Abstract:
A method and apparatus ( 300 ) for processing data in a communication system ( 400 ), using a configuration header ( 310 ) containing configuration data for use in processing data through a plurality of processes including a first process and a second process and passing the configuration header ( 310 ) with inter-process data ( 320 ) form the first process to the second process, whereby the second process extracts configuration data from the configuration header passed from the first process.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to data processing in communication systems, and particularly though not exclusively to Coded Composite Transport Channel (CCTrCH) processing in packet-based UTRA TDD (UMTS—Universal Mobile Telecommunication System—Terrestrial Radio Access systems operating in Time Division Duplex mode). 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     In a UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) there are two modes of operation Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD). In UTRA TDD, which is packet-based, users are separated in both the code domain and time domain. The time domain UTRA framing has 4096 radio frames which make up a super frame with each radio frame consisting of 15 timeslots. A timeslot can be allocated to either Uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) transmission. 
     In a typical TDD system the UL and DL transmissions have to be synchronized to reduce interference. In addition DL broadcast signaling and UL random access signaling has to be supported. This leads to a partitioning of the radio frame with individual timeslots being dedicated for use either for DL or UL. UTRA specifies the processing that is applied to Transport Channel (TrCH) data by Layer  1  (L 1 ) to build up CCTrCHs. These CCTrCHs are mapped onto timeslots. 
     Each CCTrCH has a particular set of characteristics, which change dynamically for each CCTrCH that is processed. Possible configuration parameters that may be applied dynamically to each CCTrCH include: number of TrCHs in a CCTrCH; CRC length; transport block size; type of channel coding; Transmission Time Interleave (TTI) period; and amount of physical resource. 
     An implementation of a CCTrCH processing stack may contain a mixture of hardware and software implementations of individual processing steps. Each processing step requires configuration information. 
     The conventional approach has been to use a centralized controller for this processing. However this approach has the following disadvantages:
         1) the controlling entity must store the configuration parameters for the CCTrCH;   2) the controlling entity must keep track of the CCTrCH as it is processed by each of the processing steps and recall the configuration parameters in order that they can be applied along with the data to the next processing step; and   3) as the amount of output data for a process is not necessarily the same as the input data the controlling entity must calculate and control the following process with this data.       

     This conventional approach becomes complex when the configuration data changes dynamically for each CCTrCH as it is processed and the latency through each process changes depending on the configuration itself. 
     A need therefore exists for processing of data in a communication system wherein the above-mentioned disadvantage(s) may be alleviated. 
     STATEMENT OF INVENTION 
     In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for processing data in a communication system, the method comprising: 
     providing a configuration header containing configuration data for use in processing data through a plurality of processes including a first process and a second process; and 
     passing the configuration header with inter-process data from the first process to the second process, 
     whereby the second process extracts configuration data from the configuration header passed from the first process. 
     In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention there is provided an arrangement for processing data in a communication system, the arrangement comprising: 
     means for providing a configuration header containing configuration data for use in processing data through a plurality of processing means including a first process means and a second processing means; and 
     means for passing the configuration header with inter-process data from the first processing means to the second processing means, 
     whereby the second processing means is arranged to extract configuration data from the configuration header passed from the first processing means. 
     In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a communication system including means for processing data comprising: 
     means for providing a configuration header containing configuration data for use in processing data through a plurality of processing means including a first process means and a second processing means; and 
     means for passing the configuration header with inter-process data from the first processing means to the second processing means, 
     whereby the second processing means is arranged to extract configuration data from the configuration header passed from the first processing means. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       One method and arrangement for processing of CCTrCH data in a packet data UTRA TDD system incorporating the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  shows a block schematic diagram illustrating time domain UTRA framing; 
         FIG. 2  shows a block schematic diagram illustrating multiplexing and channel coding in UTRA; 
         FIG. 3  shows a block schematic diagram illustrating an stack or arrangement for processing of CCTrCH data in a packet data UTRA TDD system incorporating the present invention; and 
         FIG. 4  shows a block-schematic diagram of a UTRA TDD system in which the invention is used. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     In a UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) there are two modes of operation: UTRA Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and UTRA Time Division Duplex (TDD). In UTRA TDD users are separated in both the code domain and time domain. In the time domain employed in UTRA framing, illustrated in  FIG. 1 , 4096 radio frames make up a super frame with each radio frame consisting of 15 timeslots. A timeslot can be allocated to either Uplink (UL) or Downlink (DL) transmission. 
     In a typical TDD system the UL and DL transmissions have to be synchronized to reduce interference. In addition DL broadcast signaling and UL random access signaling has to be supported. This leads to a possible partitioning of the radio frame as shown below: 
                                                                                         0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8    9   10   11   12    13   14       DL   DL   DL   DL   DL   DL   DL   DL   UL    UL   UL   UL   UL    UL   UL                    
UTRA specifies the processing that is applied to the Transport Channel (TrCH) data by Layer  1  (L 1 ), as shown in  FIG. 2 .
 
     Transport Blocks (blocks of a defined number of bits) are submitted by the media access control (MAC) to L 1  for processing. A Transport Block typically corresponds to a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) or corresponding unit. Layer  1  processes each Transport Block as shown in  FIG. 2  to build up CCTrCHs. Firstly, cyclic redundancy check (CRC) attachment is performed at  205 ; then, transport block (TrBk) concatenation/code block segmentation is performed at  210 . Next, channel coding is performed at  215 ; then, radio frame equalisation is performed at  220 . Next, first interleaving is performed at  225 ; then, radio frame segmentation is performed at  230 , and rate matching is performed at  235 . A number of rate-matched data streams are multiplexed together on a single transport channel at  240 ; then, the resultant multiplexed data stream is processed by bit scrambling at  245 . The bit-scrambled data stream is segmented into a number of physical channels at  250 ; then, second interleaving is performed on each of the segmented physical channel data streams at  255 . Finally, physical channel mapping is performed at  260  to produce a number of CCTrCHs for physical channels such as PhCH#1 and PhCH#2. These CCTrCHs are mapped onto timeslots in known manner. 
     Each CCTrCH has a particular set of characteristics. These characteristics change dynamically for each CCTrCH that is processed. The following lists examples of some of the possible configuration parameters that may be applied dynamically to each CCTrCH:
         1) Number of TrCHs in a CCTrCH   2) CRC length   3) Transport Block Size   4) Type of Channel coding   5) Transmission Time Interleave (TTI) period   6) Amount of physical resource       

     In practice, an implementation of a CCTrCH processing stack may contain a mixture of hardware and software implementations of the individual processing steps shown in  FIG. 2 . Each processing step requires configuration information. 
     The conventional approach is to use a centralized controller. However, this approach has a number of disadvantages:
         The controlling entity must store the configuration parameters for the CCTrCH.   The controlling entity must keep track of the CCTrCH as it is processed by each of the processing steps and recall the configuration parameters in order that they can be applied along with the data to the next processing step.   As the amount of output data for a process is not necessarily the same as the input data the controlling entity must calculate and control the following process with this data.       

     This approach becomes complex when the configuration data changes dynamically for each CCTrCH as it is processed, and the latency through each process changes depending on the configuration itself. 
     The present invention, at least in the preferred embodiment described below, utilises a method for simplifying the problem of control of configuration parameters in a CCTrCH processing stack, though it can equally be applied to any processing stack that has dynamic configuration parameters. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 3 , to solve the problems of a centralized controller a CCTrCH configuration header  310  is attached to each of the CCTrCH data blocks when applying the data to the CCTrCH processing stack for processing CCTrCH information for communication across the UTRA TDD system&#39;s air interface. The CCTrCH configuration header  310  is internally derived (e.g., within a receiver by L 1  Signalling) and, in a preferred embodiment, includes a TFI (Transport Format Indicator) passed over the air-interface. 
     At each stage or processing element of the processing stack or arrangement  300  the header  310  is read along with the input data  320  by the process in order to gain the configuration data the process requires. 
     The same header  310  is then attached to its output data  320  (to form an integral CCTrCH data block  330 ) for use by the next process in the CCTrCH processing stack. The processing stage may also add extra configuration data (e.g., output data size) to the configuration header, that can save recalculation of certain parameters. 
     Thus, it will be understood, in employing the configuration headers  310 , in the above method:
         1) a CCTrCH configuration header  310  is attached to every CCTrCH data block that is applied to a CCTrCH processing stack;   2) the CCTrCH configuration header  310  is treated as an integral part of the CCTrCH data  330 ;   3) each processing stage in the CCTrCH processing stack interrogates the CCTrCH configuration header  310  in order to gain the configuration data it requires;   4) each processing stage in the CCTrCH processing stack attaches the header  310  to its output data  320 ; and   5) each processing stage may add extra configuration data to the CCTrCH header  310 .       

     It will be understood and appreciated that the method and arrangement utilising configuration headers described above provides the advantages that the controlling entity does not need to store the configuration parameters for the CCTrCH, since they are passed in the configuration header; nor does the controlling entity need to keep track of the CCTrCH as it is processed by each of the processing steps; nor does the controlling entity need to calculate and control a following process with data output from a previous process, since the processing proceeds methodically from one process to another using the configuration headers. 
     It will also be understood and appreciated that the method and arrangement described above allows CCTrCH processing to be performed, without the need for central control, by proceeding methodically from one processing step to another without prior knowledge of the processing latencies of each processing step. 
     It will be appreciated that the method described above for processing of CCTrCH data may be carried out in software running on a processor (not shown), and that the software may be provided as a computer program element carried on any suitable data carrier (also not shown) such as a magnetic or optical computer disc. 
     It will be also be appreciated that the method described above for processing of CCTrCH data may alternatively be carried out (in part or in whole) in hardware, for example in the form of an integrated circuit (not shown) such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Integrated Circuit). 
     It will further be appreciated that although the method described above for processing of CCTrCH data has been presented in the context of processing CCTrCH data for transmission, the same technique of using configuration headers passed between successive processing stages may equally be performed in processing received CCTrCH data. Referring now also to  FIG. 4 , a UTRA TDD system  400  includes a user terminal  410  (commonly referred to as ‘User Equipment’) which communicates over a CDMA radio link  420  with a base station  430  (commonly referred to as a ‘Node B’). The Node B  430  is controlled by a radio network controller  440 , which communicates with other system infrastructure shown collectively as  450 . Such a system (insofar as it has been described up to this point) is well known and need not be described further. However, it will be understood that the processing stack or arrangement  300  described above for processing CCTrCH data may be advantageously implemented in either a UE  410  or a Node B  430  of the system as shown in the figure. 
     It will further be appreciated that although the invention has been described above in the context of processing CCTrCH data in a UTRA TDD system, the invention may be generally applied to data processing in any communication system. 
     In conclusion, therefore, it will be understood that the use of configuration headers in a data processing in a communication system as described avoids the disadvantages of using a central controller and allows processing to proceed from one processing step to another without requiring prior knowledge of the processing latencies of each processing step.