Enhanced fronthaul interface split using demodulation reference signal channel estimates

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12494948-B2
Application number	US-202318152882-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 11, 2023
Priority date	Feb 28, 2022
Publication date	Dec 9, 2025
Grant date	Dec 9, 2025

Abstract

Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. In some aspects, a radio unit (RU) may receive, from a user equipment (UE), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) associated with a channel. The RU may perform a channel estimation associated with the channel using the DMRS to obtain channel estimation information. The RU may transmit, to a distributed unit (DU), information that is based at least in part on the channel estimation information. Numerous other aspects are described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A radio unit (RU) for wireless communication, comprising:
a memory; and one or more processors, coupled to the memory, configured to: receive, from a user equipment (UE), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) associated with a channel; receive, from a distributed unit (DU), an indication of one or more UE identifiers; perform a channel estimation associated with the channel using the DMRS to obtain channel estimation information; and transmit, to the DU, information that is based at least in part on the channel estimation information, wherein the information comprises pairing information associated with the one or more UE identifiers indicating one or more UEs that are suitable to be paired for uplink operations, wherein the pairing information is based at least in part on the channel estimation information.

2 . The RU of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors, to perform the channel estimation, are configured to:
perform the channel estimation before performing beamforming associated with the channel, wherein the channel estimation information is full dimensional channel estimation information.

3 . The RU of claim 1 , wherein the information that is based at least in part on the channel estimation information includes at least one of:
the channel estimation information, a downsampling of the channel estimation information, a compressed version of the channel estimation information, a channel estimate for one or more physical resource block (PRB) bundles, or a beamforming function that is based at least in part on the channel estimation information.

4 . The RU of claim 3 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
compress the channel estimation information to obtain the compressed version of the channel estimation information, wherein compressing the channel estimation information includes at least one of: refrain from transmitting a report or a report parameter associated with the channel estimation information, reduce a resource of the report or the report parameter, or transmit a subset of projections of the channel estimation information.

5 . The RU of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
receive, from the DU, configuration information associated with DMRS channel estimation, wherein transmitting the information that is based at least in part on the channel estimation information is in accordance with the configuration information.

6 . The RU of claim 1 , wherein the information that is based at least in part on the channel estimation information includes one or more discrete Fourier transform (DFT) indices or weights that are based at least in part on the channel estimation information.

7 . The RU of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
receive, from the DU, an indication of one or more metrics or one or more thresholds to be used by the RU to determine the pairing information.

8 . The RU of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
communicate, with the UE, using a beam that is beamformed based at least in part on the information that is based at least in part on the channel estimation information.

9 . The RU of claim 1 , wherein the information that is based at least in part on the channel estimation information is associated with facilitating at least one of:
scheduling determinations, or physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) beamforming.

10 . A distributed unit (DU) for wireless communication, comprising:
a memory; and one or more processors, coupled to the memory, configured to: transmit, to a radio unit (RU), an indication of one or more UE identifiers; receive, from the RU, information that is based at least in part on a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) channel estimation associated with a channel, wherein the information comprises pairing information associated with the one or more UE identifiers indicating one or more UEs that are suitable to be paired for uplink operations, wherein the pairing information is based at least in part on the DMRS channel estimation; and perform an action based at least in part on the information that is based at least in part on the DMRS channel estimation.

11 . The DU of claim 10 , wherein the DMRS channel estimation is a full dimensional DMRS channel estimation.

12 . The DU of claim 10 , wherein the information that is based at least in part on the DMRS channel estimation includes at least one of:
a downsampling of the DMRS channel estimation, a compressed version of the DMRS channel estimation, a DMRS channel estimate for one or more physical resource block (PRB) bundle, or a beamforming function that is based at least in part on the DMRS channel estimation.

13 . The DU of claim 10 , wherein the DMRS channel estimation is associated with a user equipment (UE), and wherein the one or more processors, to perform the action, are configured to:
transmit scheduling information for the UE, wherein the scheduling information is based at least in part on the DMRS channel estimation.

14 . The DU of claim 10 , wherein the DMRS channel estimation is associated with a user equipment (UE), and wherein the one or more processors, to perform the action, are configured to:
configure a pairing of two or more UEs, including the UE, for uplink operations based at least in part on the DMRS channel estimation.

15 . A method of wireless communication performed by a radio unit (RU), comprising:
receiving, from a user equipment (UE), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) associated with a channel; receiving, from a distributed unit (DU), an indication of one or more UE identifiers; performing a channel estimation associated with the channel using the DMRS to obtain channel estimation information; and transmitting, to the DU, information that is based at least in part on the channel estimation information, wherein the information comprises pairing information associated with the one or more UE identifiers indicating one or more UEs that are suitable to be paired for uplink operations, wherein the pairing information is based at least in part on the channel estimation information.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein performing the channel estimation comprises:
performing the channel estimation before performing beamforming associated with the channel, wherein the channel estimation information is full dimensional channel estimation information.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the information that is based at least in part on the channel estimation information includes at least one of:
a downsampling of the channel estimation information, a compressed version of the channel estimation information, a channel estimate for one or more physical resource block (PRB) bundles, or a beamforming function that is based at least in part on the channel estimation information.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the compressed version of the channel estimation information is associated with a compression associated with at least one of:
a time interval, a message associated with a report, a frequency subband, a set of layers, a set of UEs, or a subset of parameters associated with the channel estimation information.

19 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
receiving, from the DU, configuration information associated with DMRS channel estimation, wherein transmitting the information that is based at least in part on the channel estimation

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Sayed Hassan Mohamad
• Radulescu Andrei Dragos
• Jayaraman Srikant
• Wallace Mark
• Garyantes Michael Francis
• Blessent Luca
• Prakash Rajat
• Sachidanand Sinha Abhishek Saurabh
• Shah Jigneshkumar

Classifications

• H04L5/0048

  Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver (allocation of control signalling H04L5/0053; use of control signalling H04L5/0091) · CPC title

• H04B7/0617 Primary

  for beam forming · CPC title

• H04L41/0803

  Configuration setting · CPC title

• H04W72/21

  in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network · CPC title

• H04L5/0023

  Time-frequency-space · CPC title