Apparatus and medium for enhanced radio resource management reporting in cellular systems

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to enhanced radio resource management reporting in a cellular system. User equipment (UE) and base station (eNB) apparatus and methods for radio resource management reporting. The UE receives reference signals from at least one antenna port of the eNB via multiple receive antennas of the UE. The UE performs received signal measurements for at least a portion of the reference signals grouped for multiple eNB antenna ports and UE receive antenna combination to generate enhanced received signal quality (eRSQ) measurements, which represent spatial characteristics of reference signaling received by the UE. The UE can send a report to the eNB based on the eRSQ measurement, which indicates the availability of spatial multiplexing layers for UEs to be served by the eNB.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of Chinese invention patent application No. 201580079714.9 (PCT International Application No. PCT / US2015 / 000281), filed on December 23, 2015, entitled “Enhanced Radio Resource Management Report in Cellular Systems”.

[0002] Prior application

[0003] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 161,584, filed on May 14, 2015, entitled “METHOD OF ENMANCED RRM MEASUREMENTS WITH MIMO AND IRC SUPPORT”. Technical Field

[0004] Embodiments relate to wireless communications. Some embodiments relate to wireless networks including 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) networks, 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks, 3GPP LTE-A (Advanced LTE) networks, and 5G networks, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. Some embodiments relate to radio resource management (RRM) measurements made by a user equipment (UE) device and reported to a cellular base station. Background Art

[0005] In a cellular system, when a mobile user equipment (UE) moves from one cell to another, it performs cell selection / reselection and handover operations. In addition, the UE performs radio resource management (RRM) measurements of the quality of reference signals sent by neighboring cells. In current long-term evolution (LTE) systems, the UE uses reference signals to report two parameters: reference signal received power (RSRP) and reference signal received quality (RSRQ).

[0006] RSRP provides information about the signal power from a specific cell while excluding noise and interference from other cells. RSRP is defined as the average power of resource elements (REs) carrying a cell-specific reference signal (RS) over the entire bandwidth, i.e. RSRP is measured only in symbols carrying RS. For RSRP, the UE measures the power of multiple resource elements used to send reference signals and takes their average. RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality) provides the link quality and also takes into account RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) and the number of resource blocks used (N). RSRQ represents the quality of the received reference signal including the effects of interference.

[0007] Traditional RRM measurements convey power information of the target cell and the interfering cell. However, this is not enough to accurately judge the link quality for more advanced receiver structures with multiple receive antennas, especially for inter-frequency handover. Existing measurements based on RSRP are not sufficient for reliable handover decisions because the MIMO dimension is lost in current measurements. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] In the accompanying drawings that are not necessarily drawn to scale, similar reference numerals may describe similar components in different views. Similar reference numerals with different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. Some embodiments are shown by way of example and not limitation in the various illustrations of the following drawings.

[0009] Figure 1 is a functional diagram of a 3GPP network according to some embodiments.

[0010] Figure 2 is a block diagram of a user equipment (UE) according to some embodiments.

[0011] Figure 3 is a block diagram of an evolved Node B (eNB) according to some embodiments.

[0012] Figure 4 Examples of multi-beam transmission are shown according to some embodiments.

[0013] Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating a MIMO transmission scenario using an eNB and a UE each having multiple antennas, according to some embodiments.

[0014] Figure 6 is a flow chart illustrating an example process of enhanced RRM performed by a UE according to some embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] The following description and accompanying drawings fully illustrate specific embodiments so that those skilled in the art can implement them. Other embodiments may include structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in or replaced by portions and features of other embodiments. The embodiments set forth in the claims cover all available equivalents of those claims.

[0016] Figure 11 is a functional diagram of a 3GPP network according to some embodiments. The network includes a radio access network (RAN) (e.g., as shown, E-UTRAN or Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network) 101 and a core network 120 (e.g., shown as an Evolved Packet Core (EPC)) coupled together via an S1 interface 115. For convenience and brevity, only the core network 120 and a portion of the RAN 101 are shown.

[0017] The core network 120 includes a mobility management entity (MME) 122, a serving gateway (serving GW) 124, and a packet data network gateway (PDN GW) 126. The RAN 101 includes an evolved Node B (eNB) 104 (which can operate as a base station) for communicating with a user equipment (UE) 102. The eNB 104 can include a macro eNB and a low power (LP) eNB. According to some embodiments, the eNB 104 can send a downlink control message to the UE 102 to indicate an allocation of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) channel resource. The UE 102 can receive the downlink control message from the eNB 104 and can send an uplink control message to the eNB 104 in at least a portion of the PUCCH channel resources. These embodiments will be described in more detail below.

[0018] The MME 122 is similar in function to the control plane of a traditional service GPRS support node (SGSN). The MME 122 manages mobility aspects in access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The service GW 124 terminates the interface toward the RAN 101 and routes data packets between the RAN 101 and the core network 120. In addition, the service GW 124 can be a local mobility anchor for inter-eNB handover and can also provide anchoring for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include legal interception, charging, and some policy enforcement. The service GW 124 and the MME 122 can be implemented in one physical node or in separate physical nodes. The PDN GW 126 terminates the SGi interface toward the packet data network (PDN). The PDN GW 126 routes data packets between the EPC 120 and the external PDN and can be a key node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. The PDN GW 126 can also provide an anchor for mobility with non-LTE access. The external PDN may be an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) domain and any kind of IP network. The PDN GW 126 and the Serving GW 124 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes.

[0019] The eNB 104 (macro and micro eNB) terminates the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 102. In some embodiments, the eNB 104 may implement various logical functions for the RAN 101, including but not limited to RNC (Radio Network Controller functions) such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. According to some embodiments, the UE 102 may be configured to communicate orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with the eNB 104 over a multi-carrier communication channel according to an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication technique. An OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0020] The S1 interface 115 is an interface that separates the RAN 101 and the EPC 120. The S1 interface 115 is divided into two parts: S1-U that carries service data between the eNB 104 and the serving GW 124, and S1-MME that is a signaling interface between the eNB 104 and the MME 122. The X2 interface is an interface between the eNBs 104. The X2 interface includes two parts, X2-C and X2-U. X2-C is a control plane interface between the eNBs 104, and X2-U is a user plane interface between the eNBs 104.

[0021] For cellular networks, LP cells are typically used to extend coverage to indoor areas where outdoor signals cannot reach well, or to increase network capacity in areas where telephone usage is very dense, such as train stations. The term low power (LP) eNB used herein refers to any suitable lower power eNB for implementing narrower cells (narrower than macro cells) (e.g., femtocells, picocells, or microcells). Femtocell eNBs are typically provided by mobile network operators to their residential or enterprise customers. Femtocells are typically the size of a residential gateway or smaller and are generally connected to the user's broadband line. Once switched on, the femtocell connects to the mobile operator's mobile network and provides additional coverage for residential femtocells with a range of typically 30 to 50 meters. Therefore, an LP eNB can be a femtocell eNB, since it is coupled through a PDN GW 126. Similarly, a picocell is a wireless communication system that typically covers a small area, for example, within a building (office, shopping mall, train station, etc.) or more recently within an airplane. A pico cell eNB may generally be connected to another eNB (e.g., a macro eNB) via an X2 link through its base station controller (BSC) functionality. Thus, an LP eNB may be implemented with a pico cell eNB, since it is coupled to a macro eNB via an X2 interface. A pico cell eNB or other LPeNB may include some or all of the functionality of a macro eNB. In some cases, this may be referred to as an access point base station or an enterprise femto cell.

[0022] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from the eNB 104 to the UE 102, while uplink transmissions from the UE 102 to the eNB 104 may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink in each time slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice in OFDM systems, and such a representation makes radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is called a resource element (RE). Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks (RBs), which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements in the frequency domain and may represent the minimum amount of resources that can be currently allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are communicated using such resource blocks. Of particular relevance to the present disclosure, two of these physical downlink channels are a physical downlink shared channel and a physical downlink control channel.

[0023] Physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) to UE 102 ( Figure 1 ) carries user data and higher layer signaling. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries, among other things, information about the transport format and resource allocation associated with the PDSCH channel. The PDCCH also informs the UE 102 about the transport format, resource allocation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information of the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (e.g., allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 102 within a cell) may be performed at the eNB 104 based on channel quality information fed back from the UE 102 to the eNB 104, and then the downlink resource allocation information may be sent to the UE 102 on the control channel (PDCCH) for (allocated to) the UE 102.

[0024] PDCCH uses CCE (control channel elements) to transmit control information. PDCCH complex symbols are first organized into quadruplets before being mapped to resource elements, and then these quadruplets are rearranged using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH is sent using one or more of these control channel elements (CCEs), where each CCE corresponds to nine groups of physical resource elements, each group has four physical resource elements, and such a group is called a resource element group (REG). Four QPSK symbols are mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and the channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to send the PDCCH. Four or more different PDCCH formats can be defined in LTE, and these PDCCH formats have different numbers of CCEs (for example, aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4 or 8).

[0025] As used herein, the term circuit may refer to, be a part of, or include an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared processor, dedicated processor, or processor group) or memory (shared processor, dedicated processor, or processor group) that executes one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, or other suitable hardware components that provide the functions. In some embodiments, the circuit may be implemented in one or more software or firmware modules, or the functions associated with the circuit may be implemented by one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, the circuit may include logic that can be operated at least partially in hardware. The embodiments described herein may be implemented as a system using any appropriately configured hardware or software.

[0026] Figure 2 is a functional diagram of a user equipment (UE) according to some embodiments. UE 200 may be suitable for use as Figure 1UE 102 shown. In some embodiments, UE 200 may include application circuit 202, baseband circuit 204, radio frequency (RF) circuit 206, front end module (FEM) circuit 208, and multiple antennas 210A-210D, which are coupled together at least as shown. In some embodiments, other circuits or arrangements may include one or more elements or components of application circuit 202, baseband circuit 204, RF circuit 206, or FEM circuit 208, and in some cases may also include other elements or components. As an example, "processing circuit" may include one or more elements or components, some or all of which may be included in application circuit 202 or baseband circuit 204. As another example, "transceiver circuit" may include one or more elements or components, some or all of which may be included in RF circuit 206 or FEM circuit 208. However, these examples are not limiting, because in some cases, processing circuit or transceiver circuit may also include other elements or components.

[0027] The application circuit 202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuit 202 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core processors or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). These processors may be coupled to and / or may include memory / storage devices, and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage devices to enable various applications and / or operating systems to run on the system.

[0028] The baseband circuit 204 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core processors or multi-core processors. The baseband circuit 204 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 206 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 206. The baseband processing circuit 204 may interface with the application circuit 202 to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of the RF circuit 206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 204 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 204a, a third generation (3G) baseband processor 204b, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 204c, and / or other (one or more) baseband processors 204d for other existing generations, generations under development, or generations to be developed (e.g., fifth generation (5G), 6G, etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors 204a-d) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 206. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, and / or constellation mapping / demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, and / or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. The embodiments of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions are not limited to these examples, and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments.

[0029] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 204 may include elements of a protocol stack, such as elements of an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) protocol, including, for example, physical layer (PHY) elements, medium access control (MAC) elements, radio link control (RLC) elements, packet data aggregation protocol (PDCP) elements, and / or radio resource control (RRC) elements. The central processing unit (CPU) 204e of the baseband circuit 204 may be configured to run elements of the protocol stack for the signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP and / or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuit may include one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 204f. (One or more) audio DSPs 204f may include elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. In some embodiments, the components of the baseband circuit may be appropriately combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or arranged on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuit 204 and the application circuit 202 may be implemented together (e.g., on a system on a chip (SOC)).

[0030] In some embodiments, baseband circuitry 204 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 204 may support communications with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) and / or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless personal area networks (WPANs). Embodiments in which baseband circuitry 204 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[0031] The RF circuit 206 may allow communication with a wireless network through a non-solid medium using modulated electromagnetic radiation. In various embodiments, the RF circuit 206 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuit 206 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry that down-converts an RF signal received from the FEM circuit 208 and provides a baseband signal to the baseband circuit 204. The RF circuit 206 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry that up-converts a baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 204 and provides an RF output signal to the FEM circuit 208 for transmission.

[0032] In some embodiments, the RF circuit 206 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RF circuit 206 may include a mixer circuit 206a, an amplifier circuit 206b, and a filter circuit 206c. The transmit signal path of the RF circuit 206 may include a filter circuit 206c and a mixer circuit 206a. The RF circuit 206 may also include a synthesizer circuit 206d to synthesize the frequency used by the mixer circuit 206a for the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 208 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 206d. The amplifier circuit 206b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 206c may be a low pass filter (LPF) or a band pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to the baseband circuit 204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal can be a zero-frequency baseband signal, but this is not required. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path can include a passive mixer, but the scope of the embodiment is not limited in this regard. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path can be configured to up-convert the input baseband signal based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 206d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 208. The baseband signal can be provided by the baseband circuit 204 and can be filtered by the filter circuit 206c. The filter circuit 206c can include a low-pass filter (LPF), but the scope of the embodiment is not limited in this regard.

[0033] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down conversion and / or up conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image suppression (e.g., Hartley image suppression). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down conversion and / or direct up conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0034] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 206 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit 204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuit 206. In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuit may be provided for each spectrum to process the signal, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0035] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 206d can be a fractional N type synthesizer or a fractional N / N+1 type synthesizer, but the scope of the embodiment is not limited in this respect, because other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 206d can be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider. Synthesizer circuit 206d can be configured to synthesize the output frequency used by mixer circuit 206a for RF circuit 206 based on frequency input and frequency divider control input. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 206d can be a fractional N / N+1 type synthesizer. In some embodiments, frequency input can be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), but this is not necessary. Depending on the desired output frequency, frequency divider control input can be provided by any one of baseband circuit 204 or application processor 202. In some embodiments, frequency divider control input (e.g., N) can be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by application processor 202.

[0036] The synthesizer circuit 206d of the RF circuit 206 may include a frequency divider, a delay locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional frequency division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay element may be configured to divide the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase packets, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay of the entire delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0037] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 206d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, however in other embodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases relative to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency can be the LO frequency (f LO ). In some embodiments, RF circuit 206 may include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0038] FEM circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more of antennas 210A-210D, amplify the received signals, and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to RF circuitry 206 for further processing. FEM circuitry 208 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify transmit signals provided by RF circuitry 206 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 210A-210D.

[0039] In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 208 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between a transmit mode operation and a receive mode operation. The FEM circuit may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 206). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 208 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify the input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 206), and may also include one or more filters to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 210). In some embodiments, the UE 200 may include additional elements, such as a memory / storage device, a display, a camera, a sensor, or an input / output (I / O) interface.

[0040] Figure 3 is a functional diagram of an evolved Node B (eNB) according to some embodiments. It should be noted that in some embodiments, the eNB 300 may be a fixed non-mobile device. The eNB 300 may be suitable for use as Figure 1104 shown. NB 300 may include physical layer circuitry 302 and transceiver 305, one or both of which may enable the use of one or more antennas 301A-301B to send signals to UE 200, other eNBs, other UEs, or other devices and receive signals from them. As an example, the physical layer circuitry 302 may perform various encoding and decoding functions, which may include forming a baseband signal to be sent and decoding a received signal. As another example, the transceiver 305 may perform various transmission and reception functions, such as conversion of signals between a baseband range and a radio frequency (RF) range. Therefore, the physical layer circuitry 302 and the transceiver 305 may be separate components or may be part of a combined component. In addition, some of the functions described in connection with the transmission and reception of signals may be performed by a combination of one, any or all of the following items: physical layer circuitry 302, transceiver 305, and other components or layers. The eNB 300 may also include a medium access control layer (MAC) circuit 304 for controlling access to the wireless medium. The eNB 300 may also include a processing circuit 306 and a memory 308 arranged to perform the operations described herein. The eNB 300 may also include one or more interfaces 310 that enable communication with other eNBs 104 ( Figure 1 ))、EPC 120( Figure 1 ) or other network components. In addition, interface 310 can enable communication with Figure 1 The interface 310 may be wired or wireless or a combination of both.

[0041] Antennas 210A-210D, 301A-301B may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, antennas 210A-210D, 301A-301B may be effectively separated to take advantage of possible spatial diversity and different channel characteristics.

[0042] In some embodiments, UE 200 or eNB 300 may be a mobile device and may be a portable wireless communication device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capabilities, an Internet tablet, a wireless phone, a smart phone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, an access point, a television, a wearable device such as a medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), or other devices that can wirelessly receive and / or send information. In some embodiments, UE 200 or eNB 300 may be configured to operate according to 3GPP standards, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard. In some embodiments, the mobile device or other device may be configured to operate according to other protocols or standards (including IEEE 802.11 or other IEEE standards). In some embodiments, UE 200, eNB 300 or other devices may include one or more of the following: a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multiple antennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, a speaker, and other mobile device elements. The display may be an LCD screen including a touch screen.

[0043] Although UE 200 and eNB 300 are each shown as having several separate functional elements, one or more of these functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by a combination of software-configured elements (e.g., a processing element including a digital signal processor (DSP)) and / or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), and combinations of various hardware and logic circuits for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, a functional element may refer to one or more processes running on one or more processing elements.

[0044] Embodiments may be implemented in one of hardware, firmware, and software, or in a combination thereof. Embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storage device may include any non-transient mechanism for storing information in a machine (e.g., computer) readable form. For example, a computer-readable storage device may include a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a disk storage medium, an optical storage medium, a flash memory device, and other storage devices and media. Some embodiments may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device.

[0045] It should be noted that in some embodiments, the apparatus used by the UE 200 or the eNB 300 may include: Figure 2-Figure 3 2 and 3. Therefore, the techniques and operations described herein involving UE 200 (or 102) can be applied to the device of UE. In addition, the techniques and operations described herein involving eNB 300 (or 104) can be applied to the device of eNB.

[0046] Figure 4 An example of multi-beam transmission according to some embodiments is shown. Figure 4 The example scenarios 400 and 450 shown in the figure can illustrate some aspects of the technology disclosed herein, but it will be understood that these embodiments are not limited to the example scenarios 400 and 450. Figure 4 The number or type of components shown in the figure is not limited to Figure 4 The number or arrangement of transmit beams shown in .

[0047] In example scenario 400, eNB 104 may transmit signals on multiple beams 405-420, any one or all of which may be received at UE 102. It should be noted that the number of beams or transmit angles shown are not limiting. Because beams 405-420 may be directional, transmit energy from beams 405-420 may be focused in the directions shown. Therefore, in some situations, due to the relative position of UE 102, UE 102 may not necessarily receive a lot of energy from beams 405 and 410.

[0048] As shown, UE 102 can receive a large amount of energy from beams 415 and 420. As an example, beams 405-420 can be transmitted using different reference signals, and UE 102 can determine channel state information (CSI) feedback or other information for beams 415 and 420. In some embodiments, each of beams 405-420 is configured as a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS). In a related embodiment, the CSI-RS signal is part of a discovery reference signaling (DRS) configuration. The DRS configuration can be used to notify UE 102 of the physical resources (e.g., subframes, subcarriers) on which the CSI-RS signal will be found. In a related embodiment, UE 102 is also notified of any scrambling sequence that will be applied to the CSI-RS.

[0049] In some embodiments, up to 2 MIMO layers may be transmitted in each beam by using different polarizations. More than 2 MIMO layers may be transmitted by using multiple beams. In a related embodiment, the UE is configured to discover available beams and report those discovered beams to the eNB using appropriate reporting messaging before performing MIMO data transmission. Based on the reporting messaging, the eNB 104 may determine the appropriate beam direction for the MIMO layer to be used for data communication with the UE 102. In various embodiments, there may be up to 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or more MIMO layers, depending on the number of MIMO layers supported by the eNB 104 and the UE 102. In a given scenario, the number of MIMO layers that can actually be used will depend on the quality of the signaling received at the UE 102 and the availability of reflected beams arriving at the UE 102 at different angles so that the UE 102 can distinguish the data carried on different beams.

[0050] In example scenario 450, UE 102 may determine angles or other information (e.g., CSI feedback, channel quality indicator (CQI), or other) for beams 465 and 470. UE 102 may also determine such information when received at other angles (e.g., beams 475 and 480 as shown). Beams 475 and 480 are distinguished using a dashed configuration to indicate that they may not necessarily be transmitted at these angles, but UE 102 may use techniques such as receive beamforming to determine the beam directions of beams 475 and 480 as receive directions. This may occur, for example, when a transmit beam reflects off an object near UE 102 and arrives at UE 102 according to its reflection angle rather than its incident angle.

[0051] In some embodiments, UE 102 may send one or more channel state information (CSI) messages along with the report messaging to eNB 104. However, embodiments are not limited to dedicated CSI messaging, as UE 102 may include relevant reporting information in a control message or other type of message that may or may not be dedicated to the transmission of CSI-type information.

[0052] As an example, a first signal received from a first eNB 104 may include a first directional beam based at least in part on a first CSI-RS signal and a second directional beam based at least in part on a second CSI-RS signal. UE 102 may determine a rank indicator (RI) of the first CSI-RS and an RI of the second CSI-RS, and may send the two RIs in a CSI message. In addition, UE 102 may determine one or more RIs of the second signal, and in some cases may also include them in the CSI message. In some embodiments, UE 102 may also determine a CQI, a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a reception angle, or other information for one or both of the first signal and the second signal. Such information may be included in one or more CSI messages together with one or more RIs. In some embodiments, UE 102 uses the CSI-RS signal to perform reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, received signal strength indication (RSSI) measurement, reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurement, or some combination thereof.

[0053] RSRP provides information about the signal power from a specific cell while excluding noise and interference from other cells. The RSRP level of available signals typically ranges from about -70dBm near the LTE cell site to -125dBm at the cell edge. RSRP is defined as the average power of resource elements (REs) carrying cell-specific reference signals (RS) over the entire bandwidth, i.e., RSRP is measured only in symbols carrying RS. For RSRP, the UE measures the power of multiple resource elements used to send reference signals and averages them. The reporting range of RSRP supported by LTE signaling is currently defined as -44…-140dBm.

[0054] RSRQ provides link quality, which also takes into account RSSI (received signal strength indicator) and the number of resource blocks used (N), and is defined as RSRQ = (N*RSRP) / RSSI, where RSRP and RSSI are measured over the same bandwidth. RSRQ can also be viewed as an SINR-type measurement, and it indicates the quality of the received reference signal (including interference effects). RSRQ measurements include interference effects in RSSI. RSRQ measurements also provide information about channel load, which is particularly important for inter-frequency handover or cell reselection, where RSRP information is often insufficient to make reliable decisions. Interference levels are included in RSSI measurements, which contain information about the observed average total received power, for example, in OFDM symbols that contain reference symbols for antenna port 0 (i.e., OFDM symbols 0 and 4 in a time slot) in a measurement bandwidth across N resource blocks. The total received power of RSSI includes power from co-channel serving and non-serving interfering cells, adjacent channel interference, thermal noise, etc.

[0055] The LTE specification provides the flexibility to use RSRP, RSRQ or both to assist in handover decisions. RSRP, RSRQ must be measured over the same bandwidth (either narrowband with N=62 subcarriers (6 resource blocks) or wideband with N=full bandwidth (up to 100 resource blocks / 20MHz)). RRM measurements convey power information of the target cell and the interfering cell.

[0056] Some aspects of the embodiments relate to extending RRM measurements to transmit MIMO-related information and IRC (Interference Rejection Capability)-related information of different cells to the eNB. For example, the MIMO-related information can be used to mark the size of the service channel and estimate (e.g., roughly estimate) the expected number of layers that can be provided to the UE, for example, after an inter-frequency handover. Similarly, the eNB can use the IRC-related information to estimate the signal quality after interference suppression at the UE receiver (e.g., also after an inter-frequency handover).

[0057] According to some embodiments, a new set of RRM measurements are defined to convey information about the serving and interfering signal spatial structure taking into account multiple antennas at the UE and / or eNB. In some embodiments, RSRP and RSRQ definitions are enhanced to include measurement and reporting of multiple values ​​for each target cell eNB.

[0058] Figure 5is a diagram showing a MIMO transmission scenario using an eNB and a UE each having multiple antennas, according to some embodiments. As shown, the eNB 502 has multiple antennas that can be used for various groups and have various signal modifications for each group to effectively produce multiple antenna ports P1-P4. In various embodiments within the framework of the illustrated example, each antenna port P1-P4 can be defined for 1, 2, 3, or 4 antennas. Each antenna port P1-P4 can correspond to a different transmission signal direction. Using different antenna ports, the eNB 502 can transmit multiple layers using codebook-based or non-codebook-based precoding techniques. According to some embodiments, antenna port-specific CSI-RS signals are transmitted via the corresponding antenna ports. In other embodiments, Figure 5 Compared to the four antenna ports shown in FIG. , more or fewer antenna ports may be available for use at the eNB.

[0059] On the UE side, there are multiple receiving antennas. Figure 5 As shown in the example of , there are four receive antennas A1-A4. Multiple receive antennas can be selectively used to produce receive beamforming. Receive beamforming can be advantageously used to increase receive antenna gain in the direction (or directions) for receiving the desired signal and to suppress interference from neighboring cells, assuming of course that the interference is received in a different direction from the desired signal.

[0060] According to some embodiments, the UE may be configured to perform multiple RRM measurements for different spatial transmit / receive configurations. In some embodiments, for example, the multiple reported values ​​may correspond to different eigenvalues ​​of a variance matrix measured using reference signals received on multiple antennas at a UE receiver.

[0061] More specifically, enhanced RSRP measurements may be performed where the UE may be configured with one, two, or more antenna ports (N p In this example, the reference signal for each antenna port may be based on a non-zero power CSI-RS (NZP CSI-RS) signal.

[0062] Based on the NZP CSI-RS configuration, the UE may perform RRP measurements for each receive antenna and the eNB's reference signal transmit antenna port pair. The measurements may be stored in a database such as N rx ×N p In data structures such as matrices, where N rx is the number of receiving antennas, N p is the number of transmit ports used by the eNB. For example, in the case where there are four antenna ports at the eNB and four receive antennas at the UE, Figure 5As shown in the example, the complete set of measurements can be stored in the matrix R as shown below:

[0063]

[0064] Wherein, Px:Ay represents the RRM value measured for each resource element (RE) and for each corresponding antenna port receiving antenna pairing.

[0065] A set of measured enhanced RSRPs for a given cell is then calculated as a set of characteristic values, such as:

[0066] eRSRP=eigval{E(R·R H},

[0067] where the eigval(A) operation computes the eigenvalues ​​of the square matrix A, and E(·) is a function averaged across reference signal resource elements.

[0068] For example, we can obtain the matrix N by performing eigenvector decomposition on the matrix A. rx ×N rx Eigenvalues ​​of a complex Hermitian matrix A:

[0069]

[0070] where U is the size of N containing the eigenvectors rx ×N rx The unitary matrix, λ1, λ2, ..., λ Nrx is the required Nr x Here, the eigenvalues ​​describe the dimensionality of the channel. The eigenvalues ​​themselves represent the average measurements for each possible beam direction. In related embodiments, reporting these eigenvalues ​​to the eNB provides spatial communication performance.

[0071] In related aspects, the enhanced RSSI measurement may be defined as eRSSI=eigval{E(r·r H )}, where r of each RE has a dimension of Nrx×1 and represents the received signal measurement for all resource elements within the measurement bandwidth across all OFDM symbols (e.g., containing reference signals, or containing other communications) or a subset thereof, and for all receive antennas of the UE.

[0072] The eRSRQ calculation may then be defined as the ratio of (N*eRSRP) / eRSSI. The number of RSRP, RSSI, and RSRQ measurements for each measured cell may be further defined as (Nrx, N p ) or N pIn a related embodiment, a subset of the measured RSRP, RSSI and RSRQ values ​​are reported by the UE to the eNB based on one or more predefined trigger conditions.

[0073] Figure 6 is a flow chart illustrating an example process of enhanced RRM performed by a UE according to some embodiments. At 602, the UE receives configuration information about RRM reference signaling from an eNB. For example, this may include relevant information about CSI-RS signaling. At 604, the UE receives configuration information to establish a reporting mode, i.e., using enhanced measurements to provide reference signal reports that take into account spatial transmit / receive performance. At 606, for each of a plurality of antennas of the UE, the UE performs an enhanced signal quality measurement for each reference signal received from an antenna port of its corresponding eNB. At 608, the UE calculates the enhanced measurement according to the reporting configuration established by the eNB.

[0074] Additional notes and examples:

[0075] Example 1 is a device of a user equipment (UE), which includes a transceiver circuit and a processing circuit. The processing circuit: controls the transceiver circuit to receive a reference signal from a first evolved Node B (eNB) via multiple receiving antennas of the UE, the reference signal is related to at least one antenna port of the first eNB, and the corresponding reference signal is sent through the at least one antenna port; performs received signal measurement on at least a portion of the reference signal of multiple combined groups for at least one antenna port of the eNB and the receiving antenna of the UE to generate an enhanced received signal quality (eRSQ) measurement, the eRSQ measurement represents the spatial characteristics of different channels corresponding to the reference signal received by the UE; and controls the transceiver circuit to send a report to the first eNB based on the eRSQ measurement, the report indicating the spatial multiplexing layer availability of the corresponding channel between the UE and the first eNB.

[0076] In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 optionally includes, wherein the reference signal includes a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS).

[0077] In Example 3, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-2 optionally includes, wherein the reference signal includes channel state information reference signaling (CSI-RS), the CSI-RS includes multiple CSI-RS signals, each CSI-RS signal corresponding to an antenna port of the first eNB.

[0078] In Example 4, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-3 may optionally include, wherein the plurality of combined groups are pairings of eNB antenna ports and UE receive antennas.

[0079] In Example 5, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-4 may optionally include, wherein the eRSQ measurement represents spatial channel characteristics of a plurality of different multiple-input / multiple-output (MIMO) layers.

[0080] In Example 6, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-5 may optionally include, wherein the processing circuit further: controls the transceiver circuit to receive configuration information from the first eNB, wherein the configuration information instructs the UE to perform eRSQ measurement and reporting.

[0081] In Example 7, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-6 optionally includes, wherein the processing circuit further: controls the transceiver circuit to receive configuration information from the first eNB, wherein the configuration information includes an indication, and the processing circuit determines the number of antenna ports of the first eNB based on the indication.

[0082] In Example 8, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-7 may optionally include, wherein the report comprises a radio resource management (RRM) message.

[0083] In Example 9, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-8 may optionally include, wherein the eRSQ measurement is based on a calculated aggregation of received power measurements over a plurality of spatial channels.

[0084] In Example 10, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-9 may optionally include, wherein the eRSQ measurement is based on a calculated aggregation of ratios of received signal power measurements and received signal strength measurements over a plurality of spatial channels.

[0085] In Example 11, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-10 optionally includes, wherein the processing circuit further: when the UE is connected to the first eNB, controls the transceiver circuit to receive a neighboring cell signal sent from the second eNB via at least one antenna port of the second eNB via multiple receiving antennas; performs interference reception signal measurement on at least a portion of the neighboring cell signals for the multiple UE receiving antennas to generate an interference profile, which represents the spatial characteristics of the interference signal originating from the second eNB received by the UE.

[0086] In Example 12, the subject matter of Example 11 may optionally include, wherein the interference profile is reported to the eNB.

[0087] In Example 13, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-12 may optionally include, wherein the received signal measurement is defined for 6 resource blocks.

[0088] In Example 14, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-13 may optionally include, wherein the received signal measurement is defined for one hundred resource blocks.

[0089] In Example 15, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-14 may optionally include, wherein the plurality of receive antennas includes two receive antennas.

[0090] In Example 16, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-15 may optionally include, wherein the plurality of receive antennas includes four receive antennas.

[0091] In Example 17, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-16 may optionally include, wherein the reference signaling includes a non-zero power channel state information reference signal (NZ CSI-RS).

[0092] In Example 18, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-17 may optionally include, wherein the received signal measurements are stored as N rx ×N p Matrix R, where N rx is the number of receiving antennas and N p is the number of antenna ports of the first eNB for each resource element (RE) of the first eNB.

[0093] In Example 19, the subject matter of Example 18 may optionally include, wherein the report based on the eRSRQ measurement is based on a value defined as eRSRP=eigval{E(R·R H )}, where eigval{} corresponds to the eigenvalue calculation of a square matrix, E is the averaging function, and R H is the conjugate transpose of the matrix R.

[0094] In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 19 may optionally include, wherein the report based on the eRSRQ measurement is further based on a value defined as eRSSI=eigval{E(r·r H )}, where eigval{} corresponds to the eigenvalues ​​of the square matrix, E is the averaging function, and r H is the conjugate transpose of the vector r, where the vector r includes the received signal measurements for all resource elements and for all receive antennas of the UE.

[0095] In Example 21, the subject matter of Example 20 optionally includes, wherein the reporting based on the eRSRQ measurement is further based on a ratio defined as N·eRSRP / eRSSI, where N is the number of resource blocks, and the number of eRSRP and eRSSI values ​​used for the eRSRQ calculation can be based on N·eRSRP / eRSSI. rx and N p is determined by the minimum value in .

[0096] Example 22 is a computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed on a processing circuit of a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: receive a reference signal from a first evolved Node B (eNB) via multiple receive antennas of the UE, the reference signal being associated with at least one antenna port of the first eNB, the corresponding reference signal being sent through the at least one antenna port; perform received signal measurement on at least a portion of the reference signal of multiple combined groups for at least one antenna port of the eNB and a receive antenna of the UE to generate an enhanced received signal quality (eRSQ) measurement, the eRSQ measurement representing spatial characteristics of different channels corresponding to the reference signal received by the UE; and send a report to the first eNB based on the eRSQ measurement, the report indicating spatial multiplexing layer availability of the corresponding channel between the UE and the first eNB.

[0097] In Example 23, the subject matter of Example 22 optionally includes, wherein the reference signal comprises a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS).

[0098] In Example 24, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-23 optionally includes, wherein the reference signal includes channel state information reference signaling (CSI-RS), the CSI-RS includes multiple CSI-RS signals, each CSI-RS signal corresponding to an antenna port of the first eNB.

[0099] In Example 25, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-24 may optionally include, wherein the plurality of combined groups are pairings of eNB antenna ports and UE receive antennas.

[0100] In Example 26, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-25 may optionally include, wherein the eRSQ measurement represents spatial channel characteristics of multiple different multiple-input / multiple-output (MIMO) layers.

[0101] In Example 27, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-26 optionally includes, wherein the instructions further cause the UE to: receive configuration information from the first eNB, wherein the configuration information instructs the UE to perform eRSQ measurement and reporting.

[0102] In Example 28, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-27 optionally includes, wherein the instructions further cause the UE to: receive configuration information from the first eNB, wherein the configuration information includes an indication, and the processing circuit will determine the number of antenna ports of the first eNB based on the indication.

[0103] In Example 29, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-28 may optionally include, wherein the report comprises a radio resource management (RRM) message.

[0104] In Example 30, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-29 may optionally include, wherein the eRSQ measurement is based on a calculated aggregation of received power measurements over a plurality of spatial channels.

[0105] In Example 31, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-30 optionally includes, wherein the eRSQ measurement is based on a calculated aggregation of ratios of received signal power measurements and received signal strength measurements over a plurality of spatial channels.

[0106] In Example 32, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-31 optionally includes, wherein the instructions further cause the UE to: when the UE is connected to the first eNB, receive a neighboring cell signal transmitted from the second eNB via at least one antenna port of the second eNB via multiple receiving antennas; perform interference reception signal measurement on at least a portion of the neighboring cell signals for the multiple UE receiving antennas to generate an interference profile, wherein the interference profile represents the spatial characteristics of the interference signal originating from the second eNB received by the UE.

[0107] In Example 33, the subject matter of Example 32 optionally includes, wherein the interference profile is reported to the eNB.

[0108] In Example 34, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-33 may optionally include, wherein the received signal measurement is defined for 6 resource blocks.

[0109] In Example 35, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-34 may optionally include, wherein the received signal measurement is defined for one hundred resource blocks.

[0110] In Example 36, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-35 may optionally include, wherein the plurality of receive antennas includes two receive antennas.

[0111] In Example 37, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-36 may optionally include, wherein the plurality of receive antennas comprises four receive antennas.

[0112] In Example 38, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-37 may optionally include, wherein the reference signaling includes a non-zero power channel state information reference signal (NZ CSI-RS).

[0113] In Example 39, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 22-38 may optionally include, wherein the received signal measurements are stored as N rx ×N p Matrix R, where N rx is the number of receiving antennas and N pis the number of antenna ports of the first eNB for each resource element (RE) of the first eNB.

[0114] In Example 40, the subject matter of Example 39 may optionally include, wherein the report based on the eRSRQ measurement is based on a value defined as eRSRP=eigval{E(R·R H )}, where eigval{} corresponds to the eigenvalue calculation of a square matrix, E is the averaging function, and R H is the conjugate transpose of the matrix R.

[0115] In Example 41, the subject matter of Example 40 may optionally include, wherein the report based on the eRSRQ measurement is further based on a value defined as eRSSI=eigval{E(r·r H )}, where eigval{} corresponds to the eigenvalues ​​of the square matrix, E is the averaging function, and r H is the conjugate transpose of the vector r, where the vector r includes the received signal measurements for all resource elements and for all receive antennas of the UE.

[0116] In Example 42, the subject matter of Example 41 optionally includes, wherein the reporting based on the eRSRQ measurement is further based on a ratio defined as N·eRSRP / eRSSI, where N is the number of resource blocks, and the number of eRSRP and eRSSI values ​​used for the eRSRQ calculation can be based on N·eRSRP / eRSSI. rx and N p is determined by the minimum value in .

[0117] Example 43 is a device of a user equipment (UE), the device comprising a transceiver circuit and a processing circuit. The processing circuit: controls the transceiver circuit to connect to a first evolved Node B (eNB) via multiple receiving antennas of the UE; when the UE is connected to the first eNB, controls the transceiver circuit to receive neighboring cell signals from a second eNB via the multiple receiving antennas; performs interference reception signal measurement on at least a portion of the neighboring cell signals for the multiple UE receiving antennas to generate an interference profile, the interference profile representing the spatial characteristics of the interference signal originating from the second eNB received by the UE; and controls the transceiver circuit to send a report to the first eNB based on the interference profile.

[0118] In Example 44, the subject matter of Example 43 optionally includes, wherein the interference profile is represented as a calculated aggregation of received power measurements on multiple resource elements (REs) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols corresponding to respective ones of the multiple receive antennas.

[0119] In Example 45, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 43-44 may optionally include, wherein the interference received signal measurement is represented as N rx dimensional vector of enhanced received signal strength indication (eRSSI), where N rx is the number of receive antennas at the UE, and the vector includes signal strength measurements corresponding to each antenna and aggregated over multiple resource blocks.

[0120] In Example 46, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 43-45 optionally includes, wherein the interference received signal measurement is defined for 6 resource blocks.

[0121] In Example 47, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 43-46 may optionally include, wherein the interference received signal measurement is defined for one hundred resource blocks.

[0122] In Example 48, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 43-47 optionally includes, wherein the processing circuit further: controls the transceiver circuit to receive configuration information from the first eNB, wherein the configuration information instructs the UE to perform interference received signal measurement.

[0123] In Example 49, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 43-48 optionally includes, wherein the plurality of receive antennas includes two receive antennas.

[0124] In Example 50, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 43-49 may optionally include, wherein the plurality of receive antennas includes at least four receive antennas.

[0125] The above detailed description includes references to the accompanying drawings that form a part of the detailed description. The accompanying drawings show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments that can be practiced. These embodiments are also referred to herein as "examples." Such examples may include elements other than those shown or described. However, examples that include the elements shown or described are also contemplated. Moreover, examples using any combination or arrangement of those elements (or one or more aspects thereof) shown or described are also contemplated, regardless of whether those elements are shown or described herein with respect to a particular example (or one or more aspects thereof) or with respect to other examples (or one or more aspects thereof).

[0126] The publications, patents, and patent documents mentioned in this document are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety, as if each was incorporated herein by reference. In the event of inconsistent usages between this document and a document incorporated by reference, the usage in the incorporated reference(s) supplements this document; for conflicting inconsistencies, the usage in this document controls.

[0127] In this document, the term "a or an" commonly used in patent literature is used to include one or more than one, which is independent of any other instance or use of "at least one" or "one or more". In this document, the term "or" is used to refer to a non-exclusive or, so that unless otherwise specified, "A or B" includes "A but not B", "B but not A", and "A and B". In this document, the terms "including" and "in which" are used as the concise English equivalents of the corresponding terms "comprising" and "wherein". In addition, in the appended claims, the terms "including" and "comprising" are open-ended, that is, a system, device, article, or process that includes elements other than those listed after such a term in a claim is still considered to fall within the scope of the claim. In addition, in the appended claims, the terms "first", "second", and "third", etc. are used only as labels and are not intended to indicate the numerical order of their objects.

[0128] The above description is intended to be illustrative rather than restrictive. For example, the examples described above (or one or more aspects thereof) may be used in combination with other examples. For example, a person of ordinary skill in the art may use other embodiments after browsing the above description. The abstract is to allow the reader to quickly determine the essence of the present technology disclosure. It should be understood that the abstract is submitted on the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Moreover, in the above specific embodiments, various features may be combined together to simplify the present disclosure. However, the claims may not set forth each feature disclosed herein, because the embodiments may have a subset of the features. In addition, the embodiments may include fewer features than those disclosed in the specific examples. Therefore, the attached claims are incorporated into the specific embodiments, wherein the claims are independently used as separate embodiments. The scope of the embodiments disclosed herein will be determined with reference to the full scope of the attached claims and the equivalents of these claims.

Claims

1. A device of a user equipment UE, the device comprising a transceiver circuit and a processing circuit, the processing circuit being configured to: Controlling the transceiver circuit to receive measurement configuration information for configuring one or more reference signal resource sets to the UE from a first evolved Node B (i.e., a first eNB) to configure the UE for per-beam reference signal measurement and for reporting beam measurement information for each beam, each reference signal resource set including a reference signal resource; controlling the transceiver circuitry to receive, from the first eNB via a plurality of receive antennas of the UE, a reference signal within a reference signal resource of the reference signal resource set, the reference signal being associated with at least one antenna port of the first eNB; determining each of a plurality of beams of the cell based on the received reference signal; performing received signal measurements on at least a portion of a plurality of combined grouped reference signals for the at least one antenna port of the first eNB and a receive antenna of the UE to produce an enhanced received signal quality (eRSQ) measurement on a per-beam basis, the eRSQ measurement representing spatial characteristics of different channels corresponding to the reference signals received by the UE; Generating a beam measurement report based on the eRSQ measurement, each beam measurement report including an eRSQ based on each beam; as well as Control the transceiver circuit to send the beam measurement report to the first eNB.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The reference signal includes a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS, and the CSI-RS includes multiple CSI-RS signals, each CSI-RS signal corresponds to an antenna port of the first eNB.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The eRSQ measurement represents the spatial channel characteristics of multiple different multiple-input / multiple-output MIMO layers.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The eRSQ measurement is based on a computed aggregation of received power measurements over a plurality of spatial channels.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The eRSQ measurement is based on a computed aggregation of ratios of received signal power measurements and received signal strength measurements over a plurality of spatial channels.

6. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: When the UE is connected to the first eNB, controlling the transceiver circuit to receive, via the multiple receiving antennas, a neighboring cell signal transmitted from the second eNB via at least one antenna port of the second eNB; Interference received signal measurements are performed on at least a portion of the neighbor cell signals for a plurality of UE receive antennas to generate an interference profile representing spatial characteristics of interference signals originating from the second eNB received by the UE.

7. The device according to claim 6, wherein: The interference profile is reported to the first eNB.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein: The reference signal comprises a non-zero power channel state information reference signal NZ CSI-RS.

9. A device of a user equipment UE, the device comprising a transceiver circuit and a processing circuit, the processing circuit being configured to: Controlling the transceiver circuit to receive a reference signal from a first evolved Node B (i.e., a first eNB) via a plurality of receive antennas of the UE, the reference signal being associated with at least one antenna port of the first eNB, the corresponding reference signal being transmitted through the at least one antenna port; performing received signal measurements on at least a portion of a plurality of combined grouped reference signals for the at least one antenna port of the first eNB and a receive antenna of the UE to produce enhanced received signal quality (eRSQ) measurements representing spatial characteristics of different channels corresponding to the reference signals received by the UE; as well as controlling the transceiver circuitry to send a report to the first eNB based on the eRSQ measurement, the report indicating spatial multiplexing layer availability of a corresponding channel between the UE and the first eNB, Wherein, the received signal measurement is stored as N rx ×N p Matrix R, where N rx is the number of the receiving antennas, and N p is the number of antenna ports of the first eNB for each resource element RE of the first eNB.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein: The report based on the eRSQ measurement is based on the definition of eRSRP = eigval {E (R·R H )}, where eigval{} corresponds to the eigenvalue computation for a square matrix, E is the averaging function, and R H is the conjugate transpose of the matrix R.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein: The report based on the eRSQ measurement is also based on a value defined as eRSSI=eigval{E(r·r H )}, where eigval{} corresponds to the eigenvalues ​​for a square matrix, E is the averaging function, and r H is the conjugate transpose of vector r, where vector r includes received signal measurements for all resource elements and for all receive antennas of the UE.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein: The reporting based on the eRSQ measurement is also based on a ratio defined as N·eRSRP / eRSSI, where N is the number of resource blocks, and the number of eRSRP and eRSSI values ​​used for eRSQ calculations can be based on N·eRSRP / eRSSI. rx and N p is determined by the minimum value in .

13. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions, which when executed on a processing circuit of a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: receiving, from a first evolved Node B (i.e., a first eNB), measurement configuration information for configuring the UE with one or more reference signal resource sets, so as to configure the UE for per-beam reference signal measurement and for reporting beam measurement information for each beam, each reference signal resource set including a reference signal resource; receiving, from the first eNB via multiple receive antennas of the UE, a reference signal within a reference signal resource of the reference signal resource set, the reference signal being associated with at least one antenna port of the first eNB; determining each of a plurality of beams of the cell based on the received reference signal; performing received signal measurements on at least a portion of a plurality of combined grouped reference signals for the at least one antenna port of the first eNB and a receive antenna of the UE to produce an enhanced received signal quality (eRSQ) measurement on a per-beam basis, the eRSQ measurement representing spatial characteristics of different channels corresponding to the reference signals received by the UE; Generating a beam measurement report based on the eRSQ measurement, each beam measurement report including an eRSQ based on each beam; as well as Send the beam measurement report to the first eNB.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein: The reference signal includes a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein: The multiple combination groups are pairs of eNB antenna ports and UE receive antennas.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein: The instructions further cause the UE to: Configuration information is received from the first eNB, wherein the configuration information instructs the UE to perform the eRSQ measurement and reporting.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein: The instructions further cause the UE to: Configuration information is received from the first eNB, wherein the configuration information includes an indication based on which the processing circuit is to determine a number of antenna ports of the first eNB.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein: The reports include Radio Resource Management, RRM, messages.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein: The eRSQ measurement is based on a computed aggregation of received power measurements over a plurality of spatial channels.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein: The eRSQ measurement is based on a computed aggregation of ratios of received signal power measurements and received signal strength measurements over a plurality of spatial channels.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein: The instructions further cause the UE to: When the UE is connected to the first eNB, receiving, via the multiple receiving antennas, a neighboring cell signal transmitted from the second eNB via at least one antenna port of the second eNB; Interference received signal measurements are performed on at least a portion of the neighbor cell signals for a plurality of UE receive antennas to generate an interference profile representing spatial characteristics of interference signals originating from the second eNB received by the UE.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein: The interference profile is reported to the first eNB.

23. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions, which when executed on a processing circuit of a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: receiving a reference signal from a first evolved Node B (i.e., a first eNB) via multiple receive antennas of the UE, the reference signal being associated with at least one antenna port of the first eNB, and the corresponding reference signal being sent through the at least one antenna port; performing received signal measurements on at least a portion of a plurality of combined grouped reference signals for the at least one antenna port of the first eNB and a receive antenna of the UE to produce enhanced received signal quality (eRSQ) measurements representing spatial characteristics of different channels corresponding to the reference signals received by the UE; and sending a report to the first eNB based on the eRSQ measurement, the report indicating spatial multiplexing layer availability of a corresponding channel between the UE and the first eNB, in, The received signal measurements are stored as N rx ×N p Matrix R, where N rx is the number of the receiving antennas, and N p is the number of antenna ports of the first eNB for each resource element RE of the first eNB.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein: The report based on the eRSQ measurement is based on the definition of eRSRP = eigval {E (R·R H )}, where eigval{} corresponds to the eigenvalue computation for a square matrix, E is the averaging function, and R H is the conjugate transpose of the matrix R.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein: The report based on the eRSQ measurement is also based on a value defined as eRSSI=eigval{E(r·r H )}, where eigval{} corresponds to the eigenvalues ​​for a square matrix, E is the averaging function, and r H is the conjugate transpose of vector r, where vector r includes received signal measurements for all resource elements and for all receive antennas of the UE.

26. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 25, wherein: The reporting based on the eRSQ measurement is also based on a ratio defined as N·eRSRP / eRSSI, where N is the number of resource blocks, and the number of eRSRP and eRSSI values ​​used for eRSQ calculations can be based on N·eRSRP / eRSSI. rx and N p is determined by the minimum value in .

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