阅读说明：本技术 用户设备协调集合波束扫描 (User equipment coordinated aggregate beam scanning ) 是由 王继兵 埃里克·理查德·施陶费尔 于 2020-03-12 设计创作，主要内容包括：该文档描述了用于用户设备协调集合(UECS)波束扫描的技术和装置。在一些方面,用户设备(UE)接收(425)指示以利用UECS协调波束扫描。UE引导(430)UECS中的每个UE通过接收下行链路波束传输集合来执行波束训练过程,并且向基站转发(515)波束报告信息。在实施方式中,UE接收(530)一个或多个波束标识和一个或多个分配的时隙的指示,并且引导(540)UECS中的至少两个UE诸如通过向至少两个UE中的每个UE发射相应波束标识和相应时隙,在由分配的时隙指示的特定时隙,使用由波束标识指示的特定波束。(This document describes techniques and apparatus for user equipment coordinated aggregation (UECS) beam scanning. In some aspects, a User Equipment (UE) receives (425) an indication to coordinate beam scanning with a UECS. The UE directs (430) each UE in the UE cs to perform a beam training procedure by receiving a set of downlink beam transmissions and forwards (515) beam report information to the base station. In an embodiment, a UE receives (530) an indication of one or more beam identifications and one or more allocated time slots, and directs (540) at least two UEs in a UE cs to use a particular beam indicated by a beam identification at a particular time slot indicated by an allocated time slot, such as by transmitting the respective beam identification and the respective time slot to each of the at least two UEs.)

1. A method performed by a user equipment for beamforming joint communication between a plurality of user equipments in a coordinated set of base station and user equipment, the method comprising:

receiving an indication to coordinate beam scanning with the user equipment coordination set;

in response to receiving an indication to coordinate beam scanning, directing, over a local wireless network connection, each user equipment in the user equipment coordination set to perform a beam training process comprising receiving a set of downlink beam transmissions covering a spatial region from the base station according to a pre-specified time interval and direction;

forwarding beam report information indicating beam quality information to the base station over a wireless network connection based on the beam training procedure;

receiving, from the base station over the wireless network connection, one or more beam identifications and an indication of one or more allocated time slots in response to forwarding the beam report information; and

directing the at least two user equipments in the coordinated set to use a particular beam indicated by the one or more beam identifications at a particular time slot indicated by the one or more allocated time slots by transmitting a respective beam identification of the one or more beam identifications and a respective time slot of the one or more allocated time slots to each of at least two user equipments over the local wireless network connection.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the respective beam identification comprises:

transmitting a first beam identification to a first user equipment of the at least two user equipments and at least a second beam identification to a second user equipment of the at least two user equipments, wherein the first beam identification corresponds to a first beam direction and the second beam identification corresponds to a second beam direction; or

Transmitting the same beam identification to each of the at least two user equipments, wherein the same beam identification corresponds to the same beam direction.

3. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein transmitting a respective time slot to each of the at least two user equipments comprises:

transmitting a first allocated time slot to a first user equipment of the at least two user equipments and a second different allocated time slot to a second user equipment of the at least two user equipments; or

Transmitting the same time slot to each of the at least two user equipments.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein forwarding the beam report information to the base station further comprises:

selecting, by the user equipment, a beam from the set of downlink beam transmissions;

generating, by the user equipment, a first beam report comprising an indication of the selected beam; and

transmitting the first beam report to the base station over the wireless network connection.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving at least a second beam report from at least one user equipment in the coordinated set of user equipments based on the set of downlink beam transmissions; and

transmitting the at least second beam report to the base station over the wireless network connection by:

transmitting the second beam report to the base station separately from the first beam report; or

Including the second beam report in the first beam report transmitted to the base station.

6. The method of any of claims 1-5, wherein directing each user equipment in the user equipment coordination set to perform the beam training procedure further comprises:

directing each user equipment in the user equipment coordination set to transmit uplink sounding reference signals in a pre-designated time-varying direction that scans the spatial region.

7. The method of any of claims 1-6, wherein the one or more beam identifications and the one or more allocated time slots correspond to one or more beam pairs, and the method further comprises:

receiving, from a target user equipment in the user equipment coordination set, a second indication to transmit uplink communications to the base station; and

directing, using one or more uplink beams, at least a subset of user equipments in the coordination set of user equipments to transmit the uplink communication to the base station based on the one or more beam pairs.

8. A method performed by a base station for configuring beamforming joint communication between the base station and a plurality of user equipments in a user equipment coordination set, the method comprising:

transmitting an indication of coordinated beam scanning with the UE coordination set to a coordinating UE in the UE coordination set;

transmitting a set of downlink beam transmissions covering a spatial region according to a pre-specified time interval and direction;

receiving beam report information from the user equipment coordination set, the beam report information indicating beam quality information for at least two user equipments in the user equipment coordination set, the beam quality information being based on the set of downlink beam transmissions;

selecting one or more beam identifications specifying particular beams to be used by the at least two user equipments based on the beam report information;

selecting one or more time slots to be used by the at least two user equipments based on the beam report information; and

directing the at least two user equipments to use the particular beam indicated by the one or more beam identifications at the particular time slot indicated by the one or more allocated time slots by transmitting the one or more beam identifications and the indication of the one or more time slots to the at least two user equipments.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving beamforming capability information of one or more user equipments in the coordinated set of user equipments from the coordinating user equipment, an

Wherein selecting the one or more beam identifications further comprises:

selecting the one or more beam identifications based on the beamforming capability information.

10. The method of claim 8 or claim 9, wherein selecting the one or more time slots comprises:

selecting a first time slot for a first user equipment of the at least two user equipments and selecting a different at least second time slot for a second user equipment of the at least two user equipments; or

Selecting the same time slot for the at least two user equipments.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein selecting the one or more beam identifications comprises:

selecting a first beam identification for the first user equipment and at least a second beam identification for the second user equipment, wherein the first beam identification corresponds to a first beam direction and the second beam identification corresponds to a second beam direction; or

Selecting a same beam identification for the at least two user equipments, wherein the same beam identification corresponds to a same beam direction.

12. The method of any of claims 8 to 11, wherein selecting the one or more beam identifications and selecting the one or more slots further comprises:

receiving a set of uplink beam transmissions from at least some of the user equipment coordination sets;

generating uplink beam measurements for the set of uplink beam transmissions; and

selecting the one or more beam identifications and the one or more time slots based on the uplink beam measurements.

13. The method of any of claims 8 to 12, wherein directing the at least two user equipments to use the particular beam at the particular time slot further comprises:

transmitting respective ones of the one or more beam identifications and respective ones of the one or more time slots directly to each of the at least two user devices; or

Transmitting the selected one or more beam identifications and the indication of the one or more time slots to the coordinating user equipment for distribution to the at least two user equipments.

14. A user equipment device, comprising:

at least one wireless transceiver;

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, in response to execution by the processor, direct the user equipment device to perform any of the methods recited in claims 1-7 using the at least one wireless transceiver.

15. A base station apparatus, comprising:

at least one wireless transceiver;

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, in response to execution by the processor, direct the base station apparatus to perform any of the methods recited in claims 8-13 using the at least one wireless transceiver.

Background

Typically, providers of wireless networks manage wireless communications over the wireless network. For example, a provider's base station manages wireless connections with User Equipment (UE) served by a wireless network. The base station determines the configuration of the wireless connection, such as the bandwidth, timing, and other parameters of the wireless connection.

The quality of service between the UE and the base station can be reduced due to many factors, such as obstructions that cause signal strength loss, bandwidth limitations, interfering signals, and so on. Many solutions have been developed to improve the signal quality issues that occur in certain wireless communication systems. However, these solutions are not sufficient in cases where the UE has limited received or transmitted signal quality due to signal interference, distance from the base station, or attenuation from weather or objects such as buildings or trees.

Disclosure of Invention

This document describes techniques and apparatuses for user equipment coordinated collective beam scanning. The techniques described herein overcome the challenges of jointly transmitting and receiving uplink and downlink data by a set of UEs forming a coordinated set of UEs. These challenges result from the conventional beam scanning process. In particular, the techniques described herein enable coordinated beam scanning by multiple UEs within a UE coordination set to provide a link budget.

In aspects, a User Equipment (UE) receives an indication to coordinate beam scanning with a User Equipment Coordination Set (UECS). The UE directs each UE in the UE cs to perform a beam training procedure by receiving a set of downlink beam transmissions and forwards the beam report information forwarding to the base station. In an embodiment, the UE receives an indication of one or more beam identifications and one or more allocated time slots, and directs at least two UEs in the UE cs to use a particular beam indicated by the beam identification at a particular time slot indicated by the allocated time slot, such as by transmitting a respective beam identification and a respective time slot to each of the at least two UEs.

In some aspects, a base station transmits an indication to a coordinating UE in a UE cs to coordinate beam scanning with the UE cs. The base station then transmits a set of downlink beam transmissions covering the spatial region according to a pre-specified time interval and direction. In an embodiment, the base station receives beam quality information from a UE cs beam report information indicating beam quality information for at least two UEs in the UE cs based on the set of downlink beam transmissions. The base station then selects one or more beam identities specifying a particular beam and one or more time slots to be used by the at least two UEs based on the beam report information. In an embodiment, the base station directs the at least two UEs to use a particular beam indicated by the one or more beam identifications at a particular time slot indicated by the one or more allocated time slots, such as by transmitting the one or more beam identifications and the indication of the one or more time slots to the at least two UEs.

The details of one or more implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims. This summary is provided to introduce a selection of subject matter that is further described in the detailed description and the accompanying drawings. This summary, therefore, should not be considered to describe essential features nor should it be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Drawings

Details of one or more aspects of techniques and apparatus for UE coordinated aggregate beam scanning are described below. In different instances in the description and drawings, like elements are indicated with the same reference numerals:

fig. 1 illustrates an example operating environment in which aspects of UE coordinated aggregate beam scanning can be implemented.

Fig. 2 illustrates an exemplary device diagram of a user equipment and a serving cell base station.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example embodiment of a UE coordination set.

Fig. 4 depicts a schematic diagram showing a communication process between a target UE, a coordinating UE and a base station for coordinating beam scanning in a UE coordination set.

Fig. 5 continues from fig. 4 and illustrates a process for a base station to coordinate beam scanning of a UE coordination set.

Fig. 6 continues from fig. 4 and illustrates a process for coordinating UEs to coordinate beam scanning of the UE coordination set.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example method of UE coordinated collective beam scanning in accordance with aspects employing techniques described herein.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example method of coordinating collective beam scanning by a UE in accordance with aspects of the techniques described herein.

Detailed Description

SUMMARY

In conventional wireless communication systems, signal quality between a User Equipment (UE) and a base station can be reduced due to a number of factors, such as signal interference or distance between the UE and the base station, resulting in slower and less efficient data transmission. To improve signal quality, techniques for forming a coordinated set of UEs for joint transmission and reception have been developed to facilitate faster and more efficient data transmission compared to conventional wireless communication systems. For the benefit of a particular UE, similar to a distributed antenna, a UE coordination set is formed by multiple UEs allocated as a group to function together. The UE coordination set includes coordinating UEs that coordinate joint transmission and reception of uplink and/or downlink data for a particular UE (e.g., a target UE). By combining the antennas and transmitters of multiple UEs in the UE coordination set, the effective transmit power of a particular UE is significantly increased and the effective signal quality is greatly improved.

Multiple UEs forming a UE coordination set designated by a base station can be used to increase the link budget for a single UE in the UE coordination set. In one example, multiple UEs carried by a set of hikers in a low radio coverage area can form a coordinated set of UEs to transmit messages to a base station at a transmission power that may be more efficient than a single UE in the area. In addition, those UEs can form a UE coordination set to receive messages from the base station for one of the UEs at a possibly more efficient received power than for this one UE to receive alone. One UE of the plurality of UEs acts as a coordinating UE for the UE coordination set to coordinate joint transmission of uplink data for the particular UE. However, the coordination of beam scanning techniques performed by each UE within the UE coordination set can be challenging, at least because different UEs in the UE coordination set can transmit or receive data on various beams and time slots.

In another example, a single user may have multiple electronic devices, such as a work smartphone, a personal smartphone, and a 5G start watch (smartwatch). When these three devices are in a challenging wireless environment (e.g., large signal attenuation due to noise bursts, concrete walls, tall buildings, mountains, long distances from base stations, etc.), they may form a coordinated set of UEs for joint transmission and reception of data. By forming a coordinated set of UEs, an active smartphone, personal smartphone, and smartwatch can transmit messages to or receive messages from a base station at a higher effective transmit or receive power than either the smartphone or the smartwatch alone can achieve. The working smartphone, personal smartphone, and/or smartwatch may also form a UE coordination set with one or more other devices in the home (e.g., tablet, smart appliance, internet of things device) to further increase the effective transmit and/or receive power of the working smartphone, personal smartphone, or smartwatch.

In some aspects, a method performed by a UE for coordinating beam scanning for a plurality of User Equipments (UEs) is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: a request is received from a base station to act as a coordinating UE for coordinating beam scanning between UEs within a UE coordination set and the base station. The method further comprises the following steps: in response to an indication of uplink or downlink data to be jointly transmitted or received by the UE coordination set, a message is provided to UEs within the UE coordination set over the local wireless network connection that directs the UEs to perform a beam training procedure to identify a beam to be used for communicating with the base station. The method further comprises the following steps: information is received indicating beams available for one or more UEs within a UE coordination set. In addition, the method includes assigning a beam Identification (ID) and an allocated time slot to each UE within the UE coordination set. The method also includes transmitting the beam IDs and the assigned time slots to respective UEs within the UE coordination set over the local wireless network connection, the beam IDs and the assigned time slots effective to enable the UEs within the UE coordination set to coordinate beam scanning for joint communication with the base station.

In some aspects, a method performed by a base station for coordinating beam scanning of a plurality of User Equipments (UEs) is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: multiple UEs are directed to form a coordinated set of UEs for transmitting or receiving data jointly with a base station. The method further comprises the following steps: a beam is determined that is available for one or more UE communications within the UE coordination set. The method further includes designating one or more time slots to be used by the UEs within the UE coordination set for joint transmission or reception of data and one or more beam Identifications (IDs) each corresponding to a particular beam direction for a particular UE for transmitting data to or receiving data from the base station. In addition, the method comprises: an indication of the one or more time slots and the one or more beam IDs is transmitted to one or more UEs within a UE coordination set to coordinate beam scanning of the plurality of UEs for joint transmission or reception of data.

In some aspects, a UE is disclosed that includes a processor and a memory system. The processor and memory system include executable instructions to receive a message from a coordinating UE in a coordinated set of UEs over a local wireless network connection, the message directing the UE to perform a beam training procedure to identify a beam to be used for joint communication with a base station, the joint communication including joint transmission of uplink data for a target UE in the coordinated set of UEs or joint reception of downlink data for the target UE. The instructions are also executable to perform a beam training procedure to identify a beam that reports a result of the beam training procedure to a coordinating UE over a local wireless network connection, and receive a beam Identification (ID) and an allocated time slot over the local wireless network connection for communicating with the base station. The instructions are further executable to initiate uplink or downlink communication using a beam corresponding to the beam ID and the allocated time slot to transmit uplink data for a target UE in the UE coordination set or receive downlink data for the target UE.

In some aspects, a UE is disclosed that includes a processor and a memory system. The processor and memory system include instructions executable to provide a message to a UE in a coordination set of UEs over a local wireless network connection. In some aspects, the message directs the UE to perform a beam training procedure to identify a beam for communicating with the base station. The instructions are also executable to: receiving information indicating available beams available for a UE within a UE coordination set; and assigning a beam Identification (ID) and an allocated time slot to each UE in the UE coordination set. The instructions are further executable to transmit a beam ID and an assigned time slot to a corresponding UE within the UE coordination set over the local wireless network connection, the beam ID and the assigned time slot effective to enable the UE within the UE coordination set to coordinate beam scanning for joint communication with the base station.

In some aspects, a base station is disclosed that includes at least a processor and a memory system. The processor and memory system include executable instructions to: guiding a plurality of UEs to form a UE coordination set; determining a beam available for communicating with a UE within a coordinated set of UEs; and designating one or more time slots and one or more beam Identifications (IDs) to be used by UEs within the UE coordination set for joint transmission or reception of data. In some aspects, the one or more beam IDs each correspond to a particular beam direction for a particular UE for transmitting data to or receiving data from the base station. The instructions are further executable to transmit an indication of the one or more time slots and the one or more beam IDs to one or more UEs within a UE coordination set to coordinate beam scanning of a plurality of UEs for joint transmission or reception of data.

In some aspects, a User Equipment (UE) receives an indication to coordinate beam scanning with a User Equipment Coordination Set (UECS). The UE directs each UE in the UE cs to perform a beam training procedure by receiving a set of downlink beam transmissions and forwards beam report information to the base station. In an embodiment, the UE receives an indication of one or more beam identifications and one or more allocated time slots, and directs at least two UEs in the UE cs to use a particular beam indicated by the beam identification at a particular time slot indicated by the allocated time slot, such as by transmitting a respective beam identification and a respective time slot to each of the at least two UEs.

In some aspects, a base station transmits an indication to a coordinating UE in a UE cs to coordinate beam scanning with the UE cs. The base station then transmits a set of downlink beam transmissions covering the spatial region according to a pre-specified time interval and direction. In an embodiment, a base station receives beam report information from a UE cs, the beam report information indicating beam quality information for at least two UEs in the UE cs, the beam quality information being based on a set of downlink beam transmissions. Then, the base station selects one or more beam identifications specifying a specific beam and one or more slots to be used by the at least two UEs based on the beam report information. In an embodiment, the base station directs the at least two UEs to use a particular beam indicated by the one or more beam identifications at a particular time slot indicated by the one or more allocated time slots, such as by transmitting the one or more beam identifications and the indication of the one or more time slots to the at least two UEs.

Example Environment

Fig. 1 illustrates an example environment 100 that includes a plurality of user equipments 110 (UEs 110), illustrated as UE111, UE112, and UE 113. Each UE110 is capable of communicating with a base station 120 (illustrated as base stations 121, 122, 123, and 124) over a wireless communication link 130 (wireless link 130) (illustrated as wireless links 131 and 132). Each UE110 in the UE coordination set is capable of one or more local wireless network connections (e.g., personal area network, Near Field Communication (NFC), bluetooth) such as local wireless network connections 133, 134, and 135^TMSonar, radar, lidar, ZigBee^TM) And communicating with a coordinating UE in the UE coordinating set and/or a target UE in the UE coordinating set. For simplicity, the UE110 is implemented as a smartphone, but may also be implemented as any suitable computing or electronic device, such as a mobile watch, mobile communication device, modem, cellular telephone, gaming device, navigation device, media device, laptop computer, or other device,Desktop computers, tablet computers, smart appliances, vehicle-based communication systems, internet of things (IoT) devices (e.g., sensor nodes, controller/actuator nodes, or combinations thereof), and the like. Base stations 120 (e.g., evolved universal terrestrial radio access network node B, E-UTRAN node B, evolved node B, eNodeB, eNB, next generation node B, enode B, gNB, etc.) may be implemented in macro cells, micro cells, small cells, pico cells, etc., or any combination thereof.

Base station 120 communicates with UE110 over wireless links 131 and 132, which may be implemented as any suitable type of wireless link. Wireless links 131 and 132 include control and data communications, such as a downlink for data and control information transmitted from base station 120 to UE110, an uplink for other data and control information transmitted from UE110 to base station 120, or both. The wireless link 130 may include one or more wireless links (e.g., radio links) or bearers implemented using any suitable communication protocol or standard, such as 3 rd generation partnership project long term evolution (3GPP LTE), fifth generation new radio (5G NR), etc., or a combination of communication protocols or standards. Multiple radio links 130 may be aggregated in carrier aggregation to provide higher data rates for UE 110. Multiple radio links 130 from multiple base stations 120 may be configured for coordinated multipoint (CoMP) communication with UE 110. In addition, the plurality of radio links 130 may be configured for single-RAT dual connectivity or multi-RAT dual connectivity (MR-DC). Each of these various multi-link scenarios tends to increase the power consumption of UE 110.

The base stations 120 collectively form a radio access network 140 (e.g., a RAN, evolved universal terrestrial radio access network, E-UTRAN, 5G NR RAN, or NR RAN). The RAN 140 is illustrated as NR RAN 141 and E-UTRAN 142. The base stations 121 and 123 in the NR RAN 141 are connected to a fifth generation core 150(5GC 150) network. Base stations 122 and 124 in E-UTRAN 142 are connected to evolved packet core 160(EPC 160). Alternatively or additionally, base station 122 may be connected to both the 5GC 150 and EPC 160 networks.

Base stations 121 and 123 are connected to the 5GC 150 at 101 and 102, respectively, through a NG2 interface for control plane signaling and using a NG3 interface for user plane data communications. Base stations 122 and 124 connect to EPC 160 at 103 and 104, respectively, using an S1 interface for control plane signaling and user plane data communications. Alternatively or additionally, if base station 122 is connected to 5GC 150 and EPC 160 network, then at 180, base station 122 connects to 5GC 150 using a NG2 interface for control plane signaling and through a NG3 interface for user plane data communications.

In addition to the connection to the core network, the base stations 120 may communicate with each other. For example, base stations 121 and 123 communicate over an Xn interface at 105, and base stations 122 and 124 communicate over an X2 interface at 106. At least one base station 120 (base station 121 and/or base station 123) in the NR RAN 141 is able to communicate with at least one base station 120 (base station 122 and/or base station 124) in the E-UTRAN 142 using the Xn interface 107. In some aspects, base stations 120 in different RANs (e.g., primary base stations 120 of each RAN) communicate with each other using an Xn interface, such as Xn interface 107.

The 5GC 150 includes an access and mobility management function 152(AMF 152) that provides control plane functions such as registration and authentication, authorization, and mobility management for a plurality of UEs 110 in a 5G NR network. The EPC 160 includes a mobility management entity 162(MME 162) that provides control plane functions such as registration and authentication, authorization, or mobility management of a plurality of UEs 110 in an E-UTRA network. The AMF 152 and MME 162 communicate with the base station 120 in the RAN 140 and also communicate with a plurality of UEs 110 using the base station 120.

Example apparatus

Fig. 2 illustrates an example device diagram 200 of a user equipment and a serving cell base station. In some aspects, the device diagram 200 describes a device capable of implementing various aspects of techniques for UE coordinated aggregate beam scanning. Fig. 2 shows a plurality of UEs 110 and base stations 120. The plurality of UEs 110 and base stations 120 may include additional functions and interfaces that have been omitted from fig. 2 for clarity. UE110 includes an antenna 202, a radio frequency front end 204(RF front end 204), and radio frequency transceivers (e.g., LTE transceiver 206 and 5G NR transceiver 208) for communicating with base stations 120 in 5G RAN 141 and/or E-UTRAN 142. The UE110 includes one or more additional transceivers (e.g., local wireless network transceiver 210) for communicating with at least a coordinating UE and/or a target UE in a coordination set of UEs over one or more local wireless networks (e.g., WLAN, bluetooth, NFC, Personal Area Network (PAN), WiFi-Direct, IEEE 802.15.4, ZigBee, Thread, mmWave). RF front end 204 of UE110 can couple or connect LTE transceiver 206, 5G NR transceiver 208, and local wireless network transceiver 210 to antenna 202 to facilitate various types of wireless communication.

The antenna 202 of the UE110 may include an array of multiple antennas configured similarly or differently from one another. The antenna 202 and the RF front end 204 can be tuned and/or tunable to one or more frequency bands defined by the 3GPP LTE and 5G NR communication standards and implemented by an LTE transceiver 206 and/or a 5G NR transceiver 208. Additionally, the antennas 202, RF front ends 204, LTE transceivers 206, and/or 5G NR transceivers 208 may be configured to support beamforming for transmission and reception of communications with the base station 120. By way of example and not limitation, antenna 202 and RF front end 204 can be implemented for operation in the sub-gigahertz frequency band, the below 6GHz frequency band, and/or the above 6GHz frequency band, which are defined by the 3GPP LTE and 5G NR communication standards. In addition, the RF front end 204 can be tuned and/or tunable to one or more frequency bands defined and implemented by the local wireless network transceiver 210 to support transmission and reception of communications with other UEs in the coordinated set of UEs over the local wireless network.

UE110 includes sensor(s) 212, which can be implemented to detect various attributes, such as temperature, supplied power, power usage, battery status, and so forth. As such, the sensor 212 may include any one or combination of a temperature sensor, a thermistor, a battery sensor, and a power usage sensor.

UE110 also includes a processor 214 and a computer-readable storage medium 216(CRM 216). Processor 214 may be a single core processor or a multi-core processor constructed of various materials such as silicon, polysilicon, high-K dielectric, copper, and the like. The computer-readable storage media described herein do not include propagated signals. The CRM216 may include any suitable memory or storage device, such as Random Access Memory (RAM), static RAM (sram), dynamic RAM (dram), non-volatile RAM (nvram), read-only memory (ROM), or flash memory, which may be used to store device data 218 for the UE 110. The device data 218 includes user data, multimedia data, beamforming codebooks, applications, and/or the operating system of the UE110 that are executable by the processor(s) 214 to enable user plane communication, control plane signaling, and user interaction with the UE 110.

CRM216 also includes a beamforming manager 220. Alternatively or in addition, the beamforming manager 220 may be implemented in whole or in part as hardware logic or circuitry integrated or separate from other components of the UE 110. In at least some aspects, the beamforming manager 220 configures the RF front end 204, the LTE transceiver 206, the 5G NR transceiver 208, and/or the local wireless network transceiver 210 to implement the techniques described herein for UE coordinated aggregate beam scanning.

The apparatus diagram of base station 120 shown in fig. 2 includes a single network node (e.g., a enode B). The functionality of the base station 120 may be distributed over multiple network nodes or devices, and may be distributed in any manner suitable for performing the functionality described herein. Base station 120 includes an antenna 252, a radio frequency front end 254(RF front end 254), one or more LTE transceivers 256, and/or one or more 5G NR transceivers 258 for communicating with UE 110. The RF front end 254 of the base station 120 may couple or connect an LTE transceiver 256 and a 5G NR transceiver 258 to the antenna 252 to facilitate various types of wireless communication. The antenna 252 of the base station 120 may include an array of multiple antennas configured similarly or differently from one another. The antenna 252 and the RF front end 254 can be tuned and/or tunable to one or more frequency bands defined by the 3GPP LTE and 5GNR communication standards and implemented by an LTE transceiver 256 and/or a 5GNR transceiver 258. Additionally, the antennas 252, the RF front end 254, the LTE transceiver 256, and/or the 5G NR transceiver 258 may be configured to support beamforming, such as massive MIMO, for transmission and reception of communications with any UE110 in the coordinated set of UEs.

Base station 120 also includes processor(s) 260 and computer-readable storage medium 262(CRM 262). Processor 260 may be a single core processor or a multi-core processor constructed of various materials such as silicon, polysilicon, high-K dielectric, copper, etc. The CRM 262 may include any suitable memory or storage device, such as Random Access Memory (RAM), static RAM (sram), dynamic RAM (dram), non-volatile RAM (nvram), read-only memory (ROM), or flash memory that may be used to store device data 264 for the base station 120. Device data 264 includes network scheduling data, radio resource management data, a beamforming codebook, applications, and/or an operating system of base station 120, which are executable by processor(s) 260 to enable communication with UE 110.

The CRM 262 also includes a base station manager 266. Alternatively or in addition, the base station manager 266 may be implemented in whole or in part as hardware logic or circuitry integrated with or separate from other components of the base station 120. In at least some aspects, base station manager 266 configures LTE transceiver 256 and 5G NR transceiver 258 for communication with UE110 and with the core network. Base station 120 includes an inter-base station interface 268, such as an Xn and/or X2 interface, which base station manager 266 configures to exchange user plane and control plane data between another base station 120 to manage communications of base station 120 with UE 110. The base station 120 includes a core network interface 270 that the base station manager 266 configures to exchange user plane and control plane data with core network functions and/or entities.

In some aspects, the user equipment 102 provides feedback to the base station 120 for beamforming of the 5G NR downlink. For example, beamforming for massive MIMO uses closed-loop or beam-index beamforming for the 5GNR downlink. Both the base station 120 and the UE112 have copies of the codebook 222 that include precoding matrices for beamforming with an index value (e.g., a precoding matrix indicator or PMI) associated with each precoding matrix. The codebook 222 can be stored in the CRM216 of the user equipment 102 and in the CRM 262 of the base station 120.

UE-coordinated set

Fig. 3 illustrates an example embodiment 300 for UE coordinated aggregate beam scanning. The illustrated example includes a serving cell base station (base station 120), UE111, UE112, and UE 113. In an example, each UE illustrated in fig. 3 may have limited transmission signal quality, which may result in difficulty transmitting data to base station 120. This may be due, at least in part, to the UE being near a cell edge of the base station 120 or the UE being in a transmission challenging location (e.g., basement, urban canyon, etc.) with a poor link budget. Each UE illustrated in fig. 3 may also or alternatively have limited received signal quality, which may be affected by cell-edge transmission power of the base station 120, as well as multipath, signal interference from other transmitters or overhead wires, attenuation from weather or objects such as buildings, trees, etc.

Base station 120 can designate a set of UEs (e.g., UE111, UE112, and UE 113) to form a coordinated set of UEs (e.g., coordinated set of UEs 304) for joint transmission and/or joint reception of data for a target UE (e.g., UE 112). Each of the UEs may choose to participate or not participate in the UE coordination set based on user input or predefined settings. The effective transmit power of the target UE112 can increase significantly (e.g., linearly) with the number of UEs in the UE coordination set, which can greatly improve the link budget of the target UE 112. The base station 120 may determine the UE coordination set based on various factors, such as the location of each UE relative to the base station 120, the distance between the UEs (such as between each other, between each UE and a target UE, or between each UE and a coordinating UE in the UE coordination set), or a combination thereof. In some aspects, UEs within a certain distance of each other can more easily coordinate with each other to reduce signal interference when in close proximity by using a local wireless network.

Further, UE coordination can be based on spatial beams or timing advance or both associated with each UE. For example, for beamforming or massive-MIMO, it may be desirable for all UEs within the UE coordination set to be able to receive the same signal from the base station. Thus, all UEs within the UE coordination set may be geographically close to each other, e.g., within a threshold distance of a particular UE in the UE coordination set. In this way, the UEs in the UE coordination set may all be in the same beam or beams that are close to each other. Some (or even all) UEs within the UE coordination set may be in different beams from each other. Thus, each UE may have its own beam for communicating with base station 120.

Coordinating UEs may be able to coordinate messages and samples sent between UEs within a UE coordination set for joint transmission and joint reception. The coordinating UE communicates with the UEs in the UE coordination set using a local wireless network such as mmWave, bluetooth, etc.

In the example 300 illustrated in fig. 3, the base station 120 may select the UE111 to act as a coordinating UE because the UE111 is able to communicate with each of the other UEs 112 and 113 in the UE coordination set 302. Base station 120 may select a coordinating UE for various reasons, examples of which are described above. In this example, at least the target UE112 has a weak cellular transmission (and reception) signal quality. Base station 120 selects UE111 to coordinate messages and samples sent between base station 120 and UEs 111, 112, 113 for target UE 112. Such communication between UEs can occur using a local wireless network 304 such as PAN, NFC, bluetooth, WiFi-direct, local mmWave link, etc.

UEs 111, 112, 113 each attempt to perform a beam training procedure to identify available UE beams 306 for communicating with base station 120. The available beams may include the "best" beam pair for the UE receive (or transmit) beam and the base station transmit (or receive) beam. The best beam pair refers to the beam pair with the largest signal strength among all potential beam pairs between the UE and the base station. The beam training process includes covering a spatial region with a set of beams transmitted and received according to pre-specified intervals and directions. In an example, each of the UEs 111, 112, 113 directionally transmits a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) in the mmWave frequency band in a time-varying direction of a continuously scanned angle space. The base station 120 scans its angular directions, monitors the strength of the received SRS, and builds a report table based on the channel quality for each reception direction to capture the dynamics of the channel. Beam training also includes beam measurements (e.g., evaluations) of the quality of the received signal at the base station or UE.

Beam determination refers to the selection of an appropriate beam(s) at the base station or at the UE, based on measurements obtained with the beam measurement procedure. For example, the entity performing the beam determination analyzes beam measurements representing the signal quality in each angular direction and matches the beams of the transmitter and receiver to provide maximum performance.

Beam reporting refers to the process used by the UE to send beam quality and beam decision information to the Radio Access Network (RAN). In one example, after beam determination, the UE waits for the base station to schedule a Random Access Channel (RACH) opportunity toward the best direction that the UE just determined for performing random access and implicitly informs the selected serving infrastructure of the best direction by which it must steer its beam in order to be properly aligned (or set of directions). In other words, the UE may use the RACH transmission to send beam decision information (i.e., an indication of the best beam) to the base station.

For UE-initiated dedicated beam searching, the beam training procedure may include coordinating UE111 to transmit a beam search request to base station 120, such as by transmitting the request in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer Information Element (IE), or other suitable manner. In response to receiving the beam search request, the base station 120 schedules times at which it can transmit reference signals for dedicated beam search. Base station 120 transmits a beam search notification to coordinating UE 111. The beam search notification includes a time at which a reference signal for the dedicated beam search is to be transmitted. At times determined by base station 120, base station 120 transmits reference signals for dedicated beam searching, and coordinating UE111 to receive and evaluate the reference signals in the received beams. The coordinating UE111 receives and evaluates the reference signals in the received beams by estimating the channel conditions for each received reference signal. Based on the channel condition estimates, the coordinating UE111 selects the best precoding matrix from the codebook for the beamformed 5G NR communication link with the base station 120 and beam reports (e.g., transmits a PMI for the precoding matrix) to the base station 120.

For group beam training (e.g., by a UE coordinating multiple UEs in the set 302), when the base station 120 supports only analog beamforming, each UE in the group attempts to perform beam training using Time Division Multiplexing (TDM). However, if the base station 120 is capable of supporting multiple transmit or receive beams simultaneously, then multiple UEs can be beam trained simultaneously.

Thus, through the beam training process and the beam reporting process, signals are transmitted between one or more of the UEs 111, 112, 113 and the base station 120, enabling the base station 120 to determine which UE beam 306 is available (or best) for at least one UE in the UE coordination set 302. Based on this information, the base station 120 can allocate a particular beam and time slot for one or more UEs within the UE coordination set 302. Alternatively or additionally, the base station 120 can relay this information to the coordinating UE111, so that the coordinating UE111 can coordinate which UE uses which beam in which time slot for joint transmission or reception through the UE coordination set 302. This beam information is then used to coordinate beam scanning by the various UEs 111, 112, 113 within the UE coordination set 302, as described in further detail below.

Joint transmission

The UE coordination set 302 enhances the effective ability of the target UE to transmit data to the base station 120 and receive data from the base station 120 through distributed antennas that typically act as the target UE 112. For example, multiple UEs in the UE coordination set 302 each transmit uplink data from the target UE112 using their respective antennas and transmitters on air interface resources as directed by the base stations 120 of the coordination UE coordination set 302. In this way, the uplink data of the target UE can be processed and transmitted together using the transmitters and transmit antennas of multiple (including all) UEs in the UE coordination set 302.

In the example, target UE112 uses its local wireless network transceiver 210 to transmit uplink data to coordinating UE111 using local wireless network connection 134. Coordinating UE111 uses its local wireless network transceiver 210 to distribute data to other UEs in UE coordinating set 302 using local wireless network connections 134 and 135 to combine power from the power amplifiers of the multiple UEs. In some instances, target UE112 may act as a coordinating UE such that target UE112 uses local wireless network connections 133 and 134 to distribute data to other UEs (UE 111 and UE 113) in UE coordination set 302. All UEs (or a subset of all UEs) in the UE coordination set 302 then process and transmit uplink data to the base station 120 using the wireless link 130. In this manner, the distributed transmission provides a better effective link budget given the channel impairments experienced by the target UE 112.

Each UE in the UE coordination set 302 synchronizes with the base station 120 for timing information and its data transmission resource allocation. The UE then transmits uplink data jointly to the base station 120. Base station 120 receives the jointly transmitted uplink data from UEs 111, 112, 113 and processes the combined signal to decode the uplink data from target UE 112.

Coordinated beam scanning

The UEs within the UE coordination set coordinate beam scanning configurations for downlink data and uplink data. In aspects, different UEs within a UE coordination set may be able to transmit (or receive) on different time slots for beamforming. Here, the UEs coordinate with each other as to which beam and which slot are used for joint transmission. This coordination occurs after each UE111, 112, 113 in the UE coordination set 302 has performed a beam training procedure and a beam reporting procedure to identify one or more beams that are available for communication with the base station 120. By beam reporting to the base station 120, the UEs within the UE coordination set 302 indicate to the base station 120 which beam is the best based on the beam measurements. In one aspect, the UE directly beam reports to the base station 120 using a conventional beam reporting method. In another aspect, the UE makes beam reports to the coordinating UE111, and the UE111 then transmits the beam reports for all UEs within the UE coordination set 302 in their entirety (e.g., the coordinating UE111 combines the beam reports of multiple UEs into a single beam report transmission to the base station 120, which may reduce signaling overhead), or forwards each beam report individually as a relay. Because the beam training and beam reporting processes have been performed by each UE111, 112, 113, the base station 120 is able to determine which beam(s) each UE should use to communicate with the base station 120.

In one example, coordinating UE111 performs beam sweep coordination for UE coordination set 302. The coordinating UE111 determines which beam and which slot the UEs 112, 113 (including themselves) in the UE coordination set 302 should use for joint communication with the base station 120. Base station 120 can provide coordinating UE111 with beam and slot information for each UE within UE coordination set 302.

Alternatively, the base station 120 can coordinate beam scanning for the UE coordination set 302. In some aspects, base station 120 is able to do so without assistance from coordinating UE 111. For example, the base station 120 can transmit the slot and beam identification (beam ID) directly to the respective UEs within the UE coordination set 302. By specifying each beam that each UE within the UE coordination set 302 should use and the time slot that each UE should use its specified beam, the base station 120 or coordinating UE111 coordinates the beam scanning of the UE coordination set 302 for joint communication with the base station 120, thereby improving the link budget. In some instances, at least one of the UEs may be blocked such that no beam is available for that UE to communicate with the base station 120 (e.g., the available beam is blocked by an object such as the user's body, vehicle, building, etc.). By using a coordinated set of UEs, multiple other UEs can help transmit or receive data for blocked UEs, and some of these UEs can communicate with base station 120 using one or more different beams.

The beam ID may be a unique identifier for a particular beam for a particular UE within the UE coordination set 302. Further, the beam IDs may be unique within the UE coordination set, such that other UE coordination sets may use (sets of) non-overlapping beam IDs. In some aspects, the beam ID may correspond to two or more UEs within the UE coordination set that are allocated different time slots. However, two or more UEs in the UE coordination set may be assigned the same time slot but with different beam IDs. The base station 120 can assign a beam ID to a specific UE. In some aspects, base station 120 also provides the coordinating UE111 with a beam ID for the particular UE to enable coordinating UE111 to coordinate beam scanning within UE coordination set 302. Alternatively, the coordinating UE111 can assign a beam ID to the UEs within the UE coordination set 302.

In an example, the UEs 111, 112, 113 within the UE coordination set 302 can have copies of the same codebook that include precoding matrices for beamforming with an index value (e.g., a precoding matrix indicator or PMI) associated with each precoding matrix in the codebook. Additionally, UEs 111, 112, 113 can share the same codebook index for beamforming or uplink. However, the beam ID can be unique and specific to each UE within the UE coordination set 302. Although multiple UEs share the same codebook index, they may be assigned different beam IDs, which correspond to different time slots for beams. For example, the UE111 can use a first beam 310 identified by a first beam ID to transmit at a first time slot using a first beam direction 312, and the UE 113 can use a second beam 314 identified by a different second beam ID to transmit at a different second time slot using the first beam direction 312. Thus, multiple UEs can use the same beam direction, but transmit in different time slots.

In another example, the UE112 can use a third beam 316 identified by a third beam ID to transmit in a different beam direction 318. Two UEs (e.g., UE111 and UE 113) may be in a diametric line relative to base station 210 and in a position to use the same beam direction (e.g., first beam direction 312), but one of the UEs (e.g., UE 113) may be blocked by an object such as a building (e.g., dashed object 320). If the first beam direction 312 is blocked for the UE 113, the UE 113 may use a fourth beam 322 identified by a fourth beam ID to transmit in another beam direction 324 for transmission. In some aspects, this fourth beam direction 324 may be the same direction as the third beam direction 318, but the UE 113 may use the fourth beam direction 324, which may just reflect off another object (e.g., building 326) to reach the base station 120, effectively bypassing the blocking object 320.

Within the UE coordination set 302, different UEs 111, 112, 113 having different beam IDs and assigned time slots corresponding to the beam IDs may carry the same or different information. For example, although the UE may transmit data on different time slots with different beams (each beam ID having an assigned time slot), the UE may transmit the same information. Thus, if a UE (e.g., target UE112) has data to transmit to base station 120, multiple UEs in the UE coordination set 302 can repeat the same data at different time slots using different beams. Such coordinated transmission can greatly improve the link budget, for example, through diversity and energy combining. The link budget is also increased by encoding the UEs carrying different information. For example, multiple UEs can transmit redundancy versions of particular coded information to base station 120.

In some aspects, multiple UEs in the UE coordination set may be capable of beam scanning simultaneously. For example, the UEs may transmit simultaneously (at the same time slot), but each UE may have its own beam direction. Accordingly, one beam ID may correspond to a set of UEs transmitting simultaneously, where each UE transmits in a particular beam direction (e.g., a single beam ID corresponds to both UE111 and UE112, where UE111 transmits in beam direction 312 in the same time slot as UE112 transmits in beam direction 316). Alternatively, a single beam ID may refer to a set of multiple UE beams having the same angular direction but different time slots (e.g., a single beam ID corresponds to UE111 and UE 113 transmitting in beam direction 312 using beam 310 and beam 314, respectively, at different time slots).

In one example, the coordinating UE111 can specify a set of UEs and their associated beams for the corresponding beam IDs. Alternatively, the base station 120 can specify a set of UEs and their associated beams. In these examples, the beam IDs may correspond to UE IDs and sets of respective beam pairs. For example, a particular beam ID may correspond to a set of UEs within the UE coordination set 302 that transmit simultaneously (e.g., in the same time slot), where each UE has its own associated beam.

Different UEs may use different beam directions to reach the base station based on relative location or interfering objects. Operating together within the UE coordination set 302 for joint transmission or reception provides diversity, increases link budget, and can help facilitate communication between base stations and blocked UEs.

In addition, different UEs may have different beamforming capabilities. In one example, a first UE within the UE coordination set may support eight indices within a codebook and a second UE within the UE coordination set may support 64 indices within the same codebook. In fig. 3, for example, the coordinating UE111 is illustrated as having (a subset of) eight beams 306-1, each beam 306-1 having a beam width of approximately 45 degrees, which corresponds to eight indices of a table in a codebook. However, the UE112 may include 64 indices, and thus 64 narrower beams 306-2, each having a beam width of approximately 360/64 degrees. In this example, UE112 is more "capable" of beamforming than coordinated UE111 because UE112 has more beams 306-2 and those beams 306-2 have narrower beamwidths than beam 306-1 of coordinated UE 111.

Because different UEs within the UE coordination set 302 may have different beamforming capabilities, it is beneficial for the coordinating UE111 and/or the base station 120 to determine the particular beamforming capabilities of each UE in the UE coordination set 302. The beamforming capability information can be transmitted to the base station 120 or coordinating UE111 at any suitable time and by any suitable communication, as part of a beam training process, or as part of a beam report, before requesting joint transmission or reception. In one example, one or more UEs may transmit beamforming capability information in "UE capabilities" as defined by 3GPP to base station 120. The UEs within the UE coordination set 302 are able to communicate their respective beamforming capabilities to the coordinating UE111 through the local wireless network 302 when forming the UE coordination set 302 or at any suitable time prior to coordinating the beam scanning. Coordinating UE111 can relay beamforming capability information to base station 120 using wireless link 130. In some instances, at least some UEs in the UE coordination set 302 may be able to transmit their respective beamforming capability information directly to the base station 120 using the wireless link 130 at any suitable time prior to coordinating the beam sweep. The beamforming capability information can enable a coordinating UE or base station to better coordinate beamforming of UEs within a UE coordination set for joint communication with the base station.

In one example, UEs transmitting in different time slots have independent beam IDs, enabling those UEs to transmit with different beamforming capabilities, without constraining a more capable UE (e.g., 64-beam capable UE112) down to the lower capability of another UE (e.g., 8-beam capable UE 111) in the UE coordination set 302.

When the UEs perform beamforming in the same slot, the beamforming capabilities of the UEs are combined. Here, the beam ID may correspond to a beam pair for the group of UEs (e.g., beam 310 for coordinating UE111 and beam 316 for UE112) because they are assigned the same time slot. Thus, combining a 64-beam capable UE112 and an 8-beam capable coordinated UE111 yields 512 possible beam IDs if the UEs are transmitting during the same time slot. In another example, a 64-capable UE112 may be on a narrower beam or better link budget beam than a coordinating UE111, but the base station 120 may still have the capability to add the transmitted samples together regardless of the beam. This is because the base station 120 processes the transmission bit by bit or symbol by symbol.

When a UE in the UE coordination set 302 leaves the UE coordination set 302, the UE may use the local wireless network connection to notify the coordinating UE111 that it is about to leave. This information enables the coordinating UE111 to modify the coordination of beam scanning by removing the UE from the UE coordination set 302. Alternatively, the coordinating UE111 may direct the UE to leave the UE coordinating set 302. If another UE joins the UE coordination set 302, the coordinating UE may request it to perform a beam training procedure to identify a beam to be used for joining joint communication with the base station 120. If there is an existing single beam ID for the set of UEs in the UE coordination set 302 when another UE joins, the coordinating UE111 or base station 120 may provide the new UE with a new beam ID (after it performs its own beam training procedure and beam reporting procedure) that is unique to the new UE.

Example procedure

Fig. 4 depicts a signaling and transaction diagram 400 illustrating exemplary communications between a target UE, a coordinating UE, and a base station for coordinating beam scanning in a coordinating UE coordination set. The target UE may be UE112 as previously described, the coordinating UE may be UE111 as previously described, the UE coordination set may be UE coordination set 302 as previously described, and the base station may be base station 120 as previously described. At 405, base station 120 sends a message to coordinating UE111 requesting that coordinating UE111 join the UE coordination set. At 410, base station 120 may also send similar messages to other UEs, such as UE112, to request those UEs to join UE coordination set 302. Additionally, at 415, base station 120 directs UE111 to act as a coordinating UE for coordinating beam scanning for joint communication between UEs within the UE coordination set and base station 120. The UE coordination set includes a coordination UE, a target UE (source of uplink data), and optionally, may include at least one additional UE.

At 420, target UE112 may send uplink data or an indication of the uplink data to coordinating UE111 for joint transmission of the uplink data to the base station. The indication of uplink data may include information associated with the uplink data sufficient to enable the coordinating UE111 to coordinate joint transmission of uplink data for UEs in the UE coordination set 302, such as a size of the data, an identification of the target UE112, coding information, and so forth. Alternatively, base station 120 can send an indication to coordinating UE111 to coordinate joint reception of uplink data for target UE112 at 425. The indication of downlink data may include information including an identification of the target UE112, a size of the data, timing information, decoding information, and the like.

At 430, the coordinating UE111 provides a message to other UEs within the UE coordination set 302 over the local wireless network connection to direct the UEs to perform a beam training procedure to identify a beam for joint communication with the base station 120. The coordinating UE111 can coordinate the timing of the beam training procedure based on time division multiplexing techniques using messages to other UEs. Each UE111, 112, 113 in the UE coordination set 302 attempts to perform a beam training procedure to determine an available (or best) beam for transmission to or reception from the base station 120. However, some UEs in the UE coordination set 302 may not be able to reach the base station 120, e.g., due to low signal quality or blocking objects. For example, for joint transmission of uplink data, the target UE112 attempts to perform a beam training procedure 435, and the coordinating UE111 also performs a beam training procedure 440, where each beam training procedure includes directionally transmitting sounding reference signals in time-varying directions of a continuous scan angle space in the mmWave frequency band. Alternatively, for joint reception of downlink data, the beam training processes 435 and 440 may include listening and measuring the signal quality (indicated by the dashed lines) of the signals transmitted by the base station 120.

At this point, the process branches to fig. 5 or fig. 6 based on which entity coordinates the beam scanning of the UE coordination set 302. Fig. 5 depicts beam sweep coordination for base station 120. However, fig. 6 depicts beam sweep coordination for coordinating UE 111.

Continuing with the exemplary process at fig. 5, UE112 (target UE112 in this example) and one or more other UEs in UE coordination set 302 beam report to coordinating UE111 at 505. This may be beneficial in situations where the target UE112 does not have a beam available for communicating with the base station 120 due to low signal quality or blocking objects. The coordinating UE111 receives beam report information from the target UE112 (and one or more other UEs within the UE coordination set 302) over the local wireless network connection. The information may include results of a beam training procedure performed by the UE. The result may include a precoding matrix for each UE for beamforming the 5G NR communication link with the base station. Alternatively, the UE112 may beam report directly to the base station 120 at 510.

At 515, coordinating UE111 performs beam reporting to base station 120. In some aspects, the beam report includes a set of beam report information from all UEs in the UE coordination set that the beam reports to the coordinating UE 111. However, if the UEs in the UE coordination set 302 are beam reporting directly to the base station 120, the coordinating UE111 only transmits its own beam report at 515.

Based on the beam report information received from the UE coordination set 302, the base station 120 determines available (or best) beams for communicating with the UEs in the UE coordination set 302 at 520. Then, at 525, the base station 120 assigns one or more beam IDs and one or more time slots to each UE in the UE coordination set 302 based on the determination of available beams for coordinating the beam scanning of the UE coordination set 302.

At 530, base station 120 transmits the beam ID and the assigned time slot to coordinating UE111 to coordinate beam scanning of UE coordination set 302 and allow coordinating UE111 to distribute the beam ID and time slot to other UEs in UE coordination set 302. At 530, base station 120 transmits the beam ID and the assigned time slot of the coordinating UE to coordinating UE 111. In some embodiments, the base station transmits the beam ID and the assigned time slot of the target UE directly separately to the target UE112, as illustrated at 535. Alternatively, as illustrated at 540, the coordinating UE111 distributes the beam ID and allocates the time slot to the UE(s) 112, wherein the coordinating UE111 receives the beam ID of the UE(s) and allocates the time slot (with the beam ID and the allocated time slot of the coordinating UE) at 535.

After the UEs in the UE coordination set 302 have their respective beam IDs and assigned time slots, those UEs can initiate uplink communications (e.g., transmission of uplink data). For example, target UE112 transmits UL data using a first beam corresponding to the beam ID of the target UE and the allocated time slot at 545, and coordinating UE111 transmits uplink data using a second beam corresponding to the beam ID of the coordinating UE and the allocated time slot at 550. Alternatively, for joint reception of downlink data, the base station 120 transmits the downlink data to each UE in the UE coordination set 302 having a beam ID and an assigned slot using the corresponding beam ID and assigned slot at 555. Here, both the coordinating UE111 and the target UE112 perform downlink communication (e.g., reception of downlink data).

Returning to the branch in fig. 4, if the coordinating UE111 coordinates beam scanning of the UE coordination set 302, the process continues to fig. 6. Similar to that described with reference to fig. 5, UEs (including target UE112) beam report to coordinating UE111 at 505. At 510, coordinating UE111 beam reports beam report information from other UEs (including itself) in UE coordination set 302 to base station 120 to enable base station 120 to determine available time slots. At 605, base station 120 transmits UE coordinated set beam information to coordinated UE 111. The information includes available time slots for communication with the UEs and available beams for each UE.

At 610, the coordinating UE111 coordinates the beams of the UE coordination set 302 by specifying a beam ID and an assigned time slot for each UE within the UE coordination set 302. In aspects, coordinating UE111 determines a beam ID and an allocated time slot for each UE based on information received from base station 120 indicating available beams and available time slots. The beam ID and slot direct each UE to use a particular beam in a given slot. As described above, at least two UEs can have different assigned time slots and/or at least two UEs can be assigned the same time slot. As further described above, the beam ID may be unique to an individual UE within the UE coordination set, and/or the beam ID may correspond to two or more UEs within the UE coordination set that are allocated different time slots.

At 615, the coordinating UE111 can transmit coordinating beam information to the base station 120 to inform the base station 120 of the beam ID and the allocated time slot for each UE in the UE coordination set 302. Similar to that described with reference to fig. 5, the coordinating UE111 also transmits the beam ID and the assigned time slot to the corresponding UEs within the UE coordination set (including the target UE112) over the local wireless network connection at 540 to coordinate joint communication with the base station 120.

After each UE in the UE coordination set 302 has their respective beam ID and assigned time slot, each UE can initiate joint transmission of uplink data. For example, target UE112 transmits UL data using a first beam corresponding to the beam ID of the target UE and the allocated time slot at 545, and coordinating UE111 transmits uplink data using a second beam corresponding to the beam ID of the coordinating UE and the allocated time slot at 550. Alternatively, for joint reception of downlink data, the base station 120 transmits the downlink data to each UE in the UE coordination set 302 having a beam ID and an assigned slot using a beam corresponding to each beam ID and assigned slot at 555.

Example method

In accordance with one or more aspects of user equipment coordinating collective beam scanning, exemplary methods 700 and 800 are described with reference to fig. 7 and 8. The order in which the method blocks are described is not intended to be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described method blocks can be skipped or combined in any order to implement the method or alternative methods. In general, any of the components, modules, methods, and operations described herein can be implemented using software, firmware, hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manual processing, or any combination thereof. Some operations of example methods may be described in the general context of executable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage memory local and/or remote to a computer processing system, and embodiments can include software applications, programs, functions, and the like. Alternatively or additionally, any of the functions described herein may be performed, at least in part, by one or more hardware logic components, such as, but not limited to, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Application Specific Standard Products (ASSPs), systems on a chip (socs), Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs), and the like.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example method 700 in accordance with aspects of user equipment coordinating collective beam scanning. In an embodiment, the user equipment performs the operations included in the method 700, such as coordinating a UE (e.g., UE 111) in the various examples described with reference to fig. 1-6.

At 705, the UE receives an indication of coordinated beam scanning with the UE cs. For example, a coordinating UE (e.g., UE 111) receives an indication from a base station (e.g., base station 120) to coordinate joint reception of downlink data for a target UE, as described at 425 of fig. 4. Upon receiving the indication of coordinated joint reception, the coordinating UE implicitly identifies it as an indication of coordinated beam scanning. Alternatively or additionally, the coordinating UE (e.g., UE 111) receives uplink data from the target UE (e.g., UE112) for the joint transmission, as described at 420 of fig. 4, and identifies it as an implicit indication of coordinated joint transmission. Accordingly, the coordinating UE may be able to receive an implicit indication of coordinated beam scanning by receiving an indication of coordinated joint reception and/or coordinated joint transmission. In an embodiment, the UE coordination set includes a plurality of UEs, including coordinating UEs.

At 710, the UE directs each UE in the UE cs to perform a beam training procedure over the local wireless network connection, the procedure including receiving a set of downlink beam transmissions from a base station, the set of downlink beam transmissions covering a spatial region according to a pre-specified time interval and direction. To illustrate, coordinating UEs (e.g., UE 111) directs each UE (e.g., UE112, UE 113) to perform a beam training procedure as described at 430 of fig. 4. The beam training procedure can include each UE receiving the set of downlink beam transmissions or a portion of the downlink transmissions and generating a beam report regarding the downlink beam transmissions. Alternatively or additionally, the beam training procedure can include each UE transmitting one or more uplink beam transmissions, such as one or more sounding reference signals described with reference to fig. 3. Thus, in directing each UE to perform the beam training procedure, the coordinating UEs direct each UE to receive (and measure) the set of downlink transmissions and/or generate the set of uplink transmissions.

At 715, the UE forwards beam report information including beam quality information based on the beam training procedure to the base station. For example, the coordinating UE (e.g., UE 111) forwards a first beam report generated by the coordinating UE, such as described at 515 of fig. 5. In other words, the coordinating UE generates a coordinating user equipment beam report based on the at least one downlink beam transmission and transmits the coordinating user equipment beam report to the base station using the wireless network connection. Alternatively or additionally, the coordinating UE forwards beam reports from other UEs, such as described at 505 of fig. 5. For example, the coordinating UE receives at least a second beam report from another UE based on the set of downlink beam transmissions and transmits the second beam report to the base station over the wireless network connection.

At 720, the UE receives an indication of one or more beam identifications and one or more allocated time slots from a base station over a wireless network connection. For example, a coordinating UE (e.g., UE 111) receives a beam identification and/or an assigned time slot, as described at 530 of fig. 5.

At 725, the UE directs at least two UEs in the UE cs to use a particular beam indicated by the one or more beam identifications at a particular time slot indicated by the one or more allocated time slots, such as transmitting a respective one of the one or more beam identifications and a respective one of the one or more allocated time slots to each of the at least two UEs over the local wireless network connection. For example, coordinating UEs (e.g., UE 111) forwards the beam identifications and the allocated time slots to each UE through the local wireless network to direct at least two UEs (e.g., UE112) to use a particular beam, as described at 540 of fig. 5 and/or 6. In forwarding the respective beam identifications and the respective assigned time slots, the coordinating UEs direct the UEs to perform joint reception and/or joint transmission, such as described at 545 and/or 555 of fig. 5 and 6.

Fig. 8 illustrates an exemplary method 800 in accordance with an aspect of UE coordinated aggregate beam scanning. In an embodiment, a base station performs the operations included in method 800, such as the base stations (e.g., base station 120) described in various examples with reference to fig. 1-6.

At 805, the base station transmits an indication of coordinated beam scanning with the UE cs to a coordinated UE in the UE cs. For example, the base station (e.g., base station 120) transmits the indication to the coordinating UE (e.g., UE 111), as described at 425 of fig. 4.

At 810, the base station transmits a set of downlink beam transmissions covering a spatial region according to a pre-specified time interval and direction. For example, a base station (e.g., base station 120) transmits a set of downlink beam transmissions to a coordinating UE (e.g., UE 111) and/or other UEs (e.g., UE112) in a user equipment coordination set, as described at 435 and 440 of fig. 4.

At 815, the base station receives beam report information from the UE c, the beam report information indicating beam quality information for at least two UEs in the UE cs, the beam quality information being based on the set of downlink beam transmissions. For example, as described at 515 of fig. 5, a base station (e.g., base station 120) receives a beam report (e.g., coordinated user equipment beam report) from a coordinating UE (e.g., 111). Alternatively or additionally, the base station (e.g., base station 120) receives beam reports from other UEs (e.g., UE112), as described at 510 of fig. 5.

At 820, the base station selects one or more beam identifications specifying particular beams to be used by at least two UEs based on the beam report information. For example, a base station (e.g., base station 120) determines beams available to UEs (e.g., UE111, UE112), as described at 525 of fig. 5. Similarly, at 825, the base station selects one or more time slots specifying particular time slots to be used by at least two UEs based on the beam report information. To illustrate, a base station (e.g., base station 120) determines time slot(s) for a UE (e.g., UE111, UE112) as described at 525 of fig. 5. In some embodiments, to determine the slot(s) and beam identification, the base station receives beamforming capability information of one or more user devices in the user device coordination set, such as from a coordinating user device, and selects the slot and beam identification based on the beamforming capability information. For example, the base station can select a time slot and beam identification that is compatible with the beamforming capabilities of each UE in the user equipment coordination set.

The base station determines any combination of slot and beam identifications. For example, a base station sometimes selects a first time slot for a first user equipment in a user equipment coordination set and a different at least second time slot for a second user equipment in the user equipment coordination set. In selecting a beam identity, the base station sometimes selects a first beam identity for the first user equipment and at least a second beam identity for the second user equipment, wherein the first beam identity corresponds to the first beam direction and the second beam identity corresponds to the second beam direction. At other times, the base station selects the same beam identification for each user equipment in the user equipment coordination set, wherein the same beam identification corresponds to the same beam direction. As another example, the base station selects the same time slot for at least two user equipments in the user equipment coordination set and selects different beam identities for the at least two user equipments.

Alternatively or additionally, to determine the time slot and beam identity, the base station receives a set of uplink beam transmissions from at least some of the user equipments in the user equipment coordination set and generates uplink beam measurements for the set of uplink beam transmissions. The base station then determines one or more time slots and one or more beam identifications based on the uplink beam measurements.

At 830, the base station directs the at least two UEs to use the particular beam at the particular time slot by transmitting one or more beam identifications and an indication of the one or more time slots to the at least two UEs. For example, as depicted at 530 of fig. 5, a base station (e.g., base station 120) transmits an indication of a beam identification and a time slot to a coordinating UE (e.g., UE 111). Alternatively or additionally, the base station (e.g., base station 120) transmits the respective beam identification of the one or more beam identifications and the respective indication of the respective time slot of the one or more time slots directly to each UE in the AECS, as described at 535 of fig. 5.

In general, any of the components, methods, and operations described herein can be implemented using software, firmware, hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manual processing, or any combination thereof. Some operations of example methods may be described in the general context of executable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage memory local and/or remote to a computer processing system, and embodiments can include software applications, programs, functions, and the like. Alternatively or additionally, any of the functions described herein can be performed, at least in part, by one or more hardware logic components, such as, but not limited to, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Application Specific Standard Products (ASSPs), systems on a chip (socs), Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs), and the like.

Although the techniques and apparatus for UE coordinated aggregate beam scanning have been described in language specific to features and/or methods, it is to be understood that the subject of the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or methods described. Rather, the specific features and methods are disclosed as example implementations that enable UE coordinated aggregate beam scanning.

In the following, several examples are described:

example 1: a method performed by a user equipment for beamforming joint communication between a plurality of user equipments in a coordinated set of base station and user equipment, the method comprising: receiving an indication to coordinate beam scanning with a user equipment coordination set; in response to receiving the indication to coordinate beam scanning, directing, by the local wireless network connection, each user equipment in the coordination set of user equipments to perform a beam training procedure comprising receiving, from the base station, a set of downlink beam transmissions covering a spatial region according to a pre-specified time interval and direction; based on the beam training process, transmitting beam report information indicating the beam quality information to the base station through the wireless network connection; receiving, from the base station over the wireless network connection, one or more beam identifications and an indication of one or more allocated time slots in response to forwarding the beam report information; and transmitting, to each of the at least two user equipments, a respective beam identification of the one or more beam identifications and a respective time slot of the one or more allocated time slots over the local wireless network connection, directing the at least two user equipments in the set to use a particular beam indicated by the one or more beam identifications at a particular time slot indicated by the one or more allocated time slots.

Example 2: the method of example 1, wherein transmitting the respective beam identifications comprises: transmitting a first beam identification to a first user equipment of the at least two user equipments and at least a second beam identification to a second user equipment of the at least two user equipments, wherein the first beam identification corresponds to a first beam direction and the second beam identification corresponds to a second beam direction; or transmitting the same beam identification to each of the at least two user equipments, wherein the same beam identification corresponds to the same beam direction.

Example 3: the method of example 1 or example 2, wherein transmitting the respective time slot to each of the at least two user devices comprises: transmitting a first allocated time slot to a first user equipment of at least two user equipments and a second different allocated time slot to a second user equipment of the at least two user equipments; or transmitting the same time slot to each of at least two user equipments.

Example 4: the method of any of examples 1 to 3, wherein forwarding beam report information to a base station further comprises: selecting, by a user equipment, a beam from a set of downlink beam transmissions; generating, by a user equipment, a first beam report comprising an indication of a selected beam; and transmitting a first beam report to the base station over the wireless network connection.

Example 5: the method of example 4, further comprising: receiving at least a second beam report from at least one user equipment in the user equipment coordination set based on the set of downlink beam transmissions; and connecting, via the wireless network, by: transmitting a second beam report to the base station separately from the first beam report; or the second beam report is included in the first beam report transmitted to the base station, at least the second beam report being transmitted to the base station.

Example 6: the method of any of examples 1 to 5, wherein directing each user equipment in a coordinated set of user equipments to perform a beam training procedure further comprises: the user equipment is directed to coordinate each user equipment in the set to transmit uplink sounding reference signals in a pre-designated time-varying direction that scans the spatial region.

Example 7: the method of any of examples 1 to 6, wherein the one or more beam identifications and the one or more allocated time slots correspond to one or more beam pairs, and the method further comprises: receiving, from a target user equipment in the user equipment coordination set, a second indication to transmit uplink communications to the base station; and directing, based on the one or more beam pairs, at least a subset of user equipments in the coordinated set of user equipments to transmit uplink communications to the base station using one or more uplink beams.

Example 8: a method performed by a base station for configuring beamforming joint communication between the base station and a plurality of user equipments in a user equipment coordination set, the method comprising: transmitting an indication of utilizing the user equipment coordination set to coordinate beam scanning to coordinated user equipment in the user equipment coordination set; transmitting a set of downlink beam transmissions covering a spatial region according to a pre-specified time interval and direction; receiving beam report information from a user equipment coordination set, the beam report information indicating beam quality information for at least two user equipments in the user equipment coordination set, the beam quality information being based on a downlink beam transmission set; selecting one or more beam identifications specifying particular beams to be used by at least two user equipments based on the beam report information; selecting one or more time slots specifying a specific time slot to be used by at least two user equipments based on the beam report information; and directing the at least two user equipments to use the particular beam in the particular time slot by transmitting the one or more beam identifications and the indication of the one or more time slots to the at least two user equipments.

Example 9: the method of example 8, further comprising: receiving, from a coordinating user equipment, beamforming capability information of one or more user equipments in a coordination set of user equipments, and wherein selecting one or more beam identifications further comprises: one or more beam identifications are selected based on the beamforming capability information.

Example 10: the method of example 8 or example 9, wherein selecting one or more time slots comprises: selecting a first time slot for a first user equipment of the at least two user equipments and selecting a different at least second time slot for a second user equipment of the at least two user equipments; or the same time slot is selected for at least two user equipments.

Example 11: the method of example 10, wherein selecting one or more beam identifications comprises: selecting a first beam identification for a first user equipment and at least a second beam identification for a second user equipment, wherein the first beam identification corresponds to a first beam direction and the second beam identification corresponds to a second beam direction; or selecting the same beam identity for at least two user equipments, wherein the same beam identity corresponds to the same beam direction.

Example 12: the method of any of examples 8 to 11, wherein selecting one or more beam identifications and selecting one or more time slots further comprises: receiving a set of uplink beam transmissions from at least some of the user equipment coordination sets; generating uplink beam measurements for the set of uplink beam transmissions; and selecting one or more beam identifications and one or more time slots based on the uplink beam measurements.

Example 13: the method of any of examples 8 to 12, wherein directing at least two user devices to use a particular beam at a particular time slot further comprises: transmitting respective ones of the one or more beam identifications and respective ones of the one or more time slots directly to each of the at least two user equipments; or transmitting the selected one or more beam identifications and the indication of the one or more time slots to a coordinating user equipment for distribution to at least two user equipments.

Example 14: a user equipment device, comprising: at least one wireless transceiver; a processor; and a computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, in response to execution by a processor, direct a user equipment device to use at least one wireless transceiver to perform any of the methods as described in examples 1 to 7.

Example 15: a base station apparatus, comprising: at least one wireless transceiver; a processor; and a computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, in response to execution by the processor, direct a base station apparatus to use at least one wireless transceiver to perform any of the methods as in examples 8 to 13.

Example 16: a method performed by a user equipment for beamforming joint communication between a base station and a plurality of user equipments in a user equipment coordination set, the method comprising: receiving, from a coordinating user equipment of a coordinating set of user equipments, a message over a local wireless network connection, the message directing the user equipment to perform a beam training process, the beam training process comprising: generating at least one uplink beam transmission according to a pre-designated time slot and direction; or generating a beam report on at least one downlink beam transmission and transmitting the beam report to a coordinating user equipment or a base station; receiving a beam identification and an assigned time slot corresponding to a particular beam; and by: transmitting uplink communication of a target user equipment in a user equipment coordination set to a base station by using a specific beam, and participating in joint communication by using the specific beam; or receive downlink communications for the target user equipment from the base station using a particular beam.

Example 17: the method of example 16, wherein participating in the federated communication further comprises: receiving uplink data from a coordinating user equipment over a local wireless network connection; and transmitting uplink data using the specific beam.

Example 18: the method of example 16, wherein participating in the federated communication further comprises: receiving a downlink signal from a base station using a specific beam; and transmitting the downlink signal to the coordinating user equipment using the local wireless network connection.

Example 19: the method of any of examples 16 to 18, wherein the beam training procedure further comprises: transmitting a beam report to a coordinating user device using a local wireless network connection; or transmit beam reports to the base station using a wireless network connection.

Example 20: the method of any of examples 8 to 12, further comprising: receiving beamforming capability information of at least a second user equipment directly from the at least second user equipment in the user equipment coordination set, and wherein selecting one or more beam identifications and selecting one or more time slots further comprises: one or more beam identifications and one or more time slots are selected based on the beamforming capability information of the second user equipment.

Example 21: a method performed by a user equipment for coordinating joint communication between a base station and a plurality of user equipments in a user equipment coordination set, the method comprising: receiving an indication to coordinate beam scanning with a user equipment coordination set; in response to receiving the indication to coordinate beam scanning, directing, by the local wireless network connection, each user equipment in the coordination set of user equipments to perform a beam training procedure comprising receiving, from the base station, a set of downlink beam transmissions covering a spatial region according to a pre-specified time interval and direction; based on the beam training process, forwarding beam report information to a base station through a wireless network connection; receiving user equipment coordinated aggregate beam information from a base station over a wireless network connection in response to the forwarded beam report information; selecting one or more beam identifications and one or more time slots that specify one or more particular beams based on the user equipment coordinated aggregate beam information; and transmitting, to at least one user equipment in the coordinated set of user equipments, a respective beam identification of the one or more beam identifications and a respective time slot of the one or more time slots over the local wireless network connection.

Example 22: the method of example 21, further comprising: the selected one or more beam identifications and the selected one or more time slots are forwarded to a base station.

Example 23: the method of example 21 or example 22, further comprising: as part of the beam training process, each user equipment in the coordinated set of user equipments is directed to transmit a set of uplink beam transmissions covering a spatial region according to a pre-specified time interval and direction.

Example 24: a method performed by a base station for coordinating joint communication between the base station and a plurality of user equipments in a user equipment coordination set, the method comprising: indicating coordinated user equipment in the user equipment coordination set to coordinate beam scanning by using the user equipment coordination set; transmitting a set of downlink beam transmissions covering a spatial region according to a pre-specified time interval and direction; receiving beam report information based on a downlink beam transmission set from one or more user equipments in a user equipment coordination set; analyzing the beam report information to identify one or more possible beam identifications and one or more possible time slots defining possible specific beams for joint communication; forwarding, to the coordinating user equipment, a first indication of one or more possible beam identifications and one or more possible time slots; receiving, from a coordinating user equipment, a second indication of one or more selected beam identifications and one or more selected time slots for the joint communication; and by: transmitting downlink communications for a target user equipment in a user equipment coordination set using one or more beams, processing joint communications using one or more beams specified by one or more selected beam identifications and one or more selected time slots; or receive uplink communications from the target user equipment using one or more beams.

Example 25: the method of example 3, wherein transmitting the respective beam identification and the respective time slot further comprises: directing the first user equipment to jointly receive downlink communications using a first particular beam identified by the first beam identification and at a first particular time slot identified by the first allocated time slot; and directing the second user equipment to jointly receive downlink communications using a second particular beam identified by the second beam identification and at a second particular time slot identified by the second allocated time slot.

Example 26: a computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, in response to execution by a processor, cause performance of the method of any of examples 1-12 or examples 16-25.