Wireless communications device, infrastructure equipment and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11303494-B2
Application number	US-201816620871-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 24, 2018
Priority date	Jun 16, 2017
Publication date	Apr 12, 2022
Grant date	Apr 12, 2022

Abstract

Mixture of implicit and explicit signaling of the Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) time index for 5G New Radio. In NR, multiple SSBs (each containing PSS, SSS and PBCH) are sent on different beams, and on multiple time occurrences. The UE when detecting the SSB has therefore to identify the SSB time instance and the beam ID used by the gNB. This detection is allowed by said SSB time index. If sent on the PBCH, this prevents soft combining between PBCH time instances. It is therefore proposed to send the SSB time index via the DMRS interleaved with the PBCH. Problem: overhead would be too high for DMRS solution only. Solution: Part of the bits (the LSBs) of the SSB time index are signaled implicitly via the relative position of PSS, SSS and PBCH within a SSB. The other bits are explicitly sent using DMRS scrambling.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wireless communications device for transmitting or receiving data via a wireless communications network, the wireless communications device comprising:
transmitter circuitry configured to transmit radio signals via a wireless access interface to an infrastructure equipment forming a radio network part of the wireless communications network,
receiver circuitry configured to receive radio signals transmitted from the infrastructure equipment via the wireless access interface, and
controller circuitry configured to control the transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry to transmit data carried by the radio signals to the infrastructure equipment and to receive data carried by the radio signals from the infrastructure equipment, the controller circuitry being configured with the receiver circuitry
to detect a plurality of synchronisation signal blocks transmitted by the infrastructure equipment via the wireless access interface, each synchronisation signal block comprising one or more first Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols carrying a primary synchronisation signal, one or more second OFDM symbols carrying a secondary synchronisation signal and one or more third OFDM symbols carrying information of a physical broadcast channel of the wireless access interface, each of the OFDM symbols of the synchronisation block being formed by a plurality of frequency domain sub-carrier signals each being transmitted over the duration of the OFDM symbol as a resource element of the wireless access interface, each OFDM symbol of the synchronisation signal block having the same sub-carrier spacing, and each of the third OFDM symbols being arranged to include demodulation reference symbols, each synchronisation signal block being transmitted through one beam of a plurality of beams, each beam being formed using a plurality of antennas, and an antenna weight vector used to form each beam is the same for the first OFDM symbols, the second OFDM symbols and the third OFDM symbols,
to decode each of the detected synchronisation signal blocks to recover a synchronisation signal block time index representing a cardinal number of the detected synchronisation signal block, each cardinal number being associated with a beam of the plurality of beams used to transmit the detected synchronisation signal blocks, and
to determine, based on the recovered synchronisation signal block time index, which of the beams was used to transmit the each of the detected synchronisation signal blocks,
wherein at least part of the synchronisation signal block time index is indicated by relative positions within the detected synchronisation signal block of the first OFDM symbols, the second OFDM symbols and the third OFDM symbols,
wherein each of the synchronisation signal blocks have one of a plurality of unique compositions of relative positions within the each of the synchronisation signal blocks of the first OFDM symbols, the second OFDM symbols and the third OFDM symbols,
wherein a first of the compositions indicates synchronisation signal block time indices representing synchronisation signal blocks with a cardinal number forming part of a first predetermined range, and a second of the compositions indicates synchronisation signal block time indices representing synchronisation signal blocks with a cardinal number forming part of a second predetermined range, the first predetermined range being distinct from the second predetermined range,
wherein a most significant bit of the synchronisation signal block time indices representing the synchronisation signal blocks with a cardinal number forming part of the first predetermined range is different to a most significant bit of the synchronisation signal block time indices representing the synchronisation signal blocks with a cardinal number forming part of the second predetermined range.

2. The wireless communications device according to claim 1 , configured to demodulate the demodulation reference symbols using a sequence derived from the recovered synchronisation signal block time index.

3. The wireless communications device according to claim 1 , configured to demodulate payload data carried by the physical broadcast channel, the payload data having been modulated using signal space diversity by the infrastructure equipment.

4. A method of operating a wireless communications device for transmitting or receiving data via a wireless communications network, the method comprising:
detecting a plurality of synchronisation signal blocks transmitted by an infrastructure equipment forming part of a radio network part of the wireless communications network via a wireless access interface, each synchronisation signal block comprising one or more first Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols carrying a primary synchronisation signal, one or more second OFDM symbols carrying a secondary synchronisation signal and one or more third OFDM symbols carrying information of a physical broadcast channel of the wireless access interface, each of the OFDM symbols of the synchronisation block being formed by a plurality of frequency domain sub-carrier signals each being transmitted over the duration of the OFDM symbol as a resource element of the wireless access interface, each OFDM symbol of the synchronisation signal block having the same sub-carrier spacing, and each of the third OFDM symbols being arranged to include demodulation reference symbols, each synchronisation signal block being transmitted through one beam of a plurality of beams, each beam being formed using a plurality of antennas, and an antenna weight vector used to form each beam is the same for the first OFDM symbols, the second OFDM symbols and the third OFDM symbols,
decoding each of the detected synchronisation signal blocks to recover a synchronisation signal block time index representing a cardinal number of the detected synchronisation signal block, each cardinal number being associated with a beam of the plurality of beams used to transmit the detected synchronisation signal blocks, and
determining, based on the recovered synchronisation signal block time index, which of the beams was used to transmit the each of the detected synchronisation signal blocks,
wherein at least part of the synchronisation signal block time index is indicated by relative positions within the detected synchronisation signal block of the first OFDM symbols, the second OFDM symbols and the third OFDM symbols,
wherein each of the synchronisation signal blocks have one of a plurality of unique compositions of relative positions within the each of the synchronisation signal blocks of the first OFDM symbols, the second OFDM symbols and the third OFDM symbols,
wherein a first of the compositions indicates synchronisation signal block time indices representing synchronisation signal blocks with a cardinal number forming part of a first predetermined range, and a second of the compositions indicates synchronisation signal block time indices representing synchronisation signal blocks with a cardinal number forming part of a second predetermined range, the first predetermined range being distinct from the second predetermined range,
wherein a most significant bit of the synchronisation signal block time indices representing the synchronisation signal blocks with a cardinal number forming part of the first predetermined range is different to a most significant bit of the synchronisation signal block time indices representing the synchronisation signal blocks with a cardinal number forming part of the second predetermined range.

5. The method according to claim 4 , comprising
demodulating the demodulation reference symbols using a sequence derived from the recovered synchronisation signal block time index.

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Atungsiri Samuel Asangbeng
• Wong Shin Horng
• Beale Martin Warwick

Classifications

• H04B7/06952

  Selecting one or more beams from a plurality of beams, e.g. beam training, management or sweeping · CPC title

• H04L27/2655 Primary

  Synchronisation arrangements · CPC title

• H04J11/0079 Primary

  Acquisition of downlink reference signals, e.g. detection of cell-ID · CPC title

• H04L27/2613

  Structure of the reference signals · CPC title

• H04L5/0007

  the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A) or DMT · CPC title