Beam management for wireless communication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9137698-B2
Application number	US-201313772047-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 20, 2013
Priority date	Feb 24, 2012
Publication date	Sep 15, 2015
Grant date	Sep 15, 2015

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses manage beam selection. A method for a mobile station (MS) includes identifying beamforming constraints of the MS. The method also includes performing measurement on a channel between a base station (BS) and the MS on at least one transmit (TX) beam and at least one receive (RX) beam. Additionally, the method includes sending beamforming feedback information based on the identified constraints of the MS and the channel measurement. A method for a base station (BS) includes receiving beamforming feedback information comprising at least one of radio frequency beamforming constraints of a mobile station or channel measurement information on a channel between the BS and the MS. Additionally, the method includes sending, to the MS, control information comprising an indication of at least one of MS RX beams or BS TX beams to be used in downlink communication with the MS based on the received beamforming feedback information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for beam management by a mobile station (MS), the method comprising:
identifying beamforming constraints of the MS including which MS beams can and cannot be used simultaneously;
performing measurement on a channel between a base station (BS) and the MS on at least one transmit (TX) beam of the BS and at least one receive (RX) beam of the MS;
sending beamforming feedback information based on the identified constraints of the MS and the channel measurement; and
in response to a notification of downlink scheduling indicating a transmission scheme and one or more BS TX beams to be used, receiving downlink communication from the BS using one or more MS RX beams that can receive the one or more BS TX beams indicated.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein sending the beamforming feedback information comprises sending an indication of the MS beams that cannot be used simultaneously to a BS and sending a channel measurement report to the BS, and the transmission scheme includes at least one of single stream communication, multiple stream communication at different times, or multiple stream communication at a concurrent time.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying at least one set of BS TX beam and MS RX beam pairs that can be used simultaneously based on the beamforming constraints of the MS, wherein sending the beamforming feedback information comprises sending an indication of the at least one set of BS TX beam and MS RX beam pairs that can be used simultaneously to the BS, wherein the transmission scheme includes at least one of single stream communication, multiple stream communication at different times, or multiple stream communication at a concurrent time.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying at least one set of BS TX beam and MS RX beam pairs that can be used simultaneously based on the beamforming constraints of the MS, wherein sending the beamforming feedback information comprises sending an indication of at least one set of BS TX beams from the at least one set of BS TX beam and MS RX beam pairs that can be used simultaneously to the BS, wherein the transmission scheme includes at least one of single stream communication, multiple stream communication at different times, or multiple stream communication at a concurrent time.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the BS is a first BS and sending the beamforming feedback information comprises sending the beamforming feedback information in response to determining to perform coordinated multipoint communication, the method further comprising:
receiving the notification of downlink scheduling indicating the transmission scheme and the one or more BS TX beams to be used for the first BS and one or more BS TX beams to be used for a second BS,
wherein receiving the downlink communication comprises receiving the downlink communication from the first BS using the one or more MS RX beams that can receive the one or more BS TX beams indicated to be used for the first BS, and
wherein the transmission scheme includes at least one of single stream communication, multiple stream communication at different times, or multiple stream communication at a concurrent time.

6. A method for beam management by a base station (BS), the method comprising:
receiving beamforming feedback information comprising at least one of beamforming constraints of a mobile station (MS) or channel measurement information on a channel between the BS and the MS; and
sending, to the MS, control information comprising an indication of one or more BS TX beams to be used in downlink communication with the MS based on the received beamforming feedback information.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the beamforming feedback information includes an indication of which MS beams cannot be used simultaneously and a channel measurement report, the method further comprising:
determining a transmission scheme and the one or more BS TX beams to be used based on the indication of which MS beams cannot be used simultaneously,
wherein sending the control information comprises sending a notification of the transmission scheme, and
wherein the transmission scheme includes at least one of single stream communication, multiple stream communication at different times, or multiple stream communication at a concurrent time.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the beamforming feedback information includes an indication of at least one set of BS TX beam and MS RX beam pairs that can be used simultaneously based on the beamforming constraints of the MS, the method further comprising:
determining a transmission scheme and the one or more BS TX beams to be used based on the indication of at least one set of BS TX beam and MS RX beam pairs that can be used simultaneously,
wherein sending the control information comprises sending a notification of the transmission scheme, and
wherein the transmission scheme includes at least one of single stream communication, multiple stream communication at different times, or multiple stream communication at a concurrent time.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the beamforming feedback information includes an indication of at least one set of BS TX beams from at least one set of BS TX beam and MS RX beam pairs that can be used simultaneously, the method further comprising:
determining a transmission scheme and the one or more BS TX beams to be used based on the indication of the at least one set of BS TX beams,
wherein sending the control information comprises sending a notification of the transmission scheme, and
wherein the transmission scheme includes at least one of single stream communication, multiple stream communication at different times, or multiple stream communication at a concurrent time.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the BS is a first BS and wherein the RF beamforming feedback information is received in response to a determination to perform coordinated multipoint communication, the method further comprising:
coordinating with a second BS to determine a transmission scheme and the one or more BS TX beams to be used,
wherein sending the control information comprises sending a notification of the transmission scheme, and
wherein the transmission scheme includes at least one of single stream communication, multiple stream communication at different times, or multiple stream communication at a concurrent time.

11. An apparatus in a mobile station (MS), the apparatus comprising:
a controller configured to identify beamforming constraints of the MS including which MS beams can and cannot be used simultaneously, and perform measurement on a channel between a base station (BS) and the MS on at least one transmit (TX) beam and at least one MS receive (RX) beam; and
a transceiver configured to send beamforming feedback information based on the identified constraints of the MS and the channel measurement; and in response to a notification of downlink scheduling indicating a transmission scheme and one or more BS TX beams to be used, receive downlink communication from the BS using one or more MS RX beams that can receive the one or more BS TX beams indicated.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein:
in sending the beamforming feedback information, the transceiver is configured to send an indication of the MS beams that cannot be used simultaneously to a BS and send a channel measurement report to the BS, and
the transmission scheme includes at least one of single stream communication, multiple stream communication at different times, or multiple stream communication at a concurrent time.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein:
the controller i

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Li Ying
• Pi Zhouyue
• Abu-Surra Shadi
• Rajagopal Sridhar
• Josiam Kaushik

Classifications

• H04B7/0689

  using different transmission schemes, at least one of them being a diversity transmission scheme · CPC title

• H04B7/0408 Primary

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

• H04B7/0862

  receiver computing weights based on information from the transmitter · CPC title

• H04W24/10 Primary

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04B7/0617

  for beam forming · CPC title