Over-the-air configuration and management for new radio-based smart repeaters

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12341594-B2
Application number	US-202217661271-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 28, 2022
Priority date	Apr 28, 2022
Publication date	Jun 24, 2025
Grant date	Jun 24, 2025

Abstract

The described technology is generally directed to over-the-air configuration and management of new radio smart repeaters. To facilitate data forwarding, a smart repeater is configured to generate a forwarding layer that is logically above a physical layer of a mobile termination function (corresponding to a repeater link) and a physical layer of distributed unit function of the repeater equipment (corresponding to an access link). Via the forwarding layer, when traffic is received from a parent node, the traffic is forwarded via the access link to user equipment, and when traffic is received from a user equipment, the traffic is forwarded via the access link to a parent node. A smart repeater control management function/interface manages control plane signaling and configurations for the mobile termination function and distributed unit function.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
facilitating, by network equipment comprising a processor, configuring repeater equipment to generate a forwarding layer that is logically above a physical layer of a mobile termination function of the repeater equipment and a distributed unit function of the repeater equipment, wherein the configuring comprises configuring the repeater equipment to route at least data plane signals using the forwarding layer, and wherein the configuring further comprises configuring the repeater equipment to route control plane signals for the mobile termination function and the distributed unit function using the forwarding layer; and
facilitating, by the network equipment, communicating of the data plane signals to a user equipment.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuring further comprises configuring the repeater equipment to use the forwarding layer to multiplex, in time, signals across channels communicated via at least one of: an access link between the repeater equipment and the user equipment, or a repeater link between the repeater equipment and a parent node.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuring further comprises configuring the repeater equipment to use the forwarding layer to multiplex, in frequency, signals across channels communicated via at least one of: an access link between the repeater equipment and the user equipment, or a repeater link between the repeater equipment and a parent node.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuring further comprises configuring the repeater equipment to use the forwarding layer to multiplex, spatially, signals across channels communicated via at least one of: an access link between the repeater equipment and the user equipment, or a repeater link between the repeater equipment and a parent node.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuring further comprises configuring the repeater equipment to use the forwarding layer to multiplex, in at least one of: time or frequency or spatially, signals across channels to be used as part of communications by the repeater equipment according to initial access and radio resource management protocol.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuring further comprises configuring the repeater equipment to use parameters, of a configuration applicable to synchronization signal blocks of a donor node, to broadcast on an access link between the repeater equipment and the user equipment.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the configuration applicable to the synchronization signal blocks of the donor node comprises at least one of: a synchronization signal block timing configuration, or a synchronization signal block measurement timing configuration.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the at least one of the synchronization signal block timing configuration or the synchronization signal block measurement timing configuration indicates, to the repeater equipment, time and frequency resources applicable to the synchronization signal blocks and corresponding indexes for the synchronization signal blocks.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuring further comprises configuring the repeater equipment to use a subgroup of parameters, of a group of parameters of a configuration applicable to synchronization signal blocks of a donor node, to broadcast on an access link between the repeater equipment and the user equipment, and wherein the subgroup of parameters indicates, to the repeater equipment, a subgroup of time and frequency resources applicable to the synchronization signal blocks and a corresponding subgroup of indexes for the synchronization signal blocks.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuring further comprises configuring the repeater equipment to use at least a subgroup of parameters, of a group of parameters of a configuration, to indicate, to the repeater equipment, at least a subset of time and frequency resources applicable to communications on a random access channel between a donor node and the repeater equipment.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuring further comprises configuring the repeater equipment to use a configuration applicable to data signals and control signals and channels utilized for the data signals and the control signals, and wherein the configuration indicates at least one of frequency division duplex bands or time division duplex bands enabled for communication of the data signals and the control signals via the channels.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuring the repeater equipment further comprises configuring the repeater equipment to use a configuration, the configuration comprising at least one of: a supported bandwidth part comprising starting frequency location data and size data within a carrier bandwidth on an indication band, an indication of a time division duplex information for downlink signals and uplink signals, a slot pattern comprising a set of consecutive slots, a slot pattern comprising a set of consecutive slots and a set of unavailable slots, signal data and channel data utilized for the signal data, channel state information reference signal data, channel state information reference signal index data, transmission timing data, sounding reference signal resource data, sounding reference signal pattern data, reception timing data, an indication of link adaptation resource data, analog beam data, digital beam data, beamforming weight data for use by the repeater equipment on an access link between the repeater equipment and the user equipment, or beamforming weight data for use by the repeater on a repeater link between the repeater equipment and a parent node.

13. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor of the system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
receiving, by a mobile termination function of repeater equipment, configuration data from a parent node;
in response to the receiving, configuring a forwarding layer logically above a first physical layer of the mobile termination function and a second physical layer of a distributed unit function of the repeater equipment to forward data plane signals received at the first physical layer via the second physical layer to a user equipment; and
managing, by the repeater equipment based on the configuration data, control plane signaling and configuration for the mobile termination function, and control plane signaling and configuration for the distributed unit function.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise multiplexing, by the repeater equipment based on the configuration data, repeater link data communicated via the first physical layer and access link data communicated via the second physical layer.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein receiving the configuration data comprises at least one of: receiving the configuration data from the parent node based on a schedule, receiving the configuration data from the parent node based on modified parameter data, or receiving the configuration data from the parent node based on a request from the repeater equipment.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
receiving, at a repeater link corresponding to a first physical layer of a mobile termination function of repeater equipment, data plane traffic from a parent node, wherein the data plane traffic comprises first data plane traffic;
forwarding, via

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Novlan Thomas

Classifications

• H04B7/15542

  Selecting at relay station its transmit and receive resources (selection of wireless resources by user or terminal H04W72/02; arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path by two-dimensional division of the resources H04L5/0003, or by allocating sub-channels H04L5/003) · CPC title

• H04B7/155 Primary

  Ground-based stations (H04B7/204 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04B7/15528 Primary

  Control of operation parameters of a relay station to exploit the physical medium · CPC title