D2D LINK DISCOVERY METHOD

• US 20170041974A1
• Filed: 10/24/2016
• Published: 02/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: You, Chenglin, Liao, Defu, Zhao, Yuqing
• Granted Patent: US 10,154,531 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0456 Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

A D2D link discovery method, which includes: obtaining, by UE, a neighboring UE list from a server, where the neighboring UE list includes related information of M neighboring UEs, and the related information is information required by the UE to determine whether a D2D connection to corresponding neighboring UE can be established by using a multiple-antenna technology; extracting, by the UE, the related information of the M neighboring UEs from the neighboring UE list, and determining N neighboring UEs from the M neighboring UEs based on the related information of the M neighboring UEs, where the N neighboring UEs are UEs to which D2D connections can be established by the UE by using the multiple-antenna technology; and performing, by the UE based on the multiple-antenna technology, link mapping between the UE and the N neighboring UEs to obtain respective links corresponding to the N neighboring UEs.

Claims

1. A device to device (D2D) link discovery method, comprising:

obtaining, by user equipment (UE), a neighboring UE list from a server, wherein the neighboring UE list comprises related information of M neighboring UEs, the related information is information required by the UE to determine whether a D2D connection to corresponding neighboring UE can be established by using a multiple-antenna technology, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 2;

extracting, by the UE, the related information of the M neighboring UEs from the neighboring UE list, and determining N neighboring UEs from the M neighboring UEs based on the related information of the M neighboring UEs, wherein the N neighboring UEs are UEs to which D2D connections can be established by the UE by using the multiple-antenna technology, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; and

performing, by the UE based on the multiple-antenna technology, link mapping between the UE and the N neighboring UEs to obtain respective links corresponding to the N neighboring UEs.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining, by the UE, N neighboring UEs from the M neighboring UEs based on the related information of the M neighboring UEs comprises:

determining, by the UE if the UE has established a D2D connection to another UE, that the other UE belongs to the N neighboring UEs, wherein the other UE is any UE of the M neighboring UEs.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

extracting, by the UE if the UE does not establish the D2D connection to the other UE, related information of the other UE from the related information of the M neighboring UEs;

determining, by the UE based on the related information of the other UE, whether a D2D connection to the other UE can be established; and

determining, by the UE if the D2D connection to the other UE can be established, that the other UE belongs to the N neighboring UEs;

or determining, by the UE if the D2D connection to the other UE cannot be established, that the other UE does not belong to the N neighboring UEs.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein determining, by the UE based on the related information of the other UE, whether a D2D connection to the other UE can be established comprises:

if the related information of the other UE comprises all necessary information of a side of the other UE that is required by the UE to determine whether the D2D connection to the other UE can be established by using the multiple-antenna technology, determining, by the UE based on the related information of the other UE, whether the D2D connection to the other UE can be established by using the multiple-antenna technology; and

/or

if the related information of the other UE does not comprise all necessary information of the side of the other UE that is required by the UE to determine whether the D2D connection to the other UE can be established by using the multiple-antenna technology, obtaining, by the UE, supplementary necessary information from the other UE by using a data connection except the D2D connection, and determining, based on the related information of the other UE and the supplementary necessary information, whether the D2D connection to the other UE can be established by using the multiple-antenna technology, wherein the supplementary necessary information is information obtained after the related information of the other UE is excluded from all the necessary information.

5. The method according to of claim 1, after performing, by the UE based on the multiple-antenna technology, link mapping between the UE and the N neighboring UEs to obtain respective links corresponding to the N neighboring UEs, further comprising:

sending, by the UE to the server, information indicating that the UE can establish D2D connections to the N neighboring UEs; and

/or

establishing, by the UE based on the respective links corresponding to the N neighboring UEs, the D2D connections to the N neighboring UEs by using the multiple-antenna technology.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

adjusting and/or remaining, by the UE if the UE has established a D2D connection to another UE except the M neighboring UEs, the D2D connection to the other UE except the M neighboring UEs.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the related information comprises:

location information, used to represent a current geological location of the corresponding neighboring UE; and

/or

capability information, used to represent a type of a multiple-antenna technology supported by the corresponding neighboring UE.

8. User equipment (UE), comprising:

a memory, configured to store program code; and

a processor, connected to the memory, configured to obtain the program code from the memory to;

obtain a neighboring UE list from a server, wherein the neighboring UE list comprises related information of M neighboring UEs, the related information is information required by the UE to determine whether a device-to-device (D2D) connection to corresponding neighboring UE can be established by using a multiple-antenna technology, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 2,

extract the related information of the M neighboring UEs from the neighboring UE list,

determine N neighboring UEs from the M neighboring UEs based on the related information of the M neighboring UEs, wherein the N neighboring UEs are UEs to which D2D connections can be established by the UE by using the multiple-antenna technology, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and

perform, based on the multiple-antenna technology, link mapping between the UE and the N neighboring UEs to obtain respective links corresponding to the N neighboring UEs.

9. The UE according to claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to:

if the UE has established a D2D connection to another UE, determine that the other UE belongs to the N neighboring UEs, wherein the other UE is any UE of the M neighboring UEs.

10. The UE according to claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to:

if the UE does not establish the D2D connection to the other UE, extract related information of the other UE from the related information of the M neighboring UEs;

determine, based on the related information of the other UE, whether a D2D connection to the other UE can be established; and

if the D2D connection to the other UE can be established, determine that the other UE belongs to the N neighboring UEs, or if the D2D connection to the other UE cannot be established, determine that the other UE does not belong to the N neighboring UEs.

11. The UE according to claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to:

if the related information of the other UE comprises all necessary information of a side of the other UE that is required by the UE to determine whether the D2D connection to the other UE can be established by using the multiple-antenna technology, determine, based on the related information of the other UE, whether the D2D connection to the other UE can be established by using the multiple-antenna technology; and

/or

if the related information of the other UE does not comprise all necessary information of the side of the other UE that is required by the UE to determine whether the D2D connection to the other UE can be established by using the multiple-antenna technology, obtain supplementary necessary information from the other UE by using a data connection except the D2D connection, and determine, based on the related information of the other UE and the supplementary necessary information, whether the D2D connection to the other UE can be established by using the multiple-antenna technology, wherein the supplementary necessary information is information obtained after the related information of the other UE is excluded from all the necessary information.

12. The UE according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to:

send, to the server, information indicating that the UE can establish D2D connections to the N neighboring UEs; and

/or

establish the D2D connections to the N neighboring UEs based on the respective links corresponding to the N neighboring UEs and by using the multiple-antenna technology.

13. The UE according to claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to:

if the UE has established a D2D connection to another UE except the M neighboring UEs, adjust and/or remain the D2D connection to the other UE except the M neighboring UEs.

14. The UE according to claim 13, wherein the related information comprises:

location information, used to represent a current geological location of the corresponding neighboring UE; and

/or

capability information, used to represent a type of a multiple-antenna technology supported by the corresponding neighboring UE.

15. The UE according to claim 8, wherein the multiple-antenna technology comprises:

a beamforming technology; and

/or

a spatial multiplexing technology.

16. The UE according to claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to:

extract, from related information of a first UE of the N neighboring UE, capability information corresponding to the first UE;

determine, based on the capability information of the first UE, a type of a multiple-antenna technology supported by the first UE; and

establish a corresponding D2D connection to the first UE based on the type of the multiple-antenna technology supported by the first UE and a link corresponding to the first UE.

17. The UE according to claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to:

if the capability information of the first UE represents that the first UE supports a UE-specific reference signal, determine that the first UE supports a D2D connection that is based on a beamforming technology, and establish the D2D connection to the first UE based on the beamforming technology and the link corresponding to the first UE; and

/or

if the capability information of the first UE represents that the first UE supports orthogonal cover code OCC, determine that the first UE supports a D2D connection that is based on a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) technology, and establish the D2D connection to the first UE based on the MU-MIMO technology and the link corresponding to the first UE.