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EP-3635894-B1 - ALLOCATION OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT RESOURCES

EP3635894B1EP 3635894 B1EP3635894 B1EP 3635894B1EP-3635894-B1

Inventors

  • BALDEMAIR, ROBERT
  • DAHLMAN, ERIK
  • FALAHATI, SOROUR
  • CHEN LARSSON, Daniel
  • PARKVALL, STEFAN

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20180413

Claims (11)

  1. A method of transmitting control information to a communication network, the method being implemented in a wireless device and comprising: receiving signaling configuring (502) the wireless device with at least a first physical uplink control channel opportunity, PUCCH opportunity, and a second PUCCH opportunity, each of the configured PUCCH opportunities identifying uplink, UL, resources to be used for transmitting control information to the communication network; receiving (504) an assignment of radio resources to be used for receiving a downlink, DL, transmission from a network node of the communication network; receiving (506) an acknowledgement resource indication, ARI, indicating one of the configured PUCCH opportunities to be used for transmitting control information comprising acknowledgement information associated with the DL transmission; and transmitting (508) the control information associated with the DL transmission to the network node on at least a subset of the UL resources identified by the indicated PUCCH opportunity, wherein each of the configured PUCCH opportunities includes a PUCCH duration, and wherein the PUCCH duration of the first PUCCH opportunity is longer than the PUCCH duration of the second PUCCH opportunity.
  2. The method of claim 1, wherein the acknowledgement information is hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, feedback.
  3. The method of any of claims 1 to 2, wherein the ARI is received in a message comprising additional information.
  4. The method of claim 3, wherein the additional information is a variable separation of a time interval of the DL transmission and a time interval of the control information transmission.
  5. The method of claim 3 or 4, wherein said message comprises the ARI and the assignment of radio resources.
  6. A wireless device (430) comprising a communication interface (416) and processing circuitry (418) configured to cause the wireless device to: receive signaling configuring the wireless device with at least a first physical uplink control channel opportunity, PUCCH opportunity, and a second PUCCH opportunity, each of the configured PUCCH opportunities identifying uplink, UL, resources to be used for transmitting control information to a communication network; receive an assignment of radio resources to be used for receiving a downlink, DL, transmission from a network node of the communication network; receive an acknowledgement resource indication, ARI, indicating one of the configured PUCCH opportunities to be used for transmitting control information comprising acknowledgement information associated with the DL transmission; and transmit the control information associated with the DL transmission to the network node on at least a subset of the UL resources identified by the indicated PUCCH opportunity, wherein each of the configured PUCCH opportunities includes a PUCCH duration, and wherein the PUCCH duration of the first PUCCH opportunity is longer than the PUCCH duration of the second PUCCH opportunity.
  7. A method of receiving control information at a network node of a communication network, the method comprising: obtaining (602) a configuration of at least a first physical uplink control channel opportunity, PUCCH opportunity, and a second PUCCH opportunity, each of the configured PUCCH opportunities identifying uplink, UL, resources to be used for receiving control information from wireless devices in coverage of the communication network; assigning (604) radio resources to be used for transmitting a downlink, DL, transmission to a wireless device; transmitting (606) an acknowledgement resource indication, ARI, to the wireless device, the ARI indicating one of the configured PUCCH opportunities to be used for receiving control information comprising acknowledgement information associated with the DL transmission; and receiving (608) the control information from the wireless device on at least a subset of the UL resources identified by the indicated PUCCH opportunity, wherein each of the configured PUCCH opportunities includes a PUCCH duration, and wherein the PUCCH duration of the first PUCCH opportunity is longer than the PUCCH duration of the second PUCCH opportunity.
  8. The method of claim 7, wherein the acknowledgement information is hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, feedback.
  9. The method of any of claims 7 to 8, wherein the ARI is received in a message comprising additional information.
  10. The method of claim 9, wherein said message comprises the ARI and the assignment of radio resources.
  11. A network node (420) of a communication network comprising a communication interface (426) and processing circuitry (428) configured to cause the network node to: obtain a configuration of at least a first physical uplink control channel opportunity, PUCCH opportunity, and a second PUCCH opportunity, each of the configured PUCCH opportunities identifying uplink, UL, resources to be used for receiving control information from wireless devices in coverage of the communication network; assign radio resources to be used for transmitting a downlink, DL, transmission to a wireless device; transmit an acknowledgement resource indication, ARI, to the wireless device, the ARI indicating one of the configured PUCCH opportunities to be used for receiving control information comprising acknowledgement information associated with the DL transmission; and receive the control information from the wireless device on at least a subset of the UL resources identified by the indicated PUCCH opportunity, wherein each of the configured PUCCH opportunities includes a PUCCH duration, and wherein the PUCCH duration of the first PUCCH opportunity is longer than the PUCCH duration of the second PUCCH opportunity.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD Embodiments of the subject matter disclosed herein generally relate to communications networks, and, more particularly, to methods and devices for allocating acknowledgement resources. BACKGROUND Wireless communications networks may implement Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) or hybrid-ARQ (HARQ), wherein HARQ also may include forward error connection. In such a communications network, transmitting devices such as a wireless device may be required to send acknowledgement information (i.e., feedback) to the receiving device (such as a network node) indicating the result of decoding a transport block or codeword (e.g., ACK/NACK or ACK/NAK feedback). The ACK/NACK related to downlink (DL) transmissions may be transmitted in the uplink (UL). The feedback may be used to trigger fast retransmissions. In some communications networks such as 3GPP networks, explicit resource allocation may be supported. A DL transmission may include Downlink Control Information (DCI) in addition to DL data. DCI may be used to schedule a slot for reporting acknowledgement information (e.g., HARQ feedback) to be sent from the wireless device to the network node. In addition to this timing information, the wireless device also needs to know the exact acknowledgement resource (physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource) that should be used. PUCCH resources may be configured by higher layers and DCI may indicate which of the configured resources to use. Which resources to use may be communicated as an acknowledgement-resource-indication (ARI). Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a time frequency diagram, in which DL transmission 100 includes DCI 102 in addition to DL data. The DL transmission 100 is scheduled in slot n. DCI 102 indicates that acknowledgement information (e.g., HARQ feedback) should be sent in slot n+1 using the PUCCH. In addition to this timing information, the ARI communicates which PUCCH resource should be used (e.g., ARI=1 communicates that PUCCH resource 1 should be used). Figure 2 is a schematic representation of a time frequency diagram, in which multiple DL transmissions 200, 202, 204 include DCI 0 206, DCI 1 208, DCI 2 210, respectively, in addition to DL data 0, 1, and 2. DL transmissions 200, 202, 204 are scheduled in slots n, n+1, and n+3, respectively. Due to the lack of PUCCH opportunities (e.g., no UL opportunities), acknowledgement feedback is requested in slot n+3 following DL data 2. In addition to the timing information, ARI in DCI 0 communicates that PUCCH resource 0 should be used for DL transmission 200 acknowledgement information, ARI in DCI 1 communicates that that PUCCH resource 2 should be used for DL transmission 202 acknowledgement information, and ARI in DCI 2 communicates that PUCCH 3 should be used for DL transmission 204 acknowledgements. The instances of ARI included in DCI 0, DCI 1, and DCI 3 point at different PUCCH resources to avoid collisions. However, the present inventors have recognized that the above acknowledgement information communication has drawbacks as discussed herein. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide methods and devices for allocated acknowledgement resources. The document EP2639984A2 discloses an uplink control information transmitting/receiving method and device in a wireless communication system, wherein a final PUCCH recourse to be used may be determined by an ACK/NACK Resource Indicator (ARI) value in a PDCCH. SUMMARY The invention is carried out in accordance with the appended claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate one or more embodiments and, together with the description, explain these embodiments. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a time frequency diagram, in which a downlink (DL) transmission includes downlink control information (DCI) in addition to DL data.Figure 2 is a schematic representation of a time frequency diagram, in which multiple DL transmissions include DCI in addition to DL data.Figure 3 is a schematic representation of a communications network in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.Figure 4 is a schematic representation of a host computer communicating via a network node with a wireless device over a wireless connection in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.Figure 5 is a schematic representation of a method of transmitting control information to a communications network, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.Figure 6 is a schematic representation of method for receiving control information at a network node of a communication network, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.Figure 7 is a schematic representation of a computer-readable storage medium, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION The following description of the embodiments refers to the accompanying dr