Methods and apparatuses for controlling and scheduling device-to-device communications

1. A method of controlling direct user equipment communications, the method comprising:

receiving reports from a first user equipment (UE) and a second UE, respectively, the first and second UEs communicating with a serving base station, each report including a buffer status report (BSR), a buffered waiting time report (BWTR), a common reference signal report (CRSR) and a sounding reference signal report (SRSR) for the respective first or second UE;

determining at least one control channel and at least one data channel for a direct communication link between the first UE and the second UE;

allocating at least one resource block for the direct communication link between the first UE and the second UE based on the determining;

determining a time-division duplex (TDD) transmission duty cycle for the direct communication link based on the buffer status report (BSR), the buffered waiting time report (BWTR), the common reference signal report (CRSR) and the sounding reference signal report (SRSR) in the received reports, the determining the TDD duty cycle being a division of the allocated at least one resource block amongst the first UE and the second UE; and

transmitting a configuration message to the first UE and the second UE, the configuration message indicating the allocated resource block and the determined TDD transmission duty cycle and permitting at least one of the first UE and the second UE to adjust parameters of the direct communication link.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving requests for direct communication from the first and second UEs, respectively;

determining that the first UE and the second UE are candidates for direct communication; and

notifying the first UE and the second UE that the first UE and the second UE are candidates for direction communication based on the determining that the first UE and the second UE are candidates for direct communication, the receiving reports being based on the notifying.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the allocating at least one resource block allocates at least one of a physical downlink control channel and a physical downlink data channel of the direct communication link.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining whether to utilize a bundled hybrid automatic repeat request configuration or an un-bundled hybrid automatic repeat request configuration for the direct communication link based on the received reports.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining an initial transmitting power for at least one of the first and second UEs on the direct communication link based on the received reports.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

determining a maximum transmitting power for at least one of the first and second UEs on the direct communication link based on the received reports.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a time period for the first UE and the second UE to communicate using the at least one resource block.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the determining a time period determines the time period based on the BSR, a bandwidth available over the direct communication link, a transmission power and transmission rate over the direct communication link.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the allocating allocates the at least one resource block based on other UEs communicating with the first base station and locations of the other UEs.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

controlling paging messages for the first UE and the second UE when the first UE and the second UE are engaged in the direct user equipment communications, the controlling being based on priorities of the paging messages, respectively.

11. A base station comprising:

a receiver configured to receive reports from a first user equipment (UE) and a second UE, respectively, the first and second UEs communicating with the base station, each report including a buffer status report (BSR), a buffered waiting time report (BWTR), a common reference signal report (CRSR) and a sounding reference signal report (SRSR);

a processor configured to,

determine at least one control channel and at least one data channel for a direct communication link between the first UE and the second UE,

allocate at least one resource block for the direct communication link between the first UE and the second UE based on the at least one control channel and the at least one data channel, and

determine a time-division duplex (TDD) transmission duty cycle for the direct communication link based on the buffer status report (BSR), the buffered waiting time report (BWTR), the common reference signal report (CRSR) and the sounding reference signal report (SRSR), the TDD duty cycle being a division of the allocated at least one resource block amongst the first UE and the second UE; and

a transmitter configured to transmit a configuration message to the first UE and the second UE, the configuration message indicating the allocated resource block and the determined TDD transmission duty cycle and permitting at least one of the first UE and the second UE to adjust parameters of the direct communication link.

12. The base station of claim 11 , wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit synchronization reference signals to the first and second UEs.

13. A method of controlling direct user equipment communications, the method comprising:

transmitting, by a first user equipment (UE), a report, the report including a buffer status report (BSR), a buffered waiting time report (BWTR), a common reference signal report (CRSR) and a sounding reference signal report (SRSR) for the first UE;

receiving, by the first user equipment (UE), a configuration message, the configuration message indicating at least one allocated resource block for a direct communication link between the first UE and a second UE, a determined time-division duplex (TDD) transmission duty cycle for the device-to-device communications and an initial transmission power based on the buffer status report (BSR), the buffered waiting time report (BWTR), the common reference signal report (CRSR) and the sounding reference signal report (SRSR) for the first UE, and the configuration message permitting at least one of the first UE and the second UE to adjust the initial transmission power and determine a transmission rate of the direct communication link, the TDD duty cycle being division of the allocated at least one resource block amongst the first UE and the second UE;

transmitting receive control information to the second UE

transmitting data to the second UE based on the receive control information using the at least one resource block, the adjusted initial transmission power and the determined rate of information transmission.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

transmitting the data to the second UE with the receive control information.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

receiving an acknowledgement indicating whether the data was transmitted successfully.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the communicating includes,

transmitting a pilot signal to the second UE,

receiving a response from the second UE, the response indicating a link condition, the adjusted transmission power being based on the link condition.

17. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

transmitting a request to the second UE and at least another UE, the request requesting statuses of the second UE and the at least another UE, respectively;

receiving status reports from the second UE and the at least another UE, respectively; and

determining parameters for communicating with the second UE and the at least another UE based on the received status reports.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the status reports include a buffer status report (BSR), a buffered waiting time (BWT) and a common reference signal report for the second UE and the at least another UE, respectively.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the determining parameters schedules transmission time slots for each of the second UE and the at least another UE based on the received status reports.