Method for determining a communication beam

Abstract

This application discloses a method for determining a communication beam. The method includes: determining a comprehensive score value for each coarse beam to be transmitted based on the communication rate of the coarse beam and the user density corresponding to the coarse beam, wherein the comprehensive score value indicates the communication efficiency of the coarse beam; determining a target coarse beam among multiple coarse beams to be transmitted based on the comprehensive score value, and determining a first set of fine beams within a first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam, wherein a second signal coverage area of ​​each fine beam in the first set of fine beams is within the first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam; and determining a second set of fine beams for communication with a user terminal from the first set of fine beams. This application solves the technical problem of long search times for communication beams caused by the high complexity of searching for communication beams in MIMO scenarios in related technologies.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of communication technology, and more specifically, to a method for determining a communication beam. Background Technology

[0002] In scenarios involving Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication between base stations and user terminals, the losses due to path loss and oxygen absorption are high in the millimeter-wave band. Related technologies utilize large-scale antenna arrays to compensate for these high path losses through hybrid beamforming gain, thereby ensuring normal communication between the base station and the user terminal. The larger the antenna array deployed at the base station, the higher the gain provided by hybrid beamforming. However, the deployment of large-scale antennas at the base station results in a narrower beam for communication between the base station and the user terminal. Since 5G is a directional communication technology, the more antennas there are, the narrower the beamwidth. Because communication between the base station and the user terminal requires finding the optimal or better beam pair, more antennas mean more beams. However, more and narrower beams mean the base station needs to expend more time and frequency domain resources for beam searching, leading to high complexity and long search times for communication beams.

[0003] There is currently no effective solution to the above problems. Summary of the Invention

[0004] This application provides a method for determining a communication beam, which at least solves the technical problem of long search time for communication beams caused by the high complexity of searching for communication beams in MIMO scenarios in related technologies.

[0005] According to one aspect of the embodiments of this application, a method for determining a communication beam is provided, comprising: determining a comprehensive score value for each coarse beam to be transmitted based on the communication rate of a coarse beam and the user density corresponding to the coarse beam, wherein the comprehensive score value is used to indicate the communication efficiency of the coarse beam; determining a target coarse beam among a plurality of coarse beams to be transmitted based on the comprehensive score value, and determining a first set of fine beams within a first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam, wherein a second signal coverage area of ​​each fine beam in the first set of fine beams is within the first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam; and determining a second set of fine beams for communicating with a user terminal within the first set of fine beams, wherein the number of target fine beams included in the second set of fine beams is less than the number of fine beams included in the first set of fine beams.

[0006] Optionally, the comprehensive score value of each coarse beam to be transmitted is determined based on the communication rate of the coarse beam and the user density corresponding to the coarse beam, including: determining the communication score value of each coarse beam based on the communication rate, and determining the user score value of each coarse beam based on the user density, wherein the communication score value is positively correlated with the communication rate, and the user score value is negatively correlated with the user density; for each coarse beam, the comprehensive score value is determined jointly based on the communication score value and the user score value.

[0007] Optionally, determining the communication score value of each coarse beam based on the communication rate includes: ranking the multiple coarse beams to be transmitted according to the communication rate to obtain a first-class ranking number for each coarse beam, wherein the first-class ranking number is a positive integer and is positively correlated with the communication rate; determining the communication rate score value of each coarse beam based on the first-class ranking number, wherein the communication rate score value is positively correlated with the value of the first-class ranking number, the communication rate score value corresponding to the first-class ranking number with the smallest value is a first preset value, and the difference between the two communication rate score values ​​corresponding to two adjacent first-class ranking numbers is a second preset value, wherein the second preset value is less than the first preset value.

[0008] Optionally, determining the user score value for each coarse beam based on user density includes: ranking the multiple coarse beams to be transmitted according to user density to obtain a second-class ranking number for each coarse beam, wherein the second-class ranking number is a positive integer and is negatively correlated with user density; determining the user score value for each coarse beam based on the second-class ranking number, wherein the user score value corresponding to the second-class ranking number with the smallest value is a first preset value, and the difference between the two user score values ​​corresponding to two adjacent second-class ranking numbers is a second preset value.

[0009] Optionally, determining a second set of fine beams for communication with the user terminal from the first set of fine beams includes: determining the number of first-type radio frequency links for communication with the user terminal; sequentially determining the target fine beams corresponding to each first-type radio frequency link in the first set of fine beams according to a preset order, wherein the target fine beam corresponding to the next first-type radio frequency link is determined based on the target fine beam corresponding to the previous first-type radio frequency link; and determining the set of multiple target fine beams corresponding to multiple first-type radio frequency links as the second set of fine beams.

[0010] Optionally, the target fine beam corresponding to each first type of radio frequency link is determined sequentially in the first fine beam set according to a preset order, including: for the first first type of radio frequency link, obtaining the fine beam codeword set corresponding to the target coarse beam, wherein the fine beam codeword set contains the codeword of each fine beam in the first fine beam set, and the codeword is used to represent the amplitude and phase of the fine beam; determining the first type of precoding matrix corresponding to each fine beam according to the codeword of each fine beam, wherein the first type of precoding matrix is ​​used to encode the signal to be transmitted; obtaining the communication information of the user end, wherein the communication information includes at least: a pre-combining matrix for processing the signal transmitted by the base station, and the number of second type radio frequency links of the user end; determining the spectral efficiency of each fine beam according to the number of first type radio frequency links, the first type of precoding matrix and the communication information of the user end; and determining the target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value as the target fine beam corresponding to the first first type of radio frequency link.

[0011] Optionally, determining the target fine beam corresponding to each type of RF link in the first fine beam set according to a preset order further includes: for other types of RF links besides the first type of RF link, determining the second type of precoding matrix corresponding to each fine beam based on the target fine beam corresponding to the previous type of RF link and the codeword of each fine beam; determining the spectral efficiency of each fine beam based on the number of type of RF links, the second type of precoding matrix and the communication information of the user terminal; and determining the target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value as the target fine beam corresponding to each other type of RF link.

[0012] According to another aspect of the embodiments of this application, a method for determining a communication beam is also provided, comprising: receiving beam information transmitted by a base station, wherein the beam information includes at least one target coarse beam, the target coarse beam being determined by the base station from a plurality of coarse beams to be transmitted based on a comprehensive score value of each coarse beam, the comprehensive score value of each coarse beam being determined based on the communication rate of the coarse beam and the user density corresponding to the coarse beam, the comprehensive score value being used to indicate the communication efficiency of the coarse beam; determining a first set of fine beams within a first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam, wherein a second signal coverage area of ​​each fine beam in the first set of fine beams is within the first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam; and determining a second set of fine beams for communicating with the base station within the first set of fine beams, wherein the number of target fine beams included in the second set of fine beams is less than the number of fine beams included in the first set of fine beams.

[0013] Optionally, determining a second set of fine beams for communicating with a base station from the first set of fine beams includes: determining the number of second-type radio frequency links for communicating with the base station; sequentially determining the target fine beams corresponding to each second-type radio frequency link in the first set of fine beams according to a preset order, wherein the target fine beam corresponding to the next second-type radio frequency link is determined based on the target fine beam corresponding to the previous second-type radio frequency link; and determining the set of multiple target fine beams corresponding to multiple second-type radio frequency links as the second set of fine beams.

[0014] Optionally, the target fine beam corresponding to each second type of RF link is determined sequentially in the first fine beam set according to a preset order, including: for the first second type of RF link, obtaining the fine beam codeword set corresponding to the target coarse beam, wherein the fine beam codeword set contains the codeword of each fine beam in the first fine beam set, and the codeword is used to represent the amplitude and phase of the fine beam; determining the first type of pre-combining matrix corresponding to each fine beam according to the codeword of each fine beam, wherein the first type of pre-combining matrix is ​​used to process the received signal; obtaining the communication information of the base station, wherein the communication information includes at least: a precoding matrix used to encode the signal to be transmitted by the base station, the average signal transmission power, and the number of first type RF links of the base station; determining the spectral efficiency of each fine beam according to the number of second type RF links, the first type of pre-combining matrix, and the communication information of the base station; and determining the target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value as the target fine beam corresponding to the first second type of RF link.

[0015] Optionally, determining the target fine beam corresponding to each second type of radio frequency link in the first fine beam set according to a preset order further includes: for other second type of radio frequency links besides the first second type of radio frequency link, determining the second type of pre-combining matrix corresponding to each fine beam based on the target fine beam corresponding to the previous second type of radio frequency link and the codeword of each fine beam; determining the spectral efficiency of each fine beam based on the number of second type of radio frequency links, the second type of pre-combining matrix and the communication information of the base station; and determining the target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value as the target fine beam corresponding to each other second type of radio frequency link.

[0016] In this embodiment, a comprehensive score value is determined for each coarse beam to be transmitted based on its communication rate and the corresponding user density. This comprehensive score value indicates the communication efficiency of the coarse beam. A target coarse beam is determined from among the multiple coarse beams to be transmitted based on the comprehensive score value. A first set of fine beams is then determined within the first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam, where the second signal coverage area of ​​each fine beam in the first set is within the first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam. A second set of fine beams for communication with the user terminal is determined from the first set of fine beams, where the number of target fine beams in the second set is less than the number of fine beams in the first set. By first selecting a search area with a high comprehensive score and high spectral efficiency for the current user terminal, and limiting the search to this search area, the complexity of beam search is reduced, thus shortening the time required to determine the optimal communication beam. This solves the problem of long search times for communication beams caused by the high complexity of searching for communication beams in MIMO scenarios in related technologies. Attached Figure Description

[0017] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of this application and form part of this application, illustrate exemplary embodiments and are used to explain this application, but do not constitute an undue limitation of this application. In the drawings:

[0018] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication system 100 according to an embodiment of this application;

[0019] Figure 2 This is a flowchart illustrating the steps of a method for determining a communication beam according to an embodiment of this application;

[0020] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of a beam coverage area according to an embodiment of this application;

[0021] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram illustrating communication between a base station and a user terminal according to an embodiment of this application;

[0022] Figure 5 This is a flowchart of another method for determining a communication beam according to an embodiment of this application;

[0023] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the results of a comparative test according to an embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0024] To enable those skilled in the art to better understand the present application, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present application, and not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative effort should fall within the scope of protection of the present application.

[0025] It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," etc., in the specification, claims, and accompanying drawings of this application are used to distinguish similar objects and are not necessarily used to describe a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that such data can be interchanged where appropriate so that the embodiments of this application described herein can be implemented in orders other than those illustrated or described herein. Furthermore, the terms "comprising" and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion; for example, a process, method, system, product, or apparatus that comprises a series of steps or units is not necessarily limited to those steps or units explicitly listed, but may include other steps or units not explicitly listed or inherent to such processes, methods, products, or apparatus.

[0026] To better understand the embodiments of this application, the technical terms involved in the embodiments of this application are explained below:

[0027] Additive white Gaussian noise: a random signal whose values ​​at various points in time or space are composed of Gaussian distributed random variables with zero mean and constant variance.

[0028] In related technologies, large-scale antenna arrays are deployed at the base station to reduce transmission losses in the millimeter-wave band. However, as the number of antennas increases, so does the number of beams. Therefore, the complexity of searching for the beam used for communication with the user end also increases, resulting in high complexity and long time consumption in beam searching. To solve this problem, this application provides relevant solutions, which are described in detail below.

[0029] According to an embodiment of this application, a method embodiment for determining a communication beam is provided. It should be noted that the steps shown in the flowchart in the accompanying drawings can be executed in a computer system such as a set of computer-executable instructions. Furthermore, although a logical order is shown in the flowchart, in some cases, the steps shown or described may be executed in a different order than that shown here.

[0030] The technical solutions of this application embodiment can be applied to various communication systems, such as: Global System of Mobile communication (GSM) system, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication system, or 5G system, etc.

[0031] For example, Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the communication system 100. The communication system 100 used in this embodiment of the application is as follows: Figure 1 As shown. The communication system 100 may include a network device 110, which may be a device that communicates with a terminal device 120 (or a communication terminal, terminal). The network device 110 can provide communication coverage for a specific geographical area and can communicate with terminal devices located within that coverage area. Optionally, the network device 110 may be a base station (BTS) in a GSM or CDMA system, a base station (NodeB, NB) in a WCDMA system, an evolved Node B (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, or a radio controller in a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN). Alternatively, the network device may be a mobile switching center, relay station, access point, vehicle-mounted equipment, wearable device, hub, switch, bridge, router, network-side equipment in a 5G network, or network equipment in a future evolved Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), etc.

[0032] The communication system 100 also includes at least one terminal device 120 located within the coverage area of ​​the network device 110. As used herein, "terminal device" includes, but is not limited to, devices configured to receive / transmit communication signals via wired connections, such as via Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN), Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), digital cable, direct cable connection; and / or another data connection / network; and / or via a wireless interface, such as for cellular networks, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), digital television networks such as DVB-H networks, satellite networks, AM-FM broadcast transmitters; and / or other terminal devices; and / or Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Terminal devices configured to communicate via a wireless interface may be referred to as "wireless communication terminal," "wireless terminal," or "mobile terminal." Examples of mobile terminals include, but are not limited to, satellite or cellular phones; personal communications system (PCS) terminals that can combine cellular radiotelephony with data processing, fax, and data communication capabilities; PDAs that may include radiotelephones, pagers, Internet / intranet access, web browsers, notebooks, calendars, and / or Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers; and conventional laptop and / or handheld receivers or other electronic devices that include radiotelephone transceivers. Terminal equipment can refer to access terminals, user equipment (UE), user units, user stations, mobile stations, mobile stations, remote stations, remote terminals, mobile devices, user terminals, terminals, wireless communication equipment, user agents, or user equipment. Access terminals can be cellular phones, cordless phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), handheld devices with wireless communication capabilities, computing devices or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices, terminal devices in 5G networks, or terminal devices in future PLMNs, etc.

[0033] Optionally, the terminal devices 120 can perform device-to-device (D2D) communication with each other.

[0034] Alternatively, a 5G system or 5G network may also be referred to as a New Radio (NR) system or NR network.

[0035] This application provides a method for determining a communication beam that can operate under the above-described operating environment. Figure 2 This is a flowchart of the steps of the communication beam determination method provided in the embodiments of this application, as follows: Figure 2 As shown, the method includes the following steps:

[0036] Step S202: Determine the comprehensive score value of each coarse beam to be transmitted based on the communication rate of the coarse beam and the user density corresponding to the coarse beam, wherein the comprehensive score value is used to indicate the communication efficiency of the coarse beam.

[0037] The method provided in this application embodiment is applied to the communication stage between the base station and the user terminal. It can be applied to both the base station and the user terminal. For the base station, in order to narrow down the range of communication fine beams that the user terminal can select, the base station can determine a comprehensive score value for evaluating the communication efficiency of each coarse beam based on the communication rate of the coarse beam and the user density corresponding to the coarse beam before sending beam information to the user terminal. The higher the comprehensive score value of the coarse beam, the faster the communication efficiency of the coarse beam (shorter communication delay and faster communication rate).

[0038] Optionally, the comprehensive score value of each coarse beam to be transmitted is determined based on the communication rate of the coarse beam and the user density corresponding to the coarse beam, including: determining the communication score value of each coarse beam based on the communication rate, and determining the user score value of each coarse beam based on the user density, wherein the communication score value is positively correlated with the communication rate, and the user score value is negatively correlated with the user density; for each coarse beam, the comprehensive score value is determined jointly based on the communication score value and the user score value.

[0039] In this embodiment, the communication efficiency of each coarse beam is evaluated by comprehensively considering factors at both the user end and the base station. The user end factor is the number of user terminals served by each coarse beam (i.e., the number of user terminals communicating with the base station using that coarse beam). The more user terminals served by each coarse beam, the lower the user density corresponding to that coarse beam. The base station factor is the communication rate of each coarse beam. Therefore, after obtaining the synchronization signal block, this embodiment comprehensively considers both user end and base station factors to evaluate the communication efficiency of each coarse beam. A higher overall score for the coarse beam indicates faster communication efficiency (shorter communication delay and faster communication rate). As mentioned above, the comprehensive scoring of each coarse beam considers both base station and user-side factors. Therefore, to determine the comprehensive score value of each coarse beam, it is first scored from both the base station and user perspectives. At the base station, the coarse beam is scored based on its communication rate, resulting in a communication score value. A faster communication rate yields a higher communication score. Finally, the comprehensive score value for each coarse beam is determined by combining its communication score value and the user score value. For example, both factors can be assigned the same weight, or different weight values ​​can be assigned to each factor based on their impact on the communication efficiency of the coarse beam. Alternatively, the total score for both factors can be the same; for example, a total score of 100 points, where the maximum score for both base station and user-side factors is 50 points.

[0040] According to an optional embodiment of this application, determining the communication score value of each coarse beam based on the communication rate includes: ranking the multiple coarse beams to be transmitted according to the communication rate to obtain a first-class ranking number for each coarse beam, wherein the first-class ranking number is a positive integer and is positively correlated with the communication rate; determining the communication rate score value of each coarse beam based on the first-class ranking number, wherein the communication rate score value is positively correlated with the value of the first-class ranking number, the communication rate score value corresponding to the first-class ranking number with the smallest value is a first preset value, and the difference between the two communication rate score values ​​corresponding to two adjacent first-class ranking numbers is a second preset value, wherein the second preset value is less than the first preset value.

[0041] In this embodiment, determining the communication score of a coarse beam based on its communication rate can be achieved as follows: The communication rates of multiple coarse beams to be transmitted from the base station to the user terminal are ranked according to the communication rate of each coarse beam. The coarse beams are ranked according to a rule that the higher the communication rate, the higher the ranking, resulting in a ranking result (i.e., a first-class ranking number). Next, the communication rate score of each coarse beam can be determined based on its ranking result (i.e., the first-class ranking number). Specifically, the higher the first-class ranking number of a coarse beam (i.e., the smaller the ranking number), the higher its corresponding communication rate score. In this embodiment, the full score of the communication rate rating is set as a first preset value. When the communication rate ranking result of the coarse beam is the highest (i.e., the value of the first category ranking number is the smallest), the communication rate rating of the coarse beam is full (i.e., the first preset value). In addition, in this embodiment, the granularity of the communication rate score is also set as a (second) preset value, that is, the difference between the communication rate rating values ​​of the coarse beams adjacent to the communication rate ranking result (i.e., the first category ranking number) is set as a (second) preset value. Therefore, if the communication rate rating values ​​of the coarse beams are arranged in ascending order according to the communication rate ranking result (i.e., the first category ranking number), an arithmetic sequence with the first item as the first preset value and the difference fixed as the second preset value will be generated.

[0042] According to another optional embodiment of this application, determining the user score value of each coarse beam based on user density includes: ranking the multiple coarse beams to be transmitted according to user density to obtain a second-class ranking number for each coarse beam, wherein the second-class ranking number is a positive integer and is negatively correlated with user density; determining the user score value of each coarse beam based on the second-class ranking number, wherein the user score value corresponding to the second-class ranking number with the smallest value is a first preset value, and the difference between the two user score values ​​corresponding to two adjacent second-class ranking numbers is a second preset value.

[0043] In this embodiment, determining the user score value of a coarse beam based on its user density can be achieved as follows: The user density of multiple coarse beams to be transmitted from the base station to the user terminal is ranked according to the user density of each coarse beam. The coarse beams are ranked according to a rule that the higher the user density, the lower the ranking, resulting in a ranking result (i.e., a second-class ranking number). Next, the user density score value of each coarse beam can be determined based on its ranking result (i.e., the second-class ranking number). Specifically, the higher the second-class ranking number of a coarse beam (i.e., the smaller the ranking number), the lower its corresponding user density, and the higher its corresponding user score value. As mentioned in the above embodiments, the total scores of the two factors can be made the same. In this embodiment, the full score of the user density score is also set to the first preset value. When the user density ranking result of the coarse beam is the highest (i.e., the value of the second category ranking number is the smallest), the user score of the coarse beam is the full score (i.e., the first preset value). In addition, in this embodiment, the scoring granularity of the user score can also be set to the (second) preset value, that is, the difference between the user score values ​​of the coarse beam adjacent to the user score ranking result (i.e., the second category ranking number) is set to the (second) preset value. Therefore, if the user score values ​​of the coarse beam are arranged in ascending order according to the user score ranking result (i.e., the second category ranking number), an arithmetic sequence with the first item as the first preset value and the difference fixed as the second preset value will be generated. Alternatively, the difference between the user score values ​​of the coarse beam adjacent to the user score ranking result (i.e., the second category ranking number) can be set to a value different from the second preset value.

[0044] Next, we will illustrate a method for determining a comprehensive score based on both communication rate score and user score. In this example, the total score is set to 100 points, consisting of two parts: communication rate score and user score, each with a maximum score of 50 points. The granularity of the score for a single beam (i.e., the difference between the communication rate score and user score of two adjacent coarse beams in the first / second category ranking results) is evenly distributed according to the number of coarse beams. For example, if there are 10 coarse beams, the average communication rate score granularity for each coarse beam is 50 / 10 = 5 points. Therefore, the granularity of the communication rate score for each coarse beam is set to 5 points, and the granularity of the user score is also set to 5 points. The score decreases by 5 points for each subsequent ranking, with the highest communication rate (ranked first) receiving 50 points (ascending order) and the fewest users (ranked first) receiving 50 points (descending order). For example, if a coarse beam ranks 2nd in communication rate (i.e., the first category ranking number) and scores 45 points, and ranks 3rd in user rating (i.e., the second category ranking number) and scores 40 points, then the overall score for the coarse beam is determined by adding the scores from both categories. Therefore, the total score (overall score) for the coarse beam is 85 points. In other examples, different weighting coefficients can be set for different categories of factors. After determining the score of the coarse beam under the two categories of factors, these two score values ​​are multiplied by their respective weighting coefficients and then added together to obtain the overall score of the coarse beam.

[0045] Step S204: Determine the target coarse beam among the multiple coarse beams to be transmitted based on the comprehensive score value, and determine the first set of fine beams within the first signal coverage range of the target coarse beam, wherein the second signal coverage range of each fine beam in the first set of fine beams is within the first signal coverage range of the target coarse beam.

[0046] After determining the comprehensive score value of each coarse beam in step S202, in step S204, the comprehensive score values ​​of each coarse beam to be transmitted can be compared, the comprehensive score value with the largest value (or multiple comprehensive score values ​​with large values) can be selected, and the coarse beam corresponding to the comprehensive score value with the largest value (or multiple coarse beams corresponding to multiple comprehensive score values ​​with large values) can be determined as the target coarse beam. Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the beam coverage area, as shown below. Figure 3 As shown, the numbers on the circumference of the circle (0, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, 300, 330) represent the beamwidth in degrees, that is, the width angle of the beam radiating in the horizontal or vertical plane; the numbers on the radius of the circle (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1) represent the beam gain; as... Figure 3As shown, within the signal coverage area of ​​a coarse beam, multiple fine beams are contained (for example, a blue coarse beam with a width of 0-30 contains purple and orange fine beams). Therefore, determining the target coarse beam is equivalent to determining a beam filtering area, and then fine beams are filtered only within the coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam. The aforementioned coverage area of ​​the coarse beam refers to the coverage area of ​​the signal transmitted through the coarse beam (i.e., the first signal coverage area). In this embodiment, the fine beams within the first signal coverage area are determined as the fine beam filtering set (i.e., the first fine beam set). Obviously, the signal coverage area of ​​each fine beam within the first signal coverage area (i.e., the second signal coverage area) is smaller than the first signal coverage area (i.e., the signal coverage area of ​​the coarse beam). For example, the base station can rank the coarse beams to be transmitted according to the rule that the higher the comprehensive score value, the higher the ranking, and send each coarse beam and its corresponding comprehensive score ranking result to the user terminal. After ranking the coarse beams to be transmitted based on their comprehensive score, the base station can send only the top K coarse beams (where K can be 3) and their corresponding comprehensive score ranking results to the user terminal. It should be noted that if only the top K coarse beams and their corresponding comprehensive score ranking results are sent to the user terminal, the comprehensive score value of each coarse beam can be stored in the reserved bits of the synchronization signal block and transmitted using the synchronization signal block. Since sending all the coarse beams to be transmitted and their corresponding comprehensive score ranking results to the user terminal requires a large number of bits, if more coarse beams and their corresponding comprehensive score ranking results need to be sent, broadcast transmission is used. The base station can also send only the coarse beam with the highest comprehensive score and its comprehensive score value to the user terminal. If the base station sends the top K beams, these K beams are the target coarse beams; if the base station only sends the coarse beam with the highest comprehensive score value, then the coarse beam with the highest comprehensive score value is the target coarse beam.

[0047] Step S206: A second set of fine beams for communicating with the user terminal is determined from the first set of fine beams, wherein the number of target fine beams in the second set of fine beams is less than the number of fine beams in the first set of fine beams.

[0048] In step S206, a fine beam (i.e., a target fine beam) for communication with the user terminal is further determined from the fine beam filtering set (i.e., the first fine beam set). The base station determines one fine beam (i.e., a target fine beam) for communication with the user terminal for each radio frequency link (i.e., a first type of radio frequency link) at the base station. In a MIMO scenario, the number of (first type) radio frequency links used by the base station to communicate with the user terminal is usually less than the number of fine beams transmitted by the base station. Therefore, when the base station determines a (target) fine beam for communication with the user terminal for each radio frequency link, the number of selected (target) fine beams is usually less than the number of fine beams included in the fine beam filtering set (i.e., the first fine beam set). In this embodiment, the set of multiple (target) fine beams used by the base station for communication with the user terminal is denoted as the second fine beam set.

[0049] Optionally, determining a second set of fine beams for communication with the user terminal from the first set of fine beams includes: determining the number of first-type radio frequency links for communication with the user terminal; sequentially determining the target fine beams corresponding to each first-type radio frequency link in the first set of fine beams according to a preset order, wherein the target fine beam corresponding to the next first-type radio frequency link is determined based on the target fine beam corresponding to the previous first-type radio frequency link; and determining the set of multiple target fine beams corresponding to multiple first-type radio frequency links as the second set of fine beams.

[0050] In this embodiment, the base station determines a target beam (or target beam) for each base station-side radio frequency link (i.e., the first type of radio frequency link) used for communication with the user terminal. Since the base station can only determine the corresponding target beam for one radio frequency link at a time when executing this scheme, in the MIMO scenario of this embodiment, when the base station has multiple first-type radio frequency links, it is necessary to first determine the number of base station-side radio frequency links (i.e., the first type of radio frequency links) and then determine the corresponding target beam for each base station-side radio frequency link in a preset order. After the target beam corresponding to the base station-side radio frequency link in the earlier order is determined, this target beam will be considered as an influencing factor when determining the target beam corresponding to the base station-side radio frequency link in the later order. The preset order can be set according to any rule, for example, it can be the order of the signal strength of the radio frequency links from strong to weak; or it can be the order of the available bandwidth of the radio frequency links from large to small. In MIMO scenarios, the number of radio frequency links at the user end is usually less than the number of fine beams transmitted by the base station. Therefore, when the base station determines a (target) fine beam for each radio frequency link to communicate with the user end, the number of (target) fine beams selected is usually less than the number of fine beams included in the fine beam selection set (i.e., the first fine beam set). In this embodiment, the set of multiple (target) fine beams used by the base station to communicate with the user end is denoted as the second fine beam set.

[0051] According to an optional embodiment of this application, the target fine beam corresponding to each first type of radio frequency link is determined sequentially in a first fine beam set according to a preset order, including: for the first first type of radio frequency link, obtaining a set of fine beam codewords corresponding to the target coarse beam, wherein the set of fine beam codewords contains the codewords of each fine beam in the first fine beam set, and the codewords are used to represent the amplitude and phase of the fine beam; determining a first type of precoding matrix corresponding to each fine beam based on the codeword of each fine beam, wherein the first type of precoding matrix is ​​used to encode the signal to be transmitted; obtaining communication information of the user terminal, wherein the communication information includes at least: a pre-combining matrix for processing the signal transmitted by the base station, and the number of second type of radio frequency links of the user terminal; determining the spectral efficiency of each fine beam based on the number of first type of radio frequency links, the first type of precoding matrix, and the communication information of the user terminal; and determining the target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value as the target fine beam corresponding to the first first type of radio frequency link.

[0052] In this embodiment, the target fine beam for each base station radio frequency link (i.e., the first type of radio frequency link) is determined by the spectral efficiency of the fine beam. In the above formula, ρ represents the number of user radio frequency links (i.e., the number of Category 2 radio frequency links), M represents the average signal transmission power of the base station.BS The number of radio frequency links (i.e., type I radio frequency links) representing communication between the base station and the user terminal is represented by additive white Gaussian noise, which affects communication during the communication process between the base station and the user terminal. This additive white Gaussian noise follows a pattern with a mean of 0 and a variance of σ. 2 The complex Gaussian distribution, i.e., σ 2 It is the variance of additive white Gaussian noise in the communication process. W RF It is a pre-merged matrix, and the user will use W RF The received signals are pre-combined, W RF H H is the transpose of the pre-merging matrix; H is the channel estimation matrix, and F is the transpose of the pre-merging matrix. RF It is a precoding matrix; the signal from the base station passes through F before being transmitted. RF Perform encoding processing. This represents the squared value of the norm (Frobenius) of matrix a. In this embodiment, matrix a includes (W... RF H HF RF ) and W RF H The base station itself is aware of the following communication information related to the user terminal: the number of Type I radio frequency links communicating with the user terminal (M) BS ), the average signal transmission power (ρ) of the base station, the channel estimation matrix (H), etc. Once the communication system is fixed, without any adjustments to the communication system, ρ, M BS σ 2 If both H and F can be considered fixed, then when the base station determines the target fine beam, the main factor affecting the spectral efficiency (SE) is F. RF , of which F RF The elements in the code are complex codewords used to record the amplitude and phase of each fine beam. For the first (Type I) RF link, F RF The matrix is ​​a row-and-column array (i.e., the first type of precoding matrix). When calculating the spectral efficiency of different fine beams, the amplitude and phase of each fine beam are used as elements in the first type of precoding matrix. Therefore, the fine beam with the highest spectral efficiency (SE) can be selected as the target fine beam corresponding to the first base station radio frequency link using the above formula for determining spectral efficiency (SE). The codewords of the fine beams are recorded in a preset codebook (i.e., the fine beam codeword set). By traversing each codeword in the fine beam codeword set, the target fine beam with the highest spectral efficiency can be determined. The fine beam codeword set used in this embodiment is part of the beamforming codebook set, which is a discrete Fourier transform codebook. Each codeword in the codebook... m = 0, 1, ..., M-1; n = 0, 1, ..., N-1, where π is the mathematical constant pi, M is the number of codewords, N is the number of antennas connected to each (Type I and Type II) RF link, and the codebook set is the set containing all codewords in the codebook. The base station has a total of N codewords in its codebook. RFBS There are N code words, and the user's codebook has a total of N. RF_BS Each code character.

[0053] According to another optional embodiment of this application, the target fine beam corresponding to each first type of radio frequency link is determined sequentially in the first fine beam set according to a preset order, and further includes: for other first type of radio frequency links besides the first first type of radio frequency link, determining the second type of precoding matrix corresponding to each fine beam according to the target fine beam corresponding to the previous first type of radio frequency link and the codeword of each fine beam; determining the spectral efficiency of each fine beam according to the number of first type of radio frequency links, the second type of precoding matrix and the communication information of the user terminal; and determining the target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value as the target fine beam corresponding to each other first type of radio frequency link.

[0054] The previous embodiment mentioned the following scheme: "When calculating the spectral efficiency of different fine beams, the amplitude and phase of different fine beams are respectively used as elements in the first type of precoding matrix." This scheme for determining the precoding matrix is ​​only applicable to the first type of radio frequency link (i.e., the first base station radio frequency link) that determines the target fine beam. For the remaining base station radio frequency links (i.e., other first type radio frequency links), it is necessary to determine their corresponding precoding matrix (i.e., the second type of precoding matrix) according to the method provided in this embodiment. The difference between the first type of precoding matrix and the second type of precoding matrix is ​​that the dimensions are different. The dimension of the first type of precoding matrix is ​​1×1 (i.e., one row and one column), and the dimension of the second type of precoding matrix is ​​1×n (i.e., one row and n columns). Here, n is consistent with the order of the base station radio frequency links. That is, the dimension of the second type of precoding matrix corresponding to the base station radio frequency link with the preset order of second (i.e., the second first type radio frequency link) is 1×2 (i.e., one row and two columns), and the dimension of the second type of precoding matrix corresponding to the radio frequency link with the preset order of third (i.e., the third radio frequency link) is 1×3 (i.e., one row and three columns). The (Type II) precoding matrix applied when determining the most spectrally efficient fine beam (i.e., the target fine beam) for a base station radio frequency link that is not the first in the sequence (i.e., other Type I radio frequency links) is generated jointly based on the target fine beam of the previous base station radio frequency link and each fine beam traversed in the current iteration. For example, the (Type II) precoding matrix corresponding to the second base station radio frequency link is a 1×2 matrix, meaning it contains two elements; the first element of this matrix is ​​the codeword of the target fine beam corresponding to the first base station radio frequency link, and the second element is the codeword of the target fine beam corresponding to the first base station radio frequency link. The fine beam codeword set is determined by traversing it. Each codeword in the fine beam codeword set is combined with the codeword of the target fine beam corresponding to the first base station radio frequency link to generate a (second type) precoding matrix. Each generated (second type) precoding matrix is ​​substituted into the above formula for determining the spectral efficiency (SE) for calculation. When the calculated spectral efficiency (SE) is the maximum, the fine beam indicated by the second element (the codeword of the fine beam) in the (second type) precoding matrix corresponding to the maximum spectral efficiency (SE) is determined as the target fine beam corresponding to the second base station radio frequency link. When determining the target fine beam for the second base station radio frequency link, in determining the spectral efficiency (SE) of each fine beam, one element of the (second type) precoding matrix used to determine the spectral efficiency (SE) is fixed to the codeword in the target fine beam corresponding to the first base station radio frequency link, while the other element is obtained by traversing the set of fine beam codewords. When the (second type) precoding matrix composed of the codeword in the target fine beam corresponding to the first base station radio frequency link and a certain codeword from the set of fine beam codewords maximizes the spectral efficiency (SE), the fine beam indicated by the codeword in the set of fine beam codewords is determined as the target fine beam of the second base station radio frequency link.The target fine beams corresponding to other first-type radio frequency links are all determined by the method in this embodiment.

[0055] Figure 4 This is a diagram illustrating communication between the base station and the user terminal. Next, according to... Figure 4 Explain the communication process between the base station and the user terminal, as well as various types of information (such as M). BS W RF F RF The use and limitations of this technology in the communication process.

[0056] like Figure 4 As shown, the communication system is a transceiver structure comprising a base station and user terminals (i.e., mobile stations). The transmitting and receiving ends of this transceiver structure employ a partially interconnected architecture (each RF link in the analog beamforming section is connected to a portion of the RF antenna elements) for downlink single-cell analog-digital hybrid processing. The transmitting base station mainly consists of a digital precoding section at the back end of the RF link and an analog precoding section at the front end of the RF link; the receiving terminal mainly consists of an analog combining section at the front end of the link and a digital combining section at the back end of the RF link. N are deployed on the base station side. BS The antenna is connected to M in a partially connected manner. BS Each radio frequency link serves a single terminal, and each radio frequency link connects N. RFBS One antenna; the receiver is equipped with N antennas. MS The antenna is connected to M in the same way. MS On each of the RF links, N are connected. RF_MS One antenna, supporting the transmission of N during communication. s Data streams (N) s ≥1).

[0057] At the transmitting end (base station side), the dimension is N. s A signal s of dimension M first passes through a dimension M BS ×N s The baseband digital precoding matrix F BB Perform digital precoding, and then pass through a dimension of N BS ×M BS RF analog precoding matrix F RF After performing analog precoding, it can be obtained from N BS The antenna transmits in a beamform pattern. Therefore, the complex-valued signal (x) transmitted at the transmitting end (base station side) can be expressed by the formula x = F. RF F BB s is determined, wherein the transmitted signal s satisfies (a matrix composed of multiple transmitted signals S, and its transpose matrix s) H Multiplication will produce the identity matrix E[ss] H ]), where ρ is the average transmission power of the base station's transmitted signal. It is N s A diagonal matrix formed.

[0058] At the receiving end (mobile station side), N MS The signal received by the antenna first passes through a dimension of N MS ×M MS RF analog combiner (analog combiner matrix) W RF Perform simulated merging when the received signal passes through a dimension of M MS ×N s WB baseband digital combiner (analog combiner matrix) B After digital combining, the data transmitted by the transmitter can be obtained. The data y received by the mobile station can be given by the following formula: in, It is matrix WB B The transpose of H is a matrix of dimension N. MS ×N BS In this embodiment of the application, the equivalent baseband channel of the terminal is defined as the channel matrix. n is additive white Gaussian noise with a mean of 0 and a variance of σ. 2 The complex Gaussian distribution.

[0059] In the embodiments of this application, F RF It is a matrix with a special diagonal matrix structure, specifically expressed as in, i∈{1,...,M BS}, where C represents the complex field, and f represents the complex number field. i It is a complex field of dimension N RF_BS A column vector of size ×1, f i It is the non-zero precoding weighting vector of the i-th subarray of the base station. Since the analog precoder (precoding matrix F) RF The amplitude of the transmitting signal cannot be adjusted and is limited by power; therefore, F RF Each element in (F) RF (i, j) satisfies j∈{1,…,N RF_BS}and Representative to find F RF F BB The square value of the norm. Similarly, in, i∈{1,…,M MS} represents the non-zero merged weighted vector of the i-th subarray on the user side. RF Each element in must satisfy The method provided in this application embodiment is applied to a hybrid beamformer having a partially connected architecture (i.e., each RF link in the analog beamforming section is connected to a portion of the RF antenna elements). The hybrid beamformer consists of the aforementioned baseband digital precoding matrix F. BB / Pre-merged matrix W BB and the analog precoding matrix F at the radio frequency end RF / Merge matrix W RF Composition, in which F RF and W RF F can be determined from the actual channel estimation matrix H. BB and W BB The equivalent baseband channel estimation matrix can be used. Sure.

[0060] For the aforementioned transceiver architecture (i.e., communication system), when applying a beam search method from related technologies to search for the optimal-performing fine beam, the complexity of the beam search is... When using the method provided in the embodiments of this application to search for the fine beam with optimal performance, the complexity of beam search is... Among them, CB RF_BS and CB RF_MS These represent the number of coarse beams on the base station and user side, respectively. and These represent the number of fine beams contained in a coarse beam at the base station and the user terminal, respectively. It can be seen that the complexity of the beam search method provided in the embodiments of this application is much less than the complexity of beam search in related technologies.

[0061] By following the steps above, it is possible to search for communication beams only in the high spectral efficiency region, which greatly reduces the number of redundant beam searches in the low spectral efficiency region, reduces the complexity of communication beam search, and shortens the time spent on communication beam search.

[0062] Figure 5 This is a flowchart illustrating the steps of a communication beam determination method according to an embodiment of this application, as shown below. Figure 5 As shown, the method includes the following steps:

[0063] Step S502: Receive beam information sent by the base station, wherein the beam information includes at least one target coarse beam. The target coarse beam is determined by the base station from among multiple coarse beams to be transmitted based on the comprehensive score value of each coarse beam. The comprehensive score value of each coarse beam is determined based on the communication rate of the coarse beam and the user density corresponding to the coarse beam. The comprehensive score value is used to indicate the communication efficiency of the coarse beam.

[0064] The method provided in this application is applied to the communication phase between a base station and a user terminal. It can be applied to both the base station and the user terminal. For the user terminal, during the data transmission preparation phase (i.e., before data transmission begins), it receives synchronization signal blocks / broadcast information sent by the base station to synchronize data with the base station. Specifically, the user terminal also receives synchronization signal blocks / broadcast information from the base station in various situations, such as when it first accesses the base station or during frequency switching. Additionally, when the base station periodically sends synchronization signal blocks / broadcast information, the user terminal periodically receives the synchronization signal blocks / broadcast information. The synchronization signal blocks sent by the base station record information such as the communication rate of each coarse beam in all coarse beams sent by the base station, the user density corresponding to each coarse beam, and the phase and amplitude of each coarse beam. In step S502, the beam information received by the user terminal includes at least one (target) coarse beam. These target coarse beams are selected by the base station based on a comprehensive score obtained by evaluating each coarse beam to be transmitted according to its communication rate and user density. For example, the base station can rank the coarse beams to be transmitted according to the rule that the higher the comprehensive score, the higher the ranking, and then send each coarse beam and its corresponding comprehensive score ranking result to the user terminal. After ranking the coarse beams to be transmitted according to the comprehensive score, the base station can send only the top K coarse beams (where K can be 3) and their corresponding comprehensive score ranking results to the user terminal. It should be noted that if only the top K coarse beams and their corresponding comprehensive score ranking results are sent to the user terminal, the comprehensive score value of each coarse beam can be stored in the reserved bits of the synchronization signal block and transmitted using the synchronization signal block. In this case, the user terminal receives the beam information (target coarse beam and its corresponding ranking result) upon receiving the synchronization signal block. Since sending all coarse beams to be transmitted and their corresponding comprehensive score ranking results to the user terminal requires a large number of bits, if more coarse beams and their corresponding comprehensive score ranking results need to be transmitted, they should be transmitted via broadcast. In this case, the user terminal receives the beam information (target coarse beam and its corresponding ranking result) through the broadcast message. The base station can also send only the coarse beam with the highest comprehensive score value and its comprehensive score value to the user terminal. If the base station transmits the top K beams, these K beams are the target coarse beams; if the base station only transmits the coarse beam with the highest comprehensive score value, then the coarse beam with the highest comprehensive score value is the target coarse beam.

[0065] Step S504: Determine a first set of fine beams within the first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam, wherein the second signal coverage area of ​​each fine beam in the first set of fine beams is within the first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam.

[0066] The target coarse beam is equivalent to a beam filtering area. In step S504, the user terminal filters fine beams only within the coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam. The coverage area of ​​the coarse beam (i.e., the first signal coverage area) refers to the coverage area of ​​the signal transmitted through the coarse beam. In this embodiment, the fine beams within the first signal coverage area are determined as the fine beam filtering set (i.e., the first fine beam set). Figure 3 It can be seen that the signal coverage range of each thin beam within the first signal coverage range (i.e., the second signal coverage range) is smaller than the first signal coverage range (i.e., the signal coverage range of the thick beam).

[0067] Step S506: Determine a second set of fine beams for communicating with the base station from the first set of fine beams, wherein the number of target fine beams in the second set of fine beams is less than the number of fine beams in the first set of fine beams.

[0068] After determining the fine beam filtering set (i.e., the first fine beam set) in step S504, in step S506, a fine beam (i.e., a target fine beam) for communicating with the base station is further determined from the fine beam filtering set (i.e., the first fine beam set). The user terminal determines one fine beam (i.e., a target fine beam) for communicating with the base station for each of its radio frequency links (i.e., the second type of radio frequency link). In a MIMO scenario, the number of radio frequency links at the user terminal is usually less than the number of fine beams transmitted by the base station. Therefore, when the user terminal determines one (target) fine beam for communicating with the base station for each radio frequency link, the number of selected (target) fine beams is usually less than the number of fine beams included in the fine beam filtering set (i.e., the first fine beam set). In this embodiment, the set of multiple (target) fine beams used by the user terminal for communicating with the base station is denoted as the second fine beam set.

[0069] Optionally, determining a second set of fine beams for communicating with a base station from the first set of fine beams includes: determining the number of second-type radio frequency links for communicating with the base station; sequentially determining the target fine beams corresponding to each second-type radio frequency link in the first set of fine beams according to a preset order, wherein the target fine beam corresponding to the next second-type radio frequency link is determined based on the target fine beam corresponding to the previous second-type radio frequency link; and determining the set of multiple target fine beams corresponding to multiple second-type radio frequency links as the second set of fine beams.

[0070] In this embodiment, the user terminal determines a target beam (or fine beam) for each user terminal radio frequency link (i.e., the second type of radio frequency link) used for communication with the base station. Since the user terminal can only determine the corresponding target beam for one radio frequency link at a time when executing this scheme, in the MIMO scenario of this embodiment, when there are multiple second type of radio frequency links at the user terminal, it is necessary to first determine the number of user terminal radio frequency links (i.e., the second type of radio frequency links) and then determine the corresponding target beam for each user terminal radio frequency link in a preset order. After the target beam corresponding to the user terminal radio frequency link in the earlier order is determined, this target beam will be considered as an influencing factor when determining the target beam corresponding to the user terminal radio frequency link in the later order. The preset order can be set according to any rule, for example, it can be the order of the signal strength of the radio frequency links from strong to weak; or it can be the order of the available bandwidth of the radio frequency links from large to small.

[0071] According to an optional embodiment of this application, the target fine beam corresponding to each second type of RF link is determined sequentially in the first fine beam set according to a preset order, including: for the first second type of RF link, obtaining a set of fine beam codewords corresponding to the target coarse beam, wherein the set of fine beam codewords contains the codewords of each fine beam in the first fine beam set, and the codewords are used to represent the amplitude and phase of the fine beam; determining a first type of pre-combining matrix corresponding to each fine beam according to the codeword of each fine beam, wherein the first type of pre-combining matrix is ​​used to process the received signal; obtaining the communication information of the base station, wherein the communication information includes at least: a precoding matrix for encoding the signal to be transmitted by the base station, the average signal transmission power, and the number of first type of RF links of the base station; determining the spectral efficiency of each fine beam according to the number of second type of RF links, the first type of pre-combining matrix, and the communication information of the base station, and determining the target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value as the target fine beam corresponding to the first second type of RF link.

[0072] In this embodiment, the target fine beam for each user-end RF link (i.e., the second type of RF link) is determined by the spectral efficiency of the fine beam. Once the communication system is fixed, and without any adjustments to the communication system, ρ, M BS σ 2 If both H and WR can be considered fixed, then when the user determines the target fine beam, the main factor affecting the spectral efficiency (SE) is WR. F Among them, W RF The elements in WR are complex codewords used to record the amplitude and phase of each fine beam. For the first (type 2) RF link, WR FThe matrix is ​​a row-and-column array (i.e., the first type of pre-combining code matrix). When calculating the spectral efficiency of different fine beams, the amplitude and phase of each fine beam are used as elements in the first type of combining code matrix. Therefore, the fine beam with the highest spectral efficiency (SE) can be selected as the target fine beam for the first type of second-order RF link using the aforementioned formula for determining spectral efficiency (SE). The codewords of the fine beams are recorded in a preset codebook (i.e., the fine beam codeword set). By traversing each codeword in the fine beam codeword set, the target fine beam with the highest spectral efficiency can be determined. The fine beam codeword set used in this embodiment is part of a beamforming codebook set, which is a discrete Fourier transform codebook. Each codeword in the codebook... m = 0, 1, ..., M-1; n = 0, 1, ..., N-1, where M is the number of codewords, N is the number of antennas connected to each (Type I and Type II) RF link, and the codebook set is the set containing all codewords in the codebook. The base station has a total of N codewords in its codebook. RFBS There are N code words, and the user's codebook has a total of N. RF_BS Each code character.

[0073] According to another optional embodiment of this application, the target fine beam corresponding to each second type of radio frequency link is determined sequentially in the first fine beam set according to a preset order, and further includes: for other second type of radio frequency links besides the first second type of radio frequency link, determining the second type of pre-combining matrix corresponding to each fine beam according to the target fine beam corresponding to the previous second type of radio frequency link and the codeword of each fine beam; determining the spectral efficiency of each fine beam according to the number of second type of radio frequency links, the second type of pre-combining matrix and the communication information of the base station; and determining the target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value as the target fine beam corresponding to each other second type of radio frequency link.

[0074] The previous embodiment mentioned the following scheme: "When calculating the spectral efficiency of different fine beams, the amplitude and phase of different fine beams are respectively used as elements in the first type of pre-combining matrix." This scheme for determining the pre-combining matrix is ​​only applicable to the first (second type) radio frequency link that determines the target fine beam (i.e., the first second type radio frequency link). For the remaining user-end radio frequency links (i.e., other second type radio frequency links), it is necessary to determine their corresponding pre-combining matrix (i.e., the second type of pre-combining matrix) according to the method provided in this embodiment. The difference between the first type of pre-combining matrix and the second type of pre-combining matrix is ​​that the dimensions are different. The dimension of the first type of pre-combining matrix is ​​1×1 (i.e., one row and one column), and the dimension of the second type of pre-combining matrix is ​​1×n (i.e., one row and n columns). Here, n is consistent with the order of the radio frequency links. That is, the dimension of the second type of pre-combining matrix corresponding to the user-end radio frequency link with the second preset order (i.e., the second second type radio frequency link) is 1×2 (i.e., one row and two columns), and the dimension of the second type of pre-combining matrix corresponding to the user-end radio frequency link with the third preset order (i.e., the third second type radio frequency link) is 1×3 (i.e., one row and three columns). When determining the fine beam with the highest spectral efficiency (i.e., the target fine beam) corresponding to a user-end RF link that is not the first in the order (i.e., other second-type RF links), the (second-type) pre-combining matrix used is generated jointly based on the target fine beam of the previous user-end RF link and each fine beam traversed at the moment. For example, the (second-type) pre-combining matrix corresponding to the second user-end RF link is a 1×2 matrix, meaning it contains two elements. The first element of this matrix is ​​the codeword of the target fine beam corresponding to the first user-end RF link, and the second element is determined by traversing the set of fine beam codewords. Each codeword in the set of fine beam codewords is combined with the codeword of the target fine beam corresponding to the first user-end RF link to generate a (second-type) pre-combining matrix. Each generated (second-type) pre-combining matrix is ​​then substituted into the above formula for determining the spectral efficiency (SE) for calculation. When the calculated spectral efficiency (SE) is the maximum, the fine beam indicated by the second element (the codeword of the fine beam) in the (second-type) pre-combining matrix corresponding to the maximum spectral efficiency (SE) is determined as the target fine beam corresponding to the second user-end RF link. When determining the target fine beam for the second user-end RF link, in determining the spectral efficiency (SE) of each fine beam, one element of the (type II) pre-combining matrix used to determine the spectral efficiency (SE) is fixed to the codeword in the target fine beam corresponding to the first user-end RF link, while the other element is obtained by traversing the set of fine beam codewords. When the (type II) pre-combining matrix composed of the codeword in the target fine beam corresponding to the first user-end RF link and a codeword from the set of fine beam codewords maximizes the spectral efficiency (SE), the fine beam indicated by the codeword in the set of fine beam codewords is determined as the target fine beam of the second user-end RF link.The target fine beams corresponding to other second-type radio frequency links are all determined by the method in this embodiment.

[0075] Optionally, determining a second set of fine beams for communicating with a base station from a first set of fine beams includes: determining the number of first-type radio frequency links for communicating with the base station; sequentially determining the target fine beams corresponding to each first-type radio frequency link in the first set of fine beams according to a preset order, wherein the target fine beam corresponding to the next first-type radio frequency link is determined based on the target fine beam corresponding to the previous first-type radio frequency link; and determining the set of multiple target fine beams corresponding to multiple first-type radio frequency links as the second set of fine beams.

[0076] In this embodiment, the user terminal determines a target beam (or fine beam) for each user terminal radio frequency link (i.e., the second type of radio frequency link) used for communication with the base station. Since the user terminal can only determine the corresponding target beam for one radio frequency link at a time when executing this scheme, in the MIMO scenario of this embodiment, when there are multiple second type of radio frequency links at the user terminal, it is necessary to first determine the number of user terminal radio frequency links (i.e., the second type of radio frequency links) and then determine the corresponding target beam for each user terminal radio frequency link in a preset order. After the target beam corresponding to the user terminal radio frequency link in the earlier order is determined, this target beam will be considered as an influencing factor when determining the target beam corresponding to the user terminal radio frequency link in the later order. The preset order can be set according to any rule, for example, it can be the order of the signal strength of the radio frequency links from strong to weak; or it can be the order of the available bandwidth of the radio frequency links from large to small.

[0077] According to an optional embodiment of this application, the target fine beam corresponding to each first type of radio frequency link is determined sequentially in a first fine beam set according to a preset order, including: for the first first type of radio frequency link, obtaining a set of fine beam codewords corresponding to the target coarse beam, wherein the set of fine beam codewords contains the codewords of each fine beam in the first fine beam set, and the codewords are used to represent the amplitude and phase of the fine beam; determining a first type of pre-combining matrix corresponding to each fine beam based on the codeword of each fine beam, wherein the first type of pre-combining matrix is ​​used to process the received signal; obtaining the communication information of the base station, wherein the communication information includes at least: a precoding matrix for encoding the signal transmitted by the base station, the average signal transmission power, and the number of second type radio frequency links of the base station; determining the spectral efficiency of each fine beam based on the number of first type of radio frequency links, the first type of pre-combining matrix, and the communication information of the base station; and determining the target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value as the target fine beam corresponding to the first first type of radio frequency link.

[0078] In this embodiment, the target fine beam for each user-end RF link (i.e., the second type of RF link) is determined by the spectral efficiency of the fine beam. In the above formula, ρ represents the number of user radio frequency links (i.e., the number of Category 2 radio frequency links), M represents the average signal transmission power of the base station. BS The number of radio frequency links (i.e., type I radio frequency links) representing communication between the base station and the user terminal is represented by additive white Gaussian noise, which affects communication during the communication process between the base station and the user terminal. This additive white Gaussian noise follows a pattern with a mean of 0 and a variance of σ. 2 The complex Gaussian distribution, i.e., σ 2 It is the variance of additive white Gaussian noise in the communication process. W RF It is a pre-merged matrix, and the user will use W RF The received signals are pre-combined, W RF H H is the transpose of the pre-merging matrix; H is the channel estimation matrix, FR F It is a precoding matrix; the signal from the base station passes through F before being transmitted. RF Perform encoding processing. This represents the squared value of the norm (Frobenius) of matrix a. In this embodiment, matrix a includes (W... RF H HF RF ) and W RF H The communication information at the base station in the above formula includes: the number of Type I radio frequency links communicating with the user terminal (M). BS Information such as the base station's average signal transmission power (ρ) and channel estimation matrix can be obtained from the base station's signal and reference signal (RS) during communication. In a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system, the reference signal (RS) can be used to determine the estimated channel matrix (H). Once the communication system is fixed, without any adjustments to the system, ρ, M BS σ 2 If both H and W can be considered fixed, then when the user determines the target fine beam, the main factor affecting the spectral efficiency (SE) is W. RF Among them, W RF The elements in the code are complex codewords used to record the amplitude and phase of each fine beam. For the first (type 2) RF link, W RF is a one-row, one-column matrix (i.e., the first type of pre-combining matrix). When calculating the spectral efficiency of different fine beams, the amplitude and phase of different fine beams are used as elements in the first type of pre-combining matrix. Therefore, the fine beam with the highest spectral efficiency (SE) can be selected as the target fine beam corresponding to the first RF link using the above formula for determining spectral efficiency (SE). The codewords of the fine beams are recorded in a preset codebook (i.e., the fine beam codeword set). By traversing each codeword in the fine beam codeword set, the target fine beam with the highest spectral efficiency can be determined. The fine beam codeword set used in this application embodiment is part of the beamforming codebook set. The beamforming codebook set is a discrete Fourier transform codebook, and each codeword in the codebook... m = 0, 1, ..., M-1; n = 0, 1, ..., N-1, where M is the number of codewords, N is the number of antennas connected to each (Type I and Type II) RF link, and the codebook set is the set containing all codewords in the codebook. The base station has a total of N codewords in its codebook. RF_BS There are N code words, and the user's codebook has a total of N. RF_BS Each code character.

[0079] According to another optional embodiment of this application, the target fine beam corresponding to each first type of radio frequency link is determined sequentially in the first fine beam set according to a preset order, and further includes: for other first type of radio frequency links besides the first first type of radio frequency link, determining the second type of pre-combining matrix corresponding to each fine beam according to the target fine beam corresponding to the previous first type of radio frequency link and the codeword of each fine beam; determining the spectral efficiency of each fine beam according to the number of first type of radio frequency links, the second type of pre-combining matrix and the communication information of the base station; and determining the target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value as the target fine beam corresponding to each other first type of radio frequency link.

[0080] The previous embodiment mentioned the following scheme: "When calculating the spectral efficiency of different fine beams, the amplitude and phase of different fine beams are respectively used as elements in the first type of pre-combining matrix." This scheme for determining the pre-combining matrix is ​​only applicable to the first user-end RF link that determines the target fine beam (i.e., the first type of second RF link). For the remaining user-end RF links (i.e., other type of second RF links), it is necessary to determine their corresponding pre-combining matrix (i.e., the second type of pre-combining matrix) according to the method provided in this embodiment. The difference between the first type of pre-combining matrix and the second type of pre-combining matrix is ​​that the dimensions are different. The dimension of the first type of pre-combining matrix is ​​1×1 (i.e., one row and one column), and the dimension of the second type of pre-combining matrix is ​​1×n (i.e., one row and n columns). Here, n is consistent with the order of the user-end RF links. That is, the dimension of the second type of pre-combining matrix corresponding to the user-end RF link with the second preset order (i.e., the second type of second RF link) is 1×2 (i.e., one row and two columns), and the dimension of the second type of pre-combining matrix corresponding to the user-end RF link with the third preset order (i.e., the third type of second RF link) is 1×3 (i.e., one row and three columns). When determining the fine beam with the highest spectral efficiency (i.e., the target fine beam) corresponding to a user-end RF link that is not the first in the order (i.e., other second-type RF links), the (second-type) pre-combining matrix used is generated jointly based on the target fine beam of the previous user-end RF link and each fine beam traversed at the moment. For example, the (second-type) pre-combining matrix corresponding to the second user-end RF link is a 1×2 matrix, meaning it contains two elements. The first element of this matrix is ​​the codeword of the target fine beam corresponding to the first user-end RF link, and the second element is determined by traversing the set of fine beam codewords. Each codeword in the set of fine beam codewords is combined with the codeword of the target fine beam corresponding to the first user-end RF link to generate a (second-type) pre-combining matrix. Each generated (second-type) pre-combining matrix is ​​then substituted into the above formula for determining the spectral efficiency (SE) for calculation. When the calculated spectral efficiency (SE) is the maximum, the fine beam indicated by the second element (the codeword of the fine beam) in the (second-type) pre-combining matrix corresponding to the maximum spectral efficiency (SE) is determined as the target fine beam corresponding to the second user-end RF link. When determining the target fine beam for the second user-end RF link, in determining the spectral efficiency (SE) of each fine beam, one element of the (type II) pre-combining matrix used to determine the spectral efficiency (SE) is fixed to the codeword in the target fine beam corresponding to the first user-end RF link, while the other element is obtained by traversing the set of fine beam codewords. When the (type II) pre-combining matrix composed of the codeword in the target fine beam corresponding to the first user-end RF link and a codeword from the set of fine beam codewords maximizes the spectral efficiency (SE), the fine beam indicated by the codeword in the set of fine beam codewords is determined as the target fine beam of the second user-end RF link.The target fine beams corresponding to other second-type radio frequency links are all determined by the method in this embodiment.

[0081] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the results of the comparative experiment, such as... Figure 6 As shown, when applying the beam search method (traversal search) provided in the embodiments of this application and a related technology to search for optimal performance (i.e., highest spectral efficiency) in the following example transceiver structure (i.e., communication system), the example transceiver structure (i.e., communication system) is as follows: the base station deploys 128 antennas, the user terminal deploys 32 antennas, the system architecture is partially connected, and both the base station and the user use 2 RF links. On the base station side, one coarse beam contains 8 fine beams, and on the user side, one coarse beam contains 4 fine beams. Since each RF link on the base station side connects 64 antennas and has 8 coarse beams, and each RF link on the user side connects 16 antennas and has 4 fine beams, the number of searches for the traversal search is 64. 2 ×16 2 = 1,048,576 times; the beam search count of the method provided in this application embodiment is 8+4+8. 2 +4 2 =92 times, reducing the number of beam searches by 99.99% and shortening the beam search time, allowing the optimal beam between the base station and the user to be found more quickly, ensuring the user maintains high-speed transmission at all times, thereby improving the user experience. Figure 6 As shown, while reducing beam search complexity by 99.99%, it can still approach optimal system performance (when searching for beams with the same spectral efficiency, the curve corresponding to the scheme provided in this application has a higher signal-to-noise ratio, and the higher the signal-to-noise ratio, the lower the beam search complexity).

[0082] The sequence numbers of the embodiments in this application are for descriptive purposes only and do not represent the superiority or inferiority of the embodiments.

[0083] In the above embodiments of this application, the descriptions of each embodiment have different focuses. For parts not described in detail in a certain embodiment, please refer to the relevant descriptions of other embodiments.

[0084] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed technical content can be implemented in other ways. The device embodiments described above are merely illustrative; for example, the division of units can be a logical functional division, and in actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For instance, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or not executed. Furthermore, the displayed or discussed mutual coupling, direct coupling, or communication connection may be through some interfaces; the indirect coupling or communication connection between units or modules may be electrical or other forms.

[0085] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate. The components shown as units may or may not be physical units; that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple units. Some or all of the units can be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs.

[0086] Furthermore, the functional units in the various embodiments of this application can be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit can exist physically separately, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be implemented in hardware or as a software functional unit.

[0087] If the integrated unit is implemented as a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of this application, in essence, or the part that contributes to related technologies, or all or part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of this application. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program code, such as USB flash drives, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), portable hard drives, magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0088] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of this application. It should be noted that for those skilled in the art, several improvements and modifications can be made without departing from the principle of this application, and these improvements and modifications should also be considered within the scope of protection of this application.

Claims

1. A method for determining a communication beam, characterized in that, include: The comprehensive score value of each coarse beam to be transmitted is determined based on the communication rate of the coarse beam and the user density corresponding to the coarse beam, wherein the comprehensive score value is used to indicate the communication efficiency of the coarse beam. Based on the comprehensive score, a target coarse beam is determined among multiple coarse beams to be transmitted, and a first set of fine beams is determined within the first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam, wherein the second signal coverage area of ​​each fine beam in the first set of fine beams is within the first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam. Determining a second set of fine beams for communication with a user terminal from the first set of fine beams includes: sequentially determining a target fine beam corresponding to each first type of radio frequency link in the first set of fine beams according to a preset order, wherein, for the first first type of radio frequency link, the spectral efficiency of each fine beam is determined based on the number of first type of radio frequency links, the first type of precoding matrix, and the communication information of the user terminal; determining the target fine beam based on the spectral efficiency of the fine beam, wherein the first type of radio frequency link is a base station radio frequency link; For all first-type RF links except the first one, a second-type precoding matrix is ​​determined for each fine beam based on the target fine beam corresponding to the previous first-type RF link and the codeword of each fine beam. The spectral efficiency of each fine beam is determined based on the number of first-type RF links, the second-type precoding matrix, and the communication information of the user terminal. The target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value is determined as the target fine beam for each of the other first-type RF links. The first-type precoding matrix has one row and one column, the second-type precoding matrix has one row, and the number of columns is consistent with the order of the first-type RF links in the preset sequence. The number of target fine beams in the second fine beam set is less than the number of fine beams in the first fine beam set.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The comprehensive score value for each coarse beam to be transmitted is determined based on the communication rate of the coarse beam and the user density corresponding to the coarse beam, including: A communication score value for each coarse beam is determined based on the communication rate, and a user score value for each coarse beam is determined based on the user density, wherein the communication score value is positively correlated with the communication rate, and the user score value is negatively correlated with the user density; For each of the coarse beams, the comprehensive score is determined based on the communication score and the user score.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, Determining the communication score for each coarse beam based on the communication rate includes: The multiple coarse beams to be transmitted are ranked according to the communication rate to obtain a first-class ranking number for each coarse beam, wherein the first-class ranking number is a positive integer and is positively correlated with the communication rate. The communication rate score of each coarse beam is determined according to the first type of ranking number, wherein the communication rate score is positively correlated with the value of the first type of ranking number, the communication rate score corresponding to the first type of ranking number with the smallest value is a first preset value, the difference between the two communication rate scores corresponding to two adjacent first type of ranking numbers is a second preset value, and the second preset value is less than the first preset value.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that, Determining a user rating value for each coarse beam based on the user density includes: The multiple coarse beams to be transmitted are ranked according to the user density to obtain a second-class ranking number for each coarse beam, wherein the second-class ranking number is a positive integer and is negatively correlated with the user density; The user rating value for each coarse beam is determined based on the second type of ranking number, wherein the user rating value corresponding to the second type of ranking number with the smallest value is the first preset value, and the difference between the two user rating values ​​corresponding to two adjacent second type of ranking numbers is the second preset value.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, Determining a second set of fine beams from the first set of fine beams for communication with the user terminal includes: Determine the number of first-type radio frequency links used for communication with the user terminal; According to a preset order, the target fine beam corresponding to each first type of RF link is determined sequentially in the first fine beam set, wherein the target fine beam corresponding to the next first type of RF link is determined based on the target fine beam corresponding to the previous first type of RF link; The set of multiple target fine beams corresponding to multiple first-type radio frequency links is determined as the second fine beam set.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that, According to a preset order, the target fine beam corresponding to each type of RF link in the first fine beam set is determined sequentially, and the method further includes: For the first type of RF link, obtain the set of fine beam codewords corresponding to the target coarse beam, wherein the set of fine beam codewords contains the codewords for each fine beam in the first set of fine beams, and the codewords are used to represent the amplitude and phase of the fine beam; A first type of precoding matrix is ​​determined for each of the thin beams based on the codeword of each thin beam, wherein the first type of precoding matrix is ​​used to encode the signal to be transmitted; The communication information of the user terminal is obtained, wherein the communication information includes at least: a pre-combining matrix for processing signals transmitted by the base station, and the number of second-type radio frequency links of the user terminal; The spectral efficiency of each fine beam is determined based on the number of the first type of radio frequency links, the first type of precoding matrix, and the communication information of the user terminal. The target fine beam corresponding to the highest spectral efficiency value is determined as the first target fine beam corresponding to the first type of radio frequency link.

7. A method for determining a communication beam, characterized in that, include: The base station receives beam information, wherein the beam information includes at least one target coarse beam. The target coarse beam is determined by the base station from multiple coarse beams to be transmitted based on the comprehensive score value of each coarse beam. The comprehensive score value of each coarse beam is determined based on the communication rate of the coarse beam and the user density corresponding to the coarse beam. The comprehensive score value is used to indicate the communication efficiency of the coarse beam. A first set of fine beams is determined within the first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam, wherein the second signal coverage area of ​​each fine beam in the first set of fine beams is within the first signal coverage area of ​​the target coarse beam; Determining a second set of fine beams for communication with the base station from the first set of fine beams includes: sequentially determining a target fine beam corresponding to each second type of radio frequency link in the first set of fine beams according to a preset order, including: for the first second type of radio frequency link, determining the spectral efficiency of each fine beam based on the number of second type of radio frequency links, the first type of pre-combining matrix, and the communication information at the base station; determining the target fine beam based on the spectral efficiency of the fine beam, wherein the second type of radio frequency link is a radio frequency link at the user end; For all second-type radio frequency links except the first one, a second-type pre-combining matrix is ​​determined based on the target fine beam corresponding to the previous second-type radio frequency link and the codeword of each fine beam. The spectral efficiency of each fine beam is determined based on the number of second-type radio frequency links, the second-type pre-combining matrix, and the communication information of the base station. The target fine beam corresponding to the spectral efficiency with the largest value is determined as the target fine beam for each of the other second-type radio frequency links. The first-type pre-combining matrix has 1 row and 1 column, the second-type pre-combining matrix has 1 row, and the number of columns is consistent with the order of the second-type radio frequency links in the preset order. The number of target fine beams in the second fine beam set is less than the number of fine beams in the first fine beam set.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that, Determining a second set of fine beams from the first set of fine beams for communication with the base station includes: Determine the number of second-type radio frequency links used for communication with the base station; According to a preset order, the target fine beam corresponding to each second type of radio frequency link is determined sequentially in the first fine beam set, wherein the target fine beam corresponding to the next second type of radio frequency link is determined based on the target fine beam corresponding to the previous second type of radio frequency link; The set of multiple target fine beams corresponding to multiple second-type radio frequency links is defined as the second fine beam set.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that, According to a preset order, the target fine beam corresponding to each second type of RF link is determined sequentially in the first fine beam set, including: For the first second type of RF link, obtain the set of fine beam codewords corresponding to the target coarse beam, wherein the set of fine beam codewords contains the codewords of each fine beam in the first set of fine beams, and the codewords are used to represent the amplitude and phase of the fine beam; A first type of pre-combining matrix is ​​determined for each of the thin beams based on the codeword of each thin beam, wherein the first type of pre-combining matrix is ​​used to process the received signal; The communication information of the base station is obtained, wherein the communication information includes at least: a precoding matrix for encoding the signal to be transmitted by the base station, an average signal transmission power, and the number of first-type radio frequency links of the base station; The spectral efficiency of each fine beam is determined based on the number of second-type radio frequency links, the first-type pre-combining matrix, and the communication information of the base station. The target fine beam corresponding to the highest spectral efficiency value is determined as the first target fine beam corresponding to the second type of radio frequency link.

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