Beamforming Measurements for New Radio (NR)

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods, apparatuses, storage media, and systems for appropriately measuring reference signals when a user equipment (UE) uses beamforming for optimized reception. Embodiments describe how a UE may measure a received beamformed reference signal and how to determine a reporting value when multiple beams are measured or receiver diversity is used by the UE. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Description

[0001] Division of Cases Instructions

[0002] This application is a divisional application of a Chinese patent application with application number 201880029428.5 and titled "Beamforming Measurements for New Radio (NR)", which was filed on May 31, 2018.

[0003] Cross - Reference to Related Applications

[0004] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 514,516, titled "Beamformed measurement for new radio (NR)", filed on Jun. 2, 2017, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0005] Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the technical field of wireless communication. BACKGROUND ART

[0006] The background art description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the present disclosure. The work of the currently named inventors (to the extent it is described in this background art section) and some aspects that may not be suitable as prior art descriptions for other reasons at the time of the application are neither expressly nor implicitly admitted as prior art of the present disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the solutions described in this section are not prior art to the claims in the present disclosure and are not admitted as prior art merely by being included in this section.

[0007] Existing reference signal measurements may not be applicable when developing wireless networks. In this regard, new solutions are needed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. The embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

[0009] Figure 1 An example of a network including a user equipment (UE) and an evolved Node B (eNB) in a wireless network is schematically illustrated according to various embodiments.

[0010] Figure 2 An example of components of a device is illustrated according to various embodiments.

[0011] Figure 3AIllustrated is a radio front end that includes a millimeter wave (mmWave) radio front end and one or more sub - millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits. Figure 3B Illustrated is a replacement radio front end.

[0012] Figure 4 Illustrated schematically according to some embodiments is an exemplary radio frequency (RF) receiver circuit.

[0013] Figure 5A Illustrated according to some embodiments is an operation flow / algorithm structure that facilitates reference signal measurement by a UE. Figure 5B Illustrated according to some embodiments is an operation flow / algorithm structure that facilitates reference signal measurement from the perspective of an eNB.

[0014] Figure 6 Illustrated according to some embodiments is an example interface of a baseband circuit.

[0015] Figure 7 Illustrated according to some embodiments are hardware resources. Detailed Description

[0016] In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings, like numerals always designate like components, and the embodiments that can be implemented are shown by way of illustration. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the following detailed description should not be taken in a limiting sense.

[0017] The various operations may be described sequentially as a number of discrete actions or operations in a manner most helpful for understanding the claimed subject matter. However, the order of description should not be construed to imply that these operations are necessarily order - dependent. In particular, these operations may not be performed in the order presented. The described operations may be performed in an order different from the described embodiments. Various additional operations may be performed in additional embodiments and / or the described operations may be omitted.

[0018] For the present disclosure, the phrases “A or B” and “A and / or B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B). For the present disclosure, the phrases “A, B, or C” and “A, B, and / or C” mean (A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B, and C).

[0019] The description may use the phrases “in an embodiment” or “in embodiments,” each of which may refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments. Further, the terms “including,” “comprising,” “having,” etc., used in connection with the embodiments of the present disclosure are synonymous.

[0020] As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include any combination of: an integrated circuit that provides the described functionality (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc.), discrete circuitry, combinational logic circuitry, a system on a chip (SOC), a system in a package (SiP). In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware modules to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may include logic that is at least partially operable in hardware.

[0021] In Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications, while a reference signal is being received by a UE, a receiver (Rx) chain may measure, for example, the reference signal received power (RSRP) referenced at the antenna connector of the Rx chain. The UE may then determine a certain value based on a predefined table to indicate the measured RSRP and report that value. When more than one Rx chain is used for receiver diversity, individual Rx chains may generate individual values corresponding to the individual RSRPs measured at the individual Rx chains. Then, according to 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technical Specification (TS) 36.214 v14.2.0 (March 23, 2017), the reported value shall not be lower than the corresponding RSRP of any individual diversity branch. Another example is measuring the reference signal receive quality (RSRQ) referenced at the antenna connector of the Rx chain. The complete definitions of RSRP and RSRQ in TS 36.214 are detailed in Table 1 and Table 2, respectively. Similar implementations are used for the measurement results of received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and reference signal-signal to noise and interference ratio (RS-SINR).

[0022] Table 1

[0023]

[0024] Table 2

[0025]

[0026] Various embodiments describe apparatuses, methods, and storage media for configuring measurements of reference signals received by a UE while the UE may use one or more antenna panels for beamforming. In fifth-generation (5G) new radio (NR) communications, a UE may utilize beamforming techniques to receive and / or transmit signals, especially when operating at millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies and sub-mmWave frequencies. An antenna panel may include multiple antennas or antenna elements that form one or more beams, such that the antenna gain or beamforming gain may increase the received signal power level to enhance the receiving capabilities of the UE. Thus, the reference signals may be measured as received beamformed signals. Individual Rx chains may further receive such received beamformed signals after the beamforming process performed by the antenna panel. In some embodiments, more than one panel may be used. Note that antennas and antenna elements are used interchangeably herein.

[0027] Figure 1An example wireless network 100 (hereinafter referred to as "network 100") is schematically illustrated according to various embodiments herein. Network 100 may include a UE 105 that wirelessly communicates with an eNB 110. In some embodiments, network 100 may be a 5G NR network, a radio access network (RAN) of a third generation partnership project (3GPP) LTE network, such as an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN, or some other type of RAN. UE 105 may be configured to be communicatively coupled to eNB 110, for example, by connection. In this example, connection 112 is shown as an air interface to enable the communication coupling and may conform to a cellular communication protocol, such as the 5G NR protocol for mmWave and sub-mmWave operations, the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, the code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, the Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, the PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, and so on.

[0028] UE 105 is shown as a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device that can connect to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), pager, laptop computer, desktop computer, wireless handset, or any computing device including a wireless communication interface. In some embodiments, UE 105 may include a NarrowBand Internet of Things (NB-IoT) UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power NB-IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The NB-IoT UE may utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) to exchange data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, a sensor network, or an IoT network. The M2M or MTC data exchange may be machine-initiated data exchange. The NB-IoT / MTC network describes using short-term connections to interconnect NB-IoT / MTC UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure). The NB-IoT / MTC UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, location-related services, etc.).

[0029] The eNB 110 may enable or terminate the connection 112. The eNB 110 may be referred to as a base station (BS), Node B, evolved Node B (eNB), next-generation Node B (gNB), RAN node, serving cell, etc., and may include a terrestrial station (e.g., a terrestrial access point) or a satellite station that provides coverage within a certain geographical area (e.g., a cell).

[0030] The eNB 110 may be the first point of contact for the UE 105. In some embodiments, the eNB 110 may perform various logical functions, including but not limited to radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0031] In some embodiments, the downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any RAN node (e.g., eNB 110) to the UE 105, and uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, referred to as the resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resources in the downlink in each time slot. This time-frequency plane representation is a common practice in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. 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 one time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes several resource blocks, which describe the mapping of a specific physical channel to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this can represent the smallest number of currently allocable resources. There are several different physical downlink channels carried using such resource blocks.

[0032] The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) can carry user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 105. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) can carry information about the transmission format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel, etc. It can also notify the UE 105 about the transmission format, resource allocation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information related to the uplink shared channel. Generally, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 105 within a cell) can be performed at the eNB 110 based on the channel quality information fed back from any one of the UE 105. The downlink resource assignment information can be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) the UE 105.

[0033] The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to carry control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruples, which may then be transposed using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruples, which may then be transposed using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. One or more of these CCEs may be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of physical resource elements, where each set includes four physical resource elements, and such a set is referred to as a resource element group (REG). Each REG may be mapped to four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols. Depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and the channel conditions, one or more CCEs may be used to transmit the PDCCH. In LTE, four or more different PDCCH formats may be defined, with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels L = 1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0034] Some embodiments may use concepts of resource allocation for control channel information, which are extensions of the above concepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs) may be used to transmit the EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of physical resource elements referred to as enhanced resource element groups (EREGs), where each set includes four physical resource elements. The ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some cases.

[0035] As Figure 1 shown, the UE 105 may include millimeter-wave communication circuits grouped according to function. The circuits shown here are for illustrative purposes, and the UE 105 may include those shown here in Figure 1Other circuits not shown in the figure. The UE 105 may include protocol processing circuitry 115, which may implement one or more of the layer operations related to medium access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), radio resource control (RRC), and non-access stratum (NAS). The protocol processing circuitry 115 may include one or more processing cores (not shown) to execute instructions and one or more memory structures (not shown) to store programs and data information.

[0036] The UE 105 may also include digital baseband circuitry 125, which may implement physical layer (PHY) functions, including one or more of the following: HARQ function, scrambling and / or descrambling, encoding and / or decoding, layer mapping and / or demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol and / or bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding and / or decoding (which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency, or space coding), reference signal generation and / or detection, preamble sequence generation and / or decoding, synchronization sequence generation and / or detection, blind decoding of control channel signals, and other related functions.

[0037] The UE 105 may also include a transmit circuit 135, a receive circuit 145, a radio frequency (RF) circuit 155, and / or one or more antenna panels 165.

[0038] In some embodiments, the RF circuit 155 may include multiple parallel RF chains or branches for one or more of the transmit or receive functions; each chain or branch may be coupled to an antenna panel 165.

[0039] In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 115 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuitry 125 (or simply referred to as "baseband circuitry 125"), transmit circuit 135, receive circuit 145, RF circuit 155, and / or one or more antenna panels 165.

[0040] UE reception may be established by and via one or more antenna panels 165, RF circuit 155, digital baseband circuitry 125, and protocol processing circuitry 115. One or more antenna panels may receive transmissions from the eNB 110 through receive beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas / antenna elements of one or more antenna panels 165. In Figure 2 Figure 3,Figure 4 and Figure 6 More details regarding the architecture of UE 105 are illustrated in Figure 6 . In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 125 may include both a transmit circuitry 135 and a receive circuitry 145. In other embodiments, the baseband circuitry 125 may be implemented in separate chips or modules, such as one chip including the transmit circuitry 135 and another chip including the receive circuitry 145.

[0041] In some embodiments, UE 105 may include circuit components similar to those shown above, but adapted for operation at sub-mmWave frequencies. In one example, mmWave refers to a frequency range above 24 GHz and sub-mmWave refers to a frequency range above microwave frequencies and below 24 GHz. Note that the ranges of mmWave and sub-mmWave do not depend on a specific number, but are used to distinguish from existing LTE operation below 6 GHz.

[0042] Similar to UE 105, eNB 110 may include millimeter-wave communication circuitry grouped according to functionality. eNB 110 may include a protocol processing circuitry 120, a digital baseband circuitry 130, a transmit circuitry 140, a receive circuitry 150, a radio frequency (RF) circuitry 160, and / or one or more antenna panels 170.

[0043] Figure 2 Example components of device 200 are illustrated according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, device 200 may include at least an application circuitry 202, a baseband circuitry 204, an RF circuitry 206, a radio-frequency front end (RFFE) circuitry 208, and a plurality of antennas 210 as shown together. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may be similar to the baseband circuitry 125 and be substantially interchangeable with the baseband circuitry 125. The plurality of antennas 210 may form one or more antenna panels for beamforming. The illustrated components of device 200 may be included in a UE or an eNB. In some embodiments, device 200 may include fewer elements (e.g., an eNB may not utilize the application circuitry 202, but include a processor / controller to process IP data received from an evolved packet core (EPC)). In some embodiments, device 200 may include additional elements, such as a memory / storage device, a display, a camera, a sensor, or an input / output (I / O) interface element. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., for a cloud RAN (C-RAN) implementation, the circuitry may be separately included in more than one device).

[0044] The application circuit 202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuit 202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The (one or more) processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor may be coupled to the memory / storage or may include the memory / storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 200. In some embodiments, the processor of the application circuit 202 may process IP data packets received from the EPC.

[0045] The baseband circuit 204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core 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 to generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 206. The baseband circuit 204 may interface with the application circuit 202 to generate and process baseband signals and to control the operation of the RF circuit 206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 204 may include a third-generation (3G) baseband processor 204A, a fourth-generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, a fifth-generation (5G) baseband processor 204C, or other (one or more) baseband processors 204D for other existing generations, generations under development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., second-generation (2G), sixth-generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuit 204 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors 204A-D) may process various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit 206. In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 204A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 204G and executed via the central processing unit (CPU) 204E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency offset, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuit of the baseband circuit 204 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuit of the baseband circuit 204 may include convolutional, tail-biting convolutional, turbo, Viterbi, 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.

[0046] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 204 may include one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 204F. The (one or more) audio DSPs 204F may include elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and in other embodiments may include other suitable processing elements. The components of the baseband circuit may be appropriately combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or in some embodiments arranged on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 204 and the application circuit 202 may be implemented together, for example, on a SOC.

[0047] In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 204 may provide communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 204 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN), wireless local area network (WLAN), wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments where the baseband circuit 204 is configured to support radio communication for more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits.

[0048] The RF circuit 206 may enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuit 206 may include one or more switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuit 206 may include a receiver circuit 206A, which may include circuitry to down-convert an RF signal received from the RFFE circuit 208 and provide a baseband signal to the baseband circuit 204. The RF circuit 206 may also include a transmitter circuit 206B, which may include circuitry to up-convert a baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 204 and provide an RF output signal to the RFFE circuit 208 for transmission.

[0049] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited thereto. 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.

[0050] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio integrated circuit (IC) circuits may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited thereto.

[0051] The RFFE circuit 208 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 210 and beamformed by the panel of the antennas 210 while operating at millimeter wave frequencies, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuit 206 for further processing. The RFFE circuit 208 may further include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided by the RF circuit 206 for transmission for transmission by one or more of the antennas 210 with or without beamforming. In various embodiments, amplification through the transmit or receive path may be done only in the RF circuit 206, only in the RFFE 208, or in both the RF circuit 206 and the RFFE 208.

[0052] In some embodiments, the RFFE circuit 208 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operations. The RFFE circuit 208 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RFFE circuit 208 may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 206). The transmit signal path of the RFFE circuit 208 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 206), and include one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the antennas 210).

[0053] The processors of the application circuit 202 and the baseband circuit 204 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processors of the baseband circuit 204 can be used, alone or in combination, to execute layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processors of the baseband circuit 202 can utilize the data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further execute layer 4 functions (e.g., the transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 can include the radio resource control (RRC) layer, which is described in more detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 can include the medium access control (MAC) layer, radio link control (RLC) layer, and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, which are described in more detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 can include the physical (PHY) layer of the UE / eNB, which is described in more detail below.

[0054] Figure 3A An embodiment of a radio front end 300 is illustrated that includes a mmWave radio frequency front end (RFFE) 305 and one or more sub - millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) 310. In some embodiments, the RFFE 305 can be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the RFFE 208.

[0055] In this embodiment, one or more sub - mmWave RFICs 310 (or simply referred to as "RFIC 310") can be physically separated from the mmWave RFFE 305. The RFIC 310 can include connections to one or more antennas 320. The RFFE 305 can be coupled to a plurality of antennas 315, and these antennas 315 can form one or more antenna panels.

[0056] Figure 3B An alternative embodiment of a radio front - end module 325 is illustrated. In this regard, both millimeter - wave and sub - millimeter - wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFFE 330. The RFFE 330 can include both millimeter - wave antennas 335 and sub - millimeter - wave antennas 340. In some embodiments, the RFFE 330 can be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the RFFE 208.

[0057] Figure 4Exemplary RF receiver (Rx) circuit 400 is schematically illustrated in accordance with some embodiments. Rx circuit 400 may be similar to RFFE 208, receiver circuit 206A, or a combination thereof. Figure 4 How the RF front end and receiver circuit form and process received beams may be schematically illustrated.

[0058] RF Rx circuit 400 may include one or more RF Rx paths 405, which may include one or more antennas, filters, low noise amplifiers, programmable phase shifters, and a power supply (not shown) in some embodiments. In some embodiments, each RF Rx path 405 may include or be coupled to an antenna panel that includes a plurality of antenna elements that may form a received beam. The antenna panel may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the Figure 1 antenna panel 165. RF Rx path 405 may be coupled to a receiver branch for further received signal processing.

[0059] In some embodiments, a plurality of RF Rx paths 405 may be coupled to an antenna panel to form a received beam. RFRx circuit 400 may include a power combining circuit 410 in some embodiments. In some other embodiments, power combining circuit 410 may operate bidirectionally such that the same physical circuit may be configured to operate as a power divider when the device is transmitting and as a power combiner when the device is receiving. Figure 4 Focusing on the power combining aspect from the perspective of receiving from a UE. In some embodiments, power combining circuit 410 may include fully or partially separate circuits to perform power combining when the device is receiving. In some embodiments, power combining circuit 410 may include a passive circuit that includes one or more bidirectional power combiners arranged in a tree. In some embodiments, power combining circuit 410 may include an active circuit that includes an amplifier circuit.

[0060] In some embodiments, RF Rx circuit 400 may be coupled to one or more receiver branches. Combining RF path interface 415 may connect power combining circuit 410 to receiver branch 420. A plurality of receiver branches may be connected to a plurality of power combining circuits 410 via a plurality of combining RF path interfaces 415. One or more receiver branches 420 may constitute receiver circuit 206A.

[0061] In LTE, as previously described, RSRP can be used to measure the received power level of reference signals to indicate the signal strength from one or more cells. RSRQ, RSSI, and / or RS-SINR can alternatively or additionally be used for similar purposes. For simplicity of discussion, only RSRP is illustrated as an example, but all descriptions herein apply to other reference signal measurements, including but not limited to RSRQ, RSSI, and RS-SINR.

[0062] RSRP is defined as the linear average of the power contributions in watts of the resource elements received at each antenna connector associated with each receiver branch. According to TS 36.214, when one or more diversity receiver branches are being used by the UE, the reported value should not be lower than the corresponding RSRP of any individual diversity branch.

[0063] In NR with respect to mmWave and / or sub-mmWave operation, the UE receiver may use receiver beamforming. In beamforming, each antenna of the antenna panel may receive a reference signal of the cell. Two or more antennas of the panel may be used for beamforming. The antennas may shift the phase with respect to the individually received reference signals. The shifted phases may have different degrees corresponding to the respective antennas to achieve a desired antenna gain for the received reference signals. The assigned phase shifts may be different due to different reference signal reception patterns, which may be affected by multiple factors such as UE location, frequency band, and channel bandwidth, interference, etc. Once the receive beam is formed by the antenna panel, the receive beam can be received by the receiver branch and further processed. For the same reference signal of a particular cell, the antenna panel may form more than one beam. Then, the linear average over the receive beam in the power measurement (measured in watts) can be used to calculate the power level of the reference signal for the same antenna associated with the same receiver branch. For an example of RSRP, the corresponding value can be reported based on the calculation of the received power of the beam. Thus, both the UE and the eNB can have knowledge of the received power level of the receiver branch. Therefore, the UE and the eNB can determine further operations based on this information.

[0064] In some embodiments, one or more diversity receiver branches can be implemented to enhance the UE reception capability. For example, the UE may have 2×N receive antennas (N is an integer and greater than 2). Then N antennas can be used to form Rx beam 1 and another N antennas can be used to form Rx beam 2. The RSRP of Rx beam 1 is value x, and the RSRP of Rx beam 2 is value y. Then, the reported value of RSRP can be equal to the maximum of x and y. Multiple diversity receiver branches can be used such that more than two RSRP values can be generated by measurement. Then the maximum among all the RSRP values can be reported to indicate the RSRP of the UE with respect to a particular cell.

[0065] In some embodiments, the UE may have one or more diversity receiver branches to receive multiple Rx beams, such that multiple RSRP values may be generated from RSRP measurements. Then, an average value calculated based on all the RSRP values may be reported. For example, values x, y, and z may be determined from RSRP measurements for three beams received by three sets of antennas. The reported value may be calculated by averaging all three of them, (x + y + z) / 3.

[0066] In some other embodiments, among the multiple RSRP values, only a certain number of the largest RSRP values rather than all of them may be used for averaging. For example, the RSRP values x, y, and z have the relationship z > y > x, and only the first two values may be used for averaging. Then the reported value may be calculated based on (z + y) / 2.

[0067] In some embodiments, RSRQ, RSSI, and / or RS-SINR may be used in a similar manner as described above for RSRP. In various embodiments, the reference signal may be a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), a channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS), a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS), a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), and a new radio reference signal (NR-RS).

[0068] In some embodiments, the UE may have a panel of antenna elements to form one or more Rx beams. Alternatively, the UE may have multiple panels of antenna elements to form multiple Rx beams. One or more panels may be fed into one or more receiver branches.

[0069] Figure 5A An operational flow / algorithm structure 500 that facilitates reference signal measurements by the UE 105 is illustrated according to some embodiments. The operational flow / algorithm structure 500 may be executed by the UE 105 or its circuitry.

[0070] The operation flow / algorithm structure 500 may include forming a receiving beam for the received reference signal by the antenna panel at 510. The reference signal may be transmitted by the eNB 110 for the cell. In some embodiments, forming the receiving beam may include one or more baseband processors controlling the RFFE 208 and the antenna panel to generate the receiving beam. For example, the baseband circuit may control the respective phase shifts at each antenna element to achieve the desired antenna gain. In some embodiments, multiple beams may be received by one panel of the antenna. In some other embodiments, more than one receiver branch may be used for reception. Thus, more than one antenna panel may form more than one receiving beam, and the receiving beam may be further received and processed by the corresponding receiver branches. The receiving beam may be a receiving beamformed reference signal. In some embodiments, the reference signal may be PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, CRS, and NR-RS.

[0071] The operation flow / algorithm structure 500 may further include measuring the receiving beamformed reference signal by one or more baseband processors at 520. This measurement may be referenced for individual receiver branches. In some embodiments, RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, and / or RS-SINR may be used for the reference signal measurement.

[0072] The operation flow / algorithm structure 500 may further include determining, at 530, by the CPU coupled to one or more baseband processors, one or more values to indicate the respective measured receiving beamformed reference signals or the measured Rx beams for individual receiver branches. In some embodiments, only one receiver branch may be used to receive one or more receiver beams. Then, only one corresponding value may be determined and reported accordingly. In some other embodiments, more than one receiver branch may be used to receive more than one receiver beam. Thus, more than one value may be determined.

[0073] The operation flow / algorithm structure 500 may further include generating, at 540, a baseband signal to report the value. This may be performed by one or more baseband processors coupled to the CPU. In some embodiments, the CPU coupled to one or more baseband processors may generate a report to include the value. In some embodiments, the maximum value among all the determined values may be reported. In another example, the reported value may not be lower than any of the determined values. In some other embodiments, the reported value may be the average of all the determined values based on an average calculation. In some other embodiments, several of the determined values may be selected for the average calculation. The number of the determined values to be selected may be predetermined and equal to or greater than two, and the selected values are the maximum values among all the determined values. The generated baseband signal may be sent to the eNB 110 as described above.

[0074] Figure 5BAn operation flow / algorithm structure 505 that illustrates a process for facilitating reference signal measurements by the eNB 110 is shown according to some embodiments. The operation flow / algorithm structure 505 may be executed by the eNB 110 or its circuitry (e.g., baseband circuitry).

[0075] The operation flow / algorithm structure 505 may include transmitting a reference signal at 515. In some embodiments, the reference signal may be a PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, CRS, and NR-RS.

[0076] The operation flow / algorithm structure 505 may further include processing a baseband signal from the UE 105 that includes the reported values at 525.

[0077] Figure 6 An example interface of a baseband circuit is shown according to some embodiments. As described above, Figure 2 the baseband circuitry 204 may include processors 204A - 204E and a memory 204G utilized by the processors. Each of the processors 204A - 204E may include a memory interface 604A - 604E, respectively, to send / receive data to / from the memory 204G.

[0078] The baseband circuitry 204 may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuits / devices, such as a memory interface 612 (e.g., an interface to send / receive data to / from a memory external to the baseband circuitry 204), an application circuitry interface 614 (e.g., an interface to send / receive data to / from Figure 2 the application circuitry 202), an RF circuitry interface 616 (e.g., an interface to send / receive data to / from Figure 2 the RF circuitry 206), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 618 (e.g., an interface to send / receive data to / from a Near Field Communication (NFC) component, a component (e.g., a low-power consumption ), a component, and other communication components), and a power management interface 620 (e.g., an interface to send / receive power or control signals).

[0079] Figure 7 is a block diagram illustrating components that can read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 7FIG. 0 shows a graphical representation of a hardware resource 700 that includes one or more processors (or processor cores) 710, one or more memory / storage devices 720, and one or more communication resources 730, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 740. For embodiments that utilize node virtualization (e.g., network function virtualization (NFV)), a hypervisor 702 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resource 700.

[0080] The processor 710 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) (e.g., a baseband processor), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 712 and a processor 714.

[0081] The memory / storage device 720 may include a main memory, a disk storage device, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 720 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid state storage devices, and the like.

[0082] The communication resource 730 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 704 or one or more databases 706 via the network 708. For example, the communication resource 730 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via Universal Serial Bus (USB)), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, component (e.g., low power consumption ), component and other communication components.

[0083] The instructions 750 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 710 to execute any one or more of the methods discussed herein. For example, in an embodiment where the hardware resource 700 is implemented into the UE 105, the instructions 750 may cause the UE to execute some or all of the operation flow / algorithm structure 500. In other embodiments, the hardware resource 700 may be implemented into the eNB 110. The instructions 750 may cause the eNB 110 to execute some or all of the operation flow / algorithm structure 505. The instructions 750 may be wholly or partially present within at least one of the processors 710 (e.g., within the cache memory of the processor), within the memory / storage device 720, or any suitable combination thereof. Additionally, any portion of the instructions 750 may be transmitted from any combination of the peripheral devices 704 or the database 706 to the hardware resource 700. Accordingly, the memory of the processor 710, the memory / storage device 720, the peripheral devices 704, and the database 706 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0084] Some non-limiting examples of various embodiments are provided below.

[0085] Example 1 may include one or more computer-readable media that include instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a UE, cause the UE to: measure a reference signal that is receive beamformed by an antenna panel of a plurality of antennas; determine a value indicative of the measured reference signal; and generate a baseband signal to report the value.

[0086] Example 2 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 1 and / or some other examples herein, wherein when executed the instructions further cause the UE to: measure a plurality of reference signals that are receive beamformed by respective ones of a plurality of antenna panels; determine a plurality of values to respectively indicate the plurality of measured reference signals; and based on determining that the value is the maximum of the determined plurality of values, generate a baseband signal to report the value.

[0087] Example 3 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 1-2 and / or some other examples herein, wherein when executed, the instructions further cause the UE to control the RFFE of the UE to form a received beamformed reference signal based on a reference signal received by the antenna panel.

[0088] Example 4 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 1-3 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value corresponds to SS-RSRP, or SS-RSRQ.

[0089] Example 5 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 4 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the SS is a primary SS (PSS).

[0090] Example 6 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 4 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the SS is a secondary SS (SSS).

[0091] Example 7 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 1-3 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the reference signal is an SS or a CSI-RS.

[0092] Example 8 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 7 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value corresponds to the RS-SINR of the SS or the CSI-RS.

[0093] Example 9 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 7 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value corresponds to the RSSI of the SS or the CSI-RS.

[0094] Example 10 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 1-3 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value corresponds to CSI-RSRP or CSI-RSRQ.

[0095] Example 11 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 1-3 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the reference signal is an NR-RS.

[0096] Example 12 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 11 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value corresponds to RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, or RS-SINR based on the NR-RS.

[0097] Example 13 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 1-3 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the reference signal is a DM-RS, a PT-RS, or a CRS.

[0098] Example 14 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 13 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value corresponds to the RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, or RS-SINR of the reference signal.

[0099] Example 15 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 1 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the UE to: measure a plurality of reference signals that are respectively receive beamformed by a plurality of antenna panels; generate an average value based on a plurality of values respectively corresponding to the plurality of measured reference signals; and generate the baseband signal to report the average value.

[0100] Example 16 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 1 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the UE to: measure a plurality of reference signals that are respectively receive beamformed by a plurality of antenna panels; select more than one value from a plurality of values corresponding to the plurality of measured reference signals, wherein any selected value is greater than any unselected value; generate an average value based on the selected values; and report the average value.

[0101] Example 17 may include one or more computer-readable media that include instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an eNB, cause the eNB to: process a transmission to send a reference signal to a UE; and process a baseband signal sent by the UE to determine a reported value that indicates a measurement result of a receive beamformed reference signal that is received by a receiver panel of the UE, wherein the receiver panel includes a plurality of receiver antennas.

[0102] Example 18 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 17 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the reported value corresponds to the maximum value among a plurality of values that respectively indicate the receive beamformed reference signals received by corresponding ones of the plurality of receiver panels.

[0103] Example 19 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 18 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the receive beamformed reference signal is measured by RSRP, RSRP, RSSI, or RS-SINR.

[0104] Example 20 may include one or more computer-readable media as described in Example 17 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the reference signal is PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, NR-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, or CRS.

[0105] Example 21 may include a method including: measuring or causing to measure a reference signal beamformed by an antenna panel of a plurality of antennas; determining or causing to determine a value indicative of the measured reference signal; and generating or causing to generate a baseband signal to report the value.

[0106] Example 22 may include the method as described in Example 21 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the method further includes: measuring or causing to measure a plurality of reference signals respectively beamformed for reception by a plurality of antenna panels; determining or causing to determine a plurality of values respectively indicative of the plurality of measured reference signals; and generating or causing to generate a baseband signal to report the value based on determining that the value is the maximum value among the determined plurality of values.

[0107] Example 23 may include the method as described in Examples 21-22 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the method further includes forming or causing to form a received beamformed reference signal based on the reference signal received by the antenna panel.

[0108] Example 24 may include the method as described in Examples 21-23 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value corresponds to SS-RSRP or SS-RSRQ.

[0109] Example 25 may include the method as described in Example 24 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the SS is a primary SS (PSS).

[0110] Example 26 may include the method as described in Example 24 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the SS is a secondary SS (SSS).

[0111] Example 27 may include the method as described in Examples 21-23 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the reference signal is an SS or a CSI-RS.

[0112] Example 28 may include the method as described in Example 27 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value corresponds to the RS-SINR of the SS or the CSI-RS.

[0113] Example 29 may include the method as described in Example 27 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value corresponds to the RSSI of the SS or the CSI-RS.

[0114] Example 30 may include the method as described in Examples 21-23 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value corresponds to CSI-RSRP or CSI-RSRQ.

[0115] Example 31 may include a method as described in Examples 21-23 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the reference signal is an NR-RS.

[0116] Example 32 may include a method as described in Example 31 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value is based on the NR-RS corresponding to RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, or RS-SINR.

[0117] Example 33 may include a method as described in Examples 21-23 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the reference signal is a DM-RS, PT-RS, or CRS.

[0118] Example 34 may include a method as described in Example 33 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the value corresponds to the RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, or RS-SINR of the reference signal.

[0119] Example 35 may include a method as described in Example 21 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the method further includes: measuring or causing to measure multiple reference signals that are respectively subjected to receive beamforming by multiple receiver panels; generating or causing to generate an average value based on multiple values respectively corresponding to the multiple measured reference signals; and generating or causing to generate a baseband signal to report the average value.

[0120] Example 36 may include a method as described in Example 21 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the method further includes: measuring or causing to measure multiple reference signals that are respectively subjected to receive beamforming by multiple receiver panels; selecting or causing to select more than one value from the multiple values corresponding to the multiple measured reference signals, wherein any selected value is greater than any unselected value; generating or causing to generate an average value based on the selected values; and generating or causing to generate a baseband signal to report the average value.

[0121] Example 37 may include a method including: processing or causing to process a transmission, sending a reference signal to a UE; and processing or causing to process a baseband signal sent by the UE to determine a reported value, the reported value indicating a measurement result of a receive beamformed reference signal received by a receiver panel of the UE, wherein the receiver panel includes multiple receiver antennas.

[0122] Example 38 may include a method as described in Example 37 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the reported value corresponds to the maximum value among multiple values, the multiple values respectively indicating the receive beamformed reference signals received by multiple receiver panels.

[0123] Example 39 may include a method as described in Example 38 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the received beamforming reference signal is measured by RSRP, RSRP, RSSI, or RS-SINR.

[0124] Example 40 may include a method as described in Example 37 and / or some other examples herein, wherein the reference signal is PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, NR-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, or CRS.

[0125] Example 41 may include an apparatus that includes means for performing one or more elements of a method described in any of Examples 21-40 or related to any of Examples 21-40 or any other method or process described herein.

[0126] Example 42 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that include instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described in any of Examples 21-40 or related to any of Examples 21-40 or any other method or process described herein.

[0127] Example 43 may include an apparatus that includes logic, modules, and / or circuitry for performing one or more elements of a method described in any of Examples 21-40 or related to any of Examples 21-40 or any other method or process described herein.

[0128] Example 44 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any one of Examples 21-40, or some part or portion thereof.

[0129] Example 45 may include an apparatus including: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, the computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process as described in any of Examples 26-49 or related to any of Examples 26-49, or some part thereof.

[0130] Example 46 may include an apparatus including: one or more baseband processors for measuring, based on reference signals received by a plurality of antenna panels, a plurality of received beams formed by the respective plurality of panels, where an individual antenna panel includes a plurality of antennas to respectively form the plurality of received beams; and a central processing unit (CPU) coupled to the one or more baseband processors, the CPU being configured to determine a plurality of values respectively indicating the plurality of measured received beamformed reference signals, select a maximum value from the plurality of values, and generate a baseband signal to report the maximum value.

[0131] Example 47 may include the apparatus as described in Example 46 and / or some other examples herein, where individual received beams are respectively beamformed by individual panels associated with individual receiver branches.

[0132] Example 48 may include the apparatus as described in Examples 46 - 47 and / or some other examples herein, where the reference signal is a PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, NR-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, or CRS.

[0133] Example 49 may include the apparatus as described in Examples 46 - 48 and / or some other examples herein, where the values correspond to measurements of RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, or RS-SINR of individual received beams.

[0134] Example 50 may include the apparatus as described in Example 46 and / or some other examples herein, further including one or more antenna panels that include a plurality of antennas to respectively: receive the reference signal and form one or more of the received beams based on the received reference signal.

[0135] Example 51 may include the apparatus as described in Example 46 and / or some other examples herein, further including one or more receiver branches respectively connected to the plurality of antenna panels, the one or more receiver branches being configured to receive the plurality of received beams.

[0136] Example 52 may include the method as described in Example 46 and / or some other examples herein, where the CPU further generates an average value based on the plurality of values respectively corresponding to the plurality of measured received beams; and reports the average value.

[0137] Example 53 may include the method as described in Example 46 and / or some other examples herein, where the CPU further selects more than one value from the plurality of values corresponding to the plurality of measured received beams, where any selected value is greater than any unselected value; generates an average value based on the selected values; and reports the average value.

[0138] Example 54 may include an apparatus for a baseband circuit of an eNB to transmit a reference signal to a UE and process a baseband signal transmitted when the reference signal is received by the UE to determine a reporting value, where the reporting value indicates a measurement result of a received beamformed reference signal received by a receiver panel of the UE, and where the receiver panel includes a plurality of receiver antennas.

[0139] Example 55 may include the apparatus as described in Example 54 and / or some other examples herein, where the reference signal is a PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, NR-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, or CRS.

[0140] The present disclosure has been described with reference to flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the disclosure. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, when executed via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions / acts specified in one or more blocks of the flowchart or block diagram.

[0141] The computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instruction means for implementing the functions / acts specified in one or more blocks of the flowchart or block diagram.

[0142] The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process, such that the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions / acts specified in one or more blocks of the flowchart or block diagram.

[0143] The description of the illustrated implementations herein, including those described in the abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. While specific implementations and examples have been described herein for illustrative purposes, as will be recognized by those of ordinary skill in the relevant art, various substitutions or equivalent embodiments or implementations may be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure based on the above detailed description to achieve the same purpose.

Claims

1. An apparatus for a user equipment (UE) in a wireless network, the apparatus comprises: one or more baseband processors for performing operations, the operations including: receiving and beamforming multiple instances of a reference signal using one or more antenna panels of the UE, the reference signal including at least one of a primary synchronization signal (PSS) or a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), wherein the beamformed multiple instances of the reference signal correspond to multiple receiver branches of the UE, and each receiver branch of the multiple receiver branches is associated with one or more of the beamformed instances of the reference signal; for each receiver branch, measuring a signal value based on the corresponding one or more beamformed instances of the reference signal, wherein the signal value corresponds to a synchronization signal-reference signal received power (SS-RSRP) or a synchronization signal-reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ); determining a specific signal value among multiple measured signal values corresponding to the multiple receiver branches, the specific signal value being not lower than any of the multiple measured signal values; and generating a report including the specific signal value; and the multiple receiver branches for receiving the beamformed multiple instances of the reference signal.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a receiver branch of the multiple receiver branches is associated with one antenna panel of the one or more antenna panels.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein determining the specific signal value includes determining a maximum value among the multiple measured signal values.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein determining the specific signal value comprises: selecting more than one value from the multiple measured signal values, wherein any selected value is greater than any unselected value; and averaging the selected values to determine the specific signal value.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reference signal includes one of the following: a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS), a new radio reference signal (NR-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS), a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS), or a cell-specific reference signal (CRS).

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the signal value measured for a receiver branch corresponds to one of the following: a reference signal received power (RSRP) of a single beamformed instance of the reference signal, a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), a reference signal strength indicator (RSSI), or a reference signal-signal to noise plus interference ratio (RS-SINR).

7. An apparatus for a base station in a wireless network, the apparatus comprises: one or more processors for performing operations, the operations including: Transmitting a plurality of instances of a reference signal to a user equipment (UE) in the wireless network, the plurality of instances being received using a plurality of receiver beams of the UE, each of the plurality of receiver beams being generated using one or more antenna panels of the plurality of antenna panels of the UE, wherein the reference signal includes one of a primary synchronization signal (PSS) or a secondary synchronization signal (SSS); and Receiving, from the UE, a specific signal value corresponding to measurements made by the UE on the plurality of instances of the reference signal, wherein the specific signal value corresponds to one of a synchronization signal-reference signal received power (SS-RSRP) or a synchronization signal-reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ); and Wherein the specific signal value is not lower than any signal value measured by the UE on the plurality of instances of the reference signal.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the measurements made by the UE on the plurality of instances of the reference signal correspond to a plurality of receiver branches of the UE, a receiver branch among the plurality of receiver branches being associated with one or more antenna panels of the plurality of antenna panels.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein each of the plurality of receiver branches is associated with one or more instances of the reference signal.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the specific signal value includes one of the following: The maximum value among the signal values measured by the UE, or An average value of a plurality of values selected from among the signal values measured by the UE, any selected value being greater than any non-selected value.

11. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the reference signal includes one of the following: a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS), a new radio reference signal (NR-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS), a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS), or a cell-specific reference signal (CRS).

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the specific signal value corresponds to one of the following: a reference signal received power (RSRP) of a single beamformed instance of the reference signal, a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), a reference signal strength indicator (RSSI), or a reference signal-signal to noise plus interference ratio (RS-SINR).

13. A method comprising: Receiving and beamforming, using one or more antenna panels of a user equipment (UE) in a wireless network, a plurality of instances of a reference signal, the plurality of instances of the reference signal including at least one of a primary synchronization signal (PSS) or a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), wherein the beamformed plurality of instances of the reference signal corresponds to a plurality of receiver branches of the UE, each of the plurality of receiver branches being associated with one or more beamformed instances of the reference signal; For each receiver branch, measure a signal value based on the corresponding one or more beamformed instances of the reference signal, where the signal value corresponds to the Synchronization Signal - Reference Signal Received Power (SS-RSRP) or the Synchronization Signal - Reference Signal Received Quality (SS-RSRQ); Determine a specific signal value among the plurality of measured signal values corresponding to the plurality of receiver branches, where the specific signal value is not lower than any of the signal values among the plurality of measured signal values; And Receive the plurality of beamformed instances of the reference signal via the plurality of receiver branches.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein a receiver branch among the plurality of receiver branches is associated with one antenna panel among the one or more antenna panels.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein determining the specific signal value includes determining the maximum value among the plurality of measured signal values.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein determining the specific signal value includes: Select more than one value from the plurality of measured signal values, where any selected value is greater than any unselected value; And Average the selected values to determine the specific signal value.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein the reference signal includes one of the following: Channel State Information - Reference Signal (CSI-RS), New Radio Reference Signal (NR-RS), Demodulation Reference Signal (DM-RS), Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PT-RS), or Cell-Specific Reference Signal (CRS).

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the signal value measured for the receiver branch corresponds to one of the following: the Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of a single beamformed instance of the reference signal, the Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), the Reference Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), or the Reference Signal - Signal to Noise plus Interference Ratio (RS-SINR).

19. A method, comprising: Using a base station in a wireless network, send a plurality of instances of a reference signal to a User Equipment (UE) in the wireless network, and receive the plurality of instances at the UE using a plurality of receiver beams of the UE, where each receiver beam among the plurality of receiver beams is generated using one or more antenna panels of the plurality of antenna panels of the UE, and where the reference signal includes one of the Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) or the Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS); And Receive from the UE a specific signal value corresponding to the UE's measurements of the plurality of instances of the reference signal, where the specific signal value corresponds to one of the Synchronization Signal - Reference Signal Received Power (SS-RSRP) or the Synchronization Signal - Reference Signal Received Quality (SS-RSRQ), and where the specific signal value is not lower than any signal value measured by the UE for the plurality of instances of the reference signal.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the measurements made by the UE on the plurality of instances of the reference signal correspond to a plurality of receiver branches of the UE, and a receiver branch among the plurality of receiver branches is associated with one or more antenna panels among the plurality of antenna panels.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein each receiver branch among the plurality of receiver branches is associated with one or more instances of the reference signal.

22. The method according to claim 19, wherein the specific signal value comprises one of the following: the maximum value among the signal values measured by the UE, or the average value of a plurality of values selected from among the signal values measured by the UE, any selected value being greater than any unselected value.

23. The method according to claim 19, wherein the reference signal comprises one of the following: Channel State Information - Reference Signal CSI - RS, New Radio Reference Signal NR - RS, Demodulation Reference Signal DM - RS, Phase Tracking Reference Signal PT - RS, or Cell - Specific Reference Signal CRS.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein the specific signal value corresponds to one of the following: Reference Signal Received Power RSRP, Reference Signal Received Quality RSRQ, Reference Signal Strength Indicator RSSI, or Reference Signal - Signal to Noise plus Interference Ratio RS - SINR of a single beamformed instance of the reference signal.

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