[invention Title]

SOFT BUFFER PROCESSING METHOD AND DEVICE IN TDD SYSTEMS

[Technical Field]

The present invention relates to the field of mobile communications, and particularly relates to a soft buffer processing method and device in TDD systems.

[Background Art]

A Long Term Evolution (LTE) system supports the working way of Time Division Duplexing (TDD). As shown in Fig.1 , it is a frame structure of a TDD system. The length of each radio frame is 10ms, and each radio frame is equally split into two half-frames with 5ms length. Each half-frame contains 8 timeslots of 0.5ms length and 3 special fields, i.e. Downlink Pilot Time Slot (DwPTS), Guard Period (GP), and Uplink Pilot Time Slot (UpPTS), the total length of these 3 special fields being 1ms. Each subframe consists of two consecutive timeslots, i.e. kth subframe containing timeslots 2k and 2k+l. TDD system supports 7 uplink-downlink configurations, as shown in table 1. Here, D represents a downlink subframe, U represents an uplink subframe, and S represents the special subframe containing the 3 special fields.

[Table l ]

Table 1 LTE TDD Up ink-Downlink Confi urations

In the LTE TDD system, for downlink data Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) transmission, Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) is configured to schedule Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in a current subframe; and ACK/NACK information corresponding to the PDSCH or the PDCCH indicating downlink Semi -Persistent Scheduling release (SPS release) in 0, 1, or more downlink subframes can be fed back in one uplink subframe n, the indexes of these downlink subframes being n-k, where k belongs to a set K and the set K is decided by the uplink-downlink configuration and the uplink subframe n. As shown in table 2, they are HARQ timing relations defined in the LTE release 8 system.

[Table 2]

Table 2 Index Set K

According to above HARQ timing relations, the maximum numbers of downlink HARQ processes corresponding to the above 7 TDD uplink-downlink configurations are different. Here, for each TDD uplink-downlink configuration, the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes is used to guarantee the base station identifying respective parallel HARQ processes without confusion by using the HARQ process indexes in the

PDCCH.

[Table 3]

Table 3 Maximum number of downlink HARQ processes

Uplink-downlink Maximum number of

configuration downlink HARQ processes

0 4

1 7

2 10

3 9 5 15

6 6

HARQ timing relations of the LTE TDD system are described above, and another question related to HARQ is how to process soft buffer. In fact, UEs are divided into multiple UE categories according to their processing capacity, and the division is based on whether an UE supporting MIMO, the maximum number of MIMO data streams supported, the size of the soft buffer, etc. Here, the soft buffer is used to save received soft bits when the UE is unable to decode data sent from the base station properly, and can perform soft combination during HARQ retransmission, thus improving the link performance.

The process of the soft buffer influences rate matching (RM) of downlink data at the base station side. In the LTE TDD release 10, denote the size of a soft buffer of a UE

N

as ^soft , and no matter the UE is in the single carrier mode or in the earner aggregation mode, for each code block of a transport block, rate matching is performed according to

N

N _cb = min I,R

the size of the soft buffer c J , where C is the total number

K

of code blocks divided from the transport block, is the total number of encoding bits

Nsofl

N I,Ro =

output by turbo encoding, ^K c - ^K u o - ^min ' DL_HARQ ' M limit ,

K depends on the transmission mode of the UE, for MIMO transmission mode,

^K MIMO - for non-MIMO transmission mode, 1 M _{DL 1ARQ} . _s ^

M

maximum number of downlink HARQ processes given in table 3, limit is a constant 8, and is a constant related to the UE capacity category. That is to say, no matter how many carriers the UE actually works at, when the rate matching is performed, the same method as the UE only configuring the current one carrier is used to perform the rate matching.

At the UE side, when the UE wrongly decodes a code block, it needs to keep soft bits for the code block, so that HARQ soft combination can be performed, thus improving the link performance. To better support HARQ incremental redundancy (IR), the base station needs to know which soft bits have been actually stored when the UE is unable to decode the code block correctly. In the LTE TDD release 10, the method of UE processing soft buffer is allocating its soft buffer equally to one or more cells currently being configured. Denote the number of carriers configured by the UE as

^N 5> , and for each ce.., for a, .eas, min(M„ _{e> (M} ) transport blocks, when the decoding of a code block of a transport block is failed, soft bits ^W] , ^{Wk+l WmoA} ( ^k+ "sB - cb ) _{need to be kept by the UE for this code}

received by the UE, and k is the relative smaller index of indexes of respective soft bits received by the UE.

In the current LTE system specification, the uplink-downlink configuration adopted by a cell is configured via broadcast signaling, i.e. contained in the system information block 1 (SIB1). Therefore, LTE system supports changing the uplink-downlink configuration once every 640nm at fastest, and changing the system information 32 times in 3 hours at most in the current specification. To quicker be adapted to changes of service characteristics, currently the 3GGP organization is studying on how to support changing the system uplink-downlink subframe allocation at a faster speed. For example, support changing the uplink-downlink configuration at a faster speed, e.g. changing once every 200ms; or changing the uplink-downlink subframe configuration at an order of time with radio frame length being 10ms. In fact, the base station scheduler changes the uplink-downlink subframe distribution according to service requirements, and adopts certain scheduling restrictions to sustain system normal working, while the UE may need not to know which of the 7 uplink-downlink configurations it is working at. Even the actual working uplink-downlink subframe distribution can be unlimited to the above seven configurations in table 1, and above all, the actual uplink-downlink subframe distribution can be transparent to the UE. The change of the uplink-downlink subframe distribution adopted by this kind of cell influences HARQ-ACK timing relation during downlink transmission, resulting in the change of the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes, and accordingly influences processing of soft buffer of data during the HARQ transmission.

[Disclosure!

[Technical Solution] The present invention proposes a method and device of processing soft buffer when changing allocation for the uplink-downlink subframe of the TDD system.

An aspect of the embodiments of the present invention proposes a method of processing soft buffer, comprising the following steps:

a base station allocating transmission resources for a UE, determining a parameter of processing soft buffer, and performing rate matching for physical downlink shared channel PDSCH; and

the base station sending data to the UE via physical downlink control channel PDCCH and PDSCH.

Another respect of the embodiments of the present invention proposes a method of processing soft buffer, comprising the following steps:

a UE receiving information of transmission resources allocated to it by a base station, and determining a parameter of processing soft buffer; and

the UE receiving physical downlink control channel PDCCH and physical downlink shared channel PDSCH sent by the base station according to the transmission resources and the parameter of processing soft buffer.

Another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention proposes a base station side device, which comprises resource management module and sending module, wherein

the resource management module is configured to allocate transmission resources for a UE and determine a parameter of processing soft buffer; and

the sending module is configured to perform rate matching for physical downlink shared channel PDSCH and send data to the UE via physical downlink control channel PDCCH and PDSCH.

Another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention proposes a user equipment UE which comprises resource management module and receiving module, wherein

the resource management module, configured to determine information of transmission resources allocated to it by a base station, and determine a parameter of processing soft buffer; and

the receiving module, configured to receive physical downlink control channel PDCCH and physical downlink shared channel PDSCH sent by a base station according to the transmission resources and the parameter of processing soft buffer.

Another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention proposes a method of supporting downlink transmission, which comprises the following steps: a UE receiving information sent by a base station via PDCCH and PDSCH based on transmission resources allocated by a base station; and

the UE feeding back HARQ-ACK information to the base station according to a reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, wherein the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation defines HARQ-ACK feedback timing of subframes applicable to downlink transmission during actual running.

The present invention proposes the above methods and devices, when changing allocation for the uplink-downlink subframe, provides methods of processing the soft buffer of data during HARQ downlink transmission. Avoid the confusion of HARQ redundancy versions of data transmission between the base station and the UE, and optimize the performance of HARQ soft combination. It makes few modifications to the existing systems and will not affect the system compliance, thus being fulfilled efficiently and simply.

[Description of Drawings]

Fig.l is a schematic diagram of a TDD system frame structure;

Fig.2 is a schematic diagram of reference HARQ-ACK timing;

Fig.3 is a flowchart of a method of base station side processing soft buffer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig.4 is a flowchart of a method of terminal side processing soft buffer according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig.5 is a schematic diagram of the base station side device and UE structures according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Mode for Invention]

To make the objects and technical solutions of the present invention be clearer and understood, further illustration is made for the present invention by reference to the drawings and embodiments.

According to above description, for this kind of TDD system where the uplink-downlink subframe distribution can be changed quickly or dynamically, according to different instruction methods adopted, the UE may know which configuration it is currently working at, or the UE may not know actual allocation for the current uplink-downlink subframe, or the actual distribution for the working uplink-downlink subframe can be different from the existed uplink-downlink configurations. The base station scheduler guarantees normal proceeding of uplink-downlink data transmission. The change of the uplink-downlink subframe distribution of a cell influences the HARQ-ACK timing relation of downlink transmission, resulting in the change of the actual maximum number of downlink HARQ processes, and accordingly influences processing of soft buffer of data during the HARQ transmission by a base station and a UE. In the following description, a UE supporting the function of flexible configuration for uplink-downlink subframe is called a new UE, and correspondingly, a UE that does not support the function of flexible configuration for uplink-downlink subframe is called an old UE. For an old UE, uplink-downlink data is transmitted according to the basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration configured by the SIB1 broadcast information.

One possible method of defining HARQ-ACK timing relation of downlink transmission is defining the HARQ-ACK timing relation by complying with a reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, independent of actual distribution for currently running uplink-downlink subframe and the basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration configured by the SIB1 broadcast information. For a new UE, for the subframes whose HARQ-ACK timing has been defined in the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, the HARQ-ACK feedback timing of such subframes will be determined according to this reference HARQ-ACK timing relation. For example, the HARQ-ACK feedback timing corresponding to all subframes that can be possible to be fixed as downlink subframes or subframes that can be flexibly changed into downlink subframes during the actual running is defined in the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, so that the downlink transmission of the new UE is performed according to HARQ-ACK feedback timing positions got from the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation. Specifically, denote the set of subframes of the cell that may work at downlink direction during actual running as working ^ _{denote me set 0} downlink subframes with HARQ-ACK feedback timing

K _f

being defined in the reference timing relation as ^J , then the selection of reference timing relation guarantees ^ ^worhn s being a subset of ^re f . It is worthy of noting that

K K K

w ^orking can be same with ^ref , i.e., the biggest subset of ^ref is itself. To simplify the system operation, a possible method of defining reference HARQ-ACK timing relation is reusing HARQ-ACK timing relation of an existing uplink-downlink configuration, e.g. one of the 7 configurations in table 1, accordingly, and the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation can be got from table 2.

As shown in Fig.2, assume that HARQ-ACK timing in conventional TDD uplink-downlink configuration 2 is adopted as the above reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, i.e. the HARQ-ACK feedback timing of downlink transmission in subframes 9, 0, 1 , and 3 is in subframe 7. Specifically, if the current working TDD uplink-downlink configuration is uplink-downlink configuration 0, then the UE detects downlink transmission in subframes 0 and 1 at most, and according to the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, the HARQ-ACK information of these 2 subframes will all be fed back in subframe 7; if the current working TDD uplink-downlink configuration is uplink-downlink configuration 1, then the UE detects the downlink transmission in subframes 9, 0, and 1 at most, and according to the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, the HARQ-ACK information of these 3 subframes will all be fed back in subframe 7; if the current working TDD uplink-downlink configuration is 6, then the UE detects the downlink transmission in subframes 9, 0, and 1 at most, and according to the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, the HARQ-ACK information of these 3 subframes will all be fed back in the subframe 7; and if the current working TDD uplink-downlink configuration is 2, then the UE detects the downlink transmission in subframes 9, 0, 1, and 3 at most, and according to the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, the HARQ-ACK information of these 4 subframes will all be fed back in the subframe 7. Actually, when the base station flexibly configures the direction of subframes, the TDD uplink-downlink subframe distribution working at a certain period is not necessary to be limited to one of the traditional uplink-downlink configurations, however, according to the HARQ-ACK timing relation of the TDD uplink-downlink configuration 2, the HARQ-ACK information of the downlink transmission of subframes 9, 0, 1 and 3 is always fed back in subframe 7.

The above reference timing relation can be configured via high level signaling including a cell specific broadcast signal or a UE specific RRC signaling; or the above reference timing relation is predefined, for example, predefining it as the HARQ timing relation of the TDD uplink-downlink configuration 2 for the system supporting the changes of the uplink-downlink subframe distribution. Alternatively, for the above reference timing relation, the timing relation of a traditional TDD uplink-downlink configuration can be uniquely determined as the reference timing relation when the cell is working in a flexible subframe mode according to the TDD uplink-downlink configuration sent in the broadcast information block SIB1, e.g., the TDD uplink-downlink configuration used as reference timing can be defined in table for each uplink-downlink configuration in the broadcast information block SIB1.

When a cell changes from an uplink-downlink configuration to another uplink-downlink configuration, the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes will change accordingly, and at a border of the change of the new and old uplink-downlink configurations, the actual maximum number of downlink HARQ processes may be different from the maximum numbers of downlink HARQ processes of the old and new uplink-downlink configurations. In addition, when the base station changes the uplink-downlink subframe distribution, UE may not know the actual currently running uplink-downlink subframe distribution, but only depends on a base station scheduler to guarantee the uplink-downlink data transmission proceeding properly, which means that the UE has no way to actually know the maximum number of the current actual downlink HARQ processes. Since the base station and UE processing soft buffer depends on the maximum number of HARQ processes of the cell, so when the uplink-downlink subframe distribution of the cell changes, the base station and UE operating the soft buffer will definitely be affected. The method of processing soft buffer described by the present invention hereafter can be used together with the above method of determining the HARQ-ACK feedback timing by defining the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation of the present invention, but is not limited to this kind of method of determining the HARQ-ACK feedback timing of downlink transmission.

As shown in Fig.3, it is a flow chart showing the base station processing soft buffer of the present invention, comprising the following steps:

301 : the terminal device allocates transmission resources for the UE and determines the parameters of processing soft buffer.

At step 301, the base station allocates transmission resources for the UE, determines parameters of processing soft buffer, and then performs rate matching for the physical downlink sharing channel PDSCH.

As an embodiment of the present invention, a processing method is, when the uplink-downlink subframe distribution of a cell changes, determining the current actual maximum number of downlink HARQ processes, and according to this actual maximum number of downlink HARQ processes, processing soft buffer. For example, denote the

M ^real current actual maximum number of downlink HARQ processes of a cell as DL_HARQ ^ and based on the base station rate matching method defined in the current LTE TDD

M ^real release 10, the actual maximum number of downlink HARQ processes DL-H^RQ [ _S used to calculate the soft buffer allocated to each code block. Denote the size of the soft

N

buffer of the UE as ^so " , then when the base station performs rate matching for each code block of a transport block, the size of the soft buffer of the code block is

N

N _cb = min m

VL C , where C is the total number of code blocks divided from

K,

the transport block, ^w is the total number of encoding bits output by turbo encoding,

where ^MIMO depends on the transmission mode of the UE, for MIMO transmission mode, K MIMO = 2

, for non-MIMO transmission mode, ^ ^MIMO ^ , ^ limit [ _{s a} constant 8, and ^ is a constant related to the category of UE capacity. Thus, the base station performs rate matching for the UE data based on the size of the soft buffer

Corresponding to the operations at the base station, there are many methods of

UE processing soft buffer, and if the UE also processes soft buffer based on Mreal

DL HARO

- ^ , this methods will be described hereafter. At the UE side, based on the method of UE processing soft buffer defined in LTE TDD release 10, the UE can equally allocate its soft buffer to multiple cells which are configured by the base station for the UE to work in, and for each cell, for at least

K _MIMO · min (M^ _HARQ , M _LIMIT )

- ' transport blocks, when the decoding of a code block of a transport block fails, the number of soft bits kept for this code block is at least where,

DL

N c.ells is the number of cells that the base station configures for the UE to work in. mod(k+n _SB -\,N _cb )

Specifically, denote these soft bits as , ' " ^JD -'- ^{· «} " , - is a soft bit received by the UE, and k is the smallest index of the indexes of the respective soft bits received by the UE. The base station can be based on the above method of the UE keeping soft bits for the code block so as to optimize retransmission operation of the HARQ with incremental redundancy (HARQ IR). The above processing method processes soft buffer according to the actual

M Ώ ^re Ϊ ^al HARD

maximum number of downlink HARQ processes - ^ , though its performance is optimized, its complexity is relatively high. For example, in certain cases, specified or agreed in specifications, the UE is allowed to get the actual maximum

M D ^re l ^al HARD

downlink HARQ processes - ^ . Further, to lower the complexity, alternatively, the present invention provides the following methods to support more application situations.

In the LTE TDD system, a basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration is indicated in the broadcast information block SIB1, all UEs in the cell can receive this broadcast information, while old UEs can only determine HARQ-ACK timing and the maximum

M D ^ba L ^se HARO

HARQ process number - according to this basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration and process soft buffer accordingly. While the new UE not only can receive broadcast information of this basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration, but also can receive other control information related to the uplink-downlink subframe distribution. As an embodiment of the present invention, another processing method is processing soft buffer based on the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes

M ^base

DL HARQ _{defmed in the re} i _ease g f _{or me} basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration of the SIB1 broadcast information. For example, based on the base station rate matching method defined in current LTE TDD release 10, the maximum HARQ

M ^ba T ^se HARO

process number - is used to calculate the soft buffer allocated to each code block. Denote the size of the soft buffer of the UE as ^N s ^S o ^OJ ft , then when the base station performs rate matching for each code block, the size of the soft buffer of the code

block is ode blocks divided fr ut by turbo

encoding, where MIMO depends on the transmission mode of the UE, for MIMO transmission K — K mode, ^MIMO 9

non-MIMO transmission mode, MIMO = \

M l,imit is a constant 8, and ^ is a constant related to the category of the UE capability. Thus, the base station performs rate matching for the UE based on the size of

the soft buffer

Corresponding to the operations at the base station, there are many methods of processing soft buffer for the UE, and if the UE also processes soft buffer based on rbase

DL HARO

, the method will be described hereafter. At the UE side, based on the current method of UE processing soft buffer defined in the LTE TDD release 10, the UE can equally allocate its soft buffer to multiple cells which are configured by the base station for the UE to work in, for at least ^MMO ' rnin -^^DL^HARQ ' -^iimit transport blocks, when the decoding of a code block of a transport block fails, the least number of soft bits kept for this code block is where,

DL

N c. ells is the number of cells that the base station configures for the UE to work in.

W.

Specifically, denote these soft bits as mod(k+n _SB -l,N _cb ) is a soft bit received by the UE, and k is the smallest index of the indexes of the respective soft bits received by the UE. The base station can be based on the above method of UE keeping soft bits for the code block so as to optimize the HARQ incremental redundancy (IR) based retransmission.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, another processing method is processing soft buffer based on substituting a predefined value X into the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes independent of the basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration configured in SIB1 broadcast information or actual distribution for current uplink-downlink subframe of the cell. This predefined value can be configured by a high layer semi-statically, and can also be a fixed value in the standards. For example, a reasonable method is that the predefined value X is equal to 8. Actually, for FDD, the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes is fixed to be 8, and the soft buffer is processed based on X being equal to 8, the downlink performance matching the FDD system. For example, based on the method of base station rate matching defined in the LTE TDD release 10, the predefined value X is used to calculate the soft buffer allocated to each code block. When the base station performs rate matching for each code block of a transport block, the size of the soft buffer of the code block is , where C is the total number of code blocks divided from the transport block, K ^w is the total number of encoding bits output by

N s.oft

turbo encoding, ^K c - ^K uo - min^ Af^ ) , where K MIMO depends on the transmission mode of the UE, for MIMO transmission mode, ^K MIMO =2, for non-MIMO transmission mode, K MIMU ₌ ^ ^{^} umit j _{s a cons} tant of 8, and ^iVc is a constant related to the category of UE capacity. Thus, the base station performs rate matching for the UE data according to the size of the soft buffer

Corresponding to the operations at the base station, there are many methods of UE processing soft buffer, and if the UE also processes soft buffer based on X, the method is described hereafter. At the UE side, based on the method of UE processing soft buffer defined in the current LTE TDD release 10, the UE can equally allocate its soft buffer to multiple cells which are configured by the base station for the UE to work in, and for each cell, for at least ^MIMO - ^min (^ limit ) transport blocks, when the decoding of a code block of a transport block fails, the number of soft bits kept for

this code block S. i 1s5 attl l IeCaitsStl

NDL

where is the number of cells that the base station configures for the UE to work in. Specifically, denote these soft bits as

W _k+ l ^W mod(k+n _SB -l,N _cb ) ^W _k

is a soft bit received by the UE, and k is the smallest index of the indexes of the respective soft bits received by the UE. The base station can be based on the above method of UE keeping soft bits for the code block so as to optimize the retransmission operation of HARQ with incremental redundancy (HARQ IR).

Based on the above present invention method of defining HARQ-ACK timing relation of downlink transmission of the cell by adopting reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, denote the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes determined

M

cording to the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation as D ^re L ^f

ac HARO . According to an embodiment of the present invention, another processing method is processing soft

M ^ref buffer by using the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes DL HARQ determined according to the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, independent of the basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration configured in SIBl broadcast information or actual distribution for current uplink-downlink subframe of the cell. Here, if the method of defining the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation is reusing HARQ-ACK timing relation of a traditional uplink-downlink configuration, e.g., any of the 7 downlink

M ^ref

configurations as shown in table 1, then accordingly, DL_HARQ _can ^ _g g _Qt ^ _Q table 3. For example, based on the method of base station rate matching defined in the

LTE TDD release 10, M D ^re L ^f HARQ _{IG uged tQ calculate the soft buffer a} n _ocate d to each code block. When the base station performs rate matching for each code block of a transport block, the size of the soft buffer of the code block is where C is the total number of code blocks divided from the transport

encoding,

depends on the transmission mode of the UE, and for MIMO transmission

K = 2 K = 1 M mode, ^MMO , for non-MIMO transmission mode, ^MIMO l,imit is a constant of 8, and ^{^c} is a constant related to the category of UE capacity. Thus, the base station performs rate matching for the UE data according to the size of soft buffer

Corresponding to the operations at the base station, there are many methods of processing soft buffer for the UE, and if the UE also processes soft buffer based on

M D ^re L ^f HARO , the method will be described hereafter. At the UE side, based on the method of UE processing soft buffer defined in the current LTE TDD release 10, the UE can equally allocate its soft buffer to multiple cells which are configured by the base station for the UE to work in, and for each cell, and for at least

K MIMO mm (M D ^re L ^f _HARQ 9 M ^{1 V1} limit )

transport blocks, when the decoding of a code block of a transport block fails, the number of soft bits kept for this code block is at

least where

N. DL

cells is the number of cells that the base station configures for the UE to work in.

Specifically, denote these soft bits as k " ^W k ^" ₊ 1 mod(k+n _SB -\,N _cb )

J ^{O ■} · is a soft bit received by the UE, and k is the smallest index of the indexes of the respective soft bits received by the UE. The base station can be based on the above method of UE keeping soft bits for the code block so as to optimize the retransmission operation of HARQ with incremental redundancy (HARQ IR).

It should be understood that, when the base station processes soft buffer based on

M ^real M ^base \ f ^re f

any of parameters DL_HARQ DL HARQ _{Χ MD CM}

M ^real M rb ^L ase

also process soft buffer based on any of parameters DL_HARQ _? DL HARQ _{? Χ} ^

M D ^re L ^f HARO . During practical application, it shall be understood that the above combination can be joined and selected freely as required. If the base station and UE adopt a same parameter of processing soft buffer, then the operation consistency can be kept; and if the base station and UE adopt different parameters of processing soft buffer, then the optimization can be performed under different conditions.

302: the base station sends data to the UE via PDCCH and PDSCH.

Afterwards, the UE receives the PDSCH sent by the base station, determines the parameter of processing soft buffer; and when the PDSCH decoding verification fails, performs caching for soft bits of the PDSCH.

Corresponding to the method at the base station side, the present invention further proposes a method of UE processing soft buffer. As shown in Fig.4, it is a flow chart showing the method of processing soft buffer of the present invention, which comprising the following steps:

401: UE receiving information of transmission resources allocated to it by the base station, and determining the parameter of processing soft buffer.

As an embodiment of the present invention, a processing method is when the uplink-downlink subframe distribution of the cell changes, determining the current actual maximum number of downlink HARQ processes, and processing soft buffer according to this actual maximum number of downlink HARQ processes. Denote the

_M real

actual maximum number of HARQ processes of a cell as DL HARQ

There are many methods of processing soft buffer for the base station, and if the

M ^real

base station also processes soft buffer based on - ^ , the method will be described hereafter. Based on the method of rate matching of the base station defined in the current LTE TDD release 10, calculate soft buffer allocated to each code block by

M ^real

using this actual maximum HARQ process number DL_HARQ D _eno t: _e the size of the

N

soft buffer of the UE as ^so ^ , then when the base station performs rate matching for block, the size of the soft buffer of the code block is where C is the total number of code blocks divided bits output by turbo

encoding, where ^KmIM0 depends on the transmission mode of the UE, for MIMO transmission mode, is a

K _c

constant 8, and is a constant related to the category of the UE capacity.

At the UE side, based on the method of UE processing soft buffer defined in the current LTE TDD release 10, the UE can equally allocate its soft buffer to multiple cells which are configured by the base station for the UE to work in, and for at least

K _MIMO · min (M ¹ _HAR0 , M _LIMIT )

- ' transport blocks, when the decoding of a code block of a transport block fails, the number of soft bits kept for this code block is at least

where j _{s me num} b _{er 0} f _ce n _s that the base station configures for the UE to work in.

Specifically, denote these soft bits as ^W/c , ^{Wk+l W} mod(k+n _SB -l,N _cb ) ^ ^W k _i§ a soft bit received by the UE, and k is the smallest index of the indexes of the respective soft bits received by the UE. Thus the UE can keep soft bits in the soft buffer for each code block according to the above method so as to support the retransmission operation of HARQ with incremental redundancy (HARQ IR).

The above processing method processes soft buffer based on the actual

_M real

maximum number of downlink HARQ transmission processes DL HARQ ^ ^ performance is optimal but the complexity thereof is relatively high. For example, at certain circumstances, according to specified or agreed in specifications, the UE shall obtain the actual maximum number of downlink HARQ transmission processes

M ^REAL

DL HARQ j _n addition, to lower the complexity, alternatively, the present invention proposes the following method to support more application scenarios.

In the LTE TDD system, a basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration is indicated in the broadcast information block SIB1, all UEs in the cell can receive this broadcast information, but old UEs can only determine the HARQ-ACK timing and the maximum

M

number of downlink HARQ processes D ^BA L ^SE

- HAR.O according to this basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration, and process soft buffer accordingly. While the new UE not only can receive broadcasting information of this basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration, but also can receive other control information related to the uplink-downlink subframe distribution. As an embodiment of the present invention, another processing method is for new UE, processing soft buffer based on the maximum

M ^BASE

number of downlink HARQ processes DL HARQ defined in the LTE release 8 for the basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration of the SIB1 broadcast information. There are many methods of processing soft buffer for the base station, and if the

M ^base

base station is also processing soft buffer based on ^v , the method will be described hereafter. Based on the rate matching method of base station defined in the current LTE TDD release 10, calculate soft buffer allocated to each code block by using

M ^base

this actual maximum HARQ process number D ^I _ HA^RD _{Denote the} size of the soft

N

buffer of the UE as ^so ^ , then when the base station performs rate matching for each code block of a transport block, the size of the soft buffer of the code block is , where C is the total number of code blocks divided from a transport block, K... is the total number of encoding bits output by turbo

encoding, where

K MIMO d _e p _en( j _{s on} he transmission mode of the UE, for MIMO transmission mode,

K = 2 K = 1

^M1M0 , for non-MIMO transmission mode, ^M1M0 l,imit is a constant 8, and ^c is a constant related to the category of UE capacity.

At the UE side, based on the method of UE processing soft buffer defined in the current LTE TDD release 10, the UE can equally allocate its soft buffer to multiple cells which are configured by the base station for the UE to work in, and for at least

block of a transport block fails, the number of soft bits kept for this code block is at least , where

N ^DL

cells j _{s me num} ber of cells that the base station configures for the UE to work in.

Specifically, denote these soft bits as ^{Wk W/c+1 W} ^(k+n _SB -l,N _cb ) k _{is a soft} bit received by the UE, and k is the smallest index of the indexes of the respective soft bits received by the UE. The base station can be based on the above method of UE keeping soft bits for the code block so as to support the retransmission operation of HARQ with incremental redundancy (HARQ IR).

As an embodiment of the present invention, another processing method is processing soft buffer based on substituting a predefined value X into the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes independent of the basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration configured in SIB1 broadcast information or actual distribution for current uplink-downlink subframe of the cell. This predefined value can be configured by a high layer semi-statically, and can also be a fixed value in the standards. For example, a reasonable method is that the predefined value X is equal to 8. Actually, for FDD, the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes is fixed to be 8, and the soft buffer is processed based on the X being equal to 8, the downlink performance matching the FDD system.

There are many methods of processing soft buffer for the base station, and if the base station also processes soft buffer based on X, the method will be described hereafter. Based on the method of base station rate matching defined in the current LTE TDD release 10, calculate the soft buffer allocated to each code block by using the predefined X. When the base station performs rate matching for each code block of a transport block, the size of the soft buffer of the code block is

N

N _cb = min IR

c where C is the total number of code blocks divided from a transport block, K. ^w is the total number of encoding bits output by turbo encoding,

N s.oft

min( , _limit )J where MMD d _e p _en( } _{s on m} e transmission

K.

mode of the UE, for MIMO transmission mode, MIMO for non-MIMO transmission mode, ^ ^MMO ^ , ^ limit j _{s a cons} t _a nt 8, and ^c is a constant related to the category of the UE capacity.

At the UE side, based on the method of UE processing soft buffer defined in the current LTE TDD release 10, the UE can equally allocate its soft buffer to multiple cells which are configured by the base station for the UE to work in, and for at least block of a transport block fails, the number of soft bits kept for this code block is at least

DL

where N cells is the number of cells that the base station configures for the UE to work in. Specifically, denote these soft bits as ^W * , ^W ^d(k+n _SB -\,N _cb ) ^W k _{is a soft bit} received by the UE, and k is the smallest index of the indexes of the respective soft bits received by the UE. Thus the UE can keep soft bits in the soft buffer for each code block according to the above method so as to support the HARQ with incremental redundancy (HARQ IR).

Based on the above present invention method of defining HARQ-ACK timing relation of downlink transmission of the cell by adopting reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, denote the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes determined

M

according to the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation as D ^re L ^f HARO . According to an embodiment of the present invention, another processing method is processing soft

M ^f buffer by using the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes D ^re T HARO determined according to the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation independent of the basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration configured in SIB1 broadcast information or current actual uplink-downlink subframe distribution of the cell. Here, if the method of defining the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation is reusing HARQ-ACK timing relation of a traditional uplink-downlink configuration, e.g., any of the 7 downlink configurations as shown in table 1, then accordingly, M D ^re L ^f _HARQ _CAN ^ _E ^ from table 3. For example, based on the method of base station rate matching defined in the

LTE TDD release 10, M D ^re L ^f HARQ . _g ^ _ca ] _cu i _{ate me so} ^. b _u ff _er allocated to each code block.

There are many methods of processing soft buffer for the base station, and if the

M

base station also processes soft buffer based on D ^re L ^f HARO ^v , the method will be described hereafter. When the base station performs rate matching for each code block of a transport block, the size of the soft buffer of the code block is b =

where C is the total number of code blocks divided from the total number of encoding bits output by turbo encoding, d _e p _en d _{s on} the transmission mode of the UE, for MIMO transmission mode, MIMO for non-MIMO transmission mode, MMO ^ limit j _{s a constant} g _{? m(} K c ~ _1S a constant related to the category of the UE capacity.

At the UE side, based on the method of UE processing soft buffer defined in the current LTE TDD release 10, the UE can equally allocate its soft buffer to multiple cells which are configured by the base station for the UE to work in, and for at least

block of a transport block fails, the least number of soft bits kept for this code block is where

DL

N.

cells j _{s num} ber of cells that the base station configures for the UE to work in.

Specifically, denote these soft bits as ^{Wf Wk+l W} ™ +n _SB -\,N _CB ) ^ ^W k _{ig a} soft bit received by the UE, and k is the smallest index of the indexes of the respective soft bits received by the UE. Thus the UE can keep soft bits in the soft buffer for each code block according to the above method so as to support the retransmission operation of HARQ with incremental redundancy (HARQ IR).

It should be understood that when the base station processes soft buffer based on

M M ^ref

any of parameters DL HARQ DL HARQ

and ^DL - ^HARQ , the UE side real j _Λ base

M M

can also process soft buffer based any of parameters DL_ HARQ _? DL_HARQ ^ _Χ

M D ^ref

and L - HARO . During practical application, it shall be understood that the above combination can be joined and selected freely as required. If the base station and UE adopt a same parameter of processing soft buffer, then the operation consistency can be kept; and if the base station and UE adopt different parameters of processing soft buffer, then the optimization can be performed under different conditions.

402 : the UE receives data distributed by the base station via PDCCH and

PDSCH. The UE receives the PDSCH sent by the base station, performs operations of rate de-matching, decoding, Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC), etc., and when the PDSCH decoding verification fails, performs caching for soft bits of the PDSCH.

Further, the embodiment of the present invention also proposes a method of supporting downlink transmission which comprises the following steps:

the UE receiving information sent by the base station via PDCCH and PDSCH according to the transmission resources allocated by the base station; and

afterwards, the UE feeding back HARQ-ACK information to the base station according to the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, wherein the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation defines the HARQ-ACK feedback timing of the subframes applicable to downlink transmission during actual running.

To be specific, the HARQ-ACK timing relation reuses HARQ timing relation of uplink-downlink configurations in existing specifications.

Based on the above method, as shown in Fig.5, the present invention further proposes a base station side device 100 including resource management module 110 and sending module 120.

Specifically, the resource management module 110 is configured to allocate transmission resources for the UE and process soft buffer according to a soft buffer parameter; the sending module 120 is configured to perform rate matching for the physical downlink shared channel PDSCH and send data to the UE via the physical downlink control channel PDCCH and PDSCH.

Specifically, the resource management module 110 processes soft buffer according to the soft buffer parameter, in which the selection of the soft buffer parameter includes any one of or multiple of the following ways:

the parameter of processing soft buffer is an actual maximum number of current downlink HARQ processes determined according to the uplink-downlink subframe distribution of a cell and the soft buffer is performed according to the actual maximum number of current downlink HARQ processes determined according to the uplink-downlink subframe distribution of the cell;

the parameter of processing soft buffer is a maximum number of downlink HARQ processes in the LTE release 8 defined by the basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration configured by SIB1 broadcast information, and the soft buffer is processed according to the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes in the LTE release 8 defined by the basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration configured by the SIB1 broadcast information; the parameter of processing soft buffer is a predefined fixed value of the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes, and the soft buffer is performed according to the predefined fixed value of the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes; and

the parameter of processing soft buffer is a maximum number of downlink HARQ processes determined according to a reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, and the soft buffer is performed according to the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes determined according to the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation.

According to the above method, as shown in Fig.5, the embodiment of the present invention also proposes user equipment UE200 which comprises resource management module 210 and receiving module 220.

In the above, the resource management module 210 is configured to determine information of transmission resources allocated to it by a base station and determine a parameter of processing soft buffer; and the receiving module 220 is configured to receive physical downlink control channel PDCCH and physical downlink shared channel PDSCH sent by a base station according to the transmission resources and the parameter of processing soft buffer.

Specifically, the resource management module 210 processes soft buffer according to the soft buffer parameter, wherein the selection of the soft buffer parameter comprises any one of or multiple of the following ways:

the parameter of processing soft buffer is a current actual maximum number of downlink HARQ processes determined according to the uplink-downlink subframe distribution of a cell and the soft buffer is performed according to the current actual maximum number of downlink HARQ processes determined according to the uplink-downlink subframe distribution of the cell;

the parameter of processing soft buffer is a maximum number of downlink HARQ processes in the LTE release 8 defined by the basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration configured by SIB1 broadcast information, and the soft buffer is processed according to the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes in the LTE release 8 defined by the basic TDD uplink-downlink configuration configured by the SIB1 broadcast information;

the parameter of processing soft buffer is a predefined fixed value of the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes, and the soft buffer is performed according to the predefined fixed value of the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes; and the parameter of processing soft buffer is a maximum number of downlink HARQ processes determined according to a reference HARQ-ACK timing relation, and the soft buffer is performed according to the maximum number of downlink HARQ processes determined according to the reference HARQ-ACK timing relation.

The methods and devices proposed by the present invention, when changing the uplink-downlink subframe allocation, provide methods of processing the soft buffer of data during HARQ downlink transmission. Avoid the confusion of HARQ redundancy versions of data transmission between the base station and the UE, and optimize the performance of HARQ soft combination. It makes few modifications to the existing systems and will not affect the system compliance, thus being fulfilled efficiently and simply.

The above are only part of implementations of the present invention, and it should be pointed out that, for those skilled in the art, some modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention, and these modifications and changes should also be construed as falling into the protecting scope of the present invention.