Communications device, infrastructure equipment, communications system and methods
An infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network is configured to transmit signals to one or more communications devices via a wireless access interface, and to receive signals from one or more of the communications devices via the wireless access interface. The wireless access interface provides communications resources arranged in time divided units of a carrier frequency bandwidth providing a plurality of blocks of communications resources, each of the time divided units comprising on a downlink of the wireless access interface a control channel for transmitting control channel messages and a shared channel, the control channel message allocating communications resources of the shared channel to the communications devices to receive the signals from the one or more infrastructure equipment. The infrastructure equipment is configured to transmit data, as a plurality of data units, to the one or more communications devices, each data unit being encoded for transmission in accordance with a repeat request-type process, the encoding providing an indication of whether the data has been received correctly by a communications device. Each of the data units is transmitted in one of a repeating number of consecutive time divided units according to a separately controlled repeat request-type process. The transmitter is configured to transmit a control message allocating resources of the shared channel for receiving a data unit of a repeat request-type process which is one or more time divided units after a time divided unit in which the control message is transmitted, and the number of repeat request-type processes in the repeating pattern of time divided units is increased from a first number in the first mode to a second number in the second mode.
1. A communications device for transmitting data to or receiving data from a wireless communications network, the communications device comprising:
a transmitter configured to transmit signals to the wireless communications network via a wireless access interface,
a receiver configured to receive signals from the wireless communications network via the wireless access interface, the wireless access interface providing communications resources arranged in time divided units of a carrier frequency bandwidth providing a plurality of blocks of communications resources, each of the time divided units comprising on a downlink of the wireless access interface a control channel for receiving control channel messages and a shared channel, the control channel message allocating communications resources of the shared channel to the communications device to receive the signals from the wireless communications network, and
a controller configured with the receiver and transmitter to
receive data from the wireless communications network, as a plurality of data units, each data unit having been encoded for transmission in accordance with a repeat request-type process, the data units being received from the wireless communications network in one of a repeating pattern of a first number of time divided units, each data unit being received in one of the repeating pattern of data units according to a separately controlled repeat request-type process; and
receive the control message allocating resources of the shared channel for receiving the data units of the repeat request-type process which is one or more time divided units after a time divided unit in which the control message is received.
2. The communications device of claim 1 , wherein
the encoding includes inserting a cyclic redundancy check (CRC).
3. The communications device of claim 2 , wherein
the controller is configured to recalculate the CRC to determine whether the data has been received correctly.
4. The communications device of claim 1 , wherein
a first number of repeat-type processes in the repeating pattern of time-divided units is increased to a second number.
5. The communications device of claim 4 , wherein
the second number is increased with respect to the first number by a number less than or equal to the number of time divided units that separate the control channel message from the time unit in which the resources of the shared channel are allocated.
6. The communications device of claim 4 , wherein
the second number is increased with respect to the first number by a number of time divided units that separate the control channel message from the time unit in which the resources of the shared channel are allocated.
7. The communications device of claim 4 , wherein
the controller is configured with the transmitter and the receiver to use the second number of repeat request-type processes in response to a control signal received from the wireless communications network.
8. A terminal device configured to communicate with a wireless communications network, the terminal device comprising:
circuitry configured to
receive signals from the wireless communications network via a wireless access interface, wherein the wireless access interface provides communications resources arranged in time divided units of a carrier frequency bandwidth providing a plurality of blocks of communications resources, the time divided units comprising on a downlink of the wireless access interface a control channel for receiving control channel messages and a shared channel, the control channel message allocating communications resources of the shared channel to a communications device to receive the signals from the wireless communications network;
receive data from the wireless communications network as a plurality of data units, each data unit having been encoded for transmission in accordance with a repeat request-type process, the data units being received from the wireless communications network in a repeating pattern of a first number of time divided units, each data unit being received in one of the repeating pattern of data units according to a separately controlled repeat request-type process; and
receive control channel messages allocating resources of the shared channel for receiving the data units of the repeat request-type process, wherein the control messages for each data unit of the repeat request-type process are received one or more time divided units before a time divided unit in which a respective data unit corresponding to the control message is received.
9. The terminal device of claim 8 , wherein
each data unit is encoded to include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC).
10. The terminal device of claim 9 , wherein
the circuitry is configured to recalculate the CRC to determine whether the data has been received correctly.
11. The terminal device of claim 8 , wherein
a first number of repeat-type processes in the repeating pattern of time-divided units is increased to a second number.
12. The terminal device of claim 11 , wherein
the second number is increased with respect to the first number by a number less than or equal to the number of time divided units that separate each control channel message from the time unit in which the resources of the shared channel are allocated.
13. The terminal device of claim 11 , wherein
the second number is increased with respect to the first number by a number equal to a number of time divided units that separate the control channel message from the time unit in which the resources of the shared channel are allocated.
14. The terminal device of claim 11 , wherein
the first number of repeat-type process is equal to 8.
15. The terminal device of claim 11 ,
wherein the second number or repeat-type requests is equal to 10.
16. The terminal device of claim 11 , wherein
the controller is configured with the transmitter and the receiver to use the second number of repeat request-type processes in response to a control signal received from the wireless communications network.
17. The terminal device of claim 8 , wherein
the repeat request-type process is a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process.
18. The terminal device of claim 8 , wherein
the circuitry is configured to transmit an acknowledgment (ACK) or non-acknowledgment (NACK) indicating whether each of the plurality of data units was successfully received.
19. A method performed by a terminal device configured to communicate with a wireless communications network, the method comprising:
receiving signals from the wireless communications network via a wireless access interface, wherein the wireless access interface provides communications resources arranged in time divided units of a carrier frequency bandwidth providing a plurality of blocks of communications resources, the time divided units comprising on a downlink of the wireless access interface a control channel for receiving control channel messages and a shared channel, the control channel message allocating communications resources of the shared channel to the communications device to receive the signals from the wireless communications network;
receiving data from the wireless communications network as a plurality of data units, each data unit having been encoded for transmission in accordance with a repeat request-type process, the data units being received from the wireless communications network in a repeating pattern of a first number of time divided units, each data unit being received in one of the repeating pattern of data units according to a separately controlled repeat request-type process; and
receiving control channel messages allocating resources of the shared channel for receiving the data units of the repeat request-type process, wherein the control messages for each data unit of the repeat request-type process are received one or more time divided units before a time divided unit in which a respective data unit corresponding to the control message is received.
20. The method of claim 19 , wherein
a first number of repeat-type processes in the repeating pattern of time-divided units is increased to a second number.