Method and apparatus for negotiating a multi-carrier configuration in a wireless access system

Abstract

A method for efficiently transmitting and receiving a control channel and/or a data channel in a radio communication system using multiple carriers is described. The embodiments of the present invention provide various multi-carrier system structures and various methods for setting a reference carrier in a multi-carrier system. The embodiments of the present invention also provide methods for efficiently transmitting control channels using a coordination field.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for negotiating a multi-carrier configuration between a base station and a terminal in a network, the method comprising:
 receiving, by the terminal from the base station via a primary carrier, a message comprising carrier common control information indicating available carriers in a the network; 
 receiving, by the terminal from the base station via the primary carrier, a first message comprising information specifying multiple carriers supported by the base station; 
 transmitting, by the terminal to the base station, a second message comprising information specifying one or more carriers simultaneously supported by the terminal and information indicating a number of the one or more carriers supported by the terminal; and 
 receiving, by the terminal from the base station, a third message in response to the second message, wherein the third message comprises information indicating one or more carriers assigned to the terminal and information indicating a number of the one or more carriers assigned to the terminal, 
 wherein the multiple carriers have include two or more carriers supported by the base station, and 
 wherein the multiple carriers consist of the primary carrier and one or more secondarynon-primary carriers; 
 receiving, by the terminal from the base station through the primary carrier, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of the primary carrier; and 
 when a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a non-primary carrier is not configured, controlling to receive, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) through the non-primary carrier according to the PDCCH of the primary carrier, 
 wherein the primary carrier is configured so that a PDSCH of the primary carrier is scheduled by the PDCCH of the primary carrier. 
 
     
     
       2. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the first message is broadcast to all terminals in a cell which is covered by the base station, and
 wherein the second message and the third message are unicast messages transmitted to specific entities. 
 
     
     
       3. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 transmitting, by the terminal, a scheduling request to the base station via the primary carrier assigned to the terminal. 
 
     
     
       4. The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the information specifying the multiple carriers which are assigned to the terminal is a coordination field. 
     
     
       5. The method according to  claim 4 , wherein the coordination field further includes at least one of modulation & coding scheme (MCS) level information, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scheme information, transmission scheme information, and power offset information. 
     
     
       6. A method for negotiating a multi-carrier configuration between a base station and a terminal in a network, the method comprising:
 transmitting, by the base station to the terminal via a primary carrier, a message comprising carrier common control information indicating available carriers in a the network; 
 transmitting, by the base station to the terminal via the primary carrier, a first message comprising information specifying multiple carriers supported by the base station; 
 receiving, by the base station from the terminal, a second message comprising information specifying one or more carriers simultaneously supported by the terminal and information indicating a number of the one or more carriers supported by the terminal; and 
 transmitting, by the base station to the terminal, a third message in response to the second message, wherein the third message comprises information indicating one or more carriers assigned to the terminal and information indicating a number of the one or more carriers assigned to the terminal, 
 wherein the multiple carriers have include two or more carriers supported by the base station, and 
 wherein the multiple carriers consist of the primary carrier and one or more secondarynon-primary carriers; 
 transmitting, by the base station to the terminal through the primary carrier, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of the primary carrier; and 
 when a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a non-primary carrier is not configured, controlling to transmit, by the base station to the terminal, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) through the non-primary carrier according to the PDCCH of the primary carrier, 
 wherein the primary carrier is configured so that a PDSCH of the primary carrier is scheduled by the PDCCH of the primary carrier. 
 
     
     
       7. The method according to  claim 6 , wherein the first message is broadcast to all terminals in a cell which is covered by the base station, and
 wherein the second message and the third message are unicast messages transmitted to specific entities. 
 
     
     
       8. The method according to  claim 6 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the base station, a scheduling request from the terminal via the primary carrier assigned to the terminal. 
 
     
     
       9. The method according to  claim 6 , wherein the information specifying the multiple carriers which are assigned to the terminal is a coordination field. 
     
     
       10. The method according to  claim 9 , wherein the coordination field further includes at least one of modulation & coding scheme (MCS) level information, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scheme information, transmission scheme information, and power offset information. 
     
     
       11. A terminal for of negotiating a multi-carrier configuration with a base station in a network, the terminal comprising:
 a radio frequency (RF) module transceiver; 
 wherein the terminal is configured to: 
 control the transceiver to receive, from the base station via a primary carrier, a message by using the RF module, the message comprising carrier common control information indicating available carriers in athe network; 
 control the transceiver to receive, from the base station via the primary carrier, a first message by using the RF module, the first message comprising information specifying multiple carriers supported by the base station; 
 control the transceiver to transmit, to the base station, a second message by using the RF module, the second message comprising information specifying one or more carriers simultaneously supported by the terminal and information indicating a number of the one or more carriers supported by the terminal; and 
 control the transceiver to receive, from the base station, a third message by using the RF module in response to the second message, wherein the third message comprises information indicating one or more carriers assigned to the terminal and information indicating a number of the one or more carriers assigned to the terminal;,  
 wherein the multiple carriers have include two or more carriers supported by the base station, and 
 wherein the multiple carriers consist of the primary carrier and one or more secondarynon-primary carriers; 
 control the transceiver to receive, from the base station through the primary carrier, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of the primary carrier; and 
 when a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a non-primary carrier is not configured, control the transceiver to receive, from the base station, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) through the non-primary carrier according to the PDCCH of the primary carrier, 
 wherein the primary carrier is configured so that a PDSCH of the primary carrier is scheduled by the PDCCH of the primary carrier. 
 
     
     
       12. The terminal according to  claim 11 , wherein the first message is broadcast to all terminals in a cell which is covered by the base station, and
 wherein the second message and the third message are unicast messages transmitted to specific entities. 
 
     
     
       13. The terminal according to  claim 11 , wherein the terminal is further configured to transmit a scheduling request to the base station via the primary carrier assigned to the terminal. 
     
     
       14. The terminal according to  claim 11 , wherein the information specifying the multiple carriers which are assigned to the terminal is a coordination field. 
     
     
       15. The terminal according to  claim 14 , wherein the coordination field further includes at least one of modulation & coding scheme (MCS) level information, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scheme information, transmission scheme information, and power offset information. 
     
     
       16. A base station for negotiating a multi-carrier configuration with a terminal in a network, the base station comprising:
 a radio frequency (RF) module transceiver; 
 wherein the base station is configured to: 
 control the transceiver to transmit, to the terminal, via a primary carrier, a message by using the RF module, the message comprising carrier common control information indicating available carriers in athe network; 
 control the transceiver to transmit, to the terminal, a first message by using the RF module, the first message comprising information specifying multiple carriers supported by the base station; 
 control the transceiver to receive, from the terminal, a second message by using the RF module, the second message comprising information specifying one or more carriers simultaneously supported by the terminal and information indicating a number of the one or more carriers supported by the terminal; and 
 control the transceiver to transmit, to the terminal, a third message by using the RF module in response to the second message, wherein the third message comprises information indicating one or more carriers assigned to the terminal and information indicating a number of the one or more carriers assigned to the terminal;,  
 wherein the multiple carriers have include two or more carriers supported by the base station, and 
 wherein the multiple carriers consist of the primary carrier and one or more secondarynon-primary carriers; 
 control the transceiver to transmit, to the terminal through the primary carrier, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of the primary carrier; and 
 when a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a non-primary carrier is not configured, control the transceiver to transmit, to the terminal, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) through the non-primary carrier according to the PDCCH of the primary carrier, and 
 wherein the primary carrier is configured so that a PDSCH of the primary carrier is scheduled by the PDCCH of the primary carrier. 
 
     
     
       17. The base station according to  claim 16 , wherein the first message is broadcast to all terminals in a cell which is covered by the base station, and
 wherein the second message and the third message are unicast messages transmitted to specific entities. 
 
     
     
       18. The base station according to  claim 16 , wherein the base station further is configured to receive a scheduling request from the terminal via the primary carrier assigned to the terminal. 
     
     
       19. The base station according to  claim 16 , wherein the information specifying the multiple carriers which are assigned to the terminal is a coordination field. 
     
     
       20. The base station according to  claim 19 , wherein the coordination field further includes at least one of modulation & coding scheme (MCS) level information, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scheme information, transmission scheme information, and power offset information.