Electronic device, method, device and storage medium for wireless communication system

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to electronic devices, methods, and storage media for wireless communication systems. One embodiment of the present disclosure proposes beam management based on the matching status of channel path parameters under different beams. The electronic device includes a processing circuit that estimates the channel path parameters from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the second beam based on a reference signal from a transmitter end of the wireless communication system and transmitted via at least one second beam included in the coverage range of the first beam. A specific second beam among the at least one second beam is selected based on the estimated channel path parameters, and the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the specific second beam match the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of the invention patent application with application number 201880083060.0, application date December 25, 2018, and invention name “Electronic equipment, method, device and storage medium for wireless communication system”.

[0002] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0003] This disclosure claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201711469227.0 filed on December 29, 2017, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety as a part of this disclosure. Technical Field

[0004] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to techniques for beam management in wireless communication systems. Background Art

[0005] With the development and widespread application of mobile internet technology, wireless communications have met unprecedented demands for voice and data communications. As frequency bands increase (e.g., 26 GHz, 60 GHz, and higher), wireless channels inevitably experience greater path loss, atmospheric absorption loss, and other negative impacts compared to lower frequency bands (e.g., 2 GHz). To provide higher communication quality and capacity, wireless communication systems employ a variety of technologies at different levels.

[0006] In recent years, Massive Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) and millimeter wave (Millimeter Wave) technologies have been recognized as key technologies for future 5G, attracting widespread attention from both academia and industry. The millimeter wave band offers abundant available spectrum resources, capable of meeting the growing demand for mobile communications traffic. Furthermore, due to the short wavelength of millimeter waves, antenna theory dictates that the antenna size of millimeter wave systems is also smaller, enabling the placement of hundreds or even thousands of antennas in a small space. This facilitates the application of large-scale antenna technology in real-world systems.

[0007] In addition, in large-scale antenna technology, beamforming technology can effectively compensate for the disadvantage of excessive path fading in millimeter wave channels, making it possible to apply millimeter wave technology to mobile communications. Beamforming can provide beamforming gain to compensate for wireless signal loss by increasing the directivity of antenna transmission and / or reception. To this end, 3GPP introduced the concept of beam management in the formulation of 5G standards, and one of the important processes is beam sweeping. In beam sweeping technology, the beam sweeping process is used to find the matching transmit and receive beams between the base station and the terminal device, thereby establishing a beam pair link (BPL) between the base station and the terminal device.

[0008] In the application of beamforming technology, as more and more beams are provided for scanning, beam management becomes more and more complicated. Summary of the Invention

[0009] In view of the above situation, the present disclosure provides an electronic device, method, apparatus and storage medium for a wireless communication system. One aspect of the present disclosure relates to an electronic device for a receiver end in a wireless communication system. According to one embodiment, the electronic device may include a processing circuit. The processing circuit may be configured to estimate the channel path parameters from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the second beam based on a reference signal transmitted from the transmitter end of the wireless communication system via at least one second beam included in the coverage range of the first beam. A specific second beam of the at least one second beam may be selected based on the estimated channel path parameters, and the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the specific second beam match the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam.

[0010] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an electronic device for a transmitter of a wireless communication system. According to one embodiment, the electronic device may include a processing circuit. The processing circuit may be configured to transmit a reference signal to a receiver of the wireless communication system via at least one second beam included in the coverage area of ​​a first beam. A specific second beam among the at least one second beam may be selected based on estimated channel path parameters from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the second beam, where the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the specific second beam match the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam.

[0011] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an electronic device for a receiver end of a wireless communication system. According to one embodiment, the electronic device may include a processing circuit. The processing circuit may be configured to estimate a receive channel path parameter based on a reference signal received using a first beam as a receive beam and transmitted using a second beam as a transmit beam from a transmitter end of the wireless communication system; and transmit the reference signal to the transmitter end using the first beam as a transmit beam, wherein the transmitter end receives the reference signal using the second beam as a receive beam, so that the transmit channel path parameter can be estimated. Beam reciprocity between the transmitter end and the receiver end may be determined based on the receive channel path parameter and the transmit channel path parameter.

[0012] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an electronic device for a transmitter end of a wireless communication system. According to one embodiment, the electronic device may include a processing circuit. The processing circuit may be configured to transmit a reference signal to a receiver end of the wireless communication system using the second beam as a transmit beam, wherein the receiver end receives the reference signal using the first beam as a receive beam, so that transmit channel path parameters can be estimated; and estimate the receive channel path parameters based on the reference signal transmitted using the first beam as a transmit beam from the receiver end of the wireless communication system and received using the second beam as a receive beam. Beam reciprocity between the transmitter end and the receiver end may be determined based on the receive channel path parameters and the transmit channel path parameters.

[0013] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an electronic device for a receiver of a wireless communication system. According to one embodiment, the electronic device may include processing circuitry. The processing circuitry may be configured to estimate, for each of a plurality of transmit beams used by a transmitter of the wireless communication system to transmit a reference signal, a path gain magnitude in the time domain of a channel path from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the transmit beam based on the reference signal transmitted via the transmit beam. A specific transmit beam among the plurality of transmit beams may be determined based on the estimated path gain magnitude in the time domain.

[0014] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to an electronic device for use at a transmitter end of a wireless communication system. According to one embodiment, the electronic device may include processing circuitry. The processing circuitry may be configured to transmit a reference signal to a receiver end of the wireless communication system via each of a plurality of transmit beams. For each of the plurality of transmit beams, a path gain magnitude in the time domain of a channel path from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the transmit beam may be estimated based on the reference signal transmitted via the transmit beam. A specific transmit beam from the plurality of transmit beams may be determined based on the estimated path gain magnitude in the time domain.

[0015] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a receiver of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method includes estimating channel path parameters corresponding to at least one second beam from the transmitter to the receiver based on a reference signal transmitted from a transmitter of the wireless communication system via at least one second beam within the coverage area of ​​the first beam. A specific second beam from the at least one second beam can be selected based on the estimated channel path parameters, and the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the specific second beam match the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam.

[0016] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a transmitter of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method may include transmitting a reference signal to a receiver of the wireless communication system via at least one second beam included in the coverage area of ​​a first beam. A specific second beam from the at least one second beam may be selected based on estimated channel path parameters from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the second beam, where the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the specific second beam match the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam.

[0017] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a receiver of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method may include estimating receive channel path parameters based on a reference signal transmitted using a second beam as a transmit beam from a transmitter of the wireless communication system, which is received using a first beam as a receive beam; and transmitting the reference signal to the transmitter using the first beam as a transmit beam. The transmitter receives the reference signal using the second beam as a receive beam, so that the transmit channel path parameters can be estimated. Beam reciprocity between the transmitter and receiver may be determined based on the receive channel path parameters and the transmit channel path parameters.

[0018] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a transmitter of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method may include transmitting a reference signal to a receiver of the wireless communication system using a second beam as a transmit beam, wherein the receiver receives the reference signal using a first beam as a receive beam, so that transmit channel path parameters can be estimated; and estimating the receive channel path parameters based on the reference signal transmitted using the first beam as a transmit beam from the receiver of the wireless communication system using the second beam as the receive beam. Beam reciprocity between the transmitter and receiver may be determined based on the receive channel path parameters and the transmit channel path parameters.

[0019] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a receiver of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method may include, for each of a plurality of transmit beams used by a transmitter of the wireless communication system to transmit a reference signal, estimating, based on the reference signal transmitted via the transmit beam, a time-domain path gain magnitude of a channel path from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the transmit beam. A specific transmit beam from the plurality of transmit beams may be determined based on the estimated time-domain path gain magnitude.

[0020] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a transmitter of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method may include transmitting a reference signal to a receiver of the wireless communication system via each of a plurality of transmit beams. For each of the plurality of transmit beams, a time-domain path gain magnitude of a channel path from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the transmit beam may be estimated based on the reference signal transmitted via the transmit beam. A specific transmit beam from the plurality of transmit beams may be determined based on the estimated time-domain path gain magnitude.

[0021] Yet another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more instructions. In some embodiments, the one or more instructions, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, may cause the electronic device to perform methods according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0022] Yet another aspect of the present disclosure relates to various apparatuses including components or units for performing the operations of the methods according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0023] The above summary is provided to summarize some exemplary embodiments in order to provide a basic understanding of various aspects of the subject matter described herein. Therefore, the above features are merely examples and should not be construed as narrowing the scope or spirit of the subject matter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparent from the detailed description described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] A better understanding of the present disclosure may be obtained when the following detailed description of the embodiments is considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The same or similar reference numerals are used in the various drawings to represent the same or similar components. The accompanying drawings, together with the following detailed description, are incorporated into and form a part of this specification and are used to illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure and to explain the principles and advantages of the present disclosure. In particular:

[0025] Figure 1A The conceptual structure of a base station is schematically shown.

[0026] Figure 1BThe conceptual structure of the user equipment is schematically shown.

[0027] Figure 2 An exemplary beamforming operation is schematically illustrated.

[0028] Figure 3 An example of a hierarchical beam scanning operation between a base station and a user equipment is schematically shown.

[0029] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of channel sparsity.

[0030] Figure 5 An exemplary communication system is shown.

[0031] Figure 6A An exemplary electronic device for a receiver according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0032] Figure 6B An exemplary electronic device for a transmitter according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0033] Figure 7 The figure schematically illustrates the beam management process according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0034] Figure 8 Schematic diagram of the transceiver structure of the millimeter-wave massive multiple-input multiple-output antenna system.

[0035] Figure 9 Schematic diagram of uniform distribution of reference signals.

[0036] Figure 10 An example of estimation of path gain and delay is shown.

[0037] Figure 11 Schematic diagram of frequency domain sparse reference signal.

[0038] Figure 12 Schematic diagram of the matching operation with the gain improvement criterion applied.

[0039] Figure 13 Schematic diagram of the matching operation applying the delayed similarity criterion.

[0040] Figure 14 FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a beam management operation according to the present embodiment.

[0041] Figure 15 This is a signaling flow chart for beam selection at the terminal device in downlink communication.

[0042] Figure 16 Schematic diagram of feeding back beam termination information to terminal devices.

[0043] Figure 17Flowchart of the signaling for beam selection at the base station in downlink communication.

[0044] Figure 18 Signaling flow chart for beam selection in uplink communication.

[0045] Figure 19 This is a simulation result of obtaining the optimal beam probability according to the technical solution of the embodiment.

[0046] Figure 20 This is a simulation result of the reachability probability according to the technical solution of the embodiment.

[0047] Figure 21 This is a simulation result of the beam scanning overhead according to the technical solution of the embodiment.

[0048] Figure 22A and 22B They are respectively an electronic device for a receiver and an electronic device for a transmitter according to the second embodiment.

[0049] Figure 23 Schematic diagram for beam reciprocity determination.

[0050] Figure 24 Flowchart of the signaling for beam reciprocity determination.

[0051] Figure 25 is a block diagram showing an example structure of a personal computer as an information processing device that can be employed in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0052] Figure 26 A block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematic configuration of a gNB to which the technology of the present disclosure may be applied;

[0053] Figure 27 A block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematic configuration of a gNB to which the technology of the present disclosure may be applied;

[0054] Figure 28 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied; and

[0055] Figure 29 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied.

[0056] While the embodiments described in this disclosure may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. However, it should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereof are not intended to limit the embodiments to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intent is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the claims. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0057] The following describes representative applications of various aspects of the apparatus and method of the present disclosure. The description of these examples is only to add context and help understand the described embodiments. Therefore, it is clear to those skilled in the art that the embodiments described below can be implemented without some or all of the specific details. In other cases, well-known process steps are not described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the described embodiments. Other applications are also possible, and the solutions of the present disclosure are not limited to these examples.

[0058] Typically, a wireless communication system includes at least a base station and user equipment (UE), and the base station provides communication services for one or more UEs.

[0059] In this disclosure, the term "base station" has its full, commonly used meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station used to facilitate communications as part of a wireless communication system or radio system. For example, a base station may be an eNB for the 4G communication standard, a gNB for the 5G communication standard, a remote radio head, a wireless access point, a drone control tower, or a communication device performing similar functions. Examples of base station applications are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0060] In this disclosure, the term "user equipment" or "UE" has its full breadth of ordinary meaning and includes at least a terminal device used to facilitate communication as part of a wireless communication system or radio system. By way of example, a UE may be a terminal device such as a mobile phone, laptop, tablet computer, or in-vehicle communication device, or a component thereof. The following sections describe in detail example applications of UE.

[0061] In this disclosure, the term "transmitter" / "transmitting end" has its full, commonly used meaning and generally refers to the end of a communication system that transmits a signal flow. Depending on the direction of signal flow in the communication system, such as uplink / downlink signal transmission, the term "transmitter" / "transmitting end" can refer to either the "base station" or the "user equipment" in the communication system. Similarly, the term "receiver" / "receiving end" has its full, commonly used meaning and can refer to either the "user equipment" or the "base station" in the communication system, respectively.

[0062] It should be noted that although the embodiments of the present disclosure are described below mainly based on a communication system including a base station and a user equipment, these descriptions can be correspondingly extended to the case of a communication system including a transmitter end and a receiver end. For example, depending on the direction of the signal flow in the communication system, the operation of the transmitter end may correspond to the operation of the base station or the operation of the user equipment, and the operation of the receiver end may correspond to the operation of the user equipment or the operation of the base station. It should be noted that the transmitter and the receiver can be both user equipment, for example, in short-range communications such as device-to-device (D2D) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X), both the transmitting and receiving ends are user equipment. Correspondingly, the transmitter and the receiver can also be both base stations, for example, in a system including a moving base station, both the transmitting and receiving ends are base stations in wireless communications between a mobile base station and a fixed base station or between a mobile base station and a mobile base station.

[0063] Base stations and UEs may have multiple antennas that support MIMO technology. The use of MIMO technology enables base stations and UEs to exploit the spatial domain to support spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and transmit diversity. Spatial multiplexing can be used to transmit different data streams simultaneously on the same frequency. These data streams can be sent to a single UE to increase the data rate (which can be classified as SU-MIMO technology) or to multiple UEs to increase the total system capacity (which can be classified as MU-MIMO technology). This is achieved by spatially precoding each data stream (i.e., performing amplitude scaling and / or phase adjustment) and then transmitting each spatially precoded stream on the downlink (DL) from the base station to the UE through multiple transmit antennas. The spatially precoded data streams arrive at one or more UEs with different spatial signatures, which enables each UE to receive the data streams via its multiple antennas and recover the one or more data streams destined for that UE. On the uplink (UL) from the UE to the base station, each UE transmits the spatially precoded data streams via its multiple antennas, which enables the base station to receive the data streams via its antennas and identify the source of each spatially precoded data stream.

[0064] In wireless communication systems, each antenna at the transmitting end (e.g., base station) and the receiving end (e.g., user equipment) is typically connected to a radio frequency (RF) link for transmission and reception. Generally speaking, at the transmitting end, the data stream to be transmitted is first baseband processed and then converted into a radio frequency (RF) signal via the RF link for transmission through the corresponding antenna. At the receiving end, the corresponding RF link processes the received RF signal into a baseband signal, which is then further baseband processed to obtain the desired data stream.

[0065] Typically, in baseband data processing, a digital precoding architecture is used to facilitate multiple data streams being transmitted over the same transmission resources via radio frequency links and corresponding antennas. The amplitude of the transmitted signal on each radio frequency link is adjustable to reduce interference between multiple data signals carried on the same transmission resources. This processing before data is transmitted via the radio frequency link and antenna is referred to as baseband digital data processing at the transmitter.

[0066] For example, Figure 1A The following schematically shows the conceptual structure of a base station in the prior art. Figure 1A As shown in the figure, in a digital precoding architecture, the base station is equipped with M antennas (M is an integer and M ≥ 1), each antenna being equipped with a corresponding RF link. Under the control of a controller, the digital precoder acquires K data streams (K is an integer and K ≥ 1) and digitally precodes these K data streams (for example, passing them through a digital precoding matrix B of size M × K). The encoded data is then transmitted to one or more users via the RF links and antennas.

[0067] Accordingly, the user end may have various configuration forms so as to perform corresponding baseband digital processing after receiving the encoded data through the radio frequency link to obtain a desired data stream.

[0068] Figure 1B FIG shows a user terminal configured with multiple antennas. Figure 1B As shown, the user terminal is equipped with N antennas (N is an integer and N ≥ 1). Each antenna transmits received data to a digital precoder via a corresponding radio frequency link. Under the control of a controller, the digital precoder digitally precodes the received data using a digital precoding matrix W (Ku is an integer and Ku ≥ 1), for example, of size Ku × N, to generate single-channel (Ku = 1) or multi-channel data (Ku > 1).

[0069] Furthermore, in wireless communication systems, especially high-frequency ones such as millimeter-wave communication systems, and 5G NR, both the base station and the user end can use directional beams to overcome the large path attenuation in frequency bands above 6 GHz. In order to reduce hardware complexity, the beams are usually generated using analog beamforming. In the implementation of pattern beamforming, the RF link is connected to the antenna unit through a phase shifter, and the beam is generated by adjusting the phase of the phase shifter. In order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio at the receiving end, the beam direction needs to match the channel direction, that is, the base station beam is aligned with the channel transmission angle (Angle of Departure, AoD), and the user end beam is aligned with the channel arrival angle (Angle of Arrival, AoA).

[0070] Due to the limited number of RF links, existing technologies use beam scanning to determine the transceiver beams. That is, the transceiver pre-stores a beamforming codebook and selects the most matching transceiver beam pair from the codebook through beam scanning. This is often referred to as analog beamforming training. Analog beamforming training refers to the process of optimizing the RF configuration information of the base station and user equipment (for example, the configuration values ​​of the phase shifters involved in the base station and user equipment, also known as the weight vectors for the phase shifters). Its main function is to improve the user equipment's received signal-to-noise ratio. Taking the downlink as an example, the base station forms a directional transmit beam by configuring the values ​​of the multiple phase shifters connected to its multiple antennas, and the user equipment forms a directional receive beam by configuring the values ​​of the multiple phase shifters connected to its multiple antennas. The base station's transmit beam and the user equipment's receive beam constitute a set of downlink beam pairs. The downlink beamforming training process is the process of finding an optimal set of beam pairs consisting of the optimal base station transmit beam and the optimal user equipment receive beam. Similarly, in the uplink, the base station's receive beam and the user equipment's transmit beam also form a beam pair.

[0071] The following combination Figure 2 Briefly introduce the beam scanning process in wireless communication systems. Figure 2 The rightward arrow in FIG represents the downlink direction from the base station 100 to the terminal device 104, and the leftward arrow represents the uplink direction from the terminal device 104 to the base station 100. Figure 2 As shown, the base station 100 includes n t_DL Downlink transmit beams (n t_DL is a natural number greater than or equal to 1, Figure 2 In the example, n t_DL =9), the terminal device 104 includes n r_DL Downlink receive beams (n r_DL is a natural number greater than or equal to 1, Figure 2 In the example, n r_DL =5). In addition, Figure 2 In the wireless communication system shown in FIG, the number of uplink receiving beams of the base station 100 is n. r_UL The coverage of each beam is the same as that of the downlink transmission beam. The number of uplink transmission beams of the terminal device 104 is n. t_UL The coverage of each beam is the same as that of the downlink receive beam. It should be understood that, depending on system requirements and settings, the coverage and number of the uplink receive beam and downlink transmit beam of the base station can be different, and the same is true for the terminal device.

[0072] like Figure 2 As shown, during the downlink beam scanning process, the n t_DL Each downlink transmission beam 102 in the downlink transmission beams sends nr_DL downlink reference signals, the terminal device 104 passes n r_DL The downlink receiving beams receive the n r_DL In this way, the n downlink reference signals of the base station 100 t_DL The downlink transmission beams are sent to the terminal device 104 in sequence. t_DL ×n r_DL downlink reference signals, each downlink receiving beam 106 of the terminal device 104 receives n t_DL downlink reference signals, i.e., n r_DL The downlink receiving beams receive n signals from the base station 100. t_DL ×n r_DL The terminal device 104 receives the n downlink reference signals. t_DL ×n r_DL The downlink reference signal is measured (for example, the received signal power of the downlink reference signal (such as RSRP) is measured), so that the downlink transmit beam of the base station 100 and the downlink receive beam of the terminal device 104 when the measurement result is better or the best are determined as a downlink matching transmit-receive beam pair, and a downlink beam pair link (hereinafter referred to as BPL) is established.

[0073] During the uplink beam scanning process, similar to the downlink beam scanning, the n of the terminal device 104 t_UL Each uplink transmission beam 106 in the uplink transmission beams sends n r_UL Uplink reference signals, the base station 100 uses n r_UL The uplink receiving beams receive the n r_UL In this way, the n uplink reference signals of the terminal device 104 t_UL Uplink transmission beams are sent to the base station 100 in sequence. t_UL ×n r_UL Uplink reference signals, each uplink receiving beam 102 of the base station 100 receives n t_UL Uplink reference signals, that is, n uplink reference signals of base station 100 r_UL The uplink receiving beams receive n signals from the terminal device 104. r_UL ×n t_UL The base station 100 generates an uplink reference signal. r_UL ×n t_UL An uplink reference signal is measured (for example, the received signal power of the uplink reference signal (such as RSRP) is measured), so that the uplink transmit beam of the terminal device 104 and the uplink receive beam of the base station 100 when the measurement result is better or the best are determined as an uplink matching transmit-receive beam pair, and an uplink beam pair link is established.

[0074] It should be understood that the coverage and number of the uplink receive beam and the downlink transmit beam of the base station may be different, and the coverage and number of the uplink transmit beam and the downlink receive beam of the terminal device may be different, and the above-mentioned determination operation can still be performed similarly. For example, in the above description, both the transmitting end (base station) and the receiving end (terminal device) adopt beamforming technology, but in one implementation, the receiving end does not use receive beamforming and is only provided with one full-width receive beam. Here, a full-width beam may refer to a beam without using beamforming, that is, its beam width is not narrowed by beamforming processing. For example, the beam of an omnidirectional antenna can be considered to be a full-width beam.

[0075] In addition, a multi-level scanning method can be used in the beam scanning method, which divides beam training into multiple levels of beams. The transmitting end can be provided with hierarchical transmit beams, such as a first-level transmit beam (also called a coarse transmit beam, a wide beam, etc.) and a second-level transmit beam (also called a fine transmit beam, a narrow beam, etc.). The beam width of the coarse transmit beam can be wider than that of the fine transmit beam, and one coarse transmit beam can cover several fine transmit beams, and the gain of the fine transmit beam can be greater than that of the coarse transmit beam.

[0076] During beam scanning, a wide beam can be first scanned to determine a coarse channel direction, and then a narrow beam can be used to scan within the determined coarse channel direction to determine a fine channel direction. For example, the transmitting end can first perform a first-level transmit beam scan, and the receiving end can determine a matching first-level transmit beam in a similar manner. When the transmitting end performs beam scanning using a second-level transmit beam covered by the matching first-level transmit beam, the receiving end can similarly determine a matching second-level transmit beam.

[0077] Figure 3 An exemplary hierarchical beam scanning operation is shown, in which a wide beam is used for initial access and then a narrow beam scanning scheme is performed. Figure 3 In the initial access phase, the optimal beam pair is determined to be the base station's wide beam 1 and the user's receive beam 3. In the narrow beam scanning phase, the four narrow beams within the coverage area of ​​wide beam 1 are scanned to determine the optimal beam direction.

[0078] Currently, narrow-beam scanning requires measuring the reception quality of all candidate beams and feeding back information about several beams for the base station to select. This approach incurs a fixed overhead and latency for beam scanning, and this becomes even more pronounced when a large number of candidate narrow beams are used.

[0079] On the other hand, it is noted that due to the large path attenuation and reflection attenuation of electromagnetic wave signals in the high-frequency band, the channel has a sparse characteristic, that is, the number of channel paths is small and the path delay is small. As the beam becomes narrower, the number of channel paths and path delay further decrease. Moreover, the channel path under the narrow beam is a subset of the channel path under the wide beam. Figure 4 As shown, the channel has one direct path and two reflected paths. When a wide beam is used, all paths are within the wide beam coverage, so the baseband channel's time-domain impulse response has three paths with different delays. When a narrow beam is used, since the narrow beam only covers the direct path and the indirect path -1, the baseband channel's time-domain impulse response has only two paths with different delays. Furthermore, note that the delays of the direct path and the indirect path 1 should be essentially the same under wide and narrow beams, and the gain is greater under narrow beams.

[0080] Based on this understanding, an improved fast beam management mechanism is proposed. The basic principle of this fast beam management mechanism is to match the channel path parameters of a wide beam with the channel path parameters of each narrow beam covered by the wide beam. If the matching conditions are met, the narrow beam is determined to be the optimal beam, eliminating the need to scan the remaining candidate beams and terminating the beam scanning process early.

[0081] Therefore, the fast beam management mechanism proposed in the present disclosure can reduce the overhead and delay of narrow beam scanning, while having little performance loss compared with the solution of scanning all candidate beams.

[0082] On the other hand, in wireless communication systems, it is generally believed that the following channel reciprocity may exist: when the uplink and downlink channels are within the relevant time and bandwidth, the same channel impulse response (CIR) can be observed on the uplink and downlink channels. At this time, it can be considered that the uplink and downlink channels are consistent, that is, channel reciprocity exists. Moreover, the inventors of the present disclosure recognize that when channel reciprocity exists, there may be a certain correspondence between the radio frequency beams of the base station and the terminal device, that is, beam symmetry (beam correspondence) (sometimes also referred to as beam reciprocity or beam consistency). For example, beam symmetry may include beam symmetry of each of the base station and the terminal device, also known as transceiver beam symmetry, which indicates that the strongest receiving beam and the strongest transmitting beam of the communication device (such as a base station or a terminal device) on one side of the communication link are the same. Thus, the downlink transmit (receive) beam can be used to determine the uplink receive (transmit) beam, so that beam scanning only needs to be performed in the uplink or downlink direction, saving beam scanning overhead. Existing technologies typically assume static beam reciprocity, determining it based on the uplink and downlink carrier frequency difference and measurements during cell deployment. However, this approach suffers from the assumption that the same beam reciprocity state applies to different users and channel conditions, leading to inaccurate beam state settings.

[0083] Based on the above understanding, an improved beam reciprocity determination mechanism is proposed. The basic principle of this beam reciprocity determination mechanism is to match the channel path parameters under the uplink beam with the channel path parameters under the downlink beam. If the two meet the matching conditions, beam reciprocity is determined to be satisfied.

[0084] The reciprocity measurement technology proposed in the present disclosure can measure beam reciprocity for a specific channel state of a specific user with higher accuracy.

[0085] On the other hand, based on the above cognition, an improved beam management mechanism is proposed. The basic principle of the beam management mechanism is to estimate the time domain path parameters of the channel under each beam and select a specific transmit beam for subsequent operations based on the estimated time domain path parameters.

[0086] Various implementations of the technical solutions of the present disclosure will be described in detail below.

[0087] It should be noted that the technical solution of this disclosure is primarily applied in conjunction with beam scanning / forming technology. It facilitates beam scanning / forming by estimating, matching, and judging each scanned beam during beam scanning / forming. Beam scanning / forming technology can be applied in various operational phases of a wireless communication system, and thus the technical solution of this disclosure can also be applied in these operational phases of a wireless communication system, thereby improving the implementation of beam scanning / forming in these phases.

[0088] On the one hand, beamforming technology can be particularly applied to the communication process between the base station and the terminal device via the reference signal. As an example, beamforming can be used in the data transmission and reception process between the base station and the terminal device. After the downlink beam scanning and uplink beam scanning processes are completed using the reference signal, the established BPL is used to transmit the next data and / or control signal. In this case, the technical solution of the present disclosure can be based on the reference signal. The reference signal is a known signal provided by the transmitter to the receiver for channel estimation or channel detection, which can be used for various measurements and determinations of the actual channel conditions experienced by the radio signal from the base station to the UE. Compared with theoretical methods such as geographic location estimation, channel estimation based on reference signals is more accurate. Reference signals are of great significance for mobility management, resource allocation, MIMO operation, and data demodulation.

[0089] According to the transmission direction, reference signals can be typically divided into uplink reference signals and downlink reference signals. In the time domain and / or frequency domain, the reference signal is multiplexed with the user data stream in the uplink resource or downlink resource, and the reference signal occupies a certain communication resource. The downlink reference signal is a predefined signal sent from the base station to the UE, occupying specific downlink communication resources (such as specific resource elements in the time-frequency resource block), and is used for downlink channel estimation, downlink channel detection, cell search, etc. Downlink reference signals include, but are not limited to, cell reference signals (CRS), data demodulation reference signals (DMRS), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), etc. The uplink reference signal is a predefined signal sent from the UE to the base station, occupying specific uplink communication resources (such as specific resource elements in the time-frequency resource block), and is used for uplink channel estimation, uplink channel quality measurement, etc. Uplink reference signals include, but are not limited to, DMRS, sounding reference signals (SRS), etc. In one example, CSI-RS is used for downlink channel state feedback.

[0090] The "communication resources" mentioned here have different meanings in different communication systems. For example, "communication resources" can be time domain and / or frequency domain resources. Taking LTE as an example, each LTE frame (10ms) can be divided into 10 equally sized subframes, each subframe (1ms) can include 2 consecutive time slots, each time slot includes a resource block (RB), and the resource block can be represented by a resource grid. The resource grid can be divided into multiple resource elements (RE). For example, each resource block contains 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain, and for a normal cyclic prefix in each OFDM symbol, each resource block contains 7 consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain, that is, each resource block contains 84 resource elements. In such an LTE frame, symbols of user data or reference signals are allocated corresponding resource elements. However, in addition to time and frequency resources, "communication resources" can also refer to spatial domain resources or code domain resources, etc.

[0091] In the communication system of the present disclosure, different reference signals generally have different usage scenarios and purposes. For example, DMRS can be primarily transmitted along with PUCCH, PDCCH, PUSCH, or PDSCH to facilitate channel state estimation and related demodulation by the base station. SRS can be transmitted periodically or aperiodically to facilitate channel state estimation by the base station to support uplink channel-dependent scheduling and link adaptation.

[0092] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the reference signal can be a CSI-RS / SRS, a reference signal specifically used for channel estimation; or a DMRS, a reference signal inserted into the data for demodulation (which can be inserted more sparsely and less frequently than in the current method). The receiving end uses the DMRS on some subcarriers to obtain the channels on other subcarriers in the entire resource block carrying the data and use them for demodulation. Of course, depending on the specific communication system used, the reference signal can also be other types of reference signals.

[0093] On the other hand, beamforming technology can be particularly applied to the communication process between the base station and the terminal device via the synchronization signal. The initial connection / synchronization between the terminal device and the base station (including, for example, the base station sends a synchronization signal (Synchronization Signal, SS), and the terminal device sends a random access signal to the base station) is the first step in enabling the terminal device to communicate properly with the base station. For example, beamforming technology can be used for the transmission and reception process of the synchronization signal and the transmission and reception process of the random access signal. The technical solution of the present disclosure is also applicable in such synchronization signal beamforming to compensate for the loss of the synchronization signal to ensure that the terminal device properly performs downlink synchronization and random access processes.

[0094] Generally speaking, the synchronization signal may include a synchronization sequence, which is known to both the base station and the terminal device. For example, in the LTE system, the synchronization signal includes a primary synchronization signal (PSS) and a secondary synchronization signal (SSS). The primary synchronization signal may be a Zadoff-Chu sequence of length 63, and the secondary synchronization signal may be a sequence of length 62 obtained by concatenating two M sequences of length 31. Moreover, the synchronization signal may be sent in a certain time period or time pattern. For example, the synchronization signal may be sent at a fixed position in a downlink frame (e.g., a fixed subframe, time slot, and symbol position).

[0095] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the transmission of a synchronization signal may indicate the transmit beam information used to transmit the synchronization signal, so that the terminal device can obtain the transmit beam information by receiving the synchronization signal. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the synchronization signal may be repeatedly transmitted by the base station to multiple terminal devices, including the terminal device, using different transmit beams based on the transmit beam configuration, and the synchronization signal may include the transmit beam information used to transmit the synchronization signal.

[0096] The terminal device can receive the synchronization signal in a variety of ways. When receiving the synchronization signal, the terminal device can at least determine the transmit beam of the base station that matches the terminal device and feed the matching transmit beam back to the base station in any appropriate manner. At least the matching transmit beam of the base station can be used for subsequent communications between the base station and the terminal device (including random access and data transmission and reception).

[0097] In one embodiment, the terminal device may also use receive beamforming when receiving a synchronization signal. At this time, the receive beam on the terminal device side and the transmit beam on the base station side that match when the synchronization signal is successfully received can be determined, and the matched transmit beam can be fed back to the base station. In some embodiments, when the terminal device also uses beamforming technology to receive the synchronization signal, the terminal device may also set the receive beam of the terminal device to receive the synchronization signal based on the transmit beam configuration of the synchronization signal transmitted by the base station. For example, since the terminal device needs to perform receive beam scanning, that is, use different receive beams to receive the signal sent by the base station side through the same transmit beam, the terminal device may need to know the transmit beam configuration of the base station. In one example, the transmit beam configuration of the base station can be notified to the terminal device in advance, for example, the terminal device can obtain the transmit beam configuration information of the base station from another base station. In another example, the terminal device can obtain the transmit beam configuration of the base station from the synchronization signal transmitted by the base station. For example, the terminal device can estimate the transmit beam configuration of the base station through the measurement process of the synchronization signal.

[0098] The embodiments of the present disclosure can be used in various communication frequency bands, including traditional radio frequency communication bands ranging from hundreds of MHz to several GHz. With the improvement of the frequency band of wireless communication systems, for example, using 26 GHz, 60 GHz or higher frequency bands, the wireless channel will be subject to negative effects such as greater path loss and atmospheric absorption loss compared to low frequency bands (such as 2 GHz). Therefore, the technical solution according to the present disclosure is also applicable to high frequency band (such as millimeter wave) communications, and is even more important. The embodiments of the present disclosure can have multiple implementation methods and can be applied to a variety of wireless communication systems, and are particularly suitable for wireless communication systems with channel sparsity.

[0099] According to some embodiments, the embodiments of the present disclosure may be particularly preferably used in a millimeter wave orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system, utilizing the sparsity of the millimeter wave channel itself and its enhanced sparsity after beamforming to achieve improved beam management.

[0100] According to some embodiments, the present disclosure may also be used in wireless communication systems that primarily communicate via direct beams. For example, in addition to millimeter wave systems, which have direct beams, conventional decimeter wave and centimeter wave systems now also have scenarios where aircraft communicate with ground base stations. In these cases, the beams between the aircraft and the base station are also mostly direct beams, with few obstacles blocking the way, making them suitable for the present disclosure.

[0101] It should be noted that the above application scenarios are merely exemplary, and the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other wireless channel systems with sparse channels.

[0102] According to some embodiments, the communication system described in this disclosure is an OFDM-based communication system, and the communication resources correspond to subcarriers. The following will be elaborated on this basis, but it should be understood that the implementation described below can also be applied to other types of communication resources. As an example, a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) communication system based on OFDM can also be used.

[0103] The basic implementations of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that these basic implementations can be equally applicable to the above-mentioned transmitter / receiver embodiments, and can also be equally applicable to other embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0104] System Configuration

[0105] Figure 5 FIG2 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system 0200 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The communication system 0200 may include a communication device 0210 and a communication device 0220 that perform wireless communication with each other. Figure 50210 and one communication device 0220 are shown communicating with each other, but the communication device 0210 can communicate with multiple communication devices 0220, and the communication device 0220 can communicate with multiple communication devices 0210 (for example, in the case of multi-point coordination).

[0106] Communication device 0210 may include electronic device 0211 and antenna 0213. In addition, communication device 0210 may also include other components not shown, such as a radio frequency link, a baseband processing unit, a network interface, a processor, a memory, a controller, etc. Electronic device 0211 may be associated with antenna 0213. For example, electronic device 0211 may be directly or indirectly (e.g., with other components connected in between) connected to antenna 0213, and transmit and receive radio signals via antenna 0213.

[0107] Electronic device 0211 may include processing circuit 0212. Furthermore, electronic device 0211 may also include input / output interfaces and memory. Processing circuit 0212 in electronic device 0211 may output signals (digital or analog) to other components in communication device 0210, and may also receive signals (digital or analog) from other components in communication device 0210. Furthermore, processing circuit 0212 may control some or all operations of other components in communication device 0210.

[0108] The processing circuit 0212 may be in the form of a general-purpose processor or a dedicated processing circuit, such as an ASIC. For example, the processing circuit 0212 may be constructed from a circuit (hardware) or a central processing device (such as a central processing unit (CPU)). In addition, the processing circuit 0212 may carry a program (software) for operating the circuit (hardware) or the central processing device. The program may be stored in a memory (such as one disposed in the communication device 0210 or the electronic device 0211) or in an externally connected external storage medium, or downloaded via a network (such as the Internet).

[0109] Although Figure 5 0210, the electronic device 0211 is shown as being separate from the antenna 0213, but the electronic device 0211 may also be implemented to include the antenna 0213. In addition, the electronic device 0211 may also be implemented to include one or more other components in the communication device 0210, or the electronic device 0211 may be implemented as the communication device 0210 itself. In actual implementation, the electronic device 0211 may be implemented as a chip (such as an integrated circuit module including a single die), a hardware component, or a complete product.

[0110] Communication device 0220 may include electronic device 0221 and antenna 0223, and electronic device 0221 may include processing circuit 0222. Furthermore, the above description of the structure of communication device 0210 also applies to communication device 0220 and is not repeated here. Communication system 0200 may be a cellular communication system, a machine type communication (MTC) system, an ad hoc network, or a cognitive radio system (e.g., IEEE P802.19.1a and a spectrum access system (SAS)).

[0111] The communication device 0210 can be implemented as a base station (BS), a small base station, a Node B, an e-Node B (eNB), a g-Node B (gNB), a relay, etc. in a cellular communication system, a terminal device in a machine-type communication system, a sensor node in an ad hoc network, a coexistence manager (CM), an SAS, etc. in a cognitive radio system. For example, the communication device 0210 can preferably be implemented as any type of node gNB, such as a macro gNB (associated with a macro cell) and a small gNB (associated with a small cell). A small gNB can be a gNB that covers a cell smaller than a macro cell, such as a pico gNB, a micro gNB, and a home (femto) gNB. Alternatively, the communication device 0210 can be implemented as any other type of base station, such as an eNB, a Node B, and a base transceiver station (BTS). The communication device 0210 may include: a main body (also referred to as a base station device) configured to control wireless communications; and one or more remote radio heads (RRHs) located separately from the main body. In addition, various types of terminals to be described later can operate as the communication device 0210 by temporarily or semi-permanently performing the base station function.

[0112] The communication device 0220 can be implemented as a terminal device or user equipment (UE). For example, the communication device 0220 can be implemented as a mobile terminal (such as a smart phone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable / dongle-type mobile router, and a digital camera device), a drone, or a vehicle-mounted terminal (such as a car navigation device). The communication device 0220 can also be implemented as a terminal that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication (also known as a machine type communication (MTC) terminal). In addition, the communication device 0220 can be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single chip) installed on each of the above-mentioned terminals. The communication device 0220 can also be implemented as a smart meter, a smart home appliance, or a geolocation capability object (GCO) or a citizen broadband radio service device (CBSD) in a cognitive radio system.

[0113] For simplicity of description, the processing of communication devices 0210 and 0220 will be described below assuming that communication device 0210 is a base station and communication device 0220 is a user equipment. Communication from communication device 0210 to communication device 0220 is referred to as downlink, and communication from communication device 0220 to communication device 0210 is referred to as uplink. Note that when communication device 0210 is not a base station and communication device 0220 is not a user equipment, for example, in the case of proximity-based service communication between two user equipments or wireless communication between two base stations, communication devices 0210 and 0220 can also perform the processing described below. In addition, some or all of the processing performed by communication devices 0210 and 0220 described below can be performed by processing circuits 0212 and 0222, or can be performed by processing circuits 0212 and 0222 controlling other components in communication devices 0210 and 0220 and / or components in other devices.

[0114] The electronic devices described in this disclosure may also be implemented in various other ways. According to some embodiments, the processing circuitry of the electronic device may include various units to implement the various embodiments of this disclosure. For example, the processing circuitry of the electronic device on the receiver side may include various estimation units to implement the various estimation operations described herein. The processing circuitry of the electronic device on the transmitter side may also include transmitting and receiving units to implement the various operations performed on the transmitter side described herein.

[0115] First embodiment

[0116] The first embodiment of the present disclosure is described in detail below. The first embodiment of the present disclosure mainly relates to an improved fast beam management, which utilizes the matching condition between the channel path parameters under the first beam and the channel path parameters under the second beam covered by the first beam to select a specific second beam.

[0117] According to some embodiments, an electronic device for a receiver in a wireless communication system is provided. According to one embodiment, the electronic device may include a processing circuit. The processing circuit may be configured to estimate a channel path parameter corresponding to a second beam from the transmitter to the receiver based on a reference signal transmitted from a transmitter of the wireless communication system via at least one second beam included in the coverage area of ​​the first beam. A specific second beam from the at least one second beam may be selected based on the estimated channel path parameter, and the estimated channel path parameter corresponding to the specific second beam matches the channel path parameter corresponding to the first beam.

[0118] According to some embodiments, an electronic device for a transmitter of a wireless communication system is provided. According to one embodiment, the electronic device may include processing circuitry. The processing circuitry may be configured to transmit a reference signal to a receiver of the wireless communication system via at least one second beam included in a first beam. A specific second beam from the at least one second beam may be selected based on estimated channel path parameters from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the second beam, where the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the specific second beam match the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam.

[0119] According to some embodiments, the processing circuit of the electronic device may include various units to implement various embodiments according to the present disclosure. Of course, the processing circuit may also be implemented in other ways, and is not limited thereto.

[0120] Figure 6A An exemplary implementation of an electronic device 600 for a receiver according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. In one embodiment, the electronic device 600 may be implemented as a receiver or a portion thereof, or may be implemented as a device for controlling a receiver or otherwise associated with a receiver or a portion thereof.

[0121] Figure 6AThe electronic device 600 shown may include processing circuitry 601, which may refer to various implementations of digital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed-signal (a combination of analog and digital signals) circuitry that performs functions in a computing system. The processing circuitry may include, for example, circuits such as integrated circuits (ICs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), portions or circuits of a separate processor core, an entire processor core, a separate processor, a programmable hardware device such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and / or a system including multiple processors.

[0122] In one embodiment, the processing circuit 601 includes at least an estimation unit 602. Various operations described below may be implemented by the unit 602 of the electronic device 600 or other possible units.

[0123] In one embodiment, the estimation unit 602 may estimate channel path parameters from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the second beam based on a reference signal transmitted from a transmitter of the wireless communication system based on at least one second beam within the coverage area of ​​the first beam. The corresponding estimation process will be described in detail below.

[0124] The processing circuitry may further include a selection unit 603 that may select a specific second beam from the at least one second beam based on the estimated channel path parameters, wherein the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the specific second beam match the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam. According to some aspects, the selection unit 603 may include a comparison unit that may compare the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the second beam with the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam. If the comparison result satisfies a matching condition, the second beam may be selected by the selection unit as the specific second beam.

[0125] It should be noted that such a selection unit 603 is not necessarily located in the processing circuit, but may also be located outside the processing circuit or the electronic device. Therefore, the selection unit 603 is drawn with a dotted line in the accompanying drawings, and the corresponding processing will be described in detail below.

[0126] The electronic device 600 may further include, for example, a communication unit 604 and a memory 605 .

[0127] The communication unit 604 can be configured to communicate with the receiving end under the control of the processing circuit 601. In one example, the communication unit 604 can be implemented as a transmitter or a transceiver, including communication components such as the antenna array and / or radio frequency link described above. In one embodiment, the communication unit can provide the estimation results obtained by the processing circuit 601 to the base station electronic equipment. In one embodiment, the communication unit can also send and receive information used for beamforming processing, and can even include a processing unit for performing beamforming processing. Of course, such a processing unit can be external to the communication unit.

[0128] The communication unit 604 is drawn with dashed lines because it may also be located outside the electronic device 600 .

[0129] The memory 605 can store various information generated by the processing circuit 601 (e.g., information regarding beam training, information regarding the target channel direction, and basic compensation phase information), programs and data used for the operation of the electronic device 600, data to be transmitted by the communication unit 604, etc. The memory 605 is depicted with a dotted line because it can be located within the processing circuit 601 or outside the electronic device 600. The memory 605 can be a volatile memory and / or a non-volatile memory. For example, the memory 605 can include, but is not limited to, random access memory (RAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), read-only memory (ROM), and flash memory.

[0130] Figure 6B An exemplary implementation of an electronic device at a transmitter end according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 6B The illustrated electronic device 610 may include processing circuitry 611 , which may be implemented in various ways as described above.

[0131] In one embodiment, the processing circuit 611 may include a sending unit 612 and a receiving unit 613. Various operations below may be implemented by the units 612 and 613 or other possible units.

[0132] In one embodiment, the transmitting unit 612 may transmit a reference signal to a receiver of the wireless communication system via at least one second beam included in the first beam. The receiving unit 613 may receive any information about the estimation result from the receiver, such as the estimated channel path parameter, beam information of the selected beam, and the like.

[0133] The processing circuit may further include a selection unit 614 that may select a specific second beam from the at least one second beam based on the estimated channel path parameters from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the second beam, the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the specific second beam matching the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam. According to some aspects, the selection unit 614 may be similar to Figure 6A 6. It should be noted that such a selection unit 614 is not necessarily located in the processing circuit, but can also be located outside the processing circuit or outside the electronic device. Therefore, the selection unit 614 is indicated by a dotted line in the figure, and the corresponding processing will be described in detail below.

[0134] The electronic device 610 may further include, for example, a communication unit and a memory as described above.

[0135] It should be noted that the above-mentioned units are merely logical modules divided according to the specific functions they implement, and are not intended to limit specific implementation methods. For example, they can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. In actual implementation, the above-mentioned units can be implemented as independent physical entities, or they can be implemented by a single entity (for example, a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.).

[0136] It should be noted that the arrangement of the various units described above is merely exemplary and not intended to be limiting. For example, given that the estimation process can be distributed across both the receiver and transmitter, some functions within the estimation unit on the receiver side can also be at least partially distributed to the transmitter side, with further calculations performed based on feedback from the receiver. Furthermore, for example, the transmitting and receiving units on the transmitter side can also be located on the receiver side.

[0137] It should be noted that the transmitter and receiver mentioned above may correspond to various parties in a wireless communication system. For example, the transmitter may correspond to a base station, while the receiver may correspond to a user equipment. Such operations particularly correspond to downlink communication transmissions. For example, the transmitter may correspond to a user equipment, while the receiver may correspond to a base station. Such operations particularly correspond to uplink communication transmissions.

[0138] An exemplary implementation of the beam management mechanism in this embodiment will be described in detail below. Figure 7 The following illustrates an exemplary process for a beam management mechanism according to this embodiment, which is particularly applicable to hierarchical beam management. The following description refers to a case involving a first-level beam (first beam) and a second-level beam (second beam), but it should be understood that the embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to cases involving beams of a greater number of levels, where the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to beams of every two adjacent levels.

[0139] First, the channel path parameters under the second beam covered by the first beam are estimated (step 701).

[0140] Typically, the first beam may cover at least two second beams, so the estimation step is performed sequentially for each of the at least two second beams. The at least two second beams can be numbered in any order, so channel path parameter estimation can be performed sequentially for each of the second beams in any order.

[0141] In step 701 , channel path parameter estimation is performed for each second beam. This estimation may be performed as described below.

[0142] Then, the estimated channel path parameters under the second beam are compared with the channel path parameters under the first beam to determine whether they match (step 702).

[0143] The channel path parameters of the first beam may be obtained in advance in various ways. For example, the channel path parameters of the first beam may be estimated using an estimation method similar to that of the channel path parameters of the second beam.

[0144] In addition, depending on the application scenario of the technical solution of the present disclosure, the estimation of the channel path parameters of the first beam and the estimation of the channel path parameters of the second beam can be performed at a similar stage. For example, both can be performed in the stage of configuring the reference signal for beam scanning in beamforming. In this case, the estimation of the channel path parameters of the first beam and the estimation of the channel path parameters of the second beam are both performed using the reference signal. Of course, the reference signals used by the two can be the same or different. According to some embodiments, the reference signal includes one or more of CSI-RS, UE-RS, SRS, and DMRS.

[0145] According to some aspects, the estimation of the channel path parameters of the first beam can be performed at a different stage from the estimation of the channel path parameters of the second beam. For example, the estimation of the channel path parameters of the first beam can be performed in a stage before the estimation of the channel path parameters of the second beam. For example, the estimation of the channel path parameters of the first beam can be performed in the stage of applying a synchronization signal for initial synchronization / random access in beamforming. In this case, the estimation of the channel path parameters of the first beam can be performed by applying the synchronization signal, while the estimation of the channel path parameters of the second beam can be performed in the stage of configuring a reference signal for beam scanning later. According to some embodiments, the synchronization signal includes one or both of the PSS or the SSS.

[0146] Next, if they match, the second beam is selected as the appropriate second beam, and the channel path parameter estimation for the remaining second beams is stopped.

[0147] If they do not match, if there are still second beams, the channel parameter estimation and matching described above are continued for the remaining second beams in sequence until a matching second beam is found. It should be noted that if no match is found after all second beams are estimated, the second beam with the best estimated channel path parameters among all second beams can be selected as the specific second beam.

[0148] It should be noted that this primarily briefly describes the basic operational flow of the beam management scheme according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure, and is not specifically limited to uplink or downlink communications. That is, the beam management scheme according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure is applicable to both uplink and downlink communications. For example, in downlink communications, the transmitter and receiver may correspond to a base station and a terminal device, respectively, and the first beam and the second beam are the first downlink transmit beam and the second downlink transmit beam, respectively, originating from the transmitter. In uplink communications, the transmitter and receiver may correspond to a terminal device and a base station, respectively, and the first beam and the second beam are the first uplink transmit beam and the second uplink transmit beam, respectively, originating from the terminal device.

[0149] In addition, the execution entity of each step is not specifically limited. These steps can be performed on one side of the wireless communication system, for example, on the receiver side (downlink communication) or the transmitter side (uplink communication) of the wireless communication system, or they can be distributed and performed on both sides of the wireless communication system.

[0150] According to some aspects, the aforementioned operations may be performed by a receiver of a wireless communication system. In this case, the receiver estimates channel path parameters corresponding to the second transmit beam based on a reference signal transmitted via the second transmit beam from the transmitter. The receiver may select an appropriate second transmit beam and provide beam information of the selected second beam as feedback to the transmitter.

[0151] According to some aspects, the beam information fed back may include at least one or both of a beam index and a beam quality. For example, the beam quality may include at least one of parameters such as received power (e.g., RSRP), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (e.g., SINR), time domain gain, and error rate (e.g., BLER).

[0152] According to some embodiments, after selecting the particular second beam, the receiver may stop estimating channel path parameters corresponding to the remaining second beams. Additionally or alternatively, according to some embodiments, after selecting the particular second beam, the receiver may instruct the transmitter to stop transmitting reference signals via the other second beams.

[0153] According to other aspects, the aforementioned selection step may be performed by a transmitter of the wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the second beam are fed back to the transmitter. Thus, the transmitter may match the received channel path parameters of the second beam with the channel path parameters of the first beam to select a specific second beam. According to some embodiments, after selecting the specific second beam, the transmitter may stop transmitting reference signals via other second beams.

[0154] According to some embodiments, after selecting the specific second beam, the transmitter may provide beam information of the specific second beam to the receiver. According to some embodiments, the beam information includes at least one or both of a beam index and a beam quality. For example, the beam quality may include at least one of parameters such as RSRP, time domain gain, and BLER.

[0155] According to some aspects, the first beam is determined in the first beam set by a beam scanning operation from the transmitter end to the receiver end. This beam scanning operation can be implemented by various well-known beam scanning technologies, which will not be described in detail here.

[0156] According to some aspects, channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam can be estimated at a receiver. According to some embodiments, the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam are estimated based on a reference signal or synchronization signal transmitted from the transmitter based on the first beam. Thus, the receiver can perform matching based on both the channel path parameters of the first beam and the channel path parameters of the second beam.

[0157] If the matching operation is to be performed at the transmitter, according to some embodiments, the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam can be fed back from the receiver to the transmitter. Alternatively, the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam can be informed to the transmitter by another device. Thus, the transmitter can perform matching based on both the channel path parameters of the first beam and the fed-back channel path parameters of the second beam.

[0158] Of course, this matching and selection operation can also be performed on a device other than a receiver and a transmitter, as long as the device can obtain the estimated channel path parameters and inform the transmitter and / or the receiver of the selection result.

[0159] The channel path parameters corresponding to the beams to be estimated will be described in further detail below.

[0160] According to some embodiments, the channel path parameter to be estimated may include path gain. According to some embodiments, the channel path parameter includes the magnitude of the path gain in the time domain. According to some embodiments, the channel path parameter may also include path delay.

[0161] The following examples will provide a more detailed understanding of channel path parameters in conjunction with channel models in wireless systems, especially millimeter wave systems. Figure 8 The schematic structure of a millimeter-wave massive multiple-input multiple-output antenna system transceiver is shown.

[0162] The millimeter wave time domain channel can be described by the following formula:

[0163]

[0164] Where L is the number of paths, which is usually small, especially in sparse cases. l and τ l is the complex gain and delay of the lth path, a r and a t is the antenna response vector of the receiving and transmitting ends, N r and N t is the number of antennas at the receiving and transmitting ends, θ and φ represent the horizontal and vertical departure / arrival angles, respectively. Furthermore, the frequency domain channel can be expressed as

[0165]

[0166] In the OFDM system, the channel coefficient on the nth, 0≤n≤N-1 subcarrier can be expressed as

[0167]

[0168] Where Δf is the subcarrier spacing. Assume that the transmitter uses beam The receiving end uses the receiving beam Then the baseband equivalent channel after beamforming can be expressed as:

[0169]

[0170] in is the equivalent gain of the lth path.

[0171] By sending a reference signal on an OFDM subcarrier, we can estimate channel path parameters, which may include channel path gain and channel path delay.

[0172] Therefore, by referring to the above model to estimate the channel path parameters corresponding to the beam, and matching the path parameters of the first beam with the path parameters of the second beam it covers, the specific second beam can be determined relatively quickly. This is also the basic working principle of this embodiment.

[0173] An exemplary estimation of channel path parameters, in particular channel path gain and channel path delay, will be described below.

[0174] According to some embodiments, the channel path parameters may be estimated by: estimating the channel state on the communication resource carrying the reference signal based on the reference signal from the transmitter; and estimating the channel path parameters using the estimated channel state of the communication resource.

[0175] Here, an exemplary implementation process for path delay and gain estimation is given, taking the uniform insertion of reference signals across OFDM subcarriers as an example. It should be noted that this estimation process is merely exemplary and can be equally applied to estimation processes based on other signals (e.g., synchronization signals).

[0176] like Figure 9 As shown, let the number of OFDM subcarriers be N, the number of reference signals be K, and the reference signal interval be K. p , the subcarrier index of the first reference signal is N s The reference signals in the existing LTE system, such as UE-RS, CSI-RS, PSS, SRS, DMRS, etc., can be described by this model. Using classic channel estimation algorithms such as the latest square method and the minimum mean square error algorithm, the channel estimation on the subcarrier transmitting the reference signal can be obtained as

[0177] According to the above channel model, we can get

[0178]

[0179]

[0180] in is the channel estimation on the subcarriers transmitting the reference signal, Φ and A represent the delay matrix and gain matrix respectively.

[0181] The above model can then be mathematically operated on. The above problem is a classic spectrum analysis problem. Some classic algorithms can be used to estimate the path delay, such as the algorithm based on Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), the Multiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm, and the Estimating Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Techniques (ESPRIT) algorithm. The gain matrix is ​​then estimated using the least squares algorithm. Note that in the embodiments of the present disclosure, we are concerned with the magnitude of the path gain (ie, |A|) and do not need to consider its phase.

[0182] Here we briefly introduce the process of using FFT algorithm to estimate the path delay. Do N fft The FFT changes of the points are used to obtain the time domain impulse response and obtain several peaks with amplitudes greater than a certain threshold. Represents its index, then the path delay estimation result can be obtained

[0183]

[0184] Figure 10 An example of path delay estimation is given in which K=64 intervals are used. p =8 reference signals, subcarrier spacing is Δf=120kHz, using N fft =2048-point FFT transform. Figure 10 Given the channel estimate The amplitude of each element after FFT transformation shows that there are two peaks greater than the threshold and This can be used to estimate the path delay. and

[0185] It should be noted that the estimation of the channel path parameters is also related to the configuration of the reference signals on the subcarriers. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the predetermined interval K between the reference signals is p And / or the setting of the number K of subcarriers carrying reference signals will affect the channel estimation performance.

[0186] Maximum delay estimation range Paths with delays outside this range cannot be estimated;

[0187] Delay estimation accuracy, Indicates the accuracy of delay estimation for a certain path under noise-free conditions;

[0188] Delay estimation resolution, It is expressed as the minimum value of the delay difference between different paths that does not cause aliasing. That is, paths with a delay difference smaller than Δτ cannot be distinguished during delay estimation.

[0189] It can be seen that increasing the reference signal interval K p The accuracy and resolution of delay estimation can be improved, and increasing the number of reference signals K can also improve delay estimation resolution. From the above, we can clearly understand the relationship between reference signal configuration and channel path parameter estimation, and based on this, we can appropriately configure reference signals, especially the reference signal interval and data.

[0190] According to some embodiments, the reference signals are distributed at predetermined intervals in the frequency domain, and the predetermined intervals are determined based on a maximum delay spread of a channel and a frequency domain interval between adjacent communication resources in a communication system.

[0191] According to some embodiments, the number of reference signals may be determined based on the accuracy of channel estimation and the total bandwidth of the first frequency domain range expected to be occupied by subcarriers including the reference signals.

[0192] The following describes the setting of the number of reference signals by way of example.

[0193] For example, in K p When the total number of pilots K is fixed, s When K increases, the estimation accuracy will also increase accordingly. The reason is that when K s When the value is increased, the sidelobe effect caused by the zero-padding operation of the 1024-point FFT will be reduced, and the main lobe width will be narrowed, which will increase the total number of paths L and the path delay parameter Δ l In addition, in estimating the intensity parameter β l The accuracy of the least squares estimation used will also decrease with K s But as K s As the value increases, the pilot overhead will also increase.

[0194] On the contrary, if K s If the value is too small, the side lobe amplitude corresponding to the FFT spectrum peak will be larger and the main lobe width will be larger, resulting in a larger estimation error. Here, it is assumed that the number of FFT points used in path estimation is 2 n (1024-FFT corresponds to n = 10), in order to ensure the estimation accuracy K s Should meet

[0195]

[0196] For example, if a 1024-FFT is used, at least K s The value is 16.

[0197] Based on the above, for K p With K s The selection of K should be determined based on the maximum delay spread of the channel and the subcarrier spacing. p The upper bound of K is chosen without exceeding the upper bound. p . Further, according to the selected FFT points, determine K s The lower bound of K is taken into account, considering the limitations of bandwidth and pilot overhead, and taking the largest possible K based on this lower bound. s The accuracy of channel estimation can be improved.

[0198] The bandwidth of the frequency band containing the pilot is approximately K p K s The bandwidth of subcarriers, if K s When K takes the minimum value p K s The bandwidth corresponding to the subcarriers still exceeds the expected total bandwidth, then K can be reduced p The value of K p K s The bandwidth corresponding to the subcarriers is smaller than the expected total bandwidth.

[0199] In terms of implementation, the path delay and gain estimation can be performed using the existing uplink and downlink reference signals in the LTE standard, such as the downlink PSS (Primary Synchronization Signal), CSI-RS, UE-RS and downlink SRS, DMRS, etc. The PSS signal is located in the center of K=62 subcarriers, with a subcarrier spacing of K. p =1, the accuracy and resolution of delay estimation are relatively low. Moreover, since the PSS signal is only broadcast through a wide beam, it can only be used for delay estimation under a wide beam. The advantage is that the PSS signal is broadcast periodically and does not require additional resources. For CSI-RS and UE-RS, their number is configurable and the subcarrier spacing is relatively large (CSI-RS: K p =12, UE-RS: K p =6), so a more accurate delay estimation can be achieved. CSI-RS and UE-RS can be configured in wide beam or narrow beam. In addition, SRS and DMRS are also continuously distributed (K p =1), the number of which depends on the uplink bandwidth allocated to the user. In order to improve the delay estimation accuracy, the channel estimation can be performed at the receiving end. Sampling is performed, which is equivalent to increasing the subcarrier spacing K p SRS and DMRS are suitable for delay estimation under wide beam and narrow beam.

[0200] It should be noted that the arrangement of the reference signals is not limited to the uniform arrangement described above, and other arrangements may also be adopted.

[0201] According to some embodiments, the reference signal may be arranged only on some subcarriers of the communication system; and the reference signal may be sent to the receiver end via the some subcarriers. Figure 11 As shown, the reference signal may be distributed only on subcarriers in a partial frequency domain range (such as the first frequency domain range) of the communication system, and the partial frequency domain range is only a small part of the entire frequency domain range.

[0202] According to one embodiment, the reference signal may be distributed on communication resources in a first frequency domain range of the communication system, where the frequency domain resources of the communication system are divided into a plurality of orthogonal frequency domain ranges including the first frequency domain range.

[0203] According to some embodiments, the distribution of reference signals may also take into account the situation of time slots. In some implementations, reference signals distributed over at least one time slot are used to jointly estimate the channel state of subcarriers containing the reference signals.

[0204] According to some embodiments, the reference signal is distributed throughout the entire transmission frequency band in a specific time slot, and the reference signal is only distributed within a portion of the frequency band in the remaining time slots except the specific time slot.

[0205] According to some embodiments, in all time slots, the reference signals are only distributed over a part of the frequency band.

[0206] According to some embodiments, for even time slots and odd time slots, the reference signal is alternately distributed in a lower frequency half of the frequency band range or a higher frequency half of the frequency band range.

[0207] Next, the fast beam management mechanism according to this embodiment will be further described in conjunction with the above-mentioned channel path parameters. Based on the estimation results of the channel path parameters obtained through the above-mentioned estimation process, this embodiment can perform comparison to achieve advantageous fast beam management.

[0208] The basic principle of the disclosed fast beam management mechanism is that the channel path in a narrow beam is a subset of the channel path in a wide beam. Therefore, the path delay measured in a narrow beam should match the measurement result in a wide beam. If a narrow beam that meets the matching conditions is found during beam scanning, it is selected as the optimal beam direction, eliminating the need to scan the remaining candidate beams, thereby reducing beam scanning overhead and latency.

[0209] According to some embodiments, the channel path parameters to be estimated may include path gain. In this case, when the path gain of the channel path corresponding to the second beam is greater than the path gain of the target path corresponding to the first beam by more than a gain threshold, the channel path parameters corresponding to the second beam may be considered to match the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam. According to some embodiments, the gain threshold is set based on the difference between the maximum path gain corresponding to the first beam and the maximum path gain corresponding to the second beam. In the present disclosure, the gain threshold may also be referred to as a gain matching parameter. This scheme of matching narrow beams and wide beams by estimating path gain corresponds to the so-called gain improvement criterion, which is based on the theory that the gain of a narrow beam should be greater than that of a wide beam.

[0210] Assume that the gains of L paths are estimated under wide beam Select one of the L paths as the target path, and let the target path be numbered l d The selection of the target path depends on the beam selection strategy. For example, the path with the highest gain may be selected to obtain the optimal narrow beam. However, this is not limited to this. For example, the beam with the second highest gain may be selected to obtain a backup narrow beam.

[0211] The following describes the gain improvement criterion by taking the selection of the strongest path as an example. Assume that when scanning a narrow beam, the gain of the strongest path is measured to be G narrow The gain similarity can be expressed as

[0212]

[0213] where η G is the gain increase threshold, which depends on the difference between the maximum gain of wide beam and narrow beam. For example, if the maximum gain of wide beam is 3dB lower than that of narrow beam, then η can be set to G =2dB. Figure 12 An example of the gain improvement criterion is shown. It can be seen that the delay of the strongest path of narrow beam 3 is the same as the direct path of the wide beam, but its gain is too low, failing to meet the gain improvement criterion and therefore not the desired optimal beam. However, the gain of the strongest path of narrow beam 2 is high, meeting the gain improvement criterion and therefore being the desired optimal beam.

[0214] According to some aspects, this matching operation can be performed at the receiver end. Thus, according to some embodiments, the gain threshold is transmitted from the transmitter end to the receiver end. Alternatively, this matching operation can be performed at the transmitter end, for example. In this case, the gain threshold is set and stored at the transmitter end, and the transmitter end performs the matching operation based on the estimated path parameters fed back from the receiver end.

[0215] According to some embodiments, the channel path parameters may further include a path delay. In this case, when the difference between the path delay of the channel path corresponding to the second beam and the path delay of the target path corresponding to the first beam is less than a delay threshold, the channel path parameters corresponding to the second beam may be considered to match the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam.

[0216] According to some embodiments, the delay threshold is set based on delay estimation accuracy.

[0217] According to some embodiments, the delay threshold is set by the receiver end based on delay estimation accuracy, or is notified to the receiver end by the transmitter end.

[0218] This solution of matching narrow beams and wide beams by estimating path delay corresponds to the so-called Delay Similarity criterion, which is based on the theory that the delay of a narrow beam should be substantially consistent with the delay of a wide beam.

[0219] Assume that the delay of L paths is estimated under wide beam Select one of the L paths as the target path, and let the target path be numbered l d When scanning a narrow beam, the measured path delay is τ narrow The delay similarity can be expressed as

[0220]

[0221] where η τ is the threshold of the delay difference, which can be set to several times the delay estimation accuracy, for example. Figure 13 An example of the delay similarity criterion is provided. It can be seen that narrow beam 2 meets the delay similarity criterion, while narrow beam 4 does not. It should be noted that in the fast beam management mechanism disclosed herein, only channel path gain matching or channel path delay matching can be performed. Furthermore, considering that changes in channel path gain can often more accurately reflect the correspondence between wide and narrow beams, the fast beam management mechanism disclosed herein can only perform channel path gain matching.

[0222] On the other hand, according to some embodiments, the fast beam management mechanism of the present disclosure can combine channel path gain matching and channel path delay matching, thereby enabling more accurate path matching. For example, channel path delay can be considered first for preliminary selection, and then channel path gain can be used for further selection.

[0223] As an example, in an actual system, due to the influence of noise and other factors, there may not be a beam that satisfies the above criteria simultaneously during the narrow beam search process. In this case, we select the narrow beam with the highest gain that satisfies the delay similarity criterion. If no beam satisfies the delay similarity criterion, the narrow beam with the highest gain is selected. Ideally, each candidate narrow beam is selected with equal probability. Therefore, the average number of searches required by the present disclosure is:

[0224]

[0225] where N narrow is the number of alternative narrow beams. In actual systems, there is a certain probability that no beam that satisfies the above conditions can be found, so the average number of searches may be slightly larger than the above value.

[0226] Figure 14 FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a fast beam management mechanism according to this embodiment.

[0227] As can be seen, there are two transmission paths between the base station and the user. A wide beam has been selected, and the path delay and gain for this wide beam have been estimated. The delay estimation results reveal two paths: Path 1 has a low delay and high gain, while Path 2 has a high delay and low gain. For example, if we want to align a narrow beam with Path 1, when scanning narrow beam 2, we see that the delay of the strongest path under the narrow beam is the same as that of Path 1, and the gain is increased. Therefore, we can conclude that narrow beam 2 is aligned with Path 1, terminating the beam scanning process without scanning narrow beams 3 and 4, reducing scanning overhead and latency. Similarly, if we want to align a narrow beam with Path 2, when scanning beam 4, we find that the delay of the strongest path under the narrow beam is the same as that of Path 2, and the gain is increased, so we can conclude that narrow beam 4 is aligned with Path 2.

[0228] The following will further describe the signaling process of the beam management solution according to this embodiment, which is mainly implemented at the base station end and the terminal device end, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Figure 15 and 16 In particular, the beam management solution according to this embodiment implemented in downlink communication is shown, wherein the base station and the terminal device (user) may correspond to the transmitter end and the receiver end in this embodiment respectively.

[0229] Figure 15 The signaling process of the beam management solution according to this embodiment is mainly implemented in the terminal device. The channel path estimation and matching in the solution according to this embodiment are mainly performed at the terminal device end (receiver end).

[0230] First, the initial connection / synchronization between the terminal device and the base station is completed in steps 1 and 3. The initial connection / synchronization between the terminal device and the base station (including, for example, the base station sending a synchronization signal (SS) and the terminal device sending a random access signal to the base station) is the first step to enable the terminal device to communicate properly with the base station.

[0231] The initial connection / synchronization between the terminal device and the base station can be implemented through various implementations known in the art. An exemplary implementation of the initial connection / synchronization is briefly described below.

[0232] The base station sends a synchronization signal so that the terminal device can obtain the cell frame timing (step 1). The base station can, for example, send the synchronization signal periodically. Generally speaking, the synchronization signal can include a synchronization sequence, which is known to both the base station and the terminal device. Moreover, the synchronization signal can be sent in a certain time period or time pattern. For example, the synchronization signal can be sent at a fixed position in the downlink frame (such as a fixed subframe, time slot and symbol position). In this way, the terminal device can perform a correlation operation on the signal received in, for example, a single subframe at the center of the carrier with the known synchronization sequence, and the position of the peak of the correlation corresponds to the position of the synchronization signal in the downlink frame, so that the terminal device can obtain downlink cell synchronization.

[0233] After obtaining downlink cell synchronization, the terminal device can receive cell system information at an appropriate position in the downlink frame. The system information can be broadcast periodically by the base station through a broadcast channel (such as a broadcast channel PBCH, a shared channel PDSCH, etc.), and can include information necessary for the terminal device to access the base station, such as random access related information. Afterwards, in order to obtain uplink cell synchronization, the terminal device needs to perform a random access process (step 3). For example, the terminal device can notify the base station of its access behavior by sending a random access preamble code (for example, included in MSG-1) to the base station. In one example, after the random access process is successful, the initial connection / synchronization process between the terminal device and the base station can be considered to be over, and the terminal device can perform subsequent communications with the base station.

[0234] It should be noted that the channel path parameters under the first beam (wide beam) can be estimated during the initial connection / synchronization process between the terminal device and the base station. According to some embodiments, the channel path parameters under the first beam (wide beam) can be estimated using a synchronization signal. For example, as shown in step 2, the terminal device can estimate the channel path parameters under the first beam (wide beam) based on the received synchronization signal, including path delay and gain estimation, wherein the synchronization signal can be, for example, a PSS signal. The estimated channel path parameters under the first beam are stored in the terminal device.

[0235] Alternatively, the channel path parameters under the first beam (wide beam) can be estimated after the initial connection / synchronization process between the terminal device and the base station. According to some embodiments, the scanning of the first beam (wide beam) and the estimation of the channel path parameters under the first beam can be performed with the aid of a reference signal. For example, as shown in step 4, the base station configures a reference signal to perform beam scanning to the user equipment through the first beam, and then as shown in step 5, the terminal device estimates the channel path parameters under the first beam (wide beam) based on the received reference signal, including path delay and gain estimation, wherein the reference signal can be, for example, a CSI-RS or UE-RS signal for measurement. The estimated channel path parameters under the first beam are stored in the terminal device.

[0236] Subsequently, before performing narrow beam scanning, the base station configures matching parameters, including but not limited to a delay similarity threshold and a gain improvement threshold, and notifies the terminal device of the configured matching parameters, as shown in step 6. It should be noted that the matching parameters can also be notified to the terminal device in other ways, for example, the matching parameters can be notified to the terminal device in advance during other operations, or the terminal device can be notified in advance by other devices.

[0237] It should be noted that the matching parameters (including but not limited to the delay similarity threshold, gain improvement threshold, etc.) can also be notified to the terminal device by the base station during other processing. For example, the base station can include the delay and gain matching parameters in the system broadcast and notify the terminal device during the cell search phase in step 1. In this case, step 6 can be omitted.

[0238] According to some aspects, the matching parameters configured by the base station may only include the gain improvement threshold, while the delay similarity threshold can be set by the terminal device. For example, the terminal device can set the delay similarity threshold to a multiple of the delay estimation accuracy, which can be calculated as described above. As a result, the delay similarity threshold can be omitted in step 6, saving communication overhead.

[0239] Next, the base station scans the second beams (narrow beams) included in the coverage of the first beam, as shown in step 7. The narrow beam scanning here is performed on each second beam one by one.

[0240] For each scanned narrow beam, the terminal device estimates the channel path parameters corresponding to the narrow beam, including delay and gain, and performs matching using at least one or both of the delay similarity criterion and the gain improvement criterion, as shown in step 8.

[0241] It should be noted that, as described above, the matching operation can be performed based solely on the channel path gain, and therefore the delay matching operation is optional in step 8. According to some aspects, if the matching operation is performed based solely on the channel path gain, then only the estimation result of the channel path gain can be stored among the previous estimation results, thereby saving storage resources to a certain extent.

[0242] If the matching condition is met, it is determined that the desired beam is found, and the terminal device notifies the base station to terminate the beam scanning, thereby stopping the estimation of the channel path parameters, as shown in step 9.

[0243] Alternatively, rather than notifying the base station to terminate scanning, the terminal device can directly stop estimating the channel path parameters corresponding to the narrow beam. While the base station continues to transmit the narrow beam, the terminal device no longer estimates the parameters, saving power and simplifying the communication process. In this case, step 9 can also be omitted.

[0244] After determining the desired beam, the terminal device can feed back the beam information of the selected beam to the base station, including beam quality, beam index, etc., as shown in step 10.

[0245] If the matching condition is not met, the terminal device will receive the next narrow beam and repeat the operations in steps 8-10 for the narrow beam until the desired beam is determined and the estimation of the channel path parameters will stop.

[0246] In this way, an appropriate narrow beam can be determined cost-effectively and notified to the base station, so that a communication beam pair between the base station and the user equipment can be established cost-effectively, reducing the overhead and delay of beam scanning.

[0247] In the current beam scanning process, the base station scans the beams by itself, and there is no mechanism for the terminal device to actively terminate the beams. However, the solution of this embodiment can implement such a mechanism, as shown in step 9. Figure 16 Let's briefly describe an example of a terminal device feeding back beam termination information.

[0248] During beam scanning, the base station configures CSI-RS resources for the terminal device to perform beam scanning. Each beam scan occupies the length of one OFDM symbol in the time domain. According to the existing frame structure, each time slot contains 14 OFDM symbols, several of which can be used to place CSI-RS. This means that several candidate beams can be scanned within each time slot. At the end of the time slot, the terminal device can transmit an uplink signal.

[0249] In combination with the present disclosure, if a beam that meets the matching conditions is found during the scanning process, a scan termination signaling is sent to the base station on the uplink channel at the end of the time slot, thereby initiating the completion of the beam scanning.

[0250] For example, the base station has 64 candidate beams (numbered Tx1-Tx64), and can scan eight candidate beams in each time slot. Beam scanning is performed sequentially. In existing solutions, a user needs eight time slots to complete a beam scan. In this disclosure, if a user finds that beam Tx21 meets the matching criteria, it sends a termination signal in the third time slot, completing the beam scan in just three time slots, reducing beam scanning latency and overhead.

[0251] Figure 17 The signaling process of the beam management solution according to this embodiment is mainly implemented at the base station end. The channel path estimation and matching in the solution according to the embodiment are mainly performed at the base station (transmitter end).

[0252] Steps 1-5 show the initial synchronization / access between the base station and the terminal device and the channel path parameter estimation of the wide beam, which can be as follows Figure 15 The steps 1-5 are implemented as described above and will not be described in detail here.

[0253] Subsequently, the terminal device feeds back the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the wide beam to the base station, as shown in step 6. Next, the base station scans the second beams (narrow beams) included in the coverage area of ​​the first beam, as shown in step 7. The narrow beam scanning here is performed for each second beam one by one.

[0254] For each scanned narrow beam, the terminal device estimates the channel path parameters corresponding to the narrow beam, including delay and gain, as shown in step 8, and provides feedback to the base station. The feedback content may include the estimation results of the channel path parameters corresponding to the narrow beam, and may also include beam information of the narrow beam, which includes beam quality, beam index, etc., as shown in step 9.

[0255] Next, the base station matches the feedback channel path parameters for the first beam with the channel path parameters for the second beam. This matching can be performed using at least one of a delay similarity criterion and a gain improvement criterion, or both. If the matching conditions are met, the desired beam is determined to have been found, and the base station terminates beam scanning, thereby stopping channel path parameter estimation, as shown in step 10.

[0256] The matching parameters used in this matching can be set by the base station itself, including but not limited to a delay similarity threshold, a gain improvement threshold, etc. It should be noted that the matching parameters can also be notified to the base station through other means, such as by other devices in advance notifying the terminal device. According to some aspects, if the delay similarity threshold is set by the terminal device, the delay similarity threshold can be fed back to the base station by the terminal device, for example, in step 6 or 9.

[0257] It should be noted that, as described above, the matching operation can be performed based solely on the channel path gain, and therefore, the delay matching operation is optional in step 10. According to some aspects, if the matching operation is performed based solely on the channel path gain, then only the channel path gain can be fed back from the channel path estimation result fed back by the terminal device, thereby reducing communication overhead to a certain extent.

[0258] If the matching condition is not met, the base station will scan the next narrow beam and repeat the operations in steps 8-10 for the narrow beam until the desired beam is determined and the estimation of the channel path parameters will stop.

[0259] After determining the desired beam, the base station can inform the user equipment of the selected beam information, such as the beam index. This allows for cost-effective determination of an appropriate narrow beam and notification to the base station, enabling a cost-effective establishment of a communication beam pair between the base station and the user equipment.

[0260] It should be noted that the examples described above are mainly for the downlink communication link, and its operation can be similarly applied to the uplink communication link. In the uplink communication link, the base station corresponds to the receiver end, and the terminal device (user) corresponds to the transmitter end.

[0261] Figure 18 The signaling flow chart of beam selection in uplink communication is shown.

[0262] As shown in step 1, the terminal configures a reference signal to perform uplink beam scanning toward the base station using a first beam (wide beam). After receiving the wide beam, the base station can estimate the channel path parameters under the wide beam, as shown in step 2. This estimation can include path delay and gain estimation.

[0263] Then, as shown in step 3, the terminal device configures a reference signal and performs uplink beam scanning toward the base station via a second beam (narrow beam) included in the coverage of the first beam. The narrow beam scanning here is performed for each second beam one by one.

[0264] For each scanned narrow beam, the base station estimates the channel path parameters corresponding to the narrow beam, including delay and gain, and performs matching using at least one or both of a delay similarity criterion and a gain improvement criterion, as shown in step 4. The matching parameters used in this matching can be set by the base station itself, including but not limited to a delay similarity threshold, a gain improvement threshold, etc. It should be noted that the matching parameters can also be notified to the base station in other ways, such as being notified to the terminal device in advance by other devices. According to some aspects, if the delay similarity threshold is set by the terminal device, the delay similarity threshold can be notified to the base station by the terminal device during the scanning process.

[0265] It should be noted that, as described above, the matching operation can be performed based solely on the channel path gain, and therefore, the delay matching operation is optional in step 4. According to some aspects, if the matching operation is performed based solely on the channel path gain, then only the estimation result of the channel path gain can be stored among the previous estimation results, thereby saving storage resources to a certain extent.

[0266] If the matching conditions are met, it is determined that the desired beam has been found, and the base station notifies the terminal device to terminate beam scanning, as shown in step 5. Alternatively, rather than notifying the terminal device to terminate scanning, the base station itself can directly stop estimating the channel path parameters corresponding to the narrow beam. In this case, step 5 can also be omitted.

[0267] After determining the desired beam, the base station may feed back beam information of the selected beam to the terminal device, including beam quality, beam index, etc., as shown in step 6. Thus, the terminal device can know the optimal uplink transmission narrow beam.

[0268] If the matching condition is not met, the terminal device will receive the next narrow beam and repeat the operations in steps 3-6 for the narrow beam until the desired beam is determined and the estimation of the channel path parameters will stop.

[0269] In the technical solution according to this embodiment, during beam training, each scanned narrow beam (second beam) is estimated, matched, and fed back. Compared with current technologies, the feedback information can be reduced. For example, during wide beam measurement, the number of feedback paths can be configured by the base station (at least 1); during narrow beam measurement, only the strongest path can be fed back, thereby reducing the feedback information. Furthermore, the path gain in the feedback channel path parameter can be simply the path gain amplitude, or even the feedback channel path parameter can be only the path gain, thereby further reducing the feedback information. This saves communication overhead.

[0270] Therefore, the fast beam management mechanism proposed in the present disclosure can reduce the overhead and delay of narrow beam scanning, and has little performance loss compared to the solution of scanning all alternative beams.

[0271] The following describes simulation results of a fast beam management mechanism based on channel path parameters according to an embodiment of the present disclosure with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0272] The simulation conditions assume a channel consisting of one direct path and one reflected path. The base station is equipped with 16 antennas, and the user is equipped with four. The channel delay spread is 300 ns, the OFDM size is 2048, and the subcarrier spacing is 120 kHz. The wide beamwidth is approximately 30 degrees, and is covered by five narrow beams with a width of approximately 7.5 degrees. A DFT codebook is used for beamforming, and 64 reference signals with a spacing of 6 subcarriers are used for path delay and gain estimation. This method is compared with an exhaustive search algorithm that searches all candidate beams and selects the one with the highest gain.

[0273] Figure 19 Simulation results are presented for the probability of obtaining the optimal beam under different signal-to-noise ratios. It can be seen that at low signal-to-noise ratios, the disclosed method achieves an optimal beam with a probability superior to that of an exhaustive search. At high signal-to-noise ratios, the disclosed method achieves an optimal beam with a probability exceeding 80%. It is important to note that even if the optimal beam is not obtained, the gain improvement criterion ensures that the technical solution of this embodiment can achieve sufficient beamforming gain.

[0274] Figure 20 Simulation results of achievable rates at different signal-to-noise ratios are presented. It can be seen that because the technical solution of this embodiment achieves the optimal beam with a high probability, and even if it fails to achieve the optimal beam, it can still ensure a sufficiently high beamforming gain, so the achievable rate loss is minimal compared to the exhaustive search algorithm.

[0275] Figure 21 The average number of beam searches under different signal-to-noise ratios is given. It can be seen that as the signal-to-noise ratio increases, the average number of searches of the disclosed method decreases. When the signal-to-noise ratio is high enough, it approaches the theoretical limit under equal probability. It is proved that the technical solution of this embodiment can effectively reduce the overhead and delay of beam search.

[0276] Second embodiment

[0277] The second embodiment of the present disclosure is described in detail below. The second embodiment of the present disclosure mainly relates to an improved beam reciprocity determination, which utilizes the matching condition between the channel path parameters under the uplink beam and the channel path parameters under the downlink beam to determine whether the uplink and downlink beams meet the reciprocity.

[0278] Beam reciprocity, also known as beam symmetry, can include beam symmetry for each base station and terminal device. It's also known as transmit / receive beam symmetry, meaning that the strongest receive beam and the strongest transmit beam of a communication device (e.g., a base station or terminal device) on one side of a communication link are identical. Beam reciprocity allows the uplink receive (transmit) beam to be determined based on the downlink transmit (receive) beam. This principle relies on the reciprocity of the departure / arrival angles of the uplink and downlink channel transmission paths, simplifying the beam determination process.

[0279] In TDD systems, reciprocity generally exists. However, in FDD systems, due to the different uplink and downlink carrier frequencies, it is difficult to determine whether beam reciprocity exists. The simplest method to determine beam reciprocity is to determine it based on the uplink and downlink carrier frequency spacing. If the spacing is small, reciprocity is assumed to exist; if the spacing is large, reciprocity is not assumed to exist. Another method is to measure beam reciprocity within the cell during infrastructure deployment. However, these methods are all static, meaning that beam reciprocity is the same for all users at all times.

[0280] This embodiment proposes an improved beam / channel reciprocity determination scheme. This scheme specifically determines beam / channel reciprocity by utilizing the channel path parameters corresponding to the beam (which may include channel path gain and / or channel path delay). The principle is that if the departure angle / arrival angle of the channel transmission path is reciprocal, the corresponding transmission paths of the uplink and downlink channels will experience similar channel conditions, and therefore the parameters of the uplink and downlink channel paths should be similar. Therefore, whether the uplink and downlink channel / beam reciprocity exists can be determined by determining whether the channel path parameters of the uplink and downlink channels match.

[0281] The technical solution of this embodiment is that one side (transmitter end / receiver end) in the wireless communication system uses a beam to transmit to the other side (receiver end / transmitter end) of the wireless communication system, and uses the same beam to receive signals from the other side, estimates the respective channel path parameters in the transmission and reception conditions, and determines whether channel / beam reciprocity exists by matching the two estimated channel path parameters.

[0282] According to some embodiments, an electronic device for a receiver of a wireless communication system is provided. The electronic device may include processing circuitry configured to estimate receive channel path parameters based on a reference signal transmitted using a second beam as a transmit beam from a transmitter of the wireless communication system, received using a first beam as a receive beam; and transmit the reference signal to the transmitter using the first beam as a transmit beam, wherein the transmitter receives the reference signal using the second beam as a receive beam, thereby enabling the transmit channel path parameters to be estimated. Beam reciprocity between the transmitter and the receiver is determined based on the receive channel path parameters and the transmit channel path parameters.

[0283] According to some embodiments, an electronic device for a transmitter of a wireless communication system is provided. The electronic device may include processing circuitry configured to transmit a reference signal to a receiver of the wireless communication system using a second beam as a transmit beam, wherein the receiver receives the reference signal using a first beam as a receive beam, so that transmit channel path parameters can be estimated; estimate the receive channel path parameters based on the reference signal transmitted using the first beam as a transmit beam from the receiver of the wireless communication system using the second beam as the receive beam; and determine beam reciprocity between the transmitter and the receiver based on the receive channel path parameters and the transmit channel path parameters.

[0284] According to some embodiments, the receive channel path parameters may include receive channel path parameters of one or more channel paths, respectively. According to some embodiments, the transmit channel path parameters may include transmit channel path parameters of one or more channel paths, respectively.

[0285] According to some aspects, the estimation of the channel path parameters in this embodiment can be performed as described above with reference to the first embodiment, for example, it can be performed based on the transmitted reference signal and / or synchronization signal, which will not be described in detail here.

[0286] According to some aspects, the determination of beam reciprocity in this embodiment can determine whether beam reciprocity exists by determining whether the receiving channel path parameters and the transmitting channel path parameters match.

[0287] According to some aspects, each of the receive channel path parameters and the transmit channel path parameters may include at least one of the channel path gain and the channel path delay as described above, and the estimation method thereof may also be performed as described above and will not be described in detail here. Embodiments of the present disclosure may determine whether the respective channel path gains and channel path delays match based on a gain similarity criterion and a delay similarity criterion.

[0288] According to some embodiments, the receiving channel path parameter and the transmitting channel path parameter may include a channel path delay, wherein when a difference between the receiving channel path delay and the transmitting channel path delay is less than a delay threshold, beam reciprocity exists between the transmitter and the receiver.

[0289] According to some embodiments, the receive channel path parameter and the transmit channel path parameter may include a channel path gain, wherein when a difference between the receive channel path gain and the transmit channel path gain is less than a gain threshold, beam reciprocity exists between the transmitter and the receiver.

[0290] Specifically, let the path delay and gain obtained by uplink and downlink channel estimation be The delay similarity and gain similarity criteria can be expressed as

[0291]

[0292]

[0293] where β τ and β G is the threshold value of delay similarity and gain similarity. It should be noted that due to factors such as uplink and downlink transmission power, the gain and Correction should be done in advance so that the two are basically in the same order of magnitude. For example, if the downlink power is 10dB greater than the uplink power, then It should be pre-reduced by 10dB.

[0294] It should be noted that in the beam reciprocity determination according to this embodiment, the determination can be made solely based on channel delay, that is, the presence of beam reciprocity is determined based on the delay similarity criterion. Alternatively, according to some embodiments, the beam reciprocity determination disclosed herein can combine both channel path gain similarity and channel path delay similarity, thereby enabling a more accurate determination of reciprocity.

[0295] According to some aspects, the reciprocity determination operation according to this embodiment can be performed on either side (receiver end / transmitter end) in the wireless communication system, and after the determination, the determination result (beam reciprocity) can be informed to the other side (transmitter end / receiver end).

[0296] According to some embodiments, the processing circuit of the electronic device may include various units to implement various embodiments according to the present disclosure. Of course, the processing circuit may also be implemented in other ways, and is not limited thereto.

[0297] Figure 22AAn exemplary implementation of an electronic device 2000 for a receiver according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. In one embodiment, the electronic device 2000 may be implemented as a receiver or a portion thereof, or may be implemented as a device for controlling a receiver or otherwise associated with a receiver or a portion thereof.

[0298] Figure 22A The electronic device 2000 shown may include processing circuitry 2001, which may refer to various implementations of digital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed-signal (a combination of analog and digital signals) circuitry that performs functions in a computing system. The processing circuitry may include, for example, circuits such as integrated circuits (ICs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), portions or circuits of a separate processor core, an entire processor core, a separate processor, a programmable hardware device such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and / or a system including multiple processors.

[0299] In one embodiment, the processing circuit 2001 includes at least an estimation unit 2002. Various operations described below may be implemented by the unit 2002 or other possible units.

[0300] In one embodiment, the estimation unit 2002 may estimate the receive channel path parameters based on a reference signal transmitted using the second beam as a transmit beam from a transmitter of the wireless communication system and received using the first beam as a receive beam. The corresponding estimation process may be implemented as described in the first embodiment, or in other manners known in the art, and will not be described in detail here.

[0301] In one embodiment, the processing circuit may further include a sending unit 2003, which may use the first beam as a transmit beam to transmit a reference signal to the transmitter end.

[0302] The processing circuitry may optionally further include a determining unit 2004 that may determine beam reciprocity between the transmitter and the receiver based on the receive channel path parameters and the transmit channel path parameters. According to some aspects, the determining unit may include a comparing unit that compares the receive channel path parameters and the transmit channel path parameters, for example, by calculating a difference between the two as described above. If the difference is less than a threshold, beam reciprocity may be determined to exist.

[0303] It should be noted that such a determination unit 2004 is not necessarily located in the processing circuit, but may also be located outside the processing circuit or the electronic device. Therefore, the determination unit 2004 is outlined with a dotted line in the accompanying drawings, and the corresponding processing will be described in detail below.

[0304] According to some embodiments, the electronic device may further include a receiving unit configured to receive a reference signal transmitted from a transmitter of a wireless communication system using a second beam as a transmit beam, with the first beam serving as a receive beam. Such a receiving unit may be located in a processing circuit, an estimation unit, or elsewhere in the electronic device. Additionally, the electronic device may further include a receiving unit configured to receive any information from the transmitter, such as channel path parameter estimation results or beam reciprocity determination results.

[0305] The electronic device 2000 may further include, for example, a communication unit for communicating with the transmitter and a memory for storing relevant information. The communication unit and the memory may be implemented as the communication unit 604 or the memory 605 in FIG6 , or as other methods known in the art, which will not be described in detail here.

[0306] Figure 22B An exemplary implementation of an electronic device at a transmitter end according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 22B The electronic device 2010 shown may include a processing circuit 2011 that may be implemented in various ways as described above. In one embodiment, the processing circuit may be substantially as follows: Figure 22A For example, the various units included in the processing circuit can be implemented as follows: Figure 22A The corresponding units shown in the figure are implemented in the same way and will not be described in detail here.

[0307] It should be noted that the above-mentioned units are merely logical modules divided according to the specific functions they implement, and are not intended to limit specific implementation methods. For example, they can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. In actual implementation, the above-mentioned units can be implemented as independent physical entities, or they can be implemented by a single entity (for example, a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.).

[0308] It should be noted that the arrangement of the various units described above is merely exemplary and not intended to be limiting. For example, given that the estimation process can be distributed across both the receiver and transmitter, some functions within the estimation unit on the receiver side can also be at least partially distributed to the transmitter side, with further calculations performed based on feedback from the receiver. Furthermore, for example, the transmitting and receiving units on the transmitter side can also be located on the receiver side.

[0309] It should be noted that the transmitter and receiver mentioned above may correspond to various parties in a wireless communication system. For example, the transmitter may correspond to a base station, while the receiver may correspond to a user equipment. Such operations particularly correspond to downlink communication transmissions. For example, the transmitter may correspond to a user equipment, while the receiver may correspond to a base station. Such operations particularly correspond to uplink communication transmissions.

[0310] Figure 23 An example that satisfies both the delay similarity and gain similarity criteria is given. As shown in the figure, the path gain and delay of the two paths in the downlink channel match the path gain and delay of the corresponding paths in the uplink channel, respectively, thus demonstrating reciprocity between the uplink and downlink channels.

[0311] Figure 24 The signaling flow chart of beam reciprocity measurement is given. The reciprocity determination is mainly performed at the base station (transmitter end).

[0312] Steps 1 and 3 show the initial synchronization / access between the base station and the terminal device, which can be implemented as described in the first embodiment, or can be performed by other methods known in the art, and will not be described in detail here.

[0313] The downlink channel path parameters from the base station to the terminal device can be estimated during the initial synchronization / access process between the base station and the terminal device, as shown in step 2. In this case, this estimation is based on a synchronization signal, which can be, for example, a PSS signal. The estimated downlink channel path parameters are stored in the terminal device.

[0314] During the random access process, the base station may estimate uplink channel path parameters according to the received reference signal, as shown in step 4.

[0315] Preferably, the base station and the terminal device can each use a wide beam for reception and transmission, which has strong inclusiveness. Therefore, the base station transmission beam used by the base station broadcast synchronization signal searched by the user and the base station receiving beam when the base station receives the user signal during the random access process usually correspond to the same beam direction, and the user receiving beam when the terminal device side receives the broadcast signal and the user transmission beam received by the base station during random access also usually correspond to the same beam direction.

[0316] Next, after successfully completing random access, the user may feed back the downlink channel path parameters estimated in step 2 to the base station in step 7.

[0317] According to some embodiments, the downlink channel path parameters and the uplink channel path parameters may also be estimated after the initial synchronization / access between the base station and the terminal device. In this case, the downlink channel path parameters from the base station to the terminal device and the uplink channel path parameters from the terminal device to the base station may be carried out with the aid of a reference signal. For example, as shown in step 5, the base station configures a reference signal, and then as shown in step 6, the terminal device estimates the downlink channel path parameters, including path delay and gain estimation, based on the received reference signal, wherein the reference signal may be, for example, a CSI-RS or UE-RS signal. The estimated downlink channel path parameters are stored in the terminal device. On the other hand, although not shown, the terminal device may configure an uplink reference signal to perform uplink reference signal transmission to the base station, whereby the base station estimates the uplink channel path parameters, including path delay and gain estimation, based on the received reference signal.

[0318] Preferably, the base station and the terminal device can use wide beams for receiving and sending their respective reference signals, which have strong inclusiveness. Therefore, the base station transmit beam corresponding to the strongest downlink reference signal received by the terminal device and the base station receive beam when the base station receives the strongest user signal usually correspond to the same beam direction, and the user transmit beam corresponding to the strongest reference signal of the terminal device received by the base station and the user receive beam used when the terminal device receives the strongest base station reference signal also usually correspond to the same beam direction.

[0319] According to some embodiments, the above-mentioned uplink channel path parameter estimation and downlink channel path parameter estimation performed after initial synchronization / access can be performed as a supplement to the uplink channel path parameter estimation and downlink channel path parameter estimation performed during the initial synchronization / access process.

[0320] For example, it may be determined whether the channel path parameters estimated during the initial synchronization / access process are accurate. If they are not accurate enough, alternative channel path parameter estimation may be performed, such as reference signal-based channel path parameter estimation. For example, if the result of the downlink channel path parameter estimation performed using the broadcast synchronization signal as described above is not accurate enough, reference signal-based downlink channel path parameter estimation may be further performed, as shown in steps 5 and 6. For example, if the result of the channel path parameter estimation performed during the random access process as described above is not accurate enough, reference signal-based uplink channel path parameter estimation may be further performed.

[0321] Whether the channel path parameter estimation result is accurate can be determined based on various conditions, such as by setting a threshold and determining the result is accurate when the result is below the threshold. Of course, other methods can also be used for determination, which will not be described in detail here.

[0322] Subsequently, the terminal device provides feedback to the base station, and the feedback content may include the estimation result of the downlink channel path parameter, as shown in step 7.

[0323] Next, the base station matches the downlink channel path parameters obtained through feedback with its estimated uplink channel path parameters. This matching can be performed using at least one of the delay similarity criterion and the gain similarity criterion. As shown in step 8, if the matching condition is met, it is determined that beam reciprocity exists, and the beam reciprocity is notified to the terminal device, as shown in step 9. It should be noted that the beam reciprocity determination performed in step 8 above can also be performed on the terminal device side. For example, the base station can inform the terminal device of the estimated uplink channel path parameters of the base station, thereby performing reciprocity determination at the terminal device, and the terminal device notifies the base station of the reciprocity determination result. In this case, the terminal device will not need to feed back the downlink channel path parameters to the base station.

[0324] The matching parameters used in this matching can be set by the base station itself, including but not limited to a delay similarity threshold, a gain similarity threshold, etc. It should be noted that the matching parameters can also be notified to the base station through other means, such as being notified to the terminal device in advance by other devices. According to some aspects, if the delay similarity threshold is set by the terminal device, the delay similarity threshold can be notified to the base station by the terminal device, for example, during a feedback process.

[0325] It should be noted that, as described above, the matching operation can be performed based solely on the channel path delay. Therefore, in step 8, beam reciprocity can be determined based solely on the channel path delay. According to some aspects, if the matching operation is performed based solely on the channel path delay, then only the channel path delay estimation result can be stored and fed back from the previous estimation results, thereby saving storage resources and communication overhead to a certain extent.

[0326] It should be noted that the examples described above are mainly for the downlink communication link, and its operation can also be applied to the uplink communication link. In the uplink communication link, the base station corresponds to the receiver end, and the terminal device (user) corresponds to the transmitter end.

[0327] The reciprocity measurement technology proposed in this disclosure can efficiently determine beam reciprocity with greater accuracy. Specifically, the reciprocity measurement technology proposed in this disclosure eliminates the need for narrow beam scanning, as is common in existing technologies. Instead, it requires both the transmitter and receiver to use wide beam scanning combined with uplink and downlink channel path parameters to determine reciprocity under narrow beams (beams used for data communication). This significantly reduces the overhead of reciprocity measurement while ensuring accuracy.

[0328] Moreover, the technical solution of the present disclosure can enable beam reciprocity to be explicitly notified to users as signaling.

[0329] Third embodiment

[0330] On the other hand, based on the above cognition, an improved beam management mechanism is proposed. The basic principle of the beam management mechanism is to estimate the time domain path parameters of the channel under each beam and select a specific transmit beam for subsequent operations based on the estimated time domain path parameters.

[0331] According to an embodiment, the time-domain path parameter of the channel may include a path gain in the time domain of the channel, and preferably may be a path gain magnitude.

[0332] According to an embodiment, an electronic device for a receiver of a wireless communication system is provided, comprising a processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to: for each of a plurality of transmit beams used by a transmitter of the wireless communication system to transmit a reference signal, estimate, based on the reference signal transmitted via the transmit beam, a path gain magnitude in the time domain of a channel path from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the transmit beam. A specific transmit beam among the plurality of transmit beams is determined based on the estimated path gain magnitude in the time domain.

[0333] According to an embodiment, an electronic device for a transmitter of a wireless communication system is provided, comprising processing circuitry configured to transmit a reference signal to a receiver of the wireless communication system via each of a plurality of transmit beams. For each of the plurality of transmit beams, a path gain magnitude in the time domain of a channel path from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the transmit beam is estimated based on the reference signal transmitted via the transmit beam. A specific transmit beam from the plurality of transmit beams is determined based on the estimated path gain magnitude in the time domain.

[0334] According to an embodiment, among the multiple transmit beams, the path gain magnitude in the time domain of the channel path covered by the specific transmit beam is the largest.

[0335] According to an embodiment, the path gain amplitude in the time domain is the amplitude of the time domain impulse response of the channel path.

[0336] The parameters of the channel path in the time domain involved in this embodiment, especially the path gain amplitude of the channel path in the time domain, can be implemented as in the first embodiment and will not be described in detail here.

[0337] Furthermore, the specific transmit beam can be determined at the receiver, and the receiver can notify the transmitter of the determined transmit beam's beam information. Alternatively, the specific transmit beam can be determined at the transmitter, where the transmitter determines the transmit beam based on estimated channel time-domain parameters fed back from the receiver, and notifies the receiver of the determined transmit beam's beam information, such as a beam index.

[0338] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a receiver of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method includes estimating channel path parameters corresponding to at least one second beam from the transmitter to the receiver based on a reference signal transmitted from a transmitter of the wireless communication system via at least one second beam within the coverage area of ​​the first beam. A specific second beam from the at least one second beam can be selected based on the estimated channel path parameters, and the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the specific second beam match the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam.

[0339] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a transmitter of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method may include transmitting a reference signal to a receiver of the wireless communication system via at least one second beam within the coverage area of ​​a first beam. A specific second beam from the at least one second beam may be selected based on estimated channel path parameters from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the second beam, where the estimated channel path parameters corresponding to the specific second beam match the channel path parameters corresponding to the first beam. Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a receiver of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method may include estimating receive channel path parameters based on a reference signal transmitted using a second beam as a transmit beam from a transmitter of the wireless communication system, received using the first beam as a receive beam; and transmitting the reference signal to the transmitter using the first beam as a transmit beam. The transmitter receives the reference signal using the second beam as a receive beam, enabling estimation of transmit channel path parameters. Beam reciprocity between the transmitter and receiver may be determined based on the receive and transmit channel path parameters.

[0340] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a transmitter of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method may include transmitting a reference signal to a receiver of the wireless communication system using a second beam as a transmit beam, wherein the receiver receives the reference signal using a first beam as a receive beam, so that transmit channel path parameters can be estimated; and estimating the receive channel path parameters based on the reference signal transmitted using the first beam as a transmit beam from the receiver of the wireless communication system using the second beam as the receive beam. Beam reciprocity between the transmitter and receiver may be determined based on the receive channel path parameters and the transmit channel path parameters.

[0341] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a receiver of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method may include, for each of a plurality of transmit beams used by a transmitter of the wireless communication system to transmit a reference signal, estimating, based on the reference signal transmitted via the transmit beam, a time-domain path gain magnitude of a channel path from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the transmit beam. A specific transmit beam from the plurality of transmit beams may be determined based on the estimated time-domain path gain magnitude.

[0342] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a transmitter of a wireless communication system. According to some embodiments, the method may include transmitting a reference signal to a receiver of the wireless communication system via each of a plurality of transmit beams. For each of the plurality of transmit beams, a time-domain path gain magnitude of a channel path from the transmitter to the receiver corresponding to the transmit beam may be estimated based on the reference signal transmitted via the transmit beam. A specific transmit beam from the plurality of transmit beams may be determined based on the estimated time-domain path gain magnitude.

[0343] It should be noted that these method embodiments can be implemented in any manner. For example, they can be implemented in any appropriate manner by corresponding devices, circuits, apparatuses, etc. in a receiver and / or transmitter. The implementation of the method will not be detailed here.

[0344] It should be understood that the operations or functions of these electronic devices can be combined with each other to achieve more or less operations or functions than described. The operating steps of each method can also be combined with each other in any appropriate order to similarly achieve more or less operations than described.

[0345] It should be noted that the above-mentioned application examples are merely exemplary. The embodiments of the present disclosure can also be implemented in any other appropriate manner in the above-mentioned application examples, and the advantageous effects obtained by the embodiments of the present disclosure can still be achieved. Moreover, the embodiments of the present disclosure can also be applied to other similar application examples, and the advantageous effects obtained by the embodiments of the present disclosure can still be achieved. It should be understood that the machine-readable storage medium or the machine-executable instructions in the program product according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be configured to perform operations corresponding to the above-mentioned device and method embodiments. When referring to the above-mentioned device and method embodiments, the embodiments of the machine-readable storage medium or program product are clear to those skilled in the art, and therefore will not be repeated. Machine-readable storage media and program products for carrying or including the above-mentioned machine-executable instructions also fall within the scope of the present disclosure. Such storage media may include, but are not limited to, floppy disks, optical disks, magneto-optical disks, memory cards, memory sticks, and the like.

[0346] In addition, it should be understood that the above series of processes and devices can also be implemented by software and / or firmware. In the case of implementation by software and / or firmware, the data is transmitted from a storage medium or a network to a computer with a dedicated hardware structure, such as Figure 25 The general-purpose personal computer 1300 shown is installed with programs constituting the software. When various programs are installed, the computer can execute various functions and the like. Figure 25 1 is a block diagram showing an example structure of a personal computer as an information processing device that can be adopted in an embodiment of the present disclosure. In one example, the personal computer can correspond to the above-mentioned exemplary terminal device according to the present disclosure.

[0347] exist Figure 25 In the embodiment, a central processing unit (CPU) 1301 executes various processes according to a program stored in a read-only memory (ROM) 1302 or a program loaded from a storage section 1308 to a random access memory (RAM) 1303. In the RAM 1303, data required when the CPU 1301 executes various processes and the like is also stored as needed.

[0348] The CPU 1301, the ROM 1302, and the RAM 1303 are connected to one another via a bus 1304. An input / output interface 1305 is also connected to the bus 1304.

[0349] The following components are connected to the input / output interface 1305: an input section 1306 including a keyboard, a mouse, etc.; an output section 1307 including a display such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), a liquid crystal display (LCD), etc., and a speaker, etc.; a storage section 1308 including a hard disk, etc.; and a communication section 1309 including a network interface card such as a LAN card, a modem, etc. The communication section 1309 performs communication processing via a network such as the Internet.

[0350] A drive 1310 is also connected to the input / output interface 1305 as needed. A removable medium 1311 such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a semiconductor memory, etc. is mounted on the drive 1310 as needed so that a computer program read therefrom is installed in the storage section 1308 as needed.

[0351] In the case of realizing the above-described series of processing by software, a program constituting the software is installed from a network such as the Internet or a storage medium such as the removable medium 1311 .

[0352] It should be understood by those skilled in the art that such storage media is not limited to Figure 25 The removable medium 1311 shown has a program stored therein and is distributed separately from the device to provide the program to the user. Examples of the removable medium 1311 include magnetic disks (including floppy disks (registered trademark)), optical disks (including compact disk read-only memories (CD-ROMs) and digital versatile disks (DVDs)), magneto-optical disks (including minidiscs (MDs) (registered trademark)), and semiconductor memories. Alternatively, the storage medium may be ROM 1302, a hard disk included in storage section 1308, or the like, in which the program is stored and distributed to the user along with the device containing it.

[0353] The technology of the present disclosure can be applied to various products. For example, the base station mentioned in the present disclosure can be implemented as any type of evolved Node B (gNB), such as macro gNB and small gNB. Small gNB can be a gNB that covers a cell smaller than a macro cell, such as pico gNB, micro gNB and home (femto) gNB. Alternatively, the base station can be implemented as any other type of base station, such as NodeB and Base Transceiver Station (BTS). The base station may include: a main body (also called a base station device) configured to control wireless communication; and one or more remote radio heads (RRH) located in a place different from the main body. In addition, the various types of terminals described below can all work as base stations by temporarily or semi-persistently performing base station functions.

[0354] For example, the terminal device mentioned in the present disclosure is also referred to as a user device in some examples, and can be implemented as a mobile terminal (such as a smart phone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable / dongle-type mobile router, and a digital camera) or a vehicle-mounted terminal (such as a car navigation device). The user device can also be implemented as a terminal that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication (also referred to as a machine-type communication (MTC) terminal). In addition, the user device can be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single chip) installed on each of the above-mentioned terminals.

[0355] The following will refer to Figures 26 to 29 Examples according to the present disclosure are described.

[0356] [Example about base stations]

[0357] It should be understood that the term "base station" in the present disclosure has the full breadth of its usual meaning and at least includes a wireless communication station used as part of a wireless communication system or radio system to facilitate communication. Examples of base stations may include, but are not limited to, the following: a base station may be one or both of a base transceiver station (BTS) and a base station controller (BSC) in a GSM system, one or both of a radio network controller (RNC) and a Node B in a WCDMA system, an eNB in ​​an LTE and LTE-Advanced system, or a corresponding network node in a future communication system (such as a gNB, eLTE eNB, etc. that may appear in a 5G communication system). Some of the functions in the base station of the present disclosure may also be implemented as an entity that has a control function for communication in D2D, M2M, and V2V communication scenarios, or as an entity that plays a spectrum coordination role in a cognitive radio communication scenario.

[0358] First example

[0359] Figure 26 This is a block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematic configuration of a gNB to which the techniques of this disclosure can be applied. The gNB 1400 includes multiple antennas 1410 and a base station device 1420. The base station device 1420 and each antenna 1410 can be connected to each other via an RF cable. In one implementation, the gNB 1400 (or base station device 1420) herein may correspond to the electronic devices 300A, 1300A, and / or 1500B described above.

[0360] Each of the antennas 1410 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna) and is used for the base station device 1420 to transmit and receive wireless signals. Figure 26As shown, gNB 1400 may include multiple antennas 1410. For example, multiple antennas 1410 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by gNB 1400.

[0361] Base station device 1420 includes a controller 1421, memory 1422, a network interface 1423, and a wireless communication interface 1425. Controller 1421 may be, for example, a CPU or DSP, and operates various higher-layer functions of base station device 1420. For example, controller 1421 generates data packets based on data in signals processed by wireless communication interface 1425 and transmits the generated packets via network interface 1423. Controller 1421 may bundle data from multiple baseband processors to generate bundled packets and transmit the generated bundled packets. Controller 1421 may have logic functions for performing control such as radio resource control, radio bearer control, mobility management, admission control, and scheduling. This control may be performed in conjunction with nearby gNBs or core network nodes. Memory 1422 includes RAM and ROM, and stores programs executed by controller 1421 and various types of control data (such as terminal lists, transmission power data, and scheduling data).

[0362] The network interface 1423 is a communication interface for connecting the base station device 1420 to the core network 1424. The controller 1421 can communicate with the core network node or another gNB via the network interface 1423. In this case, the gNB 1400 and the core network node or other gNB can be connected to each other via a logical interface (such as an S1 interface and an X2 interface). The network interface 1423 can also be a wired communication interface or a wireless communication interface for wireless backhaul. If the network interface 1423 is a wireless communication interface, the network interface 1423 can use a higher frequency band for wireless communication than the frequency band used by the wireless communication interface 1425.

[0363] The wireless communication interface 1425 supports any cellular communication scheme, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced, and provides wireless connectivity to terminals located in the cell of the gNB 1400 via the antenna 1410. The wireless communication interface 1425 may typically include, for example, a baseband (BB) processor 1426 and RF circuitry 1427. The BB processor 1426 can perform various signal processing functions, such as encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and performs various types of signal processing for layers such as Layer 1 (L1), Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP). In place of the controller 1421, the BB processor 1426 may perform some or all of the aforementioned logical functions. The BB processor 1426 may be a memory storing communication control programs, or a module including a processor configured to execute programs and associated circuitry. Program updates can modify the functionality of the BB processor 1426. This module may be a card or blade inserted into a slot in the base station device 1420. Alternatively, it may be a chip mounted on the card or blade. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1427 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1410. Figure 26 An example is shown in which one RF circuit 1427 is connected to one antenna 1410 , but the present disclosure is not limited to this illustration, and one RF circuit 1427 may be connected to multiple antennas 1410 at the same time.

[0364] like Figure 26 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1425 may include multiple BB processors 1426. For example, the multiple BB processors 1426 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the gNB 1400. Figure 26 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1425 may include multiple RF circuits 1427. For example, the multiple RF circuits 1427 may be compatible with multiple antenna elements. Figure 26 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1425 includes a plurality of BB processors 1426 and a plurality of RF circuits 1427 , but the wireless communication interface 1425 may also include a single BB processor 1426 or a single RF circuit 1427 .

[0365] Second example

[0366] Figure 27This is a block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematic configuration of a gNB to which the techniques of this disclosure can be applied. A gNB 1530 includes multiple antennas 1540, a base station device 1550, and an RRH 1560. The RRH 1560 and each antenna 1540 can be connected to each other via an RF cable. The base station device 1550 and the RRH 1560 can be connected to each other via a high-speed line such as an optical fiber cable. In one implementation, the gNB 1530 (or base station device 1550) herein may correspond to the electronic devices 300A, 1300A, and / or 1500B described above.

[0367] Each of the antennas 1540 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for the RRH 1560 to transmit and receive wireless signals. Figure 27 As shown, gNB 1530 may include multiple antennas 1540. For example, multiple antennas 1540 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by gNB 1530.

[0368] The base station device 1550 includes a controller 1551, a memory 1552, a network interface 1553, a wireless communication interface 1555, and a connection interface 1557. The controller 1551, the memory 1552, and the network interface 1553 are similar to the reference Figure 26 The controller 1421 , memory 1422 , and network interface 1423 described are the same.

[0369] The wireless communication interface 1555 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-Advanced) and provides wireless communication to terminals located in a sector corresponding to the RRH 1560 via the RRH 1560 and the antenna 1540. The wireless communication interface 1555 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1556. In addition to the BB processor 1556 being connected to the RF circuit 1564 of the RRH 1560 via the connection interface 1557, the BB processor 1556 is connected to the reference RF circuit 1564 of the RRH 1560. Figure 26 The same as the BB processor 1426 described above. Figure 27 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1555 may include multiple BB processors 1556. For example, the multiple BB processors 1556 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the gNB 1530. Figure 27 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1555 includes a plurality of BB processors 1556 , but the wireless communication interface 1555 may also include a single BB processor 1556 .

[0370] The connection interface 1557 is an interface for connecting the base station device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560. The connection interface 1557 may also be a communication module for connecting the base station device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560 for communication in the high-speed line.

[0371] The RRH 1560 includes a connection interface 1561 and a wireless communication interface 1563 .

[0372] The connection interface 1561 is an interface for connecting the RRH 1560 (wireless communication interface 1563) to the base station device 1550. The connection interface 1561 may also be a communication module for communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line.

[0373] The wireless communication interface 1563 transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1540. The wireless communication interface 1563 may generally include, for example, an RF circuit 1564. The RF circuit 1564 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1540. Figure 27 An example is shown in which one RF circuit 1564 is connected to one antenna 1540 , but the present disclosure is not limited to this illustration, and one RF circuit 1564 may be connected to multiple antennas 1540 at the same time.

[0374] like Figure 27 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1563 may include multiple RF circuits 1564. For example, the multiple RF circuits 1564 may support multiple antenna elements. Figure 27 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1563 includes a plurality of RF circuits 1564 , but the wireless communication interface 1563 may also include a single RF circuit 1564 .

[0375] [Example about user equipment]

[0376] First example

[0377] Figure 28 16 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone 1600 to which the techniques of the present disclosure may be applied. The smartphone 1600 includes a processor 1601, a memory 1602, a storage device 1603, an external connection interface 1604, a camera 1606, a sensor 1607, a microphone 1608, an input device 1609, a display 1610, a speaker 1611, a wireless communication interface 1612, one or more antenna switches 1615, one or more antennas 1616, a bus 1617, a battery 1618, and an auxiliary controller 1619. In one implementation, the smartphone 1600 (or processor 1601) herein may correspond to the aforementioned terminal devices 300B and / or 1500A.

[0378] The processor 1601 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on a chip (SoC), and controls the functions of the application layer and other layers of the smartphone 1600. The memory 1602 includes RAM and ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 1601. The storage device 1603 may include storage media such as semiconductor memories and hard disks. The external connection interface 1604 is an interface for connecting external devices (such as memory cards and universal serial bus (USB) devices) to the smartphone 1600.

[0379] The camera 1606 includes an image sensor (such as a charge coupled device (CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)) and generates a captured image. The sensor 1607 may include a group of sensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 1608 converts the sound input to the smartphone 1600 into an audio signal. The input device 1609 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a keypad, a keyboard, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1610, and receives an operation or information input from the user. The display device 1610 includes a screen (such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display) and displays the output image of the smartphone 1600. The speaker 1611 converts the audio signal output from the smartphone 1600 into sound.

[0380] The wireless communication interface 1612 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-Advanced) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1612 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit 1614. The BB processor 1613 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1614 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 1616. The wireless communication interface 1612 may be a chip module on which the BB processor 1613 and the RF circuit 1614 are integrated. Figure 28 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1612 may include multiple BB processors 1613 and multiple RF circuits 1614. Figure 28 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1612 includes a plurality of BB processors 1613 and a plurality of RF circuits 1614 , but the wireless communication interface 1612 may also include a single BB processor 1613 or a single RF circuit 1614 .

[0381] In addition to cellular communication schemes, the wireless communication interface 1612 may support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as short-range wireless communication schemes, near-field communication schemes, and wireless local area network (LAN) schemes. In this case, the wireless communication interface 1612 may include a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit 1614 for each wireless communication scheme. Each of the antenna switches 1615 switches the connection destination of the antenna 1616 between multiple circuits included in the wireless communication interface 1612 (e.g., circuits for different wireless communication schemes).

[0382] Each of the antennas 1616 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for the wireless communication interface 1612 to transmit and receive wireless signals. Figure 28 As shown, the smartphone 1600 may include multiple antennas 1616. Figure 28 An example is shown in which the smartphone 1600 includes a plurality of antennas 1616 , but the smartphone 1600 may also include a single antenna 1616 .

[0383] In addition, the smartphone 1600 may include an antenna 1616 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1615 may be omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 1600.

[0384] The bus 1617 connects the processor 1601, the memory 1602, the storage device 1603, the external connection interface 1604, the camera 1606, the sensor 1607, the microphone 1608, the input device 1609, the display device 1610, the speaker 1611, the wireless communication interface 1612, and the auxiliary controller 1619. Figure 28 The various blocks of the smartphone 1600 shown are supplied with power, with feed lines partially shown as dashed lines in the figure. The auxiliary controller 1619 operates the minimum necessary functions of the smartphone 1600, for example in sleep mode.

[0385] Second example

[0386] Figure 2917 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device 1720 to which the techniques of the present disclosure may be applied. Car navigation device 1720 includes a processor 1721, a memory 1722, a global positioning system (GPS) module 1724, a sensor 1725, a data interface 1726, a content player 1727, a storage medium interface 1728, an input device 1729, a display device 1730, a speaker 1731, a wireless communication interface 1733, one or more antenna switches 1736, one or more antennas 1737, and a battery 1738. In one implementation, car navigation device 1720 (or processor 1721) herein may correspond to the aforementioned terminal device 300B and / or 1500A.

[0387] The processor 1721 may be, for example, a CPU or a SoC, and controls the navigation function and other functions of the car navigation device 1720. The memory 1722 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 1721. The GPS module 1724 measures the position (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude) of the car navigation device 1720 using GPS signals received from GPS satellites. The sensor 1725 may include a group of sensors such as a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an air pressure sensor. The data interface 1726 is connected to, for example, an in-vehicle network 1741 via an unshown terminal, and obtains data (such as vehicle speed data) generated by the vehicle.

[0388] The content player 1727 reproduces content stored in a storage medium (such as a CD or DVD) inserted into the storage medium interface 1728. The input device 1729 includes, for example, a touch sensor, button, or switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1730, and receives operations or information input from the user. The display device 1730 includes a screen such as an LCD or OLED display and displays images of the navigation function or reproduced content. The speaker 1731 outputs sounds of the navigation function or reproduced content.

[0389] The wireless communication interface 1733 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-Advanced) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1733 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735. The BB processor 1734 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1735 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 1737. The wireless communication interface 1733 may also be a chip module on which the BB processor 1734 and the RF circuit 1735 are integrated. Figure 29As shown, the wireless communication interface 1733 may include multiple BB processors 1734 and multiple RF circuits 1735. Figure 29 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1733 includes a plurality of BB processors 1734 and a plurality of RF circuits 1735 , but the wireless communication interface 1733 may also include a single BB processor 1734 or a single RF circuit 1735 .

[0390] In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1733 can support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as short-range wireless communication schemes, near field communication schemes, and wireless LAN schemes. In this case, for each wireless communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1733 can include a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735.

[0391] Each of the antenna switches 1736 switches a connection destination of the antenna 1737 between a plurality of circuits included in the wireless communication interface 1733 , such as circuits for different wireless communication schemes.

[0392] Each of the antennas 1737 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for the wireless communication interface 1733 to transmit and receive wireless signals. Figure 29 As shown, the car navigation device 1720 may include multiple antennas 1737. Figure 29 An example is shown in which the car navigation device 1720 includes a plurality of antennas 1737 , but the car navigation device 1720 may also include a single antenna 1737 .

[0393] In addition, the car navigation device 1720 may include an antenna 1737 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1736 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigation device 1720.

[0394] Battery 1738 is fed to Figure 29 The respective blocks of the illustrated car navigation device 1720 are supplied with electric power, and feed lines are partially illustrated as dotted lines in the figure. The battery 1738 accumulates electric power supplied from the vehicle.

[0395] The technology of the present disclosure may also be implemented as an in-vehicle system (or vehicle) 1740 including a car navigation device 1720, an in-vehicle network 1741, and one or more blocks of a vehicle module 1742. The vehicle module 1742 generates vehicle data (such as vehicle speed, engine speed, and fault information) and outputs the generated data to the in-vehicle network 1741.

[0396] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present disclosure is certainly not limited to the above examples. Those skilled in the art may obtain various changes and modifications within the scope of the appended claims, and it should be understood that these changes and modifications will naturally fall within the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0397] For example, a plurality of functions included in one unit in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices. Alternatively, a plurality of functions implemented by a plurality of units in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices, respectively. In addition, one of the above functions may be implemented by a plurality of units. Needless to say, such a configuration is included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0398] In this specification, the steps described in the flowchart include not only processing executed in time series in the order described, but also processing executed in parallel or individually rather than necessarily in time series. In addition, even in the steps processed in time series, it goes without saying that the order can be changed as appropriate.

[0399] Although the present disclosure and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and transformations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variations thereof in the embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, such that a process, method, article, or device comprising a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article, or device. In the absence of further restrictions, an element defined by the statement "comprising a ..." does not exclude the presence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or device comprising the element.

Claims

1. An electronic device for a receiving end in a wireless communication system, comprising a circuit configured to performing beam scanning of a plurality of wide beams from a transmitting end device to select a first wide beam, estimating channel parameters corresponding to the first wide beam, reducing the number of searches for candidate narrow beams from the transmitting device based on the channel parameters, in, The channel parameters include at least one of delay and gain, In a case where the number of searches for alternative narrow beams from the transmitting end device is reduced based on the time delay, the circuit is configured to match the time delay of the alternative narrow beam with the time delay of the first wide beam, and exclude searches for other beams in the alternative narrow beams if the time delay of the first narrow beam in the alternative narrow beams satisfies a predetermined matching condition based on the time delay, wherein the predetermined matching condition based on the time delay includes that a difference between a path delay of a channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and a path delay of a target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is less than a delay threshold, In the case where the number of searches for alternative narrow beams from the transmitting end device is reduced based on the gain, the circuit is configured to match the gain of the alternative narrow beam with the gain of the first wide beam, and exclude the search for other beams in the alternative narrow beams when the gain of the first narrow beam in the alternative narrow beams meets a predetermined matching condition based on the gain, and the predetermined matching condition based on the gain includes that the difference between the path gain of the channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and the path gain of the target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is greater than a gain threshold.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The transmitting end device is a base station, the multiple wide beams carry synchronization signals, and the circuit is configured to perform channel estimation on the synchronization signal received from the first wide beam.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The first wide beam includes multiple channel paths, and the circuit is configured to select a target channel path from the multiple channel paths and reduce the number of searches for the candidate narrow beams based on at least one of a delay and a gain of the target channel path.

4. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The transmitting end device is a base station, and the circuit is configured to receive configuration information about the predetermined matching condition from the transmitting end device for matching.

5. The electronic device according to claim 4, wherein The circuit is configured to receive a system broadcast from the base station to acquire configuration information about the predetermined matching condition. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein: The beam scanning of the plurality of wide beams from the transmitting end device by the circuit is performed during an initial connection or synchronization process.

7. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The candidate narrow beam is within the coverage of the first wide beam.

8. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The electronic device is a user equipment and further includes multiple antennas, a phase shifter, and a radio frequency link. The circuit is configured to adjust the phase of the phase shifter to generate a receiving beam to perform beam scanning on the multiple wide beams.

9. An electronic device for a receiving end in a wireless communication system, comprising a circuit configured to performing beam scanning of a plurality of wide beams from a transmitting end device to select a first wide beam, estimating channel parameters corresponding to the first wide beam, Sending the channel parameters corresponding to the first wide beam to the transmitting device, so that the transmitting device reduces the number of searches of the receiving electronic device for alternative narrow beams from the transmitting device based on the channel parameters. in, The channel parameters include at least one of delay and gain, When the transmitting end device reduces the number of searches by the receiving end electronic device for the alternative narrow beam from the transmitting end device based on the delay, the transmitting end device matches the delay of the alternative narrow beam with the delay of the first wide beam, and excludes searching for other beams in the alternative narrow beams when the delay of the first narrow beam in the alternative narrow beams satisfies a predetermined matching condition based on the delay, the predetermined matching condition based on the delay including that a difference between a path delay of a channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and a path delay of a target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is less than a delay threshold, When the transmitting end device reduces the number of searches of the receiving end electronic device for the alternative narrow beam from the transmitting end device based on the gain, the transmitting end device matches the gain of the alternative narrow beam with the gain of the first wide beam, and excludes the search for other beams in the alternative narrow beams when the gain of the first narrow beam in the alternative narrow beams meets the predetermined matching condition based on the gain. The predetermined matching condition based on the gain includes that the difference between the path gain of the channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and the path gain of the target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is greater than a gain threshold.

10. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein The transmitting end device is a base station, the multiple wide beams carry synchronization signals, and the circuit is configured to perform channel estimation on the synchronization signal received from the first wide beam.

11. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein The first wide beam includes multiple channel paths, and the circuit is configured to select a target channel path from the multiple channel paths and send at least one of a delay and a gain of the target channel path to the transmitting end device.

12. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein The beam scanning of the plurality of wide beams from the transmitting end device by the circuit is performed during an initial connection or synchronization process.

13. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein The candidate narrow beam is within the coverage of the first wide beam.

14. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein The electronic device is a user equipment and further includes multiple antennas, a phase shifter, and a radio frequency link. The circuit is configured to adjust the phase of the phase shifter to generate a receiving beam to perform beam scanning on the multiple wide beams.

15. An electronic device for a transmitting end in a wireless communication system, comprising a circuit configured to The channel parameters corresponding to the first wide beam are received from the receiving end device, wherein: The first wide beam is selected by the receiving end device through beam scanning of multiple wide beams from the transmitting end, reducing the number of searches by the receiving end device for alternative narrow beams from the transmitting end based on the channel parameters, The channel parameters include at least one of delay and gain. In a case where the number of searches by the receiving end device for the alternative narrow beams from the transmitting end is reduced based on the time delay, the circuit is configured to match the time delay of the alternative narrow beam with the time delay of the first wide beam, and exclude searching for other beams in the alternative narrow beams if the time delay of the first narrow beam in the alternative narrow beams satisfies a predetermined matching condition based on the time delay, wherein the predetermined matching condition based on the time delay includes that a difference between a path delay of a channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and a path delay of a target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is less than a delay threshold, When the number of searches of the receiving end device for the alternative narrow beams from the transmitting end is reduced based on the gain, the circuit is configured to match the gain of the alternative narrow beam with the gain of the first wide beam, and exclude the search for other beams in the alternative narrow beams when the gain of the first narrow beam in the alternative narrow beams satisfies a predetermined matching condition based on the gain. The predetermined matching condition based on the gain includes that the difference between the path gain of the channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and the path gain of the target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is greater than a gain threshold.

16. The electronic device according to claim 15, wherein The transmitting end is a base station, and the circuit is configured to transmit synchronization signals on the multiple wide beams.

17. The electronic device according to claim 15, wherein: The first wide beam includes multiple channel paths, and the circuit is configured to receive at least one of the delay and gain of a target channel path selected from the multiple channel paths from the receiving device, and reduce the number of times the receiving device searches for the alternative narrow beam based on at least one of the delay and gain of the target channel path.

18. The electronic device according to claim 15, wherein The candidate narrow beam is within the coverage of the first wide beam.

19. The electronic device according to claim 15, wherein The electronic device is a user equipment and further includes multiple antennas, a phase shifter, and a radio frequency link. The circuit is configured to adjust the phase of the phase shifter to generate a transmit beam to send the multiple wide beams.

20. A method for a receiving end in a wireless communication system, comprising: performing beam scanning of a plurality of wide beams from a transmitting end device to select a first wide beam, estimating channel parameters corresponding to the first wide beam, reducing the number of searches for candidate narrow beams from the transmitting device based on the channel parameters, The channel parameters include at least one of delay and gain. In a case where the number of searches for alternative narrow beams from the transmitting end device is reduced based on the time delay, the time delay of the alternative narrow beam is matched with the time delay of the first wide beam, and if the time delay of the first narrow beam among the alternative narrow beams satisfies a predetermined matching condition based on the time delay, the search for other beams among the alternative narrow beams is excluded, wherein the predetermined matching condition based on the time delay includes that a difference between a path delay of a channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and a path delay of a target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is less than a delay threshold, When the number of searches for the alternative narrow beams from the transmitting end device is reduced based on the gain, the gain of the alternative narrow beam is matched with the gain of the first wide beam. When the gain of the first narrow beam in the alternative narrow beams satisfies a predetermined matching condition based on the gain, the search for other beams in the alternative narrow beams is excluded. The predetermined matching condition based on the gain includes that the difference between the path gain of the channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and the path gain of the target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is greater than a gain threshold.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein The transmitting end device is a base station, the multiple wide beams carry synchronization signals, and the method further includes performing channel estimation on the synchronization signal received from the first wide beam.

22. The method according to claim 20, wherein The first wide beam includes multiple channel paths, and the method further includes: selecting a target channel path from the plurality of channel paths, and The number of searches for the candidate narrow beams is reduced based on at least one of a delay and a gain of the target channel path.

23. The method according to claim 20, wherein The transmitting end device is a base station, and the method further includes receiving configuration information about the predetermined matching condition from the transmitting end device for matching.

24. A method for a receiving end in a wireless communication system, comprising: performing beam scanning of a plurality of wide beams from a transmitting end device to select a first wide beam, estimating channel parameters corresponding to the first wide beam, Sending the channel parameters corresponding to the first wide beam to the transmitting device, so that the transmitting device reduces the number of searches of the receiving electronic device for alternative narrow beams from the transmitting device based on the channel parameters. The channel parameters include at least one of delay and gain. When the transmitting end device reduces the number of searches by the receiving end electronic device for the alternative narrow beam from the transmitting end device based on the delay, the transmitting end device matches the delay of the alternative narrow beam with the delay of the first wide beam, and excludes searching for other beams in the alternative narrow beams when the delay of the first narrow beam in the alternative narrow beams satisfies a predetermined matching condition based on the delay, the predetermined matching condition based on the delay including that a difference between a path delay of a channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and a path delay of a target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is less than a delay threshold, When the transmitting end device reduces the number of searches of the receiving end electronic device for the alternative narrow beam from the transmitting end device based on the gain, the transmitting end device matches the gain of the alternative narrow beam with the gain of the first wide beam, and excludes the search for other beams in the alternative narrow beams when the gain of the first narrow beam in the alternative narrow beams meets the predetermined matching condition based on the gain. The predetermined matching condition based on the gain includes that the difference between the path gain of the channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and the path gain of the target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is greater than a gain threshold.

25. A method for a transmitter in a wireless communication system, comprising: receiving channel parameters corresponding to a first wide beam from a receiving device, wherein the first wide beam is selected by the receiving device through beam scanning of multiple wide beams from the transmitting end; reducing the number of searches by the receiving end device for alternative narrow beams from the transmitting end based on the channel parameters, The channel parameters include at least one of delay and gain. In a case where the number of searches by the receiving end device for the alternative narrow beams from the transmitting end is reduced based on the delay, the delay of the alternative narrow beam is matched with the delay of the first wide beam, and if the delay of the first narrow beam among the alternative narrow beams satisfies a predetermined matching condition based on the delay, the search for other beams among the alternative narrow beams is excluded, where the predetermined matching condition based on the delay includes that a difference between a path delay of a channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and a path delay of a target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is less than a delay threshold, While reducing the number of searches of the alternative narrow beams from the transmitting end by the receiving end device based on the gain, the gain of the alternative narrow beam is matched with the gain of the first wide beam. When the gain of the first narrow beam among the alternative narrow beams satisfies a predetermined matching condition based on the gain, the search for other beams among the alternative narrow beams is excluded. The predetermined matching condition based on the gain includes that the difference between the path gain of the channel path corresponding to the first narrow beam and the path gain of the target channel path corresponding to the first wide beam is greater than a gain threshold.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein The first wide beam comprises a plurality of channel paths, and the method comprises: receiving at least one of a delay and a gain of a target channel path selected from the plurality of channel paths from the receiving end device, and The number of searches of the candidate narrow beam by the receiving end device is reduced based on at least one of the delay and the gain of the target channel path.

27. A non-transitory computer storage medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a device to perform the method according to any one of claims 20-26.

28. An apparatus for use in a wireless communication system, comprising means for performing the operations of the method according to any one of claims 20-26.

29. A device for a wireless communication system, comprising: processor, and A non-transitory computer storage medium storing instructions which, when executed, cause a processor to perform the method according to any one of claims 20-26.

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