Variable multiple-input multiple-output downlink user equipment

• US 10,432,272 B1
• Filed: 11/05/2018
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Virewirx Incorporated
• Original Assignee: XCOM Labs, Inc.
• Inventors: Black, Peter John, Grob, Matthew Stuart, Fan, Michael Mingxi, Kadous, Tamer Adel
• Primary Examiner(s): Vlahos, Sophia
• Application Number:
  US16/180,799
• Time in Patent Office: 330 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0486 taking channel rank into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0689 using different transmission schemes, at least one of them being a diversity transmission scheme
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

Aspects of this disclosure relate to variable multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) downlink user equipment. Features are described for dynamically adjusting an operational state of a user equipment to obtain network services (e.g., downlink data traffic) according to different transmission modes. The user equipment may provide reports to a network controller indicating characteristics of the user equipment. The characteristics may indicate service level, quality, or type needed for user equipment operations. The user equipment may receive configuration information to adjust wireless capabilities to best meet the identified needs of the user equipment and the MIMO network.

Claims

1. A user equipment comprising:

antenna elements;

a receiver configured to process a signal received by the antenna elements; and

a processor configured to;

receive, from the receiver, first active set data identifying one or more serving nodes to provide downlink data transmission service to the user equipment in a coordinated multipoint mode;

cause the receiver to be configured for processing the signal in the coordinated multipoint mode when the user equipment has a measure of mobility that is less than a mobility threshold and a channel matrix Eigen value spread that is less than a threshold;

detect a mobility of the user equipment;

detect a characteristic of the user equipment, wherein the characteristic comprises at least one of;

an application type to utilize the downlink data transmission service, a protocol to utilize over the downlink data transmission service, or a device type for the user equipment;

cause transmission, via at least one of the antenna elements, of;

(i) channel state information for the user equipment, the channel state information identifying a quality of a transmission from a network system to the user equipment,

(ii) information associated with the characteristic of the user equipment; and

(iii) information associated with the mobility of the user equipment;

receive, from the receiver via at least one of the antenna elements, updated active set data identifying one or more serving nodes to provide transmission service to the user equipment in an alternate downlink data transmission mode, wherein the alternate downlink data transmission mode comprises at least one of;

synchronized transmission across multiple network nodes for coherent combining, transmissions across multiple network nodes for non-coherent combining, or individual transmission from a selected best serving node, and wherein at least one of (a) the measure of mobility is greater than the mobility threshold in the alternative downlink transmission mode or (b) the channel matrix Eigen value spread is greater than the threshold in the alternative downlink transmission mode; and

cause the receiver to be adjusted for processing the signal in the alternative downlink data transmission mode from the one or more serving nodes identified by the updated active set data.

2. The user equipment of claim 1, further comprising signal processing circuitry configured to combine data received at the antenna elements in the alternate downlink data transmission mode and to separately process the data received by a first antenna element of the antenna elements in the coordinated multipoint mode.

3. The user equipment of claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to adjust the signal processing circuitry from combining data received at the antenna elements in the alternative downlink data transmission mode to processing data received at the first antenna element in the coordinated multipoint mode, said adjusting based at least in part on the updated active set.

4. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to:

detect a spatial parameter of a wireless communication channel associated with the user equipment; and

generate a channel state estimate based at least in part on the spatial parameter of the channel, and wherein the channel state information includes the channel state estimate.

5. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to:

determine a selected mode of wirelessly receiving data using a first antenna element, the selected mode being either the coordinated multipoint mode or the alternative downlink data transmission mode; and

transmit, using at least one of the antenna elements, requested active set data associated with the selected mode.

6. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to:

receive, from the receiver via at least one of the antenna elements, a transmission characteristic for the one or more serving nodes; and

tune at least one of the antenna elements based at least in part on the transmission characteristic,

wherein the transmission characteristic comprises at least one of;

transmission mode, transmission time, transmission frequency, transmission power, beamforming matrix, tone allocation, or channel rank.

7. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the alternative downlink transmission data mode comprises synchronized transmission across multiple network nodes for coherent combining.

8. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the alternative downlink data transmission mode comprises transmissions across multiple network nodes for non-coherent combining.

9. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the alternative downlink data transmission mode comprises individual transmission from a selected best serving node, and wherein the individual transmission from the selected best serving mode includes at least one of:

best server selection single-input multiple-output mode, best server selection single user multiple-input multiple-output mode, or best server selection multi-user multiple-input multiple-output mode.

10. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the receiver to be adjusted by changing at least one of demodulation or a decoding pipeline.

18. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the mobility of the user equipment comprises Doppler estimation data.

19. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the mobility of the user equipment comprises channel state variation data.

20. The user equipment of claim 5, wherein the requested active set data identifies a serving node that is not identified by the updated active set data.

11. A method of downlink transmission control for a user equipment, the method comprising:

receiving, from a receiver of a user equipment, a first active set data identifying one or more serving nodes to provide downlink data transmission service to the user equipment in a coordinated multipoint mode;

receiving, by the user equipment, downlink data in the coordinated multipoint mode when the user equipment has a measure of mobility that is less than a mobility threshold and a channel matrix Eigen value spread that is less than a threshold;

detecting a mobility of the user equipment;

detecting a characteristic of the user equipment, wherein the characteristic comprises at least one of;

an application type to utilize the downlink data transmission service, a protocol to utilize over the downlink data transmission service, or a device type for the user equipment;

causing transmission, via at least one of a plurality of antenna elements of;

(i) channel state information for the user equipment, the channel state information identifying a quality of a transmission from a network system to the user equipment,

(ii) information associated with the characteristic of the user equipment; and

(iii) information associated with the mobility of the user equipment; and

receiving, from the receiver via at least one of the antenna elements, updated active set data identifying one or more serving nodes to provide the downlink data transmission service to the user equipment in an alternate downlink data transmission mode, wherein at least one of (a) the measure of mobility of the user equipment is greater than the mobility threshold in the alternative downlink transmission mode or (b) the channel matrix Eigen value spread of the user equipment is greater than the threshold in the alternative downlink transmission mode, and wherein the alternate downlink data transmission mode comprises at least one of;

synchronized transmission across multiple network nodes for coherent combining, transmissions across multiple network nodes for non-coherent combining, or individual transmission from a selected best serving node.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

causing transmission, via at least one of a plurality of antenna elements of updated channel state information for the user equipment and an updated characteristic of the user equipment; and

receiving, from the receiver via at least one of the antenna elements, other updated active set data identifying one or more serving nodes to provide the downlink data transmission service to the user equipment in the coordinated multipoint mode.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

adjusting signal processing circuitry for processing data received in the alternate downlink data transmission mode.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

detecting a spatial parameter of a wireless communication channel associated with the user equipment; and

generating a channel state estimate based at least in part on the spatial parameter of the channel and wherein the channel state information includes the channel state estimate.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining a selected mode of wirelessly receiving data using a first antenna element, the selected mode being either the coordinated multipoint mode or the alternative downlink data transmission mode; and

transmitting, using at least one of the antenna elements, requested active set data associated with the selected mode.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving, from the receiver via at least one of the antenna elements, a transmission characteristic for the one or more serving nodes; and

adjusting at least one of the antenna elements based at least in part on the transmission characteristic,

wherein the transmission characteristic comprises at least one of;

transmission mode, transmission time, transmission frequency, transmission power, beamforming matrix, tone allocation, or channel rank.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising adjusting the receiver for processing a signal in the alternate downlink data transmission mode in response to the receiving the updated active set data.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein the information associated with the mobility of the user equipment comprises at least one of Doppler estimation data or channel state variation data.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the requested active set data identifies a serving node that is not identified by the updated active set data.