PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-10924976-B2
Application Number: US-201916513938-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Data throughput for cell-edge users in a cellular network

Abstract:
A combination of repeaters and relays is used to improve the data throughput for user equipment (“UE”) near the cell edge in a LTE network. Amplify-and-forward repeaters and decode-and-forward relays enhance the down-link and up-link, respectively. Relay assistance on the up-link occurs when the evolved Node B (“eNB”) requests a retransmission (HARQ) from the UE at which point the UE and relay transmit simultaneously in a cooperative fashion. The quality of the up-link signal received by the eNB is improved due to a favorable channel through the relay. An analysis shows that relay assistance improves the throughput for a cell-edge user when the average delay per data transport block is allowed to increase.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An apparatus of a relay node (RN), comprising:
 at least one processor configured to:
 decode a downlink transmission from a base station, the downlink transmission received during a first plurality of subframes; and 
 encode the downlink transmission for retransmission to a user equipment (UE) during a second plurality of subframes, 
 wherein the first and second plurality of subframes are configured based on subframe configuration information received from the base station and associated with multiplexing transmissions to the RN and transmissions from the RN, and wherein the first plurality of subframes are time multiplexed with the second plurality of subframes. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the first plurality of subframes and the second plurality of subframes are downlink subframes; 
 the downlink transmissions from the base station to the RN and from the RN to the UE occur in a downlink frequency band; and 
 uplink transmissions from the UE to the R′N and from the R′N to the base station occur in an uplink frequency band. 
 
     
     
       3. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
 configure the received downlink transmission from the base station for retransmission to the UE as multimedia broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) subframes. 
 
     
     
       4. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
 demodulate a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to decode downlink control information (DCI), the DCI including the subframe configuration information. 
 
     
     
       5. The apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein the PDCCH is received on a physical resource block (PRB), and wherein the PDCCH is non-interleaved with other PDCCHs in the PRB. 
     
     
       6. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
 decode an uplink transmission from the UE, the uplink transmission designated for the base station; and 
 configure the uplink transmission for communication to the base station. 
 
     
     
       7. The apparatus of  claim 6 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
 decode a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) from the base station for the uplink transmission, wherein the HARQ indicates at least failure of control information received by the base station via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). 
 
     
     
       8. The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
 encode the control information for transmission to the base station using the PUCCH. 
 
     
     
       9. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
 encode a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) for the downlink transmission, the HARQ for transmission to the base station; and 
 in response to the HARQ, decoding a re-transmission of the downlink transmission, the re-transmission received from the base station. 
 
     
     
       10. The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
 encode a HARQ-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) for communication to the base station in response to the downlink re-transmission. 
 
     
     
       11. The apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein the HARQ-ACK is communicated using physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resources. 
     
     
       12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a relay node (RN), cause the RN to:
 decode a downlink transmission from a base station, the downlink transmission received during a first plurality of subframes; and 
 encode the downlink transmission for retransmission to a user equipment (UE) during a second plurality of subframes, 
 wherein the first and second plurality of subframes are configured based on subframe configuration information received from the base station and associated with multiplexing transmissions to the R′lN and transmissions from the RN, and wherein the first plurality of subframes are time multiplexed with the second plurality of subframes. 
 
     
     
       13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause the RN to:
 demodulate a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to decode downlink control information (DCI), the DCI including the subframe configuration information. 
 
     
     
       14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the PDCCH is received on a physical resource block (PRB), and wherein the PDCCH is non-interleaved with other PDCCHs in the PRB. 
     
     
       15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause the RN to:
 decode an uplink transmission from the UE, the uplink transmission designated for the base station; and 
 configure the uplink transmission for communication to the base station. 
 
     
     
       16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the RN to:
 decode a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) from the base station for the uplink transmission, wherein the HARQ indicates at least failure of control information received by the base station via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). 
 
     
     
       17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein the instructions further cause the RN to:
 encode the control information for transmission to the base station using the PUCCH. 
 
     
     
       18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause the RN to:
 encode a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) for the downlink transmission, the HARQ for transmission to the base station; and 
 in response to the HARQ, decoding a re-transmission of the downlink transmission, the re-transmission received from the base station. 
 
     
     
       19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a relay node (RN), cause the RN to:
 demodulate a control channel to decode control information indicating a subframe configuration for multiplexed transmissions; 
 decode a downlink transmission from a base station, the downlink transmission received during a first plurality of subframes; and 
 encode the downlink transmission for retransmission to a user equipment (UE) during a second plurality of subframes, 
 
       wherein the first plurality of subframes are time multiplexed with the second plurality of subframes based on the subframe configuration. 
     
     
       20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 19 , wherein the control channel is a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), and wherein the instructions further cause the RN to:
 demodulate the PDCCH to decode downlink control information (DCI), the DCI including the subframe configuration, 
 wherein the PDCCH is received on a physical resource block (PRB), and wherein the PDCCH is non-interleaved with other PDCCHs in the PRB.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION INFORMATION 
     The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/823,656, filed Nov. 28, 2017, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,390,283, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/614,214, filed Jun. 5, 2017, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,334,503, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/067,302, filed Mar. 11, 2016, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,674,766, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/565,181, filed Dec. 9, 2014, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,300,440, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/324,599, filed Dec. 13, 2011, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,918,692, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. Section 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/423,944, filed Dec. 16, 2010, each of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates in general to radio communication systems for wireless networks. More particularly, the invention is directed to cellular networks employing repeaters and relays. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art and Related Background Information 
     Within a wireless cellular communication network, a cell is defined by the coverage area of a base station where it can communicate successfully with a mobile user over the radio frequency (“RF”) link. As shown in  FIG. 1 , within the Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) network, the base station and mobile user are referred to as the evolved Node B (“eNB”)  110  and user equipment (“UE”)  120 , respectively. The eNB  110  transmits signals to the UE  120  through the down-link  103 , and the UE  120  transmits signals to the eNB  110  through the up-link  102 . The UE  120  is operating near the cell edge  111 , and is subjected to an unfavorable RF link due to distance-dependent path losses to the eNB  110 . As a result, cell-edge users often experience the lowest data throughput within the cell. LTE-Advanced (release 10), an enhancement of LTE (release 8), seeks to increase the data throughput for these cell-edge users. See, for example, S. Parkvall and D. Astely, “The evolution of LTE towards IMT-advanced,”  Journal of Communications , Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 146-154, April 2009. 
     Repeaters and relays are employed as means for improving the link budget by reducing the distance between transmitter and receiver, which, in turn, allows for higher data rates. A repeater receives and retransmits all signals within a defined bandwidth with minimal delay. It is an amplify-and-forward device. However, repeaters amplify and generate noise in the up-link and down-link bands which is problematic for many implementations. In contrast, a relay decodes the in-coming signal, then recodes and transmits. Such devices, referred to as decode-and-forward relays, have the advantage of removing noise and interference from the desired signal. It also allows for the selection of which signals are to be relay-assisted. Unfortunately, the delay caused by the decoding and encoding processes makes it necessary for the relay to wait for the eNB scheduler to assign new radio channel resources before retransmitting the data. Therefore, relays likewise have deficiencies which are problematic in many implementations. 
     Accordingly, a need exists to improve cellular networks employing repeaters and relays. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In a first aspect, the present invention provides a wireless communication system comprising a base station configured for communication within a cell, an up-link relay, and a down-link repeater co-located with the up-link relay. A donor antenna is coupled to the output of the up-link relay and further coupled to the input of the down-link repeater. A service antenna is coupled to the input of the up-link relay and further coupled to the output of the down-link repeater. 
     In a preferred embodiment, the wireless communication system preferably further comprises user equipment located within the cell, where the user equipment is configured for transmitting and receiving signals. The up-link relay preferably receives up-link signals, decodes the received up-link signals, recodes the decoded up-link signals, and transmits the recoded up-link signals. The down-link repeater preferably receives down-link signals, amplifies the received down-link signals, and re-transmits the amplified down-link signals. The wireless communication system preferably employs automatic repeat requests in response to errors detected in received signals. The base station preferably further comprises a scheduler configured for controlling resource allocation for the up-link and the down-link signals. The user equipment is preferably configured for transmitting control signals to the base station via an up-link control channel during a repeat request retransmission period. The up-link relay is preferably configured for transmitting data signals to the base station via an up-link shared channel during the repeat request retransmission period. The up-link relay is preferably configured for determining whether to re-transmit the up-link signals based on the operating protocol of the user equipment. The user equipment is preferably configured for transmitting control signals to the base station via an up-link control channel during a repeat request transmission period. The user equipment is preferably further configured for transmitting data signals to the base station via an up-link shared channel overlapping with the transmission of the control signals during the repeat request retransmission period. The up-link relay is preferably configured for transmitting the data signals to the base station via the up-link shared channel during the repeat request retransmission. The base station is preferably further configured for scheduling and resource allocation for the up-link signals within the wireless communication system. The up-link relay preferably emulates a second user equipment to extract timing advance information. The up-link relay preferably emulates a second user equipment periodically to maintain power control and receive timing advance updates. The user equipment is preferably further configured for transmitting control information directly to the base station when the up-link relay is transmitting. 
     In another aspect, the present invention provides a method for wireless communication in a network, the network having a base station, user equipment, and a co-located up-link relay and down-link repeater. The method comprises transmitting down-link signals from a base station, receiving the down-link signals transmitted from a base station by a down-link repeater via a donor antenna, transmitting the down-link signals from the repeater via a service antenna, and receiving the down-link signals by the user equipment. The method further comprises transmitting up-link signals by the user equipment, receiving up-link signals transmitted from the user equipment by an up-link relay via the service antenna, transmitting the up-link signals from the up-link relay via the donor antenna, and receiving the up-link signals by the base station. 
     In a preferred embodiment, the method for wireless communication in a network, the network having a base station, user equipment, and a co-located up-link relay and down-link repeater further comprises transmitting a repeat request from the base station to the user equipment and the up-link relay, transmitting up-link control signals from the user equipment to the base station during a retransmission period, transmitting up-link data signals from the up-link relay during the retransmission period, and receiving the up-link control and data signals by the base station. The method preferably further comprises performing an incremental redundancy function of the up-link data signals. The method preferably further comprises determining whether to transmit up-link signals from the up-link relay based on the operating protocol of the user equipment. The method preferably further comprises transmitting a repeat request from the base station to the user equipment and the up-link relay, transmitting up-link control and data signals from the user equipment to the base station during a retransmission period, transmitting up-link data signals from the up-link relay to the base station during the retransmission period, receiving the up-link control and data signals from the user equipment by the base station, receiving the up-link data signals from the up-link relay by the base station, and performing an incremental redundancy function of the up-link data signals from the user equipment and the up-link data signals from the up-link relay. 
     In another aspect, the present invention provides a method for wireless communication in a network, the network having a base station, user equipment, and a co-located up-link relay and down-link repeater. The method comprises transmitting down-link signals from a base station, receiving the down-link signals by a down-link repeater via a donor antenna, amplifying the down-link signals by a down-link repeater, transmitting the amplified down-linked signals to a user equipment via a service antenna, and receiving the amplified down-link signals by the user equipment. The method further comprises transmitting up-link signals from the user equipment, receiving the up-link signals transmitted by the user equipment by an up-link relay via the service antenna, decoding the up-link signals, re-encoding the decoded up-link signals, transmitting the re-encoded up-link signals to a base station via the donor antenna, and receiving the up-link signals by the base station. 
     In a preferred embodiment, the method for wireless communication in a network, the network having a base station, user equipment, and a co-located up-link relay and down-link repeater preferably further comprises transmitting an automatic repeat request from the base station to the user equipment and the up-link relay, transmitting up-link control signals via an up-link control channel from the user equipment to the base station during a retransmission period, transmitting up-link data signals via an up-link shared channel from the up-link relay during the retransmission period, and receiving the up-link control and data signals by the base station. The method preferably further comprises determining whether to transmit the up-link control signals based on the operating protocol of the user equipment. The method preferably further comprises transmitting a repeat request from the base station to the user equipment and the up-link relay, transmitting control signals to the base station from the user equipment via an up-link control channel during a repeat request transmission period, transmitting data signals to the base station from the user equipment via an up-link shared channel overlapping with the transmission of the control signals during the repeat request retransmission period, transmitting up-link data signal from the up-link relay via the up-link shared channel to the base station during the retransmission period, receiving the up-link control and data signals from the user equipment by the base station, receiving the up-link data signals from the up-link relay by the base station and performing an incremental redundancy function of the up-link data signals from the user equipment and the up-link data signals from the up-link relay. 
     Further features and aspects of the invention are set out in the following detailed description. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a representation of an evolved Node B (“eNB”) base station and user equipment (“UE”) for up-link and down-link communication. 
         FIG. 2  is a flow chart depicting the transport channel processing within the PHY layer. 
         FIG. 3  is a representation of sub-carrier regions within the up-link band where the physical up-link control channel (“PUCCH”) and the physical up-link shared channel (“PUSCH”) can be located. 
         FIG. 4  is a representation of the sub-carrier usage for the PUSCH and PUCCH sub-frames. 
         FIG. 5  is a representation of the up-link band for Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) release 10 showing simultaneous transmission of the PUCCH and the PUSCH by the UE is allowed. 
         FIG. 6  is a system block diagram of a repeater communicating with the eNB and the UE. 
         FIG. 7  is a representation of a repeater within a cell controlled by the eNB. 
         FIG. 8  depicts the spectrum of repeated UE up-link signal as seen by the receiver of the eNB. 
         FIG. 9  is a representation of several repeaters with differing coverage areas communicating with a common eNB base station. 
         FIG. 10  depicts the spectrum of several repeaters within a cell controlled by the eNB. 
         FIG. 11  is a representation of up-link data transfers between the eNB, the UE, and the HARE relay. 
         FIG. 12  is a representation of the data transfer sequence between the eNB, the UE, and the relay for up-link communication. 
         FIG. 13  is a representation of the data transfer sequence between the eNB, the UE, and the relay for up-link communication when the relay fails to decode the first UE transmission. 
         FIG. 14  is a representation of the data transfer sequence between the eNB, the UE, and the relay for up-link communication of an embodiment employing LTE release 8. 
         FIG. 15  is a representation of the data transfer sequence between the eNB, the UE, and the relay for up-link communication of an embodiment employing LTE release 10. 
         FIG. 16  is a flow chart depicting the decoding and re-coding process for the up-link relay in an embodiment. 
         FIG. 17  is a schematic block diagram of a co-located up-link relay and a down-link repeater in an embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Embodiments provide systems and methods for improving data throughput for cellular phones located near a cellular communication system, such as, for example, near an edge of a Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) network. In an embodiment, a co-located up-link relay and a down-link repeater sharing common donor and service antennas are employed which have advantages as compared to conventional bi-directional relays and bi-directional repeaters. For example, conventional bi-directional repeaters generate noise across the entire up-link band which is more problematic for the up-link signal because the emission from user equipment (“UE”) requiring amplification is only a small fraction of the up-link band. Moreover, conventional bi-directional relays exhibit problems with the down-link communication because the down-link HARQ is asynchronous which prevents the relay from predicting when the retransmission will be made by the eNB. 
     As used herein and consistent with well known terminology in the art, a repeater is an amplify-and-forward device which receives signals, amplifies the received signals, and re-transmits the signals within a defined bandwidth with minimal delay. A relay is a decode-and-forward device which receives signals, decodes the received signals, recodes the signals, and then transmits the recoded signals. Conventional repeaters are typically bi-directional devices which service both the up-link signals and the down-link signals. Likewise, conventional relays are also typically bi-directional devices which service both the up-link signals and the down-link signals. In contrast, embodiments described herein comprise a co-located up-link relay which services the up-link signals and a down-link repeater which services the down-link signals. Embodiments do not employ down-link relays but instead employ down-link repeaters. 
     Within this disclosure, the LTE specification will be used as a specific example of a preferred implementation of the invention. This, however, should not be taken as being limiting in nature. 
     Also within this disclosure, the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) protocol is used as a means for the scheduler to assign up-link resources for the relay-to-eNB link. The result is a relay that is compatible with LTE release 10, and is largely compatible with LTE release 8. Note that the use of relays and repeaters for edge user capacity enhancement is a departure from the usually goal of coverage extension. 
     The discussion below provides a selected overview of LTE relevant to repeaters and relays including the HARQ protocol and the uplink channel structure. An overview of the operation of repeaters within LTE is also described below. The discussion also provides a relay overview for LTE. Embodiments for enhancing the cell-edge throughput performance combines up-link HARQ relays with down-link repeaters, as well as a throughput analysis showing the benefits of up-link relay assistance is also discussed below. 
     In this disclosure, frequency domain duplexing (“FDD”) is used to separate the up-link and down-link of the radio channels connecting the UE  120  to the eNB  110  and the eNB  110  to the UE  120 , respectively. LTE uses OFDM and DFT-precoded OFDM (also referred to as SC-FDMA) as the modulation formats for the down- and up-links, respectively, of the transmitted signals. 
     LTE is a data network. The eNB  110  and the UE  120  convert packet data into OFDM waveforms for radio transmission. The radio link controller (“RLC”) groups data packets into transport blocks. The medium access control (“MAC”) layer performs the HARQ protocol. The physical layer (“PHY”) performs encoding and modulation. A scheduler is present in the eNB that spans the RLC, MAC, and PHY layers. It controls the resource allocation for both the up- and down-links, and the modulation coding rate. The eNB  110  also performs up-link power and timing control. 
       FIG. 2  shows the PHY layer in greater detail. The transport block from the MAC layer (step  205 ) is appended with a cyclic redundancy check (“CRC”) for error detection (step  210 ). If the transport block size is too large for the turbo encoder (&gt;6144 bits), it is segmented into smaller code blocks, each with its own CRC appended (step  215 ). The Turbo encoding redundancy increases the coded block size by a factor of three (step  220 ). Puncturing or repetition is used for rate matching, which adjusts the encoded block size to fit into the space allocated by the scheduler (step  225 ). The rate matched blocks are concatenated to obtain the desired coded transport block (step  230 ). The data is scrambled, modulated using QPSK, 16-QAM, or 64-QAM (step  235 ), then assigned to sub-carriers within the OFDM symbol (step  240 ). 
     HARQ is a protocol used to request the retransmission of transport blocks that have been decoded improperly as indicated by a CRC error. For incremental redundancy (“IR”) HARQ used in LTE, the puncturing pattern applied during the rate matching is changed for each retransmission of a transport block. See J. C. Ikuno, M. Wrulich, and M. Rupp, “Performance and modeling of LTE H-ARQ,”  proc. of WSA  2009, Berlin, 2009 and M. Rumney,  LTE and the Evolution to  4 G Wireless: Design and Measurement Challenges , Agilent Technologies Publication by Wiley, 2009. The puncturing pattern used is indicated by the redundancy version. See 3GPP, TS 36.213 v8.5.0, Table 8.6.1-1. The original and retransmitted transport blocks are combined at the eNB  110  to enhance the forward error correction (“FEC”) provided by turbo coding. The HARQ protocol is synchronous for the up-link, which means that if the eNB request a retransmission from the UE  120 , it will always be 8 ms after the initial UE transmission. In contrast, the HARQ protocol is asynchronous for the down-link to reduce the requirements on the UE  120  to produce a timely acknowledgement (ACK or NAK). 
     The OFDM and SC-FDMA symbols are formed from complex modulated sub-carriers in the frequency domain, which are transformed to the time domain and appended with a cyclic prefix. Symbols are grouped into slots, sub-frames, and frames which are 0.5 ms, 1 ms, and 10 ms, respectively, in duration. The multi-access feature of LTE is achieved by partitioning the time-frequency space into resource blocks that are 12 sub-carriers in frequency and one slot in duration. Each resource block can be assigned to a different user or to a control channel used by all UEs. 
     The down-link frame contains many channels. Within this disclosure, the physical down-link control channel (“PDCCH”) is the most important. It contains the up-link grant for UE resource blocks and the ACK/NAK for the HARQ protocol. 
     The resource block assignment within the down-link is dynamic, often distributed throughout the time-frequency space to minimize fading in the channel propagation to a given UE. Resource blocks vacated by one user are assigned to other UEs that are experiencing different fading characteristics to maximize the overall link quality within the cell. As a result, the down-link LTE signal transmitted from the eNB  110  and received by the UE  120  will have a wide bandwidth that occupies most of the down-link band. 
     The resource block assignment for the up-link is different. To reduce the burden on the UE  120  in LTE release 8, the resource blocks are assigned so that the sub-carriers occupied are contiguous in frequency. Thus, the up-link LTE signal transmitted by the UE  120  has a narrow bandwidth, although the bandwidth may hop in frequency between slots. 
     As depicted in  FIG. 3 , the key up-link channels include the physical up-link control channels (“PUCCH”)  320   a  and  320   b  and the physical up-link shared channel (“PUSCH”)  330  for the sub-carriers  310 . The PUCCH is used to transmit control signals. The PUSCH  330  is used for transmitting both data and control signals. The up-link allocation of the PUSCH  330  and PUCCH  320   a  and  320   b  over time and frequency is shown in  FIG. 3 . The PUSCH  330 , the physical random access channel (“PRACH”), and sounding reference signal (latter two not shown) share the center portion of the allocated frequency band. The PUCCH  320   a  and  320   b  are transmitted at the edges of the up-link band. 
     As shown in  FIG. 4 , for LTE release 8, the UE  120  does not transmit on the PUSCH  430  and the PUCCH  420   a - 420   d  simultaneously. This is due to the fact that the sub-carrier usage is contiguous in frequency as mentioned earlier. The PUCCH  420   a - 420   d  are used when control signals only need to be transmitted. If control signals and data need to be transmitted concurrently, they are both multiplexed onto the PUSCH  430 . Both the PUSCH  430  and the PUCCH  420   a - 420   d  contain demodulation reference signals (“RS”)  440  that are used by the eNB  110  to assist in the demodulation of the UE signal. 
     The up-link modulation is enhanced for LTE release 10. The SC-FDMA is replaced by DFT-precoded OFDM, which is also known as clustered SC-FDMA. As shown in  FIG. 5 , the resource block allocation for LTE release 10 permits the simultaneous transmission of the PUCCH  520   a  and  520   b  and PUSCH  530  in the same sub-frame by a UE. See section 6.3 in 3GPP, TR 36.814 v9.0.0. Thus, the simultaneous transmission of control and data signals may be done in two ways: by multiplexing both onto the PUSCH, as in LTE release 8; or by transmitting simultaneously the control signals on the PUCCH and the data signals on the PUSCH. The latter method simplifies the relay operation, as discussed below. 
     The up-link signal received by the eNB  110  has a wide bandwidth due to the reception of several UEs such as UE  120  simultaneously. The transmit time of each UE  120  within the cell  111  is adjusted so that the up-link signals received at the eNB  110  are both aligned in time and are orthogonal. See S. Sesia, I. Toufik, and M. Baker,  LTE—The UMTS Long Term Evolution: From Theory to Practice , West Sussex, UK: Wiley, 2009. The initial time alignment is obtained during the PRACH protocol. Timing advance updates are specified thereafter in a closed-loop manner based on measurements of the received up-link timing. The granularity of the timing advance is 0.52 μs. The tolerance to misalignment is provided by the cyclic prefix used in the SC-FDMA modulation, which is typically 4.7 μs in duration. The orthogonality property results in low interference between UE signals at the eNB  110  within a given cell. 
     Up-link power control is used to reduce the near-far dynamic range effects, adjusting the power level transmitted by a UE such as UE  120  to compensate for the up-link path loss. See 3GPP, TS 36.213 v8.5.0. It also changes the UE transmit power based on the modulation coding rate to ensure sufficient signal-to-noise at the eNB receiver. 
     Because rate-dependent power control assigns higher power for higher coding rates, the in-channel sensitivity of eNB receiver must be sufficient to tolerate at least 18 dB of receive power variation. See 3GPP, TS 36.104 v8.3.0, table 7.4.1-1. 
     A UE  120  near the cell edge, in general, transmits at a high power level to overcome the additional path loss associated with distance to the eNB receiver. However, the maximum transmitted power by the UE  120  is specified by the eNB  110  as part of the system information message to limit the interference experienced by neighboring eNB&#39;s. As a result, the up-link budget for the UE  120  near the cell edge is degraded requiring a lower data rate to meet the targeted block error rate (“BLER”). LTE release 10 seeks to increase the cell edge data rate by using repeaters and relays to improve the link budget. 
     Consider the use of repeaters to improve the cell edge data rate. As shown in  FIG. 6 , a bi-directional repeater (“Rp”)  630  provides gain to both the up-link  602  and down-link  603  of the LTE air-interface connecting the eNB  110  and UE  120 . A donor antenna  631  and a service antenna  632  are needed to receive, amplify, and retransmit the RF signal with minimal delay (on the order of a few microseconds). Filtering is applied via filters  633 ,  635 ,  637 , and  639  to the repeated signal to limit the bandwidth of the signal retransmitted to that of the up- or down-link band. Down-link amplifier  634  and up-link amplifier  638  are employed to amplify the down-link signal  603  and the up-link signal  602  respectively. 
     The antennas used on the eNB  110  and the UE  120  sides are referred to as the donor antenna  631  and the service antenna  632 , respectively. Because a given link of the repeater (up or down) receives and transmits on the same frequency band, there must be sufficient isolation between antennas  631  and  632  to avoid echoes due to unwanted RF feedback. Instability occurs when the antenna isolation is less than the gain of the repeater. The donor antenna  631  is often directional to increase the feedback isolation. The directional radiation pattern also provides antenna gain improving the quality of the eNB  110 -to-Rp  630  link. The radiation pattern of the service antenna  632  tends to be omni-directional and defines the coverage area as depicted in  FIG. 7  where a UE  120  will experience a better channel using the repeat paths  706  and  704  communicating between the UE  120  to the Rp  730  and the Rp  730  to eNB  110  respectively, than the direct path  705  communicating between the UE  120  and the eNB  110 . 
     When implemented properly, the repeater Rp  730  improves the signal to noise ratio (“SNR”) of the signals transmitted by the eNB  110  and the UE  120  at the receivers of the UE  120  and the eNB  110 , respectively. The SNR improvement allows the use of higher-order modulation coding schemes to increase the data throughput. The SNR improvement is due to the gain of the repeater  630 , the directionality of the donor antenna  631 , and the reduced distance (and hence propagation loss) between the UE  120  and repeater Rp  730  compared to that of the UE  120  and the eNB  110 . The SNR at the eNB  110  is also increased by the diversity associated with direct path  705  and the repeated paths  704  and  706 . 
       FIG. 8  depicts the spectrum  801  of repeated UE up-link signal as seen by the receiver of the eNB  110 . In addition to increasing the signal level  810  at the destination receiver, a repeater amplifies and generates noise  820  within the up- or down-link band. This tends to be more problematic for the up-link because the UE signal bandwidth is a small fraction of the up-link band. As a result, the broadband noise generated reduces the SNR of the UEs not serviced by the repeater. 
     Consider the case of several repeaters  930   a - 930   c  within a cell, as shown in  FIG. 9 . As shown in  FIG. 10 , the repeater generated noise  1020   a - 1020   c  increases with the number of up-link repeaters. That is, the noise from the repeaters  930   a - 930   c  adds at the receiver of the eNB  110 , thereby decreasing the SNR for all of the UE signals. This represents a serious problem when the goal is to improve the cell edge data throughput because the cell may contain a ring of six or more repeaters. As a result, the benefits of the repeater in terms of increasing the capacity of the up-link are diminished. 
     Repeater generated noise is less problematic for the LTE down-link because the eNB  110  is transmitting to several UE receivers such as UE  120  through different repeaters having different coverage areas. Although there may be some overlap between adjacent repeater coverage areas, the noise accumulation at a given UE such as UE  120  will not rise significantly with the number of repeaters present in the cell. This is due to the fact that the same LTE down-link signal passes though each repeater. Thus, signal power accumulation will offset any noise accumulation. The down-link also operates favorably in the presence of multiple repeaters because the diversity provided by overlapping coverage areas can be exploited. 
     In summary, repeaters improve cell edge throughput for the down-link. However, it is not clear that the use of several repeaters will improve the up-link edge user capacity. 
     As mentioned earlier, relays are proposed within LTE release 10 as a means to increase the data throughput for UEs such as UE  120  near cell edges  111 . A relay (“R”) differs from a repeater in that the former decodes the in-coming signal, thereby removing noise and interference. However, the relay must wait several sub-frames for the eNB scheduler to assign new radio channel resources before retransmitting the data. 
     The RAN1 working group within 3GPP is actively studying relays for LTE release 10. Two types of relays have been identified. The first type of relay, referred to as type 1, is a fully functioning eNB that performs its own scheduling and resource allocation. A wireless backhaul is used to transfer data to the host eNB which has wired access to the network and internet. In contrast, transparent relays, referred to as type 2 relays, are characterized by the reliance on the host eNB for scheduling and resource allocation. In this disclosure, only type 2 relays are considered. 
     A goal of the RAN1 working group is to specify a type 2 relay that improves the up-link data rate while being compatible with LTE Release 8. The necessary coordination of transmission and reception for the relay is performed by the eNB scheduler using the HARQ protocol, where the relay transmits only during HARQ retransmissions. The assistance provided by the relay improves the channel quality by providing spatial diversity and increased received power at the eNB or UE. It reduces the likelihood that more than one HARQ retransmission would be required and allows for higher modulation coding schemes to be used. 
     A transparent relay has been proposed for the up-link. See R1-082517, Nortel, “Transparent relay for LTE-A FDD,” RAN1 #53bis, Warsaw, Poland, June 2008. A down-link relay is also described. The up-link relay fits well into LTE because the up-link HARQ is synchronous, allowing the relay to predict when the retransmission from the UE will occur. That is, the HARQ-induced retransmission from the UE will always be 8 subframes (8 ms) after the initial UE transmission. Unfortunately, the down-link implementation has problems because the down-link HARQ is asynchronous. As a result, the relay is unable to predict when the retransmission will be made by the eNB  110 . See R1-083866, Nortel, “More design aspects on downlink transparent relay in LTE-A,” RAN1 #54bis, Prague, Czech, October 2008, which proposes that additional signals be sent from the eNB to the relay within an earlier sub-frame to give the relay sufficient time to prepare for the retransmission. However, this prevents backward compatibility with LTE release 8. 
     The RAN1 working group has concluded that a type 2 relay does not increase coverage. See R1-100951, Alcatel-Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, CHTTL, “Type 2 relay summary,” RAN1 #60, San Francisco, Calif., February 2010. Instead it is best suited for increasing the capacity of the cell and improving the data throughput for edge users. This is due to the fact that only data channels, and not the control signals, are relayed. For the case of the up-link, the relaying function need only be applied to the PUSCH, which carries the up-link data. The PUCCH and PRACH are not serviced by the relay and must be able to connect directly to the eNB. Thus, the PUCCH and PRACH range defines the coverage limits for the up-link. 
     The data transfer between the eNB  110 , the UE  120 , and the relay  1150  is shown in  FIG. 11 . The relay  1150  demodulates UE transmissions  1105 , stores them briefly then recodes and retransmits if a HARQ request is made by the eNB in transmission  1101 . It is assumed that the eNB  110  has diversity receive antennas so that the simultaneous transmissions from the UE and relay can be maximum ratio combined at the eNB receiver.  FIG. 11  also shows PUSCH transmission  1101  and PDCCH transmission  1102  between the relay  1150  and the eNB  110 , and PUSCH PUCCH transmission  1104  and the PDCCH transmission  1103  between the eNB  110  and the UE  120 . 
     The LTE type 2 relay has similarities to the cooperative relaying protocols based on HARQ as described in B. Zhao and M. C. Valenti, “Practical relay networks: a generalization of Hybrid-ARQ,”  IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications , Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 7-18, January 2005. A key difference is that the type 2 relay does not send signaling information to the UE, such as ACK/NAK messages in response to decoding of the UE transmission. The ACK/NAK messages originate from the eNB. 
     An open issue with the up-link HARQ relay is how to treat the CQI/PMI, RI, and HARQ-ACK parameters, collectively referred to as the control signals, which are multiplexed on the original PUSCH, during a retransmission. The relay cannot predict the new control information from the UE. 
     To illustrate the problem, consider the data transfer sequence between the eNB  1201 , UE  1202 , and up-link relay  1203 , as shown in  FIG. 12 . The eNB  1201  begins by sending an up-link (UL) grant on the PDCCH  1210  to the UE  1202 . The UE  1202  transmits data and control information  1212  and  1214  which both the eNB and relay receive and decode, respectively at blocks  1216  and  1218 . If the eNB  1201  detects an error in the CRC at block  1216 , a retransmission is requested using the physical HARQ indicator channel (“PHICH”) and/or the PDCCH  1220  and  1222  (see 3GPP, TS 36.213 v8.5.0, section 8), which both the UE  1202  and the relay  1203  receive. The UE  1202  encodes and the relay  1203  encodes at block  1224  the identical data for the HARQ retransmission, assuming the relay decoded the originally transmitted UE signal correctly. Both the UE  1202  and the relay  1203  retransmit on the same up-link resources granted by the eNB scheduler via transmissions  1226  and  1228 . The eNB  1201  receives and decodes the combined UE/relay signal, then performs IR (incremental redundancy) combining with the first UE signal received to improve the accuracy of the decoding at block  1230 . The relay-assisted data will be decoded correctly by the eNB  1201 ; however, the out-dated control information sent by the relay  1203  will cause a decoding error for the received control signal. 
     Even if the relay  1203  decides not to transmit the control information, leaving the spaces blank, problems still arise. See R1-093044, Huawei, “Issues of type 2 relay,” RAN1 #58, Shenzhen, China, August 2009. The up-link channel estimation uses the reference signals to measure the combined paths of the UE-to-eNB and the relay-to-eNB. Blanking the control signals on the relay retransmission changes the up-link channel response. Thus, the data and control signals experience different channel responses; however, only one reference signal is provided. As a result, the reception of the control signals from the UE  1202  will be blind. Thus, control signals multiplexed on the PUSCH present difficulties for the relay-assisted communication. 
     It is interesting to consider the data transfer sequence when the relay fails to decode the initial UE transmission, as shown in  FIG. 13 . The relay  1203  cannot request a retransmission, but the eNB will issue a HARQ in most cases because the UE-to-eNB link does not have the capacity for the higher modulation coding scheme used in the relay-assisted mode. The problem associated with the control signals multiplexed onto the PUSCH remains. 
     As mentioned earlier, a relay is different than a repeater because the former delays the retransmission by several sub-frames. As a result, it is possible to implement a relay using the same antenna for the donor and service functions. However, in such cases the relay cannot receive and transmit simultaneously on the up-link. The relay must time domain duplex (“TDD”) its up-link frequency band between receptions of UE signals and the HARQ retransmissions of previously decoded transport blocks. 
     Time-domain duplexing requires that the relay be in either transmit or receive mode at any given time, which presents a scheduling challenge for the eNB when several UEs are being serviced by the relay. In such cases it is necessary to synchronize the up-link grants so that the transmissions of the serviced UEs match the reception cycle of the relay. However, a benefit of the TDD mode for the relay is that it eliminates the need for echo suppression when separate antennas are used for the donor and service functions. 
     Another problem exists when the relay is assisting several UEs and TDD mode is used to separate the donor and service functions. If the relay fails to decode the initial transmission from one of the UEs, the relay will miss the subsequent UE retransmission because the former is in transmission mode. An additional HARQ attempt is needed to re-synchronize the UE transmission with the relay&#39;s receive mode. As a result, the modulation coding scheme selected must be chosen conservatively in a TDD-based up-link relay assisting several UEs so that decode failures by the relay are infrequent. 
     In summary, the down-link relay is difficult to implement in LTE because the down-link HARQ protocol is asynchronous. The up-link relay is more promising because the up-link HARQ is synchronous allowing the relay to predict retransmissions from the UE. However, the up-link relay has to address several outstanding problems such as how to deal with the control information multiplexed within the PUSCH and the synchronization of the UE&#39;s when the up-link relay is using its TDD mode. 
     In accordance with an embodiment, it is proposed that the down-link portion of the relay is not necessary and can be replaced instead with a down-link repeater.  FIG. 17  is a schematic block diagram of a co-located up-link relay  1750  and a down-link repeater  1730  in an embodiment. It shall be appreciated that the co-located up-link relay  1750  and the down-link repeater  1730  depicted in  FIG. 17  combines the down-link portion of the repeater  630  depicted in  FIG. 6  with the up-link portion of the relay  1150  depicted in  FIG. 11 . Thus, embodiments exhibit enhanced data throughput for cell edge UEs by combining a down-link repeater  1730  with an up-link HARQ relay  1750 . The up-link relay  1750  shares the same donor antenna  1731  and the same service antenna  1732  as the repeater  1730 , which allows the relay to transmit and receive simultaneously via signals  1704   a  and  1704   b , if desired. The key difference from the RAN1 proposals is that the up-link control signals transmitted by a relay-assisted UE appear on the PUCCH during some of the HARQ retransmissions. Out-dated control information multiplexed on the PUSCH transmitted by the up-link relay is ignored. This requires a modification for LTE release 8 UE&#39;s, but is consistent with LTE release 10. 
     Consider first the case of a LTE release 8 UE and an up-link relay  1750  that uses the TDD mode to separate the donor and service functions. During the transmission cycle of the relay, there is marginal benefit for the UE  120  to retransmit the data directly to the eNB  110  because its link is much worse than the relay  1750 -to-eNB  110  link. In addition, there is no benefit for the UE  120  to transmit data to the relay  1750  when the latter is in its transmit mode because it is not listening. Instead, the UE  120  should transmit control information to the eNB  110  while the relay is in transmission mode. 
     Having the UE  120  transmit the current control information to the eNB  110  on the PUCCH when the relay  1750  is in transmit mode presents a solution to the PUSCH multiplexing problem which, it is believed, has not been considered by RAN1. Consider the data transfer sequence shown in  FIG. 14 . From the eNB&#39;s  1201  viewpoint, it appears as if the UE  1202  is transmitting on the PUSCH  1428  and PUCCH  1426  simultaneously, which is not possible normally for LTE release 8 because the SC-FDMA modulation requires that the transmitted signal occupy a contiguous frequency band. With the new found ability to transmit both the PUSCH  1428  and the PUCCH  1426  during HARQ retransmissions (the former from the relay  1203 , the latter from the UE  1202 ), the control information can be removed from the retransmitted PUSCH  1428  completely. An eNB  1201  enabled for LTE release 10 should have no difficulty demodulating the simultaneous reception of the PUSCH and PUCCH at block  1430 . This solution requires the UE  1202  to know that it is being serviced by the relay. This may cause objections from the RAN1 group which has agreed that a release-8 UE shall not be aware of the presence of the type 2 relay. See R1-100951, Alcatel-Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, CHTTL, “Type 2 relay summary,” RAN1 #60, San Francisco, Calif., February 2010. However, if signals from incompatible release 8 UEs are not relayed, embodiments would meet the RAN1 definition. 
     Now consider the case of a LTE release 10 UE as depicted by  FIG. 15 . LTE release 10 has simplified the operation of the uplink relay by allowing the simultaneous transmission of the PUSCH and PUCCH  1526  from a UE  1202   a . By sending the control information separately on the PUCCH instead of multiplexing it onto the PUSCH, the most current control information is always sent by the UE  1202   a . Since the modulation coding scheme used for the PUCCH is more robust, it is likely that the control information will be decoded correctly even when the data is not. As a result, control information, such as the channel quality (“Cal”), is being fed back to the eNB scheduler in a timely manner. 
     It is assumed in this example that the up-link relay  1750  is sharing the donor antenna  1731  and the service antenna  1732  with the down-link repeater  1730 . As a result, there should be sufficient antenna isolation for the relay to transmit and receive simultaneously. This is beneficial when several UE&#39;s are being assisted by the relay  1750  because the penalty associated with a decoding failure at the relay is reduced, compared to the TDD case. This allows the modulation coding rate of the PUSCH to be selected aggressively to rely more heavily on the IR-HARQ to maximize the data throughput, instead of wasting a HARQ cycle to re-synchronize the UE transmission. 
     The remainder of this section describes specific details of the up-link HARQ relay  1750  and its operation within a LTE cell. The relay  1750  extracts information regarding up-link scheduling grants from the downlink control information (“DCI”) format 0 messages within the PDCCH. The UE ID, referred to as the C-RNTI (cell radio network temporary identifier), is needed for each grant, which can be derived from the scrambled CRC used by the DCI. However, the computational requirements for the relay are reduced significantly if the eNB communicates the C-RNTI&#39;s of UE&#39;s selected for relay assistance ahead of time because fewer UE transmissions will have to be decoded. In addition, information from the eNB simplifies the relay processing of a semi-persistent scheduled (“SPS”) UE whose uplink grant may have been sent several frames earlier. 
     The DCI format 0 messages within the PDCCH include the modulation and coding scheme (“MCS”) index which specifies the modulation order and transport block size for the UE transmissions and the redundancy version of the HARQ for the UE retransmissions. The PDCCH also contains the up-link resource block allocation. Sufficient information is available for the relay to predict the UE transmissions, decode the UL transport blocks, and associated them with their C-RNTI&#39;s. 
     The relay  1750  will not transmit during a HARQ retransmission if the relay was unable to decode the initial UE transmission successfully. This occurs when the CRC of the transport block decoded by the relay  1750  indicates an error. In such cases, the relay  1750  will perform IR combining of the repeated UE  120  transmissions it receives until the decoding is successful or the eNB  110  stops requesting HARQ&#39;s from the UE  120 . A UE transmission is also missed when the relay is in TDD mode and retransmitting another UE&#39;s signal. 
     The reception of UE  120  transmissions at the relay  1750  is slightly different from that of the eNB  110  because the timing advance and up-link power controls are set for the eNB  110 . One can expect larger variations in power level and timing between UE  110  signals at the relay&#39;s receiver because path distances are different from those of the eNB  110 . Timing variations less than a microsecond should not be problematic because of the cyclic prefix used in the up-link modulation. 
     The relay transmission requires its own timing advance and power control to avoid disrupting the balance at the eNB receiver. The relay  1750  is operated as a UE such as UE  120  initially to perform the PRACH protocol needed to extract the timing advance information. The relay  1750  would also operate as a UE periodically to maintain adequate power control and receive timing advance updates. Once the timing advance and power control values are known, the relay function can be performed. The eNB  110  can also send the C-RNTI&#39;s for UE&#39;s selected for relay assistance. 
       FIG. 16  shows the decoding and re-coding process for the relay. The relay  1750  must decode the UE up-link signal to at least c RX  for IR HARQ because puncturing changes each HARQ retransmission. Thus, the minimum sequence for the relay is f RX , e RX , d RX , c RX , c TX , d TX , e TX , f TX . It is useful to decode to a RX  for CRC error protection; however, the subsequent re-encoding can start from c RX  to c TX . 
     The effect of the HARQ relay on the up-link throughput is analyzed. Relays assisting release 10 compatible UE&#39;s that are capable of simultaneous transmissions of the PUSCH and PUCCH  1526 , as in shown in  FIG. 15 , are considered first. The case when the UE is not transmitting the PUSCH and PUCCH simultaneously, as in  FIG. 14 , is discussed later. It is shown in both cases that assistance from the up-link relay increases the cell-edge user throughput when higher modulation coding rates can be used. However, relay assistance often increases the average number of transmissions per transport block, and hence, the average delay. 
     The up-link data rate that can be supported is dependent on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the transmitted UE signal measured at the eNB or relay receiver. The required SNR&#39;s for QPSK ⅓, 16-QAM¾, and 64-QAM ⅚ modulation coding rates with a fractional throughput of 70% are specified in 3GPP, TS 36.104 v8.3.0, Table 8.2.1.1-6 as −0.4 dB, 11.5 dB, and 19.7 dB, respectively. Assumptions made in 3GPP, TS 36.104 v8.3.0 include a 20 MHz bandwidth, the receiver has two antennas, and the propagation condition is modeled using the extended pedestrian A (5 Hz). The HARQ retransmissions reduce the fractional throughput by increasing the average number of transmissions per transport block. A 70% throughput corresponds to 1.43 transmissions per transport block on average. For a fractional throughput of 30%, the average number of transmissions is 3.33 and the required SNR for QPSK ⅓, as specified in 3GPP, TS 36.104 v8.3.0 is −4.2 dB. 
     The expected number of transmissions per transport block, without relay assistance, is 
     
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
                     
                       E 
                       ⁡ 
                       
                         [ 
                         n 
                         ] 
                       
                     
                     
                       no 
                       ⁢ 
                       
                           
                       
                       ⁢ 
                       _ 
                       ⁢ 
                       
                           
                       
                       ⁢ 
                       relay 
                     
                   
                   = 
                   
                     
                       
                         ∑ 
                         
                           n 
                           = 
                           1 
                         
                         4 
                       
                       ⁢ 
                       
                         
                           p 
                           n 
                         
                         · 
                         n 
                       
                     
                     = 
                     
                       1 
                       β 
                     
                   
                 
               
               
                 
                   ( 
                   1 
                   ) 
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
     where β is the fractional throughput for the UE-to-eNB link and p n  is the probability that n transmissions are made for a given transport block. The probabilities p n  are modeled as
 
 p   n =β·(1−β) n-1 ,  (2)
 
     which is a simplification that does not account for the improvement in the SNR as n increases, due to the IR (incremental redundancy) combining used in the HARQ process. However, the approximation is reasonable for β≥0.7. 
     Now consider the case of relay assistance. Assume that the UE is transmitting the PUSCH and PUCCH simultaneously and the assistance of the HARQ relay guarantees that no additional retransmissions are needed (if the relay decodes the previous UE transmission correctly). The expected number of transmissions when the relay is used becomes 
     
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
                     
                       E 
                       ⁡ 
                       
                         [ 
                         n 
                         ] 
                       
                     
                     = 
                     
                       β 
                       + 
                       
                         
                           ( 
                           
                             1 
                             - 
                             β 
                           
                           ) 
                         
                         · 
                         
                           
                             ∑ 
                             
                               n 
                               = 
                               2 
                             
                             4 
                           
                           ⁢ 
                           
                             γ 
                             · 
                             
                               
                                 ( 
                                 
                                   1 
                                   - 
                                   γ 
                                 
                                 ) 
                               
                               
                                 n 
                                 - 
                                 2 
                               
                             
                             · 
                             n 
                           
                         
                       
                     
                   
                   ⁢ 
                   
                     
 
                   
                   ⁢ 
                   where 
                 
               
               
                 
                   ( 
                   3 
                   ) 
                 
               
             
             
               
                 
                   γ 
                   = 
                   
                     ρ 
                     + 
                     
                       
                         ( 
                         
                           1 
                           - 
                           ρ 
                         
                         ) 
                       
                       · 
                       β 
                     
                   
                 
               
               
                 
                   ( 
                   4 
                   ) 
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
     and ρ is the fractional throughput for the UE-to-relay link. As in the previous case, the model described by (3) does not account for the SNR improvement for n≥2 due to IR combining. However, it is a reasonable approximation when either β or ρ is large enough that E[n]&lt;2. 
     Let us establish an RF channel model to determine the data throughput of the relay assisted up-link. The distance-dependent path loss (L) is modeled as
 
 L= 128.5+37.2·log 10 ( d )  (5)
 
     where d is the distance in km from the transmitter to receiver. The antenna gains for the eNB, relay, and UE are assumed to be 15 dB, 5 dB, and 0 dB, respectively. The building penetration losses for UE and relay transmissions are assumed to be 15 dB and 0 dB, respectively. The relay-to-eNB link is 20 dB better than the UE-to-eNB link due to differences in the antenna gain and penetration losses. If the donor antenna is directional, the relay-to-eNB link is even better than described above. As a result, it is assumed that limits to the up-link data rate are due to the UE-to-eNB and UE-to-relay links only. 
     An approximation of the effective up-link data rate as a function of receiver SNR is (see S. Sesia, I. Toufik, and M. Baker,  LTE—The UMTS Long Term Evolution: From Theory to Practice , West Sussex, UK: Wiley, 2009, eq. 20.3)
 
 R   data   =k   −1 ·log 2 (1+SNR)  (6)
 
     where k is a discount factor representing the practical limitations in the receiver. The effective data rates for a 70% fractional throughput of QPSK ⅓, 16-QAM ¾, and 64-QAM ⅚ are η=0.47, 2.1, and 3.5 (70% of ⅔, 3, and 5), which correspond to k=2.00, 1.87, and 1.87, respectively. For a fractional throughput of 30%, the effective data rate of QPSK ⅓ is q=0.2 and k=2.32. In order to make (6) fit the SNR values specified in 3GPP, TS 36.104 v8.3.0, we make
 
 k= 1.87·[1+0.05·SNR −1 ].  (7)
 
     Note that k=1 corresponds to the Shannon limit. 
     In the following it is assumed that the noise powers measured by the receivers in the eNB and relay are the same. Thus, the SNR&#39;s at the eNB and relay receivers are functions of their antenna gains and path losses from the UE: 
     
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
                     
                       SNR 
                       
                         UE 
                         , 
                         relay 
                       
                     
                     = 
                     
                       
                         SNR 
                         
                           UE 
                           , 
                           eNB 
                         
                       
                       · 
                       
                         G 
                         relay 
                       
                       · 
                       
                         G 
                         
                           e 
                           ⁢ 
                           
                               
                           
                           ⁢ 
                           NB 
                         
                         
                           - 
                           1 
                         
                       
                       · 
                       
                         α 
                         
                           - 
                           3.72 
                         
                       
                     
                   
                   ⁢ 
                   
                     
 
                   
                   ⁢ 
                   where 
                 
               
               
                 
                   ( 
                   8 
                   ) 
                 
               
             
             
               
                 
                   α 
                   = 
                   
                     
                       [ 
                       
                         
                           d 
                           
                             UE 
                             , 
                             eNB 
                           
                         
                         
                           d 
                           
                             UE 
                             , 
                             relay 
                           
                         
                       
                       ] 
                     
                     
                       - 
                       1 
                     
                   
                 
               
               
                 
                   ( 
                   9 
                   ) 
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
     and SNR UE,relay  and SNR UE,eNB  are the SNR&#39;s for the UE signal at the relay and eNB receivers, respectively; d UE,relay  and d UE,eNB  are the distances from the UE to the relay and to the eNB, respectively; and G relay  and G eNB  are the antenna gains for the relay and eNB. Note that (8) ignores shadowing. 
     The position of the relay relative to the UE and eNB affects the throughput performance. Consider three cases: α=[0.50 0.33 0.25]. The SNR&#39;s and data rates supported (R data ) for the UE-to-relay and UE-to-eNB links are listed in Table I, under the assumption that the power transmitted by the UE is such that SNR UE,eNB =−0.4 dB. The SNR and data rate supported, based on (7), increase as the distance between the UE and relay decreases (lower α). 
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                 TABLE I 
               
             
            
               
                   
               
               
                 SNR AND SUPPORTABLE UP-LINK DATA RATES (USING (7)) 
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
               
               
            
               
                   
                 UE-relay 
                 UE-relay 
                 UE-relay 
                   
               
               
                   
                 α = 0.50 
                 α = 0.33 
                 α = 0.25 
                 UE-eNB 
               
               
                   
                   
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
               
               
               
            
               
                   
                 Rx SNR 
                 1.2 dB 
                 7.8 dB 
                 12.4 dB 
                 −0.4 dB 
               
               
                   
                 R data   
                 0.58 
                 1.49 
                 2.24 
                 0.47 
               
               
                   
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     Table II shows the data throughput η and the average number of transmissions per transport block, E[n], for the unassisted up-link and relay-assisted up-link for α=[0.50 0.33 0.25]. The available modulation coding rates for the LTE up-link are found in Table III and indicated by a CQI index that increases with the modulation code rate. β is ratio of the supported data rate based on (7) and the CQI modulation coding rate for the UE-to-eNB link: that is, 
     
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   β 
                   = 
                   
                     
                       R 
                       
                         data 
                         ⁡ 
                         
                           ( 
                           eNB 
                           ) 
                         
                       
                     
                     
                       R 
                       CQI 
                     
                   
                 
               
               
                 
                   ( 
                   10 
                   ) 
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
     where R data(eNB)  is the supported data rate for the UE-to-eNB link (see Table I) and R CQI  denotes the modulation coding rate for the selected COI index (see Table III), p is the lesser of unity and the ratio for the UE-to-relay link: that is, 
     
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   ρ 
                   = 
                   
                     min 
                     ⁢ 
                     
                       { 
                       
                         
                           
                             R 
                             
                               data 
                               ⁡ 
                               
                                 ( 
                                 relay 
                                 ) 
                               
                             
                           
                           
                             R 
                             CQI 
                           
                         
                         , 
                         1.0 
                       
                       } 
                     
                   
                 
               
               
                 
                   ( 
                   11 
                   ) 
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
     where R data(relay)  is the supported data rate for the UE-to-relay link (see Table I). The selected modulation coding rate is the maximum value for which E[n]&lt;2 and the probability of more than four transmissions, denoted by P(n&gt;4), is less than 0.01. The data throughput is 
     
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   η 
                   = 
                   
                     
                       
                         R 
                         CQI 
                       
                       
                         E 
                         ⁡ 
                         
                           [ 
                           n 
                           ] 
                         
                       
                     
                     . 
                   
                 
               
               
                 
                   ( 
                   12 
                   ) 
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
     From Table II it can be seen that the relay assistance increases the throughput η as well as the average number of transmissions per transport block, E[n]. Smaller values of a result in higher throughputs. The largest throughput of the cases considered, occurring for α=0.25, is η=1.38, which is an improvement by a factor of 2.96 over the no-relay case. Reducing a below 0.25 provides limited incremental improvement because the higher CQI modulation coding rates needed may exceed R data  for the relay-to-eNB link, resulting in additional retransmissions not modeled in (3). 
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                 TABLE II 
               
             
            
               
                   
               
               
                 RELAY-ASSISTED UP-LINK PERFORMANCE 
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
            
               
                   
                 CQI 
                 η 
                 E[n] 
                 P(n &gt; 4) 
                 β 
                 ρ 
               
               
                   
                   
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
            
               
                 No relay 
                 4 
                 0.47 
                 1.23 
                 0.0025 
                 0.78 
                 0.00 
               
               
                 α = 0.50 
                 5 
                 0.56 
                 1.56 
                 0.0019 
                 0.53 
                 0.66 
               
               
                 α = 0.33 
                 8 
                 1.00 
                 1.91 
                 0.0036 
                 0.24 
                 0.78 
               
               
                 α = 0.25 
                 10 
                 1.38 
                 1.97 
                 0.0027 
                 0.17 
                 0.82 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                 TABLE III 
               
             
            
               
                   
               
               
                 AVAILABLE MODULATION CODING RATES FOR LTE UP-LINK 
               
               
                 (ADAPTED FROM 3GPP, TS 36.213 v8.5.0, TABLE 7.2.3-1) 
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
               
               
            
               
                   
                   
                 Mod. Rate 
                   
                 Mod. coding rate 
               
               
                 CQI index 
                 Mod. type 
                 (Bits/sym) 
                 Code rate 
                 R CQI   
               
               
                   
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
               
               
            
               
                 0 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
               
               
                 1 
                 QPSK 
                 2 
                 0.0762 
                 0.152 
               
               
                 2 
                 QPSK 
                 2 
                 0.1172 
                 0.234 
               
               
                 3 
                 QPSK 
                 2 
                 0.1885 
                 0.377 
               
               
                 4 
                 QPSK 
                 2 
                 0.3008 
                 0.602 
               
               
                 5 
                 QPSK 
                 2 
                 0.4385 
                 0.877 
               
               
                 6 
                 QPSK 
                 2 
                 0.5879 
                 1.176 
               
               
                 7 
                 16-QAM 
                 4 
                 0.3691 
                 1.477 
               
               
                 8 
                 16-QAM 
                 4 
                 0.4785 
                 1.914 
               
               
                 9 
                 16-QAM 
                 4 
                 0.6016 
                 2.406 
               
               
                 10 
                 64-QAM 
                 6 
                 0.4551 
                 2.731 
               
               
                 11 
                 64-QAM 
                 6 
                 0.5537 
                 3.322 
               
               
                 12 
                 64-QAM 
                 6 
                 0.6504 
                 3.902 
               
               
                 13 
                 64-QAM 
                 6 
                 0.7539 
                 4.523 
               
               
                 14 
                 64-QAM 
                 6 
                 0.8525 
                 5.115 
               
               
                 15 
                 64-QAM 
                 6 
                 0.9258 
                 5.555 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     Table IV shows the data throughput q when the UE-to-eNB link experiences an additional 3.8 dB loss due to shadowing (UE-to-relay shadowing remains 0 dB). Although the shadowing reduces the throughput, the presence of the relay provides spatial diversity that limits the degradation compared to the no-relay case (compare q in Tables II and IV). 
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                 TABLE IV 
               
             
            
               
                   
               
               
                 UP-LINK WITH 3 dB SHADOWING ON UE to eNB LINK 
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
            
               
                   
                 CQI 
                 η 
                 E[n] 
                 P(n &gt; 4) 
                 β 
                 ρ 
               
               
                   
                   
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
            
               
                 No relay 
                 2 
                 0.20 
                 1.17 
                 0.0005 
                 0.85 
                 0.00 
               
               
                 α = 0.50 
                 4 
                 0.36 
                 1.68 
                 0.0000 
                 0.33 
                 0.96 
               
               
                 α = 0.33 
                 7 
                 0.79 
                 1.86 
                 0.0000 
                 0.14 
                 1.00 
               
               
                 α = 0.25 
                 9 
                 1.22 
                 1.98 
                 0.0002 
                 0.08 
                 0.93 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     Consider the case when the up-link relay is assisting a UE that is not transmitting the PUSCH and PUCCH simultaneously, as in  FIG. 14 . In such a case, the modulation coding rate should be selected conservatively so that ρ≈1, ensuring that the UE-to-relay link is robust. The expected number of transmissions, E[n], becomes β+2 (1−β). For the cases of α=[0.5 0.33 0.25], the selected CQI indices (where R CQI ≈R data ) are CQI=[4 7 8], which makes β=[0.78 0.32 0.25]. The expected number of transmissions becomes E[n]=[1.22 1.68 1.75] and the throughputs are η=[0.49 0.88 1.09]. The direct UE-to-eNB link uses CQI=4 and the resulting throughput is η=0.47. The improvement in the up-link throughput is apparent only in the latter two cases (α=0.33 and 0.25) where the closer proximity of the UE to the relay allows the CQI index to be increased. Thus, not all UE&#39;s should be assisted by the relay; however, for the best case where α=0.25, the relay assistance improves the up-link throughput by a factor of 2.32, which is significant. 
     The analysis performed above relies on the ability of (2) and (3) to model the IR-HARQ process. The model accuracy is sufficient as long as most of the transport blocks are received successfully by the eNB on either the first or second transmission. This is the motivation for selecting the CQI index such that E[n]&lt;2 and P(n&gt;4)&lt;0.01. However, there are cases where a cell-edge UE experiences a poor channel requiring several HARQ retransmissions per transport block to allow the incremental redundancy (“IR”) combining to raise the received SNR high enough. One example suggests that the fractional throughput is 30% (E[n]=3.33). See 3GPP, TS 36.104 v8.3.0. For these cases, general observations regarding relay assistance can be made without using (2) and (3). 
     The UE range is limited by the power allocated to the PUCCH transmission. For these cell-edge users, the PUCCH is transmitted at maximum power and separately from the PUSCH, even if the UE is LTE release 10 compatible. This ensures that the range and power per Hz transmitted are maximized. The data sent on the PUSCH during subsequent sub-frames has little chance of being decoded properly by the eNB on the initial transmission. For such cases, other researchers have suggested TTI bundling as an option, which requires a minimum of four, perhaps even eight, transmissions per transport block. It is believed that relay assistance is a better alternative to TTI bundling because the number of transmissions is reduced considerably and the modulation coding rate can be increased, both of which improves the data throughput. 
     In summary, the assistance of the up-link relay has the potential to improve significantly the data throughput for cell-edge users. However, it is important to note that the up-link relay has minimal impact on the peak or average throughput of the cell. 
     A combination of an up-link relay and a down-link repeater has been disclosed as a means of improving the data throughput for UE&#39;s near the cell edge in a LTE network by allowing the use of higher modulation coding rates. However, using of a HARQ relay on the up-link often increases the average number of transmissions per transport block, and hence, the average delay. 
     The present invention has been described primarily as a system and method for improving data throughput for cell edge users in a network using down-link repeaters and up-link relays. In this regard, the system and methods for improving data throughput are presented for purposes of illustration and description. Furthermore, the description is not intended to limit the invention to the form disclosed herein. Accordingly, variants and modifications consistent with the following teachings, skill, and knowledge of the relevant art, are within the scope of the present invention. The embodiments described herein are further intended to explain modes known for practicing the invention disclosed herewith and to enable others skilled in the art to utilize the invention in equivalent, or alternative embodiments and with various modifications considered necessary by the particular application(s) or use(s) of the present invention.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20190717
Publication Date: 20210216
Grant Date: 20210216
Priority Date: 20101216
Inventors: BRAITHWAITE, RICHARD NEIL
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H04W72/20", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/23", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/21", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W84/047", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L2001/0097", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L1/1887", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L1/1816", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W40/22", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L1/1822", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B7/155", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B7/2606", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B7/15507", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L1/1887", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L1/1893", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B7/2606", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B7/15507", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L2001/0097", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W84/047", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L1/1893", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/0413", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L1/1887", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B7/155", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L1/1893", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L2001/0097", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B7/2606", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/042", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L1/1822", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L1/1816", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W40/22", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04B7/15507", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W84/047", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/0406", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 46236101