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

1. An apparatus of networking system providing network communication containing acknowledgement (“ACK”) bits, comprising:

a user equipment (“UE”) configured to send an uplink transmission containing ACK information via a wireless communication network;

a base station coupled to the UE and operable to receive the uplink transmission; and

a receiver coupled to the base station and configured to include an ACK hypothesis generator (“AHG”) configured to select a correct ACK bit stream from a plurality of soft-combined ACK information in response to a calculated network parameter.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an uplink frond end (“ULFE”) of the receiver coupled to the UE and configured to receive the uplink transmission containing the ACK information.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the UE sends data via the uplink transmission via a physical uplink shared channel (“PUSCH”).

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the AHG is operable to process scrambling sequences and a network parameter.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the AHG is configured to generate a plurality of possible ACK scrambling sequences via soft-combining independent from identifying value of network parameter.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , 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.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , 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.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the soft-combiner combines at least a portion of the ACK bits before a parameter is determined.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the decoder decodes one hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream based on the network parameter.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , 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.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , 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.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the algorithm includes an equation expressed as (O 2 ACK =(O 0 ACK +O 1 ACK )mod 2).

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , 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.

14. A method for determining acknowledgement (“ACK”) bits, comprising:

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

obtaining an I parameter from upper layer computer indicating a correct scrambling sequence;

determining a correct hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream based on the I parameter; and

generating a decoded ACK value based on the correct hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising recovering subframes of symbols containing ACK log-likelihood ratio (“LLR”) bits from the uplink transmission.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising descrambling and soft-combining of the ACK log-likelihood ratio (“LLR”) bits to generate a hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream for each possible scrambling sequence.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising storing the hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream in a local memory.

18. The method of claim 14 , further comprising 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.

19. The method of claim 14 , further comprising 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.

20. 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 a user equipment (“UE”);

means for obtaining an I parameter from upper layer computer indicating a correct scrambling sequence;

means for determining a correct hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream based on the I parameter; and

means for generating a decoded ACK value based on the correct hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 , further comprising means for recovering subframes of symbols containing ACK log-likelihood ratio (“LLR”) bits from the uplink transmission.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 , further comprising means for descrambling and soft-combining of the ACK log-likelihood ratio (“LLR”) bits to generate a hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream for each possible scrambling sequence.

23. The apparatus of claim 20 , further comprising means for storing the hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit stream in a local memory.

24. The apparatus of claim 20 , further comprising 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.

25. The apparatus of claim 20 , further comprising 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.

26. A method for providing acknowledgement (“ACK”) bits, comprising:

receiving an uplink transmission containing ACK information via a physical uplink shared channel (“PUSCH”);

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

storing ACK bit streams representing the possible ACK scrambling sequences in a memory.

27. The method of claim 26 , further comprising 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.

28. The method of claim 26 , wherein soft-combining includes generating a plurality of hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit streams via a plurality of scrambling sequences.

29. The method of claim 26 , wherein at least a portion of the soft-combining is performed before the network parameter is determined.

30. The method of claim 26 , wherein 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.

31. The method of claim 26 , 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.

32. The method of claim 26 , 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.

33. An apparatus for providing acknowledgement (“ACK”) bits, comprising:

means for receiving an uplink transmission containing ACK information via a physical uplink shared channel (“PUSCH”);

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

means for storing ACK bit streams representing the possible ACK scrambling sequences in a memory.

34. The apparatus of claim 33 , further comprising 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.

35. The apparatus of claim 33 , wherein means for soft-combining includes means for generating a plurality of hypothetical soft-combined ACK bit streams via a plurality of scrambling sequences.