Method and apparatus for a beam utilization with an assistance component in a wireless communication system

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate. The disclosure provides a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: determining, based on a position of an antenna panel of the base station and a position of an antenna panel of a communication assistance component, first control information for adjusting electromagnetic parameters of a plurality of array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component; and sending signaling to the communication assistance component, the signaling comprising the first control information.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A BEAM UTILIZATION WITH AN ASSISTANCE COMPONENT IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

[0001] The following description relates to a base station system, a base station, a communication assistance component, and methods performed by the base station and the communication assistance component.

[0002] 5G mobile communication technologies define broad frequency bands such that high transmission rates and new services are possible, and can be implemented not only in "Sub 6GHz" bands such as 3.5GHz, but also in "Above 6GHz" bands referred to as mmWave including 28GHz and 39GHz. In addition, it has been considered to implement 6G mobile communication technologies (referred to as Beyond 5G systems) in terahertz bands (for example, 95GHz to 3THz bands) in order to accomplish transmission rates fifty times faster than 5G mobile communication technologies and ultra-low latencies one-tenth of 5G mobile communication technologies.

[0003] At the beginning of the development of 5G mobile communication technologies, in order to support services and to satisfy performance requirements in connection with enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), and massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), there has been ongoing standardization regarding beamforming and massive MIMO for mitigating radio-wave path loss and increasing radio-wave transmission distances in mmWave, supporting numerologies (for example, operating multiple subcarrier spacings) for efficiently utilizing mmWave resources and dynamic operation of slot formats, initial access technologies for supporting multi-beam transmission and broadbands, definition and operation of BWP (BandWidth Part), new channel coding methods such as a LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code for large amount of data transmission and a polar code for highly reliable transmission of control information, L2 pre-processing, and network slicing for providing a dedicated network specialized to a specific service.

[0004] Currently, there are ongoing discussions regarding improvement and performance enhancement of initial 5G mobile communication technologies in view of services to be supported by 5G mobile communication technologies, and there has been physical layer standardization regarding technologies such as V2X (Vehicle-to-everything) for aiding driving determination by autonomous vehicles based on information regarding positions and states of vehicles transmitted by the vehicles and for enhancing user convenience, NR-U (New Radio Unlicensed) aimed at system operations conforming to various regulation-related requirements in unlicensed bands, NR UE Power Saving, Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) which is UE-satellite direct communication for providing coverage in an area in which communication with terrestrial networks is unavailable, and positioning.

[0005] Moreover, there has been ongoing standardization in air interface architecture / protocol regarding technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for supporting new services through interworking and convergence with other industries, IAB (Integrated Access and Backhaul) for providing a node for network service area expansion by supporting a wireless backhaul link and an access link in an integrated manner, mobility enhancement including conditional handover and DAPS (Dual Active Protocol Stack) handover, and two-step random access for simplifying random access procedures (2-step RACH for NR). There also has been ongoing standardization in system architecture / service regarding a 5G baseline architecture (for example, service based architecture or service based interface) for combining Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) for receiving services based on UE positions.

[0006] As 5G mobile communication systems are commercialized, connected devices that have been exponentially increasing will be connected to communication networks, and it is accordingly expected that enhanced functions and performances of 5G mobile communication systems and integrated operations of connected devices will be necessary. To this end, new research is scheduled in connection with eXtended Reality (XR) for efficiently supporting AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), MR (Mixed Reality) and the like, 5G performance improvement and complexity reduction by utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), AI service support, metaverse service support, and drone communication.

[0007] Furthermore, such development of 5G mobile communication systems will serve as a basis for developing not only new waveforms for providing coverage in terahertz bands of 6G mobile communication technologies, multi-antenna transmission technologies such as Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas and large-scale antennas, metamaterial-based lenses and antennas for improving coverage of terahertz band signals, high-dimensional space multiplexing technology using OAM (Orbital Angular Momentum), and RIS (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface), but also full-duplex technology for increasing frequency efficiency of 6G mobile communication technologies and improving system networks, AI-based communication technology for implementing system optimization by utilizing satellites and AI (Artificial Intelligence) from the design stage and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions, and next-generation distributed computing technology for implementing services at levels of complexity exceeding the limit of UE operation capability by utilizing ultra-high-performance communication and computing resources.

[0008] 5th generation (5G) or new radio (NR) mobile communications is recently gathering increased momentum with all the worldwide technical activities on the various candidate technologies from industry and academia. The candidate enablers for the 5G / NR mobile communications include massive antenna technologies, from legacy cellular frequency bands up to high frequencies, to provide beamforming gain and support increased capacity, new waveform (e.g., a new radio access technology (RAT)) to flexibly accommodate various services / applications with different requirements, new multiple access schemes to support massive connections, and so on.

[0009] Considering the development of wireless communication from generation to generation, the technologies have been developed mainly for services targeting humans, such as voice calls, multimedia services, and data services. Following the commercialization of 5th-generation (5G) communication systems, it is expected that the number of connected devices will exponentially grow. Increasingly, these will be connected to communication networks. Examples of connected things may include vehicles, robots, drones, home appliances, displays, smart sensors connected to various infrastructures, construction machines, and factory equipment. Mobile devices are expected to evolve in various form-factors, such as augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets, and hologram devices. In order to provide various services by connecting hundreds of billions of devices and things in the 6th-generation (6G) era, there have been ongoing efforts to develop improved 6G communication systems. For these reasons, 6G communication systems are referred to as beyond-5G systems.

[0010] 6G communication systems, which are expected to be commercialized around 2030, will have a peak data rate of tera (1,000 giga)-level bps and a radio latency less than 100μsec, and thus will be 50 times as fast as 5G communication systems and have the 1 / 10 radio latency thereof.

[0011] In order to accomplish such a high data rate and an ultra-low latency, it has been considered to implement 6G communication systems in a terahertz band (for example, 95GHz to 3THz bands). It is expected that, due to severer path loss and atmospheric absorption in the terahertz bands than those in mmWave bands introduced in 5G, technologies capable of securing the signal transmission distance (that is, coverage) will become more crucial. It is necessary to develop, as major technologies for securing the coverage, radio frequency (RF) elements, antennas, novel waveforms having a better coverage than orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), beamforming and massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO), full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas, and multiantenna transmission technologies such as large-scale antennas. In addition, there has been ongoing discussion on new technologies for improving the coverage of terahertz-band signals, such as metamaterial-based lenses and antennas, orbital angular momentum (OAM), and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS).

[0012] Moreover, in order to improve the spectral efficiency and the overall network performances, the following technologies have been developed for 6G communication systems: a full-duplex technology for enabling an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission to simultaneously use the same frequency resource at the same time; a network technology for utilizing satellites, high-altitude platform stations (HAPS), and the like in an integrated manner; an improved network structure for supporting mobile base stations and the like and enabling network operation optimization and automation and the like; a dynamic spectrum sharing technology via collision avoidance based on a prediction of spectrum usage; an use of artificial intelligence (AI) in wireless communication for improvement of overall network operation by utilizing AI from a designing phase for developing 6G and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions; and a next-generation distributed computing technology for overcoming the limit of user equipment (UE) computing ability through reachable super-high-performance communication and computing resources (such as mobile edge computing (MEC), clouds, and the like) over the network. In addition, through designing new protocols to be used in 6G communication systems, developing mechanisms for implementing a hardware-based security environment and safe use of data, and developing technologies for maintaining privacy, attempts to strengthen the connectivity between devices, optimize the network, promote softwarization of network entities, and increase the openness of wireless communications are continuing.

[0013] It is expected that research and development of 6G communication systems in hyper-connectivity, including person to machine (P2M) as well as machine to machine (M2M), will allow the next hyper-connected experience. Particularly, it is expected that services such as truly immersive extended reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram, and digital replica could be provided through 6G communication systems. In addition, services such as remote surgery for security and reliability enhancement, industrial automation, and emergency response will be provided through the 6G communication system such that the technologies could be applied in various fields such as industry, medical care, automobiles, and home appliances.

[0014] In line with development of the communication systems, there is a need for a beam utilization with an assistance component. The technical subjects pursued in the disclosure may not be limited to the above mentioned technical subjects, and other technical subjects which are not mentioned may be clearly understood, through the following descriptions, by those skilled in the art to which the disclosure pertains.

[0015] A base station system, a base station, a communication assistance component, and methods performed by the base station and the communication assistance component are provided. The method performed by the base station comprises: determining, based on a position of an antenna panel of the base station and a position of an antenna panel of the communication assistance component, first control information for adjusting electromagnetic parameters of a plurality of array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component; and sending signaling to the communication assistance component, the signaling comprising the first control information.

[0016] The present disclosure provides a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system. The method comprises: determining, based on a position of an antenna panel of the base station and a position of an antenna panel of a communication assistance component, first control information for adjusting electromagnetic parameters of a plurality of array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component; and sending signaling to the communication assistance component, the signaling comprising the first control information.

[0017] In an embodiment, the method further comprises: generating the first control information for adjusting the electromagnetic parameters of the plurality of array units, based on the position of the antenna panel of the base station and the position of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component and according to a first beam and a second beam. Here, the first beam is a beam emitted by the base station, and the second beam is a beam emitted by the communication assistance component.

[0018] In an embodiment, the second beam is determined based on a position of the base station and a position of a first node.

[0019] In an embodiment, the first node refers to a node that receives the first beam, a node that does not expect to receive the first beam, or a node that expects to receive the second beam.

[0020] In an embodiment, the first node refers to the node that receives the first beam, the first beam comprises a main-lobe beam and a side-lobe beam corresponding to the main-lobe beam, the first node receives the main-lobe beam, and the communication assistance component emits the second beam based on the side-lobe beam. The method further comprises: determining the first control information based on the position of the base station and the position of the first node, the first control information being used to configure the communication assistance component to emit the second beam to the first node.

[0021] In an embodiment, the first node refers to the node that does not expect to receive the first beam. The method further comprises: determining the first control information based on the position of the base station and the position of the first node, the first control information being used to configure the communication assistance component to emit the second beam in a direction not pointing to the first node.

[0022] In an embodiment, the first node refers to the node that expects to receive the second beam. The method further comprises: determining the first control information based on the position of the base station and the position of the first node, the first control information being used to configure the communication assistance component to focus and narrow the first beam and adjust a direction of the first beam to point to the first node to form the second beam.

[0023] In an embodiment, the method further comprises: receiving indication information related to power of the second beam from the first node, and determining the first control information based on the position of the base station, the position of the first node and the indication information.

[0024] In an embodiment, the first node refers to the node that expects to receive the second beam, and the node that expects to receive the second beam refers to a node in communication with an adjacent base station. The method further comprises: receiving the position of the first node from the adjacent base station; and determining the first control information based on the position of the base station and the position of the first node, the first control information being used to configure the communication assistance component to emit the second beam to the first node.

[0025] In an embodiment, the electromagnetic parameters comprise at least one of an amplitude, a phase or a polarization direction.

[0026] In an embodiment, the position of the antenna panel of the base station and the position of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component comprise: a physical position, a height and / or a tilt angle.

[0027] In an embodiment, the method further comprises: determining an adjustment approach of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component, the adjustment approach comprising: adjusting the electromagnetic parameters and adjusting both of the electromagnetic parameters and a pose; and generating, when the determined adjustment approach refers to adjusting both of the electromagnetic parameters and the pose, second control information for adjusting a pose of the communication assistance component, wherein the signaling further comprises the second control information.

[0028] In an embodiment, determining the first control information comprises: transmitting a plurality of beams to the first node, and sending at least one beam and control information corresponding to the at least one beam to the communication assistance component, wherein the control information corresponding to the at least one beam is different from each other; and determining the first control information according to a feedback of the first node.

[0029] The present disclosure further provides a method performed by a communication assistance component in a wireless communication system. The method comprises: receiving signaling, wherein the signaling comprises first control information for adjusting electromagnetic parameters of a plurality of array units of an antenna panel of the communication assistance component; and adjusting the electromagnetic parameters of the plurality of array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component based on the first control information.

[0030] In an embodiment, the first control information is generated based on a position of an antenna panel of a base station and a position of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component and according to a first beam and a second beam, wherein, the first beam is a beam emitted by the base station, and the second beam is a beam emitted by the communication assistance component.

[0031] In an embodiment, the second beam is determined based on a position of the base station and a position of a first node.

[0032] In an embodiment, the first node comprises a node that receives the first beam, a node that does not expect to receive the first beam, or a node that expects to receive the second beam.

[0033] In an embodiment, the first node refers to the node that receives the first beam, the first beam comprises a main-lobe beam and a side-lobe beam corresponding to the main-lobe beam, the first node receives the main-lobe beam, and the communication assistance component emits the second beam based on the side-lobe beam; and the method further comprises: emitting the second beam to the first node based on the first control information.

[0034] In an embodiment, the first node refers to the node that does not expect to receive the first beam, and the method further comprises: emitting the second beam in a direction not pointing to the first node based on the first control information.

[0035] In an embodiment, the first node refers to the node that expects to receive the second beam, and the method further comprises: focusing and narrowing the first beam and adjusting a direction of the first beam to point to the first node to form the second beam, based on the first control information.

[0036] In an embodiment, the first control information is determined based on the position of the base station, the position of the first node and indication information, wherein, the indication information is received from the first node and related to power of the second beam.

[0037] In an embodiment, the first node refers to the node that expects to receive the second beam, and the node that expects to receive the second beam refers to a node in communication with an adjacent base station, and the method further comprises: emitting the second beam to the first node based on the first control information.

[0038] In an embodiment, the electromagnetic parameters comprise at least one of an amplitude, a phase or a polarization direction.

[0039] In an embodiment, the position of the antenna panel of the base station and the position of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component comprise: a physical position, a height and / or a tilt angle.

[0040] In an embodiment, the signaling further comprises second control information, and the second control information is used for adjusting a pose of the communication assistance component.

[0041] In an embodiment, the first control information is determined by: transmitting a plurality of beams to the first node, and sending at least one beam and control information corresponding to the at least one beam to the communication assistance component, wherein the control information corresponding to the at least one beam is different from each other; and determining the first control information according to a feedback of the first node.

[0042] The present disclosure further provides a base station. The base station comprises a transceiver and a controller, and the controller is configured to perform the above method performed by the base station.

[0043] The present disclosure further provides a communication assistance component. The communication assistance component comprises an antenna panel and a controller, and the controller is configured to perform the above method performed by the communication assistance component.

[0044] The present disclosure further provides a base station system. The base station system comprises a base station and a communication assistance component. Here, the base station is configured to perform the above method performed by the base station, and the communication assistance component is configured to perform the above method performed by the communication assistance component.

[0045] The present disclosure provides an effective and efficient method for a beam utilization with an assistance component. Advantageous effects obtainable from the disclosure may not be limited to the above mentioned effects, and other effects which are not mentioned may be clearly understood, through the following descriptions, by those skilled in the art to which the disclosure pertains.

[0046] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary wireless network according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0047] FIG. 2 shows an exemplary base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0048] FIG. 3 shows an exemplary user equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0049] FIG. 4 shows a schematic structural diagram of a base station system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0050] FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of a base station system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0051] FIGS. 6-11 show schematic diagrams of a communication assistance component according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0052] FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of a method performed by a base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0053] FIG. 13 shows a flowchart of a method performed by a communication assistance component according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0054] FIGS. 14A and 14B show schematic diagrams of a method of calculating phase compensation information of an input beam according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0055] FIGS. 15 and 16 show schematic diagrams of a method of calculating phase compensation information of an output beam according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0056] FIG. 17 shows a relationship curve between a drive voltage and an output phase of an adjustable structure according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0057] FIG. 18 shows a flowchart of a method performed by a base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0058] FIGS. 19-23 show schematic operation diagrams of a base station system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0059] Throughout the accompanying drawings and the detailed description, the same reference numerals may denote the same or similar elements. The accompanying drawings may not be drawn to scale, and the relative sizes, proportions and depictions of the elements in the accompanying drawings may be exaggerated for clarity, illustration and convenience.

[0060] Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document. The term "couple" and its derivatives refer to any direct or indirect communication between two or more elements, whether those elements are in physical contact with one another. The terms "transmit," "receive," and "communicate," as well as derivatives thereof, encompass both direct and indirect communication. The terms "include" and "comprise," as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation. The term "or" is inclusive, meaning and / or. The phrase "associated with," as well as derivatives thereof, means to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, have a relationship to or with, or the like. The term "controller" means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation. Such a controller may be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and software and / or firmware. The functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. The phrase "at least one of," when used with a list of items, means that different combinations of one or more of the listed items may be used, and only one item in the list may be needed. For example, "at least one of: A, B, and C" includes any of the following combinations: A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, and A and B and C. Likewise, the term "set" means one or more. Accordingly, a set of items can be a single item or a collection of two or more items.

[0061] Moreover, various functions described below can be implemented or supported by one or more computer programs, each of which is formed from computer readable program code and embodied in a computer readable medium. The terms "application" and "program" refer to one or more computer programs, software components, sets of instructions, procedures, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data, or a portion thereof adapted for implementation in a suitable computer readable program code. The phrase "computer readable program code" includes any type of computer code, including source code, object code, and executable code. The phrase "computer readable medium" includes any type of medium capable of being accessed by a computer, such as read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), a hard disk drive, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disc (DVD), or any other type of memory. A "non-transitory" computer readable medium excludes wired, wireless, optical, or other communication links that transport transitory electrical or other signals. A non-transitory computer readable medium includes media where data can be permanently stored and media where data can be stored and later overwritten, such as a rewritable optical disc or an erasable memory device.

[0062] Definitions for other certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document. Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.

[0063] The figures included herein, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present disclosure are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way to limit the scope of the disclosure. Further, those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged wireless communication system.

[0064] FIGS. 1-3 below describe various embodiments of the present disclosure implemented in wireless communications systems. The descriptions of FIGS. 1-3 are not meant to imply physical or architectural limitations to the manner in which different embodiments may be implemented. Different embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably-arranged communications system.

[0065] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network shown in FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the wireless network 100 could be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0066] As shown in FIG. 1, the wireless network includes a base station (next generation nodeB, gNB or gNodeB) 101, a gNB 102, and a gNB 103. The gNB 101 communicates with the gNB 102 and the gNB 103. The gNB 101 also communicates with at least one network 130, such as the Internet, a proprietary Internet Protocol (IP) network, or other data network.

[0067] The gNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a first plurality of user equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 of the gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs includes a UE 111, which may be located in a small business; a UE 112, which may be located in an enterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi hotspot (HS); a UE 114, which may be located in a first residence (R1); a UE 115, which may be located in a second residence (R2); and a UE 116, which may be a mobile device (M), such as a cell phone, a wireless laptop, a wireless personal digital assistant (PDA), or the like. The gNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage area 125 of the gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs includes the UE 115 and the UE 116, as well as subscriber stations (SS, for example, UEs) 117, 118 and 119. In some embodiments, one or more of the gNBs 101-103 may communicate with each other and with the UEs 111-116 using existing wireless communication techniques, and one or more of the UE 111-119 may communicate directly with each other (e.g., UEs 117-119) using other existing or proposed wireless communication techniques.

[0068] Depending on the network type, the term "base station" or "BS" can refer to any component (or collection of components) configured to provide wireless access to a network, such as transmit point (TP), transmit-receive point (TRP), an enhanced (or "evolved") base station (eNodeB or eNB), a 5G base station (gNB), a macrocell, a femtocell, a wireless fidelity (WiFi) access point (AP), or other wirelessly enabled devices. Base stations may provide wireless access in accordance with one or more wireless communication protocols, e.g., 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Advanced (LTE-A), high speed packet access (HSPA), Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac, etc. For the sake of convenience, the various names for a base station-type apparatus and functionality are used interchangeably in this patent document to refer to network infrastructure components that provide wireless access to remote terminals. Also, depending on the network type, the term "user equipment" (UE) can refer to any component such as a mobile station (MS), subscriber station (SS), remote terminal, wireless terminal, receive point, or user device. For the sake of convenience, the various names for a user equipment-type device and functionality are used interchangeably in this patent document to refer to remote wireless equipment that wirelessly accesses a BS, whether the UE is a mobile device (such as a mobile telephone or smartphone) or is normally considered a stationary device (such as a desktop computer or vending machine).

[0069] Dotted lines show the approximate extents of the coverage areas 120 and 125, which are shown as approximately circular for the purposes of illustration and explanation only. It should be clearly understood that the coverage areas associated with gNBs, such as the coverage areas 120 and 125, may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, depending upon the configuration of the gNBs and variations in the radio environment associated with natural and man-made obstructions.

[0070] As described in more detail below, one or more of the UEs 111-119 include circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof. In certain embodiments, and one or more of the gNBs 101-103 includes circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof.

[0071] Although FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a wireless network, various changes may be made to FIG. 1. For example, the wireless network could include any number of gNBs and any number of UEs in any suitable arrangement. Also, the gNB 101 could communicate directly with any number of UEs and provide those UEs with wireless broadband access to the network 130. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 could communicate directly with the network 130 and provide UEs with direct wireless broadband access to the network 130. Further, the gNBs 101, 102, and / or 103 could provide access to other or additional external networks, such as external telephone networks or other types of data networks.

[0072] FIG. 2 illustrates an example base station according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the gNB 102 illustrated in FIG. 2 is for illustration only, and the gNBs 101 and 103 of FIG. 1 could have the same or similar configuration. However, gNBs come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 2 does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any particular implementation of a gNB.

[0073] As shown in FIG 2, the gNB 102 includes multiple antennas 200a-200n, multiple radio frequency (RF) transceivers 201a-201n, transmit (TX) processing circuitry 203, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 204. The gNB 102 also includes a controller / processor 205, a memory 206, and a backhaul or network interface 207.

[0074] The RF transceivers 201a-201n receive, from the antennas 200a-200n, incoming RF signals, such as signals transmitted by UEs in the network 100. The RF transceivers 201a-201n down-convert the incoming RF signals to generate intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband signals. The IF or baseband signals are sent to the RX processing circuitry 204, which generates processed baseband signals by filtering, decoding, and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signals. The RX processing circuitry 204 transmits the processed baseband signals to the controller / processor 205 for further processing.

[0075] The TX processing circuitry 203 receives analog or digital data (such as voice data, web data, electronic mail, or interactive video game data) from the controller / processor 205. The TX processing circuitry 203 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate processed baseband or IF signals. The RF transceivers 201a-201n receive the outgoing processed baseband or IF signals from the TX processing circuitry 203 and up-converts the baseband or IF signals to RF signals that are transmitted via the antennas 201a-201n.

[0076] The controller / processor 205 can include one or more processors or other processing devices that control the overall operation of the gNB 102. For example, the controller / processor 205 could control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceivers 201a-201n, the RX processing circuitry 204, and the TX processing circuitry 203 in accordance with well-known principles. The controller / processor 205 could support additional functions as well, such as more advanced wireless communication functions.

[0077] For instance, the controller / processor 205 could support beam forming or directional routing operations in which outgoing signals from multiple antennas 200a-200n are weighted differently to effectively steer the outgoing signals in a desired direction. Any of a wide variety of other functions could be supported in the gNB 102 by the controller / processor 205.

[0078] The controller / processor 205 is also capable of executing programs and other processes resident in the memory 206, such as an operating system (OS). The controller / processor 205 can move data into or out of the memory 206 as required by an executing process.

[0079] The controller / processor 205 is also coupled to the backhaul or network interface 207. The backhaul or network interface 207 allows the gNB 102 to communicate with other devices or systems over a backhaul connection or over a network. The interface 207 could support communications over any suitable wired or wireless connection(s). For example, when the gNB 102 is implemented as part of a cellular communication system (such as one supporting 5G, LTE, or LTE-A), the interface 207 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate with other gNBs over a wired or wireless backhaul connection. When the gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, the interface 207 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate over a wired or wireless local area network or over a wired or wireless connection to a larger network (such as the Internet). The interface 207 includes any suitable structure supporting communications over a wired or wireless connection, such as an Ethernet or RF transceiver.

[0080] The memory 206 is coupled to the controller / processor 205. Part of the memory 206 could include a random access memory (RAM), and another part of the memory 206 could include a Flash memory or other read only memory (ROM).

[0081] Although FIG. 2 illustrates one example of gNB 102, various changes may be made to FIG. 2. For example, the gNB 102 could include any number of each component shown in FIG. 2. As a particular example, an access point could include a number of interfaces 207, and the controller / processor 205 could support routing functions to route data between different network addresses. As another particular example, while shown as including a single instance of TX processing circuitry 203 and a single instance of RX processing circuitry 204, the gNB 102 could include multiple instances of each (such as one per RF transceiver). Also, various components in FIG. 2 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components could be added according to particular needs.

[0082] FIG. 3 illustrates an example user equipment according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the UE 116 illustrated in FIG. 3 is for illustration only, and the UEs 111-115 and 117-119 of FIG. 1 could have the same or similar configuration. However, UEs come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 3 does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any particular implementation of a UE.

[0083] As shown in FIG. 3, the UE 116 includes an antenna 301, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 302, TX processing circuitry 303, a microphone 304, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 305. The UE 116 also includes a speaker 306, a controller or processor 307, an input / output (I / O) interface (IF) 308, an input device 309, a touchscreen display 310, and a memory 311. The memory 311 includes an OS 312 and one or more applications 313.

[0084] The RF transceiver 302 receives, from the antenna 301, an incoming RF signal transmitted by a gNB of the network 100. The RF transceiver 302 down-converts the incoming RF signal to generate an IF or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is sent to the RX processing circuitry 305, which generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding, and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. The RX processing circuitry 305 transmits the processed baseband signal to the speaker 306 (such as for voice data) or to the processor 307 for further processing (such as for web browsing data).

[0085] The TX processing circuitry 303 receives analog or digital voice data from the microphone 304 or other outgoing baseband data (such as web data, e-mail, or interactive video game data) from the processor 307. The TX processing circuitry 303 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. The RF transceiver 302 receives the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from the TX processing circuitry 303 and up-converts the baseband or IF signal to an RF signal that is transmitted via the antenna 301.

[0086] The processor 307 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute the OS 312 stored in the memory 311 in order to control the overall operation of the UE 116. For example, the processor 307 could control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceiver 302, the RX processing circuitry 305, and the TX processing circuitry 303 in accordance with well-known principles. In some embodiments, the processor 307 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0087] The processor 307 is also capable of executing other processes and programs resident in the memory 311, such as processes for channel state information (CSI) reporting on uplink channel. The processor 307 can move data into or out of the memory 311 as required by an executing process. In some embodiments, the processor 307 is configured to execute the applications 313 based on the OS 312 or in response to signals received from gNBs or an operator. The processor 307 is also coupled to the I / O interface 308, which provides the UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices, such as laptop computers and handheld computers. The I / O interface 308 is the communication path between these accessories and the processor 307.

[0088] The processor 307 is also coupled to the touchscreen display 310. The user of the UE 116 can use the touchscreen display 310 to enter data into the UE 116. The touchscreen display 310 may be a liquid crystal display, light emitting diode display, or other display capable of rendering text and / or at least limited graphics, such as from web sites.

[0089] The memory 311 is coupled to the processor 307. Part of the memory 311 could include RAM, and another part of the memory 311 could include a Flash memory or other ROM.

[0090] Although FIG. 3 illustrates one example of UE 116, various changes may be made to FIG. 3. For example, various components in FIG. 3 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components could be added according to particular needs. As a particular example, the processor 307 could be divided into multiple processors, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processing units (GPUs). Also, while FIG. 3 illustrates the UE 116 configured as a mobile telephone or smartphone, UEs could be configured to operate as other types of mobile or stationary devices.

[0091] With the rapid development of mobile communication technologies, higher requirements are proposed for the transmission rate of the network. During the deployment and development of 5G / 6G technology, the advantages of the large bandwidth and high rate of high frequency communication are obvious, but the problems such as a close transmission distance, large power consumption and high cost are exposed, especially in the high frequency bands such as a millimeter wave and THz. The large-scale application of the high frequency communication is limited to a certain extent. At present, only a few countries can provide services in corresponding frequency bands.

[0092] The transmission distance of a signal is inversely proportional to the operating frequency thereof. When the transmission power of the base station is the same, the transmission distances are the same, and the higher the frequency band is, the weaker the strength of the received signal is. The materials such as walls and trees make the attenuation of signals generated at high frequencies more severe, resulting in more signal blind areas. In order to satisfy the complete cell coverage of high-frequency signals, the transmission power of the base station can be increased or the construction density of base stations can be increased, but the resulting equipment cost and energy consumption will be greatly increased, which becomes a major obstacle to large-scale commercialization.

[0093] A reconfigurable intelligent antenna technology (reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), which may also be referred to as an intelligent antenna, intelligent super surface or an intelligent reflector antenna), as an approximate passive device (without a high-power device such as a power amplifier), changes the electromagnetic parameter of a unit by adjusting a loaded parameter, to change the direction of propagation of a beam. The main power consumption is caused by the power consumption (generally <2W) for loading parameter adjusting system, and thus, the RIS can be deployed on a large scale as an assistance device with low cost and low energy consumption, providing a plurality of paths for the transmission of the signal. A large-scale RIS antenna array can focus energy to narrow the width of the beam, increasing the gain of the signal, and thus can be used for long-distance transmission.

[0094] For the future application of wireless networks, in addition to enhancing the coverage and improving the capacity, the RIS can provide a virtual line-of-sight link, eliminate local coverage holes, serve cell-edge users, solve inter-cell co-channel interference, and the like, thereby implementing a reconfigurable intelligent wireless environment. According to the function mechanism of the RIS, the RIS can be divided into a transmission type, a reflection type, an absorption type and a hybrid type. Wireless signals are dynamically regulated according to a desired wireless function, for example, application such as ensuring the security of a communication network, reducing electromagnetic pollution, supporting a passive Internet of Things, enabling wireless energy transmission, and assisting in positioning perception.

[0095] Unlike the repeater in a 5G communication system, the RIS has little or no signal receiving and processing hardware in order to cater to the requirements of the system for low power consumption and low cost. In practical application, it is required to solve the problems such as how to realize the control information reception of the panel of the RIS and the power supply of the drive board. The RIS (with low power consumption) without a power amplifier only needs to supply power to the drive board. For the outdoor deployment, the requirement can be satisfied by adding a solar panel or a rechargeable battery. The transmission of a control signal can be realized by directly connecting the network cable to the base station side. During the communication with the RIS far from the base station, especially when the number of RISs in the cell is large, the deployment complexity of the scheme is high. For a hybrid RIS, a signal radio frequency receiving device and a signal processing module are added to the RIS for receiving a control instruction. However, the corresponding cost and system power consumption will increase. The cost and the power supply requirement of the outdoor large-scale deployment limit the application of this scheme.

[0096] For the above problems, the present disclosure provides a base station system including a communication assistance component and a base station, and the communication assistance component may be the above intelligent antenna. The base station system according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can realize a finer and more flexible beam adjustment.

[0097] The base station system in the present disclosure and the base station and communication assistance component included therein will be described below with reference to FIGS. 4-23.

[0098] FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a base station system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The base station system may include a base station 401 and a communication assistance component 402. The information transmission between the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402 may be realized through an information transmission structure 403. Moreover, alternatively, there may be a physical connection structure 404 between the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402. Here, the base station 401 may emit a first beam, and the first beam may be emitted to a user terminal or the communication assistance component 402, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In addition, the base station 401 may further emit signaling (hereinafter also referred to as "configuration signaling") to the communication assistance component. The configuration signaling emitted by the base station 401 may include first control information, the first control information being used for adjusting electromagnetic parameters of a plurality of array units (each of which is composed of one or more antenna units and one or more adjustable structural units) of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component 402. The first control information may be codebook adjustment information, codebook indication information, or the like, but is not limited thereto. The communication assistance component 402 may receive the first beam and configuration signaling sent by the base station 401, and adjust the electromagnetic parameters of the plurality of array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component 402 based on the first control information. The number of communication assistance components 402 be one or more, and a plurality of communication assistance components 402 may be independently configured to serve different scenarios (e.g., serve different terminals, serve different beams of the base station), or may cooperate to form an equivalent large-array-surface and high-gain antenna. The signal transmission structure 403 between the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402 may transmit the configuration signaling of the base station 401 for the communication assistance component 402 by a wired means such as a cable or a network cable. The configuration signaling may further contain physical position adjustment information or physical position adjustment indication information (also referred to as "second control information") and / or codebook adjustment information or codebook indication information, and is used to adjust the direction of the beam forwarded by the assistance component and improve the energy efficiency of the beam forwarded. Alternatively, the data information received by the communication assistance component 402 may also be sent to the base station 401 (e.g., the communication structure of the base station 401) through the signal transmission structure 403, to be used for functions such as communicating with the terminal, perceiving, and positioning. The information transmission structures 403 may be respectively used for the transmission of signals of different frequency bands and different function modules. The base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402 may be connected and fixed through the physical connection structure 404.

[0099] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a base station system according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The base station system may be used in a wireless communication system, and may include a base station 401 and a communication assistance component 402. Here, an information transmission structure 403 used for the information transmission between the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402 may be composed of signal transmission structures respectively included in the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402. In addition, there may be a physical connection structure 404 between the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402. The base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402 may be wirelessly connected respectively through the signal transmission structure 403, to transmit identity information or identity indication information (e.g., cell IDs) of the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402 for establishing a wireless connection and sending specified information, the configuration signaling of the base station 401 for the communication assistance component 402, and the like. The configuration signaling may be used to adjust the direction of the beam forwarded by the communication assistance component 402. Alternatively, the data information received by the communication assistance component 402 may also be sent to the base station 401 through the information transmission structure 403 to be used for functions such as perceiving and positioning. There may be a plurality of groups of information transmission structures, which are respectively used for the transmission of signals of different frequency bands and different function modules.

[0100] The communication assistance component 402 may include a plurality of antenna units and adjustable structure units arranged according to a certain rule (e.g., the antenna units and the adjustable structure units may be respectively arranged according to equal periods in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, to form a rectangular unit array). The adjustment on the electromagnetic parameter of the output beam of the base station that is forwarded by the communication assistance component 402 is realized by adjusting the adjustable structure units. Here, the electromagnetic parameter may be at least one of: a beam transmission direction, a beam gain, received signal power, a number of beams, a beam transmission frequency, a beam polarization direction and a beam polarization characteristic. The communication assistance component 402 may generate the drive control information of an adjustable structure unit based on the first control information (e.g., codebook adjustment information or codebook adjustment indication information) in the configuration signaling sent by the base station 401 and in combination with the corresponding relationship between the electromagnetic parameter of an array unit and the first control information, and send the drive control information to the corresponding adjustable structure unit to adjust the electromagnetic parameter. Here, the electromagnetic parameter of the array unit may include at least one of an amplitude, a phase and a polarization direction.

[0101] The content transmitted by the information transmission structure 403 may include at least one of: the identity information or identity indication information (e.g., cell IDs) of the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402, configuration signaling 4032 (see FIG. 6) of the base station 401 for the communication assistance component 402, and the data information received by the communication assistance component 402. Here, the identity information and the identity indication information are used to establish a wireless connection between the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402, to implement the wireless transmission of signals between the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402. The base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402 need to confirm, through the identity information, the corresponding relationship between nodes for sending and receiving information. The configuration signaling of the base station 401 for the communication assistance component 402 may include codebook adjustment information or codebook adjustment indication information for adjusting a beam emitted by the antenna panel of the communication assistance component 402, and / or relative physical positions and / or angle adjustment information or corresponding adjustment indication information of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component 402 and the antenna panel of the base station 401 that are used for adjusting the electromagnetic characteristic of the output beam of the base station 401 that is forwarded by the communication assistance component 402. The communication assistance component 402 may receive the data information sent by a terminal, and send the data information before and after being processed to the base station 401, to add the data received by the base station 401 to assist in functions such as perception and positioning. Alternatively, the transmitted content may be transmitted over different frequency bands and different entities, for example, the information at different frequency bands is transmitted through different cables.

[0102] The physical connection structure 404 connects the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402, and determines the physical relative position and angle therebetween, to provide support for the communication assistance component 402. The connection may be a fixed connection or an adjustable connection. The base station 401 may obtain the physical relative position and angle information between the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402 for determining the configuration signaling for the communication assistance component 402 and sending the configuration signaling to the communication assistance component 402 and / or the physical connection structure 404. The configuration signaling may further include second control information, and the second control information may be, for example, position adjustment information or position adjustment indication information. The physical connection structure 404 may adjust the spatial relative position and / or relative angle between the base station 401 and the communication assistance component 402 based on the position adjustment information. For example, the second control information may be used to adjust the pose of the communication assistance component 402, the pose of the communication assistance component 402 including at least one of the height, the horizontal position and the tilt angle of the communication assistance component 402.

[0103] FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a communication assistance component according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 6, an intelligent antenna-based communication assistance component 402 may include an antenna panel (e.g., a smart panel) 4021 and a drive control structure 4022. The antenna panel 4021 may receive the first beam emitted by the base station, and is configured to adjust the electromagnetic parameter of the beam, for example, to emit the beam toward a specified direction, and adjust the first beam to meet the communication requirement of the terminal or improve the communication quality of the terminal. The drive control structure 4022 receives the configuration signaling 4032 of the base station for the antenna panel through the signal transmission structure 403, and outputs the adjustment information (e.g., the first control information) of the array unit to the antenna panel 4021. The communication assistance component 402 may further include a drive power-supply structure 4023, which is connected with the drive control structure 4022 to provide energy for the operation of the drive control structure 4022 and the output of the adjusting control information. Here, the configuration signaling 4032 is calculated and obtained by the base station, and sent to the communication assistance component 402 for adjusting the electromagnetic characteristic of the beam emitted by the base station.

[0104] FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram of a communication assistance component according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 7, the communication assistance component 402 may further include a physical connection structure 404, which may adopt an adjustable connection (e.g., a robotic arm connection). The physical positions (e.g., the spatial relative position and relative angle) of the base station and the communication assistance component are adjusted according to the configuration signaling 4032 obtained from the base station. Through the adjustment for the physical position of the communication assistance component, the coverage range of the output beam of the communication assistance component can be increased, or the effective receiving area of the communication assistance component for the output beam of the base station can be increased, thereby enhancing the output power of the communication assistance component. The configuration signaling 4032 may be calculated and obtained by the base station, and sent directly or indirectly to the physical connection structure 404 through the information transmission structure 403. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, the second control information (e.g., physical position adjustment information) of the physical connection structure 404 is sent in an indirect way. Specifically, the base station sends the configuration signaling to the drive control structure 4022 of the communication assistance component through the information transmission structure 403, and the drive control structure 4022 sends the first control information (e.g., codebook adjustment information) in the configuration signaling to the antenna panel 4021, and sends the second control information (physical position adjustment information) to the physical connection structure 404.

[0105] FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a communication assistance component according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 8, an antenna panel 4021 may be composed of an antenna structure and an adjustable structure. Here, the antenna structure may include antenna units arranged in an array, and the adjustable structure may include adjustable structure units arranged periodically. The antenna panel 4021 may include a plurality of array units arranged periodically. Here, each array unit is composed of one or more antenna units and one or more adjustable structure units. The antenna panel 4021 may further include a control signal input line of the adjustable structure through which control information used for the adjustable structure may be transmitted to a specified adjustable structure unit. The array antenna units receives the beam emitted by the base station, and adjusts the beam according to the configuration signaling sent by the base station to emit the adjusted beam, thereby assisting in the communication between the base station and the terminal. The adjustment for an electromagnetic parameter of an output beam may be achieved by controlling the adjustable structure, and the control information (e.g., the first control information) for the adjustment is generated by a drive control structure 4022 based on the configuration signaling of the base station. Here, the adjustable structure may be implemented by a plurality of materials or devices, for example, a PIN diode, a switch, a varactor, a liquid crystal, a ferrite material, an MEMS, and graphene, of which the periodic arrangement may be a rectangular arrangement, a triangular arrangement, a specific function-based periodic arrangement, or the like. The corresponding relationship between the number of the adjustable structure units and the number of the array antenna units may be a one-to-many, many-to-one or many-to-many relationship. According to this embodiment, the antenna panel retains only the beam receiving, adjusting and sending structures, and thus, the hardware cost and the system power consumption can be effectively reduced, thereby catering to the development trend of the communication system with low cost and low power consumption, and facilitating the large-scale deployment and application.

[0106] The communication assistance component may further include one or more of a signal receiving structure, a data processing structure, an energy conversion structure, and a drive power-supply structure. Here, the signal receiving structure is configured to receive a data signal and / or an energy signal; the data processing structure is configured to receive data and forward and / or adjust the received data; the energy conversion structure is configured to receive the energy signal and convert the energy signal into electrical energy; and the drive power-supply structure is connected with the drive control structure and configured to supply power to the drive control structure. The communication assistance component will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 9-11.

[0107] FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a communication assistance component according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 9, an antenna panel 4021 may further include a signal receiving structure 4024, a radio frequency device (e.g., a low noise amplifier, a filter, a mixer, a digital-to-analog converter in FIG. 9) and a data processing structure 4025. The data received through the signal receiving structure 4024 may be used for assisting the base station in functions such as codebook optimization, perception, positioning and wireless charging. The communication assistance component may receive the beam sent by a terminal or the base station. A portion of the power of the beam is received by the signal receiving structure 4024 for processing and analysis, and a portion of the power is adjusted by the antenna panel and sent to a specified direction (e.g., sent to the base station or the terminal). For example, the signal receiving structure 4024 may receive a first portion of a first beam emitted by the base station or a beam emitted by the terminal, and the antenna panel may receive a second portion of the first beam emitted by the base station or the beam emitted by the terminal, and adjust the second portion and / or change the output direction of the second portion. The signal receiving structure 4024 may forward the first portion of the beam emitted by the terminal to the base station (e.g., the antenna structure of the base station). The received power is related to the number of units of the signal receiving structure 4024 and the design of the signal receiving structure. If the ratio of the number of antenna units of the antenna panel to the number of units of the signal receiving structure is N:1, 1 / (N+1)^2 of the power of the input beam of the terminal is received for processing and analysis. The ratio of the numbers is related to factors such as the hardware cost of the communication assistance component, the power consumption of the system, and the power requirement for the reception of data. To compensate for the gain loss of the beam caused by the signal receiving structure after the adjustment in the antenna panel, the gain can be increased by increasing the number of array units of the antenna panel, or this power loss can be added to the calculation of the base station in a design process. Based on the communication assistance component having the above structures, the data processing structure 4025 of the communication assistance structure may receive first data including configuration signaling, and send the configuration signaling to a drive control structure. For example, the data processing structure 4025 receives downlink data sent by the base station, and the downlink data may contain the configuration signaling calculated and obtained by the base station for the communication assistance component. The data processing structure 4025 sends the configuration signaling to the drive control structure 4022 to perform an adjustment on an output beam of the communication assistance component. The communication assistance component according to this embodiment does not require an information transmission structure 403 to transmit the configuration signaling, which can reduce the hardware costs of the information transmission structure.

[0108] Alternatively, the data processing structure 4025 of the communication assistance component may receive second data and send the second data to the outside, or adjust the configuration signaling based on the second data and send the adjusted configuration signaling to the drive control structure or the outside. For example, the data processing structure 4025 may receive uplink data sent by the terminal, and the information in the uplink data may include at least one of: beam information (e.g., a beam ID or beam ID indication information) and signal quality related information (e.g., RSRP). Based on the analysis for the information, optimized configuration signaling for the output beam of the communication assistance component can be obtained, and the optimized configuration signaling may be sent to the drive control structure 4022. According to this embodiment, the transmission overhead of the transmission of signaling between the base station and the communication assistance component can be reduced, improving the response speed, and the problem that the transmission path and the calculation result of the base station are offset due to an environmental change such as wind blowing can be solved, improving the utilization efficiency of the power of the output beam of the base station. The updated configuration signaling may be sent to the base station through the information transmission structure 403, to be used for the subsequent adjustment of the output beam of the base station and the configuration signaling.

[0109] FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram of a communication assistance component according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 10, the data received by a data receiving structure 4024 may be sent to a base station through an information transmission structure 403 for processing and analysis. According to this embodiment, the hardware cost and power consumption required by the radio frequency device and the data processing structure 4025 can be reduced without increasing the power supply requirement for the communication assistance component. If the data information received by the communication assistance component is an uplink perception and / or positioning signal, for the same measured object, the communication assistance component may receive uplink data beyond the beam scanning angle of the base station and send the data to the base station to assist in calculating the relevant parameters of the measured object, which improves the precision of perception or positioning, or expands the service range of the base station.

[0110] FIG. 11 shows a schematic diagram of a communication assistance component according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 11, the communication assistance assembly may further include an energy conversion structure. If the signal receiving structure of the communication assistance component receives a wireless charging signal, the wireless charging signal may be converted into energy (e.g., electrical energy) by the energy conversion structure. The communication assistance component may send or store the energy converted by the energy conversion structure to the drive power-supply structure 4023, to provide energy for the operation of the communication assistance component. According to this embodiment, it is possible to reduce the size of the drive power-supply structure, or directly provide energy for the drive control structure without requiring the drive power-supply structure, thereby improving the flexibility of deploying of the communication assistance component, and reducing the hardware cost.

[0111] The drive power-supply structure 4023 provides energy required for operation of the drive control structure 4022 through at least one of the following approaches. An independent drive power-supply module is integrated on the side of the communication assistance component to reduce signal transmission between the communication assistance component and the outside, improving the system integration and design freedom of the communication assistance component. A drive power-supply source is obtained from the base station through an external connection line, which can reduce the problems such as the cost, weight and wind resistance of a power-supply component, and thus is applicable to a scenario where the drive power is large and the size of the required power supply is large. An external energy input is obtained wirelessly through a solar panel, a wireless charging receiving apparatus, and the like, to provide energy to the drive control structure, which is suitable for the design of communication assistance components with small power supply requirements. A drive control component and a drive power-supply component are combined with the base station, and the drive control component and drive power-supply component in the base station may provide drive control information and energy used for an adjustment to the antenna panel of the communication assistance component through a connection cable or in a wireless way, and thus are applicable to innovative application scenarios such as transparency and conformal of the communication assistance component.

[0112] Methods performed by a base station and a communication assistance component in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to FIGS. 12-17.

[0113] FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of a method performed by a base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and FIG. 13 shows a flowchart of a method performed by a communication assistance component according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0114] Referring to FIG. 12, in step S1201, the base station may first determine first control information for adjusting electromagnetic parameters of a plurality of array units of an antenna panel of a communication assistance component, and the first control information may be determined based on a position of an antenna panel of the base station and a position of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component. The position of the antenna panel of the base station and the position of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component include: a physical position, a height and / or a tilt angle, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, the relative position between the antenna panel of the base station and the antenna panel of the communication assistance component may be determined according to the physical position, height, tilt angle, etc. of the antenna panel of the base station and the physical position, height, tilt angle, etc. of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component, and the first control information for adjusting the electromagnetic parameters of the plurality of array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component may be determined according to the relative position.

[0115] After determining the first control information, the base station may include the first control information into configuration signaling and send the configuration signaling to the communication assistance component in step S1202. For example, the configuration signaling may be sent to the communication assistance component through the information transmission structure described with reference to FIGS. 4-5.

[0116] Referring to FIG. 13, in step S1301, the communication assistance component may receive configuration signaling, the configuration signaling including first control information for adjusting electromagnetic parameters of a plurality of array units of an antenna panel of the communication assistance component. For example, the communication assistance component may receive, from the base station, the configuration signaling sent by the base station in step S1202, the configuration signaling including the first control information determined by the base station in step S1202. The first control information may be sent to the antenna panel of the communication assistance component to adjust the electromagnetic parameters of the plurality of array units in the antenna panel. For example, the drive control structure 4022 described with reference to FIG. 6 or FIG. 7 may receive the configuration signaling 4032 of the base station for the antenna panel 4021 of the communication assistance component through the signal transmission structure 403, and output the first control information for the array units to the antenna panel 4021.

[0117] In step S1302, the communication assistance component may adjust the electromagnetic parameters of the plurality of array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component based on the first control information.

[0118] The configuration signaling received by the communication assistance component may include physical position adjustment related information of a physical connection structure of the communication assistance component and / or codebook adjustment related information of the antenna panel, for changing a beam output direction after the beam inputted by the base station is adjusted by an assistance node. The data information received by a data receiving structure may be used to assist functions such as the communication between the base station and a terminal, perception and positioning. The format of the transmitted data may be the data information received by the antenna panel or the data information processed by the communication assistance component.

[0119] According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the method performed by the base station may further include: generating the control information for adjusting the electromagnetic parameters of the plurality of array units, based on the position of the antenna panel of the base station and the position of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component and according to a first beam and a second beam, wherein, the first beam is a beam emitted by the base station, and the second beam is a beam emitted by the communication assistance component.

[0120] The base station may generate the first control information for adjusting the electromagnetic parameters of the plurality of array units, based on the position of the antenna panel of the base station and the position (e.g., the physical position, height and / or tilt angle) of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component and according to, for example, the input and output angles of the first beam and the second beam, such that, for example, the second beam emitted by the antenna panel of the communication assistance component is more accurately and efficiently emitted to a user terminal, or such that the first beam emitted by the base station is not emitted to a node that does not expect to receive the first beam, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, the phase compensation information of the first beam and / or the phase compensation information of the second beam may be determined according to the direction of the first beam and the direction in which the second beam is expected to be emitted and according to the position of the antenna panel of the base station and the position of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component, and the first control information for adjusting the electromagnetic parameters of the array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component may be generated in combination with these information.

[0121] An embodiment of determining the first control information will be described below, but it should be noted that the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0122] The configuration signaling (e.g., the first control information in the configuration signaling) sent by the base station to the communication assistance component is related to the direction of the output beam (the direction of the second beam) forwarded by the communication assistance component, the angle of the output beam (the angle of the first beam, i.e., the input beam of the communication assistance component) of the base station, and the physical position information of the antenna panel. Here, the relative position, the relative height and the relative angle between the antenna panels of the base station and the communication assistance component may affect the angle at which the base station emits a beam. The corresponding relationship between the direction of the output beam of the communication assistance component and a related factor (e.g., a parameter for adjusting the adjustable structure) may be calculated and obtained by the base station (e.g., the controller of the base station) according to the above information, or may be obtained through a table look-up method. Here, according to the relative physical position information of the base station, the communication assistance component and the terminal, the horizontal and vertical angle information (A, B) of the direction of the beam from the base station to the communication assistance component (i.e., the direction of the input beam of the communication assistance component), and the horizontal and vertical angle information (C, D) of the direction of the output beam of the communication assistance component, and in combination with the design related information of the communication assistance component, the base station (e.g., the controller of the base station) can calculate the first control information (e.g., a codebook indication information index or codebook information) used by the antenna panel of the communication assistance component to adjust the beam direction or the electromagnetic parameters of the array units, as shown in Table 1 below. Table 1 shows a corresponding relationship between the directions of an input beam and output beam of the communication assistance component and a codebook. With Table 1, the configuration codebook information (codebook indication information index or codebook information) for adjusting the beam direction of an output beam of the communication assistance component may be determined (e.g., through the controller of the base station) based on the directions of an input beam and output beam of the communication assistance component, and included in the configuration signaling. The direction (A, B) of the output beam of the base station may be the direction of an output main lobe or side lobe of the base station. The information of the output side lobe of the base station may be related to the output information of the main lobe of the base station, and is known to the base station or may be calculated and obtained by the base station. The base station may obtain, by querying the following table, the required configuration codebook index information for the communication assistance component according to the physical position information, the direction information of the input beam of the communication assistance component, and expected direction information of the output beam of the communication assistance component obtained by the base station, and send corresponding configuration signaling to the communication assistance component.

[0123]

[0124] Here, the direction (A, B) of the beam from the base station to the communication assistance component is related to the positions of the base station and the communication assistance component and the direction X of the output beam of the base station. The angle (C, D) of the output beam of the communication assistance component is related to the positions of the base station and the communication assistance component and the distance Y between the base station and the terminal (which can be calculated by TA). The physical position information of the base station and the communication assistance component and the design related information of the communication assistance component can be sent to or stored at the base station in advance. Therefore, the configuration codebook information (codebook indication information index or codebook information) required by the communication assistance component can be queried through the angle information X and the distance information Y, as shown in Table 2 below. The controller of the base station may determine the configuration codebook information according to the angle information X and the distance information Y, and include the configuration codebook information into the configuration signaling.

[0125]

[0126] Alternatively, the configuration signaling may be obtained through the calculation of the base station (e.g., the controller of the base station), and the corresponding relationship table of the output beam of the communication assistance component may also be calculated and obtained through the same way, and stored in the base station and / or the communication assistance component. The adjustment for the output beam direction is realized through the adjustment for the adjustable structure units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component (e.g., the adjustment for the electromagnetic parameters of the array units). The phases of the output beams corresponding to the antenna units of the antenna panel that are corresponding to each adjustable structure unit are adjusted, such that the phases of the beams outputted in a specified direction (i.e., an expected output beam direction) are consistent to form a superposition to achieve the beam enhancement effect, and the phases of output beams in other directions are not consistent to cancel each other out, thereby reducing the energy outputted in the other directions. The adjustment for the adjustable structure units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component includes: a phase compensation of the input beam, and a phase compensation of an output beam toward a specified direction. The control information of each adjustable structure unit can be obtained in combination with the corresponding relationship between the control information and phases of the adjustable structure units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component, to constitute the drive control information for the antenna panel and the configuration signaling corresponding thereto. Hereinafter, the calculation methods of an input phase compensation and an output phase compensation are illustrated below by examples of two-dimensional coordinates. The calculation in the three-dimensional space can be performed with reference to the methods, and the angles are all absolute values.

[0127] The method of calculating the phase compensation information of the first beam may be, for example, as shown in FIG. 14A. According to the physical position information of the base station and the communication assistance component, it is possible to obtain that the height difference between the antenna panel of the base station and the antenna panel of the communication assistance component is h, the horizontal distance therebetween is L, and the tilt angles thereof to the vertical plane are respectively Band R. The design parameters of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component are known, and the spacing distance between antenna units of the antenna panel is d. According to the above information, the information of the angles shown in FIG. 14B can be calculated and obtained:

[0128]

[0129] The difference between two transmission distances of two adjacent antenna units of the communication assistance component is respectively L=L1+L2, and

[0130]

[0131] According to the distance difference and the operating frequency of the input beam, the difference between phases at which the input beam of the communication assistance component reaches the adjacent antenna units can be calculated and obtained. Here, C0refers to the speed at which the light travels in vacuum.

[0132]

[0133] When there is a horizontal tilt angle between the array surfaces of the base station and the communication assistance component, it is required to take account of the influence of a horizontal incident angle on the basis of the above calculation method, to perform a three-dimensional phase difference calculation, thereby obtaining the phase compensation information of the input beam.

[0134] A schematic diagram of the phase compensation calculation method of the second beam emitted by the communication assistance component toward a specified direction may be as shown, for example, in FIG. 15. The array-surface equivalent input curve (the equivalent input direction of input beams) after the above calculated compensation for the phase difference is as shown by the dashed line r0in FIG. 16. The communication assistance component transmits the second beam to a target direction having a vertical angle with r0. Here, is related to the relative position between the communication assistance component and the terminal. The distance between the communication assistance component and the terminal is L3, and the height difference therebetween is h3. When the terminal is far away, L3 can be approximately equal to L, and thus, the calculated angle is -arctan(h3 / L3).

[0135] The transmission distance difference between adjacent antenna units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component is dsin , and accordingly, the phase difference value required to be compensated for the adjacent antenna units is:

[0136]

[0137] The compensated phase information of the adjustable structure required for each antenna unit of the antenna panel can be calculated by using the above method. The drive control information (e.g., the amplitude information of a voltage used for an adjustment) required by each adjustable structure unit of the antenna panel (i.e., the first control information used for the array units of the antenna panel) can be obtained in combination with the feature curve (e.g., the relationship curve between a drive voltage and an output phase) of the adjustable structure shown in FIG. 17.

[0138] The configuration signaling for the adjustment for the adjustable structure of the antenna panel is generated based on the calculated first control information. The calculation of the configuration signaling may be completed by the base station (e.g., the controller of the base station), and / or completed by the drive control module of the antenna panel.

[0139] The configuration signaling includes at least one of: control information for the relative position or angle between the base station and the communication assistance component, or control information (e.g., configuration codebook information) for the array units of the communication assistance component.

[0140] The first control information for adjusting the array units of the communication assistance component in the configuration signaling is already described above, and the second control information for adjusting the relative position or angle between the base station and the communication assistance component in the configuration signaling will be described below.

[0141] The adjustment for the relative position or angle between the base station and the communication assistance component may be realized through the adjustment for the pose of the communication assistance component. This adjustment can be realized, for example, by sending the second control information to the physical connection structure described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 and adjusting the height, the horizontal position, the tilt angle, etc. of the communication assistance component based on the second control information. The second control information used for this adjustment may be determined according to the direction of the first beam, the position of the base station, the position of the communication assistance component, and the like. Through the adjustment for the pose of the communication assistance component, it is possible to increase the receiving area of the communication assistance component for the output beam of the base station to enhance the efficiency of receiving and converting a signal; reduce the interference of an obstacle (e.g. an emission antenna of the base station) to the outgoing beam; or adjust the direction of the antenna panel to increase the coverage range of the beam.

[0142] A method performed by a base station and relating to an adjustment for a pose of a communication assistance component will be described below with reference to FIG. 18.

[0143] In step S1801, the base station may determine an adjustment approach of an antenna panel of the communication assistance component, the adjustment approach including: adjusting electromagnetic parameters and adjusting both of the electromagnetic parameters and a pose.

[0144] If the determined adjustment approach refers to adjusting the electromagnetic parameters of the array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component, the base station may perform steps S1802 and S1803. The steps S1802 and S1803 are the same as steps S1201 and S1202 described above with reference to FIG. 12.

[0145] If the determined adjustment approach refers to adjusting the electromagnetic parameters of the array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component and a pose of the antenna panel of the communication assistance, the base station may generate, in step S1804, first control information for adjusting the electromagnetic parameters of the array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component and second control information for adjusting a pose of the communication assistance component. For example, the second control information may be determined according to the direction of a first beam, the position of the base station, the position of the communication assistance component, etc. In step S1805, the base station may include the first control information and the second control information into configuration signaling, and send the configuration signaling to the communication assistance component.

[0146] The base station system according to the present disclosure implements the adjustment for the electromagnetic parameter (e.g., transmission direction) of an output beam of the base station by introducing an adjustable communication assistance component and sending corresponding configuration signaling according to a communication requirement of the base station, to assist in the communication between the base station and the terminal.

[0147] The base station system according to the present disclosure that introduces the communication assistance component may use a side-lobe signal to serve the communication of a user to improve the utilization efficiency of the output energy; adjust the side-lobe signal to deviate from the original direction so as to reduce the interference to the communication with an other node; focus the output beam of the base station, to improve the gain to serve a cell-edge user and improve the information transmission efficiency; assist in the communication of a terminal in an other cell outside the coverage range of the base station through the inter-cell cooperation; receive information of an other node (e.g., a terminal) for analysis and / or processing, to use the information to optimize the configuration signaling for the communication assistance component, reducing the influence of an environmental change on the transmission efficiency, and reducing the signaling transmission between the base station and the communication assistance component; receive wireless charging energy to reduce the cost and weight of the communication assistance component, facilitating the large-scale deployment and application of the communication assistance component; or receive a perception and / or positioning signal to improve the precision of the perception and / or positioning of the base station.

[0148] With the increase of the communication frequency, the transmission attenuation of the signal becomes larger. The service coverage range of the base station can be ensured by using an array antenna or increasing the output power of the base station. However, a large array antenna and a large power device will cause a large increase in hardware and power-supply costs, as well as an electromagnetic interference problem.

[0149] In the process of designing an array antenna, a large number of PIN tubes with a mature production process are used as phase adjustment structures, which can realize rapid switching and adjustment for beams. The wavelength of the millimeter-wave frequency band becomes shorter and the physical spacing distance between array antenna units becomes smaller, which makes the design space limited, and accordingly, the scheme of placing a plurality of PIN tubes in a unit period with high adjustment precision is difficult to implement and the cost will be increased. Therefore, a common array antenna can only achieve the 1-bit or 2-bit scanning precision of the antenna (an adjusting step of a unit phase can be 180° or 90°), and the problems of low utilization rate of output energy and signal interference caused by the side lobe of the antenna are difficult to solve.

[0150] FIG. 19 shows a schematic operation diagram of a base station system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0151] As shown in FIG. 19, in order to maximize the utilization rate of the output energy of a base station during the communication between the base station and a terminal, the main-lobe beam of the output beam of the base station is adopted for the communication (which is hereinafter referred to as a "first signal"), the side-lobe beam of the antenna of the base station radiates energy in an other direction (which is hereinafter referred to as a "second signal"), and the number of second signals may be more than one. The existence of the side-lobe beam may cause interference to the communication with other users, and therefore, the attenuation level of the side-lobe beam relative to the main-lobe beam is limited in the process of designing the antenna of the base station. This requirement can be realized by reducing the spacing distance between units, adding a window function, and the like, and the corresponding hardware cost and design difficulty will be increased accordingly. An adjustable communication assistance component is introduced in this embodiment, the communication assistance component being configured to receive a side-lobe beam and adjust the side-lobe beam based on configuration signaling to form an output beam pointing to a predetermined direction. For example, the antenna panel of the communication assistance component may receive the energy of the second signal emitted by the base station and adjust and forward the energy, to form a "third signal" transmitted in a specified direction. For different application scenarios, the third signal may be configured, to be used for assisting in the communication of the first signal, or to reduce the interference to the communication with other terminals.

[0152] When the base station and the terminal may communicate through the first signal, the base station may configure the third signal, for example, to cause the third signal to point to the terminal, to serve the communication for the same terminal together with the first signal, thereby improving the utilization efficiency of the output energy of the base station. The base station may determine first control information based on the position of the base station and the position of the terminal, the first control information being used to configure the communication assistance component to emit the third signal to the terminal. For example, during the communication with the terminal, the base station (e.g., the controller of the base station) may obtain the beam information used for the communication with the terminal, and calculate and obtain the physical position information of the terminal using the beam information and the physical position information stored in the base station. The beam information contains information on beam (or beam indication information, for example, a beam ID) selected by the terminal, information (e.g., TA) related to the distance between the base station and the terminal, and beam frequency information. The information of the main lobe and side lobe of the output beam of the base station and the information of the corresponding relationship between the direction of the beam emitted by the communication assistance component and the configuration signaling may be obtained through one or more of the following approaches: being pre-stored in the base station, being obtained based on the testing and feedback of an other node, being notified by an other node, and being calculated and obtained based on the beam information of the base station. The base station can determine a corresponding side-lobe output beam direction according to the information on beam selected by the terminal, calculate and obtain the output beam direction of the communication assistance component that is required for adjusting the third signal to serve the terminal, and the configuration signaling corresponding to the output beam direction, and send the configuration signaling to the communication assistance component through an information transmission structure.

[0153] The number of antenna units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component is large, and the beam width of the third signal is narrow. In order to improve the accuracy of the third signal in serving the terminal, or in consideration of the influence of factors such as an environmental disturbance on the communication quality, the base station may configure the communication assistance component and the terminal to perform a fine adjustment in the direction of the third signal, and feed back and select an optimal beam, while keeping the output beam unchanged. Specifically, the base station (e.g., the communication structure of the base station) may send a plurality of pieces of configuration signaling to the communication assistance component. The communication assistance component transmits a plurality of beams (e.g., SSB, and CSI-RS) of different directions according to the plurality of pieces of configuration signaling of the base station. The terminal performs a signal quality measurement (e.g., RSRP) on the received plurality of beams, and feeds back optimal beam-related information (e.g., a beam ID), and the base station receives the beam measurement result related information (the selected optimal beam ID) fed back by the terminal. Here, the space interval and angular range scanned by the third signal are determined by the base station, and these parameters are related to factors such as the beam width of the communication assistance component, the scanning precision of the communication assistance component, and the width of the beam received by the terminal. The measurement information fed back by the terminal may contain at least one of: beam indication information (a beam ID or beam ID indication information), beam intensity information (RSRP), a corresponding relationship between a beam intensity and the beam indication information, or one or more pieces of beam indication information selected by the terminal. The beam scanning and beam selection processes of the third signal of the communication assistance component may be performed by the following operations: the base station configure the terminal completes the selection process and feed back the selection result to the base station; alternatively, the base station may configure the terminal to feed back the corresponding relationship between a measurement result and a beam, and the base station perform judgement and selection. The base station (e.g., the controller of the base station) obtains optimized configuration signaling according to this information, and sends updated configuration signaling to the communication assistance component (e.g., the drive control structure of the communication assistance component). The antenna panel of the communication assistance component may adjust and emit the one or more beams selected by the terminal, based on the optimized configuration signaling.

[0154] FIG. 20 is a schematic operation diagram of a base station system according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0155] Referring to FIG. 20, if there is an edge user terminal 2 of a neighboring cell in the direction of a second signal and the second signal points to the user terminal 2, and if a base station has no communication assistance component or a communication assistance component cannot change the direction in which the base station emitting a side-lobe beam, the second signal will interfere with the communication of the terminal 2. At this point, it is possible to adjust the transmission direction of the second signal through the communication assistance component, avoiding or reducing the influence on the terminal 2. For example, the base station may determine first control information based on the position of the base station and the position of the terminal 2, and the first control information configures the communication assistance component to adjust the direction of the second signal, such that an obtained third signal does not point to the terminal 2. The third signal may be used to serve the communication between the base station and the terminal 1, or the transmission direction of the third signal is a direction that does not cause interference to a peripheral terminal. The interference information may be measured by the terminal 2 and fed back to a serving cell base station for the terminal 2. The serving cell base station shares the physical position information of the terminal 2 to the base station or a node communicating with the base station, through a direct or indirect communication between the base stations. For example, the communication structure of the base station may receive the physical position information. The base station determines whether the second signal interferes with the terminal 2 by combining the physical position information of the base station and the direction of the side-lobe beam, calculates and obtains configuration signaling for improving the interference, and sends the configuration signaling to the communication assistance component. It should be noted that, although this embodiment is described based on a main-lobe beam and a side-lobe beam, it is merely exemplary and the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0156] FIG. 21 shows a schematic operation diagram of a base station system according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0157] The problem that the attenuation of transmission of the communication signal in a high frequency band becomes larger can be solved by increasing the gain of an output beam. In this embodiment, without increasing the output power of a base station, the beam for a communication can be narrowed through a communication assistance component to make energy concentrated in the direction of the communication with a terminal, thereby improving the reception strength of the signal at the edge of the cell, and realizing the low-cost upgrading of the original base station. In the process of designing the communication assistance component, in order to reduce the cost and power consumption of the communication assistance component, active devices are used as few as possible. The power consumption of the system is low, which is mainly the power consumption required for driving the communication assistance component. Accordingly, an array antenna with a high unit number and a large size is suitable for being manufactured. When the base station communicates with a cell-edge terminal, the attenuation of a signal in the transmission path is small. Accordingly, the base station can directly communicate with the terminal, and the communication assistance component is configured to reduce a side-lobe beam or to not affect the communication of the base station (e.g., the communication assistance component is configured to adjust the direction of the side-lobe beam to be outside the coverage range of the beam of the base station). When being far from the terminal, the base station may have the aid of the beam narrowing characteristic of the communication assistance component, to communicate with the terminal through the beam forwarded by the communication assistance component. As shown in FIG. 21, a terminal UE2 is far from the base station. At this point, the base station may configure the communication assistance component to focus and narrow the beam of the first signal to form a high-gain third signal, and emit the third signal to the terminal UE2 to communicate with the terminal UE2 through the third signal. For example, the base station may determine first control information based on the position of the base station and the position of the terminal UE2, the first control information being used to configure the communication assistance component to focus and narrow the first signal and adjust the direction of the first signal to point to the terminal UE2 to form the third signal.

[0158] During the communication between the base station and the terminal, the terminal may feed back received signal power-related information (e.g., RSRP), physical position-related information, and beam-related information. When the received power does not meet a certain threshold requirement, the base station may select the formed high-gain signal (hereinafter referred to as "third signal") forwarded by the communication assistance component to communicate with the terminal. Here, the threshold information is related to the hardware design and transmission requirements of the terminal. The threshold information may be calculated and obtained by a node according to transmitted data information (e.g., a bit error rate), may be configured and obtained by an other node or a network, or may be stored in advance at the node. The node may be a terminal, a base station, a MAC layer, or an RRC layer. The base station (e.g., the controller of the base station) may generate configuration signaling based on signal power-related indication information indicating whether power meets a threshold and according to the position information of the base station, the communication assistance component and the terminal. For example, the direction of the first signal sent by the base station to the communication assistance component and the corresponding output beam information of the base station are calculated and obtained according to the physical position information of the base station and the communication assistance component; further combining with the physical position and beam information reported by the terminal, the position information of the terminal may be obtained, and then the configuration signaling related to the direction information for emitting the third signal by the communication assistance component is obtained. The base station sends the configuration signaling to the communication assistance component through an information transmission structure, and serves a remote terminal using the high-gain third signal.

[0159] FIG. 22 shows a schematic operation diagram of a base station system according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0160] The base station according to the embodiment of the present disclosure may transmit a plurality of beams to a terminal on which a communication is to be performed. The plurality of beams may include a beam directly sent to the terminal and at least one beam sent to a communication assistance component. Here, the base station further sends a plurality of pieces of configuration signaling corresponding to the at least one beam to the communication assistance component. In one embodiment, the plurality of pieces of configuration signaling are different from each other.

[0161] As shown in FIG. 22, during the access of the base station to the terminal, the base station (e.g., the antenna structure of the base station) sends a plurality of reference signals (e.g., an SSB, and a CSI-RS), and further sends, according to the position of the communication assistance component, a plurality of different reference signals (e.g., the SSB, and the CSI-RS) in the direction in which the output beam points to the communication assistance component. Moreover, the base station (e.g., the communication structure of the base station) sends a plurality of configuration signaling to the communication assistance component, such that the communication assistance component forwards and enhances (e.g., focuses and narrows) the plurality of beams in different directions. The terminal measures the signal quality (e.g., RSRP) of the plurality of beams sent by the base station and the signal quality of the plurality of beams emitted by the communication assistance component for comparison, and feeds back an optimal result and beam indication information (e.g., a beam ID) to the base station. The base station communicates with the terminal based on the beam information fed back. If the beam selected by the terminal is a beam sent directly by the base station, the communication assistance component may operate according to the embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 16-18, to improve the energy utilization efficiency of the base station. If the beam selected by the terminal is a beam forwarded and reinforced by the communication assistance component, the base station (e.g., the communication structure of the base station) sends configuration signaling corresponding to the selected beam to the communication assistance component, making the outgoing beam point to the communication assistance component. For the same output power of the base station, the gain of the output beam is increased after the output beam is forwarded by the communication assistance component, and thus, the coverage range of the cell can be increased.

[0162] FIG. 23 shows a schematic operation diagram of a base station system according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0163] Generally, the scanning range of the antenna of a base station is limited (generally, the base station has a scanning range of ±60°). An existing base station is designed, to cause a plurality of groups of antennas to jointly serve terminal users in different areas. As shown in FIG. 23, a cell 3 provides services for terminals within the coverage range thereof. By introducing a communication assistance component, the communication assistance component can coordinate with the base station of a neighboring cell for assisting in the communication of an edge user, thereby improving the signal transmission speed. Specifically, when the cell 3 is communicating with a terminal within the service range thereof, the cell 3 may send the information related to the physical position of the terminal to a neighboring cell (e.g., a cell 1), and the information may be directly sent (e.g., backhauled), or sent through an other node (e.g., an RRU or a core network). The base station of the cell 1 adjusts and emits a first signal based on the information of the terminal to send the first signal to the communication assistance component, and calculates and generates a configuration signaling based on, for example, the position of the base station and the position of the terminal to send the configuration instruction to the communication assistance component, such that a third signal points to the terminal to be used to assist in the communication of the cell 3 with the terminal. Here, the third signal may be formed by focusing and narrowing the first signal.

[0164] The base station according to the embodiment of the present disclosure may include a transceiver and a controller. Here, the controller may be configured to perform the above method performed by the base station and described with reference to FIGS. 4-23.

[0165] The communication assistance component according to the embodiment of the present disclosure may include an antenna panel and a controller. Here, the controller may be configured to perform the above method performed by the communication assistance component and described with reference to FIGS. 4-23.

[0166] The text and the accompanying drawings are only provided as examples, to help the reader understand the present disclosure. The text and the accompanying drawings are not aimed at and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples are provided, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications may be made to the shown embodiments and examples based on the disclosure herein, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

1.A method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:determining, based on a position of an antenna panel of the base station and a position of an antenna panel of a communication assistance component, first control information for adjusting electromagnetic parameters of a plurality of array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component; andsending signaling to the communication assistance component, the signaling comprising the first control information.2.The method according to claim 1, further comprising:generating the first control information for adjusting the electromagnetic parameters of the plurality of array units, based on the position of the antenna panel of the base station and the position of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component and according to a first beam and a second beam,wherein the first beam is a beam emitted by the base station, and the second beam is a beam emitted by the communication assistance component,wherein the second beam is determined based on a position of the base station and a position of a first node,wherein the first node refers to a node that receives the first beam, a node that does not expect to receive the first beam, or a node that expects to receive the second beam.3.The method according to claim 2, wherein the first node refers to the node that receives the first beam, the first beam comprises a main-lobe beam and a side-lobe beam corresponding to the main-lobe beam, the first node receives the main-lobe beam, the communication assistance component emits the second beam based on the side-lobe beam, andthe method further comprises:determining the first control information based on the position of the base station and the position of the first node, the first control information being used to configure the communication assistance component to emit the second beam to the first node.4.The method according to claim 2, wherein the first node refers to the node that does not expect to receive the first beam, andthe method further comprises:determining the first control information based on the position of the base station and the position of the first node, the first control information being used to configure the communication assistance component to emit the second beam in a direction not pointing to the first node.5.The method according to claim 2, wherein the first node refers to the node that expects to receive the second beam, andthe method further comprises:determining the first control information based on the position of the base station and the position of the first node, the first control information being used to configure the communication assistance component to focus and narrow the first beam and adjust a direction of the first beam to point to the first node to form the second beam;receiving indication information related to power of the second beam from the first node, anddetermining the first control information based on the position of the base station, the position of the first node and the indication information.6.The method according to claim 2, wherein the first node refers to the node that expects to receive the second beam, the node that expects to receive the second beam refers to a node in communication with an adjacent base station, andthe method further comprises:receiving the position of the first node from the adjacent base station; anddetermining the first control information based on the position of the base station and the position of the first node, the first control information being used to configure the communication assistance component to emit the second beam to the first node.7.The method according to claim 1,wherein the electromagnetic parameters comprise at least one of an amplitude, a phase and a polarization direction,wherein the position of the antenna panel of the base station and the position of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component comprise: a physical position, a height and / or a tilt angle.8.The method according to claim 1, further comprising:determining an adjustment approach of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component, the adjustment approach comprising: adjusting the electromagnetic parameters and adjusting both of the electromagnetic parameters and a pose; andgenerating, when the determined adjustment approach refers to adjusting both of the electromagnetic parameters and the pose, second control information for adjusting a pose of the communication assistance component, wherein the signaling further comprises the second control information.9.The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the first control information comprises:transmitting a plurality of beams to the first node, and sending at least one beam and control information corresponding to the at least one beam to the communication assistance component, wherein the control information corresponding to the at least one beam is different from each other; anddetermining the first control information according to a feedback of the first node.10.A method performed by a communication assistance component in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:receiving signaling, wherein the signaling comprises first control information for adjusting electromagnetic parameters of a plurality of array units of an antenna panel of the communication assistance component; andadjusting the electromagnetic parameters of the plurality of array units of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component based on the first control information.11.The method according to claim 10, whereinthe first control information is generated based on a position of an antenna panel of a base station and a position of the antenna panel of the communication assistance component and according to a first beam and a second beam,wherein the first beam is a beam emitted by the base station, and the second beam is a beam emitted by the communication assistance component.12.The method according to claim 11,wherein the second beam is determined based on a position of the base station and a position of a first node,wherein the first node comprises a node that receives the first beam, a node that does not expect to receive the first beam, or a node that expects to receive the second beam.13.A base station, comprising a transceiver and a controller,wherein the controller is configured to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-9.14.A communication assistance component, comprising an antenna panel and a controller,wherein the controller is configured to perform the method according to any one of claims 10-12.15.A base station system, comprising a base station and a communication assistance component,wherein the base station is configured to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-9, andthe communication assistance component is configured to perform the method according to any one of claims 10-12.

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