System and Method for Beam Selection Using Multiple Frequencies

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016119910-A1
Application number	US-201514920734-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 22, 2015
Priority date	Oct 24, 2014
Publication date	Apr 28, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for operating a UE includes receiving, by the UE during an initial access sequence, a plurality of first inbound beams each transmitted by a communications controller in a different transmit direction over a first carrier, where the first inbound beams have a different subcarrier frequency range from each other, generating values of a receive metric in accordance with the first inbound beams, selecting one of the first inbound beams in accordance with the receive metric values, transmitting, by the UE, an indication of the selected first inbound beam, and receiving, by the UE, a second inbound beam transmitted by the communications controller in a transmit direction in accordance with the indication of the selected first inbound beam, where the second inbound beam has a second subcarrier frequency range of the first carrier that is different than a first subcarrier frequency range of the selected first inbound beam.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for operating a user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving, by the UE during an initial access sequence, a plurality of first inbound beams each transmitted by a communications controller in a different transmit direction over a first carrier, wherein the first inbound beams have a different subcarrier frequency range from each other; generating values of a receive metric in accordance with the first inbound beams; selecting one of the first inbound beams in accordance with the receive metric values; transmitting, by the UE, an indication of the selected first inbound beam; and receiving, by the UE, a second inbound beam transmitted by the communications controller in a transmit direction in accordance with the indication of the selected first inbound beam, wherein the second inbound beam has a second subcarrier frequency range of the first carrier that is different than a first subcarrier frequency range of the selected first inbound beam.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the receive metric comprises at least one of a received signal energy, a reference signal received power, a received signal strength indicator, a reference signal received quality, a mean squared error, a packet error rate, a bit error rate, a received signal code power, or a channel quality indicator.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the UE, configuration information transmitted by the communications controller, wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of a time instance that is available for initial access, a quantity of transmit antennas in use by the communications controller, waveform information for the first inbound beams, or frequency ranges of the first inbound beams.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting one of a plurality of receive directions in accordance with the receive metric values,
wherein the generating the receive metric values is further in accordance with the receive directions.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the receiving the plurality of first inbound beams comprises:
receiving, by a plurality of antennas of the UE, the plurality of first inbound beams comprising a plurality of frequency-multiplexed signals;
directionally coding the frequency-multiplexed signals in accordance with a plurality of receive directions; and
separating the frequency-multiplexed signals by frequency;
the directionally coding the frequency-multiplexed signals comprises:
phase-shifting the frequency-multiplexed signals;
performing analog-to-digital conversion of the phase-shifted frequency-multiplexed signals to obtain digital frequency-multiplexed signals; and
digitally coding the digital frequency-multiplexed signals; and
the generating the receive metric values is further in accordance with the digitally coded signals.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
performing a matrix decomposition in accordance with an estimate of a communications channel between the communications controller and the UE, wherein the matrix decomposition comprises at least one of a singular value decomposition or an eigenvalue decomposition; and performing a discrete Fourier transform of a plurality of frequency-multiplexed signals, wherein the receiving the plurality of first inbound beams comprises receiving, by a plurality of antennas of the UE, the plurality of frequency-multiplexed signals.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the second inbound beam comprises a plurality of second inbound beams; the plurality of second inbound beams comprises a plurality of second beamwidths and a plurality of second transmit directions; a beamwidth of the selected first inbound beam is broader than each of the second beamwidths; and a transmit angle range of the selected first inbound beam comprises the plurality of second transmit directions.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first frequency range consists essentially of millimeter wavelength frequency levels; and the second frequency range consists essentially of millimeter wavelength frequency levels.

9 . A user equipment (UE) comprising:
a processor; and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium coupled to the processor and storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions for:
receiving a plurality of first inbound beams each transmitted by a communications controller in a different transmit direction over a first carrier, wherein the first inbound beams have a different subcarrier frequency range from each other;
generating values of a receive metric in accordance with the first inbound beams;
selecting one of the first inbound beams in accordance with the receive metric values;
transmitting an indication of the selected first inbound beam; and
receiving a second inbound beam transmitted by the communications controller in a transmit direction in accordance with the indication of the selected first inbound beam, wherein the second inbound beam has a second subcarrier frequency range of the first carrier that is different than a first subcarrier frequency range of the selected first inbound beam.

10 . The UE of claim 9 , wherein:
the programming further comprises instructions for selecting one of a plurality of receive directions in accordance with the receive metric values; and the generating the receive metric values is further in accordance with the receive directions.

11 . The UE of claim 9 , further comprising a plurality of antennas, wherein:
the instructions for receiving the plurality of first inbound beams comprise instructions for:
receiving, by the plurality of antennas, a plurality of frequency-multiplexed signals;
directionally coding the frequency-multiplexed signals in accordance with a plurality of receive directions; and
separating the frequency-multiplexed signals by frequency; and
the instructions for directionally coding the frequency-multiplexed signals comprise instructions for:
performing analog-to-digital conversion of the frequency-multiplexed signals to obtain digital frequency-multiplexed signals; and
digitally coding the digital frequency-multiplexed signals.

12 . The UE of claim 11 , further comprising a plurality of analog phase shifters, wherein the instructions for directionally coding the frequency-multiplexed signals further comprise instructions for phase-shifting the frequency-multiplexed signals.

13 . The UE of claim 9 , wherein the programming further comprises instructions for:
performing a matrix decomposition in accordance with an estimate of a communications channel between the communications controller and the UE, wherein the matrix decomposition comprises at least one of a singular value decomposition or an eigenvalue decomposition; and performing a discrete Fourier transform of a plurality of frequency-multiplexed signals, wherein the instructions for receiving the plurality of first inbound beams comprises instructions for receiving, by a plurality of antennas of the UE, the plurality of frequency-multiplexed signals.

14 . The UE of claim 9 , wherein:
the receive metric comprises at least one of a received signal energy, a reference signal received power, a received signal strength indicator, a reference signal received quality, a mean squared error, a packet error rate, a bit error rate, a received signal code power, or a channel quality indicator.

15 . The UE of claim 9 , wherein:
the second inbound beam comprises a plurality of second inbound beams; the plurality of second inbound beams comprises a p

Assignees

• Futurewei Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Krzymien Lukasz
• Alkhateeb Ahmed
• Desai Vipul
• Sartori Philippe

Classifications

• H04B17/346

  Noise values (signal-to-interference ratio [SIR] or carrier-to-interference ratio [CIR] H04B17/336) · CPC title

• H04B7/06952

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

• H04W72/0453

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

• H04L5/0053

  Allocation of signalling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals · CPC title

• H04W72/046 Primary

  the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams · CPC title