Hybrid transmission method for wireless communications
View Patent ↗A method is described for transmitting information in a communication channel of a wireless communication system in which the communication channel is divided into a plurality of time slots of equal duration and each of the time slots is further sub-divided into multiple sub-slots or resource units. In one illustrative embodiment, the communication channel is divided into time slots according to a time division multiple access scheme. Each time slot is then further code-multiplexed into one or more sub-slots according to a code division multiple access scheme. Each of the sub-slots is therefore capable of carrying a separately coded transmission within the communication channel so that multiple simultaneous transmissions can occur in any given time slot.
1. A method for transmitting information in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
dividing a data communication channel into a plurality of time slots of equal duration;
sub-dividing, on other than a time division basis, each of the plurality of time slots to comprise two or more sub-slots, and
transmitting a plurality of transmissions, each of the transmissions corresponding to a separate transmission of a single user of a wireless communication system and each comprising a number of contiguous sub-slots associated with at least two time slots, where the number of subslots may vary from timeslot to timeslot within each transmission; and
transmitting a separate, different control channel for each transmission,
wherein the duration of each separate control channel is dependent upon the number of transmitted sub-slots.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the two or more contiguous sub-slots is separately transmitted according to a code division multiple access scheme.
3. The method according to claim 2 wherein, in any one of the plurality of time slots, each of a plurality of transmissions are separately coded and carried in a separate sub-slot simultaneously in such time slot.
4. The method according to claim 3 wherein each at least one of the plurality of transmissions corresponds to a separate user of the wireless communication system.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the two or more sub-slots within a particular time slot corresponds to a different frequency according to a frequency division multiple access scheme.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the communication channel comprises time slots each having a duration of 1.25 milliseconds and wherein each of the time slots comprises at least two sub-slots.
7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the communication channel is a forward packet data channel (F-PDCH), wherein information is transmitted as encoder packets in the forward packet data channel (F-PDCH), and wherein the separate control channel is a forward secondary packet data control channel (SPDCCH).
8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the forward secondary packet data control channel (SPDCCH) includes:
a sub-slot start field for identifying a sub-slot within a time slot in which a particular transmission starts; and
a sub-slot count field for identifying the total number of sub-slots that carry the particular transmission.
9. The method according to claim 7 , wherein a plurality of forward secondary packet data control channels (SPDCCH) correspond to a plurality of simultaneous transmissions on the forward packet data channel (F-PDCH), and wherein each of the plurality of secondary packet data control channels (SPDCCH) identifies a sub-slot start position within a time slot in which a particular transmission starts.
10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein bandwidth in the communication channel is allocated on a fractional basis to carry a plurality of transmissions using a combination of a variable number of contiguous sub-slots and a variable number of contagious time slots.
11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein transmissions within the communication channel include two or more transmissions selected from the group consisting of new transmissions, retransmissions, acknowledgements (ACKs), negative acknowledgements (NACKs), and multi-level ACK/NACK message corresponds to multi-level ACK/NACK messages.
12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein a multi-level ACK/NACK message corresponds to multiple transmissions that end within the same time slot.
13. A method for transmitting information in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
dividing a communication channel into a plurality of time slots of equal duration according to a time division multiple access scheme;
sub-dividing each of the plurality of time slots to comprise two or more sub-slots according to a code division multiple access scheme;
transmitting a number of transmissions, each of the transmissions corresponding to a separate transmission of a single user of a wireless communication system and each comprising a number of contiguous sub-slots associated with at least two time slots, where the number of subslots may vary from timeslot to timeslot within each transmission; and
transmitting a separate, different control channel for each transmission,
wherein the duration of each separate control channel is dependent upon the number of transmitted sub-slots.