Apparatuses and methods for beam sweeping in a wireless communication system

• US 10,666,341 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2018
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Original Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Inventors: Tsai, Chiou-Wei, Gau, Guo-Hao, Liang, Cheng-Po, Li, Xiu-Sheng
• Primary Examiner(s): Malek, Leila
• Application Number:
  US15/893,885
• Publication Number:
  US 20180234156A1
• Time in Patent Office: 834 Days
• Field of Search: 375267
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 15/00 Suppression or limitation of noise or interference by means associated with receiver H04B1/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0404 the mobile station comprising multiple antennas, e.g. to provide uplink diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0408 using two or more beams, i.e. beam diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0686 Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and simultaneous transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0695 using beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/088 using beam selection

Abstract

A wireless communication device including a controller and a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium operatively coupled to the controller is provided. The controller executes program code stored in the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium to perform operations including: transmitting or receiving wireless signals by sweeping beams in a non-sequential order.

Claims

1. A wireless communication device, comprising:

a controller; and

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, operatively coupled to the controller;

wherein the controller is configured to execute program code stored in the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium to perform operations comprising;

transmitting or receiving wireless signals by sweeping beams in a non-sequential order, wherein the sweeping of the beams is performed according to interference between beams from the wireless communication device relative to a predetermined threshold at a boundary between a current beam and another beam, wherein a non-neighboring beam of the current beam is selected as a next beam if the interference is greater than the predetermined threshold.

2. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the non-sequential order indicates that some or all of the beams are not followed by their neighboring beams.

3. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the wireless signals are transmitted or received by sweeping the beams in the non-sequential order to mitigate inter-Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)-symbol interferences.

4. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the transmitted wireless signals comprise multiple Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) signals in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a fifth-generation (5G) User Equipment (UE).

5. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the transmitted wireless signals comprise multiple Sounding Reference Signals (SRS) in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G UE.

6. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the transmitted wireless signals comprise Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) and Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) information in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.

7. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the transmitted wireless signals comprise multiple Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RS) in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.

8. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the received wireless signals comprise multiple PRACH signals in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.

9. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the received wireless signals comprise multiple Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) signals in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.

10. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the received wireless signals comprise multiple Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) signals in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.

11. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the received wireless signals comprise at least two of a PRACH signal, an SRS, a PUCCH signal, and a PUSCH signal in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.

12. A beam sweeping method, executed by a wireless communication device, comprising:

transmitting or receiving wireless signals by sweeping the beams in a non-sequential order, wherein the sweeping of the beams is performed according to interference between beams from the wireless communication device relative to a predetermined threshold at a boundary between a current beam and another beam,

wherein sweeping the beams in the non-sequential order comprises selecting a non-neighboring beam of the current beam as a next beam if the interference is greater than the predetermined threshold.

13. The beam sweeping method of claim 12, wherein the non-sequential order indicates that some or all of the beams are not followed by their neighboring beams.

14. The beam sweeping method of claim 12, wherein the wireless signals are transmitted or received by sweeping the beams in the non-sequential order to mitigate inter-OFDM-symbol interferences.

15. The beam sweeping method of claim 12, wherein the transmitted wireless signals comprise multiple PRACH signals in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G UE.

16. The beam sweeping method of claim 12, wherein the transmitted wireless signals comprise multiple SRS in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G UE.

17. The beam sweeping method of claim 12, wherein the transmitted wireless signals comprise SSBs and PBCH information in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.

18. The beam sweeping method of claim 12, wherein the transmitted wireless signals comprise multiple CSI-RS in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.

19. The beam sweeping method of claim 12, wherein the received wireless signals comprise multiple PRACH signals in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.

20. The beam sweeping method of claim 12, wherein the received wireless signals comprise multiple PUSCH signals in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.

21. The beam sweeping method of claim 12, wherein the received wireless signals comprise multiple PUCCH signals in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.

22. The beam sweeping method of claim 12, wherein the received wireless signals comprise at least two of a PRACH signal, an SRS, a PUCCH signal, and a PUSCH signal in different time intervals, when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular station.