Fronthaul network unit and method therein for synchronization over a fronthaul network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023239817-A1
Application number	US-202018003604-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 1, 2020
Priority date	Jul 1, 2020
Publication date	Jul 27, 2023
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method performed by a first fronthaul network unit (RU 1 , RU 2 ,..., RUm) for synchronizing with a second fronthaul network unit (GM; DU 1 , DU 2 ,..., DUn) across a fronthaul network ( 100 ) carrying TDD radio transmissions through obtaining control information indicating UL and DL time periods of TDD radio transmissions and local timing information in a first fronthaul network unit and determining: a first set of synchronization messages transferred between the units within determined fronthaul DL and UL intervals during which there are no TDD transmissions, and a second set of synchronization messages transferred outside of the determined intervals, and synchronizing, based on the synchronization messages, depending on which set the synchronization message belongs to.

First claim

1 . A method performed by a first fronthaul network unit for synchronizing with a second fronthaul network unit across a fronthaul network carrying Time-Division Duplex (TDD) radio transmissions, the method comprising
obtaining control information indicating uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) time periods for the TDD radio transmissions over a radio interface; obtaining local timing information in the first fronthaul network unit indicating the actual timing of the TDD radio transmissions over the fronthaul network; determining, based on the obtained control and local timing information, fronthaul DL time intervals during which there are no TDD radio transmissions transferred between the first and second fronthaul network unit in the fronthaul DL direction, and fronthaul UL time intervals during which there are no TDD radio transmissions transferred between the first and second fronthaul network unit in the fronthaul UL direction; determining-(404) first sets of synchronization messages that has been transferred between the first and second fronthaul network unit within the determined fronthaul DL and UL time intervals, and second sets of synchronization messages that has been transferred between the first and second fronthaul network unit outside the determined fronthaul DL and UL time intervals; and synchronizing, based on the synchronization messages, time and/or frequency information in the first fronthaul network unit depending on which of the first and/or second sets the synchronization messages belongs to.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the synchronizing is based on synchronization messages that belongs to the first sets of synchronization messages.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the synchronizing is based on a time offset (x ̂) that is estimated using the synchronization messages that belongs to the first setsof synchronization messages.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the time offset (x ̂) is estimated based on a calculation using one or more time delays in the fronthaul network for synchronization messages that belongs to the first sets of synchronization messages.

5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the synchronizing is further based on one or more synchronization messages that belongs to the second sets of synchronization messages.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the synchronizing is further based on synchronization messages that belongs to each of the first and second sets of synchronization messages and performed by filtering the synchronization messages using a model-based filter, wherein the model-based filter is adapted to the difference in delay variance between the one or more synchronization messages that belongs to the second sets of synchronization messages and the synchronization messages that belongs to the first sets of synchronization messages.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtained control information comprises:
time slot format sequence information for the radio interface; TDD configuration information for the radio interface; and/or control information indicating points in time where a switch between UL and DL transmissions over the radio interface.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtained local timing information comprises:
a local clock time value; a local I/Q sample count; a timing strobe indicating a frame or slot start; a sample, slot, subframe or frame counter for incoming data-packets over the fronthaul network; and/or a first symbol indicator for incoming data-packets over the fronthaul network.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the synchronizing further comprises updating a Real-Time Clock (RTC) in the first fronthaul network unit.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the fronthaul network is full-duplex, and the synchronization messages are timestamped data packets according to a packet-based synchronization protocol.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first fronthaul network unit is any type of fronthaul network unit acting as a slave unit in respect to synchronization of its time and frequency information.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein first network unit is one of a Radio Frequency (RF) processing unit or a baseband processing unit.

13 . A first fronthaul network unit for synchronizing with a second fronthaul network unit across a fronthaul network carrying Time-Division Duplex, TDD, (TDD) radio transmissions, the first fronthaul network unit comprising:
a processor and memory containing instructions executable by the processor for configuring the first fronthaul network unit to: obtain control information indicating uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) time periods for the TDD radio transmissions over a radio interface, obtain local timing information in the first fronthaul network unit indicating the actual timing of the TDD radio transmissions over the fronthaul network, determine, based on the obtained control and local timing information, fronthaul DL time intervals during which there are no TDD radio transmissions transferred between the first and second fronthaul network unit in the fronthaul DL direction, and fronthaul UL time intervals during which there are no TDD radio transmissions transferred between the first and second fronthaul network unit in the fronthaul DL direction, determine first sets of synchronization messages that has been transferred between the first and second fronthaul network unit within the determined fronthaul DL and UL time intervals, and second sets of synchronization messages that has been transferred between the first and second fronthaul network unit outside the determined fronthaul DL and UL time intervals, and synchronize, based on the synchronization messages, time and/or frequency information in the first fronthaul network unit depending on which of the first and/or second sets the synchronization messages belongs to.

14 . The first fronthaul network unit of claim 13 , further configured to synchronize the time and/or frequency information based on synchronization messages that belongs to the first sets of synchronization messages.

15 . The first fronthaul network unit of claim 14 , further configured to synchronize the time and/or frequency information based on a time offset estimated using the synchronization messages that belongs to the first sets of synchronization messages.

16 . The first fronthaul network unit of claim 15 , further configured to estimate the timing offset as a mean or median value of time delays in the fronthaul network for the synchronization messages that belongs to the first sets of synchronization messages.

17 . The first fronthaul network unit of claim 14 , further configured to synchronize the time and/or frequency information based on one or more synchronization messages that belongs to the second sets of synchronization messages.

18 . The first fronthaul network unit of claim 13 , further configured to synchronize the time and/or frequency information based on synchronization messages that belongs to both the first and second sets of synchronization messages by filtering the synchronization messages using a model-based filter, wherein the model-based filter is adapted to the difference in delay variance between the one or more synchronization messages that belongs to the second sets of synchronization messages and the synchronization messages that belongs to the first sets of synchronization messages.

19 . The first fronthaul network unit of claim 13 , wherein the obtained control information comprises:
time slot format sequence information of the fronthaul

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Lins De Medeiros Eduardo
• Almeida Igor

Classifications

• H04W56/0015 Primary

  one node acting as a reference for the others · CPC title

• H04L5/1469

  using time-sharing · CPC title

• H04J3/0667

  Bidirectional timestamps, e.g. NTP or PTP for compensation of clock drift and for compensation of propagation delays (arrangements for monitoring round trip delays in packet switching networks H04L43/0864) · CPC title