Abstract: The proposed approach contemplates systems and methods configured to transmit signals irregularly (sparsely) over a mobile communication network (carrier) in which reception gaps apply while increasing the likelihood that receivers will receive a signal at least once during a certain time period, called irregular signal period. First, a set of transmission offsets is selected, the transmission offsets defining a relative transmission time in a burst, such that if a burst would be transmitted using the selected transmission offsets, a receiver with any valid reception gap configuration would receive at least one signal in its whole duration. Then, during an irregular signal period, signals are transmitted in a sequence of one or more consecutive bursts using each of the transmission offsets in the selected set at least once, wherein the sequence of bursts may be preceded and/or followed by a period of no signal transmission.

Abstract: A method and system for transmitting data to user equipment (UE) is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes: a downlink transmitter configured to transmit a first data unit to the UE using a first transmission process assigned to the UE; an uplink receiver configured to receive a status signal indicating either a successful or unsuccessful reception of the first data unit by the UE; and a downlink scheduler, communicatively coupled to the downlink transmitter and uplink receiver, and configured to receive the status signal from the uplink receiver, wherein the downlink scheduler is further configured to schedule transmission of a second data unit to the UE and transmit a corresponding scheduling decision to the downlink transmitter prior to receiving the status signal, and wherein upon receiving the scheduling decision, the downlink transmitter transmits the second data unit to the UE using a second transmission process assigned to the UE.

Abstract: In a heterogeneous network deployment that includes a macro base station and one or more low power nodes, a discovery signal is transmitted to facilitate the identification of low power nodes. The discovery signal is transmitted on a selected subset of resource elements, previously unused, to maintain backward compatibility with legacy user equipment. The transmission sequence and/or the locations of resource elements used for transmitting the discovery signal can identify the low power node to a user equipment.

Abstract: An improved method and system for achieving target function failure rates for time-critical functions. Communication systems often utilize distributed functions occurring in two or more nodes. Various embodiments of the invention enable such system to achieve target function failure rates by adjusting the maximum allowable duration for time-critical functions. Adjustments to either a function starting time or a maximum allowable function duration may be used to achieve target failure rates. Various embodiments measure a real-time function failure rate. Other embodiments simply lengthen or compress the maximum allowable function duration based on failure or success of the function. The function duration or the function duration statistics do not need to be known.

Abstract: An auxiliary cell identity (ACI) is proposed besides the conventional physical cell identity carried on the synchronization channels. The ACI is designed and configured to be transmitted in one or more primary regions and one or more secondary regions and transmitted by a base station/cell to a plurality of user equipment (UEs) located within coverage of the cell in one or more transmissions. Each of the UEs is configured to detects the transmitted ACI and identifies the cell based on the detected ACI.

Abstract: In a heterogeneous wireless network that includes a macro base station and one or more micro base stations, a wireless device to wirelessly transmit, in a first time slot at a first position in a first transmission subframe, data over a first physical communication channel. An ACK/NACK control message is received over a backhaul network connection a first time period after the first time slot. A response message is transmitted to the wireless device such that when the control message is received prior to the second time slot, then the response message uses data reception information from the control message and when the control message is not received prior to the second time slot, then the response message indicates that the data was successfully received.

Abstract: Provided is a synchronization cell used in a wireless communication system. Also provided is an SCI, synchronization cell indicator. A mobile network includes a processor that identifies one or more suitable synchronization cells for a user equipment (UE) and sends the SCI to the UE so that the UE can at least partially synchronize with a synchronization cell. The SCI advantageously includes a cell-id and other synchronization parameters and characteristics in various embodiments. The SCI may include a cell-directed UE action for the UE to carry out with a target cell. The UE carries out cell-directed UE actions with the target cell either after having obtained synchronization with the synchronization cell or to continue the synchronization process.

Abstract: In a heterogeneous network deployment that includes one or more macro base stations and one or more low power nodes, a technique can be provided to encode network operational information using phase differences in synchronization signals transmitted by a network node. The synchronization signals may be one of the first signals that a user equipment (UE) attempts to locate when attempting to join a wireless network. The phase-encoded network operational information indicates to the UE where to locate a geometry indicator transmission from a low power node that is a part of the network, but is not the node that transmits the synchronization signals. The geometry indicator transmission may include identity information for the transmitting node and may be transmitted at a pre-determined nominal transmit power.

Abstract: A cellular telecommunications system and method of scheduling a group of user equipments is provided. The system includes a macro cell with a macro base station and multiple associated low power nodes (LPN's). The macro base station and the LPN's share the same cell ID. The system and method provide for scheduling a group of UE's by grouping a plurality of the UE's together, assigning a group identifier to the group, notifying the group and encoding a control channel with the group identifier. A single control channel is delivered to each UE in the group of UE's. The UE's of the group of UE's may be processed by different LPN's. The transmitted control channel may be included in a DCI (downlink control information) and delivers uplink scheduling grants to the UE's. Based on the transmitted control channel, the UE's are scheduled for uplink transmission.

Abstract: In a heterogeneous network deployment that includes a macro base station and one or more low power nodes, a geometry indicator signal is transmitted to facilitate the determination of geometry or location at a user equipment. The geometry indicator, in general, is transmitted on the same or different frequency as the data signal transmission and is transmitted over a range that is same or different from that of the data signal transmission. The geometry indicator signal may be transmitted by the macro base station, the low power nodes or both.

Abstract: A heterogeneous wireless communication network includes a macrocell base station that one or more low power nodes. The location of a wireless device is estimated based on feedback reports received from the wireless device in response to downlink transmissions of a reference signal. Based on the estimated location, a schedule for future transmissions of the reference signal to the wireless device are determined. The schedule specifies a frequency of transmission of the reference signals. The schedule specifies downlink transmission antenna configuration to be used for the reference signal transmissions.

Abstract: The disclosed methods and systems for improved OFDM channel estimation filtering take advantage of the presence of highly correlated adjacent subcarriers to reduce the computational intensiveness of channel estimation filtering. Specifically, baseband signals corresponding to a channel are received. The cyclic prefixes of the baseband signals are removed, and the resulting signal is transformed into the frequency domain, and compensated by a first time offset of the baseband receive signal. Subcarrier signals used to transmit the baseband signal are then extracted. Adjacent subcarriers having channel responses highly correlated to the subcarriers of the channel are identified, and the signal is compensated by a second time offset that corresponds to a minimal angle of the autocorrelation function of the subcarrier and adjacent subcarriers.

Abstract: In a heterogeneous network deployment that includes a macro base station and a low power node, a geometry indicator is transmitted by the low power node to facilitate the calculation of a path loss difference value at a user equipment using power estimates of the received synchronization signal from the macro base station and received geometry indicator signal from the low power node. Using the estimated path loss difference value, the user equipment adjusts the power level of an initial preamble signal transmission to the macro base station.

Abstract: A system includes a downlink transmitter unit, a downlink scheduler unit, and an uplink receiver unit. At least one of the units is located at a physically separate location from others of the units, and the at least one of the units communicates with the others of the units over a backhaul. A controller that allocates a number of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes according to any communication delays caused by the backhaul.

Abstract: Methods and devices provide a feedback message having unequal error protection. The feedback message may include channel quality indicators. The channel quality indicators may have different levels of error protection based on a transmission property.

Abstract: A new approach to deployment of a hybrid node in a cellular communication network is proposed, wherein the hybrid node includes a plurality of antennas that simultaneously serve a plurality of cells in the cellular communication network by transmitting or receiving signals to or from the cells at the same time. The cellular communication network further includes a partner cell among the plurality of cells served by the hybrid node, wherein the partner cell is a soft cell that maintains communication channels with antennas of more than one node at the same time. The cellular communication network further includes a hybrid cell among the plurality of cells also served by the hybrid node, wherein the hybrid cell is a hard cell that maintains communication channels with antennas of only one node at any one time.

Abstract: A system and method of responding to a receiver outage event, which includes: determining if a receiver outage event has occurred; if a receiver outage event has occurred, discarding soft bits that were corrupted due to the outage event; and if a received first redundancy version (RV) of coded bits corrupted by the outage event was decoded incorrectly, sending a message to a transmitter in response to the outage event, and thereafter receiving a second RV of coded bits retransmitted by the transmitter in response to the message.

Abstract: A plurality of signal transmissions, transmitted using a plurality of transmit powers, are received at a receiver over a communication channel. Each transmit power shares a common transmit power term unknown to the receiver and a signal-specific power offset known to the receiver. The received power is measured at the receiver. A corresponding known power offset is subtracted from the measured received signal power, resulting in a corresponding estimate of the common unknown power term. This results in a plurality of estimates of the common transmit power term. A refined common transmit power term is estimated from the plurality of estimates of the common transmit power term. A plurality of refined measured received signal powers are estimated by adding the plurality of signal-specific power offsets to the refined common power term. Based on the refined common transmit power term, a functionality of the wireless communication system is adapted.

Abstract: A new approach to anti-blocking cellularcommunication for HetNet deployment is proposed. First, a block detector sends a block indicator from an LPN to a scheduler in a macro base station. The scheduler then collects the block indicator statistics of each LPN on a sub-frame basis and updates the statistics in each sub-frame. If the statistics of received block indicators for one sub-frame during an observation period of a specific LPN exceeds a first predefined threshold, then the scheduler will not schedule any more uplink transmission to the LPN during the sub-frame for those UEs which are connected to the LPN. When the statistics of received block indicators becomes less than a second predefined threshold, which is less than the first threshold, the scheduler removes the limitation on uplink transmission to the LPN and allocates the sub-frame of the LPN as usual.

Abstract: A method, system and non transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium provides for controlling the BLER (block error rate) in a digital communication system. The outer loop control of the system discounts responses sent by a receiver to data transmission from a transmitter that were sent during a receiver outage event. Either the NACKs or both the ACKs and NACKs sent by the receiver during receiver outage are discounted by the outer loop control which adapts subsequent transmissions by either directly adjusting transmission parameters or by adjusting the selection of transmission parameters. The adapting may be based on individual NACKs and ACKs or after establishing a BLER.