Facilitating signaling and transmission protocols for enhanced beam management for initial access

• US 9,949,298 B1
• Filed: 05/04/2017
• Issued: 04/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2017
• 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, Novlan, Thomas, Wang, Xiaoyi, Ghosh, Arunabha, Bendlin, Ralf
• Primary Examiner(s): Doan, Phuoc H
• Application Number:
  US15/587,223
• Time in Patent Office: 348 Days
• Field of Search: 370326, 370329, 370336, 4554521
• 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 74/006 in the downlink, i.e. towards the terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0833 Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access

Abstract

Enhanced beam management for a wireless communication system is provided. In one example, a method comprises: receiving, from a mobile device, a message indicating first beam information for a selected first beam of beams associated with the base station device, wherein the message is a first received message of a random access channel procedure; and receiving, from the mobile device, message indicating 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 mobile device from the base station device, and wherein the second beam is indicated in the first message of a two-step random access channel procedure. Methods of signaling the second beam and/or transmission diversity approaches employing the first beam and/or the second beam are described.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a base station device comprising a processor from a mobile device, a message indicating first beam information for a selected first beam of beams associated with the base station device and indicating 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 mobile device from the base station device, wherein receiving the message comprises receiving the message as a first message of a multi-step random access channel procedure, wherein the first message comprises a random access preamble and further comprises a device identification message; and

in response to the receiving the beam information, facilitating transmitting, by the base station device to the mobile device, a random access channel response as a second message of the two step random access channel procedure.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the multi-step random access channel procedure is a two-step random access channel procedure, and the method further comprising, prior to the receiving the message indicating the first beam information and the second beam information facilitating transmitting, by the base station device to the mobile device, signaling comprising a command to the mobile device to transmit, to the base station device, information about an alternative beam that is an alternative to the selected first beam, wherein the facilitating the transmitting of the second signaling comprises employing system information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the facilitating the transmitting of the signaling comprises facilitating the transmitting of the signaling as a dedicated signal from the base station device to the mobile device in lieu of a broadcast signal, wherein the dedicated signal comprises system information from the base station device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the system information is included in a system information block containing random access parameter information and transmitted using the downlink shared channel.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the system information indicates a format of the first message of the two step random access channel procedure and whether the mobile device is to report an identification of the alternative beam to the base station device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

employing the selected second beam instead of the selected first beam, facilitating transmitting, by the base station device to the mobile device, a second message of a two step random access channel procedure and user data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

facilitating transmitting, by the base station device to the mobile device, a second message of a two step random access channel procedure and user data, wherein the facilitating the transmitting of the second message and the user data comprises facilitating the transmitting of a same content of the user on both the selected first beam and the selected second beam.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

combining, by the base station device, the selected first beam and the selected second beam into a third beam, wherein the third beam is wider than the selected first beam and the selected second beam; and

facilitating transmitting, by the base station device to the mobile device, a second message of a two step random access channel procedure and user data, via the third beam.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first beam information is indicated by the random access preamble.

10. A base station device, comprising:

a processor; and

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

receiving, from a mobile device, a message indicating first beam information for a selected first beam of beams associated with the base station device, wherein the message is a first received message of a random access channel procedure; and

receiving, from the mobile device, a second message indicating 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 mobile device from the base station device, and wherein the second message is another transmitted message of the random access channel procedure.

11. The base station device of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise, prior to the receiving second message indicating the second beam information, transmitting signaling to the mobile device comprising a command to the mobile device to transmit to the base station device information about an alternative beam, wherein the transmitting the signaling is transmitted employing system information, wherein the system information is employed to convey system information blocks comprising random access parameters to the mobile device.

12. The base station device of claim 11, wherein the signaling is transmitted in system information of a system information block or a master information block indicating a format of the second message indicating the second beam and whether the mobile device is to generate a report identifying the alternative beam.

13. The base station device of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

transmitting data to the mobile device, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the data employing the selected second beam instead of the selected first beam.

14. The base station device of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

transmitting data to the mobile device, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the data employing the selected first beam and the selected second beam with a result that a same content of the data is transmitted on the selected first beam and the selected second beam.

15. The base station device of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

combining the selected first beam and the selected second beam into a third beam, wherein the third beam is wider than the selected first beam and the selected second beam; and

transmitting data to the mobile device, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the data employing the third beam.

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

facilitating transmitting a message indicating first beam information for a selected first beam of beams associated with a base station device, wherein the message is a message of a random access channel procedure; and

facilitating transmitting a second message indicating 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 mobile device from the base station device, and wherein the second message is another transmitted message of the random access channel procedure.

17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise, prior to the facilitating transmitting the message indicating the first beam information and the second beam information, receiving signaling from the base station device comprising a command to the mobile device to transmit to the base station device information about an alternative beam, and wherein the signaling is received employing system information comprising a random access channel parameter.

18. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the system information is included in a system information block comprising random access parameter information and transmitted from the base station device using the downlink shared channel.

19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the system information indicates a format of the first message of the two step random access channel procedure and whether the mobile device is to be instructed to transmit an identifier for the alternative beam.

20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from the base station device, data comprising at least one of;

receiving the data via the selected second beam instead of the selected first beam, receiving the data such that a same content of the data is transmitted on the selected first beam and the selected second beam, or receiving the data on a third beam, wherein the third beam is a combination of the selected first beam and the selected second beam and is wider than the selected first beam and the selected second beam.