Radio synchronization configuration in different operation modes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11071073-B2
Application number	US-201815926684-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 20, 2018
Priority date	Apr 14, 2017
Publication date	Jul 20, 2021
Grant date	Jul 20, 2021

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatus synchronization configuration in different operation modes using communications systems operating according to new radio (NR) technologies. For example, a method for wireless communications by a base station (BS) may include determining an operation mode of the BS, determining a transmission configuration of at least one of a one or more synchronization channels or a one or more synchronization signals based on the operation mode, and transmitting the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals based on the determined transmission configuration.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for wireless communications by a wireless node comprising:
determining, at the wireless node, an operation mode of a second wireless node, the operation mode being one of a plurality of operation modes comprising one or more of an initial acquisition in standalone mode, an initial acquisition in non-standalone mode, an idle mode, or a connected mode;
determining, at the wireless node, a transmission configuration of a plurality of transmission configurations of at least one of one or more synchronization channels or one or more synchronization signals based on the determined operation mode, the transmission configuration including a configuration of time and frequency resources used for the transmission of the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals, wherein different transmission configurations of the plurality of transmission configurations are determined for different operations modes of the plurality of operation modes, and wherein the different transmission configurations correspond to different time and frequency resources for communicating with the second wireless node: and
transmitting, from the wireless node to the second wireless node, the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals based on the determined transmission configuration;
wherein a third wireless node in communication with the wireless node at a same time as the second wireless node is in a second operation mode different than the operation mode of the second wireless node.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the operation mode is based on one or more of:
an indication received from an upper layer signaling;
an indication received from a network;
a preconfigured schedule;
an indication received from one or more base stations (BSs);
an indication received from one or more user equipments (UEs); or
a measurement of one or more signals received from one or more UEs.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more synchronization channels comprise one or more physical broadcast channels (PBCH), and
the one or more synchronization signals comprise at least one of a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), a third synchronization signal (TSS) carrying S S-block timing index information, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) for physical broadcast channel (PBCH), or a beam reference signal.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the transmission configuration further includes configuration of one or more of:
at least one of a digital precoding or an analog precoding used for transmitting at least one of the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals from one or more antenna ports;
a number of antenna ports used for transmission of at least one of the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals;
a composition of at least one of a synchronization signal (SS) block, an SS burst, or an SS burst set;
a beam sweeping pattern; or
a waveform design of the one or more synchronization signals;

the transmission configuration refers to one or more of:
a subcarrier spacing (SCS) and a cyclic prefix (CP) size of signals or channels,
physical broadcast channel (PBCH) content and a coding configuration,
an SS block composition that refers to a number and order of symbols carrying the one or more synchronization signals or one or more synchronization channels,
an SS burst set composition, or
a transmit power setting of the one or more signals or one or more synchronization channels; and

the transmission configuration is specific to at least one of a user equipment (UE), a base station (BS), a group of UEs, or a group of BSs.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
signaling the operation mode to the second wireless node through the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
signaling to the second wireless node a location of a synchronization signal (SS) block consisting of at least one of the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals, within a broadcast channel (BCH) transmission time interval (TTI).

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals based on the determined transmission configuration comprises:
transmitting the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals on a first set of time-frequency resources when transmitting in at least one of the initial acquisition in standalone mode or the initial acquisition in non-standalone mode; and
transmitting the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals on a second set of time-frequency resources different from the first set of time-frequency resources when transmitting in at least one of the idle mode or the connected mode.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein:
the first set of time-frequency resources includes a different frequency band for transmission than the second set of time-frequency resources, and
the first set of time-frequency resources includes a synchronization raster.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein:
the first set of time-frequency resources includes the same frequency band as the second set of time-frequency resources, and
the first set of time-frequency resources includes different time locations as compared to the second set of time-frequency resources.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals based on the determined transmission configuration comprises:
transmitting, in a discontinuous reception (DRX) operation mode, the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals on a set of DRX time-frequency resources,
wherein the DRX time-frequency resources include one or more of a non-raster location and time domain resources different from initial acquisition time domain resources, and
wherein the one or more synchronization channels or the one or more synchronization signals are transmitted before a DRX ON cycle to a select group of user equipments (UEs), or a group of base stations (BSs).

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
signaling the transmission configuration to the second wireless node through one or more of a master information block (MIB), a system information block (SIB), or a radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
signaling the transmission configuration to the second wireless node through one or more of a master information block (MIB), a system information block (SIB), or a radio resource control (RRC) signaling over a first system,
wherein dual connectivity is provided between the first system and a second system,
wherein the first system is at least one of a long-term evolution (LTE) system or a first new radio (NR) system and the second system is a second NR system,
wherein the first and second systems operate at different carrier frequencies, and
wherein the first NR system operates at a sub-6 GHz carrier frequency, and the second NR system operates at a mmWave carrier frequency.

13. A method for wireless communications by a wireless node comprising:
determining a transmission configuration of a plurality of transmission configurations, used by a base station (BS), to transmit at least one of one or more synchronization channels or one or more synchronization signals base

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Abedini Navid
• Ly Hung
• Luo Tao
• Islam Muhammad Nazmul
• Sadiq Bilal

Classifications

• H04W84/042

  Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems · CPC title

• H04W76/28

  Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX] · CPC title

• H04W56/0015 Primary

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

• H04W56/001 Primary

  Synchronization between nodes · CPC title