BEAMFORMED TRANSMISSION IN CELLULAR SYSTEM

• US 20180351624A1
• Filed: 09/14/2015
• Published: 12/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Hakola, Sami-Jukka, Tiirola, Esa Tapani
• Granted Patent: US 10,574,326 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0632 Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0695 using beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0001 Systems modifying transmission characteristics according to link quality, e.g. power backoff adaptive data allocation for multicarrier modulation H04L5/0044; controlling transmission power for radio systems H04W52/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering

Abstract

There is provided a solution for efficient communications in a cellular communication system employing beamforming transmissions. In an embodiment, a terminal device (120) carries out the following: scanning for at least one message amongst a plurality of radio beams (112, 114) in a cell (100) according to a search space defining a plurality of scanning configurations; measuring a signal quality of at least one radio beam in the cell; adapting the search space on the basis of the measured signal quality; and performing said scanning for the at least one message according to the adapted search space.

Claims

1. A method, comprising in a terminal device:

scanning for at least one message amongst a plurality of radio beams in a cell according to a search space defining a plurality of scanning configurations;

measuring a signal quality of at least one radio beam in the cell;

adapting the search space on the basis of the measured signal quality; and

performing said scanning for the at least one message according to the adapted search space.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing transmission of a message identifying the at least one radio beam and comprising an information element indicating the signal quality for the at least one measured radio beam.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said adapting the search space comprises at least one of:

removing at least one link adaptation parameter configuration of at least one radio beam from the search space, and

removing at least one radio beam from the search space.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from a network node operating said cell, a beam configuration message identifying at least one radio beam transmitted in the cell; and

adapting the search space on the basis of the beam configuration message by removing from the search space at least one radio beam not identified in the beam configuration message.

4-5. -5. (canceled)

7-15. -15. (canceled)

16. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor, and

at least one memory comprising a computer program code, wherein the processor, the memory, and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to;

scan for at least one message amongst a plurality of radio beams in a cell according to a search space defining a plurality of scanning configurations;

measure a signal quality of at least one radio beam in the cell;

adapt the search space on the basis of the measured signal quality; and

perform said scanning for the at least one message according to the adapted search space.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor, the memory, and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to cause transmission of a message identifying the at least one measured radio beam and comprising an information element indicating the signal quality for the at least one measured radio beam.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor, the memory, and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to adapt the search space by removing at least one link adaptation parameter configuration of at least one radio beam from the search space.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said removing comprises removing at least one modulation-and-coding-scheme configuration of at least one radio beam from the search space.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor, the memory, and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to adapt the search space by removing at least one radio beam from the search space.

21. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor, the memory, and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to:

receive, from a network node operating said cell, a beam configuration message identifying at least one radio beam transmitted in the cell; and

adapt the search space on the basis of the beam configuration message by removing from the search space at least one radio beam not identified in the beam configuration message.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processor, the memory, and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to:

determine a candidate beam set for the terminal device;

compare the candidate beam set with the at least one radio beam transmitted in the cell identified in the beam configuration message; and

upon detecting that at least one radio beam in the beam configuration message is not present in the candidate beam set, removing from the search space the corresponding at least one radio beam.

23. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor, and

at least one memory comprising a computer program code, wherein the processor, the memory, and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to;

cause transmission of a plurality of radio beams in a cell according to a plurality of different beamforming configurations;

acquire a message originating from a terminal device, identifying at least one of the plurality of radio beams, and comprising an information element indicating channel quality for each of the identified at least one of the plurality of radio beams;

adapt, on the basis of the received information element, at least one radio beam configuration associated with the terminal device; and

cause transmission of a message to the terminal device according to the adapted radio beam configuration.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the processor, the memory, and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to adapt the at least one radio beam configuration by adapting a link adaptation parameter configuration of a radio beam.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the processor, the memory, and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to adapt the link adaptation parameter configuration by adapting at least one modulation-and-coding-scheme configuration of the radio beam.

26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the processor, the memory, and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to adapt the at least one radio beam configuration by removing a radio beam from a set of radio beams to which the network node allocates messages addressed to the terminal device.

27. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the processor, the memory, and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to:

determine a set of transmission radio beams for the cell, wherein the set of transmission radio beams is a subset of all radio beams supported by the network node; and

cause transmission of a beam configuration message identifying the transmission radio beams comprised in the set.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the beam configuration message identifies the transmission radio beams that each carry messages to a plurality of terminal devices.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the beam configuration message identifies the transmission radio beams for a limited time period.

30. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the message comprises a downlink control message.

31. The apparatus of claim 23, further comprising a communication interface comprising hardware providing the apparatus with radio communication capability in the cellular communication system.

32-34. -34. (canceled)