| 摘要 |
A wireless communications system is described which comprises a base station, a relay device, and a terminal device. The claimed invention is related to resource allocation by the base station (Donor eNodeB) for uplink transmission from the relay device (MTC-RN) and terminal device (MTC-UE). The terminal device is operable to receive from the base station an allocation of uplink resources for transmitting uplink data to the relay device B1, and to transmit uplink data to the relay device using the uplink resources allocated to the terminal device B3. The relay device is operable to receive the transmitted uplink data from the terminal device on the allocated resources, to receive an allocation of uplink resources for relaying the received uplink data to the base station, and to transmit the received uplink data to the base station B6 using the uplink resources allocated B5 to the relay device. The allocation of resources may comprise allocation of a frequency, symbol or block in response to an allocation request (e.g. B4). The relay device may monitor B2 a shared channel (such as PDSCH in conjunction with PDCCH) to detect allocation of resources from the base station to the terminal device and prepare itself for reception of the uplink data from the terminal device based on the detected allocation of resources. Aspects of uplink grant (UL grant) messages, time offsets, adding a relay header to uplink data passed through the relay B6 and setting power control information or power offsets are also disclosed. The arrangement is particularly suitable for use in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks wherein the terminal device may be a MTC (Machine-Type Communication) device. The network may be asymmetrical such that the base station may communicate directly with the terminal device in the downlink direction but that the terminal communicates with the base station via the relay device in the uplink direction (Figure 1B). |
