Compensation for in-phase and quadrature-phase impairments in sub-terahertz communications

Abstract

Disclosed is IQ impairment compensation in sub-terahertz (THz) communications. According to some aspects, a user equipment (UE) determines estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, where the UE's IQ impairments include phase and / or amplitude mismatches between I and Q paths within the UE's analog receiver circuitry; and reports the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS). The BS determines precompensation to compensate for the UE's estimated IQ impairments and uses the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 051,050, filed on July 13, 2020, entitled “IQ IMPAIRMENTS COMPENSATION INSUB-TERAHERTZ COMMUNICATION,” and U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application No. 17 / 373,215, filed on July 12, 2021, entitled “IN-PHASE AND QUADRATURE-PHASE IMPAIRMENTS COMPENSATION IN SUB-TERAHERTZ COMMUNICATION,” both of which are assigned to the assignee of this application and are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

[0003] Public background

[0004] 1. Public Domain

[0005] Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communications and to techniques and apparatus related to compensation for in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments in sub-terahertz (sub-THz) communications.

[0006] 2. Description of Related Technologies

[0007] Wireless communication systems have evolved over several generations, including first generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including transitional 2.5G networks), third generation (3G) high-speed data wireless service with Internet capabilities, and fourth generation (4G) services (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE), WiMax). Currently, there are many different types of wireless communication systems in use, including cellular and Personal Communications Service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Access (GSM) TDMA variants, and the like.

[0008] The fifth generation (5G) mobile standard requires higher data transmission speeds, a larger number of connections and better coverage, among other improvements. According to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, the 5G standard (also known as "New Radio" or "NR") is designed to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second to each of tens of thousands of users, and 1 gigabit per second to dozens of employees on an office floor. Hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections should be supported to support large sensor deployments. Therefore, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobile communications should be significantly enhanced compared to the current 4G / LTE standards. In addition, signaling efficiency should be improved and latency should be significantly reduced compared to current standards.

[0009] In a cellular communication network, downlink transmissions are those from a base station to a wireless device, such as a mobile phone. The 5G NR downlink uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), a technique that splits a radio signal into multiple smaller sub-signals that are then transmitted simultaneously to a receiver at different frequencies. Digital receivers still employ analog components in the demodulation process, which suffer from an imbalance between the in-phase (I) branch and the quadrature-phase (Q) branch. The resulting distortion degrades performance and introduces a noise floor that limits the operating signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on the receiver side. Compensation for these imbalances is typically performed at the receiver using digital filters. However, the filtering operation consumes a lot of power, and for mobile phones, this reduces battery life. The power used is proportional to the transmission bandwidth.

[0010] There is a trend towards very high bandwidths (e.g., 10 gigahertz (GHz) or higher) in sub-terahertz (THz) communications. Power consumption increases proportionally with bandwidth, and IQ imbalance compensation in the digital part accounts for a large portion of this power consumption. Thus, as bandwidth increases, power consumption increases (especially for high-bandwidth operation), which is a problem for battery-powered devices such as mobile phones. Therefore, current millimeter wave (MMW) architecture solutions are not practical for reuse in sub-THz systems. Accordingly, there is a need for IQ impairment compensation suitable for battery-powered receivers in sub-THz communications.

[0011] Overview

[0012] The following is a simplified summary of one or more aspects disclosed herein. Thus, the following summary should not be considered an exhaustive overview of all contemplated aspects, nor should it be considered to identify key or critical elements related to all contemplated aspects or to delineate the scope associated with any particular aspect. Accordingly, the sole purpose of the following summary is to present certain concepts related to one or more aspects of the mechanisms disclosed herein in a simplified form prior to the detailed description given below.

[0013] User equipment (UE) transceiver circuitry consists of an analog section and a digital section. One function of the digital section of an OFDM transceiver is to provide filtering, which, among other things, corrects OFDM symbol errors caused by imbalances between the in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) branches of the analog section of the UE's receiver circuitry. This filtering function consumes a significant portion of the power proportional to the UE's bandwidth. For very high bandwidths, the power required for the digital filtering of the received signal becomes prohibitive for UEs and other battery-operated devices.

[0014] Various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to alleviating the filtering burden on a UE by having a base station (BS) pre-compensate downlink (DL) transmissions to the UE so that filtering functions on the UE are reduced (e.g., by reducing the number of taps) or eliminated entirely (e.g., by disabling, eliminating, or bypassing the receiver digital filter). Specifically, the UE estimates its own IQ imbalance and provides a description of the IQ imbalance to the BS in an uplink (UL) message; the BS calculates appropriate pre-compensation to be applied to subsequent DL transmissions to the UE. Upon receiving the pre-compensated DL transmission, the UE can determine that it can reduce or eliminate its own filtering operations, which reduces the UE's power consumption compared to conventional approaches, especially for very high bandwidth operation.

[0015] In one aspect, a method of operating a user equipment (UE) includes determining estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0016] In one aspect, a method of operating a base station (BS) includes receiving estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at a user equipment (UE) from the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and using the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0017] In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: determine estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within an analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0018] In one aspect, a BS includes: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: receive estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at a user equipment (UE) from the UE via the at least one transceiver, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within an analog receiver circuitry of the UE; determine precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and use the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0019] In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes: means for determining estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0020] In one aspect, a BS includes: means for receiving estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at a user equipment (UE) from the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; means for determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and means for using the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0021] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: determine estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0022] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a BS, cause the BS to: receive from a user equipment (UE) estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; determine precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and use the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0023] Aspects generally include methods, apparatus, systems, computer program products, non-transitory computer-readable media, user equipment, Internet of Things (IoT) or Cellular IoT (C-IoT) user equipment, base stations, wireless communication devices, and / or processing systems as substantially described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings and description.

[0024] The foregoing has broadly outlined the features and technical advantages of examples according to the present disclosure in an effort to make the following detailed description better understood. Additional features and advantages will be described hereinafter. The concepts and specific examples disclosed can be readily used as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for implementing the same purposes as the present disclosure. Such equivalent constructions do not depart from the scope of the appended claims. The characteristics of the concepts disclosed herein, both in terms of their organization and method of operation, as well as the associated advantages, will be better understood by considering the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Each of the figures is provided for illustration and description purposes and is not intended to define limitations on the claims.

[0025] Other objects and advantages associated with the aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the drawings and detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] A more complete appreciation of the various aspects of the present disclosure and its many attendant advantages will be readily obtained as it becomes better understood upon reference to the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts, and which are provided for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute a limitation of the present disclosure. As is customary, some of the drawings have been simplified for clarity. Thus, the drawings may not depict all components of a particular apparatus or method.

[0028] Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication network;

[0029] Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a base station and a UE in communication in a wireless communication network;

[0030] Figure 3 Explains some of the problems caused by in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments in analog receiver circuits;

[0031] Figure 4 is a plot showing actual and ideal constellation points for a 64-point Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) implementation, illustrating the impact of IQ impairments;

[0032] Figure 5 is a plot showing actual versus ideal constellation points for a 1024-point Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) implementation, illustrating the impact of IQ impairments;

[0033] Figure 6 is a plot illustrating the mean square error (MSE) level of the dependent variable on the severity of IQ impairment;

[0034] Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of operating a UE according to some aspects of the present disclosure;

[0035] Figure 8 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of operating a base station according to some aspects of the present disclosure;

[0036] Figure 9 is a conceptual data flow diagram illustrating the flow of data between different devices / components in an exemplary apparatus according to some aspects of the present disclosure;

[0037] Figure 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a device employing a processing system; and

[0038] Figure 11 is a diagram illustrating another example of a hardware implementation for a device employing a processing system.

[0039] Detailed description

[0040] The detailed description set forth below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. This detailed description includes specific details to provide a thorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring such concepts.

[0041] Several aspects of telecommunications systems will now be presented with reference to various apparatus and methods. These apparatus and methods are described in the following detailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings by various blocks, modules, components, circuits, steps, processes, algorithms, etc. (collectively, "elements"). These elements may be implemented using electronic hardware, computer software, or any combination thereof. Whether such elements are implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system.

[0042] As an example, an element, or any part of an element, or any combination of elements can be implemented with a "processing system" comprising one or more processors. Examples of processors include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gating logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionalities described throughout this disclosure. One or more processors in a processing system can execute software. Software should be broadly interpreted as meaning instructions, instruction sets, codes, code segments, program codes, programs, subroutines, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether described in software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or other terms.

[0043] Accordingly, in one or more example aspects, the functions described can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, each function can be stored or encoded as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include computer storage media. Storage media can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. As an example and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), compact disc ROM (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage device, a combination of the aforementioned types of computer-readable media, or any other medium that can be used to store computer executable code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer.

[0044] It should be noted that although various aspects may be described herein using terminology generally associated with 3G and / or 4G wireless technology, various aspects of the present disclosure may be applied in communication systems based on other generations, such as 5G and subsequent generations, including 5G technology.

[0045] Figure 11 is a diagram illustrating a wireless network 100 in which various aspects of the present disclosure may be practiced. The wireless network 100 may be an LTE network or some other wireless network, such as a 5G network. The wireless network 100 may include several base stations 110 (shown as BS 110a, BS 110b, BS 110c, and BS 110d) and other network entities. A base station is an entity that communicates with user equipment (UE) and may also be referred to as a base station, 5G BS, Node B (NB), gNB, 5G NB, access point, transmit reception point (TRP), etc. Each BS may provide communication coverage for a specific geographic area. In the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards, the term "cell" may refer to the coverage area of ​​a BS and / or the BS subsystem serving that coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used.

[0046] A BS may provide communication coverage for a macro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, and / or another type of cell. A macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscriptions. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscriptions. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a residence) and may allow restricted access by UEs associated with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a closed subscriber group (CSG)). A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for a femto cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In Figure 1 In the example shown in FIG, BS 110a may be a macro BS for macro cell 102a, BS 110b may be a pico BS for pico cell 102b, and BS 110c may be a femto BS for femto cell 102c. A BS may support one or more (e.g., three) cells. The terms "eNB," "base station," "5G BS," "gNB," "TRP," "access point (AP)," "Node B," "5G NB," and "cell" may be used interchangeably herein.

[0047] In some examples, the cells may not necessarily be stationary, and the geographic area of ​​the cells may move depending on the location of the mobile BS. In some examples, the BSs may interconnect with each other and / or with one or more other BSs or network nodes (not shown) in wireless network 100 using any suitable transport network via various types of backhaul interfaces (such as direct physical connections, virtual networks, etc.).

[0048] The wireless network 100 may also include a relay station. A relay station is an entity that can receive transmissions of data from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or a UE) and send transmissions of the data to a downstream station (e.g., a UE or a BS). A relay station may also be a UE that can relay transmissions for other UEs. Figure 1 In the example shown in , relay station 110d may communicate with macro BS 110a and UE 120d to facilitate communication between BS 110a and UE 120d. A relay station may also be referred to as a relay BS, relay base station, relay, or the like.

[0049] The wireless network 100 may be a heterogeneous network including different types of BSs (e.g., macro BSs, pico BSs, femto BSs, relay BSs, etc.). These different types of BSs may have different transmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different impacts on interference in the wireless network 100. For example, a macro BS may have a high transmit power level (e.g., 5 to 40 watts), while a pico BS, a femto BS, and a relay BS may have a lower transmit power level (e.g., 0.1 to 2 watts).

[0050] The network controller 130 may be coupled to a set of BSs and may provide coordination and control of these BSs. The network controller 130 may communicate with each BS via a backhaul. These BSs may also communicate with each other directly or indirectly, for example, via a wireless or wired backhaul.

[0051] UEs 120 (e.g., 120a, 120b, 120c) may be dispersed throughout the wireless network 100, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. A UE may also be referred to as an access terminal, terminal, mobile station, subscriber unit, station, etc. A UE may be a cellular phone (e.g., a smartphone), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a tablet, a camera, a gaming device, a netbook, a smartbook, an ultrabook, a medical device or equipment, a biometric sensor / device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, smart clothing, smart glasses, a smart wristband, smart jewelry (e.g., a smart ring, a smart bracelet)), an entertainment device (e.g., a music or video device, or a satellite radio), an in-vehicle component or sensor, a smart meter / sensor, industrial manufacturing equipment, a global positioning system device, or any other suitable device configured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium.

[0052] Some UEs may be considered machine type communication (MTC) UEs, or evolved or enhanced machine type communication (eMTC) UEs. "MTC" may refer to MTC or eMTC. MTC UEs include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, etc., which can communicate with a base station, another device (e.g., a remote device), or some other entity. A wireless node may provide connectivity to or to a network (e.g., a wide area network (such as the Internet) or a cellular network), for example, via a wired or wireless communication link. Some UEs may be considered Internet of Things (IoT) devices and / or may be implemented as NB-IoT (narrowband Internet of Things) devices. IoT UEs, eMTC UEs, coverage enhancement (CE) mode UEs, bandwidth limited (BL) UEs, and other types of UEs that operate using reduced power consumption relative to baseline UEs may be referred to herein as cellular IoT (cIoT) UEs. Some UEs may be considered customer premises equipment (CPE). The UE 120 may be included within an interior of a housing that houses components of the UE 120, such as a processor component, memory components, and the like.

[0053] Generally speaking, any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a given geographic area. Each wireless network may support a specific RAT and may operate on one or more frequencies. A RAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, air interface, etc. A frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, frequency channel, etc. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a given geographic area to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs. In some cases, a 5G RAT network may be deployed.

[0054] In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, where a scheduling entity (e.g., a base station) allocates resources for communication among some or all devices and equipment within the service area or cell of the scheduling entity. Within the present disclosure, as discussed further below, a scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more subordinate entities. That is, for scheduled communications, the subordinate entities utilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity. For example, a unified access control (UAC) system may be used to control access to the air interface, where UEs are associated with access identities (e.g., access categories, etc.), which may be intended to ensure that certain high-priority UEs (e.g., emergency response UEs, mission-critical UEs, etc.) can access the air interface even under congested conditions. Messages (such as paging messages or direct indication information) may be used to provide updates to UAC parameters (e.g., priorities associated with access identities, which access identities are permitted to access the air interface, etc.) to the cIoT UE, which may conserve battery power for the cIoT UE.

[0055] A base station is not the only entity that can act as a scheduling entity. That is, in some examples, a UE can act as a scheduling entity, thereby scheduling resources for one or more subordinate entities (e.g., one or more other UEs). In this example, the UE is acting as a scheduling entity, and other UEs utilize the resources scheduled by the UE for wireless communication. The UE can act as a scheduling entity in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and / or in a mesh network. In the mesh network example, in addition to communicating with the scheduling entity, the UEs can also optionally communicate directly with each other.

[0056] Thus, in a wireless communication network having scheduled access to time-frequency resources and having a cellular configuration, a P2P configuration, and a mesh configuration, a scheduling entity and one or more subordinate entities may communicate using the scheduled resources.

[0057] As indicated above, Figure 1 These are provided as examples only. Other examples may vary. Figure 1 The example described in .

[0058] Figure 2 Shows that it can be Figure 1 2. Block diagram 200 shows a design of a base station (BS) 110 and a UE 120, one of the base stations and one of the UEs in a wireless communication network. BS 110 may be equipped with T antennas 234a through 234t, and UE 120 may be equipped with R antennas 252a through 252r, where in general, T ≥ 1 and R ≥ 1.

[0059] At BS 110, a transmit (TX) processor 220 may receive data for one or more UEs from a data source 212, select one or more modulation and coding schemes (MCS) for each UE based at least in part on a channel quality indicator (CQI) received from the UE, process (e.g., encode and modulate) the data for each UE based at least in part on the MCS selected for the UE, and provide data symbols for all UEs. TX processor 220 may also process system information (e.g., for semi-static resource partitioning information (SRPI) and control information (e.g., CQI requests, grants, upper layer signaling, etc.) and provide overhead symbols and control symbols. TX processor 220 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (e.g., cell-specific reference signals) and synchronization signals (e.g., primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS)). A transmit (TX) multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on ​​data symbols, control symbols, overhead symbols, and / or reference symbols, as applicable, and may provide T output symbol streams to T modulators (MODs) 232a through 232t (which may be referred to individually or collectively as modulator(s) 232). Each modulator 232 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) or the like) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator 232 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. The T downlink signals from modulators 232a through 232t may be transmitted via T antennas 234a through 234t, respectively (which may be referred to individually or collectively as antenna(s) 234). According to various aspects described in greater detail below, position coding may be utilized to generate synchronization signals to convey additional information.

[0060] At UE 120, antennas 252a through 252r (which may be referred to individually or collectively as antenna(s) 252) may receive downlink signals from BS 110 and / or other base stations and may provide received signals to demodulators (DEMODs) 254a through 254r, respectively (which may be referred to individually or collectively as demodulator(s) 254). Each demodulator 254 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) the received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator 254 may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from all R demodulators 254a through 254r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols where applicable, and provide detected symbols. A receive (RX) processor 258 may process (e.g., demodulate and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 120 to a data sink 260, and provide decoded control information and system information to a controller / processor 280. The channel processor may determine reference signal received power (RSRP), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), channel quality indicator (CQI), and the like.

[0061] On the uplink, at UE 120, a transmit processor 264 may receive and process data from a data source 262 and control information (e.g., for reports including RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, CQI, etc.) from a controller / processor 280. The transmit processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for one or more reference signals. The symbols from the transmit processor 264 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 266, if applicable, further processed by modulators 254a through 254r (e.g., for DFT-s-OFDM, CP-OFDM, etc.), and transmitted to the BS 110. At the BS 110, uplink signals from the UE 120 and other UEs may be received by the antenna 234, processed by the demodulator 232, detected by the MIMO detector 236, if applicable, and further processed by the receive (RX) processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information sent by the UE 120. RX processor 238 may provide decoded data to data sink 239 and decoded control information to controller / processor 240. BS 110 may include communication unit 244 and communicate with network controller 130 via communication unit 244. Network controller 130 may include communication unit 294, controller / processor 290, and memory 292.

[0062] Controller / processor 240 of BS 110, controller / processor 280 of UE 120, and / or Figure 2Any other component of the UE 120 may perform one or more techniques associated with UAC parameter updates, as described in more detail elsewhere herein. For example, the controller / processor 240 of the BS 110, the controller / processor 280 of the UE 120, and / or Figure 2 Any other component(s) may perform or direct the operation of the various processes as described herein. Memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for use by BS 110 and UE 120, respectively. Scheduler 246 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and / or uplink.

[0063] As indicated above, Figure 2 These are provided as examples only. Other examples may differ from those regarding Figure 2 Examples described.

[0064] As mentioned above, various device types can be characterized as UEs. Starting with 3GPP Release 17, several of these UE types are assigned a new UE classification, denoted as "NR-Light". Examples of UE types that fall into the NR-Light classification include wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, etc.), industrial sensors, cameras (e.g., surveillance cameras, etc.), etc. In general, UE types grouped under the NR-Light classification are associated with lower communication capacity. For example, relative to "normal" UEs (e.g., UEs not classified as NR-Light), NR-Light UEs may be restricted in terms of maximum bandwidth (e.g., 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 20 MHz, etc.), maximum transmit power (e.g., 20 dBm, 14 dBm, etc.), number of receive antennas (e.g., 1 receive antenna, 2 receive antennas, etc.). Some NR-Light UEs may also be sensitive to power consumption (e.g., require a long battery life, such as several years) and may be highly mobile. In addition, in some designs, it is generally expected that NR-light UEs coexist with UEs implementing protocols such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), LTE NB-IoT / MTC, etc.

[0065] Figure 3 Some of the problems caused by in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments in analog receiver circuits are explained. Figure 3 Two frequency plots, labeled (i) and (ii), are shown, with frequency along the X-axis (also referred to herein as the "frequency axis") and signal strength along the Y-axis (also referred to herein as the "power axis"). Three frequencies of interest are shown: the center or baseband frequency, labeled "0" on the frequency axis; the upper sideband frequency, labeled "f" on the frequency axis; and the lower sideband frequency, labeled "f" on the frequency axis. LO ”; and the lower sideband frequency, marked as “-fLO ”.

[0066] The frequency plot (i) shows that the baseband signal is generated at the center frequency. The frequency plot (ii) shows the frequency f LO The desired transmitted signal at . In this example, the analog front end has an I and Q path that are phase and / or amplitude mismatched. As a result, the frequency -f LO Mirror signals appear.

[0067] Furthermore, the Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) is a measure of the performance quality of a digital transmitter or receiver and is a measure of the deviation of the actual constellation points from their ideal positions due to both magnitude and phase errors. IQ impairments of the UE at the receiver also cause such deviations, thereby increasing the receiver's EVM. Figure 4 and Figure 5 Examples of such deviations are explained.

[0068] Figure 4 4 shows a plot 400 of actual constellation points (such as point 402) versus their ideal positions (such as position 404) for a simulated receiver subject to IQ impairments. The plot is for a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) implementation with sixty-four different constellation points (referred to as 64-QAM). In this example, the actual constellation points are not at their ideal positions due to distortion caused by the receiver's IQ impairments. However, even with an amplitude error E of 0.6, the actual constellation points are not at their ideal positions. r The bit error rate (BER) is also acceptably low with a phase error of 1 and 4 degrees, since it is easy to determine to which ideal constellation point the actual constellation point should be mapped. Figure 5 It does not hold true.

[0069] Figure 5 Including targeting and Figure 4 The 64-QAM implementation in has the same E r The actual constellation points (distorted) and ideal constellation points (original) of a 1024-QAM implementation with respect to the phase error are plotted 500. However, in Figure 5 In the case of , it is difficult to determine to which ideal constellation point the actual constellation point should be mapped. As a result, the BER is quite high, with a value of 0.890. However, Figure 4 and Figure 5 Both show a mean square error (MSE) between -19 and -20 dB.

[0070] Will Figure 4 and Figure 5 From the comparison, it can be seen that the constellation type has no effect on the IQ impairment MSE, and for larger constellations it may be necessary to minimize the MSE.

[0071] Figure 6It is the amplitude error (E) on the X-axis. r ) and the MSE level of IQ impairment severity on the Y-axis (Delta-Phase). r = 0.004 and Delta-Phase = 0.16) has a relatively low MSE of -45.85 dB, while the system with high IQ impairment (e.g., E r =0.48 and Delta-Phase=1.52) has a relatively high MSE of -24.99 dB.

[0072] In sub-THz communications, the expected bandwidth (BW) is approximately 10 GHz. At such high BW, the sampling interval T is small and therefore more sensitive to IQ impairments. Single-carrier OFDM (SC-OFDM) systems are even more sensitive to IQ impairments. For example, if I and Q have a mismatch (skew) of 1 sample, the SC-OFDM system will be completely unable to decode the data, even for low constellation counts.

[0073] Therefore, accurate IQ compensation in sub-THz is required. Conventional approaches (including those currently used in MMW communications) use filters with a large number of taps; this also increases power consumption at the receiver. Because IQ impairments have a dominant impact in sub-THz communications, and because compensation using filters in the digital domain is very costly in terms of power consumption at the UE, approaches involving pre-compensating the signal at the gNB have been proposed.

[0074] Various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to alleviating the filtering burden on a UE by having a base station (BS) pre-compensate downlink (DL) transmissions to the UE so that filtering functionality on the UE is reduced (e.g., by reducing the number of taps) or eliminated entirely (e.g., by disabling, eliminating, or bypassing the receiver digital filter). In one aspect, the UE estimates its own IQ imbalance and provides a description of the IQ imbalance to the BS in an uplink (UL) message; the BS calculates appropriate pre-compensation to be applied to subsequent DL transmissions to the UE. Upon receiving the pre-compensated DL transmission, the UE can determine that it can reduce or eliminate its own filtering functionality, which reduces the UE's power consumption compared to conventional approaches, especially for very high bandwidth operation.

[0075] Figure 7 7 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method 700 of operating a UE 120 according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 7As shown in FIG, method 700 may begin at block 702 by determining estimated IQ impairments of UE 120. According to some aspects, the IQ impairment is a mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of UE 120, such as a phase mismatch, an amplitude mismatch, or both a phase mismatch and an amplitude mismatch between the two paths.

[0076] According to some aspects, because the phase and / or amplitude mismatch between the I path and the Q path can be frequency-dependent, the UE's IQ impairment can be estimated at a specified frequency within a frequency range (i.e., bandwidth) supported by the UE 120, such as the center frequency of the bandwidth supported by the UE 120. Alternatively, the UE's IQ impairment can be estimated for each of one or more bandwidth parts of the bandwidth supported by the UE 120. For example, the UE's IQ impairment can be estimated for one bandwidth part that is all or only a subset of the entire bandwidth supported by the UE 120, or the UE's IQ impairment can be estimated for two or more bandwidth parts, each of which incorporates a different subset of the bandwidth supported by the UE 120. Likewise, the UE's IQ impairment for each bandwidth part can be an average IQ impairment over the frequency range of the bandwidth part, or can be an IQ impairment measured by the UE at a specific frequency within the bandwidth part.

[0077] Method 700 may continue at block 704 by transmitting the estimated IQ impairments to BS 110. According to some aspects, the estimated IQ impairments may be represented by a pair of complex numbers (e.g., a real number and an imaginary number), or by any other means by which to indicate amplitude mismatch and / or phase mismatch of the I and Q paths.

[0078] According to some aspects, UE 120 sends a single set describing the amplitude error and / or phase error for the entire frequency range supported by UE 120. For example, UE 120 may report the average amplitude error or phase error across the entire frequency range supported by UE 120.

[0079] In another aspect, UE 120 may report amplitude error and / or phase error for one or more sets of frequency ranges, which may also be referred to as bandwidth parts (BWPs), each frequency range representing a subset of the entire frequency range supported by UE 120. According to some aspects, UE 120 may include, for each estimated IQ impairment, an indicator identifying the bandwidth part and / or frequency with which the estimated IQ impairment is associated.

[0080] For example, Table 1 below lists measured values ​​of amplitude error and phase error for a hypothetical UE 120 having a supported frequency range FR0 including five non-overlapping frequency ranges FR1, FR2, FR3, FR4, and FR5.

[0081] Table 1

[0082] Frequency range Amplitude error Phase error <![CDATA[FR1]]> 0.10 0.25 <![CDATA[FR2]]> 0.15 0.30 <![CDATA[FR3]]> 0.23 0.37 <![CDATA[FR4]]> 0.17 0.49 <![CDATA[FR5]]> 0.11 0.65

[0083] Table 2 below shows an example set of values ​​that UE 120 may report to BS 110 according to some aspects, where UE 120 reports amplitude error and phase error separately for each frequency range.

[0084] Table 2

[0085] gather value 1 <![CDATA[{FR1,0.10,0.25}]]> 2 <![CDATA[{FR2,0.15,0.30}]]> 3 <![CDATA[{FR3,0.23,0.37}]]> 4 <![CDATA[{FR4,0.17,0.59} <!-- 9 -->]]> 5 <![CDATA[{FR5,0.11,0.65}]]>

[0086] Table 3 below shows an example set of values ​​that UE 120 may report to BS 110 according to other aspects, where UE 120 reports common amplitude error values ​​and common phase error values ​​to BS 110, as well as frequency range-specific differences therefrom.

[0087] Table 3

[0088] gather value 1 <![CDATA[{FR0,0.15,0.43}]]> 2 <![CDATA[{FR1,-0.5,-0.18}]]> 3 <![CDATA[{FR2,0.00,-0.13}]]> 4 <![CDATA[{FR3,0.8,-0.6}]]> 5 <![CDATA[{FR4,0.02,0.16}]]> 6 <![CDATA[{FR5,-0.4,0.22}]]>

[0089] In some aspects, the common error values ​​are independent of frequency, while other error values ​​are frequency dependent. In the example shown in Table 3 above, Set 1 describes common amplitude error values ​​and common error values, which in this example are the average amplitude error values ​​and phase error values ​​over the entire supported frequency range F0, but may alternatively be the lowest or highest error values, or a baseline value determined via another means. Sets 2 through 6 are offsets from the common error values: To determine the amplitude error values ​​and phase error values ​​for a particular bandwidth portion (such as FR3), the offset values ​​for FR3 (0.8 and -0.6) are added to the common values ​​for FR0 (0.15 and 0.43) to obtain amplitude error and phase error of (0.23 and 0.37), which are the same values ​​contained in Set 3 of Table 2.

[0090] According to some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairments of UE 120 to BS 110 includes providing a description of a filter configuration to be used by BS 110. Providing the filter configuration may include providing a description of the filter architecture, number of taps, filter coefficients, and so on.

[0091] According to some aspects, the determining and reporting steps are performed in response to detecting a triggering condition. Examples of triggering conditions include, but are not limited to, detecting a change in network conditions, detecting a change in operating conditions of UE 120, and receiving an instruction from a network entity to perform the determining and reporting steps.

[0092] According to some aspects, detecting a change in network conditions may include, but is not limited to, determining that a bit error rate (BER), mean square error (MSE), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR), total harmonic distortion (THD), error vector magnitude (EVM), some other signal or channel metric, or some combination or mathematical operation thereof, meets a threshold, which may occur, for example, when a mobile device changes location and, therefore, changes quality of service. For example, detecting a change in network conditions may include, but is not limited to, detecting that an EVM value (e.g., MSE of an OFDM constellation) has crossed a threshold, or detecting that a value of (EVM-SNR) has crossed a threshold.

[0093] According to some aspects, detecting a change in the operating condition of UE 120 may include, but is not limited to, determining that the UE's power condition, temperature, or performance metric meets a threshold. For example, if the UE's battery voltage drops, the performance of the analog receiver may be adversely affected, resulting in increased susceptibility to IQ impairments and requiring additional compensation by BS 110.

[0094] According to some aspects, the determining and reporting steps are repeated periodically. For example, UE 120 may receive a periodic request from BS 110 to perform UE IQ impairment estimation and report the results to BS 110. Alternatively, UE 120 may decide (or be instructed by BS 110) to periodically perform UE IQ impairment estimation and report the results to BS 110, for example, by using an internal timer for this purpose.

[0095] Method 700 may continue at block 706 by receiving a transmission from BS 110 that is precompensated to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments. In accordance with some aspects, UE 120 may continue to receive precompensated transmissions from BS 110. In accordance with some aspects, BS 110 will continue to precompensate transmissions to UE 120 based on the estimated IQ impairments last received from UE 120.

[0096] According to some aspects, method 700 may optionally continue at block 708, where UE 120 determines whether additional compensation is needed, and if so, the process restarts at block 702 and continues until block 708 is reached, looping until additional compensation is not needed. According to some aspects, UE 120 determines that additional compensation is needed based on a residual IQ impairment value measured from pre-compensated transmissions received from BS 110, based on channel characteristics (such as BER, MSE, SNR, SINR, THD, etc.), based on some other metric, or based on some combination of the above.

[0097] According to some aspects, method 700 may optionally continue at block 710, where the UE detects a re-estimation trigger, in which case the process restarts at block 702 and continues until block 710 is reached. Examples of re-estimation triggers include, but are not limited to, expiration of a timer, detection that a signal or channel characteristic has met a predefined threshold, detection that an operating condition of UE 120 has changed, receipt of a request for re-estimation from an application or entity within the UE, and receipt of a request for re-estimation from an application or entity external to the UE (such as, but not limited to, from a base station or other network node). For example, because IQ impairments may vary over time, re-estimation may be performed periodically. Similarly, re-estimation may be performed in response to detecting an indication that re-estimation would be beneficial or necessary.

[0098] According to some aspects, UE 120 can dynamically adjust the receiver digital filter configuration in response to changes in the estimated IQ impairments. For example, before UE 120 reports the estimated IQ impairments to BS 110, UE 120 can use a conventional receiver digital filter configuration with many taps because, in conventional systems, UE 120 performs compensation. However, after UE 120 reports the estimated IQ impairments to BS 110, BS 110 can begin pre-compensating the transmitted signal to UE 120. Since the data transmission from BS 110 is pre-compensated for the reported IQ impairments, the constellation points will be closer to their ideal positions, which means that the receiver digital filter can be reconfigured with fewer taps, or even disabled, eliminated, or completely bypassed, resulting in significant power savings at UE 120. According to some aspects, dynamically adjusting the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter may include decreasing the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to a decrease in estimated IQ impairments, and increasing the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to an increase in estimated IQ impairments.

[0099] Figure 8 8 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method 800 of operating BS 110 according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Figure 8 As shown in FIG, method 800 may begin at block 802 by receiving estimated IQ impairments at UE 120 from UE 120. The form and content of the received estimated IQ impairments may be the same as described above with reference to FIG. Figure 7 The form and content of the transmitted estimated IQ impairments described are the same and therefore will not be repeated here.

[0100] Method 800 may continue at block 804 by determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of UE 120. According to some aspects, determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of UE 120 includes determining precompensation to compensate for phase and / or amplitude mismatches between the I path and the Q path within the analog receiver circuitry of the UE. Such precompensation will ideally eliminate any differences between the actual and ideal positions of the received constellation points, e.g., Figure 4 and Figure 5 The actual constellation points shown in will be at their ideal positions, eliminating any ambiguity as to which constellation point was received and thereby eliminating the need for digital filtering to resolve these ambiguities with an accompanying reduction in power consumption at the UE 120. Even a partial reduction in the distance between the actual and ideal positions of the received constellation points would allow the digital filtering at the UE 120 to be performed with smaller filters (e.g., fewer taps and thereby fewer processing steps for each iteration). This would also provide for reduced power consumption at the UE 120.

[0101] Method 800 may continue at block 806 by using the determined precompensation when transmitting to UE 120. In some aspects, BS 110 will continue to precompensate transmissions to UE 120 based on the estimated IQ impairments last received from UE 120. In some aspects, BS 110 may optionally receive another estimated IQ impairment from UE 120, in which case method 800 restarts at block 802 and continues until block 806 is reached. In some aspects, BS 110 may continue to precompensate transmissions to UE 120 based on the estimated IQ impairments last received from UE 120 until a predetermined duration has elapsed. For example, BS 110 may precompensate transmissions to UE 120 based on the estimated IQ impairments last received from UE 120 until a timer configured to periodically trigger the determination and reporting steps expires, after which BS 110 may stop precompensating transmissions to UE 120. According to some aspects, BS 110 uses the estimated IQ impairment last received from UE 120 until receiving an instruction from UE 120 to stop precompensation or a notification from UE 120 that the estimated IQ impairment last received from UE 120 is no longer valid.

[0102] The techniques disclosed herein provide several technical advantages over existing techniques. By moving the burden of compensating for the UE's IQ impairments from the battery-powered UE 120 to the more powerful BS 110, the UE 120 can be relieved of a significant processing burden, which not only reduces the power consumption of the UE 120 and increases its battery life, but also enables the UE 120 to operate at very high bandwidths—something that the UE 120 may not be able to do due to the power required by conventional digital filtering approaches (which increases proportionally with bandwidth), especially in sub-THz communications where very high bandwidth systems may be used. Furthermore, by moving the digital filtering operations from the UE 120 to the BS 110, the hardware or software complexity of the UE 120 can be reduced, for example, by eliminating software routines used by conventional UEs to perform digital filtering functions, by eliminating hardware or circuitry used by conventional UEs to perform digital filtering functions, or both. Thus, the techniques disclosed herein provide the following technical advantages: These techniques enable the creation of low-power, low-complexity receivers.

[0103] Furthermore, by providing a mechanism by which BS 110 can pre-compensate each UE 120 individually, the overall performance of the network is improved: for example, the improved BER resulting from more accurate constellation positions can translate into fewer required retransmissions and less overall traffic. Single-carrier OFDM, for example, is very sensitive to IQ impairments: an IQ mismatch (skew) of just 1 sample can result in a complete inability to decode the received data, even for low constellation configurations. Using the techniques disclosed herein, such IQ mismatches can be corrected, resulting in successful operation in SC-OFDM networks.

[0104] Figure 9 is a conceptual data flow diagram 900 illustrating the flow of data between different devices / components in exemplary devices 902 and 904 according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Device 902 may be a UE (e.g., UE 120) in communication with device 904, which may be a base station (e.g., BS 110).

[0105] The device 902 includes a transmission component 906, which may correspond to Figure 2 , includes a controller / processor 280, antenna(s) 252a...252r, modulator(s) 254a...254r, TX MIMO processor 266, TX processor 264. Device 902 further includes an IQ impairment estimation component 908, which may correspond to Figure 2 The processor circuit system in the UE 120 depicted in FIG. 1 includes the controller / processor 280, etc. The device 902 further includes a receiving component 910, which may correspond to the following. Figure 2Receiver circuitry in UE 120, as depicted in FIG, includes a controller / processor 280, antenna(s) 252a . . . 252r, demodulator(s) 254a . . . 254r, a MIMO detector 256, and an RX processor 258.

[0106] The device 904 includes a receiving component 912, which may correspond to Figure 2 Receiver circuitry in BS 110 depicted in FIG. 1 includes controller / processor 240, antenna(s) 234a ... 234r, demodulator(s) 232a ... 232r, MIMO detector 236, RX processor 238, and communication unit 244. Device 904 further includes a pre-compensation component 914, which may correspond to Figure 2 The processor circuitry in the BS 110 depicted in FIG. 1 includes the controller / processor 240. The device 904 further includes a transmission component 916, which may correspond to the embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 The transmission circuit system in BS 110 depicted in FIG includes a controller / processor 240, antenna(s) 234a . . . 234r, modulator(s) 232a . . . 232r, Tx MIMO processor 230, TX processor 220, and communication unit 244.

[0107] Reference Figure 9 At device 902, an IQ impairment estimation component 908 of the UE estimates the IQ impairment of device 902 and provides the estimated IQ impairment to a transmission component 906, which sends the estimated IQ impairment to device 904 (e.g., in an uplink transmission 918). At device 904, a reception component 912 receives the estimated IQ impairment at device 902 from device 902 and provides the estimated IQ impairment to a precompensation component 914. Precompensation component 914 determines a precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment at device 902, which provides the precompensation to a transmission component 916. Transmission component 916 then uses the precompensation when transmitting data to device 902 (e.g., during a downlink transmission 920).

[0108] One or more components in device 902 and device 904 may execute Figure 7-Figure 8 Each box in the algorithm in the aforementioned flowchart. Thus, Figure 7-Figure 8 Each block in the aforementioned flow chart may be performed by a component and the device 904 and the device 904 may include one or more of those components. These components may be one or more hardware components specifically configured to perform the process / algorithm, implemented by a processor configured to perform the process / algorithm, stored in a computer-readable medium for implementation by a processor, or some combination thereof.

[0109] Figure 10 FIG1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of device 902 employing a processing system 1002. Processing system 1002 may be implemented with a bus architecture generally represented by bus 1004. Bus 1004 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges, depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of processing system 1002. Bus 1004 links various circuits together, including one or more processors and / or hardware components (represented by processor 1006, transmit component 906, IQ impairment estimation component 908, receive component 910, and computer-readable medium / memory 1008). Bus 1004 may also link various other circuits, such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and, therefore, will not be described further.

[0110] The processing system 1002 may be coupled to a transceiver 1010. The transceiver 1010 is coupled to one or more antennas 1012. The transceiver 1010 provides a means for communicating with various other devices via a transmission medium. The transceiver 1010 receives signals from the one or more antennas 1012, extracts information from the received signals, and provides the extracted information to the processing system 1002 (specifically, the receiving component 910). In addition, the transceiver 1010 receives information from the processing system 1002 (specifically, the transmitting component 906) and generates signals to be applied to the one or more antennas 1012 based on the received information. The processing system 1002 includes a processor 1006 communicatively coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory 1008. The processor 1006 is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium / memory 1008. When executed by the processor 1006, the software causes the processing system 1002 to perform the various functions described above for any particular device. The computer-readable medium / memory 1008 may also be used to store data that is manipulated by the processor 1006 when executing software. The processing system 1002 further includes at least one of components 906, 908, and 910. These components may be software components running in the processor 1006, software components residing / stored in the computer-readable medium / memory 1008, one or more hardware components coupled to the processor 1006, or some combination thereof. The processing system 1002 may be Figure 2 280 and may include a memory 282 and / or include at least one of a TX processor 264, a RX processor 258, and a controller / processor 280.

[0111] In one configuration, an apparatus 902 (e.g., a UE) for wireless communication includes means for determining estimated IQ impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE, and means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments to a BS.

[0112] The aforementioned means may be the aforementioned components of the device 902 and / or one or more components of the processing system 1002 of the device 902 configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. As previously described, the processing system 1002 may include the TX processor 264, the RX processor 258, and the controller / processor 280.

[0113] Figure 11 FIG100 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of a device 904 employing a processing system 1102. The processing system 1102 may be implemented with a bus architecture generally represented by a bus 1104. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system 1102, the bus 1104 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges. The bus 1104 links various circuits together, including one or more processors and / or hardware components (represented by the processor 1106, the receiving component 912, the precompensation component 914, the transmitting component 916, and the computer-readable medium / memory 1108). The bus 1104 may also link various other circuits, such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and therefore will not be described further.

[0114] The processing system 1102 may be coupled to a transceiver 1110. The transceiver 1110 is coupled to one or more antennas 1112. The transceiver 1110 provides a means for communicating with various other devices via a transmission medium. The transceiver 1110 receives signals from the one or more antennas 1112, extracts information from the received signals, and provides the extracted information to the processing system 1102 (specifically, the receiving component 912). In addition, the transceiver 1110 receives information from the processing system 1102 (specifically, the transmitting component 916) and generates signals to be applied to the one or more antennas 1112 based on the received information. The processing system 1102 includes a processor 1106 communicatively coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory 1108. The processor 1106 is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium / memory 1108. When executed by the processor 1106, the software causes the processing system 1102 to perform the various functions described above for any particular device. The computer-readable medium / memory 1108 may also be used to store data that is manipulated by the processor 1106 when executing software. The processing system 1102 further includes at least one of components 912, 914, and 916. These components may be software components running in the processor 1106, software components residing / stored in the computer-readable medium / memory 1108, one or more hardware components coupled to the processor 1106, or some combination thereof. The processing system 1102 may be Figure 2 2. The BS 110 may be a component of the BS 110 and may include a memory 242 and / or include at least one of the TX processor 220, the RX processor 238, and the controller / processor 240.

[0115] In one configuration, an apparatus 904 (e.g., a BS) for wireless communication includes: means for receiving, from a UE, estimated IQ impairments at the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; means for determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and means for using the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0116] The aforementioned means may be the aforementioned components of the device 904 and / or one or more components of the processing system 1102 of the device 904 configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. As previously described, the processing system 1102 may include the TX processor 220, the RX processor 238, and the controller / processor 240.

[0117] In the above detailed description, it can be seen that different features are grouped together in each example. This disclosure should not be understood as an intention that the example clauses have more features than the features explicitly mentioned in each clause. On the contrary, various aspects of the present disclosure may include less than all the features of the disclosed individual example clauses. Therefore, the attached clauses should be considered to be incorporated into this description, wherein each clause itself may be a separate example. Although each dependent clause can be referenced in each clause in a specific combination with one of the other clauses, the (all) aspects of the dependent clause are not limited to this specific combination. It will be appreciated that other example clauses may also include a combination of the dependent clause (all) aspects with the subject matter of any other dependent clause or independent clause or a combination of any feature with other dependent and independent clauses. The various aspects disclosed herein explicitly include these combinations, unless explicitly expressed or can be easily inferred that a specific combination is not intended (for example, contradictory aspects, such as defining an element as an insulator and a conductor at the same time). In addition, it is also intended that various aspects of a clause can be included in any other independent clause, even if the clause is not directly subordinate to the independent clause.

[0118] Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses.

[0119] Clause 1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: determining estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within an analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0120] Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein determining the estimated IQ impairment for the UE comprises determining the estimated IQ impairment at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0121] Clause 3. A method as described in any of clauses 1 to 2, wherein determining the estimated IQ impairment of the UE includes: determining the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE, and wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes: reporting the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in the set of one or more bandwidth parts.

[0122] Clause 4. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 3, wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS comprises reporting the estimated IQ impairment as one or more sets of complex numbers.

[0123] Clause 5. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 4, wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS comprises reporting the estimated IQ impairment as an amplitude error and / or a phase error for an entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0124] Clause 6. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 5, wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS comprises reporting the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets, each set describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors for one or more bandwidth portions of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0125] Clause 7. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 6, wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS comprises reporting the estimated IQ impairment as a first set describing an amplitude error and / or phase error that is common to all of the one or more bandwidth parts and as one or more second sets, each second set describing an amplitude error and / or phase error for each of the one or more bandwidth parts of the bandwidth supported by the UE as an absolute value or as a difference from the amplitude error and / or phase error described in the first set.

[0126] Clause 8. A method as described in any one of clauses 1 to 7, wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS includes: reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set and a second set, the first set describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors that are independent of frequency, and the second set describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors that are dependent on frequency.

[0127] Clause 9. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 8, wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS comprises providing a description of a filter configuration to be used by the BS, the filter description comprising a description of a filter architecture, a number of taps, one or more filter coefficients, or a combination thereof.

[0128] Clause 10. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 9, wherein the determining and reporting steps are repeated periodically.

[0129] Clause 11. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 10, wherein the determining and reporting steps are performed in response to detecting a triggering condition.

[0130] Clause 12. The method of clause 11, wherein detecting the trigger condition comprises: detecting a change in a network condition, detecting a change in an operating condition of the UE, receiving an instruction from a network entity to perform a determining step and a reporting step, and detecting the expiration of a timer configured to periodically trigger the performance of the determining step and the reporting step.

[0131] Clause 13. The method of any of clauses 1 to 12, further comprising: receiving a transmission from the BS, the transmission pre-compensated to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE.

[0132] Clause 14. The method of clause 13, further comprising: repeating the determining step, the reporting step, and the receiving step until at least one of IQ impairment, bit error rate (BER), mean square error (MSE), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR), total harmonic distortion (THD), or error vector magnitude (EVM) is determined to meet a threshold.

[0133] Clause 15. The method of any of clauses 13 to 14, further comprising dynamically adjusting a configuration of a receiver digital filter in response to a change in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE.

[0134] Clause 16. The method of clause 15, wherein dynamically adjusting the configuration of the receiver digital filter in response to a change in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE comprises: reducing the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to a decrease in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE; increasing the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to an increase in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE; or disabling, eliminating, or bypassing the receiver digital filter.

[0135] Clause 17. A method of operating a base station (BS), the method comprising: receiving estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at a user equipment (UE) from the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within an analog receiver circuitry of the UE; determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and using the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0136] Clause 18. The method of clause 17, wherein receiving the estimated IQ impairment for the UE comprises receiving the estimated IQ impairment at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0137] Clause 19. The method of any of clauses 17-18, wherein receiving the estimated IQ impairment for the UE comprises receiving the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0138] Clause 20. The method of clause 19, wherein the set of bandwidth parts comprises one bandwidth part that includes all or a portion of the bandwidth supported by the UE or comprises two or more bandwidth parts, each bandwidth part including a different subset of the bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0139] Clause 21. The method of any one of clauses 17 to 20, wherein receiving the estimated IQ impairment for the UE to the BS comprises receiving the estimated IQ impairment for the UE as one or more sets of complex numbers.

[0140] Clause 22. The method of any one of clauses 17 to 21, wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS comprises reporting the estimated IQ impairment as an amplitude error and / or a phase error for an entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0141] Clause 23. A method as described in any of clauses 17 to 22, wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes: reporting the estimated IQ impairment as one or more sets, each set describing amplitude error and / or phase error for one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0142] Clause 24. A method as recited in any one of clauses 17 to 23, wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS comprises reporting the estimated IQ impairment as a first set describing an amplitude error and / or phase error that is common to all of the one or more bandwidth parts, and as one or more second sets describing an amplitude error and / or phase error for each of the one or more bandwidth parts of the bandwidth supported by the UE as an absolute error or as a difference from the amplitude error and / or phase error described in the first set.

[0143] Clause 25. A method as described in any of clauses 17 to 24, wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes: reporting the estimated IQ impairment as a first set and a second set, the first set describing frequency-independent amplitude errors and / or phase errors, and the second set describing frequency-dependent amplitude errors and / or phase errors.

[0144] Clause 26. The method of any one of clauses 17 to 25, wherein determining the precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE comprises determining the precompensation to compensate for a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within the analog receiver circuitry of the UE.

[0145] Clause 27. The method of any of clauses 17 to 26, further comprising continuing to use the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE based on the estimated IQ impairment of the UE last received from the UE.

[0146] Clause 28. A method as described in any of clauses 17 to 27, wherein the BS uses the estimated IQ impairment last received from the UE until the BS receives another estimated IQ impairment from the UE, until a predetermined duration ends, until an instruction is received from the UE to stop pre-compensation, until a notification is received from the UE that the estimated IQ impairment last received from the UE is no longer valid, or a combination thereof.

[0147] Clause 29. A user equipment (UE) comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: determine estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within an analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0148] Clause 30. The UE of clause 29, wherein, to determine the estimated IQ impairment for the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: determine the estimated IQ impairment at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0149] Clause 31. A UE as described in any of clauses 29 to 30, wherein determining the estimated IQ impairment of the UE includes: determining the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE, and wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes: reporting the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in the set of one or more bandwidth parts.

[0150] Clause 32. The UE of any one of clauses 29 to 31, wherein, to report the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS, the at least one processor is configured to: report the estimated IQ impairment as one or more sets of complex numbers.

[0151] Clause 33. A UE as described in any of clauses 29 to 32, wherein, to report the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS, the at least one processor is configured to: report the estimated IQ impairment as an amplitude error and / or a phase error for the entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0152] Clause 34. A UE as described in any of clauses 29 to 33, wherein, in order to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS, the at least one processor is configured to: report the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets, each set describing an amplitude error and / or a phase error for one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0153] Clause 35. A UE as described in any of clauses 29 to 34, wherein, in order to report the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS, the at least one processor is configured to: report the estimated IQ impairment as a first set and one or more second sets, the first set describing the amplitude error and / or phase error common to all bandwidth parts of the one or more bandwidth parts, and each second set describing the amplitude error and / or phase error for each bandwidth part of the one or more bandwidth parts of the bandwidth supported by the UE as an absolute value or as a difference from the amplitude error and / or phase error described in the first set.

[0154] Clause 36. A UE as described in any of clauses 29 to 35, wherein, in order to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS, the at least one processor is configured to: report the estimated IQ impairments as a first set and a second set, the first set describing frequency-independent amplitude errors and / or phase errors, and the second set describing frequency-dependent amplitude errors and / or phase errors.

[0155] Clause 37. A UE as described in any of clauses 29 to 36, wherein, in order to report the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS, the at least one processor is configured to: provide a description of a filter configuration to be used by the BS, the filter description comprising a description of a filter architecture, a number of taps, one or more filter coefficients, or a combination thereof.

[0156] Clause 38. The UE of any one of clauses 29 to 37, wherein the determining and reporting steps are repeated periodically.

[0157] Clause 39. The UE of any one of clauses 29 to 38, wherein the determining and reporting steps are performed in response to detecting a triggering condition.

[0158] Clause 40. A UE as described in Clause 39, wherein detecting the trigger condition includes: detecting a change in network conditions, detecting a change in the operating conditions of the UE, receiving an instruction from a network entity to perform a determination step and a reporting step, and detecting the expiration of a timer configured to periodically trigger the execution of a determination step and a reporting step.

[0159] Clause 41. The UE of any one of clauses 29 to 40, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive a transmission from the BS via the at least one transceiver, the transmission pre-compensated to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE.

[0160] Clause 42. The UE of clause 41, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: repeat the determining step, the reporting step, and the receiving step until at least one of IQ impairment, bit error rate (BER), mean square error (MSE), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR), total harmonic distortion (THD), or error vector magnitude (EVM) is determined to meet a threshold.

[0161] Clause 43. The UE of any one of clauses 41 to 42, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to dynamically adjust a configuration of a receiver digital filter in response to a change in estimated IQ impairments of the UE.

[0162] Clause 44. A UE as described in clause 43, wherein, in order to dynamically adjust the configuration of the receiver digital filter in response to a change in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: reduce the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to a decrease in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE; increase the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to an increase in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE; or disable, eliminate, or bypass the receiver digital filter.

[0163] Clause 45. A BS comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: receive estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at a user equipment (UE) from the UE via the at least one transceiver, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within an analog receiver circuit system of the UE; determine precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and use the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0164] Clause 46. The BS of clause 45, wherein, to receive the estimated IQ impairment for the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: receive the estimated IQ impairment at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0165] Clause 47. The BS of any one of clauses 45 to 46, wherein, to receive the estimated IQ impairment for the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: receive the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0166] Clause 48. The BS of clause 47, wherein the set of bandwidth parts comprises one bandwidth part incorporating all or a portion of the bandwidth supported by the UE or comprises two or more bandwidth parts, each bandwidth part incorporating a different subset of the bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0167] Clause 49. The BS of any one of clauses 45 to 48, wherein, to receive the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS, the at least one processor is configured to: receive the estimated IQ impairments of the UE as one or more sets of complex numbers.

[0168] Clause 50. The BS of any one of clauses 45 to 49, wherein, to report the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS, the at least one processor is configured to: report the estimated IQ impairment as an amplitude error and / or a phase error for the entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0169] Clause 51. A BS as described in any of clauses 45 to 50, wherein, in order to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS, the at least one processor is configured to: report the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets, each set describing an amplitude error and / or a phase error for one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0170] Clause 52. A BS as described in any of clauses 45 to 51, wherein, to report the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS, the at least one processor is configured to: report the estimated IQ impairment as a first set and one or more second sets, the first set describing an amplitude error and / or phase error that is common to all of the one or more bandwidth parts, each second set describing an amplitude error and / or phase error for each of the one or more bandwidth parts of the bandwidth supported by the UE as an absolute error or as a difference from the amplitude error and / or phase error described in the first set.

[0171] Clause 53. A BS as described in any of clauses 45 to 52, wherein, in order to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS, the at least one processor is configured to: report the estimated IQ impairments as a first set and a second set, the first set describing frequency-independent amplitude errors and / or phase errors, and the second set describing frequency-dependent amplitude errors and / or phase errors.

[0172] Clause 54. A BS as described in any of clauses 45 to 53, wherein, in order to determine the precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE, the at least one processor is configured to: determine the precompensation to compensate for the phase and / or amplitude mismatch between the I path and the Q path within the analog receiver circuit system of the UE.

[0173] Clause 55. The BS of any one of clauses 45 to 54, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to continue using the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE based on the estimated IQ impairment of the UE last received from the UE.

[0174] Clause 56. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for determining estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within an analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0175] Clause 57. The UE of clause 56, wherein the means for determining the estimated IQ impairment for the UE comprises means for determining the estimated IQ impairment at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0176] Clause 58. A UE as described in any of clauses 56 to 57, wherein the means for determining the estimated IQ impairment of the UE includes: means for determining the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE, and wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes: reporting the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in the set of one or more bandwidth parts.

[0177] Clause 59. The UE of any one of clauses 56 to 58, wherein the means for reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS comprises means for reporting the estimated IQ impairment as one or more sets of complex numbers.

[0178] Clause 60. The UE of any one of clauses 56 to 59, wherein the means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS comprises means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments as amplitude error and / or phase error for the entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0179] Clause 61. A UE as described in any of clauses 56 to 60, wherein the means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS includes: means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets, each set describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors for one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0180] Clause 62. A UE as described in any of clauses 56 to 61, wherein the means for reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS comprises: means for reporting the estimated IQ impairment as a first set and one or more second sets, the first set describing an amplitude error and / or phase error that is common to all of the one or more bandwidth parts, each second set describing an amplitude error and / or phase error for each of the one or more bandwidth parts of the bandwidth supported by the UE as an absolute value or as a difference from the amplitude error and / or phase error described in the first set.

[0181] Clause 63. A UE as described in any of clauses 56 to 62, wherein the means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS includes: means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set and a second set, the first set describing frequency-independent amplitude errors and / or phase errors, and the second set describing frequency-dependent amplitude errors and / or phase errors.

[0182] Clause 64. A UE as described in any of clauses 56 to 63, wherein the means for reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes: means for providing a description of a filter configuration to be used by the BS, the filter description including a description of a filter architecture, a number of taps, one or more filter coefficients, or a combination thereof.

[0183] Clause 65. The UE of any one of clauses 56 to 64, wherein the determining and reporting steps are repeated periodically.

[0184] Clause 66. The UE of any one of clauses 56 to 65, wherein the determining and reporting steps are performed in response to detecting a triggering condition.

[0185] Clause 67. A UE as described in Clause 66, wherein detecting the trigger condition includes: detecting a change in network conditions, detecting a change in the operating conditions of the UE, receiving an instruction from a network entity to perform a determination step and a reporting step, and detecting the expiration of a timer configured to periodically trigger the execution of a determination step and a reporting step.

[0186] Clause 68. The UE of any one of clauses 56 to 67, further comprising: means for receiving a transmission from the BS, the transmission pre-compensated to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE.

[0187] Clause 69. The UE of clause 68, further comprising: means for repeating the determining step, the reporting step, and the receiving step until at least one of IQ impairment, bit error rate (BER), mean square error (MSE), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR), total harmonic distortion (THD), or error vector magnitude (EVM) is determined to meet a threshold.

[0188] Clause 70. The UE of any one of clauses 68 to 69, further comprising: means for dynamically adjusting a configuration of a receiver digital filter in response to a change in the estimated IQ impairments of the UE.

[0189] Clause 71. A UE as described in clause 70, wherein the means for dynamically adjusting the configuration of the receiver digital filter in response to a change in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE comprises: means for reducing the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to a decrease in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE; means for increasing the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to an increase in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE; or means for disabling, eliminating, or bypassing the receiver digital filter.

[0190] Clause 72. A BS comprising: means for receiving estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at a user equipment (UE) from the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within an analog receiver circuitry of the UE; means for determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and means for using the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0191] Clause 73. The BS of clause 72, wherein the means for receiving the estimated IQ impairment for the UE comprises means for receiving the estimated IQ impairment at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0192] Clause 74. The BS of any of clauses 72 to 73, wherein the means for receiving the estimated IQ impairment for the UE comprises means for receiving the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0193] Clause 75. The BS of clause 74, wherein the set of bandwidth parts comprises one bandwidth part incorporating all or a portion of the bandwidth supported by the UE or comprises two or more bandwidth parts, each bandwidth part incorporating a different subset of the bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0194] Clause 76. The BS of any one of clauses 72 to 75, wherein the means for receiving the estimated IQ impairments for the UE to the BS comprises means for receiving the estimated IQ impairments for the UE as one or more sets of complex numbers.

[0195] Clause 77. The BS of any one of clauses 72 to 76, wherein the means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS comprises means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments as amplitude error and / or phase error for the entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0196] Clause 78. A BS as described in any of clauses 72 to 77, wherein the means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS includes: means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets, each set describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors for one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0197] Clause 79. A BS as claimed in any one of clauses 72 to 78, wherein the means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS comprises: means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing an amplitude error and / or phase error that is common to all of the one or more bandwidth parts, and one or more second sets, each second set describing an amplitude error and / or phase error for each of the one or more bandwidth parts of the bandwidth supported by the UE as an absolute error or as a difference from the amplitude error and / or phase error described in the first set.

[0198] Clause 80. A BS as described in any of clauses 72 to 79, wherein the means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS includes: means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing frequency-independent amplitude errors and / or phase errors and a second set describing frequency-dependent amplitude errors and / or phase errors.

[0199] Clause 81. A BS as described in any of clauses 72 to 80, wherein the means for determining the precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE includes: means for determining the precompensation to compensate for the phase and / or amplitude mismatch between the I path and the Q path within the analog receiver circuit system of the UE.

[0200] Clause 82. The BS of any one of clauses 72 to 81, further comprising: means for continuing to use the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE based on the estimated IQ impairment of the UE last received from the UE.

[0201] Clause 83. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: determine estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within an analog receiver circuit system of the UE; and report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0202] Clause 84. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as described in clause 83, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to determine the estimated IQ impairment of the UE include: computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to determine the estimated IQ impairment at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0203] Clause 85. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as in any of clauses 83 to 84, wherein determining the estimated IQ impairment of the UE comprises determining the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE, and wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS comprises reporting the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in the set of one or more bandwidth parts.

[0204] Clause 86. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as in any of clauses 83 to 85, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS include: computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to report the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets of complex numbers.

[0205] Clause 87. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as in any of clauses 83 to 86, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS include: computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to report the estimated IQ impairments as amplitude errors and / or phase errors for the entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0206] Clause 88. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in any one of clauses 83 to 87, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS include computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to report the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets, each set describing an amplitude error and / or a phase error for one or more bandwidth portions of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0207] Clause 89. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in any one of clauses 83 to 88, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to report the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors that are common to all of the one or more bandwidth parts, and as one or more second sets describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors for each of the one or more bandwidth parts of the bandwidth supported by the UE as an absolute value or as a difference from the amplitude errors and / or phase errors described in the first set.

[0208] Clause 90. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in any one of clauses 83 to 89, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS include computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to report the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing frequency-independent amplitude errors and / or phase errors and a second set describing frequency-dependent amplitude errors and / or phase errors.

[0209] Clause 91. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as in any of clauses 83 to 90, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to report the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS include: computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to provide a description of a filter configuration to be used by the BS, the filter description comprising a description of a filter architecture, a number of taps, one or more filter coefficients, or a combination thereof.

[0210] Clause 92. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 83 to 91, wherein the determining and reporting steps are repeated periodically.

[0211] Clause 93. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 83 to 92, wherein the determining and reporting steps are performed in response to detecting a triggering condition.

[0212] Clause 94. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as described in clause 93, wherein detecting the trigger condition includes: detecting a change in network conditions, detecting a change in the operating conditions of the UE, receiving an instruction from a network entity to perform a determination step and a reporting step, and detecting the expiration of a timer configured to periodically trigger the execution of a determination step and a reporting step.

[0213] Clause 95. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 83 to 94, wherein the one or more instructions further cause the UE to: receive a transmission from the BS, the transmission pre-compensated to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE.

[0214] Clause 96. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as in clause 95, wherein the one or more instructions further cause the UE to: repeat the determining step, the reporting step, and the receiving step until at least one of IQ impairment, bit error rate (BER), mean square error (MSE), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR), total harmonic distortion (THD), or error vector magnitude (EVM) is determined to meet a threshold.

[0215] Clause 97. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 95 to 96, wherein the one or more instructions further cause the UE to: dynamically adjust a configuration of a receiver digital filter in response to a change in the estimated IQ impairments of the UE.

[0216] Clause 98. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as described in clause 97, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE to dynamically adjust the configuration of the receiver digital filter in response to a change in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE include computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to: reduce the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to a decrease in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE; increase the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to an increase in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE; or disable, eliminate, or bypass the receiver digital filter.

[0217] Clause 99. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a BS, cause the BS to: receive from a user equipment (UE) estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within an analog receiver circuitry of the UE; determine precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and use the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0218] Clause 100. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as in clause 99, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to receive the estimated IQ impairments for the UE include computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to receive the estimated IQ impairments at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0219] Clause 101. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as in any of clauses 99 to 100, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to receive the estimated IQ impairment for the UE include: computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to receive the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0220] Clause 102. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 101, wherein the set of bandwidth parts comprises one bandwidth part that includes all or a portion of the bandwidth supported by the UE or comprises two or more bandwidth parts, each bandwidth part including a different subset of the bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0221] Clause 103. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as in any of clauses 99 to 102, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to receive the estimated IQ impairments for the UE to the BS include: computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to receive the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets of complex numbers.

[0222] Clause 104. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as in any of clauses 99 to 103, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS include: computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to report the estimated IQ impairments as amplitude errors and / or phase errors for the entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0223] Clause 105. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in any one of clauses 99 to 104, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS include computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to report the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets, each set describing an amplitude error and / or a phase error for one or more bandwidth portions of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0224] Clause 106. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in any one of clauses 99 to 105, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to report the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors that are common to all of the one or more bandwidth parts, and as one or more second sets describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors for each of the one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE as an absolute error or as a difference from the amplitude errors and / or phase errors described in the first set.

[0225] Clause 107. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in any one of clauses 99 to 106, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS include computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to report the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing frequency-independent amplitude errors and / or phase errors and a second set describing frequency-dependent amplitude errors and / or phase errors.

[0226] Clause 108. A non-transitory computer-readable medium as in any of clauses 99 to 107, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to determine pre-compensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE include: computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the BS to determine pre-compensation to compensate for a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within the analog receiver circuit system of the UE.

[0227] Clause 109. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of clauses 99 to 108, wherein the one or more instructions further cause the BS to continue using the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE based on the estimated IQ impairment of the UE last received from the UE.

[0228] Clause 110. An apparatus comprising: a memory, a transceiver, and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the transceiver, the memory, the transceiver, and the processor configured to perform the method of any of clauses 1 to 28.

[0229] Clause 111. An apparatus comprising means for performing the method of any of clauses 1 to 28.

[0230] Clause 112. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions comprising at least one instruction for causing a computer or processor to perform the method according to any one of clauses 1 to 28.

[0231] Additional aspects are described below:

[0232] In one aspect, a method of operating a user equipment (UE) includes determining estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0233] In some aspects, determining the estimated IQ impairment for the UE includes determining the estimated IQ impairment at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0234] In some aspects, determining the estimated IQ impairment for the UE includes determining an estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE, and reporting the estimated IQ impairment for the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in the set of bandwidth parts.

[0235] In some aspects, the set of bandwidth parts comprises a bandwidth part that incorporates all or a portion of the bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0236] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairment for the one bandwidth portion.

[0237] In some aspects, the set of bandwidth parts includes two or more bandwidth parts, each bandwidth part incorporating a different subset of the bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0238] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairment for each of the two or more bandwidth parts.

[0239] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairment as one or more sets of complex numbers.

[0240] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairment as an amplitude error and / or a phase error for an entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0241] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets, each set describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors for one or more bandwidth portions of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0242] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors that are common to all of the one or more bandwidth parts and as one or more second sets describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors for each of the one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0243] In some aspects, each second set describes the amplitude error and / or phase error for each of the one or more bandwidths as a difference from the amplitude error and / or phase error described in the first set.

[0244] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing frequency-independent amplitude errors and / or phase errors and a second set describing frequency-dependent amplitude errors and / or phase errors.

[0245] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes providing a description of a filter configuration to be used by the BS.

[0246] In some aspects, providing a description of the filter configuration includes providing a description of the filter architecture, number of taps, and / or filter coefficients.

[0247] In some aspects, the determining and reporting steps are repeated periodically.

[0248] In some aspects, the determining and reporting steps are performed in response to detecting a triggering condition.

[0249] In some aspects, detecting the triggering condition includes detecting a change in network conditions.

[0250] In some aspects, detecting a change in network conditions comprises at least one of determining that a bit error rate (BER), mean square error (MSE), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR), total harmonic distortion (THD), error vector magnitude (EVM), or a combination thereof satisfies a threshold.

[0251] In some aspects, detecting the triggering condition comprises detecting a change in an operating condition of the UE.

[0252] In some aspects, detecting a change in an operating condition of the UE includes determining that a power condition, temperature, or performance metric of the UE satisfies a threshold.

[0253] In some aspects, detecting the triggering condition includes receiving an instruction from a network entity to perform the determining and reporting steps.

[0254] In some aspects, detecting the triggering condition includes detecting the expiration of a timer configured to periodically trigger performance of the determining and reporting steps.

[0255] In some aspects, the method includes receiving a transmission from the BS, the transmission pre-compensated to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE.

[0256] In some aspects, the method includes repeating the determining, reporting, and receiving steps until it is determined that the IQ impairment of the UE satisfies a threshold.

[0257] In some aspects, the method includes repeating the determining step, the reporting step, and the receiving step until at least one of a bit error rate (BER), a mean square error (MSE), a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR), a total harmonic distortion (THD), an error vector magnitude (EVM), or a combination thereof is determined to satisfy a threshold.

[0258] In some aspects, the method includes dynamically adjusting a configuration of a receiver digital filter in response to a change in an estimated IQ impairment of the UE.

[0259] In some aspects, dynamically adjusting the configuration of the receiver digital filter in response to changes in the estimated IQ impairments of the UE includes dynamically adjusting a number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter.

[0260] In some aspects, dynamically adjusting the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter includes: reducing the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to a decrease in estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and increasing the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to an increase in estimated IQ impairments of the UE.

[0261] In some aspects, reducing the number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to a reduction in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE includes disabling, eliminating, or bypassing the receiver digital filter.

[0262] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to a base station (BS) includes reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to a fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) base station (gNB).

[0263] In one aspect, a method of operating a base station (BS) includes receiving estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at a user equipment (UE) from the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and using the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0264] In some aspects, receiving the estimated IQ impairment for the UE includes receiving the estimated IQ impairment at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0265] In some aspects, receiving the estimated IQ impairment for the UE includes receiving the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0266] In some aspects, the set of bandwidth parts comprises a bandwidth part that incorporates all or a portion of the bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0267] In some aspects, the set of bandwidth parts includes two or more bandwidth parts, each bandwidth part incorporating a different subset of the bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0268] In some aspects, receiving the estimated IQ impairments for the UE to the BS includes receiving the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets of complex numbers.

[0269] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairment as an amplitude error and / or a phase error for an entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0270] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets, each set describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors for one or more bandwidth portions of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0271] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors that are common to all of the one or more bandwidth parts and as one or more second sets describing amplitude errors and / or phase errors for each of the one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

[0272] In some aspects, each second set describes the amplitude error and / or phase error for each of the one or more bandwidths as a difference from the amplitude error and / or phase error described in the first set.

[0273] In some aspects, reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the BS includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing frequency-independent amplitude errors and / or phase errors and a second set describing frequency-dependent amplitude errors and / or phase errors.

[0274] In some aspects, determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE includes determining precompensation to compensate for a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within the analog receiver circuitry of the UE.

[0275] In some aspects, the method includes continuing to use the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE based on the estimated IQ impairment of the UE last received from the UE.

[0276] In some aspects, the BS uses the last estimated IQ impairment received from the UE until the BS receives another estimated IQ impairment from the UE.

[0277] In some aspects, the BS uses the estimated IQ impairment last received from the UE until the end of a predetermined duration.

[0278] In some aspects, the BS uses the estimated IQ impairment last received from the UE until receiving an instruction from the UE to stop precompensation or a notification from the UE that the estimated IQ impairment last received from the UE is no longer valid.

[0279] In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: determine estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within an analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0280] In one aspect, a base station (BS) includes: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: receive estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at a user equipment (UE) from the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; determine precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and use the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0281] In one aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes: means for determining estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and means for reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0282] In one aspect, a base station includes means for receiving, from a user equipment (UE), estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; means for determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and means for using the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0283] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium includes instructions stored thereon for causing at least one processor in a user equipment (UE) to: determine estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and report the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to a base station (BS).

[0284] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium includes instructions stored thereon for causing at least one processor in a base station to: receive from a user equipment (UE) estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; determine precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairments of the UE; and use the determined precompensation when transmitting to the UE.

[0285] As used herein, the term "component" is intended to be broadly interpreted as hardware, firmware, and / or a combination of hardware and software. As used herein, a processor is implemented using hardware, firmware, and / or a combination of hardware and software.

[0286] As used herein, satisfying a threshold may refer to a value crossing the threshold in either direction, a value being greater than the threshold, being greater than or equal to the threshold, being less than the threshold, being less than or equal to the threshold, being equal to the threshold, not being equal to the threshold, etc., depending on the context.

[0287] Skilled artisans will further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps (e.g., Figure 7-Figure 8 The present invention relates to a system for implementing a plurality of components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps in a manner generally described in terms of their functionality. The system for implementing the plurality of components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps in the present invention is ...

[0288] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0289] The steps of the method or algorithm described in conjunction with the disclosure herein may be implemented directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read and write information from / to the storage medium. In an alternative, the storage medium may be integrated into the processor. The processor and storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In an alternative, the processor and storage medium may reside in a user terminal as discrete components.

[0290] In one or more exemplary designs, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, each function may be stored as one or more instructions or codes on or transmitted via a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, including any media that facilitates the transfer of a computer program from one location to another. A computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer. By way of example and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor. Furthermore, a connection may also be appropriately referred to as a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, or digital subscriber line (DSL), then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, or DSL is included in the definition of medium. As used herein, disk and disc include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), hard drive, solid state drive, and Blu-ray disc. Disks typically reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0291] As used herein, including in the claims, the term "and / or" used in a list of two or more items means that any one of the listed items may be taken alone, or any combination of two or more of the listed items may be taken. For example, if a composition is described as comprising the components A, B, and / or C, the composition may comprise only A; only B; only C; a combination of A and B; a combination of A and C; a combination of B and C; or a combination of A, B, and C. Furthermore, as used herein, including in the claims, "or" used in a list of items followed by "at least one of" indicates a disjunctive list, so that, for example, a list of "at least one of A, B, or C" means any one of A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C), or any combination thereof.

[0292] The preceding description of the disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Therefore, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

[0293] It will be apparent that the systems and / or methods described herein can be implemented in various forms of hardware, firmware, and / or a combination of hardware and software. The actual dedicated control hardware or software code used to implement these systems and / or methods does not limit the aspects. Thus, the operation and behavior of these systems and / or methods are described herein without reference to specific software code—it is understood that software and hardware can be designed to implement these systems and / or methods based, at least in part, on the description herein.

[0294] Although particular combinations of features are recited in the claims and / or disclosed in the specification, these combinations are not intended to limit the disclosure of the various aspects. In fact, many of these features can be combined in ways not specifically recited in the claims and / or disclosed in the specification. Although each dependent claim listed below may be directly dependent on only one claim, the disclosure of the various aspects includes each dependent claim in combination with every other claim in the set.

[0295] The elements, actions or instructions used herein should not be interpreted as critical or necessary unless explicitly described as such. Moreover, as used herein, the articles "one" and "a" are intended to include one or more items and can be used interchangeably with "one or more". Furthermore, as used herein, the terms "set" and "group" are intended to include one or more items (e.g., related items, non-related items, a combination of related and non-related items, etc.) and can be used interchangeably with "one or more". Where intended to have only one item, the phrase "only one" or similar language is used. Furthermore, as used herein, the terms "having", "containing", "comprising" etc. are intended to be open terms. Furthermore, the phrase "based on" is intended to mean "based at least in part on", unless otherwise explicitly stated.

Claims

1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: determining estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to a network node as an amplitude error, a phase error, or both between the I path and the Q path within the analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and A transmission is received from the network node, the transmission being precompensated to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein Determining the estimated IQ impairment for the UE includes determining the estimated IQ impairment at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein Determining the estimated IQ impairment for the UE comprises determining an estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE, and wherein reporting the estimated IQ impairment for the UE to the network node comprises reporting the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in the set of one or more bandwidth parts.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein Reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the network node includes reporting the estimated IQ impairment as one or more sets of complex numbers.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein Reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the network node includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as an amplitude error, a phase error, or both for an entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein: Reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the network node includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets, each set describing an amplitude error, a phase error, or both for one or more bandwidth portions of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein: Reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the network node comprises reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing an amplitude error, a phase error, or both that is common to all of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE, and as one or more second sets, each second set describing an amplitude error, a phase error, or both for each of the one or more bandwidth parts of the bandwidth supported by the UE as an absolute value or as a difference from the amplitude error, phase error, or both described in the first set.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein: Reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the network node includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing frequency-independent amplitude errors, phase errors, or both, and as a second set describing frequency-dependent amplitude errors, phase errors, or both.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein: Reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to the network node includes providing a description of a filter configuration to be used by the network node, the description of the filter configuration including a description of a filter architecture, a number of taps, one or more filter coefficients, or a combination thereof.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein: The determining step and the reporting step are repeated periodically.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein: The determining and reporting steps are performed in response to detecting a trigger condition.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein: Detecting the trigger condition includes: detecting a change in network conditions, detecting a change in the operating condition of the UE, receiving an instruction from a network entity to perform a determining step and a reporting step, and detecting the expiration of a timer configured to periodically trigger the determining step and the reporting step.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: The determining step, the reporting step, and the receiving step are repeated until at least one of the following is determined to meet a threshold: IQ impairment, bit error rate (BER), mean square error (MSE), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR), total harmonic distortion (THD), or error vector magnitude (EVM).

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising: A configuration of a receiver digital filter is dynamically adjusted in response to changes in the estimated IQ impairments of the UE.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein: Dynamically adjusting a configuration of the receiver digital filter in response to a change in estimated IQ impairments of the UE includes: reducing a number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to a decrease in estimated IQ impairments of the UE; increasing a number of filter taps used by the receiver digital filter in response to an increase in the estimated IQ impairment of the UE; or The receiver digital filter is disabled, eliminated, or bypassed.

16. A method of operating a network node, the method comprising: receiving, from a user equipment (UE), estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE being reported as an amplitude error, a phase error, or both between the I path and the Q path within the analog receiver circuitry of the UE; determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE; as well as The determined precompensation is used when transmitting to the UE.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein: Receiving the estimated IQ impairment for the UE includes receiving the estimated IQ impairment at a specified frequency within a bandwidth supported by the UE.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein: Receiving the estimated IQ impairment for the UE includes receiving the estimated IQ impairment at each bandwidth part in a set of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein: The set of one or more bandwidth parts includes one bandwidth part that includes all or a portion of the bandwidth supported by the UE or includes two or more bandwidth parts, each bandwidth part including a different subset of the bandwidth supported by the UE.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein: Receiving the estimated IQ impairments for the UE to the network node includes receiving the estimated IQ impairments for the UE as one or more sets of complex numbers.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein: Reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the network node includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as amplitude errors and / or phase errors for the entire bandwidth supported by the UE.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein: Reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the network node includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as one or more sets, each set describing an amplitude error, a phase error, or both for one or more bandwidth portions of a bandwidth supported by the UE.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein: Reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the network node comprises reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing an amplitude error, a phase error, or both that is common to all of one or more bandwidth parts of a bandwidth supported by the UE, and as one or more second sets, each second set describing an amplitude error, a phase error, or both for each of the one or more bandwidth parts of the bandwidth supported by the UE as an absolute error or as a difference from the amplitude error, phase error, or both described in the first set.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein: Reporting the estimated IQ impairments of the UE to the network node includes reporting the estimated IQ impairments as a first set describing frequency-independent amplitude errors, phase errors, or both, and as a second set describing frequency-dependent amplitude errors, phase errors, or both.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein: Determining the precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE includes determining the precompensation to compensate for the phase and / or amplitude mismatch between the I path and the Q path within the analog receiver circuitry of the UE.

26. The method of claim 16, further comprising: The determined precompensation is continued to be used when transmitting to the UE based on the estimated IQ impairment of the UE last received from the UE.

27. The method of claim 16, wherein: The network node uses the estimated IQ impairment last received from the UE until the network node receives another estimated IQ impairment from the UE, until a predetermined duration ends, until an instruction is received from the UE to stop pre-compensation, until a notification is received from the UE that the estimated IQ impairment last received from the UE is no longer valid, or a combination thereof.

28. A user equipment (UE), comprising: Memory; at least one transceiver; as well as at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: determining estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE; reporting the estimated IQ impairment of the UE to a network node as an amplitude error, a phase error, or both between the I path and the Q path within the analog receiver circuitry of the UE; and A transmission is received from the network node, the transmission being precompensated to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE.

29. The UE according to claim 28, wherein: The at least one processor is further configured to perform the method of any one of claims 2-15.

30. A network node comprising: Memory; at least one transceiver; as well as at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: receiving, from a user equipment (UE) via the at least one transceiver, estimated in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) impairments at the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE comprising a phase and / or amplitude mismatch between an I path and a Q path within analog receiver circuitry of the UE, the IQ impairments of the UE being reported as an amplitude error, a phase error, or both between the I path and the Q path within the analog receiver circuitry of the UE; determining precompensation to compensate for the estimated IQ impairment of the UE; as well as The determined precompensation is used when transmitting to the UE.

31. The network node of claim 30, wherein: The at least one processor is further configured to perform the method of any one of claims 17-27.

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