INDICATING A RANGE OF BEAM CORRESPONDENCE IN A WIRELESS NODE

• US 20180132252A1
• Filed: 07/31/2017
• Published: 05/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Islam, Muhammad Nazmul, Subramanian, Sundar, Li, Junyi, Cezanne, Juergen, Abedini, Navid, Sadiq, Bilal, Luo, Tao, Sampath, Ashwin
• Granted Patent: US 10,849,134 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/06 Reselecting a communication resource in the serving access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/32 by location or mobility data, e.g. speed data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Techniques are described for wireless communication. One method includes exchanging one or more signals between a first wireless node and a second wireless node and determining, at the first wireless node and based at least in part on the one or more signals, a range of correspondence between at least one of a transmit beam of the first wireless node and a receive beam of the first wireless node.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising:

exchanging one or more signals between a first wireless node and a second wireless node; and

determining, at the first wireless node and based at least in part on the one or more signals, a range of correspondence between at least one of a transmit beam of the first wireless node and a receive beam of the first wireless node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the range of correspondence comprises full correspondence, partial correspondence, or no correspondence.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a range of correspondence between a transmit beam of the second wireless node and a receive beam of the second wireless node.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein exchanging one or more signals between the first wireless node and the second wireless node comprises:

receiving, from the second wireless node, a signal indicating a range of calibration values associated with a transmit path and a receive path of the second wireless node.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

using the range of calibration values to determine a range of correspondence between a transmit beam of the second wireless node and a receive beam of the second wireless node.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the range of calibration values includes at least one of a range of amplitude error of antenna weights, a range of phase error of antenna weights, or combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the range of calibration values includes at least a difference between amplitude error of antenna weights associated with the transmit path and the receive path, a difference between phase error of antenna weights associated with the transmit path and the receive path, or combinations thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein exchanging one or more signals between the first wireless node and the second wireless node comprises:

receiving, from the second wireless node, a signal indicating a downlink quality of a transmission on a downlink beam pair that includes the transmit beam of the first wireless node and a receive beam of the second wireless node; and

determining, at the first wireless node, an uplink quality of a transmission on an uplink beam pair that includes a transmit beam of the second wireless node and the receive beam of the first wireless node.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first wireless node and the second wireless node apply a similar beam shape for the transmit beam and the receive beam.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the similar beam shape indicates that the transmit beam and the receive beam use a same set of antenna elements, or beam widths, or point to a same direction, or a combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

using the downlink quality and the uplink quality to determine the range of correspondence between the transmit beam of the second wireless node and the receive beam of the second wireless node.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving the signal indicating the downlink quality comprises:

receiving an indication of at least one of a reference signal received power (RSRP), or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), or a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), or a channel quality indicator (CQI), or a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), or a combination thereof of the transmission on the downlink beam pair.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the uplink quality comprises:

determining at least one of a reference signal received power (RSRP), or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), or a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), or a channel quality indicator (CQI) or a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), or a combination thereof of the transmission on the uplink beam pair.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmit beam of the first wireless node is associated with a higher quality than other transmit beams of the first wireless node and the receive beam of the first wireless node is associated with a higher quality than other receive beams of the first wireless node.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining the range of correspondence comprises:

determining a difference between indices of the transmit beam of the first wireless node and the receive beam of the first wireless node; and

determining an uncertainty region for beam mapping based on the determined difference.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the range of correspondence corresponds to a breadth of the uncertainty region.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining a difference between indices of a receive beam of the second wireless node and a transmit beam of the second wireless node.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein exchanging one or more signals comprises:

receiving, from the second wireless node, an indication of a range of correspondence between a transmit beam of the second wireless node and a receive beam of the second wireless node.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein receiving the indication of the range of correspondence between the transmit beam of the second wireless node and the receive beam of the second wireless node comprises:

receiving the indication in a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), an extended physical broadcast channel (ePBCH), a random access channel (RACH) message, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a radio resource control (RRC) message, a master information block (MIB), or a system information block (SIB).

20. The method of claim 18, wherein receiving the indication of the range of correspondence between the transmit beam of the second wireless node and the receive beam of the second wireless node comprises:

receiving the indication as part of a handover procedure.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a range of a beam sweep to be performed based at least in part on the range of correspondence and on a triggering event.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the triggering event comprises awaking in connected mode from a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle whose duration exceeds a threshold.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the triggering event comprises a changing of a transmission or reception subarray.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein a range of a beam sweep to be performed for each of multiple simultaneous communication links is different.

25. An apparatus for wireless communication, in a system comprising:

a processor;

a memory in electronic communication with the processor; and

instructions stored in the memory and operable, when executed by the processor, to cause the apparatus to;

exchange one or more signals between a first wireless node and a second wireless node; and

determine, at the first wireless node and based at least in part on the one or more signals, a range of correspondence between at least one of a transmit beam of the first wireless node and a receive beam of the first wireless node.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the range of correspondence comprises full correspondence, partial correspondence, or no correspondence.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:

determine a range of correspondence between a transmit beam of the second wireless node and a receive beam of the second wireless node.

28. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:

receive, from the second wireless node, a signal indicating a range of calibration values associated with a transmit path and a receive path of the second wireless node.

29. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

means for exchanging one or more signals between a first wireless node and a second wireless node; and

means for determining, at the first wireless node and based at least in part on the one or more signals, a range of correspondence between at least one of a transmit beam of the first wireless node and a receive beam of the first wireless node.

30. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing code for wireless communication, the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to:

exchange one or more signals between a first wireless node and a second wireless node; and

determine, at the first wireless node and based at least in part on the one or more signals, a range of correspondence between at least one of a transmit beam of the first wireless node and a receive beam of the first wireless node.