Sidelink beam management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11950262-B2
Application number	US-202218064035-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2022
Priority date	Nov 27, 2019
Publication date	Apr 2, 2024
Grant date	Apr 2, 2024

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A device may be configured to support multi-beam, or multi-panel operations, or both which may allow multiple sidelink transmissions to occur simultaneously. In some cases, flexible beam-management for the beamformed sidelink communications is implemented to manage the beams. A transmitting UE may indicate transmission beam information to the base station that the base station may use to schedule sidelink transmissions as part of a beam management procedure. The beam management procedure may allow a transmitting UE to update transmission beam information based on the mobility of the sidelink UEs and other environmental factors. In some cases, beam management includes a beam training procedure that may be implemented to refine the sidelink beams, where support for multi-panel and multi-beam operation may allow for multiple beams to be trained simultaneously.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for communications at a first user equipment (UE), comprising:
a processor;
memory coupled with the processor; and
instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:
establish a sidelink communications link with a second UE;
receive, from a base station, beam training information for a sidelink beam training procedure between the first UE and the second UE; and
perform the sidelink beam training procedure with the second UE based at least in part on the beam training information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:
receive, from the second UE, antenna panel information including a number of antenna panels and respective panel orientations for a set of antenna panels of the second UE; and
transmit, to the second UE, additional beam training information for the sidelink beam training procedure between the first UE and the second UE based at least in part on the antenna panel information, wherein the additional beam training information indicates that the sidelink beam training procedure is for different antenna panels of the second UE being used within a partially overlapping time period.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:
transmit, to the base station, an indication of one or more wide beams of the first UE for the sidelink beam training procedure for one or more narrow beams of the first UE for the sidelink beam training procedure;
receive additional beam training information from the base station, wherein the additional beam training information indicates to use different antenna panels at the second UE within a partially overlapping time period; and
transmit the additional beam training information to the second UE.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the beam training information indicates a set of transmission beams at the first UE; and
the sidelink beam training procedure is performed simultaneously for multiple transmission beams in the set of transmission beams.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sidelink beam training procedure is an orthogonalized beam training procedure according to one of code division multiplexing (CDM), sequence-based training, or frequency division multiplexing (FDM).

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the sidelink beam training procedure uses different panels of the first UE.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to perform the sidelink beam training procedure are executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:
concurrently transmit reference signals via multiple transmission beams at the first UE.

8. A method for communications at a first user equipment (UE), comprising:
establishing a sidelink communications link with a second UE;
receiving, from a base station, beam training information for a sidelink beam training procedure between the first UE and the second UE; and
performing the sidelink beam training procedure with the second UE based at least in part on the beam training information.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving, from the second UE, antenna panel information including a number of antenna panels and respective panel orientations for a set of antenna panels of the second UE; and
transmitting, to the second UE, additional beam training information for the sidelink beam training procedure between the first UE and the second UE based at least in part on the antenna panel information, wherein the additional beam training information indicates that the sidelink beam training procedure is for different antenna panels of the second UE being used within a partially overlapping time period.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
transmitting, to the base station, an indication of one or more wide beams of the first UE for the sidelink beam training procedure for one or more narrow beams of the first UE for the sidelink beam training procedure;
receiving additional beam training information from the base station, wherein the additional beam training information indicates to use different antenna panels at the second UE within a partially overlapping time period; and
transmitting the additional beam training information to the second UE.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein:
the beam training information indicates a set of transmission beams at the first UE; and
the sidelink beam training procedure is performed simultaneously for multiple transmission beams in the set of transmission beams.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the sidelink beam training procedure is an orthogonalized beam training procedure according to one of code division multiplexing (CDM), sequence-based training, or frequency division multiplexing (FDM).

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the sidelink beam training procedure uses different panels of the first UE.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein performing the sidelink beam training procedure comprises:
concurrently transmitting reference signals via multiple transmission beams at the first UE.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for communications at a first user equipment (UE), the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to:
establish a sidelink communications link with a second UE;
receive, from a base station, beam training information for a sidelink beam training procedure between the first UE and the second UE; and
perform the sidelink beam training procedure with the second UE based at least in part on the beam training information.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:
receive, from the second UE, antenna panel information including a number of antenna panels and respective panel orientations for a set of antenna panels of the second UE; and
transmit, to the second UE, additional beam training information for the sidelink beam training procedure between the first UE and the second UE based at least in part on the antenna panel information, wherein the additional beam training information indicates that the sidelink beam training procedure is for different antenna panels of the second UE being used within a partially overlapping time period.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:
transmit, to the base station, an indication of one or more wide beams of the first UE for the sidelink beam training procedure for one or more narrow beams of the first UE for the sidelink beam training procedure;
receive additional beam training information from the base station, wherein the additional beam training information indicates to use different antenna panels at the second UE within a partially overlapping time period; and
transmit the additional beam training information to the second UE.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein:
the beam training information indicates a set of transmission beams at the first UE; and
the sidelink beam training procedure is performed simultaneously for multiple transmission beams in the set of transmission beams.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the sidelink beam training procedure is an orthogonalized beam training procedure according to one of code division multiplexing (CDM), sequence-based trainin

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Akkarakaran Sony
• Ding Ling
• Luo Tao

Classifications

• H04B7/06954 Primary

  Sidelink beam training with support from third instance, e.g. the third instance being a base station · CPC title

• H04W72/51 Primary

  based on terminal or device properties · CPC title

• H04B7/0408

  using two or more beams, i.e. beam diversity · CPC title

• H04W72/044

  based on the type of the allocated resource · CPC title

• H04W72/23

  in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal · CPC title