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EP-4215002-B1 - ENHANCED RATE SIGNALING IN WIRELESS NETWORKS WITH RELAY FUNCTION

EP4215002B1EP 4215002 B1EP4215002 B1EP 4215002B1EP-4215002-B1

Inventors

  • DEES, WALTER
  • DIJK, ESKO, OLAVI
  • GONZALEZ TEJERIA, Jesus

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20210914

Claims (16)

  1. An apparatus for controlling scheduling of communication resources to communication devices at a relay communication device (10-1) in a wireless network in which relay functions for communication between communication devices and the wireless network are enabled, wherein the apparatus is configured to: receive from an access device (20) of the wireless network or an upstream relay communication device (10-P) of the relay communication device (10-1), in a received recommended data rate MAC CE and/or in a received data rate limit MAC CE, a received data rate recommendation or limit respectively being one of: an aggregate data rate recommendation or limit indicating a logical channel pertaining to at least two communication devices or at least two logical channels of a communication device, a data rate recommendation and/or limit for a logical channel that has been assigned to one or more downstream communication devices by the relay communication device; wherein the apparatus is configured to: determine a new data rate recommendation and/or limit for one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D) at least partly based on an identity of the logical channel; and transmit the determined new data rate recommendation and/or limit to at least one of the one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D), in a new recommended data rate MAC CE and/or in a new data rate limit MAC CE respectively.
  2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to determine the new data rate recommendation and/or limit to be less than or equal to the received data rate recommendation and/or limit.
  3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the received data rate recommendation and/or limit comprises indicator data that indicates whether the received recommendation and/or limit applies to an upstream data flow or a downstream data flow.
  4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to send to the access device (20) or the upstream relay communication device (10-P) of the relay communication device (10-1) a request for an aggregate desired data rate for a logical channel.
  5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the request is triggered by and at least partly based on at least one request for a desired data rate received from one of the one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D).
  6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to receive a request for a desired data rate for a logical channel from one of the one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D), to determine based on the received request a data rate recommendation and/or limit for the logical channel, and to respond to the request with the determined data rate recommendation and/or limit.
  7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to look up in an internal table (25) of the relay communication device (10-1) a corresponding downstream communication device (10-2, 10-D) and an identity of a second logical channel for which to send a new data rate recommendation and/or limit to the downstream communication device (10-2, 10-D) in response to a data rate recommendation and/or limit received from the access device (20) or the upstream relay communication device (10-P) of the relay communication device (10-1) and indicating an identity of a first logical channel, or wherein the apparatus is configured to look up in the internal table (25) of the relay communication device (10-1) an identity of a second logical channel for which to send a new request for a desired data rate to the access device (20) or an upstream relay communication device (10- P) of the relay communication device (10-1) in response to a request for a desired data rate received from one of the one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D) and indicating an identity of a first logical channel.
  8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the apparatus is configured to create an additional logical channel on a wireless link with the access device (20) or an upstream relay communication device (10-P) when it determines that a new logical channel has been created for a communication link with one of the one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D).
  9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the internal table (25) is configured to map an identity of a logical channel between the relay communication device (10-1) and the access device (20) or the upstream relay communication device (10-P) to a plurality of identities of logical channels between the relay communication device (10-1) and the one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D).
  10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data rate recommendation and/or limit is transmitted using at least one of Medium Access Control protocol, Radio Link Control protocol, adaptation protocol carrying Packet Data Convergence Protocol data, Packet Data Convergence Protocol, Radio Resource Control protocol, and Service Data Adaptation Protocol.
  11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to collect information about at least one desired data rate received from the one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D), to transmit the collected information to the upstream relay communication device (10-P) or the access device (20), to receive a received data rate recommendation and/or limit from the upstream relay communication device (10-P) or the access device (20), and to distribute the received data rate recommendation and/or limit at least partially among the one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D) using a predetermined policy.
  12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus is configured to select the predetermined policy based on at least one of a quality indicator of a logical channel of the relay communication device (10-1), a number of downstream communication devices of a relay communication device, a number of upstream communication devices of a relay communication device, a type of downstream communication device, a policy selection information received from an upstream communication device or the access device, a quality of service identifier, a network slice identifier, and a buffer status of the relay communication device (10-1).
  13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to determine a further new data rate recommendation and/or limit for one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D) triggered by loss of a communication link between the relay communication device and at least one other communication device, or by a determination that said communication link is to be stopped; and transmit the further new data rate recommendation and/or limit to at least one downstream communication device (10-2, 10-D).
  14. A relay communication device (10-1) for a wireless network, comprising an apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 13.
  15. A wireless communication system comprising a relay communication device (10-1) according to claim 14 and an access device (20), wherein the access device (20) is configured to receive from the relay communication device (10-1) an aggregate desired data rate for a logical channel, and to determine based on an identity of the logical channel for which downstream communication devices the aggregate desired data rate applies.
  16. A method of controlling scheduling of communication resources to communication devices in a wireless network in which relay functions for communication between communication devices and the wireless network are enabled, wherein the method comprises: receiving from an access device (20) or an upstream relay communication device (10-P) of the wireless network, in a received recommended data rate MAC CE and/or in a received data rate limit MAC CE, a received data rate recommendation and/or limit respectively being one of: an aggregate data rate recommendation and/or limit indicating a logical channel pertaining to at least two communication devices or at least two logical channels of a communication device, a data rate recommendation and/or limit for a logical channel that has been assigned to one or more downstream devices by the relay communication device; determining a new data rate recommendation and/or limit for one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D) at least partly based on an identity of the logical channel; and transmitting the determined new data rate recommendation and/or limit to at least one of the one or more downstream communication devices (10-2, 10-D), in a new recommended data rate MAC CE and/or in a new data rate limit MAC CE respectively.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to resource scheduling in wireless networks with relay function, such as - but not limited to - cellular networks with indirect network connections for remote communication devices (e.g. terminal devices such as user equipments (UEs)) which are out of network coverage. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Many wireless communication systems use network access devices (such as base stations, Node Bs (eNBs, eNodeBs, gNBs, gNodeBs, ng-eNBs, etc.), access points or the like) to provide geographical service areas where wireless communication devices (e.g. terminal devices such as mobile stations or UEs) communicate with an access device serving a particular geographical service area in which the terminal devices are located. The access devices are connected within a network allowing communication links to be made between the wireless communication devices and other devices. In some circumstances, the communication links are between wireless communication devices that are close to each other. In these situations, it may be desirable to have a direct communication link between two wireless communication devices rather than communicating through an access device. Such direct communication between communication devices is often referred to as device-to-device (D2D) communication or peer-to-peer (P2P) communication. The communication resources (e.g., time-frequency blocks) used for D2D or P2P communication can be a subset of the communication resources used by the communication system for communication between wireless communication devices and access devices or they can be a different set of communication resources (e.g. unlicensed band or millimeter wave band). An in-coverage (InC) communication device is a communication device that is within the service area of an access device and is capable of communication with the access device. An out-of-coverage (OoC) communication device is typically a communication device that is not within a service area of any access device or that is in the service area of an access device but the access device does not allow access (e.g. because it is a non-public network (NPN) access device). An OoC communication device may use an indirect network connection to an access device. It is noted that a communication device can also be an OoC communication device without having any connectivity. Resource scheduling may be based on an intricate interplay of multiple scheduling mechanisms and protocols that work alongside each other. A scheduler (which may be located at an access device) is expected to take care for a good agreement between resource allocations and recommended bit rate values that it sends to communication devices. At physical layer, resources are typically scheduled at a very fine-grained level, i.e. per frame/subframe or even smaller resource units. At higher layers, the scheduling is typically defined in terms of quality-of-service (QoS) profiles, priorities, etc. In a particular example, 3GPP has defined a concept called Recommended Bit rate at the MAC layer (see 3GPP specification TS 38.321). This rate has a default averaging window of two seconds and is provided to each UE connected to the access device, and is meant for a specific logical channel. The use of this MAC mechanism allows the access device to indicate in a fairly dynamic manner (e.g. not to generate too much data to be transferred), or shift the balance between UEs or between certain logical channels (e.g. because another UE or another channel gets temporarily a higher priority to transmit or receive data). This in turn will have to lead to adhering to a higher layer QoS profile, e.g., to guarantee a certain bitrate for a longer period of time for several UEs. The physical layer scheduler needs to take the MAC recommended bit rate into account. For example, a scheduler could allocate a persistent schedule to a specific communication device which means this communication device is granted periodically recurring resources, that enable it to send data at a bit rate of approximately the value recommended to it. Various core network (CN) functions for data rate control and limitation are provided. However, these mechanisms do not consider data rate recommendation, control or limitation in the context of radio access network (RAN) and relay communication devices. For good system operation, control mechanisms on both RAN and CN are needed as each has their unique requirements. Moreover, in the area of bit rate (data rate) recommendation for wireless networks in which relay functions for communication between communication devices and the wireless network are enabled, these relay functions may enable single-hop and/or multi-hop indirect network connections for remote communication devices. A remote communication device is a communication device that is indirectly connected to a core network via one or more relay functions. In such networks, a problem is that the RAN mechanisms fo