Methods and apparatus for flexible configuration of fronthaul split radio units

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11696156-B2
Application number	US-202117163064-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2021
Priority date	Jan 31, 2020
Publication date	Jul 4, 2023
Grant date	Jul 4, 2023

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described in which radio units (RUs), distributed units (DUs), or combinations thereof, may have a single hardware configuration that may be configured to implement different functions for radio frequency (RF) and baseband processing at a base station. A desired functionality for a RU or DU may be identified, and the RU or DU may be configured to implement the functionality through run-time configuration or boot images to implement a particular set of functions that may be needed for a particular cell or deployment. A RU or DU may be reconfigured following an initial configuration to perform different functions following the reconfiguration.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for wireless communication at a radio unit of a wireless communications system, comprising:
identifying configuration information that includes a first set of functions to be performed at the radio unit, wherein the radio unit has a capability to perform radio frequency functions, baseband functions, medium access control functions, or any combinations thereof, and the first set of functions includes at least one radio frequency function;
configuring the first set of functions at the radio unit based at least in part on the identifying, wherein the first set of functions includes a first set of downlink functions and a first set of uplink functions;
receiving, from a central unit or a distributed unit that performs a second set of functions including at least one medium access control function, downlink signals that are to be processed according to the first set of downlink functions;
processing the downlink signals according to the first set of downlink functions to generate a downlink communication;
transmitting the downlink communication to at least one user equipment (UE);
receiving radio frequency signals from the UE in a set of wireless resources associated with an uplink allocation granted to the UE for an uplink communication;
processing the received radio frequency signals according to the first set of uplink functions to generate processed uplink signals; and
providing the processed uplink signals to the central unit or the distributed unit to be processed according to the second set of functions.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving updated configuration information that provides a reconfigured first set of functions that include more or fewer baseband functions that are to be performed at the radio unit;
reconfiguring the first set of functions at the radio unit based at least in part on the updated configuration information; and
communicating with the UE and the central unit or the distributed unit using the reconfigured first set of functions.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio unit hosts baseband and radio frequency functions, and is collocated with the distributed unit that hosts medium access control and radio link control functions.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio unit hosts baseband and radio frequency functions, and medium access control and radio link control functions are split between the radio unit and the central unit, and wherein a plurality of radio units support coordinated multipoint (CoMP) communications where same transport blocks are transmitted by the plurality of radio units to the UE with non-coherent precoding, and the plurality of radio units receive and independently decode uplink communications from the UE.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio unit hosts the radio frequency functions, the distributed unit hosts the baseband functions, medium access control, and radio link control functions, and wherein a plurality of radio units support coordinated multipoint (CoMP) communications with coherent or non-coherent precoding.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio unit hosts the radio frequency functions and the baseband functions including precoding and combining, and the distributed unit hosts medium access control and radio link control functions, and wherein a plurality of radio units support massive multiple-input-multiple-output (M-MIMO) communications a plurality of UEs.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of functions includes only the radio frequency functions and wherein the downlink signals and the processed uplink signals include digital I/Q samples.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the second set of functions are performed at the distributed unit and include the baseband functions and the medium access control functions.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the first set of downlink functions include a digital-to-analog conversion function and a transmit analog beamforming function, and the first set of uplink functions include a receive analog beamforming function and an analog-to-digital conversion function.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of functions includes the radio frequency functions and a first subset of the baseband functions, and wherein the downlink signals and the processed uplink signals include digitally precoded tones.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the second set of functions are performed at the distributed unit and include a second subset of the baseband functions and the medium access control functions.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first subset of the baseband functions include downlink Fourier transform processing and cyclic prefix addition for the downlink signals, and include cyclic prefix removal and uplink Fourier transform processing for uplink signals.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of functions includes the radio frequency functions and a first subset of the baseband functions, and wherein the downlink signals and the processed uplink signals include non-precoded tones.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the first subset of the baseband functions include downlink Fourier transform processing, cyclic prefix addition, resource mapping, and digital precoding for the downlink signals, and include cyclic prefix removal, uplink Fourier transform processing, and resource demapping processing for uplink signals.

15. The method of claim 7 , wherein the first set of functions includes the radio frequency functions and a first subset of the baseband functions, and wherein the downlink signals include encoded bits and the processed uplink signals include log likelihood ratio (LLR) metrics.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the first subset of the baseband functions include downlink Fourier transform processing, cyclic prefix addition, resource mapping, digital precoding, layer mapping, and modulation for the downlink signals, and include cyclic prefix removal, uplink Fourier transform processing, resource demapping processing, channel estimation and equalization, inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) processing, and demodulation for uplink signals.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of functions includes the radio frequency functions and a first subset of the baseband functions, and wherein the downlink signals and the processed uplink signals include digital information bits, and wherein the first subset of the baseband functions include downlink Fourier transform processing, cyclic prefix addition, resource mapping, digital precoding, layer mapping, modulation, scrambling, rate-matching, and coding for the downlink signals, and include cyclic prefix removal, uplink Fourier transform processing, resource demapping processing, channel estimation and equalization, inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) processing, demodulation, descrambling, de-rate-matching, and decoding for uplink signals.

18. A method for wireless communication at a distributed unit in a wireless communications system, comprising:
identifying configuration information that includes a second set of functions to be performed at the distributed unit, wherein a radio unit coupled with the distributed unit performs a first set of functions including radio frequency functions for radio frequency communications with at least one user equipment (UE), and wherein the distributed unit has a capability to perform baseband functions, medium access control functions, or any combinations thereof, and the second set of functions includes at least one medium access

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Cooper Rotem
• Bergan Charles Alfred
• Abramsky Victor
• Sethi Puneet

Classifications

• H04W72/0453

  Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA · CPC title

• H04B7/0617

  for beam forming · CPC title

• H04W24/02 Primary

  Arrangements for optimising operational condition · CPC title

• H04L27/2607

  Cyclic extensions · CPC title

• H04L41/0803 Primary

  Configuration setting · CPC title