Facilitating enhanced beam management in a wireless communication system

• US 10,257,835 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2017
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Akoum, Salam, Ghosh, Arunabha, Wang, Xiaoyi
• Primary Examiner(s): Elpenord, Candal
• Application Number:
  US15/469,193
• Publication Number:
  US 20180279286A1
• Time in Patent Office: 746 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0408 using two or more beams, i.e. beam diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0695 using beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00 Hand-off or reselection arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0077 of access information of target access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0833 Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Enhanced beam management for a wireless communication system is provided. In one example, a method comprises: determining, by a device comprising a processor, first beam information for a selected first beam of beams associated with a base station device, wherein the selected first beam is for downlink transmission; determining, by the device, second beam information for a selected second beam of the beams associated with the base station device, wherein the selected second beam is an alternative to the selected first beam for transmission of downlink data to the device, and the determining the second beam information is performed during a random access channel procedure; and transmitting, by the device, to a network device, the first beam information and the second beam information.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining, by a device comprising a processor, first beam information for a selected first beam of beams associated with a base station device, wherein the selected first beam is for downlink transmission;

determining, by the device, second beam information for a selected second beam of the beams associated with the base station device, wherein the selected second beam is an alternative to the selected first beam for transmission of downlink data to the device, and wherein the determining the second beam information is performed during a random-access channel procedure; and

transmitting, by the device, the first beam information and the second beam information;

wherein the random-access channel procedure comprises a procedure to re-establish a connection for the device after failure of a communication channel to which the device was connected, and wherein the connection is for handover of the device from the communication channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the second beam information comprises transmitting the second beam information in a message comprising an identity of the device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the selected second beam is employed by the base station device for downlink transmission in the random-access procedure.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second beam information is used to switch the transmission for the selected first beam to the selected second beam based on the determination that the second beam satisfies a defined criterion, and wherein the defined criterion comprises a criterion of whether the power of the first beam is below a defined threshold, or the load of the first beam is greater than a defined load.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the second beam information comprises measuring signal strengths of the beams, and wherein the transmitting the second beam information comprises transmitting the second beam information in a message employed to transmit identity information for the device on an uplink channel.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the first beam information for the selected first beam comprises selecting a synchronization signal block that results in a highest received power of a reference signal received by the device.

7. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

determining first beam information for a selected first beam of beams associated with a base station device, wherein the selected first beam is for downlink transmission;

determining second beam information for a selected second beam of the beams associated with the base station device, wherein the selected second beam is an alternative to the selected first beam for transmission of downlink data to a device, and wherein the determining and reporting of the second beam information are performed during a random-access channel procedure; and

transmitting, the first beam information and the second beam information;

wherein the random-access channel procedure comprises a procedure to re-establish a connection for the device after failure of a communication channel to which the device was connected, and wherein the connection is for handover of the device from the communication channel.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the transmitting the second beam information comprises transmitting the second beam information in a device identity message.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the selected second beam is employed by the base station device for downlink transmission to the device from the base station device.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the second beam information is used to switch the transmission for the selected first beam to the selected second beam based on the determination that the second beam satisfies a defined criterion.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the defined criterion comprises a criterion of whether the load of the first beam is greater than a defined load.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the determining the second beam information comprises measuring signal strengths of the beams, and wherein the transmitting the second beam information comprises transmitting a message, comprising the second beam information and identity information for the device, on an uplink channel.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the random-access channel procedure comprises a procedure to re-establish a connection for the device after failure of a communication channel to which the device was connected, and wherein the device is transferred to the connection from the communication channel after the failure.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the determining the selected first beam comprises selecting a synchronization signal block that results in a highest received power of a reference signal received by the device.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

determining first beam information for a selected first beam of beams associated with a base station device, wherein the selected first beam is for downlink transmission;

determining second beam information for a selected second beam of the beams associated with the base station device, wherein the selected second beam is an alternative to the selected first beam for transmission of downlink data to the device, and wherein the determining the second beam information is performed during a random-access channel procedure; and

transmitting, by the apparatus, the first beam information and the second beam information;

wherein the random-access channel procedure comprises a procedure to re-establish a connection for the device after failure of a communication channel to which the device was connected, and wherein the connection is for handover of the device from the communication channel.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting the second beam information in a message comprising an identity of the device.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the selected second beam is employed by the base station device for downlink transmission in the random-access procedure.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the second beam information is used to switch the transmission for the selected first beam to the selected second beam based on the determination that the second beam satisfies a defined criterion, and wherein the defined criterion comprises a criterion of whether the power of the first beam is below a defined threshold.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the determining the second beam information comprises measuring signal strengths of the beams.