Apparatus and method for transmitting data and apparatus and method for receiving data of multi-carrier communication system

An apparatus for transmitting data in a communication system supporting multi-carriers determines the priority of the multi-carriers and transmits information on the priority to a terminal. Thereafter, the transmitting apparatus allocates data to the multi-carriers in accordance with the priority and transmits the allocated data to a data receiving apparatus, and the data receiving apparatus receives data to be transmitted from the data transmitting apparatus in accordance with information on the priority.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for transmitting data and an apparatus and a method for receiving data of multi-carrier communication system.

BACKGROUND ART

A communication system supports a multi-carrier for extending transmission capacity.

In the multi-carrier, a non-arrangement phenomenon of a protocol data unit (PDU) that does not occur in a single-carrier may occur. The PDU should be re-arranged in order to solve the non-arrangement phenomenon. However, in order to re-arrange the PDU, a sequence number (SN) should be inserted into all the PDUs, thereby wasting wireless resources.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

Technical Problem

The present invention has been made in an effort to provide an apparatus and a method for managing a multi-carrier having an advantage of remedying a waste of wireless resources.

Solution to Problem

A first embodiment of the present invention provides a method for transmitting data to a terminal in a base station of a communication system supporting multi-carriers. The method for transmitting data includes: determining a priority of the multi-carriers; transmitting information on the priority to the terminal; and allocating the data to at least one carrier of the multi-carriers in accordance with the priority and transmitting the data to the terminal.

A second embodiment of the present invention provides a method for receiving data in a terminal of a communication system supporting multi-carriers. The data receiving method includes: receiving information on a priority of the multi-carriers from a base station; receiving data transmitted through the multi-carriers; and arranging the received data in accordance with the information on the priority.

A third embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus for receiving data in a communication system supporting multi-carriers. The data receiving apparatus includes: a physical layer processor that receives data transmitted through the multi-carriers from a base station; and a medium access control layer processor that arranges the received data in accordance with the priority of the multi-carriers. The physical layer processor receives the information on the priority of the multi-carriers from the base station in call connection. In addition, the medium access control layer processor arranges the received data in accordance with a priority of the multi-carriers.

A fourth embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus for transmitting data in a communication system supporting multi-carriers. The data transmitting apparatus includes a priority determiner, a data allocator, and a transmitter. The priority determiner determines a priority of the multi-carriers. The data allocator allocates the data to the multi-carriers in accordance with the priority. The transmitter transmits information on the priority to the terminal in call connection and transmits the data to the terminal through the multi-carriers.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in a communication system that supports a multi-carrier, since a base station transmits information on transmission priority of the multi-carrier to a terminal in call connection of the terminal to the terminal, a sequence number (SN) may not be inserted into all data at the time of re-arranging the data, thereby remedying a waste phenomenon of wireless resources.

Further, whether or not the data is allocated to the multi-carrier can be expressed by a bitmap at the time of configuring a downlink map information component in a downlink map (DL MAP) message, thereby increasing an allocation amount of the wireless resources for the data.

MODE FOR THE INVENTION

In the specification, a terminal may designate a mobile station (MS), a mobile terminal (MT), a subscriber station (SS), a portable subscriber station (PSS), user equipment (UE), an access terminal (AT), etc., and may include the entire or partial functions of the terminal, the mobile terminal, the subscriber station, the portable subscriber station, the user equipment, the access terminal, etc.

In the specification, a base station (BS) may designate an access point (AP), a radio access station (RAS), a node B, an evolved node B (eNodeB), a base transceiver station (BTS), a mobile multihop relay (MMR)-BS, etc., and may include the entire or partial functions of the access point, the radio access station, the node B, the evolved node B, the base transceiver station, the MMR-BS, etc.

Hereinafter, an apparatus and a method for transmitting data and a method and an apparatus for receiving data of a multi-carrier communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1is a schematic diagram illustrating a wireless communication system that supports a multi-carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention, andFIG. 2is a diagram illustrating a multi-carrier.

Referring toFIG. 1, the wireless communication system that supports the multi-carrier includes a terminal10and a base station20.

The terminal10, as an end point of a wireless channel, supports multi-carriers F0to Fn having frequency bands RFC1to RFCn, as shown inFIG. 2. Therefore, the terminal10communicates with the base station20by using the multi-carriers F0to Fn having the frequency bands RFC1to RFCn.

One carrier of the multi-carriers F0to Fn is set as a primary carrier and the remaining carriers are set as secondary carriers. The primary carrier is a carrier for transmitting and receiving various control information and data between the terminal10and the base station20, and the subcarrier is an additional subcarrier used for transmitting and receiving the data in a state in which the terminal10transmits and receives the control information through the primary carrier.

The terminal10receives priority information of the multi-carriers F0to Fn from the base station20in call connection. Thereafter, when the terminal10receives the data from the base station20, the terminal10receives data of each of the multi-carriers F0to Fn in accordance with the priority information of the multi-carriers F0to Fn.

The base station20communicates with the terminal10that is positioned in a cell area, and manages the multi-carriers F0to Fn that are supported by the terminal10. The base station20determines the priority of the multi-carriers F0to Fn that are supported by the terminal10in the call connection, and notifies the priority information of the multi-carriers F0to Fn to the terminal10. Thereafter, the base station20transmits the data to the terminal through each of the carriers F0to Fn by allocating the data to each of the carriers F0to Fn in accordance with the priority of the multi-carriers F0to Fn when data to be transmitted to the terminal is present.

FIG. 3is a diagram illustrating a method in which a base station notifies information on a priority of a multi-carrier to a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, andFIG. 4is a diagram illustrating information on a priority in an SBC-REQ message.

Referring toFIG. 3, the terminal10transmits a ranging request (RNG-REQ) message including an indicator that indicates whether or not the terminal10itself is the terminal that supports the multi-carriers to the base station20.

The base station20transmits a ranging response (RNG-RSP) message including information of the multi-carriers that the terminal10can use in response to the RNG-REQ message to the terminal10.

The terminal10that receives the RNG-RSP message sets one carrier of the multi-carriers that are usable by the terminal10as the primary carrier, and sets the remaining carriers as secondary carriers. Thereafter, the terminal10transmits a subscriber station's basic capability negotiation request (SBC-REQ) message including information of the primary carrier and the secondary carrier to the base station20. The SBC-REQ is a medium access control (MAC) message that the terminal10transmits to negotiate a basic capability with the base station20. The SBC-REQ includes information on modulation and coding that can be supported by the terminal10.

When the base station20receives the information on the primary carrier and the secondary carrier from the terminal10through the SBC-REQ message, the base station20determines the priority of the multi-carriers.

The base station20transmits the subscriber station's basic capability negotiation response (SBC-RSP) message including the priority of the multi-carriers determined in response to the SBC-REQ message to the terminal10. At this time, as shown inFIG. 4, the priority of the multi-carriers depending on an identifier (FAID) of each carrier of the multi-carriers may be included in the SBC-RSP message in the form of a table. InFIG. 4, the carriers have higher priorities in the order of the carriers having identifiers (FAID) of “0”, “3, “2”, and “1”.

The terminal10sequentially receives the data of each carrier transmitted by the base station20on the basis of the information on the priority of the multi-carriers, and arranges the received data and transmits it to an upper layer.

As such, the base station20according to the embodiment of the present invention transmits the priority of the multi-carriers to the terminal10by using the messages transmitted and received between the terminal10and the base station20in the call connection.

FIG. 5is a diagram illustrating a method for transmitting data in a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring toFIG. 5, when data to be transmitted to a terminal10is generated (S510), the base station20allocates the data to at least one carrier of multi-carriers F0to Fn in accordance with the priority of the multi-carriers (S520), and transmits resource allocation information that is included in a downlink map (DL MAP) message to the terminal10through a primary carrier (S530). The resource allocation information includes information on a carrier to which the data is allocated. Contrary to this, the downlink map (DL MAP) message can be transmitted to the terminal10even through the primary carrier and secondary carriers.

More specifically, as shown in Table 1, a base station20sets a bitmap (MC bitmap) indicating whether or not data is allocated to each of multi-carriers at the time of configuring a downlink map information element (DL_MAP_IE) in a downlink map (DL MAP) message, and expresses whether or not the data is allocated to each carrier in the bitmap in a bit. At this time, the carrier allocated with the data is expressed as “1” and the carrier unallocated with the data is expressed as “0”, and the carriers may be expressed in the reverse manner. For example, in the case in which the number (N_MC) of multi-carriers is 4, when the data is allocated to first and third carriers, the bitmap (MC bitmap) can be set as “1010”.

The base station20transmits the data through each carrier (S540).

The terminal10sequentially receive the data in accordance with the priority of the multi-carriers in the corresponding carrier by using the resource allocation information after receiving the downlink map (DL MAP) message (S550to S560). At this time, when the downlink map (DL MAP) message is transmitted through the primary carrier and the secondary carriers, the terminal10can receive and process the downlink map (DL MAP) message in accordance with the priority of the multi-carriers.

Thereafter, when the terminal10succeeds in receiving the data, the terminal10transmits an acknowledge response (ACK) to the base station20, and when the terminal10fails in receiving the data, the terminal10transmits a non-acknowledge response (NACK) to the base station20(S570).

FIG. 6is a diagram illustrating a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring toFIG. 6, a data receiving apparatus of the terminal10includes a physical layer processor12and a medium access control layer processor14.

The physical layer processor12receives the SBC-RSP message from the base station20in call connection, and acquires information on the priority of the multi-carriers from the SBC-RSP message.

Further, when the base station20transmits the downlink map (DL MAP) message, the physical layer processor12receives the downlink map (DL MAP) message to acquire information on the carrier allocated with the data. Thereafter, when the base station20transmits the data, the physical layer processor12sequentially receives the data in the corresponding carrier in accordance with the priority of the multi-carriers on the basis of the information on the carrier allocated with the data, and stores the received data in each carrier buffer (not shown). Further, the physical layer processor14sequentially transmits the data stored in each carrier buffer (not shown) to the medium access control layer processor14in accordance with the priority of the multi-carriers.

The medium access control layer processor14receives the data sequentially transmitted from the physical layer processor12, and arranges the received data and transmits the data to an upper layer.

FIG. 7is a diagram illustrating a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring toFIG. 7, a data transmitting apparatus of the base station20includes a priority determiner22, a data allocator24, and a transmitter26.

After the priority determiner22receives the SBC-REQ message from the terminal10, the priority determiner22determines the priority of the multi-carriers supported by the terminal10. The terminal10measures channel quality information of each carrier, and reports the channel quality information of each carrier to the base station20at a predetermined cycle. The channel quality information may include a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) or a carrier to interface ratio (CINR). Accordingly, the priority determiner22can determine the priority of the multi-carriers through the channel quality information of the multi-carriers, which is reported from the terminal10. Further, the priority determiner22may determine the priority of the multi-carriers by using a different method from the above-mentioned method.

When data to be transmitted to the terminal10is present, the data allocator24allocates the data to the corresponding carrier in accordance with the priority of the multi-carriers, and sets whether the data is allocated to each carrier of the multi-carriers in the downlink map (DL MAP) message.

The transmitter26transmits the downlink map (DL MAP) message through the primary carrier and transmits the data to the terminal10through the corresponding carrier. Further, the transmitter26transmits the information on the priority of the multi-carriers and the information on the carrier allocated with the data to the terminal10.

The above-mentioned exemplary embodiments of the present invention are not embodied only by a apparatus and/or method. Alternatively, the above-mentioned exemplary embodiments may be embodied by a program performing functions that correspond to the configuration of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, or a recording medium on which the program is recorded. These embodiments can be easily devised from the description of the above-mentioned exemplary embodiments by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains.