Asymmetric capability-driven methods for beam tracking in mm-wave access systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9363683-B2
Application number	US-201414332330-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 15, 2014
Priority date	Jul 15, 2014
Publication date	Jun 7, 2016
Grant date	Jun 7, 2016

Abstract

A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for operating a user equipment (UE) are provided. The apparatus establishes a wireless communication link with a millimeter-wave base station (mm W-BS) based on a transmit beam from the mm W-BS. The transmit beam has a transmit beam direction. In addition, the apparatus receives beamforming capability information indicating one of at least a digital, analog, or hybrid beamforming capability associated with the mm W-BS. Further, the apparatus scans N transmit beams from the mm W-BS for each of M receive beam directions of the UE based on the beamforming capability information and the transmit beam associated with the wireless communication link.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of wireless communication for a user equipment (UE), comprising:
establishing a wireless communication link with a millimeter-wave base station (mmW-BS) based on a transmit beam from the mmW-BS, the transmit beam having a transmit beam direction;
receiving beamforming capability information indicating one of at least a digital, analog, or hybrid beamforming capability associated with the mmW-BS, wherein the beamforming capability information includes an indication of an antenna switching speed of the mmW-BS; and
scanning N transmit beams from the mmW-BS for each of M receive beam directions of the UE based on the beamforming capability information and the transmit beam associated with the wireless communication link.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining one or more preferred scanned beams of a transmit beam set from among the N transmit beams; and
sending information indicating the preferred one or more scanned beams.

3. The method of claim I, further comprising sending beamforming capability information associated with the UE to the mmW-BS, wherein the scanning is further based on the beamforming capability information associated With the UE.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein:
the beamforming capability information associated with the UE indicates that the UE comprises a plurality of antenna sub-arrays, and
the scanning of the N transmit beams comprises scanning the N transmit beams using the plurality of antenna sub-arrays in a single time slot.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the N transmit beams comprise N transmit beam directions within an angle range T of the transmit beam direction.

6. The method of claim 5 , whe in the scanning comprises configuring antenna weights and/or a phase and amplitude for the N transmit beam directions.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining comprises comparing a signal quality of the scanned beams to a threshold.

8. A user equipment (UE) apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:
means for establishing a wireless communication link with a millimeter-wave base statio (mmW-BS) based on a transmit beam from the mmW-BS, the transmit beam having a transmit beam direction;
means for receiving beamforming capability information indicating one of at least a digital, analog, or hybrid beamforming capability associated with the mmW-BS, wherein the beamforming capability information includes an indication of an antenna switching speed of the mmW-BS; and
means for scanning N transmit beams from the mmW-BS for each of M receive beam directions of the UE based on the beamforming capability information and the transmit beam associated with the wireless communication link.

9. The UE of claim 8 , further comprising:
means for determining one or more preferred scanned beams of a transmit beam set from among the N transmit beams; and
means for sending information indicating the preferred one or more scanned beams.

10. The UE of claim 8 , further comprising means for sending beamfonning capability information associated with the UE to the mmW-BS, wherein the scanning is further based on the beamforming capability information associated with the UE.

11. The UE of claim 10 , wherein:
the beamforming capability information associated with the UE indicates that the UE comprises a plurality of antenna sub-arrays, and
the means for scanning the N transmit beams is configured to scan the N transmit beams using the plurality of antenna sub-arrays in a single time slot.

12. The UE of claim 8 , wherein the N transmit beams comprise N transmit beam directions within an angle range T of the transmit beam direction.

13. The UE of claim 12 , wherein the means for scanning is configured to configure antenna weights and/or a phase and amplitude for the N transmit beam directions.

14. The UE of claim 9 , wherein the means for determining is configured to compare a signal quality of the scanned beams to a threshold.

15. A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:
a memory; and
at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to:
establish a wireless communication link with a millimeter-wave base station (mmW-BS) based on a transmit beam from the mmW-BS, the transmit beam having a transmit beam direction;
receive beamforming capability information indicating one of at least a digital, analog, or hybrid beamforming capability associated with the mmW-BS, wherein the beam capability information includes an indication of an antenna switching speed of the mmW-BS; and
scan N transmit beams from the mmW-BS for each of M receive beam directions of the UE based on the beamforming capability information and the transmit beam associated with the wireless communication link.

16. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
determine one or more preferred scanned beams of a transmit beam set from among the N transmit beams; and
send information indicating the preferred one or more scanned beams.

17. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to send beam capability information associated with the UE to the mmW-BS, wherein the scanning is further based on the beamforming capability information associated with the UE.

18. The UE of claim 17 , Wherein:
the beamforming capability information associated with the UE indicates that the UP comprises a plurality of antenna sub-arrays, and
the scanning of the N transmit beams comprises scanning the N transmit beams using the plurality; of antenna sub-arrays in a single time slot.

19. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the N transmit beams comprise N transmit beam directions within an angle range T of the transmit beam direction.

20. The UP of claim 19 , wherein the scanning comprises configuring antenna weights and/or a phase and amplitude for the N transmit beam directions.

21. The UP of claim 16 , wherein the determination of the one or more preferred scanned beams comprises comparing a signal quality of the scanned beams to a threshold.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer executable code, comprising code to:
establish a wireless communication link with a millimeter-wave base station (mmW-BS) based on a transmit beam from the mmW-BS, the transmit beam having a transmit beam direction;
receive beamforming capability information indicating one of at least a digital, analog, or hybrid beamforming capability associated with the mmW-BS, wherein the beamforming capability information includes an indication of an antenna switching speed of the mmW-BS; and
scan N transmit beams from the mmW-BS for each of M receive beam directions of a user equipment (UE) based on the beamforming capability information and the transmit beam associated with the wireless communication link.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 , further comprising code to:
determine one or more preferred scanned beams of a transmit beam set from among the N transmit beams; and
send information indicating the preferred one or more scanned beams.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 , further comprising code to send beamforming capability information associated with the UE to the mmW-BS, wherein the scanning is further based on the beamforming capability information associated with the UE.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24 , wherei

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Raghavan Vasanthan
• Subramanian Sundar
• Sampath Ashwin
• Li Junyi

Classifications

• H04B7/088

  using beam selection · CPC title

• H04B7/0628

  Diversity capabilities · CPC title

• H04B7/0617 Primary

  for beam forming · CPC title

• H04B7/046 Primary

  taking physical layer constraints into account · CPC title

• H04W76/10

  Connection setup · CPC title