the user equipment;   based on a determination that an uplink sub-band of the group of uplink sub-bands and a downlink sub-band of the group of downlink sub-bands are not contiguous and are asymmetric in bandwidth, selecting the uplink sub-band and the downlink sub-band for a communication link with the user equipment, wherein the selecting is further based on a load associated with a selected sub-band from a first group of uplink and downlink sub-bands, and wherein the load associated with the selected sub-band comprises an uplink load associated with the uplink sub-band; and   selecting a different uplink sub-band, different than the uplink sub-band, in response to the uplink load associated with the uplink sub-band being determined to exceed a defined load.   
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein the first indication comprises a second group of uplink sub-bands and downlink sub-bands supported by the user equipment. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 17 , wherein the second group of uplink sub-bands and downlink sub-bands are indicated in the master information block. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise, monitoring the uplink load of the uplink sub-band. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein the selecting is further based on reducing passive intermodulation interference in response to a detected passive intermodulation interference being determined to be above a defined interference.