Patent ID: 9680607
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method performed at a receiving node of a wireless communication system to provide feedback to a transmitting node, the method comprising: determining a channel state of a wireless channel between the transmitting node and the receiving node based on a reference signal transmitted from the transmitting node, the channel state comprising a plurality of feedback parameters, each feedback parameter indicating a quality characteristic of the wireless channel as estimated by the receiving node or indicating a preference of the receiving node in a transmission characteristic of data transmission from the transmitting node; filling a feedback subframe based on the channel state, the feedback subframe comprising a plurality of feedback fields, each feedback field corresponding to one of the plurality of feedback parameters of the channel state and allocated to carry a value of a corresponding feedback parameter, and a field length of each feedback field being predetermined, wherein filling the feedback subframe comprises: for each feedback field, generating a feedback value of the corresponding feedback parameter; for at least one feedback field, determining whether an extended value is required for the corresponding feedback parameter; for each feedback field that has been determined to require the extended value, generating the extended value for the corresponding feedback parameter, a length of the extended value being equal to the field length of that feedback field and different from a length of the feedback value of the corresponding feedback parameter; for each feedback field for which the extended value has been generated, filling that feedback field with the extended value of the corresponding feedback parameter; and for each feedback field for which the extended value has not been generated, filling that feedback field with the feedback value of the corresponding feedback parameter, wherein for each feedback field for which the extended value has been generated, a length of the corresponding feedback parameter's extended value is equal to the field length of that feedback field, and a length of the corresponding feedback parameter's feedback value is less than the field length of that feedback field, and wherein for each feedback field for which the extended value has not been generated, a length of the corresponding feedback parameter's feedback value is equal to the field length of that feedback field; and sending a feedback signal to the transmitting node over a feedback channel, the feedback signal including the feedback subframe, wherein the feedback subframe is such that upon reconstruction of the feedback subframe at the transmitting node, for at least one feedback field, further processing is required to determine whether that feedback field is carrying the feedback value or carrying the extended value of the corresponding feedback parameter, and wherein the feedback value is the value of the corresponding feedback parameter, and the extended value is a value that requires further processing to extract the feedback value.