Methods and apparatus for providing soft and blind combining for PUSCH acknowledgement (ACK) processing

1. A method for providing acknowledgement (ACK) bits, comprising:

receiving an uplink transmission containing ACK information via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) from a user equipment (“UE”) by an uplink frond end (ULFE);

processing scrambling sequences and a network parameter, the processing scrambling sequences including soft-combining possible ACK scrambling sequences independent from identifying value of the network parameter; and

generating an ACK value decoded via one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream from the possible ACK scrambling sequences in response to the network parameter.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the soft-combining includes generating a plurality of hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit streams via a plurality of scrambling sequences.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein at least a portion of the soft-combining is performed before the network parameter is determined.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating an ACK value includes selecting one of the possible ACK scrambling sequences as a hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream in response to the network parameter.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating an ACK value includes outputting the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream as the decoded ACK value, if the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream represents a 1-bit ACK.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating an ACK value includes decoding the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream according to an algorithm, if the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream represents a 2-bit ACK.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the algorithm includes decoding the 2-bit ACK according to an equation expressed as (O 2 ACK =(O 0 ACK +O 1 ACK ) mod 2).

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing the plurality of hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit streams in a memory.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving an uplink transmission further includes receiving the ACK bits in a subframe of a symbol as a portion of a received uplink transmission.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving and decoding ACK bits received from a plurality of UEs.

11. An apparatus for providing acknowledgement (ACK) bits, comprising:

a user equipment (“UE”) coupled to a wireless network and configured to send an uplink transmission containing ACK information via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH);

an uplink frond end (ULFE) of a receiver coupled to the UE and configured to receive the uplink transmission containing the ACK information; and

an ACK hypothesis generator (AHG) coupled to the ULFE and operable to process scrambling sequences and a network parameter, wherein the AHG is configured to generate a plurality of possible ACK scrambling sequences via soft-combining independent from identifying value of the network parameter.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the AHG further includes a decoder configured to generate an ACK value decoded via one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream from the possible ACK scrambling sequences in response to the network parameter.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein AHG further includes a soft-combiner configured to soft-combine the ACK bits using a plurality of scrambling sequences to generate a plurality of hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit streams.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the soft-combiner combines at least a portion of the ACK bits before a parameter is determined.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the decoder decodes one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream based on the network parameter.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the decoder outputs the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream as the decoded ACK value, if the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream represents a 1-bit ACK.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the decoder decodes the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream according to an algorithm, if the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream represents a 2-bit ACK.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the algorithm includes an equation expressed as (O 2 ACK =(O 0 ACK +O 1 ACK ) mod 2).

19. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising a memory for storing a plurality of hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit streams in accordance with the plurality of possible ACK scrambling sequences.

20. An apparatus configured to generate acknowledgement (ACK) bits, comprising:

means for receiving an uplink transmission containing ACK information via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) from a user equipment (“UE”) by an uplink frond end (ULFE);

means for processing scrambling sequences and a network parameter, the processing scrambling sequences including means for soft-combining possible ACK scrambling sequences independent from identifying value of the network parameter; and

means for generating an ACK value decoded via one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream from the possible ACK scrambling sequences in response to the network parameter.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein means for soft-combining includes means for generating a plurality of hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit streams via a plurality of scrambling sequences.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein at least a portion of the soft-combining is performed before the network parameter is determined.

23. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein means for generating an ACK value includes means for selecting one of the possible ACK scrambling sequences as a hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream in response to the network parameter.

24. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein means for generating an ACK value includes means for outputting the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream as the decoded ACK value, if the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream represents a 1-bit ACK.

25. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein means for generating an ACK value includes means for decoding the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream according to an algorithm, if the one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream represents a 2-bit ACK.

26. A method for determining acknowledgement (ACK) bits, comprising:

receiving an uplink transmission containing ACK information via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) from one or more user equipment (“UE”);

recovering subframes of symbols containing ACK log-likelihood ratio (LLR) bits from the uplink transmission;

descrambling and soft-combining of the ACK LLR bits to generate a hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream for each possible scrambling sequence; and

storing the hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream in a local memory.

27. The method of claim 26 , further comprising receiving an I parameter from upper layer computer indicating a correct scrambling sequence.

28. The method of claim 27 , further comprising identifying a correct hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream based on the I parameter.

29. The method of claim 28 , further comprising outputting a decoded ACK value based on the correct hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream.

30. An apparatus for determining acknowledgement (ACK) bits, comprising:

means for receiving an uplink transmission containing ACK information via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) from one or more user equipment (“UE”);

means for recovering subframes of symbols containing ACK log-likelihood ratio (LLR) bits from the uplink transmission;

means for descrambling and soft-combining of the ACK LLR bits to generate a hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream for each possible scrambling sequence; and

means for storing the hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream in a local memory.

31. The apparatus of claim 30 , further comprising means for receiving an I parameter from upper layer computer indicating a correct scrambling sequence.

32. The apparatus of claim 31 , further comprising means for identifying a correct hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream based on the I parameter.