Dynamical time division duplex uplink and downlink configuration in a communications network

1. A method, by a user equipment (UE), for dynamically changing an uplink/downlink (UL/DL) ratio in a communications network, comprising:

requesting a radio resource control (RRC) connection with a base station;

communicating, to the base station, a UE capability information message indicating support for a time duplex domain (TDD) UL/DL reconfiguration functionality; and

receiving configuration information within an RRC connection message,

wherein the RRC connection message includes:

a first Radio-Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI); and

a 2-bit or 3-bit UL/DL configuration indicator field index within a UL/DL reconfiguration physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) associated with a serving cell.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

attempting to decode the UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a parameter assigned for the UE; and

determining UL/DL configuration information from a decoded UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH based on the assigned indicator field index.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising monitoring one common search space (CSS) on a Primary Cell (PCell) to receive the UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH with CRC scrambled by the parameter assigned for the UE.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising monitoring one common search space (CSS) on a Primary Cell (PCell) to receive the UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCHs with CRCs scrambled by multiple different parameters separately.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising monitoring a common search space (CSS) on each serving cell to receive the UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCHs with CRC scrambled by the parameter assigned for the UE.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising monitoring a UE-group-common search space on a PDCCH on a Primary Cell (PCell) to receive the UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCHs for each serving cell, wherein the control channel elements (CCEs) corresponding to PDCCH candidate m of the UE-group-common search space S k (L) are determined using:

L {( Y k +m ′)mod └ N CCE,k /L┘}+i,

where aggregation level Lε{1,2,4,8} is defined by a set of PDCCH candidates and, Y k is determined using:

Y k =( A·Y k-1 )mod D

where Y −1 =n RNTI ≠0, A=39827, D=65537 and k=└n s /2┘, n s is a slot number within a radio frame, and the RNTI value used for n RNTI is the RNTI assigned for UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH transmission.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein m′=m when the monitoring UE is not configured with a carrier indicator field.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein m′=m+M (L) ·n CI , where n CI is a carrier indicator field value, m=0, . . . , M (L) −1, M (L) is a number of PDCCH candidates to monitor in a UE specific search space for an aggregation level L, N CCE,k is a total number of CCEs in a control region of subframe k, and i=0, . . . , and L−1 is a CCE index within the aggregation level L.

9. The method of claim 5 , further configured to monitor the UE-group-common search space on an enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH) on a PCell only when cross-carrier scheduling is configured or on each serving cell when cross-carrier scheduling is not configured, to receive the UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCHs with CRC scrambled by multiple different parameters assigned for the UE.

10. The method of claim 2 , wherein the UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH includes N TDD UL/DL Configuration Indicator (TCI) fields, where N is configured by the base station within an RRC signaling message for each eIMTA capable UE or N is determined using N=└(L formatY −R others )/M┘, wherein L formatY is a payload size of an existing downlink control information (DCI) format Y before CRC attachment, R others ≥0 is a number of information bits used for selected functionalities, M is payload size for each UL/DL configuration indicator within UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH, and format Y is mapped onto a common search space.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the selected functionalities include Transmit Power Control (TPC) commands for physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission on flexible subframes.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein zero-padding information bits are appended to TDD UL/DL configuration indicator fields until a UL/DL reconfiguration PDCCH size is equal to a format Y size mapped onto the common search space.

13. A method, by a base station, for dynamically changing a time duplex domain (TDD) uplink/downlink (UL/DL) configuration in a communications network, comprising:

establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection with a user equipment (UE);

receiving, from the UE, a UE capability information message;

determining, from the UE capability information message, support by the UE for a time duplex domain (TDD) UL/DL reconfiguration functionality; and

sending an RRC connection message to the UE, the RRC connection message comprising configuration information,

wherein the RRC connection message includes:

a first Radio-Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI); and

a 2-bit or 3-bit UL/DL configuration indicator field index within a UL/DL reconfiguration physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) associated with a serving cell.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising communicating, to the UE, configuration parameters associated with a secondary cell (SCell) of the base station.