Abstract: The present invention relates to methods and devices for use in multi carrier communication systems in which secondary downlink and secondary uplink carriers may be dynamically activated/deactivated by means of transmitting an HS-SCCH order from a radio base station to a user equipment. The HS-SCCH order is encoded by the radio base station according to an order mapping. The order mapping maps a desired activation status of a set of carriers to a corresponding encoded HS-SCCH order. The user equipment interprets the encoded HS-SCCH order to derive the desired activation status of the set of carriers. By using an appropriate order mapping, operations in the radio base station and/or the user equipment may be simplified, e.g. by allowing the radio base station to calculate the encoded HS-SCCH order based on the desired activation status.

Abstract: Channel estimation accuracy is improved by adjusting the power level of a physical control channel allocated to a receiver based on the transmission rate and/or transport format of a corresponding physical data channel allocated to the same receiver. The physical control channel may be a DPCCH, E-DPCCH or other type of physical control channel allocated to a receiver for facilitating uplink or downlink communication. In one embodiment, control channel symbols are transmitted for use in channel estimation by adjusting the power level of a physical control channel allocated to a receiver based on the transmission rate and/or transport format of a physical data channel allocated to the receiver (200). Control channel symbols are transmitted to the receiver over the physical control channel at the adjusted power level (202). The receiver uses the control channel symbols to perform channel estimation (204).

Abstract: Although described herein in terms of UE out-of-sync detection, those of skill in the art will readily recognize that embodiments of the present invention improve in-sync detection for currently out-of-sync UEs 22. That is, if an out-of-sync UE 22 detects sufficiently good channel conditions, it may announce this fact to the network and re-acquire in-sync status. For example, if the UE 22 receives F-DPCH signal transmissions and determines that, e.g., the TPC command error rate is less than a threshold, which is preferably much lower than 30%, over a measurement interval of, e.g., 240 slots (or 160 ms), the UE 22 may conclude that it is in-sync and announce this fact to the network 10. The restrictions of only valid F-DPCH transmissions during the UL DTX gated period will obviously enhance the reliability of this determination, just as is the case in determining out-of-sync status.

Abstract: The present invention relates to methods and devices for use in multi carrier communication systems in which secondary downlink and secondary uplink carriers may be dynamically activated/deactivated by means of transmitting an HS-SCCH order from a radio base station to a user equipment. The HS-SCCH order is encoded by the radio base station according to an order mapping. The order mapping maps a desired activation status of a set of carriers to a corresponding encoded HS-SCCH order. The user equipment interprets the encoded HS-SCCH order to derive the desired activation status of the set of carriers. By using an appropriate order mapping, operations in the radio base station and/or the user equipment may be simplified, e.g. by allowing the radio base station to calculate the encoded HS-SCCH order based on the desired activation status.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for signaling retransmission-related information in a multi-carrier wireless communication system supporting three or more carriers. In an example method, a wireless transceiver forms a first ACK/NACK group by jointly coding ACK bits and NACK bits for a first subset of the carriers, and transmits the first ACK/NACK group during a first transmission slot allocated for the first ACK/NACK group. If no carriers of a second subset of the carriers are activated for the wireless transceiver, then the first ACK/NACK group is also transmitted during a second transmission slot that is otherwise allocated to ACK/NACK information for a second subset of the carriers. In another method, first and second ACK/NACK groups corresponding to first and second subsets of carriers are each formed from a codebook comprising a DTX codeword indicating that no data transmission for the mobile station was detected for the corresponding subset of carriers.

Abstract: A user equipment, in a cellular telecommunication system having a plurality of downlink physical channels, detects radio link problems using a subset of said physical channels, where said subset is dynamically adjustable depending upon which channels are available at a particular instant.

Abstract: Out-of-sync and in-sync detections and downlink power control by UTRAN user equipment are improved in Continuous Packet Connectivity mode featuring discontinuous UL DPCCH transmission by requiring all F-DPCH transmissions from a base station to the user equipment to be valid during a UL DTX gated period. Additionally, the user equipment receives and considers all F-DPCH transmissions during the UL DTX gated period, for power control, out-of-sync and in-sync detections. If the user equipment detects an out-of-sync condition, it may immediately transmit a scheduling request to notify the network, temporarily or permanently annulling the discontinuous UL DPCCH transmission.