Method for response to beam failure recovery request

• US 10,461,994 B2
• Filed: 11/16/2017
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Liu, Bin, Xia, Pengfei, Stirling-Gallacher, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Crutchfield, Christopher M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Thinh D
• Application Number:
  US15/815,658
• Publication Number:
  US 20180367374A1
• Time in Patent Office: 712 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0051 of dedicated pilots, i.e. pilots destined for a single user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/001 Synchronization between nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0833 Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/18 Management of setup rejection or failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

The disclosure relates to technology for beam failure recovery in user equipment. The user equipment sends a beam failure recovery request to the base station upon detection of a beam failure between the base station and the user equipment, and monitors one or more candidate beams in which to receive the beam failure recovery request response from the base station, based on an association between a beam failure recovery request response and a beam failure recovery request.

Claims

1. A method for beam failure recovery in user equipment, comprising:

sending a beam failure recovery request (BFRR) to a base station upon detection of a beam failure between the base station and the user equipment; and

monitoring one or more candidate beams in which to receive from the base station a BFRR response that is spatially quasi co-located with the BFRR, and the monitoring is performed with a time offset relative to the BFRR.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring further monitors one or multiple physical downlink control channels (PDCCH) such that a demodulation reference signal of each PDCCH is spatially quasi co-located with a reference signal of one of the one or more candidate beams.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the candidate beams are identified by the user equipment for data transmission.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein when the BFRR response is not received within a predetermined time period, the user equipment restarts the beam failure recovery.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein upon detection of the beam failure, the BFRR is sent using a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) in an uplink beam pair.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein when the BFRR is sent using the PUCCH, the user equipment identifies a downlink beam pair for the base station to send the BFRR response in the uplink beam pair.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein upon detection of the beam failure, the BFRR is sent using a physical random access channel (PRACH) or a PRACH-like channel in an uplink beam pair.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the one or more candidate beams based on radio link quality.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the time offset is conveyed during beam configuration signaling or pre-configured with system information over a physical broadcast channel or specified in a technical standard.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the time offset is from the BFRR to a starting position of the BFRR response monitoring window.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the time offset is a fixed value.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the time offset is signaled by one or more of a radio resource configuration message, a medium access control element message, or a downlink control indicator message.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the time offset is from the BFRR to an ending position of the BFRR response monitoring window.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring the one or more candidate beams further includes monitoring for the BFRR response in downlink beam pairs and in a time slot with the time offset to the BFRR.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein when two or more uplink beam pairs exist, each having a spatial quasi co-located downlink beam pair, further comprising transmitting multiple BFRRs in two or more uplink beam pairs simultaneously.

16. The method of calm 1, wherein when two or more uplink beam pairs exist, each having a spatial quasi co-located downlink beam pair, further comprising transmitting multiple BFRRs in the uplink beam pairs in time division duplex (TDD).

17. A device, comprising:

a non-transitory memory storage comprising instructions; and

one or more processors in communication with the memory, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to;

send a beam failure recovery request (BFRR) to a base station upon detection of a beam failure between the base station and the device; and

monitor one or more candidate beams in which to receive from the base station a BFRR response that is spatially quasi co-located with the BFRR, and the monitoring is performed with a time offset relative to the BFRR.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the one or more processors further execute the instructions to monitor one or multiple physical downlink control channels (PDCCH) such that a demodulation reference signal of each PDCCH is spatially quasi co-located with a reference signal of one of the one or more candidate beams.

19. The device of claim 17, wherein upon detection of the beam failure, the BFRR is sent using a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) in an uplink beam pair.

20. The device of claim 17, wherein the monitoring the one or more candidate beams further includes monitoring for the BFRR response in downlink beam pairs and in a time slot with the time offset to the BFRR.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer instructions for beam failure recovery in user equipment, that when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

sending a beam failure recovery request (BFRR) to a base station upon detection of a beam failure between the base station and the user equipment; and

monitoring one or more candidate beams in which to receive from the base station a BFRR response that is spatially quasi co-located with the BFRR, and the monitoring is performed with a time offset relative to the BFRR.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the monitoring the one or more candidate beams further causes the one or more processors to perform the step of monitoring for the BFRR response in downlink beam pairs and in a time slot with the time offset to the BFRR.

23. A method for handling beam failure recovery in a base station, comprising:

receiving a beam failure recovery request (BFRR) from a user equipment identifying a candidate beam; and

transmitting a BFRR response associated with the received BFRR on the candidate beam for which the BFRR response is spatially quasi co-located with the BFRR, and the transmitting is performed with a time offset relative to the BFRR.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the time offset is from receipt of the BFRR to a starting position of a time window within which to transmit the BFRR response.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the time offset is a fixed value.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the time offset is signaled by one or more of a radio resource configuration message, a medium access control element message, or a downlink control indicator message.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the time offset is from reception of the BFRR to an ending position of a time window within which to transmit the BFRR response.