MXPA06008430A - A method and apparatus of using a single channel to provide acknowledgement and assignment messages - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for providing an acknowledgement (ACK) message combined with one or more communication message of a data packet that is transmitted using a single channel. The method comprising acts of associating the ACK with a channel ID of a recipient;building the ACK information data pattern, wherein the length of the ACK message is based on number of ACK messages to be transmitted;and combining the ACK information data pattern with one or more communication message by applying an encoding scheme over the combined message.

Description

A METHOD AND AN APPARATUS FOR USING A SINGLE CHANNEL TO PROVIDE RECOGNITION AND ALLOCATION MESSAGES FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates, in a general manner, to communication and, more specifically, to techniques for combining a recognition message.

(ACK) with an assignment message and transmit both messages using a single channel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication such as voice, data and so on. These systems can be multiple access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (eg, bandwidth and transmission power). Examples of such multiple access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and multiple access systems by orthogonal frequency division (OFDMA). Typically, a wireless communication system comprises several base stations, where each base station (or access point) communicates with the mobile station using a forward link (FL) and each mobile station (or access terminal) communicates with the base station using a return link (RL). Most of the communication systems described above use a forward link and a return link in conjunction with a Hybrid Automatic Repetition Request (H-ARQ) scheme to communicate data and other information. The H-ARQ techniques have been shown to provide a significant improvement in their capacity. With the Hybrid ARQ, a packet is sent using multiple transmissions. The packet transmission could end early if the receiver can decode the packet before receiving all the transmissions. However, for early termination, the recipient (or receiver) must provide some recognition that the data was received properly. Generally, ACK or non-ACK (NACK) messages are used to provide that acknowledgment to the transmitting (or transmitting) entity. In a typical system, a separate ACK channel is established on the round trip link, which is then used to provide ACK / NACK messages to the sender. However, since ACK messages are very small (1-2 bits), it is extremely expensive to encode individual ACK messages protected by CRC to achieve the required reliability. This is especially true since the number of ACKs increases as the number of users using the return link increases. To maintain performance, the system would need to adjust the resources. It is embarrassing and sometimes inefficient to separately code each ACK message and dedicate a channel to transmit the ACK messages. Thus, there is a need for a system and method for providing recognition to the sender efficiently to combine the ACK messages with other communication between the transmitter and the receiver without using dedicated resources.

BRIEF SUMMARY Accordingly, a method and apparatus for providing an acknowledgment message (ACK) combined with one or more communication messages of a data packet that is transmitted using a single channel is provided. The method comprises the acts of associating the ACK with a channel ID of a container; construct the ACK information data pattern, where the length of the ACK message is based on a number of ACK messages to be transmitted; and combining the ACK information data pattern with one or more communication messages by applying a coding scheme on the combined message. A more complete appreciation of all the advantages and scope of the invention can be obtained from the accompanying drawings, the description and the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The characteristics, nature and advantages of the present invention will become more evident from the detailed description set forth below when taken into account with the drawings in which similar reference characters identify the corresponding to and through where: FIGURE 1 shows a diagram of a wireless multiple access communication system; FIGURE 2 shows a block diagram of one modality of an access point and two access terminals; FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate a physical frame structure and a subsegment structure, respectively; FIGURE 4 illustrates a tree of channels according to one embodiment; FIGURE 5 illustrates a process for combining assignment messages and ACK messages according to a modality; and FIGURE 6 shows a process for processing a message that has a combined ACK message.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The word "exemplary" is used here with the meaning "serve as an example, case or illustration". Any modality or design described here as "exemplary" does not necessarily have to be constituted as preferred or advantageous over other modalities or designs. The word "listen" is used here to mean that an electronic device is receiving and processing the data received on a given channel. FIGURE 1 shows a diagram of a wireless multiple access communication system 100 employing multi-carrier modulation. The system 100 includes a number of access points, for example 110a and 110b that communicate with a number of access terminals 120a-120g. For simplicity, only two access points 110a and 110b and only seven access terminals 120a-120g are shown in FIGURE 1. For discussion purposes, when referring to a single access terminal (AT) 120x will be used and when reference is made to a single access point (AP) llOx will be used (access terminal 120x and access point llOx are described in FIGURE 2, infra).

An access point 11Ox, is an electronic device configured to communicate with one or more user access terminals and can also be referred to as the base station, base terminal, fixed terminal, a fixed station, base station controller, controller, transmitter or some other terminology. The access point, the base terminal and the base station are used interchangeably in the following description. The access point can be a multipurpose computer, a standard laptop, a fixed terminal, an electronic device configured to transmit, receive and process data according to the methods of interface or aerial interconnection defined by an OFDMA, CDMA, GSM, WCDMA, etc., or an electronic module comprising one or more integrated computer microcircuits controlled by the controller or a processor for transmitting, receiving and processing data according to the methods of interface or aerial interconnection defined by an OFDMA, CDMA, GSM , WCDMA, etc. An access terminal 120x, is an electronic device configured to communicate with the access point via a communication link. The access terminal may also be referred to as a terminal, a user terminal, a remote station, a mobile station, a wireless communication device, a receiving terminal, or some other terminology. The access terminal, the mobile terminal, the user terminal, the terminal are used interchangeably here in the following description. Each access terminal 12Ox can communicate with one or multiple access points on the downlink and / or the uplink at any given time. The downlink, (ie, the forward link) refers to the transmission of the access point to the access terminal 120x, and the uplink (that is, backlink) refers to the transmission of the access terminal 12Ox to the access point. The access terminal 120x can be any. standard laptop, organizer or personal electronic assistant, a mobile phone, cell phone, an electronic device configured to transmit, receive and process data according to methods of interface or aerial interconnection defined by an OFDMA, CDMA, GSM, WCDMA, etc., or an electronic module comprising one or more integrated computer microcircuits controlled by a controller or a processor to transmit, receive and process data according to the methods of interface or aerial interconnection defined by an OFDMA, CDMA, GSM, WCDMA, etc. A system controller 130 is coupled to the access points and can be further coupled to other systems / networks (e.g., a packet data network). The system controller 130 provides the coordination and control of the access points coupled to it. Via the access points, the system controller 130 also controls the routing of data between the access terminals, and between the access terminals and other users coupled to other systems / networks. The techniques described herein for optimizing portions of a frame can be implemented in several wireless multi-access multi-carrier communication systems. For example, the system 100 may be an OFDMA, CDMA, GSM, WCDMA, etc. system. That uses data transmission. FIGURE 2 shows a block diagram of one modality of an access point llOx and two access terminals 120x and 120y (or user terminals) in the multi-access multi-carrier communication system 100. The access point llOx, a processor data transmitter (TX) 214 receives traffic data (i.e., information bits) from a data source 212 and signaling and other information from an access point llOx, and a program from a programmer 230. For example, the access point llOx can provide power control (PC) commands that are used to adjust the transmission power of the active access terminals, and the scheduler 230 can provide bearer assignments to the access terminals. These different types of data can be sent on different transport channels. The access point llOx can be configured to execute the process 500, to combine an ACK message with other communication messages, discussed later. The TX data processor 214 encodes and modulates the received data using multi-carrier modulation (eg, OFDM) to provide modulated data (eg, OFDM symbols).

A transmitter unit (TMTR) 216 then processes the modulated data to generate a downlink modulated signal that is then transmitted from an antenna 218. At each of the access terminals 120x and 120y, the transmitted signal is received by an antenna 252 and provided to a receiving unit (RCVR) 254. The receiving unit 254 processes and digitizes the received signal to provide samples. The received data processor (RX) 256 then demodulates and decodes the samples to provide decoded data, which may include traffic data, messages, recovered signaling, and so forth. The traffic data must be provided to a data collector 258, and the assignment of the PC command bearer sent by the access terminal 120x are provided to a controller 260. The controller 260 executes the process 600, discussed below, to process a message having ACK information and other combined communication received in a single channel and extract the ACK information from the received message to determine whether an ACK was received in itself. The controller 260 also directs the transmission of data over the uplink using the specific bearers that have been assigned to the access terminal 120x and indicated in the received bearer assignment. The controller 260 further adjusts the transmission power used by the uplink transmission on the basis of the received PC commands. For each active access terminal 120x, a TX data processor 274 receives traffic data from a data source 272 and signaling and other information from the controller 260. For example, the controller 260 may provide information indicative of the required transmission power, the maximum transmission power, or the difference between the maximum transmission powers and required by the access terminal 120x. The different data types are encoded and modulated by the TX data processor 274 using the bearers assigned and further processed by a transmitter unit 276 to generate a modulated uplink signal which is then transmitted from the antenna 252. At the access point 11Ox, the transmitted and modulated signals of the access terminals are received by the antenna 218, processed by a receiver unit 232, and demodulated and decoded by an RX data processor 234. The receiving unit 232 can estimate the quality of the received signal (e.g., the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)) for each access terminal 120x and provide this information to the IlOx access point. The access point llOx can then derive the PC commands for each access terminal 120x so that the quality of the signal received by the access terminal 120x has remained within an acceptable range. The RX data processor 234 provides the recovered feedback information (e.g., the required transmit power) for each access terminal 120x to the controller 220 and the scheduler 230. The scheduler 230 uses the feedback information to perform a number of functions , such as: (1) selecting a set of access terminals for the transmission of data on the return link and (2) assign carriers to the selected access terminals. The assignments of the bearer by the programmed access terminals are then transmitted on an outbound link to those access terminals. The techniques described here to eliminate the use of a dedicated channel to provide acknowledgments (ACK), for the successful reception of a packet on the outbound link by combining the ACK message with other messages transmitted on a shared channel can be implemented in various systems multi-access wireless communication system. For example, the system 100 may be an OFDMA, CDMA, GSM, WCDMA, etc. system. that uses data transmission. For clarity, the techniques are described here for an OFDMA system that uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). In an exemplary OFDMA communication system, the overflow superframe comprises a superframe preamble portion that is followed by a portion of six PHY frames. The preamble portion of the superframe comprises a plurality of channels, an Acquisition Channel (ACQCH), Primary Broadcast Channel (pBCH) (also referred to as a SYNC channel), a Fast Paging Channel (QPCH) and an Other Channel. Sector Interference (OSICH). Each PHY frame portion comprises a plurality of physical channels, a pilot or one or more pilot channels (for example a Common Pilot Channel (CPICH) and, if present, an Auxiliary Pilot Channel (AuxPICH)), a Signaling Channel Shared (SSCH) to transmit information that is processed by all the access terminals that receive this channel, a Data Channel (DCH), a Broadcast Channel or Secondary Broadcast (sBCH), a Shared Data Channel (SDCH) and a Power Control Channel (PCCH). In one embodiment, the access point llOx uses a single channel on the outbound link, for example the F-SSCH, to provide both of the acknowledgment message and one or more assignment messages. The F-SSCH channel is processed by all access terminals in communication with the access point llOx. The access terminals sample or evaluate one or more portions of data received on the F-SSCH and process only the data that is intended for them. FIGURES 3A and 3B show a physical frame structure 300 and a structure of subsegments 301, respectively. At the start of each physical frame, one or more OFDM symbols (NSSCH) are assigned for the F-SSCH channel. NSSCH is determined by the controller based on system requirements. The F-SSCH consists of multiple subsegments 302i to 302N, as illustrated in FIGURE 3B. Each subsegment 302Í-N comprises a coded data pack 330 *. In one embodiment, each packet 330 comprises a plurality of message portions comprising a length information portion 340, a message portion ACK 342, message portion of the traffic ratio to pilot transmission power (T2P) 344, a communication message portion 346 and a portion of CRC 348. A portion of message T2P 344 is a 6-bit field (T2P) that specifies the density deviation of the transmission power of non-constant module modulation formats in relation to to the power density of a portion of ACQCH transmissions in the same sector. The deviation is converted to a dB value as follows: deviation = (T2P-31) * 0.2 db, where T2P is interpreted as an integer not signaled. The communication message portion 346 comprises a plurality of variable length communication messages. Each message of the communication message portion 346 comprises a 3-bit message header, a channel id portion, a MACID portion and one or more package format portions. The communication message portion 346 may also comprise an access granting message that is sent in response to the transmission of the detected access sequence that assigns a MACID to the access terminal 120x and an initial ChID to be used by the terminal 120x access In addition, the ID of the access sequence that was transmitted to the access point llOx is provided to allow the access terminal 120x to discard access granting messages that do not contain the sequence that was transmitted by the message. Also, a Timing Adjustment field is provided to inform the access terminal 120x of the timing deviation for use by the subsequent RL transmissions. The access terminal 120x will advance its transmission timing in the amount of: deviation = (Timing Adjustment-31) * 8 segments, where the timing adjustment is interpreted as an integer not signaled. The communication message portion 346 may also comprise the Outbound Link Assignment Message (FLAM). This message informs the access terminal 120x that maintains a specific MACID and that an FL ChID has been assigned to the access terminal 120x, and informs that the access terminal 12Ox of the PF that will be used in this channel. The AN sets the Supplementary field in the message to "1" if the assignment must be added to the assignment of the existing 120x access terminal over the interconnection, and to "0" if the assignment will replace any existing assignment over the interconnection. The communication message portion 346 may also comprise the RLAM Return Link Assignment Message. This message informs the access terminal 120x that contains a specific MACID and that the ChID RL has been assigned to the access terminal 120x, and informs that the access terminal 120x of the PF should be used on this channel. The access point llOx sets the Supplementary field in the message to "1" if the assignment must be added to the assignment of the existing access terminal 120x over the interconnection, and to "0" if the assignment should replace any existing assignment over the interconnection. The communication message portion 346 may also comprise the MCWFLAM Multiple Code Words MIMO Outbound Link Message. This message informs the access terminal 120x that contains a specific MACID and that an FL ChID has been assigned to the access terminal 120x, and informs that the access terminal 120x of the PFs should be used on the upper layers up to NFL_CHID MIMO of the channel. The access point llOx sets the Supplementary field in the message to "1" if the assignment should be added to the assignment of the existing access terminal 12Ox over the interconnection, and to "0" if the assignment should replace any existing assignment. The communication message portion 346 may also comprise the MIMO Single Link Word Assignment Message of SCWFLAM Single Word Code. This message informs the access terminal 120x that contains a specific MACID and that an FL ChID has been assigned to the access terminal 120x, and informs that the access terminal 12Ox of PF and the number of MIMO layers to be transmitted using the assignment. The AN sets the Supplementary field in the message to "1" if the assignment must be added to the assignment of the existing 120x access terminal over the interconnection, and to "0" if the assignment should replace any existing assignment. The communication message portion 346 may also comprise a message indicating that a CRC check failed to decode the RL packet in the AN (Explicit NACK). This is an alternative to the ACK message, discussed below, for transmitting recognition information to a 120x access terminal. The MACID field in the specific message the access terminal 120x directed by the message. The timing relationship between the explicit NACK transmission and the last associated frame demodulated before the CRC check is the same as the information for the ACK that is contained in the ACK message. The CRC portion 348 comprises the CRC of all the bits in the subsegment packet (other than the CRC). The access point llOx sets this field and the number of CRC bits in a packet 330 equal to 8 if the number of information bits in the subsegment is less than or equal to 60 bits. Otherwise, the CRC will be 12 bits. The ACK message portion 342 comprises an ACK message having a first portion 360 for an ACK indicator and a second portion 362 for an ACK information data pattern. The ACK indicator portion provides an indication to see if an ACK message exists to process. Generally, the ACK indicator is a one bit message. The ACK information data pattern consists of several bits of information. The number of information bits may depend on the number of users that require an ACK for the packet transmitted over the RL. In this way, the length of the ACK message can be 0-n bits, where n is a threshold set by the system operator and varies on the basis of the number of ACKs to be provided during a given frame. The ACK information data pattern can be generated using a first scheme where the information bits represent a series of bit packets, each bit packet identifying an access terminal 120x receiving an ACK. The ACK information data pattern can be generated using an alternative scheme, where the ACK information data pattern can be generated using an ACK comprising the scheme discussed below. FIGURE 4 illustrates a channel tree 400 used in an ACK compression scheme according to one embodiment. The channel tree 400 is used to specify the channel identification number (ChID) and sets of jump ports 420 that are associated with each ChID. It is said that a set of hop ports will be "traced to a node" and a node "traces" a set of hop ports. The jump port is a fundamental channel allocation unit. Each jump port is traced to a single subcarrier. The tracing of the ports of jump to subcarriers varies with time. A node corresponds to a single ChID. Children, descendants are nodes that trace a subset of hop ports traced by a node. Parents, ancestors are nodes that trace a superset of hop ports traced by a node. The base nodes are nodes without children. The specific nodes are assigned specific resources, for example, jump ports. For exemplary purposes, 7 nodes 402, 404, 406, 408, 410, 412, and 414 are grouped by node level from 0 to NNIVEI, ES_NODOS_1 / - where each level comprises at least one node. Within a node level, the nodes are classified in ascending order by ChID. This creates an ordered list of ChID. Here, three node levels are used, with the first node level 422 having the nodes 402, 404, 406, and 408 corresponding to the ChID 0-3, with a second node level 424 having the nodes 410 and 412 corresponding to the ChIDs. 4-5 and the third node level 426 having the node 414 corresponding to the ChID 6. It should be noted that a node can have a plurality of child nodes and the jump assignments 420 can vary, so that a node can be traced to a node. single jump port (for example, node 408). Also, the ChIDs can be associated in an ascending format, where the highest node represents ChID 0 and the ChID increases from left to right or right to left for each level. To implement the modality using the channel tree structure, as each node is associated, it may depend on the system operator on both the transmitter and the receiver of the ACK information data pattern, to know the scheme used when the pattern was generated. ACK information data. In this way, various usage flow schemes of a channel tree structure can be employed. According to an example, a channel tree has 7 nodes, numbered from 0 to 6 and 18 jump ports numbered 0-17. The 'base nodes are ChID 1-3.

Consider the node associated with ChID 5. This node has ChID 6, father and ChID 2 and 3 children. The node maps 5 hop ports, that is, the hop ports can be 13-17. The number of node levels is determined by the access point llOx and communicated to each access terminal 120x in communication with the access point llOx. According to the example, three levels are used. For example, it is considered that a first mobile access terminal 120b to which a ChID 1 was assigned will be mapped to node 404, hop ports 4-12, and node 410 as the highest node. It is considered that a second mobile access terminal 102d to which a ChID 3 was assigned will be mapped to node 408, hop ports 17, and node 412 as the highest node. Because the nodes define orthogonal channel mappings, the use of a node in the tree can restrict the use of other nodes. Thus, if a node is in use, then all the descendants and ancestors of the node are not available for use and are called "restricted" nodes. Therefore, node 414, in the example may not be assigned to any other terminal other than the terminal that has a ChID 6, according to this example. In one embodiment, a one-to-one ascending scheme is used to associate each bit with an access terminal. Each bit having a value of 0 or 1 that represents a NACK or ACK, respectively. Each bit is part of the ACK information data pattern received by each of the access terminals that communicate with the access point. The access point llOx constructs an ACK information data pattern on the basis of the packets received from one or more terminals, each having an assigned channel ID. Several methods can be used to generate the ACK information data pattern, which identifies the target terminal for which the ACK is intended. Here, the ACK message contains 7 bits, each traced to a ChID 0-6, increasing from left to right. In this way, if the access point llOx is sending a ACK for the traffic of the RL to the first terminal 102b (also referred to as the ACK requesting entity) having ChID 1 and the second lOd terminal that it has in ChID 3, the access point llOx will generate an ACK information data pattern "0101000" by the ACK message. The acknowledgments for sending the RL traffic in the physical frame of the RL i are encoded in the encoded data packet 330 and sent in the SSCH in the physical frame of FL i + 2. For each subsegment of the SSCH 302 that passes to the CRC, the terminal checks an ACK 360 indicator, generally a one bit field. If the ACK 360 indicator is fixed (for example set to 1) then each terminal processes the information data pattern of ACK 362. All access terminals that receive the ACK message evaluate the ACK information data pattern provided in the ACK message and determine if its ChID or other identifier is represented in the ACK information data pattern. For example, the access terminal 102b having the ChID of 1, after decoding the message and extracting the ACK message. { 0101000.}. , the access terminal 102b will evaluate the second bit on the left. If the value of the bit is 1, then the terminal assumes that an explicit ACK was received and normal processing continues. Otherwise, the terminal can assume that an implicit NACK was provided and retransmits the data or indicates an error or loss of resources. FIGURE 5 illustrates a process 500, for combining assignment messages and ACK messages according to a modality. The AP 11Ox is configured to execute the steps of the process 500 using at least one of several components described in Figure 2, for example, the controller 220, the scheduler 230, the memory 222, the TX 214 data processor, the processor RX 234 data, etc. In step 502, it determines whether a packet was received by the RX data processor 234 of a 120x access terminal in communication with the access point llOx and determines whether the received packet was decoded successfully. If so, then in step 504, updates a database stored in the memory 222 that stores information with respect to each terminal that transmits data to the access point llOx. The access point llOx can employ several techniques, for example the first scheme (for example, the one-to-one ascending scheme) discussed above, to collect and manage the ACKs. In step 506, the access point llOx constructs the portion of the ACK message 342 of the subsegment 330 package. If it is required that at least one ACK be transmitted then the bit for the ACK indicator is set to 1. In step 506, the construction of the ACK information data packet begins or adjusts the existing ACK information data pattern to add information about the access terminal that sent the packet in step 502. Generally, in a communication system, Like the OFDMA, the access terminal uses the return link to request an allocation of resources. If the resources requested are granted, then the resource allocations are transmitted over the outbound link. In addition, one or more shared channels are used to communicate data to the access terminals on the outbound link. To receive information about the shared channel, the access terminal requires allocation information to receive data about the shared channels. All access terminals in communication with the access point llOx, will process the information received on that shared channel. In a multi-broadcast / broadcast system, those channels are used to provide data that is intended to be for all access terminals, for example new data or advertisements. The use of the shared channel provides a low overhead and saves valuable bandwidth that is available to the system. In one embodiment, the processing of the allocation request may occur concurrently with the establishment of the ACK message. Referring again to process 500, in step 508, it receives the request for assignment of one or more access terminals in the data processor TX 214 and processes the assignment request. In step 510, the access point llOx adjusts the channel assignment. The access point llOx determines the allocation of resources using the scheduler 230. In step 512, it incorporates the channel assignment in the communication message portion 346. In one embodiment, the access point 11Ox uses information with respect to the message of ACK, generated in step 506, to determine if any channel assignment needs adjustment. If the size of the information data pattern of ACK 362 is larger than the preset threshold, the access point llOx can use the adhesion allocation to maintain system efficiency. In step 514, it combines the ACK message constructed in step 506 and the communication message having the new assignment, integrating step 512 to generate the encoded data packet 330. As discussed above, the encrypted data packet 330 comprises the ACK message, a communication portion 346 having one or more CRC allocation portions used for encoding. In step 516 the entire encoded data pattern 330 that includes the ACKs is encoded, this is encoded using a CRC. In step 518, the encoded data pattern 330 is transmitted over the forward link, for example, the F-SSCH discussed above. FIGURE 6 shows a process 600 executed by each terminal, for example 120x, in the communication system with the IlOx access point. The controller 260 is configured to execute the steps of the process 600 using various components of the access terminal 120x, for example, the scheduler 260, the memory 262, the data processor TX 274, a data processor RX 256, etc. In step 602, a coded data packet 330 is received from the access point llOx. In step 604, the controller 260 decodes the received data packet 330 and determines whether a correct packet was received. In step 606, the portion of the ACK message 342 is extracted from the successfully decoded data pack 330. This can be accomplished by assigning a portion of the received data packet 330 as a portion of the ACK message. Subsequently, the controller 260 determines whether the value of the bits represented in the first portion 360 is 1. If so, the controller 260 concludes that the ACK information is available in the second portion 362 of the encoded data packet 330 and executes the step 608. In step 608, the required information is extracted from the second portion 342 to form an ACK information data pattern. As discussed above, the number of bits that make up the ACK information data pattern varies based on the number of ACKs provided in an encoded data packet and the method used by the access point llOx to generate the message. In step 610, the controller 260 determines whether the ACK information data pattern provides an indication of the expected ACK. According to the example discussed above, the ACK information data pattern would be. { 0101000.}. . For example, the access terminal llOx having a ChID 1 would evaluate the information data pattern of ACK 362 and determine that this ACK information data pattern contains an ACK directed by itself. In step 610, the ACK information data pattern is evaluated to determine if the ACK is provided by the IlOx access terminal. All access terminals that are in communication with the access point are aware of the rules associated with the scheme used by the access point llOx (for example, the rules used to build the ACK information data pattern by the first scheme) . The rules can be stored in memory 262 and accessed there by means of controller 260 to determine if an ACK was received by itself. In step 612, if it is determined that an ACK was received, then in step 614, the next data packet is transmitted. If any transmission is required on the RL. Otherwise, in step 616, the controller 260 retransmits the data packet or if the maximum allowable retransmissions of data packets by HARQ scheme were exhausted, then the controller 260 generates an error message to indicate an error in the transmission. . The techniques described herein can be implemented by various means. For example, these techniques can be implemented in physical computing or hardware components, programs and software or software systems, or a combination thereof.

For an implementation of physical computer or hardware components, the processing units (for example, the 220 and 260 controllers, the TX 214 and 274 processors, the RX 234 and 256 processors, and so on). So that these techniques can be implemented within one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), digital signal processors (DSP), digital signal processing devices (DSPD), programmable logic devices (PLD), gate arrays programmable field (FPGA), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof. For an implementation in programs and programming or software systems, the techniques described herein can be implemented with modules (for example, procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. Program codes and programming or software systems can be stored in memory units (for example, memory 222 in FIGURE 2) and executed by processors (for example, controllers 220). The memory unit may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor, in which case it may be communicatively coupled to the processor via various means known in the art. The headings were included here as a reference and to help locate certain sections. These headings are not intended to limit the scope of the concepts described hereunder, and those concepts may have applicability in other sections throughout the specification. The above description of the described embodiments was provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to those embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein, may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the modalities shown herein but according to the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novel features described herein.

Claims (42)

1. NOVELTY OF THE INVENTION Having described the invention as above, property is claimed as contained in the following:
2. CLAIMS 1. A method for providing an acknowledgment (ACK) to one or more receivers using a single channel, the method is characterized in that it comprises the acts of: generating an ACK message having an ACK information data pattern; include the ACK information data pattern in a data packet that has one or more messages; and transmit the data packet. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the act of generating the ACK message comprises the act of generating an ACK indicator.
3. 3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the act of generating the ACK message comprises the act of generating an ACK indicator which provides an indication of whether said ACK message has some information in the data pattern of ACK. ACK information.
4. 4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the act of generating the ACK information data pattern comprises the act of using a length of this on the basis of the number of ACKs to be transmitted.
5. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the act of generating the ACK information data pattern comprises the act of associating the ACK with a channel ID of a first terminal.
6. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the act of generating the ACK information data pattern comprises the act of selecting a scheme from a predetermined set of schemes to generate the ACK information data pattern.
7. 7. A method for providing an acknowledgment message (ACK) combined with one or more communication messages of a data packet that is transmitted using a single channel, the method is characterized in that it comprises the acts of: associating the ACK with an ID channel of a receiver; construct the ACK information data pattern, where the length of the ACK message is based on the number of ACK messages to be transmitted; and combining the ACK information data pattern with one or more communication messages by applying a coding scheme on the combined message.
8. 8. A method for receiving an acknowledgment (ACK) included in a segment received on a shared channel of a communication system, the method is characterized in that it comprises the acts of: determining if a pattern of ACK information data is included in the segment; and extracting the ACK message from a segment if it was determined that the ACK information data pattern is included in the segment.
9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that it further comprises the act of evaluating the ACK message using a scheme that generates the ACK information data pattern.
10. 10. The method for handling an acknowledgment message (ACK) included in a segment received on a shared channel of a communication system, the method is characterized in that it comprises the acts of: evaluating a first portion of the ACK message to determine whether it should a second portion of the ACK message is processed; processing a second portion of the ACK message to evaluate an ACK information data pattern if that ACK message of the second portion was determined; and determining whether an expected ACK is represented in the ACK information data pattern.
11. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that it further comprises the act of evaluating the ACK message using a first scheme.
12. 12. An apparatus for providing an acknowledgment (ACK) to one or more receivers using a single channel, the method is characterized in that it comprises: means for generating an ACK message having an ACK information data pattern; means to include the ACK information data pattern in a data packet that has one or more messages; and means for transmitting the data packet.
13. The apparatus according to claim 12, characterized in that the means for generating the ACK message comprises means for generating an ACK indicator.
14. The apparatus according to claim 13, characterized in that the means for generating the ACK message comprises means for generating an ACK indicator which provides an indicator of whether the ACK message has some information in the information data pattern. of ACK.
15. The apparatus according to claim 14, characterized in that the means for generating the ACK information data pattern comprises means using a length of this on the basis of the number of ACKs to be transmitted.
16. The apparatus according to claim 14, characterized in that the means for generating the ACK information data pattern comprises means for associating the ACK with a channel ID of a first terminal.
17. The apparatus according to claim 14, characterized in that the means for generating the ACK information data pattern comprises means for selecting a scheme from a predetermined set of schemes for generating the ACK information data pattern.
18. 18. An apparatus for providing an acknowledgment message (ACK) combined with one or more communication messages of a data packet that is transmitted using a single channel, the method is characterized in that it comprises: means for associating the ACK with an ID of channel of a receiver; means for constructing the ACK information data pattern, where the length of the ACK message is based on the number of ACK messages to be transmitted; and means for combining the ACK information data pattern with one or more communication messages by applying a coding scheme on the combined message.
19. 19. An apparatus for receiving an acknowledgment (ACK) included in a segment received on a shared channel of a communication system, the method is characterized in that it comprises: means for determining if an ACK information data pattern is included in the segment; and means for extracting the ACK message from the segment if it is determined that the ACK information data pattern is included in the segment.
20. The apparatus according to claim 19, characterized in that it further comprises means for evaluating the ACK message using a scheme that generates the ACK information data pattern.
21. 21. An apparatus for handling an acknowledgment message (ACK) included in a segment received on a shared channel of a communication system, the method is characterized in that it comprises: means for evaluating a first portion of the ACK message to determine what should be processed a second portion of the ACK message;

    means for processing the second portion of the ACK message to evaluate an ACK information data pattern if that ACK message of the second portion is determined; and means for determining whether an expected ACK is represented in the ACK information data pattern.
22. 22. The apparatus according to claim 19, characterized in that it further comprises means for evaluating the ACK message using a first scheme.
23. 23. A machine-readable medium, characterized in that it comprises instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations including: generating an acknowledgment message (ACK) having an ACK information data pattern; include the ACK information data pattern in a data packet that has one or more messages; and transmit the data packet from a single channel.
24. 24. The machine-readable medium according to claim 23, characterized in that the instructions readable by the machine to cause the ACK message to be generated comprise instructions for generating an ACK indicator which provides an indication of whether the portion of the ACK message has some ACK in the ACK information data pattern.
25. 25. The machine-readable medium according to claim 23, characterized in that the instructions readable by the machine to cause the ACK information data pattern to be generated comprise using a length based on the number of ACK to be transmitted. .
26. 26. The means readable by a machine according to claim 23, characterized in that the instructions readable by the machine to cause the ACK information data pattern to be generated comprise associating the ACK with a channel ID of the receiver.
27. 27. The machine-readable medium according to claim 23, characterized in that the instructions readable by the machine to cause the ACK information data pattern to be generated comprise instructions for selecting a scheme from a predetermined set of schemes to generate the ACK information data pattern.
28. 28. A means readable by a machine to provide an acknowledgment message (ACK) combined with one or more communication messages of a data packet that is transmitted using a single channel, the method is characterized in that it comprises: associating the ACK with a Channel ID of a receiver; construct the ACK information data pattern, where the length of the ACK message is based on the number of ACK messages to be transmitted; and combining the ACK information data pattern with one or more communication messages by applying a coding scheme on the combined message.
29. 29. A means readable by a machine to receive an acknowledgment (ACK) included in a segment received on a shared channel of a communication system, the method is characterized in that it comprises: determining if the ACK information data pattern is included in the segment; and extracting the ACK message from the segment if it was determined that the ACK information data pattern is included in the segment.
30. 30. The machine readable medium according to claim 29, characterized in that it comprises machine-readable instructions for causing the ACK message to be evaluated using an ACK information data pattern generation scheme.
31. 31. A means readable by a machine to handle an acknowledgment message (ACK) included in a segment received on a shared channel of a communication system, the method is characterized in that it comprises: evaluating a first portion of the ACK message to determine whether a second portion of the ACK message should be processed; processing the second portion of the ACK message to evaluate an ACK information data pattern if the ACK message of the second portion was determined; and determining whether an expected ACK is represented in the ACK information data pattern.
32. 32. The means readable by a machine according to claim 29, characterized in that it further comprises machine-readable instructions for causing the ACK message to be evaluated using a first scheme.
33. 33. In a wireless communication system, an apparatus characterized in that it comprises: an electronic device, the electronic device configured to generate an acknowledgment message (ACK) comprising an ACK information data pattern, to include the data pattern of ACK information in a data packet that has one or more messages, and to transmit the data packet using a single channel.
34. 34. The apparatus according to claim 33, characterized in that the ACK message comprises an ACK indicator.
35. 35. The apparatus according to claim 33, characterized in that the electronic device is further configured to select a scheme from a predetermined set of schemes.
36. 36. In a wireless communication system, an apparatus characterized in that it comprises: an electronic device, the electronic device configured to provide an acknowledgment message (ACK) combined with one or more communication messages of a data packet that is transmitted using a channel only, to associate the ACK with a channel ID of a receiver, to build the ACK information data pattern, where the length of the ACK message is based on the number of ACK messages to be transmitted, and to combine the ACK information data pattern with one or more communication messages applying a coding scheme on the combined message.
37. 37. In a wireless communication system, an apparatus characterized in that it comprises: an electronic device, the electronic device configured to receive an acknowledgment (ACK) included in a segment received on a shared channel of a communication system, to determine if a pattern ACK information data is included in the segment, to extract the ACK message from the segment if it was determined that the ACK information data pattern is included in the segment.
38. 38. The apparatus according to claim 37, characterized in that it is further configured to evaluate the ACK message using a generator pattern of the ACK information data pattern.
39. 39. In a wireless communication system, an apparatus characterized in that it comprises: an electronic device, the electronic device configured to handle an acknowledgment message (ACK) included in a segment received on a shared channel of a communication system, to evaluate an first portion of the ACK message to determine if a second portion of the ACK message should be processed, process the second portion of the ACK message to evaluate an ACK information data pattern if the ACK message of the second portion was determined, and to determine if an expected ACK is represented in the ACK information data pattern.
40. 40. The apparatus according to claim 39, characterized in that it is further configured to evaluate the ACK message using a first scheme.
41. 41. A communication system, characterized in that it comprises: the use of a first electronic device for generating an acknowledgment message (ACK) comprising an ACK information data pattern, to include the ACK information data pattern in a data packet that has one or more messages, and to transmit the data packet using a single channel.
42. 42. The communication system according to claim 41, characterized in that it further comprises the use of a second electronic device configured to receive the ACK information data pattern included in the data packet.