WO2014056155A1

WO2014056155A1 - High speed uplink packet access (hsupa) rate control

Info

Publication number: WO2014056155A1
Application number: PCT/CN2012/082698
Authority: WO
Inventors: Insung Kang; Surendra Boppana; Zhibin DANG
Original assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated
Priority date: 2012-10-10
Filing date: 2012-10-10
Publication date: 2014-04-17

Abstract

The present invention discloses high speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) rate control, which comprises a method of wireless communication, comprising: determining whether an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgement is received in response to a previous uplink transmission; and adjusting an uplink data rate for a current uplink transmission based at least in part on whether the acknowledgement or the negative acknowledgement was received.

Description

HIGH SPEED UPLINK PACKET ACCESS (HSUPA) RATE CONTROL

BACKGROUND

Field

[0001] Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to improving High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) rate control.

Background

[0002] Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD- SCDMA). For example, China is pursuing TD-SCDMA as the underlying air interface in the UTRAN architecture with its existing GSM infrastructure as the core network. The UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks. HSPA is a collection of two mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), that extends and improves the performance of existing wideband protocols.

[0003] As the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, research and development continue to advance the UMTS technologies not only to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband access, but to advance and enhance the user experience with mobile communications. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] FIGURE 1 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a telecommunications system.

[0005] FIGURE 2 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a frame structure in a telecommunications system.

[0006] FIGURE 3 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a node B in communication with a UE in a telecommunications system.

[0007] FIGURE 4 is a block diagram illustrating an uplink rate control method according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

[0008] FIGURE 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus employing a processing system according to one aspect of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0009] The detailed description set forth below, in connection with the appended drawings, is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring such concepts.

[0010] Turning now to FIGURE 1, a block diagram is shown illustrating an example of a telecommunications system 100. The various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented across a broad variety of telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards. By way of example and without limitation, the aspects of the present disclosure illustrated in FIGURE 1 are presented with reference to a UMTS system employing a TD-SCDMA standard. In this example, the UMTS system includes a (radio access network) RAN 102 (e.g., UTRAN) that provides various wireless services including telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and/or other services. The RAN 102 may be divided into a number of Radio Network Subsystems (RNSs) such as an RNS 107, each controlled by a Radio Network Controller (RNC) such as an RNC 106. For clarity, only the RNC 106 and the RNS 107 are shown; however, the RAN 102 may include any number of RNCs and RNSs in addition to the RNC 106 and RNS 107. The RNC 106 is an apparatus responsible for, among other things, assigning, reconfiguring and releasing radio resources within the RNS 107. The RNC 106 may be interconnected to other RNCs (not shown) in the RAN 102 through various types of interfaces such as a direct physical connection, a virtual network, or the like, using any suitable transport network.

[0011] The geographic region covered by the RNS 107 may be divided into a number of cells, with a radio transceiver apparatus serving each cell. A radio transceiver apparatus is commonly referred to as a node B in UMTS applications, but may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a base station (BS), a base transceiver station (BTS), a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), an access point (AP), or some other suitable terminology. For clarity, two node Bs 108 are shown; however, the RNS 107 may include any number of wireless node Bs. The node Bs 108 provide wireless access points to a core network 104 for any number of mobile apparatuses. Examples of a mobile apparatus include a cellular phone, a smart phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a notebook, a netbook, a smartbook, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a satellite radio, a global positioning system (GPS) device, a multimedia device, a video device, a digital audio player (e.g., MP3 player), a camera, a game console, or any other similar functioning device. The mobile apparatus is commonly referred to as user equipment (UE) in UMTS applications, but may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a mobile station (MS), a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal (AT), a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a terminal, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology. For illustrative purposes, three UEs 110 are shown in communication with the node Bs 108. The downlink (DL), also called the forward link, refers to the communication link from a node B to a UE, and the uplink (UL), also called the reverse link, refers to the communication link from a UE to a node B.

[0012] The core network 104, as shown, includes a GSM core network. However, as those skilled in the art will recognize, the various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented in a RAN, or other suitable access network, to provide UEs with access to types of core networks other than GSM networks.

[0013] In this example, the core network 104 supports circuit-switched services with a mobile switching center (MSC) 112 and a gateway MSC (GMSC) 114. One or more RNCs, such as the RNC 106, may be connected to the MSC 112. The MSC 112 is an apparatus that controls call setup, call routing, and UE mobility functions. The MSC 112 also includes a visitor location register (VLR) (not shown) that contains subscriber- related information for the duration that a UE is in the coverage area of the MSC 112. The GMSC 114 provides a gateway through the MSC 112 for the UE to access a circuit- switched network 116. The GMSC 114 includes a home location register (HLR) (not shown) containing subscriber data, such as the data reflecting the details of the services to which a particular user has subscribed. The HLR is also associated with an authentication center (AuC) that contains subscriber-specific authentication data. When a call is received for a particular UE, the GMSC 114 queries the HLR to determine the UE's location and forwards the call to the particular MSC serving that location.

[0014] The core network 104 also supports packet-data services with a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) 118 and a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) 120. GPRS, which stands for General Packet Radio Service, is designed to provide packet- data services at speeds higher than those available with standard GSM circuit-switched data services. The GGSN 120 provides a connection for the RAN 102 to a packet-based network 122. The packet-based network 122 may be the Internet, a private data network, or some other suitable packet-based network. The primary function of the GGSN 120 is to provide the UEs 110 with packet-based network connectivity. Data packets are transferred between the GGSN 120 and the UEs 110 through the SGSN 118, which performs primarily the same functions in the packet-based domain as the MSC 112 performs in the circuit- switched domain. [0015] The UMTS air interface is a spread spectrum Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) system. The spread spectrum DS-CDMA spreads user data over a much wider bandwidth through multiplication by a sequence of pseudorandom bits called chips. The TD-SCDMA standard is based on such direct sequence spread spectrum technology and additionally calls for a time division duplexing (TDD), rather than a frequency division duplexing (FDD) as used in many FDD mode UMTS/W-CDMA systems. TDD uses the same carrier frequency for both the uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) between a node B 108 and a UE 110, but divides uplink and downlink transmissions into different time slots in the carrier.

[0016] FIGURE 2 shows a frame structure 200 for a TD-SCDMA carrier. The TD-SCDMA carrier, as illustrated, has a frame 202 that is 10 ms in length. The chip rate in TD-SCDMA is 1.28 Mcps. The frame 202 has two 5 ms subframes 204, and each of the subframes 204 includes seven time slots, TS0 through TS6. The first time slot, TS0, is usually allocated for downlink communication, while the second time slot, TS1, is usually allocated for uplink communication. The remaining time slots, TS2 through TS6, may be used for either uplink or downlink, which allows for greater flexibility during times of higher data transmission times in either the uplink or downlink directions. A downlink pilot time slot (DwPTS) 206, a guard period (GP) 208, and an uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS) 210 (also known as the uplink pilot channel (UpPCH)) are located between TS0 and TS1. Each time slot, TS0-TS6, may allow data transmission multiplexed on a maximum of 16 code channels. Data transmission on a code channel includes two data portions 212 (each with a length of 352 chips) separated by a midamble 214 (with a length of 144 chips) and followed by a guard period (GP) 216 (with a length of 16 chips). The midamble 214 may be used for features, such as channel estimation, while the guard period 216 may be used to avoid inter-burst interference. Also transmitted in the data portion is some Layer 1 control information, including Synchronization Shift (SS) bits 218. Synchronization Shift bits 218 only appear in the second part of the data portion. The Synchronization Shift bits 218 immediately following the midamble can indicate three cases: decrease shift, increase shift, or do nothing in the upload transmit timing. The positions of the SS bits 218 are not generally used during uplink communications. [0017] FIGURE 3 is a block diagram of a node B 310 in communication with a UE 350 in a RAN 300, where the RAN 300 may be the RAN 102 in FIGURE 1, the node B 310 may be the node B 108 in FIGURE 1, and the UE 350 may be the UE 110 in FIGURE 1. In the downlink communication, a transmit processor 320 may receive data from a data source 312 and control signals from a controller/processor 340. The transmit processor 320 provides various signal processing functions for the data and control signals, as well as reference signals (e.g., pilot signals). For example, the transmit processor 320 may provide cyclic redundancy check (CRC) codes for error detection, coding and interleaving to facilitate forward error correction (FEC), mapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase-shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), M-phase-shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM), and the like), spreading with orthogonal variable spreading factors (OVSF), and multiplying with scrambling codes to produce a series of symbols. Channel estimates from a channel processor 344 may be used by a controller/processor 340 to determine the coding, modulation, spreading, and/or scrambling schemes for the transmit processor 320. These channel estimates may be derived from a reference signal transmitted by the UE 350 or from feedback contained in the midamble 214 (FIGURE 2) from the UE 350. The symbols generated by the transmit processor 320 are provided to a transmit frame processor 330 to create a frame structure. The transmit frame processor 330 creates this frame structure by multiplexing the symbols with a midamble 214 (FIGURE 2) from the controller/processor 340, resulting in a series of frames. The frames are then provided to a transmitter 332, which provides various signal conditioning functions including amplifying, filtering, and modulating the frames onto a carrier for downlink transmission over the wireless medium through smart antennas 334. The smart antennas 334 may be implemented with beam steering bidirectional adaptive antenna arrays or other similar beam technologies.

[0018] At the UE 350, a receiver 354 receives the downlink transmission through an antenna 352 and processes the transmission to recover the information modulated onto the carrier. The information recovered by the receiver 354 is provided to a receive frame processor 360, which parses each frame, and provides the midamble 214 (FIGURE 2) to a channel processor 394 and the data, control, and reference signals to a receive processor 370. The receive processor 370 then performs the inverse of the processing performed by the transmit processor 320 in the node B 310. More specifically, the receive processor 370 descrambles and de-spreads the symbols, and then determines the most likely signal constellation points transmitted by the node B 310 based on the modulation scheme. These soft decisions may be based on channel estimates computed by the channel processor 394. The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data, control, and reference signals. The CRC codes are then checked to determine whether the frames were successfully decoded. The data carried by the successfully decoded frames will then be provided to a data sink 372, which represents applications running in the UE 350 and/or various user interfaces (e.g., display). Control signals carried by successfully decoded frames will be provided to a controller/processor 390. When frames are unsuccessfully decoded by the receive processor 370, the controller/processor 390 may also use an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgement (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames.

[0019] In the uplink, data from a data source 378 and control signals from the controller/processor 390 are provided to a transmit processor 380. The data source 378 may represent applications running in the UE 350 and various user interfaces (e.g., keyboard). Similar to the functionality described in connection with the downlink transmission by the node B 310, the transmit processor 380 provides various signal processing functions including CRC codes, coding and interleaving to facilitate FEC, mapping to signal constellations, spreading with OVSFs, and scrambling to produce a series of symbols. Channel estimates, derived by the channel processor 394 from a reference signal transmitted by the node B 310 or from feedback contained in the midamble transmitted by the node B 310, may be used to select the appropriate coding, modulation, spreading, and/or scrambling schemes. The symbols produced by the transmit processor 380 will be provided to a transmit frame processor 382 to create a frame structure. The transmit frame processor 382 creates this frame structure by multiplexing the symbols with a midamble 214 (FIGURE 2) from the controller/processor 390, resulting in a series of frames. The frames are then provided to a transmitter 356, which provides various signal conditioning functions including amplification, filtering, and modulating the frames onto a carrier for uplink transmission over the wireless medium through the antenna 352.

[0020] The uplink transmission is processed at the node B 310 in a manner similar to that described in connection with the receiver function at the UE 350. A receiver 335 receives the uplink transmission through the antenna 334 and processes the transmission to recover the information modulated onto the carrier. The information recovered by the receiver 335 is provided to a receive frame processor 336, which parses each frame, and provides the midamble 214 (FIGURE 2) to the channel processor 344 and the data, control, and reference signals to a receive processor 338. The receive processor 338 performs the inverse of the processing performed by the transmit processor 380 in the UE 350. The data and control signals carried by the successfully decoded frames may then be provided to a data sink 339 and the controller/processor, respectively. If some of the frames were unsuccessfully decoded by the receive processor, the controller/processor 340 may also use an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgement (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames.

[0021] The controller/processors 340 and 390 may be used to direct the operation at the node B 310 and the UE 350, respectively. For example, the controller/processors 340 and 390 may provide various functions including timing, peripheral interfaces, voltage regulation, power management, and other control functions. The computer readable media of memories 342 and 392 may store data and software for the node B 310 and the UE 350, respectively. For example, the memory 392 of the UE 350 may store a rate control module 391 which, when executed by the controller/processor 390, configures the UE 350 to adjust the maximum allowed rate, as discussed below. A scheduler/processor 346 at the node B 310 may be used to allocate resources to the UEs and schedule downlink and/or uplink transmissions for the UEs.

[0022] Certain UEs may be capable of communicating on multiple radio access technologies (RATs). Such UEs may be referred to as multimode UEs. For example, a multimode UE may be capable of communications on a Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) frequency division duplexed (FDD) network such as a Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) network, a UTRA time division duplexed (TDD) network such as a Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD- SCDMA) network, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and/or a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network.

HIGH SPEED UPLINK PACKET ACCESS (HSUPA) RATE CONTROL

[0023] When a user equipment (UE) is communicating with a base station in a time division-synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) network during a high speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) operation, certain communication conditions may exist that lead to reduced uplink throughput.

[0024] High speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) operation allows a UE to transmit at high data rates upon a scheduling grant from the Node B. An enhanced dedicated transport channel (E-DCH) is used to carry HSUPA data traffic. Four physical channels are provided: E-PUCH (enhanced physical uplink channel), E-AGCH (E-DCH absolute grant channel), E-UCCH (E-DCH uplink control channel), and E- HICH (E-DCH HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) indicator channel). E-PUCH is the uplink physical channel mapping to E-DCH. The E-PUCH may be used as a service channel by the UE to carry E-DCH transmission channel data. E-UCCH is the uplink physical channel carrying control information including an enhanced transport format combination identifier (E-TFCI) and power control. An E-TFCI is a representation of communication data rate operation. E-AGCH is the downlink physical channel carrying the serving NodeB grant that allocates radio resources of E-PUCH (including power, timeslot and code). The E-HICH is a physical layer control channel used for a base station or Node B to carry hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) indication information.

[0025] As a UE moves throughout the HSUPA system, power control may be used by the base station and/or the UE to ensure that sufficient quality of service signals are received at the base station and/or the UE. The power at which a UE transmits uplink data in the HSUPA system may be controlled by the network. For example, the network may send a power control command to a UE instructing the UE to transmit uplink data at an expected transmission power. The network may further send power control commands instructing the UE to increase/decrease the expected transmission power. Sometimes, power control commands received from the network are inconsistent with a block error rate (BLER) associated with the UE. The BLER associated with the UE may be defined as a ratio of the number of erroneous blocks to the total number of blocks transmitted by the UE. Unfortunately, uplink throughput may deteriorate when the received power control commands are inconsistent with the BLER associated with the UE.

[0026] In addition, the base station may limit the maximum data rate of uplink transmissions for each UE. This limitation may be based upon the resource availability in the network, channel conditions and the like. Transmission by the UE at the maximum allowable data rate may not always result in optimal throughput for the uplink transmission.

[0027] In one aspect of the disclosure, an uplink data rate of a radio access technology is adjusted for a current uplink transmission based at least in part on whether an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) is received for a previous uplink transmission. In this aspect of the disclosure, adjusting of the uplink data rate is performed based at least in part on hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) indication (e.g., ACK/ NACK) information carried by the E-HICH. In another aspect of the disclosure, an uplink data rate of a radio access technology is selected from a grouping of consecutive communication data rates. The uplink data rate selected may be based at least in part on an ACK/NACK rate or an amount of padding within each of the consecutive communication data rates.

[0028] In operation, the base station communicates control information including a maximum uplink data rate for each UE as well as power control information over the EAGCH downlink physical channel. In case of non-scheduled mode of HSUPA, the power control information is transmitted on E-HICH downlink channel.

[0029] A UE may communicate an enhanced transport format combination identifier (E-TFCI) over the E-UCCH uplink physical channel. An E-TFCI may indicate a maximum amount of data that is sent in each uplink transmission. In one configuration, uplink throughput performance is enhanced by adjusting an uplink data rate based on an ACK/NACK rate and/or a block error rate (BLER) associated with a UE. In this configuration, a maximum E-TFCI (data rate) value is selected as follows. [0030] When an ACK is received for a previous uplink transmission, the maximum E-TFCI (MAX_ETFCI_ALLOWED) is increased as follows:

MAX_ETFCI_ALLOWED = MAX_ETFCI_ALLOWED + BLER/(1-BLER) (1)

[0031] When an NACK is received for a previous uplink transmission, the maximum E-TFCI is decreased as follows:

MAX_ETFCI_ALLOWED = MAX_ETFCI_ALLOWED - 1

(2)

[0032] In one configuration, parameters for enabling/disabling adjusting of the uplink data rate are stored, for example in a non-volatile memory. Adjusting of the uplink data rate may be disabled when the adjustment fails to provide increased uplink data throughput. A predetermined BLER may be also be stored, for example, in a nonvolatile memory.

[0033] In another configuration, consecutive E-TFCI communication data rates that are specified for a same amount of protocol data units (PDUs) are grouped together. In this configuration, an uplink data rate of a radio access technology is selected from the grouping of consecutive E-TFCI communication data rates. The uplink data rate may be selected based at least in part on an ACK/NACK rate or an amount of padding within each of the consecutive communication data rates. In one configuration, the E- TFCI with the least amount of padding is selected. Alternatively, or in addition, the uplink data rate for a current uplink transmission may be selected based on whether an ACK or a NACK was received for a previous uplink transmission. In this manner the uplink data rate is continually adjusted for each uplink transmission.

[0034] FIGURE 4 shows a wireless communication method 400 according to one aspect of the disclosure. At block 402, a UE 350 determines whether an ACK or a NACK was received for a previous uplink transmission. The determination may be performed according to a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) indication (e.g., ACK/ NACK) information carried by the E-HICH channel. At block 404, the UE adjusts an uplink data rate for a radio access technology based at least in part on whether an acknowledgement or negative acknowledgement was received for the previous uplink transmission. For example, when an ACK is received for the previous uplink transmission, the uplink data rate is increased using equation (1) for a current uplink transmission. When a NACK is received for the previous uplink transmission, the uplink data rate is decreased according to equation (2) for the current uplink transmission.

[0035] FIGURE 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus 500 employing an uplink rate control system 514. The uplink rate control system 514 may be implemented with a bus architecture, represented generally by the bus 524. The bus 524 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specific application of the uplink rate control system 514 and the overall design constraints. The bus 524 links together various circuits including one or more processors and/or hardware modules, represented by the processor 522, a determining module 502, an adjusting module 504, and the computer- readable medium 526. The bus 524 may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further.

[0036] The apparatus includes an uplink rate control system 514 coupled to a transceiver 530. The transceiver 530 is coupled to one or more antennas 520. The transceiver 530 enables communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The uplink rate control system 514 includes a processor 522 coupled to a computer-readable medium 526. The processor 522 is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium 526. The software, when executed by the processor 522, causes the uplink rate control system 514 to perform the various functions described for any particular apparatus. The computer-readable medium 526 may also be used for storing data that is manipulated by the processor 522 when executing software.

[0037] The uplink rate control system 514 includes the determining module 502 for determining whether an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgement is received for a previous uplink transmission. The determining module 502 may be a software module running in the processor 522, resident/stored in the computer-readable medium 526, one or more hardware modules coupled to the processor 522, or some combination thereof. The uplink rate control system 514 may be a component of the UE 350 and may include the memory 392, and/or the controller/processor 390.

[0038] The uplink rate control system 514 also includes the adjusting module 504 for adjusting an uplink data rate of a radio access technology for a current uplink transmission based at least in part on whether an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgement was received from the previous uplink transmission. The adjusting module 504 may be software modules running in the processor 522, resident/stored in the computer-readable medium 526, one or more hardware modules coupled to the processor 522, or some combination thereof. The uplink rate control system 514 may be a component of the UE 350 and may include the memory 392, and/or the controller/processor 390.

[0039] In one configuration, an apparatus such as a UE is configured for wireless communication including means for determining whether an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgement is received for a previous uplink transmission. In one aspect, the determining means may be the antennas 352, the receiver 354, the controller/processor 390, the memory 392, the rate control module 391, the determining module 502, antenna 520, transceiver 530 and/or the uplink rate control system 514 configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. In another aspect, the aforementioned means may be a module or any apparatus configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.

[0040] In one configuration, an apparatus such as a UE is configured for wireless communication including means for adjusting an uplink data rate of a radio access technology for a current uplink transmission based at least in part on whether an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgement was received for the previous uplink transmission. In one aspect, the adjusting means may be the controller/processor 390, the memory 392, the rate control module 391, adjusting module 504, and/or the uplink rate control system 514 configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. In another aspect, the aforementioned means may be a module or any apparatus configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. [0041] Several aspects of a telecommunications system has been presented with reference to HSUPA systems. As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, various aspects described throughout this disclosure may be extended to other telecommunication systems, network architectures and communication standards. By way of example, various aspects may be extended to other UMTS systems such as W- CDMA, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), TD-SCDMA, High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) and TD-CDMA. Various aspects may also be extended to systems employing Long Term Evolution (LTE) (in FDD, TDD, or both modes), LTE- Advanced (LTE-A) (in FDD, TDD, or both modes), CDMA2000, Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Ultra- Wideband (UWB), Bluetooth, and/or other suitable systems. The actual telecommunication standard, network architecture, and/or communication standard employed will depend on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system.

[0042] Several processors have been described in connection with various apparatuses and methods. These processors may be implemented using electronic hardware, computer software, or any combination thereof. Whether such processors are implemented as hardware or software will depend upon the particular application and overall design constraints imposed on the system. By way of example, a processor, any portion of a processor, or any combination of processors presented in this disclosure may be implemented with a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor (DSP), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a state machine, gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable processing components configured to perform the various functions described throughout this disclosure. The functionality of a processor, any portion of a processor, or any combination of processors presented in this disclosure may be implemented with software being executed by a microprocessor, microcontroller, DSP, or other suitable platform.

[0043] Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. The software may reside on a computer-readable medium. A computer- readable medium may include, by way of example, memory such as a magnetic storage device (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strip), an optical disk (e.g., compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD)), a smart card, a flash memory device (e.g., card, stick, key drive), random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), a register, or a removable disk. Although memory is shown separate from the processors in the various aspects presented throughout this disclosure, the memory may be internal to the processors (e.g., cache or register).

[0044] Computer-readable media may be embodied in a computer-program product. By way of example, a computer-program product may include a computer- readable medium in packaging materials. Those skilled in the art will recognize how best to implement the described functionality presented throughout this disclosure depending on the particular application and the overall design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0045] It is to be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed is an illustration of exemplary processes. Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods may be rearranged. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented unless specifically recited therein.

[0046] The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean "one and only one" unless specifically so stated, but rather "one or more." Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term "some" refers to one or more. A phrase referring to "at least one of a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including single members. As an example, "at least one of: a, b, or c" is intended to cover: a; b; c; a and b; a and c; b and c; and a, b and c. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is to be construed under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase "means for" or, in the case of a method claim, the element is recited using the phrase "step for."

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

determining whether an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgement is received in response to a previous uplink transmission; and

adjusting an uplink data rate for a current uplink transmission based at least in part on whether the acknowledgement or the negative acknowledgement was received.

2. The method of claim 1, in which adjusting comprises increasing the uplink data rate according to a predetermined block error rate when an acknowledgment is received for the previous uplink transmission.

3. The method of claim 2, in which increasing the uplink data rate is based at least in part on a maximum enhanced transmit format combination indicator (E-TFCI) value and a block error rate value.

4. The method of claim 1, in which the uplink data rate is decreased when a negative acknowledgment is received for the previous uplink transmission.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising disabling the adjusting.

6. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

grouping selected consecutive communication data rates that are specified for a same amount of protocol data units (PDUs); and

selecting an uplink data rate from the selected consecutive communication data rates based at least in part on an acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement rate or an amount of padding within the selected consecutive communication data rates.

7. The method of claim 6, in which selecting comprises selecting the uplink data rate with a least amount of padding.

8. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, the at least one processor being configured: to determine whether an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgement is received in response to a previous uplink transmission; and

to adjust an uplink data rate for a current uplink transmission based at least in part on whether the acknowledgement or the negative acknowledgement was received.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, in which the at least one processor is further configured to adjust by increasing the uplink data rate according to a predetermined block error rate when an acknowledgment is received for the previous uplink transmission.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, in which the at least one processor is further configured to increase the uplink data rate is based at least in part on a maximum enhanced transmit format combination indicator (E-TFCI) value and a block error rate value.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, in which the uplink data rate is decreased when a negative acknowledgment is received for the previous uplink transmission.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, in which the at least one processor is further configured to disable the adjusting of the uplink data rate.

13. A computer program product operable for wireless communication, the computer program product comprising:

a computer-readable medium having non-transitory program code recorded thereon, the program code comprising:

program code to determine whether an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgement is received in response to a previous uplink transmission; and

program code to adjust an uplink data rate for a current uplink transmission based at least in part on whether the acknowledgement or the negative acknowledgement was received.

14. An apparatus operable for wireless communication, comprising:

means for grouping selected consecutive communication data rates that are specified for a same amount of protocol data units (PDUs); and means for selecting an uplink data rate from the selected consecutive communication data rates based at least in part on an acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement rate or an amount of padding within the selected consecutive communication data rates.