阅读说明：本技术 使用波束管理的mu-mimo的报告 (Reporting of MU-MIMO using beam management ) 是由 A·尼尔松 S·法克斯埃尔 M·弗伦内 于 2019-09-20 设计创作，主要内容包括：UE接收信道测量资源和干扰测量资源,基于功率确定来确定候选波束对的一个或多个吞吐量值,以及向节点报告它的波束对偏好。(The UE receives the channel measurement resources and the interference measurement resources, determines one or more throughput values for the candidate beam pair based on the power determination, and reports its beam pair preferences to the node.)

1. A method (1300) performed by a user equipment, UE (1004), the method comprising:

generating (1310) a first power value based on reception of a first measurement resource transmitted using a first TRP beam;

generating (1320) a second power value based on reception of a second measurement resource transmitted using a second TRP beam;

determining (1330) a first throughput value using the first power value and the second power value as inputs to the calculation; and

the first throughput value is used in a process for selecting (1340) N TRP beam pairs from a set of candidate beam pairs, wherein the set of candidate beam pairs includes the first TRP beam and the second TRP beam, wherein N is a predetermined integer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the selected N TRP beam pairs are reported (1350) to the node.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the reporting further comprises: transmitting corresponding throughput values for the selected N TRP beam pairs.

4. The method of claim 2 or 3, wherein the N TRP beam pairs are each reported using an index value.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the selecting N TRP beam pairs comprises: the beam pair with the highest throughput value is selected.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5,

wherein the first measurement resource is a channel measurement resource and the second measurement resource is an interference measurement resource,

wherein the UE has at least two panels, and

wherein the first power value and the second power value are each generated based on a power measurement of a signal received on a first panel of the UE.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

generating a third power value based on receipt of the first measurement resource on a second panel of the UE; and

generating a fourth power value based on receipt of the second measurement on the second panel of the UE,

wherein determining the first throughput value comprises: determining the throughput value based on the first power value, the second power value, the third power value, and the fourth power value.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining the first throughput value comprises: calculating a first SIR or SINR based on the first power value and the second power value; and calculating a second SIR or SINR based on the third power value and the fourth power value.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first throughput value is a weighted sum of the first SIR or SINR and the second SIR or SINR.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein determining the throughput value comprises: comparing the first SIR or SINR with the second SIR or SINR, an

Wherein the first throughput value is the greater of the first SIR or SINR and the second SIR or SINR.

11. The method of any of claims 1-10, wherein determining the first throughput value comprises: a plurality of interference weights is determined.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the interference weights has a value of 1 or 0.

13. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5,

wherein at least one of the selected N TRP beam pairs comprises 2 TX beams of transmitted channel measurement resources, or

Wherein at least one of the selected N TRP beam pairs comprises 2 TX beams that have transmitted interference measurement resources.

14. The method according to any of claims 1 to 13, wherein N is set according to a predefined rule, wherein the rule is predefined in a specification, configured via RRC signaling, or determined by the UE.

15. The method of any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein one or more of the measurement resources are channel state information reference signals, CSI-RS.

16. The method of any of claims 1 to 15, further comprising:

a transmit beam sweep configuration is received and,

wherein at least one of the generating a first power value, generating a second power value, and selecting N TRP beam pairs is based on the configuration.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the beam scanning configuration is defined by a CSI-Aperiodic TriggerStateList information element, and

wherein the CSI-Aperiodic TriggerStateList information element is configured using RRC signaling.

18. The method of claim 16 or 17, wherein the configuration is aperiodic, the method further comprising:

a beam sweep trigger is received.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the receive beam sweep trigger comprises: receiving downlink control information indicating a triggered aperiodic trigger state of a plurality of aperiodic trigger states.

20. The method of any one of claims 1 to 19, wherein the first measurement resource and the second measurement resource are received using a first RX spatial filter.

21. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium (1642) storing instructions (1643) that, when executed by processing circuitry of a user equipment, UE, cause the UE to perform the method of any of claims 1-20.

22. A user equipment, UE, (1004) comprising:

a memory (1608); and

a processor (1655), wherein the processor is configured to perform the method according to any of claims 1-20.

23. A method (1400) for reporting, comprising:

receiving (1410), at a user equipment, UE, (1004), a plurality of measurement resources, wherein the plurality of measurement resources comprises at least one channel measurement resource, CMR, from a first TRP beam and at least one interference measurement resource, IMR, from a second TRP beam;

calculating (1420) one or more throughput values based on the plurality of measurement resources, wherein each throughput value corresponds to a transmit beam pair; and

based on the calculated throughput values, one or more transmit beam pair indicators are reported (1430) to the node.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the one or more transmit beam pair indicators identify a preferred transmit beam pair for the UE.

25. The method of claim 23 or 24, wherein the reported transmit beam pair indicator comprises at least one throughput value and an identity of a TRP transmit beam corresponding to a measurement resource used to calculate the throughput value.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the identification is an index value.

27. The method of any one of claims 23 to 26, wherein at least one of the measurement resources is a channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS.

28. The method of any of claims 23 to 27, further comprising:

a transmit beam sweep configuration is received.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the beam sweep configuration is a non-periodic configuration, the method further comprising:

a beam sweep trigger is received.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the first and second portions are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the receive beam scanning configuration comprises: receiving a state list indicating two or more CSI-RS resource sets for each trigger state,

wherein a first one of the sets of resources should be used for channel measurements by the UE, a second one of the sets of resources should be used for interference measurements by the UE, and

wherein the CMR and IMR are associated with the trigger state.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the beam sweep configuration is periodic or semi-persistent, and wherein the receive beam sweep configuration comprises: two or more sets of CSI-RS resources are received in CSI-resources beamforming linked for channel measurement and interference measurement, respectively.

32. The method of any of claims 23 to 31, wherein the computing a throughput value comprises: a first SIR corresponding to a first panel of the UE and a second SIR corresponding to a second panel of the UE are determined.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein each of said throughput values is determined as a weighted sum.

34. The method of any of claims 23 to 33, wherein calculating one or more throughput values comprises: one or more panel coefficients are determined.

35. The method of any one of claims 23 to 34, wherein the plurality of measurement resources are received from a set of TRP beams.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the computing throughput values are performed for all combinations of measurement resources received from the set of TRP beams.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the computing throughput values is performed for a subset of measurement resources received from the set of TRP beams, wherein the subset is determined according to a predefined rule, and the rule is predefined in a specification, configured via RRC signaling, or determined by a UE.

38. The method of any one of claims 23 to 37, wherein the plurality of measurement resources are received simultaneously from a first TRP transmission panel and a second TRP transmission panel.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the CMR is received from the first TRP transmission panel and the IMR is received from the second TRP transmission panel.

40. The method of any of claims 23 to 39, further comprising:

the received RX spatial filter is calculated and,

wherein the receiving a plurality of measurement resources comprises: applying the RX spatial filter.

41. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium (1642) storing instructions (1643) that, when executed by processing circuitry of a user equipment, UE, cause the UE to perform the method of any of claims 23-40.

42. A user equipment, UE, (1004) comprising:

a memory (1608); and

a processor (1655), wherein the processor is configured to perform the method of any of claims 23 to 40.

43. A method (1500) performed in a node (1002), the method comprising:

configuring (1510) a user equipment, UE, (1004) for TRP Tx beam scanning;

transmitting (1530) a first measurement resource to the UE using a first TRP beam and a second measurement resource to the UE using a second TRP beam; and

receiving (1540) one or more transmit beam pair indicators from the UE, wherein the beam pair indicator is selected by the UE based on one or more calculated throughput values corresponding to the first TRP beam and the second TRP beam.

44. The method of claim 43, further comprising:

transmitting (1520) a beam scanning trigger to the UE.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the trigger indicates a trigger state with a set of resources for channel measurements and a set of resources for interference measurements.

46. The method of any of claims 43-45, wherein the received beam pair indicator further comprises the throughput value.

47. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium (1642) storing instructions (1643) that, when executed by processing circuitry of a node (1002), cause the node to perform the method of any of claims 43 to 46.

48. A node (1002), comprising:

a memory (1608); and

a processor (1655), wherein the processor is configured to perform the method of any of claims 43 to 46.

49. A user equipment, UE, (1004) the UE being adapted to:

generating a first power value based on reception of a first measurement resource transmitted using a first TRP beam;

generating a second power value based on reception of a second measurement resource transmitted using a second TRP beam;

determining a first throughput value using the first power value and the second power value as inputs to the calculation; and

the first throughput value is used in a process for selecting N TRP beam pairs from a set of candidate beam pairs, wherein the set of candidate beam pairs includes the first TRP beam and the second TRP beam, wherein N is a predetermined integer.

50. The UE of claim 49 further adapted to:

reporting the selected N TRP beam pairs to a node.

51. The UE of claim 50, wherein the report further comprises: transmitting corresponding throughput values for the selected N TRP beam pairs.

52. The UE of claim 50 or 51, wherein the N TRP beam pairs are each reported using an index value.

53. The UE of any one of claims 49-52, wherein the selecting N TRP beam pairs comprises: the beam pair with the highest throughput value is selected.

54. The UE of any of claims 49-53,

wherein the first measurement resource is a channel measurement resource and the second measurement resource is an interference measurement resource,

wherein the UE has at least two panels, and

wherein the first power value and the second power value are each generated based on a power measurement of a signal received on a first panel of the UE.

55. The UE of claim 54, further adapted to:

generating a third power value based on receipt of the first measurement resource on a second panel of the UE; and

generating a fourth power value based on receipt of the second measurement on the second panel of the UE,

wherein determining the first throughput value comprises: determining the throughput value based on the first power value, the second power value, the third power value, and the fourth power value.

56. The UE of claim 55, wherein determining the first throughput value comprises: calculating a first SIR or SINR based on the first power value and the second power value; and calculating a second SIR or SINR based on the third power value and the fourth power value.

57. The UE of claim 56, wherein the first throughput value is a weighted sum of the first SIR or SINR and the second SIR or SINR.

58. The UE of claim 56, wherein the UE is further configured to,

wherein determining the throughput value comprises: comparing the first SIR or SINR with the second SIR or SINR, an

Wherein the first throughput value is the greater of the first SIR or SINR and the second SIR or SINR.

59. The UE of any of claims 49-58, wherein determining the first throughput value comprises: a plurality of interference weights is determined.

60. The UE of claim 59, wherein each of the interference weights has a value of 1 or 0.

61. The UE of any of claims 49-53,

wherein at least one of the selected N TRP beam pairs comprises 2 TX beams of transmitted channel measurement resources, or

Wherein at least one of the selected N TRP beam pairs comprises 2 TX beams that have transmitted interference measurement resources.

62. The UE of any of claims 49-61, wherein N is set according to a predefined rule, wherein the rule is predefined in a specification, configured via RRC signaling, or determined by the UE.

63. The UE of any of claims 49-62, wherein one or more of the measurement resources are channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS).

64. The UE of any of claims 49-63, further comprising:

a transmit beam sweep configuration is received and,

wherein at least one of the generating a first power value, generating a second power value, and selecting N TRP beam pairs is based on the configuration.

65. The UE of claim 64, wherein the UE is configured to,

wherein the beam scanning configuration is defined by a CSI-Aperiodic TriggerStateList information element, and

wherein the CSI-Aperiodic TriggerStateList information element is configured using RRC signaling.

66. The UE of claim 64 or 65, wherein the configuration is aperiodic, the UE further adapted to:

a beam sweep trigger is received.

67. The UE of claim 66, wherein the receive beam sweep trigger comprises: receiving downlink control information indicating a triggered aperiodic trigger state of a plurality of aperiodic trigger states.

68. A node (1002) adapted to:

configuring a user equipment, UE, (1004) for TRP Tx beam scanning;

transmitting a first measurement resource to the UE using a first TRP beam and a second measurement resource to the UE using a second TRP beam; and

receiving one or more transmit beam pair indicators from the UE, wherein the beam pair indicators are selected by the UE based on one or more calculated throughput values corresponding to the first TRP beam and the second TRP beam.

69. The node of claim 68, further adapted to:

transmitting a beam scanning trigger to the UE.

70. The node of claim 69, wherein the trigger indicates a trigger state with a set of resources for channel measurements and a set of resources for interference measurements.

71. The node of any one of claims 68-70, wherein the received beam pair indicator further comprises the throughput value.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to apparatuses and methods for multi-user transmission (e.g., multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission). Some aspects of the present disclosure relate to apparatus and methods for reporting preferred beam pairs and/or throughput values from a UE and configuring such reporting by a node.

Background

Beam management

Narrow beam transmit and receive schemes are typically required at high frequencies to compensate for high propagation losses. For a given communication link, beams may be applied at both a transmit/receive point (TRP), i.e., an access point (e.g., base station) or component of an access point, and a User Equipment (UE), which is generally referred to in this disclosure as a Beam Pair Link (BPL).

A beam management procedure is employed to discover and maintain TRP 104 beam 112 (e.g., a TRP Transmit (TX) beam) and/or UE102 beam 116 (e.g., a UE Receive (RX) beam). In the example of fig. 1, one link (i.e., the link that includes TRP beam 112 and UE beam 116) has been discovered and is being maintained by the network. BPL is expected to be primarily discovered and monitored by the network using measurements of Downlink (DL) Reference Signals (RSs) used for beam management, e.g., channel state information RS (CSI-RS). CSI-RSs for beam management may be transmitted periodically, semi-persistently, or aperiodically (triggered by events), and they may be shared among multiple UEs or UE-specific. To find a suitable TRP TX beam, the TRP 104 transmits CSI-RSs on different TRP TX beams on which the UE102 performs Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurements. Furthermore, CSI-RS transmissions on a given TRP TX beam may be repeated to allow the UE to evaluate the appropriate UE beam (UE RX beam training).

The large demand of next generation mobile communication systems (5G) means that frequency bands at many different carrier frequencies will be required. For example, a low frequency band may be required to achieve adequate coverage, and a higher frequency band (e.g., mmW, i.e., about 30GHz and higher) may be required to achieve the desired capacity. At high frequencies, the propagation characteristics are more challenging and adequate link budget may be achieved using beamforming at both the TRP 104 (e.g., a 5G base station (aka gNB)) and at the UE 102.

At both TRP 104 and UE102, there are basically three different beamforming implementations: 1) analog beamforming, 2) digital beamforming, and 3) hybrid beamforming. Each implementation has its advantages and disadvantages. Digital beamforming is the most flexible solution, but is also the most expensive, because of the large number of radios and baseband chains required.

Analog beamforming is least flexible because it only allows a single beamforming weight to be applied over the entire bandwidth, but it is inexpensive to manufacture because of the reduced number of radio and baseband chains, and because it can be implemented on time domain signals (because it is wideband). Hybrid beamforming is a compromise between analog and digital beamforming, where some analog beams are formed and a digital precoder is applied to these analog beams. Thus, the analog beamforming network reduces the dimensionality of the digital precoder, thereby reducing cost, power consumption, and complexity. One beamforming antenna architecture that has been agreed to be studied in 3GPP for New Radio (NR) access technologies in 5G is the concept of antenna panels at both the TRP 104 and the UE 102. An antenna panel (or simply "panel") is an antenna array (e.g., a rectangular antenna array) of single-or dual-polarized antenna elements, typically having one transmit/receive element (TX/RU) per polarization. An analog distribution network with phase shifters is used to steer the beams of each panel.

Multiple panels may be stacked adjacent to each other, and digital precoding may be performed across the panels, i.e., the same data symbol stream is transmitted from each panel, but with phase adjustments by sub-band to be in phase with the transmission from each panel at the receiver. Fig. 2A shows an example of two-dimensional dual-polarized panels. Fig. 2B shows an example of two one-dimensional dual-polarized panels, and each panel is connected to one TX/RU by polarization.

At mmW frequencies, the concept for handling inter-beam (both intra-TRP and inter-TRP) mobility has been specified in NR. At these frequencies using high gain beamforming, each beam is only optimally used for a small geographical area, and the link budget deteriorates rapidly as the terminal moves out of the beam. Therefore, frequent and fast beam switching may be required to maintain high performance. Here, the handover is used for a system using a fixed beam. An alternative to fixed beams may be adaptive beams that follow the UE movement, in which case the problem is tracking rather than handover.

To support such beam switching, a beam indication framework has been specified in NR. For example, for downlink data transmission (PDSCH), Downlink Control Information (DCI) contains a Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) that informs the UE which beam is used so that the UE can adjust its receive beam accordingly. This is beneficial for the case of analog Rx beamforming, where the UE102 needs to determine and apply Rx beamforming weights before it can receive PDSCH. This is a result of time domain beamforming constraints that must be applied to the received signal prior to Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processing and channel estimation.

Hereinafter, the term "spatial filter weight" or "spatial filter configuration" refers to an antenna weight applied at a transmitter (TRP or UE) and/or a receiver (UE or TRP) for data/control transmission/reception. This term is generic because different propagation environments result in different spatial filtering weights that match the transmission/reception of a signal to the channel. The spatial filtering weights generally do not produce a beam in the strict sense that an ideal beam has a main beam direction and low side lobes located outside the main beam direction.

Prior to data transmission, a training phase is typically required to determine the TRP (e.g., gNB) and UE spatial filtering configurations. This is shown in fig. 3 and is referred to as Downlink (DL) beam management in the NR. In NR, two types of Reference Signals (RSs) are used for DL beam management operations: (i) channel state information RS (CSI-RS) and (ii) synchronization signal/physical broadcast control channel (SS/PBCH) block, or SSB for short. Fig. 3A-3D show an example where CSI-RS is used to find a suitable Beam Pair Link (BPL), which means that a suitable gNB transmit spatial filtering configuration (gNB Tx beam) plus a suitable UE receive spatial filtering configuration (UE Rx beam) results in a sufficiently good link budget. Fig. 3A shows a gNBTx beam sweep during a beam training phase, fig. 3B shows a UE Rx beam sweep during a beam training phase, and fig. 3C and 3D show downlink and uplink data transmission phases, respectively.

In this example, the beam training phase shown in fig. 3A and 3B is followed by the data transmission phase in fig. 3C and 3D. During the gNB TX beam scan shown in fig. 3A, the TRP 104 (e.g., gNB) configures the UE102 to make measurements on a set of five CSI-RS resources RS1-RS 5. The TRP 104 transmits each of the CSI-RS resources RS1-RS5 in a different spatial filtering configuration. That is, the five CSI-RS resources RS1-RS5 are five different Tx beams. UE102 is also configured to report back an RS Identification (ID) and a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the CSI-RS resource corresponding to the largest measured RSRP. Thus, the RS ID corresponds to a beam or a particular spatial filter configuration at the TRP 104.

In the example shown in fig. 3A-3D, the UE102 determines that the RS4 has the largest measured RSRP. TRP 104 receives the report from UE102 and knows that RS4 is the preferred TX beam from the UE's perspective. In general, TRP 104 selects the spatial transmission configuration that has been used to transmit the preferred TX beam from the perspective of the UE (i.e., RS4 in this example) for further transmission to UE 102. As shown in fig. 3B, to help the UE102 find a good RX beam, the TRP 104 may perform a subsequent UE RX beam sweep in which the TRP 104 again transmits multiple CSI-RS resources in different Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, but all CSI-RS resources have the same spatial filtering configuration (i.e., the selected spatial filtering configuration), which in this example is the spatial transmission configuration that has been used to transmit RS4 during the gNB Tx beam sweep shown in fig. 3A.

As shown in fig. 3B, when the TRP 104 performs repetition of the same TX beam, the UE102 then tests the different RX spatial filter configurations (RX beams) in each OFDM symbol in order to find an RX spatial filter configuration that maximizes the received RSRP. In this example, the UE102 determines that the RS6 has the largest measured RSRP. The UE102 stores the RX spatial filter configuration that maximizes the received RSRP (RS 6 in this example) and the RS ID of the preferred RX spatial filter configuration that results in the largest RSRP. The network may refer to the RS ID in the future when DL data is scheduled to the UE102, allowing the UE102 to adjust its RX spatial filtering configuration (RX beam) for receiving downlink data transmissions (PDSCH). As described above, any RS ID (RS 6 in this example) is contained in the Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) carried in the field of Downlink Control Information (DCI) scheduling PDSCH. Thus, when scheduling PDSCH in subsequent time slots, TRP 104 will use this TCI state until a new beam management measurement finds a better set of TX and RX beams. That is, for the downlink data/control transmission shown in fig. 3C, the TRP 104 (e.g., gNB) indicates to the UE102 that the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH)/PDSCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (i.e., PDCCH/PDSCH DMRS) is spatially quasi co-located (QCL) with RS 6. At least for the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission shown in fig. 3D, the TRP 104 indicates to the UE102 that the RS6 is a spatial relationship for the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH).

Spatial quasi co-location (QCL) definition

In NR, the term "spatial quasi co-location" has been adopted and applied to the relationship between antenna ports of two different DL Reference Signals (RSs). If the two transmitted DL RSs are spatially quasi co-located at the UE receiver, the UE102 may assume that the first RS and the second RS are transmitted with approximately the same TX spatial filter configuration. Accordingly, the UE102 may receive the second reference signal using approximately the same Rx spatial filter configuration used to receive the first reference signal. In this way, spatial quasi co-location essentially introduces "memory", a term that helps use analog beamforming and formalizes the concept of "same UE RX beam" at different time instances.

Referring to the downlink data transmission phase shown in fig. 3C, the TRP 104 (e.g., the gNB) indicates PDSCH DMRS to the UE102 that is spatially quasi co-located with RS 6. This means that the UE may receive PDSCH using the same RX spatial filtering configuration (RX beam) as the preferred spatial filtering configuration (RX beam) determined based on RS6 during the UE beam scanning of the DL beam management phase (see fig. 3B).

Spatial relationship definition

While spatial quasi co-location refers to a relationship between two different DL RSs from the perspective of the UE, NR also employs the term "spatial relationship" to refer to a relationship between a UL RS (e.g., Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) or PUCCH/PUSCH DMRS) and another RS, which may be a DL RS (e.g., CSI-RS or SSB) or a UL RS (e.g., SRS). This is also defined from the UE perspective. If the UL RS is spatially correlated with the DL RS, this means that the UE102 should transmit the UL RS in the direction opposite to the direction in which it previously received the second RS. More specifically, the UE102 should apply a TX spatial filtering configuration "identical" to the Rx spatial filtering configuration previously used to receive the second RS to the transmission of the first RS. If the second RS is an uplink RS, the UE102 should apply the same TX spatial filtering configuration to transmit the first RS as it was previously used to transmit the second RS.

Refer to the uplink data transmission phase shown in fig. 3D. The TRP 104 (e.g., gNB) indicates to the UE102 that the PUCCH DMRS is spatially correlated with RS 6. This means that the UE should transmit PUCCH using a TX spatial filtering configuration (TX beam) that is "the same" as the preferred Rx spatial filtering configuration (Rx beam) previously determined by the UE102 based on RS6 during the UE beam scanning in the DL beam management phase shown in fig. 3B.

Using DL RS as a source RS in a spatial relationship is very efficient when the UE102 has the capability, in terms of hardware and software implementation, to transmit UL signals in the same direction as it previously received DL RS (or it can also be considered "reverse direction" because this is transmission rather than reception). In other words, if the UE102 can reach the same Tx antenna gain during transmission as it reaches during reception, it is very effective to use the DL RS as the source RS in the spatial relationship. This capability (called beam correspondence) is not always perfect. For example, due to imperfect calibration, the UL TX beam may point in another direction and cause a loss of UL coverage. To improve performance in this case, UL beam management based on SRS scanning (rather than using DL RS) may be used, as shown in fig. 4A-4C.

Depending on the channel being pointed to, the signaling of the preferred SRS resource as a source of the spatial relationship may be performed using different signaling methods, e.g., Radio Resource Control (RRC), medium access control channel element (MAC CE), or Downlink Control Information (DCI).

For best performance, the procedure shown in fig. 4A-4C for updating the source RS of the spatial relationship should be repeated once the TX beam of the UE102 changes or if the UE102 rotates.

Triggering the scheduling assignment of uplink data transmission (PUSCH) in the third step shown in fig. 4C points to the most recent transmission of the indicated SRS resource. For each subsequent scheduling assignment, the UE102 is required to use the TX beam used for the corresponding SRS transmission.

Fig. 4A-4C illustrate Uplink (UL) beam management using SRS scanning. As shown in fig. 4A, in a first step, the UE102 transmits a series of UL signals (SRS resources) using different TX beams. TRP 104 (e.g., gNB) then performs measurements on each SRS transmission and determines which SRS transmission was received with the best or highest signal quality. As shown in fig. 4B, TRP 104 then signals the preferred SRS resource to UE 102. As shown in fig. 4C, the UE then transmits PUSCH in the same beam in which it transmitted the preferred SRS resource.

CSI feedback in NR

For Channel State Information (CSI) feedback, NR employs an implicit CSI mechanism, where UE102 feeds back downlink channel state information, which typically includes a transmission Rank Indicator (RI), Precoder Matrix Indicator (PMI), Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) for each codeword. The CQI/RI/PMI reports may be wideband or subband based on the configuration.

The RI corresponds to the recommended number of layers to be spatially multiplexed and thus transmitted in parallel on the effective channel. The PMI identifies a recommended precoding matrix to use. The CQI indicates a recommended modulation level (e.g., Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM), etc.) and coding rate for each codeword or TB. NR supports sending one or two codewords to UE102 in a slot, where two codewords are used for 5 to 8 layer transmission and one codeword is used for 1 to 4 layer transmission. Thus, there is a relationship between CQI and signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) of the spatial layer on which the codeword is transmitted, and two CQI values are fed back for two codewords.

Channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS)

For CSI measurement and feedback, a dedicated CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) is defined. The CSI-RS resource comprises 1 to 32 CSI-RS ports, each port typically being transmitted on each transmit antenna (or virtual transmit antenna, provided that the port is precoded and mapped to multiple transmit antennas) and used by the UE102 to measure the downlink channel between each transmit antenna port and each of its receive antenna ports. The antenna ports are also referred to as CSI-RS ports. The number of antenna ports supported in NR is 1,2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24 and 32. By measuring the received CSI-RS, the UE102 may estimate the channel (including the radio propagation channel) that the CSI-RS is traversing, potential precoding or beamforming, and antenna gain. The CSI-RS used for the above purpose is also referred to as non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS, but there are also Zero Power (ZP) CSI-RS used for purposes other than coherent channel measurement.

The CSI-RS may be configured to be transmitted in a specific resource element in one slot and in a specific slot. Fig. 5 shows an example of CSI-RS resources mapped to REs for 12 antenna ports, where 1 RE per resource block per port is shown.

Also, an interference measurement resource for CSI feedback (CSI-IM) is defined in the NR for the UE102 to measure interference. The CSI-IM resource contains 4 REs, which are 4 REs adjacent in frequency in the same OFDM symbol, or 2 × 2 REs adjacent in both time and frequency in one slot. By measuring both the NZP CSI-RS based channel and the CSI-IM based interference, the UE102 can estimate the effective channel and noise plus interference to determine the CSI (e.g., rank, precoding matrix, and channel quality). Further, the UE102 in the NR may be configured to measure interference based on one or more NZP CSI-RS resources.

CSI reporting framework in NR

In NR, the UE102 may be configured with multiple CSI report settings (with a higher layer parameter CSI-ReportConfig) and multiple CSI resource settings (with a higher layer parameter CSI-ResourceConfig). Each CSI resource setting has an associated identifier (high-level parameter CSI-ResourceConfigId) and contains a list of S ≧ 1 CSI resource sets (given by the high-level parameter CSI-RS-ResourceSetList), where the list includes references to NZP CSI-RS resource sets or the list includes references to CSI-IM resource sets. For periodic and semi-persistent CSI resource settings, the number of CSI resource sets configured is limited to S-1.

For aperiodic CSI reporting, the CSI triggered state list is configured using the higher layer parameter CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList. Each trigger state contains at least one CSI report setting. For aperiodic CSI resource settings with S >1 CSI resource sets, only one aperiodic CSI resource set in the aperiodic CSI resource set is associated with a CSI trigger state, and the UE102 is configured by the higher layer to select one CSI-IM or nzp CSI-RS resource set from the resource settings according to the trigger state and the resource settings. Downlink Control Information (DCI) is used to dynamically select a CSI trigger state.

Each CSI report set contains the following information: (i) CSI resource settings for NZP CSI-RS resources for channel measurements, (II) CSI resource settings for CSI-IM resources for interference measurements, (iii) optionally, CSI resource settings for NZP CSI-RS resources for interference measurements, (iv) time domain behavior for reporting (e.g., periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic reporting), (v) frequency granularity (e.g., wideband or subband CQI and PMI), (vi) reporting volume, i.e., CSI parameters to be reported in case of multiple NZP CSI-RS resources in one resource set, such as RI, PMI, CQI, Layer Indicator (LI) and CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), (vii) codebook type (e.g., type I or II (if reported), and codebook subset restriction), and (viii) measurement restriction.

When Ks >1 NZP CSI-RS resources are configured in the corresponding NZP CSI-RS resource set for channel measurement, the UE102 selects one of Ks >1 NZP CSI-RS resources and reports a NZP CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) by the UE102 to indicate the selected NZP CSI-RS resource in the resource set to the TRP 104 (e.g., the gNB). The UE102 derives other CSI parameters (i.e., RI, PMI, and CQI) conditioned on the reported CRI, where CRI k (k ≧ 0) corresponds to the configured (k +1) th entry of the associated NZP CSI-RS Resource in the corresponding NZP CSI-RS Resource set for channel measurements and the (k +1) th entry of the associated CSI-RS Resource in the corresponding CSI-IM-Resource set for interference measurements. The CSI-IM-ResourceSet (if configured) also has Ks >1 resources.

Aperiodic CSI-RS

For aperiodic CSI reporting in NR, multiple CSI reporting settings with different NZP CSI-RS resource settings for channel measurements and/or CSI-IM resource settings for interference measurements may be configured within a single CSI trigger state and triggered simultaneously with DCI. In this case, multiple CSI reports (each associated with a CSI report setting) are aggregated together and sent from the UE102 to the TRP 104 (e.g., the gNB) in a single PUSCH. In NR, each CSI trigger state may contain up to 16 CSI reporting settings. The 3-bit CSI request field in the uplink DCI (e.g., DCI format 0-1) is used to select one of the trigger states for CSI reporting. When the number of Radio Resource Control (RRC) configured CSI trigger states is greater than 7, a MAC Control Element (CE) is used to select 7 active trigger states from among the RRC configured trigger states.

It is expected that beam management will be critically based on aperiodic CSI-RS transmission, as it allows triggering the beam management process as needed, which contributes to low overhead consumption.

Aperiodic CSI-RS transmission is triggered by the network by: that is, the UE102 is first preconfigured with a list of aperiodic trigger states in the CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList information element, and then the network signals the code point of the DCI field "CSI request" to the UE102 each time a CSI-RS transmission should be performed, where each code point is associated with one of the preconfigured aperiodic trigger states. Upon receiving the value associated with the trigger state, the UE102 performs measurements of the CSI-RS defined in the resourceSet (CSI-RS defined in CSI-IM-resource for interference or nzp-CSI-RS-resource for interference, if indicated) and aperiodic reporting on L1 according to all entries in the associatedreportconfiglnfolist for that trigger state. The CSI-AperiodicTriggerStateList information element is configured using RRC signaling and is shown below.

CSI-Aperiodic TriggerStateList information element

As indicated above, one of the parameters in the aperiodic trigger state is QCL-info containing a list of references to TCI-States for providing a QCL source and QCL type for each NZP-CSI-RS-Resource listed in the NZP-CSI-RS-Resource set indicated by NZP-CSI-RS-Resource for channel. For mmW (millimeter wave) frequencies, the TCI-states indicated in qcl-info are expected to contain spatial quasi co-location references and thus indicate to the UE102 which Rx spatial filtering configuration (i.e., UE Rx beam) the UE102 is to use to receive aperiodic CSI-RS resources.

MU-MIMO

Multi-user, multi-input, multi-output (MU-MIMO) is expected to be a key technology component in 5G. The purpose of MU-MIMO is to achieve multiple UE transmissions simultaneously using the same or overlapping time, frequency and code resources (if any) and in this way increase the capacity of the system. If a TRP 104, e.g., a 5G base station (aka a gNB), has multiple panels, it may perform MU-MIMO transmission by, for example, transmitting from each panel to one UE. MU-MIMO can be used to achieve significant capacity gains if the interference between co-scheduled UEs is low. Low interference can be achieved by providing accurate CSI at the transmitter to facilitate interference nulling in precoding (applicable primarily to digital arrays) and/or by co-scheduling UEs with near orthogonal channels. An example of the latter is if two UEs are in line of sight and have an angular separation greater than the beam width of the panel. In this case, the two UEs may be co-scheduled by transmitting using a first beam directed from the first panel to the first UE and transmitting using a second beam directed from the second panel to the second UE.

MU-MIMO with Rel-15 beam management framework

To enable MU-MIMO for analog panels at TRP 104, it is advantageous for TRP 104 to determine the TRP TX beam for the respective UE102, which keeps inter-UE interference low while maintaining a strong signal for each UE 102. In this way, a high SIR (or SINR) may be obtained for both UEs 102.

One method of selecting an appropriate TRP TX beam using the release 15 (Rel-15) beam management framework is shown in fig. 6A. In fig. 6A, the TRP 104 has determined that it will co-schedule two UEs 102a and 102b in the DL direction. Therefore, TRP 104 wishes to find a suitable TRP TX beam for both UEs 102a and 102 b.

In a first step, the TRP 104 performs a TRP TX beam scan a, which means that the TRP 104 transmits CSI-RS resources using a set 601 of four different TRP TX beams pointing roughly towards the UE102 a (the general direction of each UE can be obtained e.g. based on UE reports of the strongest Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beams). Both UEs 102a and 102b are triggered to perform RSRP measurements on the CSI-RS resources of TRP TX beam scan a and to report the RSRP of each respective TRP TX beam. Here, RSRP should preferably be as high as possible for UE102 a and as low as possible for UE102 b (since it will be considered as interference to UE102 b) in order to maximize MU-MIMO performance.

In a second step, the same operations are performed again except that a new set of TRP TX beams 603 is used during CSI-RS transmission, wherein the new set 603 of TRP TX beams is pointed approximately in the direction of the UE102 b. Likewise, UEs 102a and 102b both report RSRP for all four TRP TX beams. TRP 104 may now access the received signal strength from both UEs 102a and 102b of all 8 TRP TX beams.

In a third step, TRP 104 evaluates the SIR of all 16 different combinations of TRP TX beam pairs (where each combination includes one TRP TX beam from beam sweep a to be used for transmission to UE102 a and one TRP TX beam from beam sweep B to be used for transmission to UE 102B). TRP 104 may then select, for example, a TRP TX beam combination that maximizes the average SIR on both UEs 102a and 102B, as shown in fig. 6B.

UE implementation at mmW

For the UE102, the incoming signals may arrive from any direction, so it is beneficial and common to have an antenna implementation at the UE102 that may generate coverage like omni-direction in addition to high-gain narrow beams. However, the array gain is critical for coverage, and therefore antenna array panels are typically used. One way to increase omni-directional coverage at the UE102 is to install multiple panels and point the panels in different directions. Fig. 7 shows a UE 702 with multiple panels pointing in different directions.

Disclosure of Invention

According to an embodiment, a method for selection and reporting of TRP beam pairs is provided. The method comprises the following steps: generating a first power value based on reception of a first measurement resource transmitted using a first TRP beam; generating a second power value based on reception of a second measurement resource transmitted using a second TRP beam; determining a first throughput value (e.g., SIR, SINR, etc.) using the first power value and the second power value as inputs; and using the first throughput value in a process for selecting N TRP beam pairs from a set of candidate beam pairs, wherein the set of candidate beam pairs includes the first TRP beam and the second TRP beam, wherein N is a predetermined integer. In some embodiments, a UE is provided, wherein the UE is adapted to perform the method. The UE may include, for example, a memory and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to perform the method. Some embodiments provide a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed by processing circuitry of a UE, cause the UE to perform the method. The computer program may be embodied on a carrier, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, a radio signal, and a computer readable storage medium.

According to an embodiment, a method for reporting is provided. The method comprises the following steps: receiving, at a user equipment, UE, a plurality of measurement resources, wherein the plurality of measurement resources comprises at least one channel measurement resource, CMR, from a first TRP beam and at least one interference measurement resource, IMR, from a second TRP beam; calculating one or more throughput values (e.g., SIR, SINR, etc.) based on the plurality of measurement resources, wherein each throughput value corresponds to a transmit beam pair (i.e., TRP channel/interfering TX beam combination); and reporting one or more transmit beam pair indicators to the node based on the calculated throughput values. In some embodiments, a UE is provided, wherein the UE is adapted to perform the method. The UE may include, for example, a memory and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to perform the method. Some embodiments provide a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed by processing circuitry of a UE, cause the UE to perform the method. The computer program may be embodied on a carrier, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, a radio signal, and a computer readable storage medium.

According to an embodiment, there is provided a method comprising: configuring a User Equipment (UE) for TRP Tx beam scanning; transmitting a first measurement resource to the UE using a first TRP beam and a second measurement resource to the UE using a second TRP beam; and receiving one or more transmit beam pair indicators from the UE, wherein the beam pair indicators are selected by the UE based on one or more calculated throughput values corresponding to the first TRP beam and the second TRP beam. In some embodiments, a node (e.g. a TRP) is provided, wherein the node is adapted to perform the method. The node may comprise, for example, a memory and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to perform the method. Some embodiments provide a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed by processing circuitry of a node, cause the node to perform the method. The computer program may be embodied on a carrier, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, a radio signal, and a computer readable storage medium.

According to an embodiment, a method is provided for reporting a preferred transmission hypothesis indication from a UE, wherein (1) the preferred transmission hypothesis indication comprises an indication of at least one channel measurement resource, CMR, and at least one interference measurement resource, IMR, (2) the CMR and the IMR are non-zero power, NZP, reference signals, and (3) the UE reports the preferred transmission hypothesis to a network node. In some embodiments, the UE reports the SIR for the indicated transmission hypothesis, and in case of a PDSCH transmission hypothesis, the UE can calculate the SIR by applying receiver antenna weights. In some embodiments, a UE obtains a configuration of a plurality of aperiodic trigger states, where each aperiodic trigger state is associated with a set of CMRs and a set of IMRs. Thus, the method may comprise: the method includes receiving a downlink control information signal indicating a triggered aperiodic trigger state of a plurality of aperiodic trigger states, and measuring a set of CMRs and a set of IMRs associated with the triggered aperiodic trigger state. In some embodiments, a UE is provided, wherein the UE is adapted to perform the method. The UE may include, for example, a memory and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to perform the method. Some embodiments provide a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed by processing circuitry of a UE, cause the UE to perform the method. The computer program may be embodied on a carrier, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, a radio signal, and a computer readable storage medium.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate various embodiments.

Fig. 1 illustrates a wireless communication system;

fig. 2A and 2B show an example with a two-dimensional dual-polarized panel;

3A-3D illustrate example beam scanning and data transmission;

4A-4C illustrate example beam management using SRS scanning;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of resource element allocation;

fig. 6A shows an example of selection of a TRP TX beam using a release 15 (Rel-15) beam management framework;

fig. 6B shows an example of TRP communicating with two UEs simultaneously using two TRP TX beams;

FIG. 7 shows a UE with at least two panels;

fig. 8 shows an example of TRP performing two TRP TX beam scans;

fig. 9 shows an example of TRP communicating with two UEs simultaneously using two TRP TX beams;

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating a process according to an embodiment;

fig. 11A illustrates a wireless communication system according to an embodiment;

fig. 11B illustrates a beam pair index according to an embodiment;

fig. 12 shows a wireless communication system according to an embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram illustrating a process according to an embodiment;

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram illustrating a process according to an embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustrating a process according to an embodiment;

fig. 16 is a diagram of a User Equipment (UE) according to an embodiment;

fig. 17 is a diagram of a User Equipment (UE) according to an embodiment;

18A-18C are diagrams of signaling related to receiving spatial filters, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 19 schematically illustrates a telecommunications network connected to a host computer via an intermediate network;

FIG. 20 is a general block diagram of a host computer communicating with user equipment over a partial wireless connection via a base station;

fig. 21 is a flow chart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment;

fig. 22 is a flow chart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment;

fig. 23 is a flow chart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment;

fig. 24 is a flow chart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment.

Detailed Description

According to embodiments, a new measurement resource (e.g., CSI-RS) reporting configuration and procedure is introduced that indicates to one or more UEs that they should report the N best TRP Tx beam pairs and/or their respective throughput values (e.g., SIR, SINR, etc.). For example, after measuring each TRP TX beam scanned, the UE may report back to the node an indication of a preferred TX pair identifying one TRP TX beam from the set of CSI-RS resources used for channel measurement and one TRP TX beam from the set of CSI-RS resources used for interference measurement. By enabling the UE to evaluate TRP TX beam pairs and report the best pairing and/or corresponding throughput values, certain limitations of existing procedures can be overcome. The system performance can be improved since the TRP can make more reliable decisions when scheduling e.g. users for MU-MIMO.

For example, referring now to fig. 8 and 9, there are problems associated with finding suitable scheduling candidates for MU-MIMO scheduling in an environment with decentralized and multi-panel UEs, since the integrity of "beams" is not generally true in such an environment. In particular, fig. 8 and 9 illustrate examples of problems associated with the above-described Rel-15 downlink beam management solution for MU-MIMO. In this example, there are two UEs (UE 802a and UE 802 b). Each of the UEs 802a and 802b has two antenna devices (e.g., panels P11 and P12 for UE 802a, and panels P21 and P22 for UE 802 b). The antenna means of each UE are pointing in different directions. As shown in fig. 8, during TRP TX beam scan B, both UE 802a and UE 802B will report a strong RSRP for all three TRP TX beams because there is a reflection of wall 890 that creates a strong path between the TRP TX beams in TRP TX beam scan B and panel P11 of UE 802 a. This means that both UEs 802a and 802B will report strong RSRP values for all TRP TX beams in TRP TX beam scan B. Thus, TRP 804 will assume that it is not possible to schedule two UEs 802a and 802b in coordination (e.g., it is not possible to schedule two UEs 802a and 802b for MU-MIMO transmission).

However, as shown in fig. 9, two UEs 802a and 802B may be co-scheduled because the best TRP TX beam from TRP TX beam scan a will be received primarily by antenna/panel P12 of UE 702a, while the interference created by the best TRP TX beam from TRP TX beam scan B will be received primarily by antenna/panel P11 of UE 702 a. Thus, the UE 702a easily removes interference and obtains a good Signal Inference Metric (SIM) (e.g., good SIR or SINR) with a simple Interference Rejection Combining (IRC) receiver, which can be assumed to be available at UEs with multiple receiver antennas/panels (or, in simpler cases, received only through the panel without strong interference).

Thus, the examples shown in fig. 8-9 show that with Rel-15 downlink beam management for MU-MIMO it is difficult to determine whether two UEs can be co-scheduled and also to determine the best TRP TX beam, since it is unclear which panel of a UE is used to receive the different TRP TX beams. With the reporting of the disclosed embodiments, the node is now able to receive improved information from the UE, which in turn can improve the coordinated scheduling and beam selection.

Referring now to fig. 10, a flow diagram is provided that illustrates a process 1000 according to some embodiments. In this example, process 1000 may be performed by TRP node 1002 and UE 1004. While this procedure is shown for one UE, it may be applied to multiple UEs simultaneously to maximize the benefits of MU-MIMO scheduling.

In a first step of process 1010, TRP 1002 configures TRP TX beam scanning for UE 1004, e.g., as part of beam scanning, beam selection, and measurement resource setting for MU-MIMO. This may include determining a TRP beam scanning configuration and communicating the configuration to the UE 1004, e.g., via RRC signaling. In some cases, this may be performed as part of an initial attachment between UE 1004 and node 1002.

According to some embodiments, the configuration is aperiodic. In this case, the configuring 1010 may include configuring the UE 1004 with a CSI-aperiodictriggerstatestistist with a trigger state indicating two sets of CSI-RS resources, wherein a first set of NZP CSI-RS resources should be used by the UE for channel measurements and a second set of CSI-RS resources should be used by the UE for interference measurements. The signaling may be, for example, RRC signaling or MAC CE signaling, and contains a configuration of both sets depending on the trigger state. In the case of aperiodic triggers, the node 1002 may prepare triggers 1020 for TRP beam scanning and signal them to the UE 1004.

In some embodiments, process 1000 may include a step of the UE calculating 1030 a spatial RX filter to be used during TRP TX beam scanning. In particular aspects, the reporting settings may also indicate that the UE should use the same receiver filter to receive resources for the channel measurement set and the interference measurement set as the UE would use during PDSCH reception.

In some embodiments, periodic or semi-persistent beam scanning may be used. In this case, the corresponding set of NZP CSI-RS resources is referenced in CSI-resources mapping linked for channel measurement and interference measurement, respectively.

Referring now to step 1040, TRP node 1002 prepares and sends measurement resources for both channel and interference measurements to UE 1004. In a particular aspect, the measurement resources are CSI-RS resources for TRP TX beam scanning. For example, node 1002 may transmit both CSI-RS resources belonging to a set of CSI-RS resources intended for channel measurements and CSI-RS resources belonging to a set of CSI-RS resources intended for interference measurements. In some embodiments, to save overhead, TRP node 1002 transmits CSI-RS resources from two sets simultaneously from two different TRP TX panels. For embodiments in which process 1000 is applied to two UEs, such as in the arrangements shown in fig. 8 and 9, the two UEs may perform measurements on the same CSI-RS resource to further reduce overhead. In this case, the CSI-RS resources used by one UE for channel measurement will be used by the second UE for interference measurement and vice versa.

In step 1050 of process 1000, upon receiving the measurement resources belonging to the TRP TX beam sweep, the UE 1004 applies an RX spatial filter, e.g., the filter calculated in step 1030.

At next step 1060, the UE 1004 applies interference filtering and determines a throughput value for each candidate beam pair. That is, the UE 1004 computes a throughput value for each TRP (channel/interference) TX beam combination. For example, if there are 4 CSI-RS resources in each of two CSI-RS sets, there are 16 possible combinations, since each CSI-RS resource in a first CSI-RS set can be combined with one CSI-RS resource in a second CSI-RS set.

As a further example, the candidate beam pair may also be described in accordance with the diagram of fig. 11A. In fig. 11A, UE 1004 receives measurement resources from channel transmit beams 1 and 2 and interfering transmit beams 3 and 4 of TRP node 102 on antenna panels 1 and 2 (e.g., where beams 3 and 4 are intended for a second UE). Thus, in this example, the UE may consider 4 beam pairs:

tx Beam 1 (channel) and TX Beam 3 (interference)

Tx Beam 1 (channel) and TX Beam 4 (interference)

Tx Beam 2 (channel) and TX Beam 3 (interference)

Tx Beam 2 (channel) and TX Beam 4 (interference)

According to some embodiments, the UE 1004 is configured to evaluate all TRP TX beam combinations, including a combination where a beam combination comprises two TRP TX beams providing channel measurement resources or a combination of two TRP TX beams providing interference measurements. In this case, the UE may consider at least 6 beam pairs:

tx Beam 1 (channel) and TX Beam 3 (interference)

Tx Beam 1 (channel) and TX Beam 4 (interference)

Tx Beam 2 (channel) and TX Beam 3 (interference)

Tx Beam 2 (channel) and TX Beam 4 (interference)

Tx Beam 1 (channel) and TX Beam 2 (channel)

Tx Beam 3 (interference) and TX Beam 4 (interference)

According to some embodiments, the UE 1004 may calculate throughput values (e.g., SIR, SINR, etc.) for all TX beam pairs (channel-interference). The UE 1004 may then report all the results, or alternatively, only the best N beam combinations.

Alternatively, the UE 1004 may compute values for only a subset (N) of the possible TRP TX beam pairs, where N ranges from zero to all pairs. The value of N may be according to a predefined rule, for example. For example, if the set of NZP CSI-RS resources used for channel measurements contains 2 CSI-RS resources and the set of NZP CSI-RS resources used for interference measurements contains 4 CSI-RS resources, the predefined rule may be such that the combination (0,0), (0,1), (1,2), (1,3) comprises the subset. That is, the CSI-RS resources used for interference measurement are evenly divided between the two CSI-RS resources used for channel measurement. In another alternative, a subset of possible TRP (channel-interference) TX beams may be defined by higher layer signaling as part of the configuration of CSI reports. For example, if there are 16 possible combinations, a bitmap of size 16 may be signaled to define a subset, where a "1" indicates that the combination is included in the subset.

According to an embodiment, the determination of the throughput value comprises an application of interference processing. Such interference processing may include, for example, determining one or more weights for a first panel and a second panel of the UE 1004. For example and referring to fig. 12, the UE may determine a first weight a1 and a second weight a2 that maximize the total estimated SIR according to:

SIR _ Total ═ a1 SIR _ UE _ Panel _1+ a2 SIR _ UE _ Panel _2 where

SIR_UE_Panel_1＝S1/I1

SIR_UE_Panel_2＝S2/I2

And solving the following maximization equation:

max(ɑ1*SIR_UE_Panel_1+ɑ2*SIR_UE_Panel_2)

wherein α 1+ α 2 ═ 1. As shown in fig. 12, S1 is the measured power of the channel resource of TRP beam 1 on the first panel; i1 is the measured power of the interference resource from TRP beam 2 measured on the first panel; s2 is the measured power of the channel resource of TRP beam 1 on the second panel; and I2 is the measured power of the interference resource from TRP beam 2 on the second panel. According to an embodiment, a1 and a2 have values of 1 or 0. In some cases, this may correspond to a case where the UE 1004 is expected to receive primarily on only one panel during a subsequent data transmission. Interference processing may not be limited to this example and may include any weighting or calculation scheme compatible with UE 1004 Interference Rejection Combining (IRC) receivers. In a particular aspect, the a1 and a2 values will only be used during SIR/SINR estimation for TRP TX beam scanning. During subsequent data transmissions, the UE 1004 will know the actual data channel, and the UE 1004 may estimate an interference covariance matrix, which may then be used to determine an IRC filter or similar interference cancellation application.

In some embodiments, determining the throughput value may include comparing SIR (or SINR, etc.) values for each of two panels on UE 1004. For example, the reported SIR (and selection of beam pairs) may be based on the higher of the two SIR values (or other throughput values).

At next step 1070, the UE 1004 selects N TRP beam pairs and signals the selection back to the TRP. For example, the UE 1004 may select the N TRP (channel-interference) TX beam pairs with the highest throughput values (e.g., SIR, SINR, etc.). As described above, the value of N may be predefined in the specification or may be configured via higher layer signaling (e.g., RR signaling) included in the CSI reporting configuration, for example. Alternatively, the value of N may be determined and reported by the UE 1004. Additionally, the UE 1004 may report the corresponding throughput value with the selected beam pair, or only the throughput value.

In some embodiments, rather than sending a set of two CRI values, the UE signals back a transmission hypothesis indicator in which the indication of preferred resources for channel measurements and preferred resources for interference measurements are jointly encoded into a single index. An example index is shown in FIG. 11B. This may be beneficial as it may reduce the signaling overhead if the number of resources in the set is not a power of 2. It also reduces overhead in the case where only a subset of the possible combinations can be reported.

At final step 1080 of process 1000, TRP node 1002 evaluates whether there are any suitable TRP TX beam pairs available for MU-MIMO transmission of two or more UEs.

Referring now to fig. 13, a process 1300 according to some embodiments is provided. The process may be performed, for example, by the UE 1004. Process 1300 may begin at step 1310.

Step 1310 includes: a first power value is generated based on reception of a first measurement resource transmitted using a first TRP beam.

Step 1320 includes: generating a second power value based on reception of a second measurement resource transmitted using a second TRP beam.

Step 1330 includes: a first throughput value is determined using the first power value and the second power value as inputs. In some embodiments, the first measurement resource is a channel measurement resource and the second measurement resource is an interference measurement resource. The UE 1004 may have at least two panels, and the first power value and the second power value may both be generated based on power measurements of signals received on the same panel (e.g., the first panel).

In some embodiments, the method comprises: generating a third power value based on receipt of the first measurement resource on a second panel of the UE; and generating a fourth power value based on receipt of the second measurement on a second panel of the UE. Further, determining the first throughput value may include: a first SIR is calculated based on the first power value and the second power value, and a second SIR is calculated based on the third power value and the fourth power value. The reported throughput value may be a weighted sum of the first SIR and the second SIR. In some embodiments, determining the throughput value comprises: the first SIR and the second SIR are compared, and in some cases, the first throughput value is the greater of the two.

Step 1340 includes: the first throughput value is used in a process for selecting N TRP beam pairs from a set of candidate beam pairs, wherein the set of candidate beam pairs includes a first TRP beam and a second TRP beam. In some embodiments, selecting N TRP beam pairs comprises: the beam pair with the highest throughput value is selected.

In some embodiments, process 1300 further includes step 1350, which includes: reporting the selected N TRP beam pairs to a node, the reporting may further comprise: the corresponding throughput value is reported. In some embodiments, the N TRP beam pairs are each reported using an index value.

Referring now to fig. 14, a process 1400 is provided according to some embodiments. The process may be performed, for example, by the UE 1004. Process 1400 may begin at step 1410.

Step 1410 includes: receiving a plurality of measurement resources, wherein the plurality of measurement resources comprises at least one channel measurement resource, CMR, from a first TRP beam and at least one interference measurement resource, IMR, from a second TRP beam.

Step 1420 includes: one or more throughput values are calculated based on the plurality of measurement resources, wherein each throughput value corresponds to a transmit beam pair. In some embodiments, calculating the throughput value is performed for all pairs, in some embodiments, calculating the throughput value is performed for a subset of the measurement resources received from a set of TRP beams, where the subset is determined according to a predefined rule (e.g., predefined in the specification, configured via RRC signaling, determined by UE 1004).

Step 1430 includes: reporting one or more transmit beam pair indicators based on the calculated throughput values. According to an embodiment, the one or more transmit beam pair indicators identify a preferred transmit beam pair (e.g., the beam pair having the highest calculated throughput value) for the UE. Further, the reported transmit beam pair indicator may include at least one throughput value and an identification of the TRP transmit beam corresponding to the measurement resource used to calculate the throughput value. The identification may be an index value.

Referring now to fig. 15, a process 1500 is provided in accordance with some embodiments. This process may be performed by TRP node 1002, for example. Process 1500 may begin at step 1510.

Step 1510 comprises: a user equipment, UE, (1004) is configured for TRP Tx beam scanning.

In some embodiments, process 1500 includes step 1520, which includes: a beam scanning trigger is sent to the UE. The trigger indicates a trigger state having a set of resources for channel measurements and a set of resources for interference measurements.

Step 1530 includes: the first measurement resource is transmitted to the UE using the first TRP beam and the second measurement resource is transmitted to the UE using the second TRP beam.

Step 1540 includes: receiving one or more transmit beam pair indicators from the UE, wherein the beam pair indicators are selected by the UE based on one or more throughput values corresponding to the first TRP beam and the second TRP beam. In some cases, the received beam pair indicator also includes the throughput value itself.

Fig. 16 is a block diagram of a UE 1004 according to some embodiments. As shown in fig. 16, the UE 1004 may include: processing Circuitry (PC)1602, which may include one or more processors (P)1655 (e.g., one or more general purpose microprocessors and/or one or more other processors, such as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), etc.); communications circuitry 1648 coupled to antenna arrangement 1649 comprising one or more antennas and including a transmitter (Tx)1645 and a receiver (Rx)1647 for enabling UE 1004 to transmit data and receive data (e.g., wirelessly transmit/receive data); and a local storage unit (also known as a "data storage system") 1608, which may include one or more non-volatile storage devices and/or one or more volatile storage devices. In embodiments where PC 1602 includes a programmable processor, a Computer Program Product (CPP)841 may be provided. CPP 1641 includes a computer-readable medium (CRM)1642 that stores a Computer Program (CP)1643, which Computer Program (CP)1643 includes computer-readable instructions (CRI) 1644. CRM 1642 may be a non-transitory computer readable medium, such as a magnetic medium (e.g., hard disk), an optical medium, a storage device (e.g., random access memory, flash memory), and so forth. In some embodiments, the CRI 1644 of the computer program 1643 is configured such that when executed by the PC 1602, the CRI causes the UE 1004 to perform the steps described herein (e.g., the steps described herein with reference to the flow diagrams). In other embodiments, the UE 1004 may be configured to perform the steps described herein without the need for code. That is, for example, the PC 1602 may include only one or more ASICs. Thus, the features of the embodiments described herein may be implemented in hardware and/or software. According to an embodiment, TRP node 1002 may include similar components.

Fig. 17 is a schematic block diagram of a UE 1004 according to some other embodiments. In some embodiments, the UE 1004 includes one or more modules, each implemented in software. The modules provide the functionality described herein (e.g., herein, e.g., with respect to the steps of fig. 10, 13, and 14). In one embodiment, the modules include: a receiver module 1706 adapted to receive measurement resources and generate one or more power values based on receipt of the resources; a calculation module 1702 adapted to calculate one or more throughput values (e.g., SIR, SINR, etc.) using the one or more power values; a selection module 1704 adapted to select N TRP beam pairs from a set of candidate beam pairs; and a transmitting module 1708 adapted to report the selected N TRP beam pairs and/or corresponding throughput values, e.g., to TRP node 1002.

According to some embodiments, the UE 1004 may use a predetermined or otherwise known RX spatial filter. For example, the UE 1004 may use a wideband spatial filter for both the first panel and the second panel. In an alternative embodiment, the UE 1004 may determine the RX spatial filter.

Reference is now made to fig. 18A-18C, which illustrate three different embodiments of how the UE 1004 may determine a suitable RX spatial filter. For example, how to determine the filter in the case that the set of CSI-RS resources used for channel measurement contains CSI-RS resources with two different spatial quasi co-located (QCL) references. In fig. 18A-18C, two different spatial QCL references are identified as spatial QCL1 and spatial QCL 2. In the non-limiting example shown in fig. 18A-18C, two of the five TRP TX beams 1813 have spatial QCL1 and three of the five TRP TX beams 1813 have spatial QCL 2. The non-limiting examples shown in fig. 18A-18C include reflective walls 1820 and 1822. In each embodiment, it is assumed that the UE 1004 has determined a suitable narrow beam (e.g., from one or more earlier UE RX beam scans (see fig. 3B)) for the corresponding spatial QCL reference.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 18A, the UE 1004 is equipped with one UE panel 1824, and the UE 1004 may determine RX spatial filters that generate high antenna gain in two directions indicated by two different spatial QCL references (e.g., spatial QCL1 and spatial QCL 2). In some non-limiting embodiments, the UE 1004 may determine an RX spatial filter that produces high antenna gain in both directions by adding the composite antenna weights of two predetermined narrow UE beams associated with two spatial QCL references. For example, in some non-limiting embodiments, if the complex weights of the two predetermined narrow UE beams are w1 and w2, the UE 1004 may determine the new complex antenna weight (w3) of the new UE beam 1814 as w 3-w 1+ w 2. Generally, using this approach, the composite weights w3 for the new beam 1814 may have slightly different magnitudes for different antenna elements within the UE panel 1824, which may slightly reduce the received power. In some alternative embodiments, the UE 1004 may determine the composite antenna weights for the new UE beam 1814 by using an optimization tool that evaluates different phase settings and designs the final radiation pattern of the UE panel 1814 with high gain in both directions of the two predetermined narrow UE beams. In some embodiments, these optimized complex weights that combine multiple narrow beams may be pre-computed or computed during operation. In other alternative embodiments, the UE 1004 may use dual polarization beamforming to determine the composite antenna weights, which is very flexible in generating beams with different shapes without losing much received power due to the gradually diminishing amplitude.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 18B, UE 1004 may determine an RX spatial filter that generates wide beam 1816 from UE panel 1824. In some non-limiting embodiments, wide beam 1816 may be as wide as possible for UE panel 1824. In some embodiments, wide beam 1816 may enable UE 1004 to receive signals from all directions indicated by the spatial QCL references (e.g., spatial QCL1 and spatial QCL 2).

In the embodiment shown in fig. 18C, UE 1004 is equipped with multiple UE panels (e.g., UE panels 1824a and 1824 b). In this case, the UE 1004 may determine an RX spatial filter that includes a first RX spatial filter of a first UE panel (e.g., UE panel 1824a) to receive signals from a first spatial QCL direction (e.g., spatial QCL1) and a second RX spatial filter of a second UE panel (e.g., UE panel 1824b) to receive signals from a second spatial QCL direction (e.g., spatial QCL 2). In some embodiments, the first RX spatial filter for the first UE panel may be based only on the first spatial QCL direction (and not the second spatial QCL direction), and the second RX spatial filter for the second UE panel may be based only on the second spatial QCL direction (and not the first spatial QCL direction). In some embodiments, the UE 1004 may apply the determined RX spatial filters including a first RX spatial filter for the first UE panel and a second RX spatial filter for the second UE panel, measure one or more CSI-RS resources associated with the first spatial QCL direction using the first UE panel and the first RX spatial filter based only on the first spatial QCL direction, and measure one or more CSI-RS resources associated with the second spatial QCL direction using the second UE panel and the second RX spatial filter based only on the second spatial QCL direction.

In some embodiments, e.g., as shown in fig. 10, after the TRP 1002 triggers beam scanning in step 1020, the UE 1004 performs an RX spatial filter determination step 1030. However, this is not required, and in some alternative embodiments, the UE 1004 may perform the RX spatial filter determination step 1030 at a different time. For example, in some alternative embodiments, the UE 1004 may perform the RX spatial filter determining step 1030 after the TRP 1004 configures the UE 1004 with a TRP TX beam scan in step 101 and before the TRP 1004 triggers a beam scan in step 1020.

FIG. 19 illustrates a telecommunications network connected to a host computer via an intermediate network, in accordance with some embodiments. Referring to fig. 19, a communication system includes a telecommunications network 1910, such as a 3 GPP-type cellular network, which includes an access network 1911, such as a radio access network, and a core network 1914, according to an embodiment. The access network 1911 includes a plurality of APs (hereinafter base stations) 1912a, 1912b, 1912c (e.g., NBs, enbs, gnbs) or other types of wireless access points that each define a corresponding coverage area 1913a, 1913b, 1913 c. Each base station 1912a, 1912b, 1912c may be connected to a core network 1914 by a wired or wireless connection 1915. A first UE1991 located in a coverage area 1913c is configured to wirelessly connect to or be paged by a corresponding base station 1912 c. A second UE 1992 in the coverage area 1913a may wirelessly connect to the corresponding base station 1912 a. Although multiple UEs 1991, 1992 are shown in this example, the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to cases where only one UE is in the coverage area or where only one UE is connected to a corresponding base station 1912.

The telecommunications network 1910 is itself connected to a host computer 1930, which host computer 1930 can be embodied in hardware and/or software as a standalone server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, or as a processing resource in a server farm. The host computer 1930 may be under the ownership or control of the service provider, or may be operated by or on behalf of the service provider. Connections 1921 and 1922 between the telecommunications network 1910 and the host computer 1930 may extend directly from the core network 1914 to the host computer 1930, or may be via an optional intermediate network 1920. The intermediate network 1920 may be one of a public, private, or hosted network, or a combination of more than one of them; the intermediate network 1920 (if any) may be a backbone network or the internet; in particular, the intermediate network 1920 may include two or more sub-networks (not shown).

Overall, the communication system of fig. 19 enables connectivity between the connected UEs 1991, 1992 and the host computer 1930. This connectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1950. The host computer 1930 and the connected UEs 1991, 1992 are configured to communicate data and/or signaling via an OTT connection 1950 using the access network 1911, the core network 1914, any intermediate networks 1920, and possibly other infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. The OTT connection 1950 can be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which the OTT connection 1950 passes are unaware of the routing of the uplink and downlink communications. For example, the base station 1912 may not be informed or need not be informed of past routes of incoming downlink communications having data originating from the host computer 1930 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to the connected UE 1991. Similarly, the base station 1912 need not be aware of future routes for outgoing uplink communications from the UE1991 to the host computer 1930.

An example implementation of the UE, base station and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphs according to embodiments will now be described with reference to fig. 20, which illustrates the host computer communicating with the user equipment over a partial wireless connection via the base station, according to some embodiments. In communication system 2000, host computer 2010 includes hardware 2015 that includes a communication interface 2016 configured to establish and maintain wired or wireless connections with interfaces of different communication devices of communication system 2000. Host computer 2010 also includes processing circuit 2018, and processing circuit 2018 may have storage and/or processing capabilities. In particular, the processing circuit 2018 may include one or more programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, or a combination of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. Host computer 2010 also includes software 2011, which is stored in host computer 2010 or accessible by host computer 2010 and executable by processing circuit 2018. Software 2011 includes host applications 2012. The host application 2012 is operable to provide services to remote users such as UE 2030 connected via OTT connection 2050 that terminates at UE 2030 and host computer 2010. In providing services to remote users, the host application 2012 may provide user data that is sent using the OTT connection 2050.

The communication system 2000 also includes a base station 2020 disposed in the telecommunications system, and the base station 2020 includes hardware 2025 that enables it to communicate with a host computer 2010 and a UE 2030. The hardware 2025 may include a communications interface 2026 for establishing and maintaining wired or wireless connections to interfaces with different communications devices of the communication system 2000, and a radio interface 2027 for establishing and maintaining at least wireless connections 2070 with UEs 2030 in a coverage area (not shown in fig. 20) serviced by the base station 2020. Communication interface 2026 may be configured to facilitate connection 2060 to host computer 2010. The connection 2060 may be direct, or the connection 2060 may be through a core network of the telecommunications system (not shown in fig. 20) and/or through one or more intermediate networks external to the telecommunications system. In the illustrated embodiment, the hardware 2025 of the base station 2020 further includes a processing circuit 2028, which processing circuit 2028 may include one or more programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, or a combination of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The base station 2020 also has software 2021 stored internally or accessible through an external connection.

The communication system 2000 also includes the already mentioned UE 2030. The hardware 2035 may include a radio interface 2037 configured to establish and maintain a wireless connection 2070 with a base station serving the coverage area in which the UE 2030 is currently located. The hardware 2035 of the UE 2030 also includes processing circuitry 2038, the processing circuitry 2038 may include one or more programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, or a combination of these (not shown) suitable for executing instructions. The UE 2030 also includes software 2031 stored in the UE 2030 or accessible by the UE 2030 and executable by the processing circuitry 2038. The software 2031 includes a client application 2032. The client application 2032 is operable to provide services to human or non-human users via the UE 2030, with support from the host computer 2010. In host computer 2010, executing host application 2012 may communicate with executing client application 2032 via OTT connection 2050 that terminates at UE 2030 and host computer 2010. In providing services to users, the client application 2032 may receive request data from the host application 2012 and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 2050 may carry both request data and user data. The client application 2032 may interact with a user to generate user data provided by the user.

Note that the host computer 2010, base station 2020, and UE 2030 shown in fig. 20 may be similar to or the same as one of the host computer 1930, base stations 1912a, 1912b, 1912c, and one of UEs 1991, 1992, respectively, of fig. 19. That is, the internal operation principle of these entities may be as shown in fig. 20, and independently, the surrounding network topology may be that of fig. 19.

In fig. 20, the OTT connection 2050 has been abstractly drawn to illustrate communication between the host computer 2010 and the UE 2030 via the base station 2020 without explicit reference to any intermediate devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices. The network infrastructure may determine the route, which may be configured to hide the route from the UE 2030 or from a service provider operating the host computer 2010, or both. When the OTT connection 2050 is active, the network infrastructure may further make a decision by which the network infrastructure dynamically changes routes (e.g., based on load balancing considerations or reconfiguration of the network).

The wireless connection 2070 between the UE 2030 and the base station 2020 is in accordance with the teachings of embodiments described throughout this disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 2030 using the OTT connection 2050 (where the wireless connection 2070 forms the last segment). More specifically, the teachings of these embodiments may improve one or more of data rate, delay, block error rate (BLER), overhead, and power consumption, providing advantages such as reduced user latency, better responsiveness, extended battery life, and so forth.

The measurement process may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rates, delays, and other factors over which one or more embodiments improve. There may also be optional network functions for reconfiguring the OTT connection 2050 between the host computer 2010 and the UE 2030 in response to changes in the measurements. The measurement procedures and/or network functions for reconfiguring the OTT connection 2050 may be implemented in the software 2011 and hardware 2015 of the host computer 2010 or in the software 2031 and hardware 2035 of the UE 2030, or both. In embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or associated with the communication devices through which OTT connection 2050 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement process by providing the values of the monitored quantities of the above examples or providing values of other physical quantities from which the software 2011, 2031 may calculate or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguration of OTT connection 2050 may include message formats, retransmission settings, preferred routes, etc. The reconfiguration need not affect base station 2020 and it may not be known or perceptible to base station 2020. Such procedures and functions may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, the measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates measurement of throughput, propagation time, delay, etc. by the host computer 2010. Measurements can be achieved because the software 2011 and 2031, during its monitoring of propagation times, errors, etc., results in the use of the OTT connection 2050 to send messages, in particular null messages or "dummy" messages.

Fig. 21 is a flow diagram illustrating a method implemented in a communication system in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE, which may be the host computer, the base station, and the UE described with reference to fig. 19 and 20. In step S2110, the host computer provides user data. In sub-step S2111 (which may be optional) of step S2110, the host computer provides user data by executing a host application. In step S2120, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying user data to the UE. In step S2130 (which may be optional), the base station sends user data carried in the host computer initiated transmission to the UE according to the teachings of embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step S2140 (which may also be optional), the UE executes a client application associated with a host application executed by a host computer.

Fig. 22 is a flow diagram illustrating a method implemented in a communication system in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE, which may be the host computer, the base station, and the UE described with reference to fig. 19 and 20. To simplify the present disclosure, this section includes only the drawing reference to FIG. 22. In step S2210 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional sub-step (not shown), the host computer provides user data by executing a host application. In step S2220, the host computer initiates transmission of the user data carried to the UE. The transmission may be through a base station according to the teachings of embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step S2230 (which may be optional), the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission.

Fig. 23 is a flow diagram illustrating a method implemented in a communication system in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE, which may be the host computer, the base station, and the UE described with reference to fig. 19 and 20. To simplify the present disclosure, this section includes only the drawing reference to FIG. 23. In step S2310 (which may be optional), the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionally or alternatively, in step S2320, the UE provides user data. In sub-step S2321 (which may be optional) of step S2320, the UE provides user data by executing a client application. In sub-step S2311 (which may be optional) of step S2310, the UE executes a client application that provides user data in response to received input data provided by the host computer. The executed client application may further consider user input received from the user when providing the user data. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data is provided, the UE initiates transmission of the user data to the host computer in sub-step S2330 (which may be optional). In step S2340 of the method, the host computer receives user data transmitted from the UE, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.

Fig. 24 is a flow chart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system according to one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE, which may be the host computer, the base station, and the UE described with reference to fig. 19 and 20. To simplify the present disclosure, this section includes only the drawing reference to FIG. 24. In step S2410 (which may be optional), the base station receives user data from the UE in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step S2420 (which may be optional), the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer. In step S2430 (which may be optional), the host computer receives user data carried in transmissions initiated by the base station.

Any suitable steps, methods, features, functions or benefits disclosed herein may be performed by one or more functional units or modules of one or more virtual devices. Each virtual device may include a plurality of these functional units. These functional units may be implemented via processing circuitry, which may include one or more microprocessors or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware, which may include Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), dedicated digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitry may be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which may include one or several types of memory, such as Read Only Memory (ROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, and so forth. Program code stored in the memory includes program instructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or data communications protocols and instructions for performing one or more of the techniques described herein. In some implementations, the processing circuitry may be operative to cause the respective functional units to perform corresponding functions in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

While various embodiments of the present disclosure have been described herein, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments. Generally, all terms used herein should be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the relevant art unless a different meaning is explicitly given and/or implied from the context in which they are used. All references to a/an/the element, device, component, means, step, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, device, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. Any combination of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof is encompassed by the disclosure unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.

Additionally, while the processes described above and shown in the figures are shown as a series of steps, this is for illustration only. Thus, it is contemplated that some steps may be added, some steps may be omitted, the order of the steps may be rearranged, and some steps may be performed in parallel. That is, the steps of any method disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless one step is explicitly described as after or before another step and/or where it is implied that one step must be after or before another step.