Reference signal measurement in mobile device having multiple antenna receiver

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10609673-B2
Application number	US-201815966420-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 30, 2018
Priority date	Apr 30, 2018
Publication date	Mar 31, 2020
Grant date	Mar 31, 2020

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses are described relating to changes in an antenna configuration of a multi-antenna radio frequency (RF) transceiver between reference signal occasions. In one set of examples, a first antenna configuration at a first reference signal occasion of a first RF transmitter is stored, and if the antenna configuration has changed by the time a second reference signal occasion of the first (same) RF transmitter begins, the antenna configuration is switched back to the first antenna configuration. In another set of examples, compensation data to enable compensation between the first antenna configuration used to measure a first reference signal of a reference RF transmitter and a second antenna configuration used to measure a second reference signal of a neighboring (different) RF transmitter is retrieved and used when computing a time difference between the first and second reference signals.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for performing a measurement of reference signals using a multi-antenna radio frequency (RF) transceiver, the method comprising:
storing a first antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver at the start of a first reference signal occasion of a first RF transmitter;
determining, at or before the start of a second reference signal occasion of the first RF transmitter, whether an antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver has changed from the stored first antenna configuration;
responsive to a determination that the antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver has changed from the stored first antenna configuration, switching the antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver back to the stored first antenna configuration; and
measuring a first reference signal during the second reference signal occasion of the first RF transmitter while the multi-antenna RF transceiver is in the first antenna configuration.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining one or more antenna parameters during the first reference signal occasion of the first RF transmitter while the multi-antenna RF transceiver is in the first antenna configuration; and
storing antenna parameter data based on the determined one or more antenna parameters.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein measuring the first reference signal during the second reference signal occasion of the first RF transmitter while the multi-antenna RF transceiver is in the first antenna configuration comprises setting a digital or analog gain for one or more components of the multi-antenna RF transceiver based on the one or more antenna parameters.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein
the first reference signal comprises a positioning reference signal (PRS),
the first RF transmitter is a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) transmitter associated with a reference cell, and
the first reference signal occasion and the second reference signal occasion comprise PRS occasions in accordance with a PRS transmission schedule associated with the reference cell.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing a second antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver at the start of a first reference signal occasion of a second RF transmitter;
determining one or more antenna parameters during the first reference signal occasion of the second RF transmitter while the multi-antenna RF transceiver is in the second antenna configuration;
determining, before the start of a second reference signal occasion of the second RF transmitter, whether an antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver has changed from the second antenna configuration;
responsive to a determination that the antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver has changed from the second antenna configuration, switching the antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver back to the second antenna configuration; and
measuring a second reference signal during the second reference signal occasion of the second RF transmitter while the multi-antenna RF transceiver is in the second antenna configuration.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein
the second reference signal comprises a positioning reference signal (PRS),
the first RF transmitter is a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) transmitter associated with a reference cell,
the second RF transmitter is an LTE transmitter associated with a neighbor cell to the reference cell,
the first reference signal occasion of the reference cell and the second reference signal occasion of the reference cell comprise PRS occasions in accordance with a PRS transmission schedule associated with the reference cell, and
the first reference signal occasion of the neighbor cell and the second reference signal occasion of the neighbor cell comprise PRS occasions in accordance with a PRS transmission schedule associated with the neighbor cell to the reference cell.

7. A mobile device comprising:
a multi-antenna radio frequency (RF) transceiver;
a memory; and
one or more processors coupled to the memory and the multi-antenna radio frequency (RF) transceiver, the one or more processors configured to:
store, in the memory, a first antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver at the start of a first reference signal occasion of a first RF transmitter;
determine, at or before the start of a second reference signal occasion of the first RF transmitter, whether an antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver has changed from the first antenna configuration stored in the memory;
responsive to a determination that the antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver has changed from the stored first antenna configuration, switch the antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver back to the first antenna configuration stored in the memory; and
measure a first reference signal during the second reference signal occasion of the first RF transmitter while the multi-antenna RF transceiver is in the first antenna configuration.

8. The mobile device of claim 7 , the one or more processors and the memory further configured to:
determine one or more antenna parameters during the first reference signal occasion of the first RF transmitter while the multi-antenna RF transceiver is in the first antenna configuration; and
store, in the memory, antenna parameter data based on the determined one or more antenna parameters.

9. The mobile device of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors and the memory configured to measure the first reference signal during the second reference signal occasion of the first RF transmitter while the multi-antenna RF transceiver is in the first antenna configuration comprises the one or more processors configured to set a digital or analog gain for one or more components of the multi-antenna RF transceiver based on the one or more antenna parameters.

10. The mobile device of claim 7 , wherein
the first reference signal comprises a positioning reference signal (PRS),
the first RF transmitter is a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) transmitter associated with a reference cell, and
the first reference signal occasion and the second reference signal occasion comprise PRS occasions in accordance with a PRS transmission schedule associated with the reference cell.

11. The mobile device of claim 7 , the one or more processors and the memory further configured to:
store, in the memory, a second antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver at the start of a first reference signal occasion of a second RF transmitter;
determine one or more antenna parameters during the first reference signal occasion of the second RF transmitter while the multi-antenna RF transceiver is in the second antenna configuration;
determine, at or before the start of a second reference signal occasion of the second RF transmitter, whether an antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver has changed from the second antenna configuration;
responsive to a determination that the antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver has changed from the second antenna configuration, switching the antenna configuration of the multi-antenna RF transceiver back to the second antenna configuration stored in the memory; and
measuring a second reference signal during the second reference signal occasion of the second RF transmitter while the multi-antenna RF transceiver is in the second antenna configuration.

12. The mobile device of claim 11 , wherein
the second reference signal comprises a positioning reference signal (PRS),
the first RF transmitter is a Long-Term Evolu

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Kumar Akash
• Jain Amit

Classifications

• G01S5/10

  Position of receiver fixed by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements {, e.g. omega or decca systems}(G01S5/12 takes precedence {; beacons and receivers cooperating therewith G01S1/306, G01S1/308}) · CPC title

• H04B7/088 Primary

  using beam selection · CPC title

• H04W64/006 Primary

  with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination · CPC title

• H04L5/005

  of common pilots, i.e. pilots destined for multiple users or terminals · CPC title

• H04W56/0015

  one node acting as a reference for the others · CPC title