Electronic device and method for wireless communication and computer-readable storage medium

Abstract

An electronic device, method, and computer-readable storage medium for wireless communication are provided, the electronic device including a processing circuit configured to estimate a predicted probability that each candidate beam is an optimal beam based on a result of beam tracking performed on other devices that communicate with the electronic device using a previous candidate beam, and to select a measurement beam for next beam tracking from among the candidate beams based on the estimated predicted probability.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] This application claims priority to a Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on January 12, 2022, bearing application number 202210031216.9 and entitled "Electronic device and method for wireless communication and computer-readable storage medium", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] The present application relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and more particularly, to an electronic device, method, and computer-readable storage medium for wireless communication that are advantageous in appropriately determining a measurement range for beam tracking. [Background technology]

[0003] Beamforming technology is widely applied in New Radio (NR) to compensate for high path loss and improve received power. To support beamforming technology, beam management is used by the base station / user equipment to acquire and maintain the beam set used for uplink / downlink. Traditional beam management uses beam scanning. That is, the base station / user equipment measures all candidate beams and selects the optimal beam with the highest beam quality (e.g., having the largest Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP)) as the beam to be used for data transmission. When the number of candidate beams is large, the overhead of beam scanning becomes huge.

[0004] To reduce the overhead of beam scanning, a beam tracking technique has been proposed. This technique tracks the changes of the (optimal) beam by performing beam quality measurements on the beams in the measurement range (not all beams) based on the currently used beam. One of the key points of the beam tracking technique is to determine the measurement range of the beam tracking. Summary of the Invention [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] The following provides a brief overview of the present disclosure to provide a basic understanding of certain aspects of the present disclosure. It should be understood that this overview is not an exhaustive overview of the present disclosure. It is not intended to intentionally identify key or critical parts of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to intentionally limit the scope of the present disclosure. Its purpose is to provide some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that follows.

[0006] At least one aspect of the present disclosure aims to provide an electronic device, method, and computer-readable storage medium for wireless communication that can appropriately determine the measurement range of beam tracking by utilizing the results of previous beam tracking using each beam to select the beam to be used for the next beam tracking.

[0007] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided that includes a processing circuit configured to estimate a predicted probability that each candidate beam is an optimal beam based on results of beam tracking for other devices that communicate with the electronic device using previous candidate beams, and to select a measurement beam for next beam tracking from among the candidate beams based on the estimated predicted probability.

[0008] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is further provided a method for wireless communication, the method including: estimating a predicted probability that each candidate beam is an optimal beam based on results of beam tracking for other devices that communicate with the electronic device using a previous candidate beam; and selecting a measurement beam for next beam tracking from among the candidate beams based on the estimated predicted probability.

[0009] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is further provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform each function of the method for wireless communication or the electronic device.

[0010] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is further provided a computer program code and a computer program product for implementing the method according to the present disclosure described above.

[0011] According to at least one aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, the results of beam tracking using previous candidate beams are used to estimate the predicted probability that each candidate beam is an optimal beam, and the measurement beam for the next beam tracking is determined based on such predicted probability, thereby making it possible to appropriately determine the measurement range of beam tracking.

[0012] In the following sections of the specification, other aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are described, and preferred embodiments are described in detail to fully disclose the embodiments of the present disclosure, but are not limited thereto. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0013] The drawings described herein are only for the purpose of illustrating selected embodiments, not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

[0014] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining how beam quality changes in response to the movement of a user. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining beam switching for different terminal devices within a cell. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining that the beam quality of different beams varies depending on the orientation of the terminal device. [Diagram 5]FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for illustrating that the ratio between the beam qualities of different beams varies depending on the orientation of the terminal device. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating another exemplary configuration of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram for explaining an exemplary use of a prediction model by an estimation unit of an electronic device according to an embodiment. [Figure 9] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram for explaining an example of adjacent beam sets defined for a linear antenna array (Uniform Planar Array, ULA). [Figure 10] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram for explaining an example of adjacent beam sets defined for a rectangular antenna array (Uniform Rectangular Array, UPA). [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a further exemplary configuration of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 12] FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating an example signaling interaction of a beam tracking process of an electronic device implemented on the network side. [Figure 13] FIG. 13 is a flow chart illustrating an example signaling interaction of a beam tracking process of an electronic device implemented at a terminal side. [Figure 14] FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example simulation result of a beam tracking process of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 15] FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example simulation result of a beam tracking process of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 16] FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an example process of a method for wireless communication according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 17] FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing a first example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. [Figure 18] FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing a second example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. [Figure 19] FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. [Figure 20] FIG. 20 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied.

[0015] While the present disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and substitutions, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the accompanying drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood that the description of specific embodiments herein is not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the disclosure is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and substitutions falling within the spirit and scope of the disclosure. It should be noted that corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0016] Examples of the present disclosure are more fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the present disclosure, its application, or uses.

[0017] Exemplary examples are provided to make the disclosure more detailed and fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. Various specific details, such as examples of specific components, devices, and methods, are described to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that specific details are not necessarily required and that the exemplary embodiments can be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure. In some exemplary embodiments, well-known processes, well-known configurations, and well-known technologies are not described in detail.

[0018] The explanation will be given in the following order. 1. Problem Overview 2. Example of electronic device configuration 2.1 Configuration Example 2.2 Exemplary Processing Performed by the Predictor 2.3 Exemplary Processing Performed by the Selector 2.4 Examples of electronic devices implemented on the sending side (network side) 2.5 Examples of electronic devices implemented on the receiving side (terminal side) 2.6 Simulation results of the beam tracking process of electronic devices 3. Method Example 4. Application Examples

[0019] <1. Overview of the problem> In mobile communications, as a user moves, the user's orientation with respect to a base station and the angle of the line of sight (LOS) path between the base station and the terminal device change, and the signal quality of the used beam (herein also referred to as beam quality) also changes. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining that the beam quality changes according to the movement of the user, and shows that as the user moves, that is, as the angle of the LOS path between the base station and the terminal device changes, the signal quality (RSRP) of the beam currently used with an angle of 0 degrees changes. When the user's orientation changes to a certain extent, the currently used beam is no longer the optimal beam, and a re-determined optimal beam needs to be used.

[0020] Experiments have shown that in a line-of-sight path scene, the optimal base station beam and terminal device beam tend to change continuously, and in a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) path scene, the optimal base station beam and terminal device beam may have discrete jumps, and the terminal device beam is more unstable than the base station beam. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously perform beam tracking to determine the optimal beam currently being used. In the prior art, a neighboring beam tracking technique has been proposed that periodically measures beams within a certain range close to the optimal beam currently being used (herein also referred to as the currently used beam).

[0021] The above beam tracking has some problems: in a non-line-of-sight path scene, the beam may have discrete jumps, so the prior art proposal to use a beam within a certain measurement range close to the currently used beam for beam tracking may fail if the measurement range is too small, or may cause unnecessary overhead if the measurement range is too large.

[0022] Also, on the base station side, in order to ensure the success of beam tracking, the measurement range of the beam tracking is determined for the terminal device (e.g., a vehicle) with the fastest moving speed in the entire cell. As an example, refer to the schematic diagram for explaining the beam switching of different terminal devices in a cell shown in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2, for a terminal device with a high moving speed, i.e., a terminal device of a vehicle, a large measurement range is required because its optimal beam is switched from BM1 to BM4 and the switching width is large. Conversely, for a terminal device with a low moving speed, i.e., a terminal device of a pedestrian, only a small measurement range is required because its optimal beam is switched from BM2 to the adjacent BM3 and the beam switching width is small. The measurement range of the base station beam tracking determined for the entire cell may not be necessary for a terminal device with a low moving speed, such as a pedestrian.

[0023] In view of the above problems, the inventors propose that an appropriate measurement range for beam tracking can be determined for other devices communicating with the current electronic device by dynamically determining the measurement range for the next beam tracking using previous beam tracking results.

[0024] <2. Example of electronic device configuration> [2.1 Configuration example] FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0025] As shown in FIG. 3, the electronic device 300 may include an estimating unit 310, a selecting unit 320, and an optional communicating unit 330.

[0026] Here, each unit of the electronic device 300 can be included in a processing circuit. The electronic device 300 may include one processing circuit or multiple processing circuits. Furthermore, the processing circuit may include various individual functional units to perform various different functions and / or operations. These functional units may be physical or logical entities, and units with different names may be realized by the same physical entity.

[0027] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the estimation unit 310 of the electronic device 300 can estimate a predicted probability that each candidate beam is an optimal beam based on a result of performing beam tracking using a previous candidate beam for other devices that communicate with this electronic device via, for example, the communication unit 330. The selection unit 320 of the electronic device 300 can select a measurement beam for the next beam tracking from among the candidate beams based on the estimated predicted probability.

[0028] As an example, the beam tracking results used by the estimation unit 310 may include time series data of signal quality corresponding to candidate beams obtained by beam tracking (herein also referred to as beam quality of the candidate beam, e.g., RSRP).

[0029] On the other hand, in the communication between the base station and the terminal device, the beam quality of different beams, for example, the ratio between the beam qualities of different beams, can embody the orientation of the terminal device relative to the base station, or the orientation of the LOS path between the base station and the terminal device. For example, refer to the schematic diagrams shown in Figures 4 and 5 for explaining that the beam quality of different beams and the ratio between the beam qualities of different beams change according to the orientation of the terminal device, where Figure 4 shows that the RSRP of different beams BM1 to BM3 in the case of a single LOS path changes according to the LOS path angle, and Figure 5 shows that the RSRP ratio of beams BM3 and BM2 in the case of a single LOS path (region where the beams overlap) and the RSRP ratio of beams BM1 and BM2 change according to the LOS path angle. On the other hand, in the communication between the base station and the terminal device, the change in the beam quality of each beam can embody the change in the orientation of the terminal device relative to the base station, and further embody the movement characteristics of the terminal device. For example, as shown in Figure 1, in the case of a beam whose currently used angle is 0 degrees, when the orientation of the user or terminal device relative to the base station is close to the beam angle, the RSRP becomes large, and conversely, when the orientation of the terminal device relative to the base station is far from the beam angle, the RSRP becomes small.

[0030] Therefore, the time series data of the beam quality of each candidate beam can embody the orientation of the terminal device relative to the base station and the movement of the terminal device, and since the short-term movement of the terminal device, such as the speed and direction of movement, is stable, the above time series data can be used to estimate the predicted probability that each candidate beam is an optimal beam.

[0031] The selection unit 320 of the electronic device 300 can select a measurement beam for the next beam tracking from among the candidate beams based on the predicted probability estimated by the estimation unit 310. For example, the selection unit 320 can select the measurement beam by selecting, from among the candidate beams, candidate beams whose number is as small as possible and whose total predicted probability satisfies a predetermined condition. The predetermined condition is, for example, but is not limited to, that the total predicted probability is greater than a predetermined threshold.

[0032] The electronic device 300 according to the embodiment can be applied to determining the measurement range of the transmitting beam tracking on the transmitting side or the receiving beam tracking on the receiving side. In the transmitting beam tracking on the transmitting side, for each transmitting beam (measurement beam) within the measurement range of the beam tracking, for example, the signal quality (e.g., RSRP) is measured using the receiving beam, and a beam to be used for data transmission can be determined from among these transmitting beams according to the signal quality corresponding to each transmitting beam obtained. In the transmitting beam tracking, the currently used receiving beam may be uniformly used for each transmitting beam, or the receiving beam corresponding to this transmitting beam in the previous beam pairing may be used for each transmitting beam, or an appropriate receiving beam determined by another method may be used. In the receiving beam tracking process on the receiving side, the signal quality of the transmitting beam is measured using this receiving beam for each receiving beam (measurement beam) within the measurement range of the beam tracking, and a beam to be used for data transmission can be determined from among these receiving beams according to the signal quality (e.g., RSRP) obtained using each receiving beam. In the receiving beam tracking process, preferably, the currently used transmitting beam is uniformly used for each receiving beam, or an appropriate transmitting beam determined by another method is used.

[0033] When the electronic device 300 is applied to transmit beam tracking on the transmitting side, the candidate beams and the measurement beams both refer to transmit beams, and when the electronic device 300 is applied to receive beam tracking on the receiving side, the candidate beams and the measurement beams both refer to receive beams. Without loss of generality, the expressions candidate beams and measurement beams are used uniformly here unless a particular distinction is required.

[0034] Alternatively, in one example, the selection unit 320 of the electronic device 300 may be further configured to select a measurement beam for initial beam tracking from among the candidate beams based on a result of beam scanning for another device that communicates with the electronic device using the candidate beam before performing initial beam tracking for the other device. As an example, the selection unit may select a candidate beam having the best beam quality in beam scanning (e.g., corresponding to the highest RSRP) as a measurement beam for initial beam tracking.

[0035] Optionally, in one example, the electronic device may further include a function of beam tracking. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of the electronic device according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 6, in addition to units 610, 620, and 630 corresponding to the estimation unit 310, the selection unit 320, and the optional communication unit 330 in FIG. 3, the electronic device 600 may further include an optional determination unit 640. Note that the units 610, 620, and 630 of the electronic device 600 may perform similar functions to the corresponding units of the electronic device 300, and only the difference, i.e., the determination unit, will be described here. The determination unit 640 may be configured to obtain signal quality corresponding to each measurement beam in the next beam tracking, and determine a beam to be used for data transmission from among the measurement beams according to the obtained signal quality. For example, the determination unit 640 may determine a measurement beam with the best signal quality in beam tracking (e.g., corresponding to the highest RSRP) as a beam to be used for data transmission.

[0036] According to this embodiment, the measurement range of the next beam tracking is dynamically determined for other devices communicating with the current electronic device by utilizing the result of previous beam tracking, so that an appropriate measurement range can be determined. For example, instead of setting a certain measurement range (for example, setting a relatively small measurement range to reduce beam tracking overhead), the measurement range of the next beam tracking is dynamically determined based on the result of previous beam tracking (for example, time series data of the beam quality of the candidate beam obtained in the previous beam tracking), so that even in the case of beam hopping due to user movement, the measurement range can be appropriately determined. In addition, when the electronic device of this embodiment is realized on the base station side, the measurement range of the beam tracking is determined not for the entire cell but for other devices communicating with it, i.e., for a single terminal device, so that unnecessary beam tracking overhead can be avoided for terminal devices with low movement speed.

[0037] Exemplary processing by the estimator and selector will now be further described.

[0038] [2.2 Exemplary Processing by the Estimation Unit] Preferably, the estimation unit 310 of the electronic device 300 of an embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured to determine the predicted probability of a candidate beam using a pre-obtained prediction model, which is obtained by machine learning using training data of beam tracking results.

[0039] As described above, in the time series data of the signal quality (herein also referred to as the beam quality of the candidate beam) corresponding to the candidate beam obtained as a result of the beam tracking, the ratio between the beam qualities of different beams can represent the orientation of the terminal device, and the change in the beam quality of each beam can represent the movement of the terminal device, so that such a result of the beam tracking can be used to estimate the predicted probability that each candidate beam is an optimal beam. In practical applications, the accuracy of directly using the time series data of the beam quality to estimate the predicted probability that the candidate beam is an optimal beam may be limited. This is because the ratio between the beam qualities, for example, the RSRP ratio, is subject to interference due to multipath and noise, and the change in the beam quality of each beam, for example, the change in the RSRP, is subject to significant fading changes, interference due to multipath and noise, and cannot accurately represent the orientation and movement of the terminal device.

[0040] In this preferred embodiment, the estimation unit 310 utilizes a prediction model obtained by machine learning using training data of beam tracking results in advance to effectively analyze the ratio between the beam qualities of different beams and the change in the beam quality of each beam, thereby accurately extracting the orientation characteristics and the movement characteristics of the terminal device. The input of the prediction model is the signal quality corresponding to the candidate beams obtained in the previous beam tracking, i.e., the time series data of the beam quality [R1, R2, ..., R t ], in which each element R i , 1≦i≦t is the beam quality, i.e., RSRP, of each candidate beam in the i-th beam tracking, and t is the current beam tracking iteration. The output of the prediction model can be, for example, the predicted probability that each candidate beam is the optimal beam in the next beam tracking.

[0041] The prediction model may include various suitable models capable of extracting time series features. For example, the prediction model may include a long short-term memory (LSTM) model. LSTM is a deep learning model for extracting time series features. FIG. 7 shows an exemplary configuration of an LSTM model, and the operators in the hatched blocks in the figure indicate operations such as dot product (left-hand operator in the first row) and addition (right-hand operator in the first row), tangent (tanh), and Sigmod function (σ), which will not be described again here. As shown in FIG. 7, the input information to the LSTM model at the current time t includes (1) the cell state and output at the previous time, i.e., time (t-1), and (2) the input to the LSTM model at the current time t. Thus, such a model can extract time series features, and only the input at the current time t can be provided from outside the LSTM model without repeatedly inputting previous input information from outside the LSTM each time it is used.

[0042] As an example, Fig. 8 shows an exemplary use of a prediction model by an estimation unit of an electronic device in one preferred embodiment. As shown in Fig. 8, the prediction model PM includes a CNN, a LTSM, a fully connected layer, and a Softmax layer, and the input of the model is the result of beam tracking at the tth time (also called the current time t), e.g., RSRP, and the output is the predicted probability that each candidate beam is an optimal beam, estimated for beam tracking at the (t+1)th time (also called the next time, i.e., the (t+1) time).

[0043] The input of the prediction model PM may be the RSRP of each candidate beam in the t-th beam tracking, and may be in the form of a vector whose length is the number M of candidate beams and each element corresponds to one candidate beam. For a candidate beam that is measured in the t-th beam tracking, i.e., a measurement beam, the measured RSRP is at the corresponding index of the vector, and for a beam that is not measured in the t-th beam tracking, the corresponding index of the vector is 0.

[0044] The CNN in the prediction model PM is used to extract initial features from the t-th beam tracking result, i.e., RSRP. The LSTM model in the prediction model PM inputs the initial features extracted by the CNN from the t-th beam tracking result, while inputting the output and cell state of the LSTM model that performed the previous, i.e., the (t-1)th, beam tracking. The output x of the LSTM model for the t-th beam tracking is provided to the fully connected layer. The fully connected layer converts the output of the LSTM to y using y=Wx+b, where y is the output of the fully connected layer and is a vector whose length is the number of candidate beams, and W and b are the linear weight and offset of the fully connected layer, respectively. The Softmax layer converts the output of the fully connected layer into a predicted probability that the candidate beam is the optimal beam. The Softmax layer is expressed as follows:

[0045]

number

[0046] The output of the prediction model PM is the predicted probability {p1, p2, ..., p M}.

[0047] Using the pre-marked training data, the above prediction model can be obtained through training in various suitable manners, for example, the model parameters can be optimized through various optimizers using cross-entropy as a loss function, which will not be described again here.

[0048] [2.3 Exemplary Processing by the Selection Unit] The selection unit 320 of the electronic device 300 of the embodiment of the present disclosure can perform measurement beam selection by various exemplary processes so that the total predicted probability of the selected candidate beams meets a predetermined condition when the number of selected candidate beams is as small as possible. The predetermined condition includes, but is not limited to, for example, that the total predicted probability is greater than a predetermined threshold η. A large threshold can be set to ensure the success of beam tracking. For example, η=0.99 can be set. A threshold such as 0.9 or 0.95 can also be set, but is not particularly limited here.

[0049] (First example) In a first example, the selection unit 320 can select the measurement beams, i.e., determine the measurement beam set, by selecting from the candidate beams the minimum number of candidate beams whose total predicted probability satisfies a predetermined condition.

[0050] Preferably, the predetermined condition is that the total predicted probability is greater than a predetermined threshold η. For example, the predicted probabilities of the M candidate beams obtained by the estimation unit are, in descending order, p i1、 p i2 ,...,p iM It can be expressed as:

[0051]

number

[0052] The selection unit 320 can select N candidate beams that satisfy the following condition as measurement beams for the next beam tracking based on the probability threshold η and the predicted probability of each candidate beam.

[0053]

number

[0054] Instead, the predetermined condition can be that the total predicted probability of the selected candidate beams is as large as possible and the number of candidate beams is as small as possible. For example, the total predicted probability P total1 and the next smallest number, N2, of candidate beams, the total predicted probability P total2 If the difference between the first and second candidate beams is less than a predetermined probability difference threshold, the smallest number, N1, of the candidate beams can be selected as measurement beams for the next beam tracking; otherwise, the next smallest number, N2, of the candidate beams can be selected as measurement beams for the next beam tracking.

[0055] In the first example, the measurement beam selection can be changed in units of a single candidate beam. Since the measurement beam for each beam tracking can be changed with a granularity of a single beam, the measurement range can be flexibly changed and the beam tracking overhead can be reduced.

[0056] (Second example) In a second example, the selection unit 320 can select the measurement beam by selecting, from among multiple candidate beam sets, a candidate beam set whose total predicted probability of the candidate beams contained therein is the smallest, satisfying a predetermined condition.

[0057] Preferably, the predetermined condition may be that the total predicted probability is greater than a predetermined threshold η.

[0058] As an example, each candidate beam set considered by the selection unit 320 includes one or more adjacent beam sets, each of which is centered on an optimal predicted beam having the highest predicted probability among all candidate beams and includes candidate beams at a predetermined beam distance from the optimal predicted beam, and the Lth candidate beam set may include an adjacent beam set having a minimum beam distance and (L-1) adjacent beam sets whose beam distances increase in order from the minimum value (L is a natural number greater than or equal to 1).

[0059] For example, the number of adjacent layers (number or index of adjacent beam sets) l (l=0, 1, 2, 3, ...) and the corresponding adjacent beam sets B l where the beam distances of all candidate beams in a specified neighboring beam set to the optimal predicted beam are the same, and the above beam distances of the neighboring beam set with a lower layer number (lower number) are smaller than the above beam distances of the neighboring beam set with a higher layer number (higher number). From the 0th neighboring layer, define the neighboring beam sets with the beam distances from smallest to largest to the optimal predicted beam. 1st candidate beam set

number

number

number

number

[0060] For example, the selection unit 320 selects a probability threshold η and a neighboring beam set B included in each candidate beam set. l Based on the predicted probability pi of the i-th candidate beam in

number

[0061]

number

[0062] Alternatively, the predetermined condition can be that the total predicted probability of the selected candidate beam set is as large as possible and the candidate beam set is as small as possible. For example, the total predicted probability P total1 and the total predicted probability P total2 If the difference between the L1th candidate beam and the L2th candidate beam is smaller than a predetermined probability difference threshold, the L1th candidate beam can be selected as the measurement beam for the next beam tracking; otherwise, the L2th candidate beam can be selected as the measurement beam for the next beam tracking.

[0063] In each adjacent beam set, the optimal predicted beam can be, for example, the beam with the largest predicted probability estimated by the estimation unit, and the beam distance between the candidate beam and the optimal predicted beam can be determined from the difference between the direction of the candidate beam and the direction of the optimal predicted beam.

[0064] For example, in the case of a linear antenna array (ULA), when M candidate beams are sorted in the order of direction to 1, 2, ..., M, the beam distance between a beam with index i and a beam with index j is defined as |ij|, where |·| indicates an absolute value, and i and j are natural numbers from 1 to M, respectively. FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram for explaining an example of an adjacent beam set defined for a linear antenna array (ULA). As shown in FIG. 9, the candidate beam at the center in the figure is the optimal prediction beam, and a total of four adjacent layers, l=0, 1, 2, 3, are defined according to the beam distance with this beam.

[0065] In the case of a rectangular antenna array (UPA), each candidate beam is assigned 1, 2, ..., M in the horizontal order. h are sorted vertically into 1,2,...,M v When sorted, the horizontal index i h and the vertical index is i v and a beam with horizontal index j h and the vertical index is j v The beam distance to the beam is

number

[0066] In the second example, the measurement beam selection can be changed on a candidate beam set basis. Since the candidate beam set may include multiple beams, the next beam tracking can continue to use the measurement beam of the previous beam tracking, i.e., the candidate beam set, and there is no need to change the measurement range of the beam tracking. Therefore, the signaling overhead regarding the change in the measurement range of the beam tracking can be reduced.

[0067] Above, an exemplary process of the electronic device and its components according to the embodiment has been described. Next, an exemplary configuration or exemplary process of the electronic device according to the embodiment will be further described for the case where the electronic device is realized on the transmitting side and the case where the electronic device is realized on the receiving side. In the following example, a downlink scene will be described as an example. Due to beam symmetry or beam coincidence, in the case of a downlink scene, the optimal beam can be obtained by performing beam tracking on the transmitting side (base station side) and the receiving side (terminal side) to obtain the optimal beam, and then the optimal beam of the uplink scene can be obtained correspondingly. In addition, based on the contents of the present disclosure, a person skilled in the art can appropriately apply the examples and processes for the downlink scene provided in the embodiment to the uplink scene (for example, after appropriate modification), and therefore will not be described again here.

[0068] [2.4 Examples of electronic devices implemented on the sending side] In this example, for example, the electronic device described above with reference to FIG. 3 or FIG. 6 is implemented on the transmitting side. In this case, for example, the candidate beam can be a transmission beam of a downlink reference signal (e.g., a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS)), the electronic device can be, for example, a network side device such as a base station or a TRP, and the other device communicating with the electronic device can be a terminal device. Optionally, the terminal device may have the functionality of the electronic device described above with reference to FIG. 3 or FIG. 6.

[0069] In one preferred embodiment, the electronic device on the network side can configure a flexible downlink reference signal set for the terminal device. FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a further configuration example of the electronic device according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 11, in addition to units 1110, 1120, 1130, and 1140 corresponding to the estimation unit 610, the selection unit 620, the optional communication unit 630, and the optional determination unit 640 in FIG. 6, the electronic device 1100 can further include an optional configuration unit 1150. The configuration unit 1150 of the electronic device 1100 can be configured to pre-generate configuration information of a resource set of downlink reference signals, each downlink reference signal in the resource set is transmitted separately (so that the resource set is also called a flexible resource set), and the electronic device 1100 provides the configuration information to the terminal device via the communication unit 1130. Optionally, each downlink reference signal in the resource set has a corresponding transmission beam, and the transmission beams of all downlink reference signals in the resource set cover all possible transmission beams of the electronic device.

[0070] As an example, the flexible resource set configured by the configuration unit 1150 can be a flexible CSI-RS resource set. The number of CSI-RS resources included in the conventional CSI-RS resource set is fixed. Therefore, when transmit beam tracking is performed using the conventional CSI-RS resource set, for example, when the number of measurement beams for transmit beam tracking changes, a new CSI-RS resource set may need to be configured. However, NR specifies an upper limit of the number of user CSI-RS resource sets as 16, and beam tracking in which the number of measurement beams in the embodiment changes dynamically may occupy a large amount of CSI-RS resource sets. Therefore, the electronic device according to this preferred embodiment can support a scene in which the number of measurement beams for beam tracking changes dynamically using this single CSI-RS resource set by utilizing the configuration unit to provide a flexible CSI-RS resource set.

[0071] For example, when using the configured flexible resource set, if the electronic device 1100 selects a different downlink reference signal or a different number of downlink reference signals for the next beam tracking and the previous beam tracking, for example, via the selection unit 1120, the electronic device 1100 can transmit an instruction regarding the selected downlink reference signal or the number of selected downlink reference signals for the next beam tracking to the terminal device via the communication unit 1130. In this way, when the measurement beam or the number of measurement beams for beam tracking changes, the electronic device 1100 does not need to configure a new CSI-RS resource set, but only needs to activate or trigger the CSI-RS selected from the flexible CSI-RS resource set and transmit these CSI-RS.

[0072] Next, an exemplary signaling flow in which the electronic device 1100 on the network side performs beam tracking will be described with reference to a specific example. FIG. 12 is a flowchart for describing an exemplary signaling interaction of a beam tracking process of an electronic device realized on the network side. In the example shown in FIG. 12, the electronic device 1100 is realized as a base station BS, and another device communicating with it is a terminal device UE, and the electronic device determines a measurement beam by the measurement beam selection method according to the first example described in the previous section "2.3 Exemplary Processing by the Selection Unit" (measurement beam selection in units of a single beam) or the measurement beam selection method according to the second example (measurement beam selection in units of a candidate beam set), that is, determines a set of measurement beams, and can perform beam tracking using the determined measurement beam set.

[0073] As shown in Figure 12, optionally, in step S1, the BS configures a flexible downlink reference signal resource set, for example, a flexible CSI-RS resource set, in which each CSI-RS can be transmitted separately and has a corresponding transmission beam, and the transmission beams of all CSI-RS in the resource set cover all possible transmission beams of the BS. Due to the correspondence between the CSI-RS and the transmission beam in this disclosure, hereinafter, when there is no need to particularly distinguish, it simply refers to the transmission beam selected by the selected CSI-RS, or refers to the CSI-RS selected by the selected transmission beam.

[0074] In step S2, optionally, the BS determines a probability threshold η TRP , and the default number of measurement beams N TRP / Measurement beam set number L TRP,de and determine the measurement beam set for the initial beam tracking.

[0075] Then, when performing measurement beam selection for a single candidate beam, the BS selects η TRP and N TRP By configuring the base station side transmission beam scanning, for example, the beam quality is the best (for example, the beam has the highest RSRP) N TRP Candidate beams (e.g., N TRP 1 CSI-RS) can be determined as the measurement beam set for initial beam tracking.

[0076] Then, when selecting a measurement beam for each candidate beam set, BS selects η TRP and L TRP,de By constructing L, for example, the transmission beam with the best beam quality (e.g., the highest RSRP) in the transmission beam scanning on the base station side is centered (i.e., this transmission beam is constructed as the optimal predicted beam). TRP,de The th candidate beam set (e.g., numbered L TRP,de(determine a set of candidate CSI-RSs for which .gamma.-1 is a candidate CSI-RS set) may be determined as a measurement beam (measurement CSI-RS set) for initial beam tracking.

[0077] In step S3, the BS may send a (base station) beam tracking notification to the UE to provide an indication of the selected measurement beam for beam tracking, i.e., the selected CSI-RS.

[0078] In step S4, the BS periodically transmits the selected CSI-RS to the UE, so that the UE uses the receiving beam to measure the RSRP for each CSI-RS used as a measurement beam in turn.

[0079] In step S5, the UE feeds back the RSRP of each CSI-RS used as a measurement beam to the BS as the measurement result of this beam tracking.

[0080] In step S6, the BS can determine the used beam and the measurement beam for the next beam tracking based on the acquired beam tracking measurement result. Here, if the BS configures the probability threshold and the number of default measurement beams in step S2, it performs measurement beam selection in units of a single candidate beam in step S6, and if the BS configures the probability threshold and the default measurement beam set number in step S2, it performs measurement beam selection in units of a candidate beam set in step S6. The specific selection method is as above and will not be described again.

[0081] The above steps S4 to S6 can be executed periodically until the number of measurement beams determined by the BS in step S6 changes.

[0082] If the number of measurement beams determined by the BS in step S6 has changed, then in step S7 the BS sends a new beam tracking notification to the UE to provide an indication of the selected measurement beam for beam tracking, i.e., the selected CSI-RS. Alternatively, if the number of measurement beams determined in step S6 has not changed but the beam has changed, then the BS sends a new base station beam tracking notification to the UE in step S7 to provide an indication of the selected measurement beam for beam tracking, i.e., the selected CSI-RS. Thereafter, similar processing from step S4 may be continued, but is not repeated here.

[0083] Here, if the UE side uses the current receiving beam to perform signal quality measurements of each candidate transmitting beam, the indication of the selected CSI-RS for beam tracking sent in steps S3 and S7 is used to indicate the number of selected CSI-RSs (the indication in step S7 can be sent only if the number of measurement beams changes), so that the UE side knows how many signal quality measurements need to be performed. If the UE side uses the receiving beams corresponding to each previously obtained transmitting beam to perform signal quality measurements of the candidate transmitting beams, the indication of the selected CSI-RS for beam tracking sent in steps S3 and S7 is used to indicate each selected CSI-RS (the indication in step S7 can be sent if the measurement beam changes), so that the UE side further knows which receiving beam to use to perform the measurements.

[0084] [2.5 Examples of electronic devices implemented on the receiving side] In this example, for example, the electronic device described above with reference to FIG. 3 or FIG. 6 is implemented on the receiving side. In this case, for example, the candidate beam can be a receiving beam for a downlink reference signal (for example, CSI-RS), and the electronic device can be a terminal device. Other devices communicating with the electronic device can be, for example, network side devices such as a base station or a TRP. Optionally, the network side device may have the functionality of the electronic device described above with reference to FIG. 3, FIG. 6, or FIG. 11.

[0085] In one preferred embodiment, the terminal side electronic device can obtain, for example, through its communication unit, configuration information of a resource set of downlink reference signals from a network side device in advance, and each downlink reference signal in the resource set can be transmitted separately. Thus, the resource set is also called a flexible resource set. Optionally, each downlink reference signal in the resource set has a corresponding transmission beam, and the transmission beams of all downlink reference signals in the resource set cover all possible transmission beams of the network side device.

[0086] For example, such a flexible resource set can be a flexible CSI-RS resource set. The number of CSI-RS resources included in a conventional CSI-RS resource set is fixed. Therefore, when performing receive beam tracking using a conventional CSI-RS resource set, for example, when the number of measurement beams for receive beam tracking changes, the network side device needs to transmit the number of times or the number of transmit beams corresponding to this number, and therefore may need to configure a new CSI-RS resource set. By using a flexible CSI-RS resource set configured on the network side, the electronic device according to this embodiment can support a scene in which the number of measurement beams for receive beam tracking changes dynamically using this single CSI-RS resource set.

[0087] For example, when using the configured flexible resource set, if the electronic device, which is a terminal device, selects, for example, via a selection unit, a different number of reception beams for the next beam tracking and the previous beam tracking, it can transmit a request for a downlink reference signal for the next beam tracking to the network side device via the communication unit. In this way, when the number of measurement reception beams for beam tracking changes, the network side device does not need to configure a new CSI-RS resource set, but only needs to activate or trigger and transmit the required number or times of CSI-RS in the flexible CSI-RS resource set.

[0088] Next, an exemplary signaling flow in which the electronic device on the terminal side selects a measurement beam for receiving beam tracking will be described with reference to a specific example. Figure 13 is a flowchart for describing an exemplary signaling interaction of a beam tracking process of the electronic device realized on the terminal side. In the example shown in Figure 13, the electronic device is realized as a terminal device UE, and another device communicating with it is a base station BS, and the electronic device determines a measurement beam by the measurement beam selection method according to the first example described in the previous "2.3 Exemplary Processing by the Selection Unit" (measurement beam selection in units of a single beam) or the measurement beam selection method according to the second example (measurement beam selection in units of a candidate beam set), that is, determines a set of measurement beams, and can perform beam tracking using the determined measurement beam set.

[0089] As shown in FIG. 13, optionally, in step S1, the BS configures a flexible downlink reference signal resource set, e.g., a flexible CSI-RS resource set, in which each CSI-RS can be transmitted separately and has a corresponding transmission beam, and the transmission beams of all CSI-RS in the resource set cover all possible transmission beams of the BS.

[0090] In step S2, optionally, the UE determines a probability threshold η UE, and the default number of measurement beams N UE / Measurement beam set number L UE,de and determine the measurement beam for the initial beam tracking.

[0091] Then, when performing measurement beam selection for a single candidate beam, the UE UE and N UE For example, by configuring N UE The candidate beams can be determined as measurement beams for initial beam tracking.

[0092] Then, when performing measurement beam selection for each candidate beam set, the UE selects η UE and L UE,de By constructing L, for example, the receiving beam with the best beam quality (having the highest RSRP) in the terminal side receiving beam scanning is centered (i.e., this receiving beam is constructed as the optimal predicted beam). UE,de The th candidate beam set can be determined as measurement beams for initial beam tracking.

[0093] In step S3, the UE can transmit a (terminal) beam tracking request to the BS to express a request for CSI-RS for beam tracking to the base station. The request transmitted by the UE may include the number of measurement beams for received beam tracking and related information for determining this number (e.g., the number of measurement beams installed, N UE / Measurement beam set number L UE,de , and the correspondence between the set number and the number of measurement beams, etc.), so that the base station side can know the number or number of CSI-RS that needs to be transmitted. Correspondingly, the BS can transmit the number or number of CSI-RS corresponding to the number of measurement beams of the receive beam tracking, so that the UE measures the CSI-RS transmitted by the BS using each receive beam that is a measurement beam.

[0094] In optional step S4, the BS may send a terminal beam tracking resource indication to the UE to indicate the CSI-RS resources to be used for beam tracking.

[0095] In step S5, the BS periodically transmits the required CSI-RS to the UE, so that the UE sequentially uses each receiving beam, which is the measurement beam, to measure the RSRP of the CSI-RS as the measurement result of this beam tracking.

[0096] In step S6, the UE can determine the used beam and the measurement beam set of the next beam tracking based on the acquired beam tracking measurement result. Here, if the UE configures the probability threshold and the number of default measurement beams in step S2, the measurement beam selection is performed in units of a single candidate beam in step S6, and if the UE configures the probability threshold and the default measurement beam set number in step S2, the measurement beam selection is performed in units of a candidate beam set in step S6. The specific selection manner is as above and will not be described again here.

[0097] The above steps S5 to S6 can be executed periodically until the number of beams in the measurement beam set determined by the UE in step S6 changes.

[0098] If the number of beams in the measurement beam set determined by the UE in step S6 has changed, in step S7, the UE sends a new terminal beam request notification to the BS to express a request for CSI-RS for beam tracking to the base station. This request can be similar to the request in step S3.

[0099] In optional step S8, the BS sends a new user beam tracking resource indication to the UE to indicate the CSI-RS resources to be used for beam tracking, after which processing similar to that from step S5 may follow, but is not repeated here.

[0100] In another preferred embodiment of this example, the electronic device 600 described with reference to Fig. 6 above is implemented on the receiving side. In this case, the determination unit 640 of this electronic device can be configured to, for example, obtain signal quality corresponding to each measurement beam in the next beam tracking by various conventional measurement methods, determine a beam (used beam) to be used for data transmission from among the measurement beams according to the obtained signal quality, measure a block error ratio (BLER) of the used beam, and transmit a beam tracking recovery request to the base station if the BLER of the used beam is greater than a set threshold (this threshold can be appropriately set in advance, for example, by experiment or according to the needs of the system).

[0101] Optionally, in this embodiment, the electronic device can determine a backup beam by a selection unit or a determination unit, etc., and perform uplink random access using the determined backup beam. For example, the electronic device can determine a backup beam based on a measurement beam selected by the selection unit for beam tracking, i.e., a measurement beam set, and can set other measurement beams other than the used beam in the measurement beam set as backup beams.

[0102] For example, when the selection unit of the electronic device selects, for beam tracking, the minimum number of measurement beams whose total predicted probability is higher than a predetermined threshold as the measurement beams for beam tracking, i.e., the measurement beam set, for each single beam, the electronic device may select, for example, the measurement beam with the maximum predicted probability, excluding the beam determined by the determination unit as the used beam in this measurement beam set, as the backup beam. Similarly, when the selection unit of the electronic device selects, for beam tracking, the minimum candidate beam set whose total predicted probability is higher than a predetermined threshold as the measurement beams for beam tracking, i.e., the measurement beam set, for each candidate beam set, the electronic device may select, for example, the measurement beam with the maximum predicted probability, excluding the beam determined by the determination unit as the used beam in this measurement beam set, as the backup beam. Instead, the electronic device may determine the backup beam based on other beam measurements. If uplink random access fails using the determined backup beam, the electronic device, which is the terminal, and the base station perform link recovery.

[0103] [2.6 Simulation results] Next, referring to Figures 14 and 15, simulation results of beam tracking using an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described, where Figures 14 and 15 are schematic diagrams for explaining exemplary simulation results of a beam tracking process of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, respectively showing the accuracy of the beam tracking process and the number of measurement beams.

[0104] In a simulation example, for example, the electronic device 600 shown in Fig. 6 is realized on the network side, for example, the base station side, and performs beam tracking of the base station transmission beam for a specified terminal device, and selects a measurement beam set for beam tracking in units of candidate beam sets using, for example, the prediction model described with reference to Fig. 8 above, and determines the beam to be used in the measurement beam set by beam tracking. The simulation scene considers an LOS environment, the cell radius is 100 m, only a single antenna is placed in the terminal device, the maximum movement speed of the terminal device is 30 m / s, and its movement direction is randomly generated within [0, 2π], and generates channel data using the conventional COST2100 wireless channel model.

[0105] The simulation parameters are shown in Table 1.

[0106] [Table 1]

[0107] In the simulation example, the accuracy and the number of (average) measured beams of beam tracking are used as the evaluation indexes of the beam tracking process. If the total number of samples for evaluation is N1, and the number of samples where the used beam obtained by beam tracking is the optimal beam is N2, the accuracy is expressed as the following formula.

[0108]

number

[0109] The accuracy of beam tracking with different probability thresholds η is shown in Fig. 14. It can be seen that for all the η used in the simulations, the accuracy reaches more than 85%. When η = 0.99, the accuracy reaches more than 99%, achieving almost perfect beam alignment. When beam tracking starts, the accuracy decreases over time. This is because beam tracking measures only a part of the beam and may fail to track. However, after 0.2s, the accuracy increases. This is because the prediction model extracts user movement features relatively accurately from the beam tracking RSRP over a certain period of time.

[0110] The number of (average) measurement beams for beam tracking with different probability thresholds η is shown in FIG. 15, where the number of initial measurement beams is set to 7. It can be seen that the number of measurement beams gradually decreases over time. This is because the prediction model relatively accurately extracts user movement features from the beam tracking RSRP over a certain period of time. After 0.2 s, the electronic device according to the embodiment of the present disclosure needs to measure only 3 beams or less on average.

[0111] 3. Method Examples Corresponding to the above apparatus embodiments, the present disclosure provides the following method embodiments.

[0112] FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an example process of a method for wireless communication according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0113] As shown in FIG. 16, in step S1601, a predicted probability that each candidate beam is an optimal beam is estimated based on the results of beam tracking performed on other devices that communicate with the electronic device using a previous candidate beam.

[0114] Next, in step S1602, a measurement beam for the next beam tracking is selected from among the candidate beams based on the estimated predicted probability.

[0115] Optionally, the beam tracking result used in step S1601 includes time series data of signal quality corresponding to the candidate beam obtained by beam tracking. For example, optionally, in step S1601, a prediction probability of the candidate beam can be determined using a prediction model obtained in advance, and the prediction model is obtained by machine learning using training data of the beam tracking result.

[0116] Optionally, in step S1602, the measurement beam may be selected by selecting from among the candidate beams a minimum number of candidate beams whose total predicted probability satisfies a predetermined condition. Alternatively, the measurement beam may be selected by selecting from among a plurality of candidate beam sets a minimum candidate beam set whose total predicted probability of the included candidate beams satisfies a predetermined condition.

[0117] When performing measurement beam selection based on candidate beam sets, each candidate beam set includes one or more adjacent beam sets, each of which is centered on an optimal predicted beam having the highest predicted probability among all candidate beams and includes candidate beams at a predetermined beam distance from the optimal predicted beam, and the Lth candidate beam set may include an adjacent beam set whose beam distance is the minimum value and (L-1) adjacent beam sets whose beam distances increase in order from the minimum value (L is a natural number greater than or equal to 1).As an example, the distance between a candidate beam and an optimal predicted beam may be determined from the difference between the direction of the candidate beam and the direction of the optimal predicted beam.

[0118] Although not shown, the method may further include acquiring signal quality corresponding to each measurement beam in the next beam tracking, and determining a beam to be used for data transmission from among the measurement beams based on the acquired signal quality.

[0119] Also, although not shown, the method may further include selecting a measurement beam for initial beam tracking from among the candidate beams based on the results of beam scanning for the other equipment using the candidate beams before performing initial beam tracking for the other equipment.

[0120] In one embodiment, the method for wireless communication shown in FIG. 16 can be applied to the transmitting side, i.e., the network side, in a downlink scenario.

[0121] In this case, the candidate beam may be a transmission beam of a downlink reference signal, and the electronic device may be a network side device.

[0122] At this time, although not shown, the method in this embodiment may further include providing the other device with configuration information of a resource set of downlink reference signals in advance, and each downlink reference signal in the resource set may be transmitted separately. Optionally, the method may further include transmitting an instruction to the other device regarding the number of downlink reference signals to be selected for the next beam tracking when selecting a different number of downlink reference signals for the next beam tracking and the previous beam tracking. Alternatively, the method may further include transmitting an instruction to the other device regarding the downlink reference signal to be selected for the next beam tracking when selecting a different downlink reference signal for the next beam tracking and the previous beam tracking.

[0123] In another embodiment, the method for wireless communication shown in FIG. 16 can be applied to the receiving side, ie, the terminal side, in a downlink scenario.

[0124] In this case, the candidate beams are receiving beams for a downlink reference signal, and the electronic device can be a terminal device.

[0125] In this case, although not shown, the method in this embodiment may further include obtaining configuration information of a resource set of downlink reference signals from a network side device in advance, and each downlink reference signal in the resource set may be transmitted separately. Optionally, the method may further include transmitting a request for a downlink reference signal of the next beam tracking to the network side device when selecting a different number of receiving beams for the next beam tracking and the previous beam tracking. Optionally, the method may further include receiving an instruction on the downlink reference signal to be used for the next beam tracking from the network side device, transmitted in response to the request.

[0126] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the main body performing the above method can be the electronic device 300, 600 or 1100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, so all the embodiments related to the electronic device 300, 600, 1100 above are applicable here.

[0127] <4. Application Examples> The techniques disclosed herein can be applied to a variety of products.

[0128] For example, when the electronic device is realized on the base station side, it may be realized as any type of base station device, such as a macro eNB or a small eNB, or may be realized as any type of gNB (base station in a 5G system). The small eNB may be an eNB covering a cell smaller than a macro cell, such as a pico eNB, a micro eNB, and a home (femto) eNB. Alternatively, the base station may be realized as any other type of base station, such as a NodeB or a base station transceiver (BTS). The base station may include a subject (also called a base station device) configured to control wireless communication and one or more remote radio heads (RRHs) provided at a location different from the subject.

[0129] Also, the electronic device on the network side may be realized as any type of TRP. The TRP has a transmitting and receiving function, and may, for example, receive information from the user equipment and the base station device, or may transmit information to the user equipment and the base station device. In a specific example, the TRP may provide a service to the user equipment and be controlled by the base station device. Furthermore, the TRP may have a configuration similar to that of the base station device, or may only have a configuration related to the transmission and reception of information in the base station device.

[0130] When the electronic device is realized as a terminal device, it may be various user equipment, and may be realized as a mobile terminal (e.g., a smartphone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable / dongle mobile router, and a digital imaging device) or an in-vehicle terminal (e.g., a car navigation device). The user equipment may further be realized as a terminal that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication (also called a machine type communication (MTC) terminal). In addition, the user equipment may be a wireless communication module (e.g., an integrated circuit module including a single chip) mounted on each of these user equipment.

[0131] [Application example for base station] (First application example) 17 is a block diagram showing a first example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The eNB 1800 includes one or more antennas 1810 and a base station device 1820. The base station device 1820 and each antenna 1810 may be connected to each other via an RF cable.

[0132] Each of the antennas 1810 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (e.g., multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for transmitting and receiving radio signals by the base station device 1820. The eNB 1800 may include multiple antennas 1810 as shown in FIG. 17. The multiple antennas 1810 may be compatible with, for example, multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 1800. Although FIG. 17 shows an example in which the eNB 1800 includes multiple antennas 1810, the eNB 1800 may include a single antenna 1810.

[0133] The base station device 1820 includes a controller 1821 , a memory 1822 , a network interface 1823 , and a wireless communication interface 1825 .

[0134] The controller 1821 may be, for example, a CPU or a DSP, and operates various functions of the upper layer of the base station device 1820. For example, the controller 1821 generates a data packet from data in a signal processed by the wireless communication interface 1825, and transfers the generated packet via the network interface 1823. The controller 1821 can generate a bundled packet by bundling data from multiple baseband processors, and transfer the generated bundled packet. The controller 1821 can also have a logical function of performing control such as radio resource control, radio bearer control, mobility management, admission control, or scheduling. The control can also be performed in cooperation with a nearby eNB or core network node. The memory 1822 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores programs executed by the controller 1821 and various control data (for example, a terminal list, transmission power data, and scheduling data).

[0135] The network interface 1823 is a communication interface for connecting the base station device 1820 to the core network 1824. The controller 1821 can communicate with a core network node or other eNBs via the network interface 1823. In this case, the eNB 1800 and the core network node or other eNBs are connected to each other by a logical interface (e.g., an S1 interface and an X2 interface). The network interface 1823 may be a wired communication interface or a wireless communication interface for a wireless backhaul line. When the network interface 1823 is a wireless communication interface, the network interface 1823 can use a higher frequency band for wireless communication compared to the frequency band used by the wireless communication interface 1825.

[0136] The wireless communication interface 1825 supports any cellular communication method (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced) and provides wireless connection to terminals located in the cell of the eNB 1800 via the antenna 1810. The wireless communication interface 1825 may typically include, for example, a baseband (BB) processor 1826 and an RF circuit 1827. The BB processor 1826 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and may perform various types of signal processing of layers (e.g., L1, media access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data aggregation protocol (PDCP)). The BB processor 1826 may have some or all of the above logical functions instead of the controller 1821. The BB processor 1826 may be a memory that stores a communication control program, or may be a module including a processor and related circuits configured to execute the program. Program updates may change the functionality of the BB processor 1826. The module may be a card or blade that is inserted into a slot in the base station device 1820. Alternatively, the module may be a chip mounted on the card or blade. At the same time, the RF circuitry 1827 may include, for example, mixers, filters, and amplifiers, and may transmit and receive radio signals via the antenna 1810.

[0137] As shown in FIG. 17, the wireless communication interface 1825 may include multiple BB processors 1826. For example, the multiple BB processors 1826 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 1800. As shown in FIG. 17, the wireless communication interface 1825 may include multiple RF circuits 1827. For example, the multiple RF circuits 1827 may be compatible with multiple antenna elements. Although FIG. 17 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1825 includes multiple BB processors 1826 and multiple RF circuits 1827, the wireless communication interface 1825 may include a single BB processor 1826 or a single RF circuit 1827.

[0138] 17, the communication units in the electronic devices 300, 600, 1100 described with reference to FIGS. 3, 6, and 11 may be realized by a wireless communication interface 1825 and an optional antenna 1810. Functions of the estimation units and selection units in the electronic devices 300, 600, 1100, the determination units in the electronic devices 600, 1100, and the components in the electronic device 1100 may be realized by a controller 1821. For example, the controller 1821 may realize the functions of the estimation unit, selection unit, determination unit, and / or components by executing instructions stored in a memory 1822.

[0139] (Second application example) 18 is a block diagram showing a second example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The eNB 1930 includes one or more antennas 1940, a base station device 1950, and an RRH 1960. The RRH 1960 and each antenna 1940 may be connected to each other via an RF cable. The base station device 1950 and the RRH 1960 may be connected to each other via a high-speed line such as an optical fiber cable.

[0140] Each of the antennas 1940 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (e.g., multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for transmitting and receiving radio signals by the RRH 1960. The eNB 1930 may include multiple antennas 1940 as shown in FIG. 18. The multiple antennas 1940 may be compatible with, for example, multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 1930. Although FIG. 18 shows an example in which the eNB 1930 includes multiple antennas 1940, the eNB 1930 may include a single antenna 1940.

[0141] The base station device 1950 includes a controller 1951, a memory 1952, a network interface 1953, a wireless communication interface 1955, and a connection interface 1957. The controller 1951, the memory 1952, and the network interface 1953 are similar to the controller 1821, the memory 1822, and the network interface 1823 described with reference to FIG.

[0142] The wireless communication interface 1955 supports any cellular communication method (e.g., LTE and LTE-Advanced) and provides wireless connection to a terminal located in a sector corresponding to the RRH 1960 via the RRH 1960 and the antenna 1940. The wireless communication interface 1955 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1956. The BB processor 1956 is similar to the BB processor 1826 described with reference to FIG. 17 except that the BB processor 1956 is connected to the RF circuit 1964 of the RRH 1960 via a connection interface 1957. The wireless communication interface 1955 may include multiple BB processors 1956 as shown in FIG. 18. The multiple BB processors 1956 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 1930, for example. Note that, although FIG. 18 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1955 includes multiple BB processors 1956, the wireless communication interface 1955 may include a single BB processor 1956.

[0143] The connection interface 1957 is an interface for connecting the base station device 1950 (wireless communication interface 1955) to the RRH 1960. The connection interface 1957 may be a communication module for communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line for connecting the base station device 1950 (wireless communication interface 1955) to the RRH 1960.

[0144] The RRH 1960 includes a connection interface 1961 and a wireless communication interface 1963 .

[0145] The connection interface 1961 is an interface for connecting the RRH 1960 (wireless communication interface 1963) to the base station device 1950. The connection interface 1961 may be a communication module for communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line.

[0146] The wireless communication interface 1963 transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1940. The wireless communication interface 1963 can typically include, for example, an RF circuit 1964. The RF circuit 1964 can include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and can transmit and receive wireless signals via the antenna 1940. The wireless communication interface 1963 can include multiple RF circuits 1964 as shown in FIG. 18. The multiple RF circuits 1964 can support multiple antenna elements. Note that, although FIG. 18 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1963 includes multiple RF circuits 1964, the wireless communication interface 1963 may include a single RF circuit 1964.

[0147] 18, the communication units in the electronic devices 300, 600, 1100 described with reference to FIGS. 3, 6, and 11 may be realized by a wireless communication interface 1963 and an optional antenna 1940. The functions of the estimation units and selection units in the electronic devices 300, 600, 1100, the determination units in the electronic devices 600, 1100, and the components in the electronic device 1100 may be realized by a controller 1951. For example, the controller 1951 may realize the functions of the estimation unit, the selection unit, the determination unit, and / or the components by executing instructions stored in a memory 1952.

[0148] [Application examples for user devices] (First application example) 19 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone 2000 to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The smartphone 2000 includes a processor 2001, a memory 2002, a storage device 2003, an external connection interface 2004, an imaging device 2006, a sensor 2007, a microphone 2008, an input device 2009, a display device 2010, a speaker 2011, a wireless communication interface 2012, one or more antenna switches 2015, one or more antennas 2016, a bus 2017, a battery 2018, and an auxiliary controller 2019.

[0149] The processor 2001 is, for example, a CPU or a system on chip (SoC), and can control the functions of the application layer and other layers of the smartphone 2000. The memory 2002 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 2001. The storage device 2003 can include storage media such as a semiconductor memory and a hard disk. The external connection interface 2004 is an interface for connecting an external device (for example, a memory card and a universal serial bus (USB) device) to the smartphone 2000.

[0150] The imaging device 2006 includes an image sensor (e.g., a charge-coupled device (CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)) and generates an image. The sensor 2007 can include a set of sensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 2008 converts a sound input to the smartphone 2000 into an audio signal. The input device 2009 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a keypad, a keyboard, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 2010, and receives an operation or information input from a user. The display device 2010 includes a screen (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display), and displays an output image of the smartphone 2000. The speaker 2011 converts an audio signal output from the smartphone 2000 into a sound.

[0151] The wireless communication interface 2012 supports any cellular communication method (e.g., LTE and LTE-Advanced) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 2012 may typically include, for example, a BB processor 2013 and an RF circuit 2014. The BB processor 2013 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and may perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. At the same time, the RF circuit 2014 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and may transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 2016. The wireless communication interface 2012 may be a single chip module on which the BB processor 2013 and the RF circuit 2014 are integrated. As shown in FIG. 19, the wireless communication interface 2012 may include multiple BB processors 2013 and multiple RF circuits 2014. Although FIG. 19 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 2012 includes multiple BB processors 2013 and multiple RF circuits 2014, the wireless communication interface 2012 may include a single BB processor 2013 or a single RF circuit 2014.

[0152] In addition to the cellular communication system, the wireless communication interface 2012 can support other types of wireless communication systems, such as a short-distance wireless communication system, a proximity communication system, a wireless local network (LAN) system, etc. In this case, the wireless communication interface 2012 can include a BB processor 2013 and an RF circuit 2014 for various wireless communication systems.

[0153] Each of the antenna switches 2015 switches the connection of the antenna 2016 between a plurality of circuits (eg, circuits used for different wireless communication methods) included in the wireless communication interface 2012.

[0154] Each of the antennas 2016 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (for example, multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for transmitting and receiving wireless signals via the wireless communication interface 2012. The smartphone 2000 can include multiple antennas 2016 as shown in Fig. 19. Although Fig. 19 shows an example in which the smartphone 2000 includes multiple antennas 2016, the smartphone 2000 may include a single antenna 2016.

[0155] The smartphone 2000 may include an antenna 2016 for various wireless communication methods. In this case, the antenna switch 2015 may be omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 2000.

[0156] The bus 2017 connects the processor 2001, the memory 2002, the storage device 2003, the external connection interface 2004, the image capture device 2006, the sensor 2007, the microphone 2008, the input device 2009, the display device 2010, the speaker 2011, the wireless communication interface 2012, and the auxiliary controller 2019 to one another. The battery 2018 supplies power to each block of the smartphone 2000 shown in FIG. 19 via a power supply line, and the power supply line is partially represented as a dotted line in the drawing. The auxiliary controller 2019 operates the minimum necessary functions of the smartphone 2000, for example, in a sleep mode.

[0157] 19, the communication units in the electronic devices 300 and 600 described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 6 may be realized by a wireless communication interface 2012 and an optional antenna 2016. The functions of the estimation unit and selection unit in the electronic devices 300 and 600 and the decision unit in the electronic device 600 may be realized by a processor 2001 or an auxiliary controller 2019. The processor 2001 or the auxiliary controller 2019 may realize the functions of the estimation unit, the selection unit, and / or the decision unit by executing instructions stored in the memory 2002 or the storage device 2003.

[0158] (Second application example) 20 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device 2120 to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The car navigation device 2120 includes a processor 2121, a memory 2122, a global positioning system (GPS) module 2124, a sensor 2125, a data interface 2126, a content player 2127, a storage medium interface 2128, an input device 2129, a display device 2130, a speaker 2131, a wireless communication interface 2133, one or more antenna switches 2136, one or more antennas 2137, and a battery 2138.

[0159] The processor 2121 is, for example, a CPU or SoC, and can control the navigation function and other functions of the car navigation device 2120. The memory 2122 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 2121.

[0160] The GPS module 2124 measures the position (e.g., latitude, longitude, altitude) of the car navigation device 2120 using GPS signals received from GPS satellites. The sensor 2125 may include a set of sensors such as a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an air pressure sensor. The data interface 2126 is connected to, for example, an in-vehicle network 2141 via a terminal (not shown) and acquires data generated by the vehicle (e.g., vehicle speed data).

[0161] The content player 2127 plays content stored on a storage medium (e.g., CD and DVD) inserted into the storage medium interface 2128. The input device 2129 includes, for example, a touch sensor, button, or switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 2130, and receives operations or information input from a user. The display device 2130 includes, for example, a screen such as an LCD or OLED display, and displays images of the navigation function or played content. The speaker 2131 outputs sounds of the navigation function or played content.

[0162] The wireless communication interface 2133 supports any cellular communication method (e.g., LTE and LTE-Advanced) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 2133 may typically include, for example, a BB processor 2134 and an RF circuit 2135. The BB processor 2134 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and may perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. At the same time, the RF circuit 2135 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and may transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 2137. The wireless communication interface 2133 may also be a single chip module on which the BB processor 2134 and the RF circuit 2135 are integrated. As shown in FIG. 20, the wireless communication interface 2133 may include multiple BB processors 2134 and multiple RF circuits 2135. Although FIG. 20 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 2133 includes multiple BB processors 2134 and multiple RF circuits 2135, the wireless communication interface 2133 may include a single BB processor 2134 or a single RF circuit 2135.

[0163] In addition to the cellular communication system, the wireless communication interface 2133 can support other types of wireless communication systems, such as a short-distance wireless communication system, a close-proximity communication system, a wireless LAN system, etc. In this case, the wireless communication interface 2133 can include a BB processor 2134 and an RF circuit 2135 for various wireless communication systems.

[0164] Each of the antenna switches 2136 switches the connection destination of the antenna 2137 between a plurality of circuits (eg, circuits used for different wireless communication methods) included in the wireless communication interface 2133.

[0165] Each of the antennas 2137 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (for example, multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for transmitting and receiving wireless signals via the wireless communication interface 2133. The car navigation device 2120 can include multiple antennas 2137 as shown in Fig. 20. Although Fig. 20 shows an example in which the car navigation device 2120 includes multiple antennas 2137, the car navigation device 2120 may include a single antenna 2137.

[0166] The car navigation device 2120 may include an antenna 2137 for various wireless communication methods. In this case, the antenna switch 2136 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigation device 2120.

[0167] The battery 2138 supplies power to each block of the car navigation device 2120 shown in Fig. 20 via a power supply line, which is partially represented by a dotted line in the drawing. The battery 2138 stores the power supplied from the vehicle.

[0168] 20, the communication units in the electronic devices 300 and 600 described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 6 may be realized by a wireless communication interface 2133 and an optional antenna 2137. The functions of the estimation unit and selection unit in the electronic devices 300 and 600, and the determination unit in the electronic device 600 may be realized by a processor 2121. The processor 2121 may realize the functions of the estimation unit, selection unit, and / or determination unit by executing instructions stored in the memory 2122.

[0169] The technology of the present disclosure may be realized as an in-vehicle system (or vehicle) 2140 including one or more blocks of a car navigation device 2120, an in-vehicle network 2141, and a vehicle module 2142. The vehicle module 2142 generates vehicle data (e.g., vehicle speed, engine speed, and fault information) and outputs the generated data to the in-vehicle network 2141.

[0170] Although the preferred embodiment of the present disclosure has been described above with reference to the drawings, the present disclosure is of course not limited to the above examples. It should be understood that those skilled in the art can obtain various changes and modifications within the scope of the appended claims, and these changes and modifications are included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0171] For example, all of the parts indicated by dotted blocks in the illustrated functional block diagram can be selected in the device to which the functional part corresponds, and the required functions can be realized by combining each selectable functional part in an appropriate manner.

[0172] For example, multiple functions included in one unit in the above embodiments can be realized by separate devices. Alternatively, multiple functions realized by multiple units in the above embodiments can each be realized by a separate device. Also, one of the above functions can be realized by multiple units. It goes without saying that such a configuration is included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0173] In this specification, what is described in the flowcharts includes not only processes that are executed in chronological order, but also processes that are not necessarily executed in chronological order but are executed in parallel or independently. It goes without saying that the order of steps that are executed in chronological order may be changed as appropriate.

[0174] Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail above in conjunction with the drawings, it should be understood that the above-described embodiments are only for the purpose of illustrating the present disclosure and do not limit the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art can make various modifications and changes to the above-described embodiments without departing from the substance and scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure is limited only by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An electronic device, estimating a predicted probability that each candidate beam is an optimal beam based on beam tracking results for other devices that previously communicate with the electronic device using the candidate beam; An electronic device comprising: a processing circuit configured to select a measurement beam for next beam tracking from among the candidate beams based on the estimated predicted probability.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the beam tracking result includes time-series data of signal quality corresponding to the candidate beams obtained by beam tracking.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to determine a predicted probability of a candidate beam using a previously obtained predictive model, the predictive model being obtained by machine learning using training data of beam tracking results.

4. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to select the measurement beam by selecting, from among the candidate beams, a minimum number of candidate beams whose total predicted probability satisfies a predetermined condition.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to select the measurement beam by selecting from among a plurality of candidate beam sets a candidate beam set having a minimum total predicted probability of the candidate beams contained therein that satisfies a predetermined condition.

6. The electronic device according to claim 4 , wherein the predetermined condition includes a total predicted probability being greater than a predetermined threshold.

7. The electronic device described in claim 5, wherein each candidate beam set includes one or more adjacent beam sets, each adjacent beam set is centered on an optimal prediction beam having the highest prediction probability among all candidate beams and includes candidate beams at a predetermined beam distance from the optimal prediction beam, and the Lth candidate beam set includes an adjacent beam set whose beam distance is the minimum value and (L-1) adjacent beam sets whose beam distances increase in order from the minimum value (L is a natural number greater than or equal to 1).

8. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the distance between the candidate beam and the optimal predicted beam is determined from a difference between a direction of the candidate beam and a direction of the optimal predicted beam.

9. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to acquire a signal quality corresponding to each measurement beam in a next beam tracking, and determine a beam to be used for data transmission from among the measurement beams according to the acquired signal quality.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to select a measurement beam for initial beam tracking from among the candidate beams based on a result of beam scanning for the other device using the candidate beams before performing initial beam tracking for the other device.

11. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the candidate beam is a transmission beam of a downlink reference signal, and the electronic device is a network side device.

12. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to provide the other device with configuration information of a resource set of downlink reference signals in advance, and each downlink reference signal in the resource set can be transmitted individually.

13. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to, if selecting a different number of downlink reference signals for the next beam tracking and the previous beam tracking, send an indication to the other device regarding the number of downlink reference signals to select for the next beam tracking.

14. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to, if selecting different downlink reference signals for next beam tracking and previous beam tracking, send an instruction to the other device regarding the downlink reference signal to select for next beam tracking.

15. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the candidate beam is a receiving beam for a downlink reference signal, and the electronic device is a terminal device.

16. 16. The electronic device according to claim 15, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to pre-acquire configuration information of a resource set of a downlink reference signal from a network side device, and each downlink reference signal in the resource set can be transmitted separately.

17. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to send a request for a downlink reference signal for the next beam tracking to a network side device when selecting a different number of receive beams for the next beam tracking and the previous beam tracking.

18. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to receive, from a network side device, an indication of a downlink reference signal to be used for next beam tracking, transmitted in response to the request.

19. 1. A method for wireless communication, comprising: estimating a predicted probability that each candidate beam is an optimal beam based on beam tracking results for other devices that previously communicate with the electronic device using the candidate beam; and selecting a measurement beam for next beam tracking from among the candidate beams based on the estimated predicted probability.

20. 20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method for wireless communication set forth in claim 19.

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