Systems and methods for cooperative uplink transmission

1 . A method performed by a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

obtaining a configuration of a plurality of sets of resources for cooperative uplink transmission, the plurality of sets of resources comprising N sets of resources that are mapped to N possible data elements that can be communicated by the cooperative uplink transmission by a group of two or more wireless devices including the wireless communication device, where N is an integer number that is greater than or equal to 2; and

transmitting a transmission using at least a subset of a particular set of resources from among the N sets of resources that is mapped to a particular data element from among the N possible data elements that is to be communicated by the wireless communication device for the cooperative uplink transmission.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the N sets of resources are different sets of resources.

3 . The method of claim 2 wherein each of the N sets of resources consists of a single resource, and transmitting the transmission using the at least a subset of the particular set of resources comprises transmitting the transmission using the single resource in the particular set of resources.

4 . The method of claim 2 wherein each of the N sets of resources consists of two or more resources, and transmitting the transmission using the at least a subset of the particular set of resources comprises transmitting the transmission using a resource from among the two or more resources in the particular set of resources.

5 . The method of claim 4 further comprising selecting the resource from among the two or more resources in the particular set of resources to be used for transmitting the transmission.

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein selecting the resource from among the two or more resources in the particular set of resources to be used for transmitting the transmission comprises:

selecting the resource from among the two or more resources in the particular set of resources to be used for transmitting the transmission based on a device identifier, ID, of the wireless communication device; or

randomly selecting the one of the two or more resources in the particular set of resources to be used for transmitting the transmission.

7 . The method of claim 4 wherein the two or more resources in the particular set of resources comprise different time resources, or different frequency resources, or both different time resources and different frequency resources.

8 . The method of claim 4 wherein the two or more resources in the particular set of resources comprise different subcarriers in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM, system, or different OFDM symbol periods in the OFDM system, or both different subcarriers and different OFDM symbol periods in the OFDM system.

9 . The method of claim 4 wherein:

the N possible data elements are two possible bit values,

the N sets of resources are two sets of resources consisting of a first set of resources mapped to a first bit value from among the two possible bit values and a second set of resources mapped to a second bit value from among the two possible bit values; and

the first set of resources consists of a first set of frequency resources over a period of time, and the second set of resources consists of a second set of frequency resources over the period of time.

10 . The method of claim 4 wherein:

the N possible data elements are two possible bit values,

the N sets of resources are two sets of resources consisting of a first set of resources mapped to a first bit value from among the two possible bit values and a second set of resources mapped to a second bit value from among the two possible bit values; and

the first set of resources consists of a first set of time resources on a first frequency resource over a period of time, and the second set of resources consists of a second set of time resources on a second frequency resource over the period of time, where the first and second frequency resources are different frequency resources.

11 . The method of claim 4 wherein:

the N possible data elements are two possible bit values;

the N sets of resources are two sets of resources consisting of a first set of resources mapped to a first bit value from among the two possible bit values and a second set of resources mapped to a second bit value from among the two possible bit values; and

the first set of resources and the second set of resource are defined such that the wireless communication device operates in accordance with a Frequency Shift Keying, FSK, transmission scheme with a frequency deviation that is a multiple of a subcarrier spacing of a multi-carrier based system in which the cooperative uplink transmission is made.

12 . The method of claim 1 wherein:

the N sets of resources consist of two sets of resources, where the two sets of resources are the same set of resources; and

the N possible data elements consist of a first bit value represented by transmitting on the same set of resources and a second bit value represented by not transmitting on the same set of resources; or

wherein the N possible data elements are N unique messages, or

wherein the N possible data elements are two possible bit values, and the N sets of resources are two sets of resources.

13 . The method of claim 1 wherein the transmission is a predefined signal, the predefined signal being a predefined physical signal or a predefined physical channel.

14 . The method of claim 13 wherein the predefined signal is a predefined bit sequence.

15 . The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining the configuration of the plurality of sets of resources for cooperative uplink transmission comprises receiving the configuration of the plurality of sets of resources for cooperative uplink transmission from a network node.

16 . The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining the configuration of the plurality of sets of resources for cooperative uplink transmission comprises receiving the configuration of the plurality of sets of resources for cooperative uplink transmission from memory or from an associated Subscriber Identity Module, SIM, card.

17 . The method of claim 1 further comprising repeating the step of transmitting a transmission in multiple time periods, wherein the set of possible values consists of a logical “0” and a logical “1,” and repeating the step of transmitting a transmission in multiple time periods communicates a multiple bit sequence.

18 . A wireless communication device for cooperative uplink transmission, the wireless communication device comprising:

one or more transmitters;

processing circuitry associated with the one or more transmitters, the processing circuitry configured to cause the wireless communication device to:

obtain a configuration of a plurality of sets of resources for cooperative uplink transmission, the plurality of sets of resources comprising N sets of resources that are mapped to N possible data elements that can be communicated by the cooperative uplink transmission by a group of two or more wireless devices including the wireless communication device, where Nis an integer number that is greater than or equal to 2; and

transmit a transmission using at least a subset of a particular set of resources from among the N sets of resources that is mapped to a particular data element from among the N possible data elements that is to be communicated by the wireless communication device for the cooperative uplink transmission.

19 . A method performed by a network node, the method comprising:

providing, to a plurality of wireless communication devices, information that configures the plurality of wireless communication devices for cooperative uplink transmission, wherein the information comprises information that defines a plurality of sets of resources for the cooperative uplink transmission, and the plurality of sets of resources comprise N sets of resources that are mapped to N possible data elements that can be communicated by the cooperative uplink transmission, where N is an integer number that is greater than or equal to 2; and

detecting the cooperative uplink transmission based on signals received in at least one of the N sets of resources.

20 . A network node comprising processing circuitry configured to cause the network node to:

provide to a plurality of wireless communication devices information that configures the plurality of wireless communication devices for cooperative uplink transmission, wherein the information comprises information that defines a plurality of sets of resources for the cooperative uplink transmission, and the plurality of sets of resources comprise N sets of resources that are mapped to N possible data elements that can be communicated by the cooperative uplink transmission, where N is an integer number that is greater than or equal to 2; and

detect the cooperative uplink transmission based on signals received in at least one of the N sets of resources.