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AppleGranted patentNetworks & wirelessInterest 3/10

Apple patents phone tech to better catch weak cell signals

Apple has been granted a patent for a method that helps phones receive clearer instructions from cell towers. The phone stores partial signal data from repeated transmissions and combines them to improve the accuracy of decoding the control channel.

Why it mattersThis technical improvement aims to make mobile connections more reliable, especially in areas with weak or unstable signal coverage.

In the filing’s own words

Approaches are described that enhance the reliability of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) detection where the PDCCH can be transmitted repeatedly with different beams. The approaches use soft combining where the user equipment (UE) combines the soft bits from each repetition, with the combined soft bits used to jointly decode the PDCCH repetitions. To support the soft combining, the UE needs to buffer the soft bits. Buffering approaches include determining what contributes towards the buffering, including scenarios where one of the linked search sets (SSs) is dropped, what is contributed in a linked SS set pair, how the duration of buffer counting is determined, and how the UE reports its maximum buffer size capability. In scenarios where the required buffer size exceeds the UE maximum buffer size, a priority rule may be used in the PDCCH decoding using the SS sets pair, where the priority is based on the SS type, the serving cell index, the SS set ID and/or the control channel resource set (CORESET) ID.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A user equipment (UE) comprising: a radio frequency (RF) receiver configured to receive a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) signal and a second PDCCH signal from a base station, the second PDCCH signal being a repetition of the first PDCCH signal and sent via a different beam from the base station than that of the first PDCCH signal, the first PDCCH signal and the second PDCCH signal sharing a same control channel element (CCE) aggregation level and a starting candidate index, the first PDCCH signal and the second PDCCH signal configured by the base station to use two linked search space (SS) sets, wherein a maximum number of linked SS sets overlapping in a time domain are predefined or are determined based on reported UE capability; processing circuitry coupled to the RF receiver, the processing circuitry configured to blindly decode the first PDCCH signal and the second PDCCH signal by obtaining respective soft-bits from the first PDCCH signal and the second PDCCH signal; a buffer coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to buffer the respective soft-bits for a duration, wherein the buffer is incremented using one of per component carrier (CC), per bandwidth part (BWP), counted across CCs in a band, counted across CCs in a band combination, counted across CCs in a frequency range (FR), or counted per UE; and the processing circuitry further configured to combine the respective soft-bits to jointly decode the first PDCCH signal and the second PDCCH signal.

Facts

Company
Apple (Apple Inc.)
Official title
Method for PDCCH buffer management
Patent number
US12744645B2
Application number
17913773
Filed
Sep 24, 2021
Granted
Sep 22, 2026
Inventors
9
Claims
20

Classified under

H04L 5/0053 Electricity & electronicsH04W 72/23 Electricity & electronics
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.