Method and apparatus for performing direct communications in wireless communication system

A method of performing direct communications in a network of a wireless communication system, the method comprising configuring a first communication device to enter a direct communication mode by transmitting a first mode configuration information according to a mode change information; and configuring a second communication device to enter the direct communication mode by transmitting a second mode configuration information according to the mode change information; wherein the first communication device and the second communication device respectively have a first radio resource control (RRC) connection and a second RRC connection with the network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The application relates to a method and apparatus utilized in a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus of performing direct communications in a wireless communication system.

2. Description of the Prior Art

A long-term evolution (LTE) system supporting the 3GPP Rel-8 standard and/or the 3GPP Rel-9 standard are developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as a successor of a universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) for further enhancing performance of the UMTS to satisfy increasing needs of users. The LTE system includes a new radio interface and a new radio network architecture that provides high data rate, low latency, packet optimization, and improved system capacity and coverage. In the LTE system, a radio access network known as an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) includes multiple evolved Node-Bs (eNBs) for communicating with multiple user equipments (UEs), and communicating with a core network including a mobility management entity (MME), a serving gateway, etc., for Non-Access Stratum (NAS) control.

A LTE-advanced (LTE-A) system, as its name implies, is an evolution of the LTE system. The LTE-A system targets faster switching between power states, improves performance at the coverage edge of an eNB, and includes advanced techniques, such as carrier aggregation (CA), coordinated multipoint transmission/reception (CoMP), uplink (UL) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), etc. For a UE and an eNB to communicate with each other in the LTE-A system, the UE and the eNB must support standards developed for the LTE-A system, such as the 3GPP Rel-10 standard or later versions.

Please refer toFIG. 1, which is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system10according to the prior art. The wireless communication system includes a network100and two communication devices102and104. The network can be an E-UTRAN and the communication devices102and104can be UEs. In detail, when the communication device102needs to transmit data to the communication device104, the communication device102sends data via the network100and the communication device104receives data via the network100. In other words, the network100receives data from the communication device102and transmits data to the communication device104. This is similar forwarding. This forwarding is unnecessary and wastes overhead due to the reception and transmission. If the communication device102can directly transmit data to the communication device104, the overhead can be saved by avoiding this forwarding. However, how to realize direct communications between two communication devices is not defined in the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention therefore provides a method and apparatus for performing direct communications in a wireless communication system, to reduce energy of the reception and transmission.

A method of performing direct communications in a network of a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method comprises configuring a first communication device to enter a direct communication mode by transmitting a first mode configuration information according to a mode change information; and configuring a second communication device to enter the direct communication mode by transmitting a second mode configuration information according to the mode change information; wherein the first communication device and the second communication device respectively have a first radio resource control (RRC) connection and a second RRC connection with the network.

A method of performing direct communications in a first communication device and a second communication device of a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method comprises the first communication device entering a direct communication mode after receiving a first mode configuration information from a network of the wireless communication system; and the second communication device entering the direct communication mode after receiving a second mode configuration information from the network; wherein the first communication device and the second communication device respectively have a first radio resource control (RRC) connection and a second RRC connection with the network.

A method of assigning resources to perform direct communications in a network of a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method comprises generating and sending a first resource allocation configuration allocating resources for a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) to a first communication device; and generating and sending a second resource allocation configuration allocating resources for a second PDSCH and a second PUSCH to a second communication device; wherein the resources for the first PDSCH are identical to the resources for the second PUSCH and the resources for first PUSCH are identical to the resources for the second PDSCH.

A method of assigning resources to perform direct communications in a first communication device of a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method comprises obtaining a first resource allocation configuration allocating resources for at least one of a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) from a network; and generating a second resource allocation configuration allocating resources for at least one of a second PDSCH, a second PUSCH and a second PUCCH; and sending the second resource allocation configuration to a second communication device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Please refer toFIG. 2, which is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system20according to an example of the present invention. The wireless communication system20is briefly composed of a network and a plurality of communication devices. InFIG. 2, the network and the communication devices are simply utilized for illustrating the structure of the wireless communication system20. Practically, the network can be a universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) comprising a plurality of Node-Bs (NBs) in a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS). Alternatively, the network can be an evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN) comprising a plurality of evolved NBs (eNBs) and/or relays in a long term evolution (LTE) system or a LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system.

Furthermore, the network can also include both the UTRAN/E-UTRAN and a core network, wherein the core network includes network entities such as Mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving Gateway (S-GW), Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW), Self-Organizing Networks (SON) server and/or Radio Network Controller (RNC), etc. In other words, after the network receives information transmitted by a communication device, the information may be processed only by the UTRAN/E-UTRAN and decisions corresponding to the information are made at the UTRAN/E-UTRAN. Alternatively, the UTRAN/E-UTRAN may forward the information to the core network, and the decisions corresponding to the information are made at the core network after the core network processes the information. Besides, the information can be processed by both the UTRAN/E-UTRAN and the core network, and the decisions are made after coordination and/or cooperation are performed by the UTRAN/E-UTRAN and the core network.

The communication devices can be mobile communication devices such as user equipments for performing speech and data communication through the network such as the UMTS, the LTE system or the LTE-A system. Besides, the network and one of the communication devices can be seen as a transmitter or a receiver according to transmission direction, e.g., for an uplink (UL), the communication device is the transmitter and the network is the receiver, and for a downlink (DL), the network is the transmitter and the communication device is the receiver.

Please refer toFIG. 3, which is a schematic diagram of a communication apparatus30according to an example of the present invention. The communication apparatus30can be the network or one of the communication devices shown inFIG. 2, but is not limited herein. The communication apparatus30may include a processing means300such as a microprocessor or Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a storage unit310and a communication interfacing unit320. The storage unit310may be any data storage device that can store a program code314, accessed and executed by the processing means300. Examples of the storage unit310include but are not limited to read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, random-access memory (RAM), CD-ROM/DVD-ROM, magnetic tape, hard disk and optical data storage device. The communication interfacing unit320is preferably a transceiver and is used to transmit and receive signals (e.g., messages or packets) according to processing results of the processing means300.

Please refer toFIG. 4, which is a flowchart of a process40according to an example of the present invention. The process40is utilized in the wireless communication system20shown inFIG. 2, for performing direct communications in the network. The process40can be utilized in the network and may be compiled into the program code314. The process40includes the following steps:

Step402: Configure a first communication device to enter a direct communication mode by transmitting a first mode configuration information according to a mode change information when a first radio resource control (RRC) connection is established between the network and the first communication device.

Step404: Configure a second communication device to enter the direct communication mode by transmitting a second mode configuration information according to the mode change information when a second RRC connection is established between the network and the second communication device.

Step406: Generate and send a first security configuration to the first communication device and a second security configuration to the second communication device for activating security on direct communication between the first communication device and the second communication device.

According to the process40, the network respectively configures the first communication device and the second communication device to enter the direct communication mode according to the mode change information and send the first security configuration to the first and the second security configuration to the second communication devices when the first communication device and the second communication device respectively have the first RRC connection and the second RRC connection with the network. The first security configuration can be sent to the first communication device on the first RRC connection in a first RRC message and the second security configurations can be sent to the second communication device on the second RRC connection in a second RRC message. To securely send the first and second security configurations, the network sends the first RRC message after the first RRC connection has security configuration activated and the second RRC message after the second RRC connection has security configuration activated. Alternatively the first and second security configurations may be sent to the first and second communication devices in short messages or non-access stratum (NAS) messages. When the first communication device receives the first security configuration, the first communication device ciphers data or performs integrity protection on data directly transmitted to the second communication device using the first security configuration. The second communication device deciphers the ciphered data or checks integrity of the integrity protected data using the second security configuration. When the second communication device receives the second security configuration, the second communication device ciphers data or performs integrity protection on data directly transmitted to the first communication device using the second security configuration. The first communication device deciphers the ciphered data or checks integrity of the integrity protected data using the first security configuration. Therefore, the first and second communication devices can perform direct communications with each other securely by respectively using the first and second security configurations.

In detail, in Steps402and404, the mode change information is used for determining if the first and second communication devices enter the direct communication mode. If the network determines the first and second communication devices enter the direct communication mode to directly communicate with each other, the network respectively transmits the first and second mode configuration information to the first and second communication devices. Besides, in Step406, the first and second security configurations are further used for at least one of ciphering data, deciphering data, protecting data integrity and checking data integrity, so that transmissions between the first and second communication devices are secure.

Note that, the process40is an example of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should readily make combinations, modifications and/or alterations on the abovementioned description and examples. For example, the mode change information may be a mode change request received from the first communication device or the second communication device, a discovery report indicating the second communication device received from the first communication device, or a request or notification received from an evolved packet core (EPC) or generated by the network itself. Moreover, the first mode configuration information is carried on a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a first medium access control (MAC) control element or a first radio resource control (RRC) message between the first communication device and the network, and the second configuration information is carried on a second PDCCH, a second MAC control element or a second RRC message between the second communication device and the network. Besides, the security configuration may contain security parameters including at least one of at least one ciphering key, at least one parameter for deriving at least one ciphering key, at least one ciphering algorithm, at least one integrity key, at least one parameter for deriving at least one integrity key, at least one integrity protection algorithm. The first and second security configurations may have same or different security parameters. For example, the first and second security configurations may have a same ciphering key or a same parameter for deriving a ciphering key.

Besides, the at least one ciphering key may comprise only a ciphering key used for both ciphering data and deciphering data or comprise a first ciphering key for ciphering data and a second ciphering key for deciphering data. The at least one ciphering algorithm may comprise only a ciphering algorithm used for both ciphering data and deciphering data or comprise a first ciphering algorithm for ciphering data and a second algorithm for deciphering data. The at least one parameter for deriving at least one ciphering key may comprise only a parameter for deriving a ciphering key for both ciphering data and deciphering data or for deriving a first ciphering key for ciphering data and a second ciphering key for deciphering data, or comprise a first parameter for deriving a first ciphering key for ciphering data and a second parameter for deriving a second ciphering key for deciphering data. The at least one integrity key may comprise only a integrity key used for both data integrity protection and data integrity checking or comprise a first integrity key for data integrity protection and a second integrity key for data integrity checking. The at least one integrity protection algorithm may comprise only a integrity protection algorithm used for both data integrity protection and data integrity checking or comprise a first integrity protection algorithm for data integrity protection and a second integrity protection key for data integrity checking. The at least one parameter for deriving at least one integrity key may comprise only a parameter for deriving a integrity key for both data integrity protection and data integrity checking or for deriving a first integrity key for data integrity protection and a second integrity key for data integrity checking, or comprise a first parameter for deriving a first integrity key for data integrity protection and a second parameter for deriving a second integrity key for data integrity checking.

Moreover, to make the security more robust, the first security configuration should be different from the security configuration activated on the first RRC connection and the second security configuration should be different from the security configuration activated on the second RRC connection.

On the other hands, the first and second communication devices enter the direct communication mode after receiving the first and second mode configuration information from the network. The first and second communication devices apply the first and the second security configurations respectively. Moreover, one of the first and second communication devices may further transmit a detecting signal to the other one for the latter to detect the existence of the former. In other words, the first communication device may transmit a first signal for the second communication device to detect the existence of the first communication device after receiving the first mode configuration information. The second communication device follows to transmit a second signal for the first communication device to detect the existence of the second communication device after receiving the first signal. If the detection is not successful in the first or second communication device, a massage may be transmitted to the network to indicate such a failure. Besides, the first signal may be used for the first communication device to calculate a timing advance for the second communication device to perform an uplink transmission between the first and second communication devices. The usage of the second signal is similar to that of the first signal. Note that, the first and second signals can be physical layer signals, MAC control elements, radio link control (RLC) packet data units (PDUs), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) PDUs or RRC messages. The format of the first and second signals or the symbols and the positions of the first and second signals may be predetermined by a third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specification or configured by the network.

As seen above, the operations of the first communication device for performing the direct communications can be summarized to a process50as shown inFIG. 5. The process50can be compiled into the program code314and includes the following steps:

Step502: Receive the first mode configuration information from the network.

Step504: Enter the direct communication mode.

Step506: Transmit the first signal for the second communication device to detect the existence of the first communication device.

Step508: Detect the existence of the second communication device by receiving the second signal? If the second communication device exists, execute Step512; if not, execute step510.

Step510: Transmit a message to the network to indicate a failure of the detection of the existence.

In brief, the first communication device enters the direct communication mode by receiving the first mode configuration information and detects the existence of the second communication device to make sure the direct communications can work normally. The first communication device may further receive a security configuration. The first communication device may transmit the first signal for the second communication device to detect the existence of the first communication device before or after detecting the existence of the second communication device. Therefore, the first communication device can perform the direct communications with the second communication device securely. Similarly the second communication device performs the detection of the first communication device as described above.

Besides, when the network receives the message indicating the failure of the detection of the existence, the network may send a message configuring the first communication device to leave the direct communication mode and may also send another message configuring the second communication device to leave the direct communication mode accordingly. The messages can be MAC control elements, RRC messages or NAS messages.

In addition, the first communication device receives a detection request from the network and performs the detection of the second communication device. If the first communication device detects the existence of the second communication device, the first communication device transmits a first message to indicate the existence of the second communication device. Otherwise, the first communication device transmits a second message to the network to indicate a failure of the detection of the existence. The operations of the first communication device for detecting the second communication device for performing the direct communications can be summarized to a process60as shown inFIG. 6. The process60can be compiled into the program code314and includes the following steps:

Step602: Receive the detection request from the network.

Step604: Detect the existence of the second communication device by receiving the second signal? If the second communication device exists, execute Step606; if not, execute step608.

Step606: Transmit the first message to the network to indicate the existence of the second communication device and go to Step610.

Step608: Transmit the second message to the network to indicate a failure of the detection of the existence.

In brief, the first communication device detects the existence of the second communication device and indicates the existence of the second communication device to the network. After the network receives the first message, the network configures the first communication device to enter the direct communication mode. Therefore the network can make sure the direct communications can work normally. The first communication device may transmit the first signal after receiving the detection request.

Please refer toFIG. 7, which is a flowchart of a process70according to an example of the present invention. The process70is utilized in the wireless communication system20shown inFIG. 2, for assigning resources to perform direct communications in the network. The process70can be utilized in the network and may be compiled into the program code314. The process70includes the following steps:

Step702: Generate a first resource allocation configuration allocating resources for a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) to the first communication device and a second resource allocation configuration allocating resources for a second PDSCH and a second PUSCH to the second communication device, wherein the resources for the first PDSCH are identical to the resources for the second PUSCH, and the resources for the first PUSCH are identical to the resources for the second PDSCH.

Step704: Send the first resource allocation configuration to the first communication device and the second resource allocation configuration to the second communication device.

According to the process70, the network respectively allocates the resources for the first PDSCH and the first PUSCH to the first communication device and the resources for the second PDSCH and the second PUSCH to the second communication device. The resources contain at least one of subcarrier assignment, resource block assignment, at least one of a new data indicator, redundancy version, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), and hopping resource allocation. The first communication device transmits a first transport block on the first PUSCH in a first subframe to the second communication device and the second communication device directly receives the first transport block on the second PDSCH in the first subframe. In other words, the first PUSCH in the first subframe for the first communication device is the second PDSCH in the first subframe for the second communication device. Similarly, the second communication device transmits a second transport block on the second PUSCH in a second subframe to the first communication device and the first communication device directly receives the second transport block on the first PDSCH in the second subframe. In other words, the second PUSCH in the second subframe for the second communication device is the first PDSCH in the second subframe for the first communication device. Therefore, the first and second communication devices can communicate with each other directly according to the first and second resource allocation configurations received from the network. The network may further respectively generate a third resource allocation configuration allocating resources for a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) to the first communication device and a fourth resource allocation configuration allocating resources for a second PUCCH to the second communication device, to send hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement responses, and send the third resource allocation configuration to the first communication device and the fourth resource allocation configuration to the second communication device. The third resource allocation configuration can be in the first resource allocation configuration or sent separately. The fourth resource allocation configuration can be in the second resource allocation configuration or sent separately.

Note that, the process70is an example of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should readily make combinations, modifications and/or alterations on the abovementioned description and examples. For example, the first resource allocation configuration may be sent via a first PDCCH, a first MAC control element or a first RRC message to the first communication device from the network, and the second resource allocation configuration may be sent via a second PDCCH, a second MAC control element or a second RRC message to the second communication device from the network. For the case of the transmission of the first and the second resource allocation configurations on the first and second PDCCHs respectively, the first resource allocation configuration can be a second downlink assignment generated by the network and sent by the network on the second PDCCH to the second communication device to receive a first transport block on the second PDSCH, and the second resource allocation configuration can be an first uplink grant generated by the network and sent by the network on the first PDCCH to the first communication device to transmit the first transport block on the first PUSCH. The first PDCCH may have same search space as the second PDCCH or partial overlap of search space with the second PDCCH. The second downlink assignment may be the first uplink grant so the first communication device and the second communication device receive a same downlink control information (DCI). If the second downlink assignment is the first uplink grant, the second PDSCH and second downlink assignment are not in a same subframe. Similarly, a first downlink assignment is sent by the network on the first PDCCH to the first communication device to receive a second transport block on the first PDSCH and a second uplink grant is allocated by the network on the second PDCCH to the second communication device to transmit the second transport block on the second PUSCH. Moreover, the first or second uplink grant is a dynamic uplink grant or a configured uplink grant, i.e. Semi-Persistent Scheduling, and the first or second downlink assignment is allocated via a dynamic downlink assignment or configured downlink assignment, i.e. Semi-Persistent Scheduling. In addition, the first PDSCH, the first PUSCH, the second PDSCH and the second PUSCH may be allocated in a multicast broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) subframe of the network, so that the direct communications would not affect the normal communications between the first and second communications and the network.

In another aspect, the carriers used for the first PDSCH and the second PUSCH are the same as a first carrier, and the carriers used for the first PUSCH and the second PDSCH are the same as a second carrier. For a frequency division duplexing (FDD) system, the first carrier is different from the second carrier. For a time division duplexing (TDD) system, the first carrier is the same as the second carrier. The network may transmit a first subframe configuration to the first communication device and a second subframe configuration to the second communication device to configure which subframe used for the first and second PUSCHs and which subframe used for the first and second PDSCHs. When a subframe is configured for the first PUSCH for the first communication device, the subframe is configured for the second PDSCH for the second communication device. Similarly, when a subframe is configured for the first PDSCH for the first communication device, the subframe is configured for the second PUSCH for the second communication device. The first subframe configuration information and the second subframe configuration information are carried in the first and second PDCCHs, the first and second MAC control elements or the first and second RRC messages.

Furthermore, when the carrier of the first PDCCH is the same as that of the first PDSCH (i.e. the first carrier), the first communication device should receive a subframe of the first PDCCH and a subframe of the first PDSCH in different time. When the carrier of the first PDCCH is different from that of the first PDSCH, the first communication device can receive a subframe of the first PDCCH and a subframe of the first PDSCH at the same time. The operations for the second communication device are similar.

In another aspect, a timing advance should be performed to allow the transmissions between the first and second communication devices. For example, a timing advance value of an uplink transmission of the first communication device is updated by the second communication device or the network via sending a timing advance command.

Please refer toFIG. 8, which is a flowchart of a process80according to an example of the present invention. The process80is utilized in the wireless communication system20shown inFIG. 2, for assigning resources to perform direct communications in one of the communication devices. The process80can be utilized in the network and may be compiled into the program code314. The process80includes the following steps:

Step802: Obtain a first resource allocation configuration allocating resources for at least one of a first PDSCH, a first PUSCH and a first PUCCH from the network and generate a second resource allocation configuration allocating resources for at least one of a second PDSCH, a second PUSCH and a second PUCCH.

Step804: Send the second configuration to the second communication device.

The concept of the process80is similar to that of the process70. The main difference between the processes70and80is that the second resource allocation configuration allocating the resources for at least one of the second PDSCH, the second PUSCH and the second PUCCH is generated by the first communication instead of the network. The resources contain at least one of subcarrier assignment, resource block assignment, a new data indicator, redundancy version, a MCS, and hopping resource allocation. There are several ways to generate the second resource allocation configuration. The first communication device can generate the second resource allocation configuration according to the first resource allocation configuration. For example, the first communication device generates the second resource allocation configuration set exactly same as the first resource allocation configuration or part of resources in the second resource allocation configuration set same as part of resources in the first resource allocation configuration, e.g. the second resource allocation configuration has same resource block assignment as the first resource allocation configuration. The first communication device can generate the second resource allocation configuration according to other information. For example, the first communication device generates the second resource allocation configuration according to signal strength or signal quality measured by the first communication device or signal strength, signal quality or channel state information reported from the second communication device, in any form, e.g. Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), channel quality indicator (CQI), and precoding matrix indicator (PMI).

Note that, the process80is an example of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should readily make combinations, modifications and/or alterations on the abovementioned description and examples. For example, the first resource allocation configuration may be sent via the first PDCCH, the first MAC control element or the first RRC message to the first communication device from the network, and the second resource allocation configuration may be sent via the second PDCCH, the second MAC control element or the second RRC message to the second communication device from the first communication device. For the case of the transmission of the first and the second resource allocation configurations on the first and second PDCCHs respectively, the second resource allocation configuration is the second downlink assignment generated by the first communication device and sent by the first communication device on the second PDCCH to the second communication device to receive the first transport block on the second PDSCH, and the first resource allocation configuration is the first uplink grant generated by the network and sent by the network on the first PDCCH to the first communication device to transmit the first transport block on the first PUSCH. The second PDCCH and the first PUSCH may or may not be in a subframe. If the second PDCCH and the first PUSCH are in the subframe, the second PDCCH is located within the start of the subframe (e.g. up to the first one, two or three OFDM symbols) and the first PUSCH is located within the rest OFDM symbols in the subframe. The first communication device may further transmit the first PUCCH (e.g. containing an HARQ acknowledgement) in the subframe as well as the second PDCCH and the first PUSCH.

Similarly the second communication device performs behaviors described above to transmit a transport block to the first communication device and the first communication device receives the transport block from the second communication device. Alternatively, the first communication device receives a transport block as described below. The first downlink assignment can be generated by the network and sent by the network on the first PDCCH to the first communication device to receive the second transport block on the first PDSCH, and the second uplink grant can be generated by the first communication device and sent by the first communication device on the second PDCCH to the second communication device to transmit the second transport block on the second PUSCH.

In brief, the first communication device generates and sends the second resource allocation configuration allocating the resources for at least one of the second PDSCH, the second PUSCH and the PUCCH to the second communication device. Therefore, the first and second communication devices can communicate with each other directly.

In the present invention, the network configures communication devices to enter the direct communication mode and assigns the resources to the communication devices for performing the direct communications. Since the communication devices use the resources to communicate with each other directly, data is not sent via the network and overhead of the transmission and the reception can further be reduced.

To sum up, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for performing direct communications, to reduce overhead of the reception and transmission between the network and the communication devices.