Duplexing in long term evolution (LTE) cellular networks

摘要

A duplexing method is provided that combines aspects of Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) methods in a network, such as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. The duplexing method may be implemented on an existing FDD network by replacing the FDD uplink (UL)-only radio frame with a full TDD radio frame having dynamically allocable UL and downlink (DL) sub-frames. Alternatively, the duplexing method may be implemented on an existing TDD network by adding a second frequency to pair with an existing frequency over which a FDD DL-only radio frame can be run.

主权项

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a processor; and a memory including computer program code, the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:
receive downlink (DL) transmissions and send uplink(UL) transmissions via paired frequencies, the paired frequencies comprising a frequency division duplex (FDD) channel for transmission of DL-only radio frames, and a time division duplex (TDD) channel for UL and DL transmissions; andtransmit hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative ACK (NACK) messages associated with a plurality of DL sub-frames comprising a group of sequential DL sub-frames on a single next available UL sub-frame occurring on the TDD channel, the next available UL sub-frame indicated in a DL to UL sub-frame mapping between the plurality of DL sub-frames on a FDD DL-only radio frame and the next single available UL sub-frame,wherein radio frames transmitted in the TDD channel are characterized by variable numbers of UL and DL sub-frames, and wherein the single next available UL sub-frame is determined according to UL sub-frames allocated to a corresponding radio frame.