Apparatus and method for scheduling in carrier aggregated communication systems based on a transmit-receive-frequency gap band

Abstract

An apparatus, method, system and computer program product is configured for avoiding base station self-interference due to transmit intermodulation in carrier aggregated communication systems. Physical downlink communication channels are allocated to respective component carriers per time interval according to a communication service in which communication is performed on an aggregation of component carriers of one or more frequency band such that component carriers to be used for transmission are separated from component carriers to be used for receiving by a transmit-receive-frequency gap band. However, not all available component carriers to be used for transmission are allocated in the same time interval. Rather, in each time interval, the physical downlink communication channels to be allocated for transmission are allocated to the available component carriers to be used for transmission such that, in each frequency band, the overall emission spectrum does not reach beyond the transmit-receive-frequency gap band.

1 . An apparatus, comprising:
 scheduling means configured to schedule allocation of physical downlink communication channels to respective component carriers per time interval according to a communication service in which communication is performed on an aggregation of component carriers of one or more frequency band such that component carriers to be used for transmission are separated from component carriers to be used for receiving by a transmit-receive-frequency gap band,   wherein the scheduling means is further configured so that not all available component carriers to be used for transmission are allocated in the same time interval, and   wherein the scheduling means is further configured so that, in each time interval, the physical downlink communication channels to be allocated for transmission are allocated to the available component carriers to be used for transmission such that, in each frequency band, the overall emission spectrum does not reach beyond the transmit-receive-frequency gap band.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the physical downlink communication channels comprise a physical channel for broadcast communication and a primary and a secondary synchronization channel. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the physical downlink communication channels comprise a physical channel configured for downlink control, and wherein the apparatus further comprises:
 radio resource control means configured to exclude certain component carriers to be used for transmission from having allocated the physical channel configured for downlink control; and   allocation communicating means configured to communicate, on a component carrier which is not excluded by the radio resource control means, information that the excluded component carriers are not to be monitored, allocation of a physical channel configured for shared uplink use to a component carrier to be used for receiving and allocation of a physical channel configured for shared downlink use to a component carrier to be used for transmission, and   wherein the scheduling means is further configured to allocate, for consecutive time intervals, the physical channel configured for downlink control to not excluded component carriers to be used for transmission.   
     
     
         4 . The apparatus according to  claim 3 , wherein
 the physical downlink communication channels comprise a physical channel configured for hybrid automatic repeat request indication, and   the scheduling means is further configured to exclude those component carriers to be used for transmission from having allocated the physical channel configured for hybrid automatic repeat request indication which are excluded by the radio resource control means from having allocated the physical channel configured for downlink control.   
     
     
         5 . The apparatus according to  claim 3 , wherein
 the physical downlink communication channels comprise a physical control channel configured for format indication, and   the scheduling means is further configured to exclude those component carriers to be used for transmission from having allocated the physical control channel configured for format indication which are excluded by the radio resource control means from having allocated the physical channel configured for downlink control.   
     
     
         6 . The apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the physical downlink communication channels comprise a physical channel configured for shared downlink use. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus according to  claim 6 , wherein the scheduling means is further configured to apply dynamic downlink inter-cell interference coordination. 
     
     
         8 . A method, comprising:
 allocating physical downlink communication channels to respective component carriers per time interval according to a communication service in which communication is performed on an aggregation of component carriers of one or more frequency band such that component carriers to be used for transmission are separated from component carriers to be used for receiving by a transmit-receive-frequency gap band,   wherein not all available component carriers to be used for transmission are allocated in the same time interval, and   wherein, in each time interval, the physical downlink communication channels to be allocated for transmission are allocated to the available component carriers to be used for transmission such that, in each frequency band, the overall emission spectrum does not reach beyond the transmit-receive-frequency gap band.   
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 8 , wherein the physical downlink communication channels comprise a physical channel for broadcast communication and a primary and a secondary synchronization channel. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 8 , wherein the physical downlink communication channels comprise a physical channel configured for downlink control, the method further comprising:
 excluding certain component carriers to be used for transmission from having allocated the physical channel con-figured for downlink control;   communicating, on a component carrier which is not excluded by the radio resource control means, information that the excluded component carriers are not to be monitored, allocation of a physical channel configured for shared uplink use to a component carrier to be used for receiving and allocation of a physical channel configured for shared downlink use to a component carrier to be used for transmission; and   allocating, for consecutive time intervals, the physical channel configured for downlink control to not excluded component carriers to be used for transmission.   
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 10 , wherein
 the physical downlink communication channels comprise a physical channel configured for hybrid automatic repeat request indication, the method further comprising:   excluding those component carriers to be used for transmission from having allocated the physical channel configured for hybrid automatic repeat request indication which are excluded from having allocated the physical channel configured for downlink control.   
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 10 , wherein
 the physical downlink communication channels comprise a physical control channel configured for format indication, and the method further comprising:   excluding those component carriers to be used for transmission from having allocated the physical control channel configured for format indication which are excluded from having allocated the physical channel configured for downlink control.   
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 8 , wherein the physical downlink communication channels comprise a physical channel configured for shared downlink use. 
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 13 , further comprising:
 applying dynamic downlink inter-cell interference coordination.   
     
     
         15 . A computer program product comprising computer-executable components which perform, when the program is run on a computer:
 allocating physical downlink communication channels to respective component carriers per time interval according to a communication service in which communication is performed on an aggregation of component carriers of one or more frequency band such that component carriers to be used for transmission are separated from component carriers to be used for receiving by a transmit-receive-frequency gap band,   wherein not all available component carriers to be used for transmission are allocated in the same time interval, and   wherein, in each time interval, the physical downlink communication channels to be allocated for transmission are allocated to the available component carriers to be used for transmission such that, in each frequency band, the overall emission spectrum does not reach beyond the transmit-receive-frequency gap band.   
     
     
         16 . The computer program product according to  claim 15 , embodied as a computer-readable storage medium.