Processor for CSI reporting configuration based on UE capabilities

Abstract

A user equipment (UE) is configured to report capabilities to a network. The UE transmits UE capabilities for channel state information (CSI) reporting to a base station, wherein the UE capabilities include CSI-RS-resource-indicator (CRI)-rank-indicator (RI)-channel-quality-indicator (CQI) reporting capabilities and additional CRI-RI-CQI reporting capabilities, and receives a CSI reporting configuration from the base station, wherein the CSI reporting configuration is based on the UE capabilities.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to CSI reporting configuration based on UE capabilities. Background Art

[0002] In 5G New Radio (NR) wireless communications, a 5G NR network may allocate one or more frequency subbands to a user equipment (UE) to exchange information with the network. These subbands are allocated to the UE based on measured channel conditions, and the UE reports these measured channel conditions to the network's next-generation NodeB (gNB) based on channel state information (CSI) measurements made by the UE on a CSI reference signal (CSI-RS). Two types of CSI reports are link adaptation (LA) CSI reports that focus primarily on digital precoding and beam management (BM) CSI reports that focus primarily on analog precoding. There are currently six codebook types for LA CSI reporting: (1) Release-15 (Rel-15) Type I single panel; (2) Rel-15 Type I multi-panel; (3) Rel-15 Type II; (4) Rel-15 Type II port selection; (5) Rel-16 enhanced Type (eType) II; and (6) Rel-16eType II port selection. In addition, the LA CSI report also includes a CSI-RS resource indicator-rank indicator-channel quality indicator (cri-RI-CQI) report. Summary of the invention

[0003] Some exemplary embodiments relate to a processor configured to perform operations including: transmitting UE capabilities for channel state information (CSI) reporting to a base station, wherein the UE capabilities include CSI-RS-resource indicator (CRI)-rank indicator (RI)-channel quality indicator (CQI) reporting capabilities and additional CRI-RI-CQI reporting capabilities; and receiving a CSI reporting configuration from the base station, wherein the CSI reporting configuration is based on the UE capabilities.

[0004] Other exemplary embodiments relate to a processor configured to perform operations including: entering a discontinuous reception (DRX) active time period; determining whether a channel state information (CSI) resource is received during the DRX active time period; and when a CSI resource is received during the DRX active time period, determining whether to perform CSI measurement during the DRX active time period based on the received CSI resource.

[0005] Additional exemplary embodiments relate to a processor configured to perform operations. The operations include: receiving one of a first restriction on a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) codebook rank from a base station or a second restriction on one or more PMI codebook values ​​from the base station; and reporting a PMI value to the base station based on at least one of the first restriction or the second restriction. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] Figure 1 Exemplary network arrangements are shown according to various exemplary embodiments.

[0007] Figure 2 An exemplary UE according to various exemplary embodiments is shown.

[0008] Figure 3 An exemplary base station configured to establish a connection with a user equipment is shown according to various exemplary embodiments.

[0009] Figure 4 Methods of reporting the CSI capabilities of a UE according to various exemplary embodiments are shown.

[0010] FIG. 5A to FIG. 5C An exemplary diagram illustrating reception of CSI resources in the time domain according to various exemplary embodiments is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0011] The exemplary embodiments may be further understood with reference to the following description and the associated drawings, wherein similar elements have the same reference numerals. The exemplary embodiments describe apparatus, systems, and methods for a next generation NodeB (gNB) for a 5G New Radio (NR) network to configure a CSI reporting configuration based on UE capabilities reported by a user equipment (UE).

[0012] The exemplary embodiments are described with reference to a network including a 5G New Radio NR radio access technology (RAT). However, the exemplary embodiments may be implemented in other types of networks using the principles described herein.

[0013] The exemplary embodiments are also described with reference to a UE. However, the use of a UE is for illustrative purposes only. The exemplary embodiments can be utilized with any electronic component that can establish a connection with a network and is configured with hardware, software, and / or firmware for exchanging information and data with the network. Therefore, the UE described herein is used to represent any electronic component.

[0014] As mentioned above, one type of CSI report is a cri-RI-CQI report. There are two types of cri-RI-CQI reports. The first is a cri-RI-CQI report with non-PMI-PortIndication, and the second is a cri-RI-CQI report without non-PMI-PortIndication. These two types of cri-RI-CQI reports are defined in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.214 Section 5.2.1.4.2. cri-RI-CQI with non-PMI-PortIndication can provide gNB with greater flexibility in configuring the port combinations that the UE can report. However, processing this report requires significantly more memory at the UE than cri-RI-CQI without non-PMI-PortIndication reporting because when non-PMI-PortIndication is configured, the port selection for each rank is configured by the gNB for each resource. In current 5G NR networks, if the UE supports cri-RI-CQI reporting, the UE must support both types of cri-RI-CQI reports. It would be beneficial to reduce the memory requirements on the UE side while maintaining the UE's ability to support cri-RI-CQI reporting.

[0015] According to some exemplary embodiments, when the UE reports support for cri-RI-CQI reporting, the UE additionally indicates whether non-PMI-PortIndication-based cri-RI-CQI reporting is supported. Similarly, the UE may indicate support for less memory-intensive cri-RI-CQI without non-PMI-PortIndication reporting, but does not support cri-RI-CQI with non-PMI-PortIndication reporting.

[0016] The two types of resources configured by the gNB for UE measurements for CSI reporting are Channel Measurement Resources (CMRs) and Interference Measurement Resources (IMRs). When Power Save Connected Mode Discontinuous Reception (CDRX) is configured for a UE, the UE may receive a CMR or IMR during one DRX active period and the other of the CMR or IMR during another active DRX period. As a result of this behavior, the UE will store the CMR or IMR measurements from the first active DRX period until it receives and performs measurements with the other of the CMR or IMR during another active DRX period. As such, the memory at the UE is not efficiently utilized.

[0017] According to some exemplary embodiments, it is not expected that the UE handles the above scenario where the UE receives CMR in one active DRX period and IMR in another active DRX period. Instead, the UE may report CSI based on measurements during DRX active periods where both CMR and IMR have been received.

[0018] In the current 5G NR network design, for type I codebook (2-port NZP-CSI-RS as CMR) with two transmit antenna ports at the gNB, the gNB may configure both twoTX-CodebookSubsetRestriction as defined in 3GPP TS 38.214 and typeI-SinglePanel-ri-Restriction as defined in 3GPP TS 38.331 to restrict which precoding matrix indicator (PMI) may be selected by the UE from the Rel-15 type I single panel codebook defined in 3GPP TS 38.214. However, there are scenarios where these two restriction methods may conflict.

[0019] According to some exemplary embodiments, when the gNB configures both twoTXCodebookSubsetRestriction and typeI-SinglePanel-ri-Restriction, the UE may ignore one of these methods or may honor both restrictions if a conflict occurs.

[0020] Figure 1 An exemplary network arrangement 100 according to various exemplary embodiments is shown. The exemplary network arrangement 100 includes a UE 110. It should be noted that any number of UEs may be used in the network arrangement 100. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the UE 110 may alternatively be any type of electronic component configured to communicate via a network, such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a desktop computer, a smart phone, a phablet, an embedded device, a wearable device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc. It should also be appreciated that an actual network arrangement may include any number of UEs used by any number of users. Therefore, for illustrative purposes, only an example with a single UE 110 is provided.

[0021] UE 110 may be configured to communicate with one or more networks. In the example of network configuration 100, the networks with which UE 110 may wirelessly communicate are 5G New Radio (NR) radio access network (5GNR-RAN) 120, LTE radio access network (LTE-RAN) 122, and wireless local area network (WLAN) 124. However, it should be understood that UE 110 may also communicate with other types of networks, and UE 110 may also communicate with the network through a wired connection. Therefore, UE 110 may include a 5G NR chipset that communicates with 5G NR-RAN 120, an LTE chipset that communicates with LTE-RAN 122, and an ISM chipset that communicates with WLAN 124.

[0022] 5G NR-RAN 120 and LTE-RAN 122 may be part of cellular networks that may be deployed by cellular providers (e.g., Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc.). These networks 120, 122 may include, for example, cells or base stations (NodeB, eNodeB, HeNB, eNBS, gNB, gNodeB, macrocell base stations, microcell base stations, small cell base stations, femtocell base stations, etc.) configured to send and receive traffic from UEs equipped with appropriate cellular chipsets. WLAN 124 may include any type of wireless local area network (WiFi, hotspot, IEEE 802.11x network, etc.).

[0023] UE 110 may be connected to 5G NR-RAN 120 via gNB 120A and / or gNB 120B. During operation, UE 110 may be within range of multiple gNBs. Thus, simultaneously or alternatively, UE 110 may be connected to 5G NR-RAN 120 via gNBs 120A and 120B. In addition, UE 110 may communicate with eNB 122A of LTE-RAN 122 to transmit and receive control information for downlink and / or uplink synchronization with respect to 5G NR-RAN 120 connection.

[0024] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that any relevant process may be performed for the UE 110 to connect to the 5G NR-RAN 120. For example, as described above, the 5G NR-RAN 120 may be associated with a particular cellular provider, where the UE 110 and / or its user has a protocol and credential information (e.g., stored on a SIM card). Upon detecting the presence of the 5G NR-RAN 120, the UE 110 may transmit corresponding credential information in order to associate with the 5G NR-RAN 120. More specifically, the UE 110 may be associated with a particular base station (e.g., gNB 120A of the 5G NR-RAN 120).

[0025] In addition to networks 120, 122, and 124, network arrangement 100 also includes a cellular core network 130, the Internet 140, an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) 150, and a network service backbone 160. Cellular core network 130 (e.g., 5GC of NR) can be considered as an interconnected collection of components that manage the operation and traffic of a cellular network. Cellular core network 130 also manages traffic flowing between the cellular network and the Internet 140.

[0026] The IMS 150 may be generally described as an architecture for delivering multimedia services to the UE 110 using the IP protocol. The IMS 150 may communicate with the cellular core network 130 and the Internet 140 to provide multimedia services to the UE 110. The network service backbone 160 communicates directly or indirectly with the Internet 140 and the cellular core network 130. The network service backbone 160 may be generally described as a set of components (e.g., servers, network storage arrangements, etc.) that implement a set of services that may be used to extend the functionality of the UE 110 to communicate with various networks.

[0027] Figure 2 An exemplary UE 110 is shown according to various exemplary embodiments. Figure 1 100 is used to describe the UE 110. The UE 110 may represent any electronic device and may include a processor 205, a memory arrangement 210, a display device 215, an input / output (I / O) device 220, a transceiver 225, and other components 230. The other components 230 may include, for example, an audio input device, an audio output device, a battery providing a limited power source, a data acquisition device, a port for electrically connecting the UE 110 to other electronic devices, one or more antenna panels, etc. For example, the UE 110 may be coupled to industrial equipment via one or more ports.

[0028] Processor 205 may be configured to execute multiple engines of UE 110. For example, the engines may include CSI management engine 235. CSI management engine 235 may perform various operations related to reporting CSI capabilities of UE 110 to gNB 120A, processing CSI reports, and handling conflicts caused by PMI and rank restrictions. Examples of these processes are described in more detail below.

[0029] The above-described engine as an application (e.g., program) executed by the processor 205 is merely exemplary. The functions associated with the engine may also be represented as an independent combined component of the UE 110, or may be a modular component coupled to the UE 110, for example, an integrated circuit with or without firmware. For example, an integrated circuit may include an input circuit system for receiving a signal and a processing circuit system for processing signals and other information. The engine may also be embodied as an application or multiple separate applications. In addition, in some UEs, the functionality described for the processor 205 is shared between two or more processors such as a baseband processor and an application processor. The exemplary embodiments may be implemented in any of these or other configurations of the UE.

[0030] The memory arrangement 210 may be a hardware component configured to store data related to operations performed by the UE 110. The display device 215 may be a hardware component configured to display data to a user, and the I / O device 220 may be a hardware component that enables user input. The display device 215 and the I / O device 220 may be separate components or may be integrated together (such as a touch screen). The transceiver 225 may be a hardware component configured to establish a connection with the 5G NR-RAN 120, LTE-RAN 122, WLAN 124, etc. Thus, the transceiver 225 may operate on multiple different frequencies or channels (e.g., a continuous set of frequencies).

[0031] Figure 3 An exemplary network cell, in this case gNB 120A, is shown according to various exemplary embodiments. gNB 120A may represent any access node of a 5G NR network that UE 110 may use to establish a connection. Figure 3 The gNB 120A shown may also represent gNB 120B.

[0032] The gNB 120A may include a processor 305, a memory arrangement 310, an input / output (I / O) device 320, a transceiver 325, and other components 330. The other components 330 may include, for example, a power supply, a data acquisition device, a port for electrically connecting the gNB 120A to other electronic devices, and the like.

[0033] Processor 305 may be configured to execute multiple engines of gNB 120A. For example, the engines may include CSI management engine 335 for performing operations including configuring CSI reporting for UE 110 based on feedback from UE 110. An example of this process is described in more detail below.

[0034] The engine described above as an application (e.g., program) executed by the processor 305 is merely exemplary. The functionality associated with the engine may also be represented as a stand-alone integrated component of the gNB 120A, or may be a modular component coupled to the gNB 120A, such as an integrated circuit with or without firmware. For example, an integrated circuit may include input circuitry for receiving signals and processing circuitry for processing signals and other information. In addition, in some gNBs, the functionality described for the processor 305 is split between multiple processors (e.g., a baseband processor, an application processor, etc.). The exemplary aspects may be implemented in any of these or other configurations of the gNB.

[0035] The memory arrangement 310 may be a hardware component configured to store data related to operations performed by the UE 110. The I / O device 320 may be a hardware component or port that enables a user to interact with the gNB 120A. The transceiver 325 may be a hardware component configured to exchange data with the UE 110 and any other UE in the system 100. The transceiver 325 may operate on a variety of different frequencies or channels (e.g., a set of continuous frequencies). Thus, the transceiver 325 may include one or more components (e.g., radio components) to enable data exchange with various networks and UEs.

[0036] Figure 4 A method 400 of reporting the CSI capabilities of a UE 110 according to various exemplary embodiments is shown. At 405, the UE 110 transmits its cri-RI-CQI capabilities. In some embodiments, the capabilities include two parameters. The first parameter is whether the UE 110 supports cri-RI-CQI reporting. If the UE 110 supports cri-RI-CQI reporting, the second parameter is whether the UE 110 additionally supports cri-RI-CQI with non-PMI-PortIndication reporting.

[0037] In some embodiments, if the UE 110 does not support cri-RI-CQI with non-PMI-PortIndication reporting, in order to avoid non-backward compatibility (NBC) issues, the capability report of the UE 110 is modified to include a new csi-ReportWithoutPMI-r16 IE in addition to the existing csi-ReportWithoutPMI information element (IE). The existing IE (csi-ReportWithoutPMI) indicates whether the UE 110 supports two types of cri-RI-CQI reporting (with or without non-PMI-PortIndication) to the existing network (Rel-15 network). The newly added IE (csi-ReportWithoutPMI-r16) introduces the concept of not supporting cri-RI-CQI with non-PMI-PortIndication reporting but supporting cri-RI-CQI without non-PMI-PortIndication. Therefore, if UE 110 does not support cri-RI-CQI with non-PMI-PortIndication, UE 110 will set the existing csi-ReportWithoutPMI IE to 0, because the existing network does not support the scenario in which UE 110 supports one type of reporting but not the other. In contrast, for newer networks (Rel-16 networks), UE 110 will set csi-ReportWithoutPMI IE to 0 and csi-ReportWithoutPMI-r16 IE to 1 to indicate that UE 110 supports cri-RI-CQI without non-PMI-PortIndication. In addition, another UE capability may be introduced for UE 110 to indicate to newer networks (e.g., Rel-16 networks) whether UE 110 supports non-PMI-PortIndication.

[0038] Alternatively, if at 405, UE 110 indicates that it supports cri-RI-CQI with non-PMI-PortIndication reporting, then in some embodiments, UE 110 may additionally report a configurable maximum number of CSI-RS resources at 410. Thus, the number of entries of PortIndexFor8Ranks in the RRC configuration for cri-RI-CQI with non-PMI-PortIndication is reduced from maxNrofNZP-CSI-RS-ResourcesPerConfig (e.g., 128) to the UE's reported capability (configurable maximum number of CSI-RS resources), thereby reducing overhead at UE 110.

[0039] At 415, UE 110 reports the maximum number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers (ranks) supported by UE 110 for cri-RI-CQI reporting. In some embodiments, the gNB 120A may configure a maximum number of ports per CSI-RS resource for cri-RI-CQI reporting that cannot exceed the maximum number of MIMO layers reported by UE 110. UE 110 may also report the maximum number of ports per CSI-RS resource that may be configured for csi-RI-CQI measurement. For example, if UE 110 reports that it supports up to 4 MIMO layers, gNB 120A may not configure more than 4 CSI-RS ports per CSI-RS resource for cri-RI-CQI reporting. In some embodiments, gNB 120A may configure only up to this maximum number of MIMO layers in the PortIndexFor8Ranks IE. For example, assuming again that the UE reports that it supports up to 4 MIMO layers, gNB 120A configures only up to rank 4 (e.g., rank 1, rank 2, rank 3, and rank 4) in the PortIndexFor8Ranks configuration. At 420, UE 110 receives a CSI reporting configuration for cri-RI-CQI reporting from gNB 120A based on the capabilities that UE 110 has reported.

[0040] FIG. 5A to FIG. 5C An exemplary diagram illustrating reception of CSI resources in the time domain is shown according to various exemplary embodiments. Discontinuous reception (DRX) allows the UE 110 to save power by repeatedly entering a sleep mode and then an active mode, during which the UE 110 listens to any data sent from the gNB 120A. For CSI purposes, the UE 110 receives CSI resources (CMR 502a, b and IMR 504a, b) during DRX active time periods 506a, b. In some embodiments, to reduce overhead on the UE side, the gNB 120A may not expect the UE 110 to transmit a CSI report when the UE 110 receives a CMR 502a in a first DRX active time period 506a and an IMR 504b in a second DRX active time period 506b. Figure 5BAs described above, such a scenario requires UE 110 to store CMR (or IMR, depending on which resource is received first) measurements until it receives IMR 504 and performs IMR measurements to complete CSI reporting. By eliminating the need for UE 110 to report CSI in this scenario, the overhead associated with the storage of measured CMRs at UE 110 is eliminated. To achieve this, gNB 120A ensures that CMR 502a,b and IMR 504a,b are always transmitted to UE 110 in the same DRX active time period 506a,b.

[0041] In some embodiments, if gNB 120A transmits a first CMR 502a and a first IMR 504a during a first DRX active time period 506a, and transmits only a second IMR 502b during a second DRX active time period 506b, as Figure 5C As shown, UE 110 will only report CSI for measurements performed on first CMR 502a and first IMR 504a. This scenario may exist, for example, when one of the resources (e.g., IMR) is not reported during each DRX active period because it has not changed or has changed minimally since the last time the resource was reported.

[0042] As described above, when the gNB 120A configures twoTX-CodebookSubsetRestriction as defined in 3GPP TS 38.214 and typeI-SinglePanel-ri-Restriction as defined in 3GPP TS 38.331 to restrict which precoding matrix indicator (PMI) the UE 110 can select from the Rel-15 type I single panel codebook defined in 3GPP TS 38.214, a conflict may arise between the two restrictions. In some embodiments, the UE 110 may implement both restriction methods. For example, if a PMI is prohibited by either of the restriction methods, the UE 110 will not report the PMI. In some embodiments, the UE 110 will alternatively ignore typeI-SinglePanel-ri-Restriction. In some embodiments, the UE 110 will alternatively ignore twoTX-CodebookSubsetRestriction. However, in some embodiments, the gNB 120A will configure only one of these restrictions so that a conflict never arises.

[0043] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the exemplary embodiments described above may be implemented with any suitable software configuration or hardware configuration or combination thereof. Exemplary hardware platforms for implementing the exemplary embodiments may include, for example, Intel x86-based platforms with compatible operating systems, Windows OS, Mac platforms and MAC OS, mobile devices with operating systems such as iOS, Android, etc. In other examples, the exemplary embodiments of the above methods may be embodied as a program including lines of code stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, which, when compiled, may be executed on a processor or microprocessor.

[0044] Although this patent application describes various combinations of various aspects, each with different features, those skilled in the art will understand that any feature of one aspect may be combined with features of other aspects or features that are not functionally or logically inconsistent with the operation or function of the device of the aspects disclosed in the present invention in any manner not publicly denied.

[0045] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of the authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0046] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made to the present disclosure without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the present disclosure is intended to cover modifications and variations of the present disclosure, provided that these modifications and variations are within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A processor, the processor being configured to perform operations, the operations comprising: Receiving a first restriction on a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) codebook rank from a base station and a second restriction on one or more PMI codebook values ​​from the base station, wherein the first restriction comprises a typeI-SinglePanel-ri-Restriction and the second restriction comprises twoTX-CodebookSubsetRestriction, wherein the first restriction and the second restriction conflict with each other; and A PMI value is reported to the base station based on at least one of the first restriction or the second restriction. 2 . The processor of claim 1 , wherein the reported PMI value satisfies both the first constraint and the second constraint. 3 . The processor of claim 1 , wherein the reported PMI value satisfies only the second constraint. The processor of claim 1 , wherein the reported PMI value satisfies only the first constraint.

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