Methods for detection of failure and recovery in a radio link

1. A method for detecting a status of a radio link, comprising:

receiving a reference signal transmitted from a base station;

monitoring a synchronization status associated with the radio link;

assuming a transmission of a codeword of a first payload type from the base station;

estimating a block error rate applicable to the assumed codeword of the first payload type based on the reference signal; and

determining the synchronization status from the estimated block error rate.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a channel state information from the reference signal; and

estimating the block error rate estimate applicable to the assumed codeword of the first payload type based on the channel state information.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

estimating from the channel state information a metric of at least one of a block error rate, a mean mutual information per bit, average signal to noise ratio, or channel capacity using a failure format; and

determining if the radio link has an out of synchronization event if the metric is within a failure range.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

setting the failure range based upon at least one payload parameter.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the payload parameter is at least one of a specific transmission format, sub-carrier mapping, transmit antenna configuration, aggregation level, or power boost.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the payload corresponds to a physical downlink control channel format 1 A.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the specific transmission format is one of a downlink control information 1 A and a downlink control information 1 C.

8. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

determining the out of synchronization event for the radio link if a signal strength is below a synchronization check threshold.

9. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

estimating, from the channel state information, a metric of at least one of a block error rate, a mean mutual information per bit, average signal to noise ratio, or channel capacity using a recovery format; and

determining if the radio link has an in synchronization event if the metric is within a recovery range.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

setting the recovery range based upon at least one payload parameter.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the payload parameter is at least one of a specific transmission format, sub-carrier mapping, transmit antenna configuration, aggregation level, or power boost.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the payload corresponds to a physical downlink control channel format 1 C.

13. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

estimating, from the channel state information, an average block error rate over an out of synchronization processing duration; and

determining if the radio link has an out of synchronization event if the average block error rate exceeds a failure threshold.

14. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

estimating from the channel state information an average block error rate over an in-synchronization processing duration; and

determining if the radio link has an in synchronization event if the average block error rate is below a recovery threshold.

15. The method of claim 2 , wherein the channel state information is a function of the underlying propagation channel.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

mapping the channel state information over a specified bandwidth.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference signal corresponds to a cell-specific reference signal.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the block error rate applicable to the assumed codeword of the first payload type is assumed regardless of whether a codeword of the first payload type is actually transmitted by the base station.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein estimating the block error rate applicable to the assumed codeword of the first payload type based on the reference signal further comprises estimating the block error rate without decoding the assumed codeword.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein, the first payload type is at least one of a control channel element size, a resource element group size, a size of subcarriers aggregated, a payload size, a subcarrier mapping, a power boost relative to the reference signal, a specific transmission format, a transmit antenna configuration, and a control region size.

21. A telecommunications apparatus for detecting a status of a radio link, comprising:

a transceiver that receives a reference signal transmitted from a base station; and

a processor that monitors a synchronization status associated with the radio link, assumes a transmission of a codeword of a first payload type from the base station, estimates a block error rate applicable to the assumed codeword of the first payload type based on the reference signal and determines the synchronization status from the estimated block error rate.

22. The telecommunications apparatus of claim 21 wherein the processor determines a channel state information from the reference signal and estimates from the channel state information a metric of at least one of a block error rate, a mean mutual information per bit, average signal to noise ratio, or channel capacity using a failure format and determines if the radio link has an out of synchronization event if the metric is within a failure range.

23. The telecommunications apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the processor sets the failure range based upon at least one payload parameter.

24. The telecommunications apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the processor determines the out of synchronization event for the radio link if a signal strength is below a synchronization check threshold.

25. The telecommunications apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the processor estimates from the channel state information a metric of at least one of a block error rate, a mean mutual information per bit, average signal to noise ratio, or channel capacity using a recovery format and determines if the radio link has an in synchronization event if the metric is within a recovery range.

26. The telecommunications apparatus of claim 25 , wherein the processor sets the recovery range based upon at least one payload parameter.

27. The telecommunications apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the processor maps the channel state information over a specified bandwidth.