Fine granularity ack/nack feedback for 5g communication system

Abstract

There is provided a method comprising determining a number of acknowledgment bits allocated to at least one transmit block, the at least one transmit block comprising a plurality of code blocks, allocating each of the plurality of code blocks to a respective code block group, based on the number of acknowledgment bits allocated to the at least one transmit block and the number of the plurality of code blocks, wherein each code block group is associated with one of the number of acknowledgment bits and causing transmission of the acknowledgment bit associated with each respective code block group based on a determined acknowledgement result for the respective code block group.

1 . A method comprising:
 determining a number of acknowledgment bits allocated to at least one transmit block, the at least one transmit block comprising a plurality of code blocks;   allocating each of the plurality of code blocks to a respective code block group, based on the number of acknowledgment bits allocated to the at least one transmit block and the number of the plurality of code blocks, wherein each code block group is associated with one of the number of acknowledgment bits; and   causing transmission of the acknowledgment bit associated with each respective code block group based on a determined acknowledgement result for the respective code block group.   
     
     
         2 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein determining the number of acknowledgment bits allocated to a transmit block comprises:
 determining the number of acknowledgement bits allocated to a feedback instance, the feedback instance comprising at least one process including the at least one transmit block; and   allocating the acknowledgement bits to the at least one process based on transmit block size.   
     
     
         3 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein determining the number of acknowledgment bits allocated to a transmit block comprises:
 determining the number of acknowledgement bits allocated to a process, the process including the at least one transmit block; and   allocating the acknowledgement bits to the at least one transmit block based on transmit block size.   
     
     
         4 . A method according to  claim 2 , wherein, if the feedback instance includes a plurality of processes or the at least one process includes a plurality of transmit blocks, allocating the acknowledgment bits to the processes or transmit blocks, respectively, based on transmit block size comprises:
 determining a transmit block size ratio between the processes or between the transmit blocks; and   allocating the acknowledgement bits based on an acknowledgement bit ratio closest to the transmit block ratio.   
     
     
         5 . A method according to  claim 3   4 , comprising determining the transmit block size based on transmission parameters. 
     
     
         6 . A method according to  claim 5 , wherein the transmission parameters comprise at least one of modulation coding scheme and physical resource block number. 
     
     
         7 . A method according to  claim 2 , comprising receiving first information from a base station, said first information comprising an indication of the number of acknowledgment bits allocated to the feedback instance. 
     
     
         8 . A method according to  claim 1 , comprising receiving switching information from the base station, the switching information comprising an indication to switch from a first feedback scheme to a second feedback scheme. 
     
     
         9 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein the number of code blocks in each group is equal or the number of code blocks in each group differs by 1. 
     
     
         10 . A method according to  claim 9 , wherein m-r code block groups comprise L number of code blocks and r code block groups have L+1 code blocks, wherein m is the number of acknowledgment bits, L is the floor to the quotient of the number of the plurality of code blocks and the number of acknowledgement bits and r is the remainder. 
     
     
         11 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein if the transmitted acknowledgement bit is a negative acknowledgement;
 receiving a retransmission of the code blocks of the code block group.   
     
     
         12 . A method comprising:
 receiving an acknowledgment bit from a user equipment for at least one code block group of at least one transmit block, the at least one transmit block comprising a plurality of code blocks, wherein each of the plurality of code blocks is allocated to a respective code block group based on the number of acknowledgment bits allocated to the at least one transmit block and the number of the plurality of code blocks.   
     
     
         13 . A method according to  claim 12 , comprising providing first information to the user equipment, said first information comprising an indication of the number of acknowledgment bits allocated to a feedback instance, the feedback instance comprising at least one process including the at least one transmit block. 
     
     
         14 . A method according to  claim 12 , comprising providing switching information to the user equipment, the switching information comprising an indication to switch from a feedback scheme to a second feedback scheme. 
     
     
         15 . A method according to  claim 12 , wherein the number of code blocks in each group is equal or the number of code blocks in each group differs by 1. 
     
     
         16 . A method according to  claim 15 , wherein m-r code block groups comprise L number of code blocks and r code block groups have L+1 code blocks, wherein m is the number of acknowledgment bits, L is the floor to the quotient of the number of the plurality of code blocks and the number of acknowledgement bits and r is the remainder. 
     
     
         17 . A method according to  claim 12 , wherein if the received acknowledgement bit is a negative acknowledgement;
 providing a retransmission of the code blocks of the code block group.   
     
     
         18 . An apparatus comprising means for performing a method according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
         19 . A computer program product for a computer, comprising software code portions for performing the method of  claim 1  when the product is run on the computer. 
     
     
         20 . An apparatus comprising:
 at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:   determine a number of acknowledgment bits allocated to at least one transmit block, the at least one transmit block comprising a plurality of code blocks;   allocate each of the plurality of code blocks to a respective code block group, based on the number of acknowledgment bits allocated to the at least one transmit block and the number of the plurality of code blocks, wherein each code block group is associated with one of the number of acknowledgment bits; and   cause transmission of the acknowledgment bit associated with each respective code block group based on a determined acknowledgement result for the respective code block group.   
     
     
         21 . An apparatus comprising:
 at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:   receive an acknowledgment bit from a user equipment for at least one code block group of at least one transmit block, the at least one transmit block comprising a plurality of code blocks, wherein each of the plurality of code blocks is allocated to a respective code block group based on the number of acknowledgment bits allocated to the at least one transmit block and the number of the plurality of code blocks.   
     
     
         22 . A computer program product for a computer, comprising software code portions for performing the method of  claim 12  when the product is run on the computer.