Method, device, and system for triggering feedback acknowledgement to wireless downlink communication resource allocations
This disclosure describes implementations of a modified ARQ/HARQ procedure that deviates from normal wait-and-stop ARQ/HARQ procedure. In particular, a series of messages to be transmitted may be organized in a predetermined number of message groups. By using various control parameters, the different groups of messages may be independently transmitted without having to wait for acknowledgement of another group of messages. In addition, within each of the message groups, the receiving device is allowed to store and hold acknowledgement of messages until a later time specified through control messages. A control message may trigger transmission of stored acknowledgement for one or more message groups identified. Multiple pending acknowledgements of multiple groups of messages may be triggered and subsequently transmitted in a single acknowledgement message. The pending acknowledgements may include acknowledgements for successful receipt of both initially transmitted message and retransmitted message.
1. A method performed by a wireless access node for triggering a wireless device to provide feedback to communication resource allocations transmitted from the wireless access node, comprising:
generating a downlink control message comprising:
a set of wireless downlink communication resource allocations; and
a plurality of allocation feedback control fields comprising:
a resource group ID field identifying a current allocation group for the set of wireless downlink communication resource allocations among a plurality of allocation groups;
a feedback triggering group indicator specifying a set of triggering allocation groups among the plurality of allocation groups that the wireless device is to be triggered to provide the feedback; and
a feedback timing indicator specifying a timing control information for triggering the feedback from the wireless device, wherein the timing control information comprises a non-numerical value for indicating to the wireless device to delay providing the feedback, and wherein a number of times that the feedback timing indicator for next downlink control messages having the resource group ID field as the current allocation group is the non-numerical value is limited to a predefined maximum number before all pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations in the current allocation group are acknowledged by the wireless device; and
transmitting the downlink control message to the wireless device to control the wireless device in providing the feedback with respect to all the pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations belonging to the set of triggering allocation groups according to the feedback timing indicator.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein some of the pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations are transmitted to the wireless device from the wireless access node via other downlink control messages.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-numerical value further indicates to the wireless device to delay providing the feedback until at least a next downlink control message that includes a numerical feedback timing indicator field.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of allocation feedback control fields of the downlink control message further comprises an allocation feedback status field for indicating whether there are pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations in the current allocation group other than the set of wireless downlink communication resource allocations included in the downlink control message.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the allocation feedback status field is determined by a toggle bit maintained for the current allocation group, and the toggle bit for the current allocation group is configured to toggle when acknowledgement for all the pending and unacknowledged allocations in the current allocation group is received.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein an acknowledgement status of each of the plurality of allocation groups is tracked by a corresponding toggle bit.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising maintaining separate numbered indexes for pending and unacknowledged wireless communication resource allocations for each allocation group of plurality of allocation groups, wherein the plurality of allocation feedback control fields of the downlink control message further comprise the separate numbered indexes for the set of wireless downlink communication resource allocations included in the downlink control message.
8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising maintaining separate total accumulative counts for the pending and unacknowledged wireless communication resource allocations for each allocation group of the plurality of allocation groups, wherein the plurality of allocation feedback control fields of the downlink control message further include the separate total accumulative counts for the pending and unacknowledged wireless communication resource allocations identified by the resource group ID field or the feedback triggering group indicator of the downlink control message.
9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of allocation feedback control fields of the downlink control message further comprise a single total accumulative count for the pending and unacknowledged wireless communication resource allocations accumulated among all allocation groups specified by the feedback triggering group indicator of the downlink control message.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the feedback of all the pending and unacknowledged allocations from the wireless device comprises a feedback bitmap comprising one single bit for each of all the pending and unacknowledged allocations as an acknowledgement or non-acknowledgement indication; and
the method further comprises retransmitting a wireless downlink communication resource allocation with the non-acknowledgement indication in the feedback bitmap using another downlink control message.
11. A method performed by a wireless device for providing feedback to allocations of wireless downlink communication resources transmitted from a wireless access node, comprising:
receiving a downlink control message, from the wireless access node, comprising:
a set of wireless downlink communication resource allocations;
a plurality of allocation feedback control fields comprising:
a resource group ID field identifying a current allocation group for the set of wireless downlink communication resource allocations among a plurality of allocation groups;
a feedback triggering group indicator specifying a set of triggering allocation groups among the plurality of allocation groups that the wireless device is to be triggered to provide the feedback; and
a feedback timing indicator specifying a timing control information for triggering the feedback from the wireless device; and
providing the feedback with respect to all pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations belonging to the set of triggering allocation groups according to the feedback timing indicator,
wherein the plurality of allocation feedback control fields of the downlink control message further comprises an allocation feedback status field for indicating whether there are pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations in the current allocation group other than the set of wireless downlink communication resource allocations included in the downlink control message, and wherein the allocation feedback status field is determined by a toggle bit maintained for the current allocation group, and the method further comprises removing feedback data items stored in a repository associated with the current allocation group when the allocation feedback status field of the downlink control message indicates that there are no pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations in the current allocation group.
12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
upon determining that the feedback timing indicator of the downlink control message comprises a non-numerical value indicating to the wireless device to delay the feedback:
generating first feedback data items corresponding to all the pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations belonging to the set of triggering allocation groups; and
storing the first feedback data items in a repository for maintaining pending allocation feedback; and
upon determining that the feedback timing indicator of the downlink control message comprises a numerical value specifying a future time slot, transmitting all the pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations belonging to the set of triggering allocation groups at the future time slot.
13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the set of triggering allocation groups include the current allocation group identified by the resource group ID field of the downlink control message, and the set of triggering allocation groups comprise two or more allocation groups among the plurality of allocation groups.
14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations include at least one retransmitted wireless downlink communication resource allocation by the wireless access node.
15. A wireless access network node comprising: a processor; and a memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute one or more computer codes from the memory to implement a method in claim 1 .
16. A wireless device comprising: a processor; and a memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute one or more computer codes from the memory to:
receive a downlink control message from a wireless access node comprising:
a set of wireless downlink communication resource allocations;
a plurality of allocation feedback control fields comprising:
a resource group ID field identifying a current allocation group for the set of wireless downlink communication resource allocations among a plurality of allocation groups;
a feedback triggering group indicator specifying a set of triggering allocation groups among the plurality of allocation groups that the wireless device is to be triggered to provide a feedback; and
a feedback timing indicator specifying a timing control information for triggering the feedback from the wireless device, wherein the timing control information comprises a non-numerical value for indicating to the wireless device to delay providing the feedback or a numerical value for specifying a future time slot in which the wireless device is to provide the feedback, and wherein a number of times that the feedback timing indicator for next downlink control messages having the resource group ID field as the current allocation group is the non-numerical value is limited to a predefined maximum number before all pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations in the current allocation group are acknowledged by the wireless device; and
provide the feedback with respect to all the pending and unacknowledged wireless downlink communication resource allocations belonging to the set of triggering allocation groups according to the feedback timing indicator.