Uplink signaling for cooperative multipoint communication

Abstract

A method of operating a wireless communication system is disclosed (FIG. 6). The method includes receiving a virtual cell identification (VCID) parameter (600) from a remote transmitter. A base sequence index (BSI) and a cyclic shift hopping (CSH) parameter (604,606) are determined in response to the VCID. A pseudo-random sequence is selected in response to the BSI and CSH (610,612). A reference signal is generated using the selected pseudo-random sequence (614).

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of operating a wireless communication system, comprising:
 receiving a signal from a base station;   selecting a cell-specific parameter in response to a first state of the signal;   selecting a user-specific parameter in response to a second state of the signal; and   transmitting an uplink reference signal in response to the selected parameter.   
     
     
         2 . A method as in  claim 1 , wherein the user-specific parameter is a virtual cell identification parameter. 
     
     
         3 . A method as in  claim 2 , comprising:
 initializing a first pseudo-random sequence generator for generating a base sequence with the virtual cell identification parameter;   initializing a second pseudo-random sequence generator for generating a cyclic shift hopping sequence with the virtual cell identification parameter; and   transmitting the uplink reference signal generated from the base sequence and the cyclic shift hopping sequence.   
     
     
         4 . A method as in  claim 1 , wherein the cell-specific parameter is common to a cell served by the base station. 
     
     
         5 . A method as in  claim 1 , comprising transmitting the reference signal on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). 
     
     
         6 . A method as in  claim 1 , wherein the reference signal is a sounding reference signal (SRS). 
     
     
         7 . A method as in  claim 1 , comprising:
 configuring a user equipment with dedicated user-specific uplink control resource allocation parameters for determining an uplink control region for transmitting channel state information reports; and   determining the uplink control region for transmitting scheduling requests and Hybrid Auto Repeat Request (HARQ) acknowledgement reports.   
     
     
         8 . A method as in  claim 1 , comprising determining a resource block for transmitting uplink control information on an uplink control channel. 
     
     
         9 . A method as in  claim 8 , wherein the uplink control information is one of a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), a Channel State Information report, and a Scheduling Request. 
     
     
         10 . A method as in  claim 9 , wherein the HARQ-ACK is in response to one of a prior control signal scheduling downlink data transmission and a semi-persistently scheduled downlink data transmission. 
     
     
         11 . A method as in  claim 1 , comprising configuring a user equipment with dedicated sounding reference signal (SRS) resource allocation parameters to determine time-frequency resources for transmitting a sounding reference signal. 
     
     
         12 . A method as in  claim 11 , wherein said SRS resource allocation parameters include one or more of SRS bandwidth configuration, SRS subframe configuration, an indication of whether simultaneous transmission of Hybrid Auto Repeat Request acknowledgement and SRS is permitted within a subframe, and a number of resources allocated for transmitting random access preambles. 
     
     
         13 . A method of operating a wireless communicating system comprising:
 transmitting uplink control information from a second base station to a first base station; and   determining uplink control resources for a user equipment (UE) in a cell served by the first base station in response to the uplink control information.   
     
     
         14 . A method as in  claim 13 , wherein the first base station requests uplink control configuration parameters for the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) region of a cell served by the second base station, wherein the second base station transmits the requested uplink control configuration parameters, and wherein the first base station determines a dedicated uplink control region for the UE. 
     
     
         15 . A method as in  claim 13 , wherein the second base station transmits a preferred target PUCCH resource configuration to the first base station for determining a PUCCH region in a cell controlled by the first base station. 
     
     
         16 . A method as in  claim 13 , wherein the uplink control information is transmitted on an X2 logical interface. 
     
     
         17 . A method of operating a wireless communication system, comprising the steps of:
 transmitting at least two uplink transmit power control commands from a network to a user equipment;   receiving a first uplink transmit power control command for transmitting uplink control information and/or a sounding reference signal to a first base station;   receiving a second uplink transmit power control command for transmitting a sounding reference signal to a second base station;.   
     
     
         18 . A method as in  claim 17 , comprising:
 determining at least two indices in a group power control command received in a detected downlink control information format, wherein   a first index indicates a transmit power control command for transmitting uplink control information and/or a sounding reference signal to a first base station, and wherein   a second index indicates a transmit power control command for transmitting a sounding reference signal to a second base station.   
     
     
         19 . A method as in  claim 17 , comprising:
 requesting by a first base station a cell-common sounding reference signal (SRS) configuration of a cell controlled by a second base station; and   transmitting by the second base station the cell-common SRS configuration to the first base station.   
     
     
         20 . A method as in  claim 19 , wherein the SRS configuration includes one of an SRS bandwidth configuration, an SRS subframe configuration, and a parameter that defines a maximum uplink region of a subframe in a time division duplex (TDD) system.