Beam Obstacle Recovery in Sensing-Assisted MIMO

Abstract

Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide proactive beam failure recovery initiation. Proactive initiation may occur at the transmitting / receiving point or at the user equipment. Beam failures that result in beam failure recovery initiation may be proactively detected using sensing or artificial intelligence. Part of any beam failure recovery process is new beam identification. Such new beam identification may be performed in a conventional manner using reference signal beam measurements and training. Alternatively, new beam identification may be performed in a proactive manner using sensing or artificial intelligence. When instructing a new beam direction, a coordinate system may be used. The instruction may refer to absolute beam directions or to differential beam directions using the coordinate system. Although the use of reference signals for training is reduced, the overhead associated with beam failure recovery may be reduced and the corresponding latency may be reduced.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure generally relates to sensing-assisted MIMO, and in particular embodiments, to beam obstacle recovery in sensing-assisted MIMO.

Background Art

[0002] It is known that beam obstacles can occur during communication between a transmission and reception point (TRP) and a user equipment (UE) in a communication link using one or more beams. The TRP can provide a beam obstacle detection reference signal that enables the UE to detect a beam obstacle. When a beam obstacle is detected, the UE cannot identify a new beam for continuing communication. The TRP can provide a reference signal for new beam identification to enable new beam identification. Providing various reference signals, associated measurements, and training by the TRP to the UE can be shown to generate overhead for the task of beam obstacle recovery. Unfortunately, latency will occur in the task of beam obstacle recovery due to the impact of overhead.

Summary of the Invention

[0003] Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a proactive beam obstacle recovery start. The proactive start may be performed at a transmission and reception point (TRP) or at a user equipment (UE). A beam obstacle that causes the start of beam obstacle recovery can be proactively detected using sensing or artificial intelligence. New beam identification is part of any beam obstacle recovery process. Such new beam identification may be performed in a conventional manner using reference signal beam measurements and training. Alternatively, new beam identification may be performed in a proactive manner using sensing or artificial intelligence. When indicating a new beam direction, a coordinate system may be used. This indication may refer to the absolute beam direction or the differential beam direction using the coordinate system.

[0004] Conveniently, when the UE proactively detects beam blockage using sensing or artificial intelligence, it is not necessary for the TRP to set and transmit a set of reference signals for beam blockage detection. Similarly, when the UE proactively performs new beam identification, it is not necessary for the TRP to set and transmit a set of reference signals for new beam identification. Although the use of reference signals for training decreases, the overhead associated with beam blockage recovery may decrease, and the corresponding latency may decrease. Furthermore, using a coordinate-based beam indication instead of the current pseudo-collocation-based beam indication may be shown to reduce overhead and thus reduce latency.

[0005] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method is provided. The method includes transmitting an indication of a new beam direction, where the identification of the new beam direction is performed in response to the detection of a beam blockage, the indication using coordinate information, the coordinate information being represented with reference to a predetermined coordinate system, transmitting a beam blockage recovery request, and receiving a response to the beam blockage recovery request.

[0006] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a device is provided. The device includes a memory storing instructions and a processor. The processor is configured to execute the instructions to transmit an indication of a new beam direction, where the identification of the new beam direction is performed in response to the detection of a beam blockage, the indication using coordinate information, the coordinate information being represented with reference to a predetermined coordinate system, transmit a beam blockage recovery request, and receive a response to the beam blockage recovery request.

[0007] According to a further aspect of the present disclosure, a method is provided. The method includes transmitting a communication signal on a communication link in a communication link transmission beam direction, transmitting a training signal using a new transmission beam direction different from the communication link beam direction, where the identification of the new transmission beam direction is performed in response to detection of a beam obstacle on the communication link, receiving a response to the training signal, and transmitting a communication signal on a communication link in the new transmission beam direction.

[0008] According to yet a further aspect of the present disclosure, a device is provided. The device includes a memory storing instructions and a processor. The processor is configured to execute the instructions to transmit a communication signal on a communication link in a communication link transmission beam direction, transmit a training signal using a new transmission beam direction different from the communication link beam direction, where the identification of the new transmission beam direction is performed in response to detection of a beam obstacle on the communication link, receive a response to the training signal, and transmit a communication signal on a communication link in the new transmission beam direction.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0009] To more fully understand the present embodiment and its advantages, the following description is referred to as an example in conjunction with the accompanying drawings here.

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Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[0023] For the sake of explanation, specific exemplary embodiments will be described in more detail here in conjunction with the drawings.

[0024] The embodiments described in this specification represent sufficient information for carrying out the claimed subject matter and show how to carry out such subject matter. Reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the claimed subject matter and recognize the application of these concepts not specifically described herein. It should be understood that these concepts and their applications fall within the scope of the present disclosure and the appended claims.

[0025] Furthermore, it is understood that any module, component, or device that executes instructions disclosed herein may include, or otherwise be accessible to, one or more non-transitory computer / processor-readable storage media for storing information such as computer / processor-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and / or other data. Non-exhaustive examples of non-transitory computer / processor-readable storage media include magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage devices or other magnetic storage devices, compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital video disc or digital versatile disc (i.e., DVD), Blu-ray (registered trademark) disc, or other optical discs such as optical storage devices, volatile and non-volatile removable and non-removable media implemented by any method or technology, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, or other memory technologies. Any such non-transitory computer / processor storage media may be part of the device, or accessible or connectable thereto. Computer / processor-readable / executable instructions for implementing the applications or modules described herein may be stored or otherwise held by such non-transitory computer / processor-readable storage media.

[0026] Referring to FIG. 1, a simplified schematic example of a communication system is provided as a non-limiting example for illustration. Communication system 100 includes a radio access network 120. The radio access network 120 may be a next-generation (e.g., "6G" or later which is the sixth generation) radio access network or a legacy (e.g., 5G, 4G, 3G, or 2G) radio access network. One or more communication electrical devices (EDs) 110a, 110b, 110c, 110d, 110e, 110f, 110g, 110h, 110i, 110j (collectively referred to as 110) may be interconnected with each other or connected to one or more network nodes (170a, 170b, collectively referred to as 170) within the radio access network 120. The core network 130 may be part of the communication system and may depend on or be independent of the radio access technology used within the communication system 100. Also, the communication system 100 includes a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 140, the Internet 150, and other networks 160.

[0027] FIG. 2 shows an exemplary communication system 100. Generally, communication system 100 enables a plurality of wireless or wired elements to exchange data and other content. The purpose of communication system 100 may be to provide content such as voice, data, video, and / or text via broadcast, multicast, and unicast, etc. Communication system 100 can operate by sharing resources such as carrier spectrum bandwidth among its components. Communication system 100 may include a terrestrial communication system and / or a non-terrestrial communication system. Communication system 100 may provide a wide range of communication services and applications (e.g., earth observation, remote sensing, passive sensing and positioning, navigation and tracking, autonomous delivery and mobility, etc.). Communication system 100 can provide high availability and robustness through the coordinated operation of terrestrial and non-terrestrial communication systems. For example, integrating a non-terrestrial communication system (or its components) into a terrestrial communication system can result in what can be regarded as a heterogeneous network with multiple layers. Compared with conventional communication networks, in a heterogeneous network, better overall performance through efficient multi-link coordinated operation, more flexible function sharing, and faster physical layer link switching between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks can be achieved.

[0028] Terrestrial communication systems and non-terrestrial communication systems may be regarded as subsystems of a communication system. In the example shown in FIG. 2, communication system 100 includes electronic devices (EDs) 110a, 110b, 110c, 110d (collectively referred to as ED 110), radio access networks (RANs) 120a, 120b, non-terrestrial communication network 120c, core network 130, public switched telephone network (PSTN) 140, Internet 150, and other network 160. RANs 120a, 120b each include a respective base station (BS) 170a, 170b, which may be collectively referred to as terrestrial transmit-receive points (T-TRPs) 170a, 170b. Non-terrestrial communication network 120c includes access node 172, which may be collectively referred to as non-terrestrial transmit-receive point (NT-TRP) 172.

[0029] Each of ED 110 may alternatively or additionally be configured to interface with, access, or communicate with any of T-TRPs 170a, 170b and NT-TRP 172, Internet 150, core network 130, PSTN 140, other network 160, or any combination thereof. In some examples, ED 110a can exchange uplink and / or downlink transmissions with T-TRP 170a using terrestrial air interface 190a. In some examples, EDs 110a, 110b, 110c, and 110d can also communicate directly with each other via one or more sidelink air interfaces 190b. In some examples, ED 110d can exchange uplink and / or downlink transmissions with NT-TRP 172 using non-terrestrial air interface 190c.

[0030] Air interfaces 190a and 190b may use the same communication technology, such as any suitable radio access technology. For example, communication system 100 may implement one or more channel access methods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), or single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) at air interfaces 190a and 190b. Air interfaces 190a and 190b may utilize other higher dimensional signal spaces, which may require a combination of orthogonal and / or non-orthogonal dimensions.

[0031] The non-terrestrial air interface 190c may enable communication between the ED110d and one or more NT-TRP172 via a wireless link or simply a link. In some examples, the link is a dedicated connection for unicast transmission, a connection for broadcast transmission, or a connection for multicast transmission between the ED110 group and one or more NT-TRP175.

[0032] RAN 120a and 120b communicate with the core network 130 to provide various services such as voice, data, and other services to EDs 110a, 110b, 110c. RAN 120a and 120b, and / or the core network 130 may communicate directly or indirectly with one or more other RANs (not shown), which may or may not be directly served by the core network 130, and may or may not use the same radio access technology as RAN 120a, RAN 120b, or both. The core network 130 may also function as a gateway access between (i) RAN 120a and 120b, or EDs 110a, 110b, 110c, or both, and (ii) other networks (such as PSTN 140, Internet 150, other network 160, etc.). Further, some or all of EDs 110a, 110b, 110c may include functionality for communicating with different radio networks using different radio links that use different radio technologies and / or protocols. Instead of (or in addition to) wireless communication, EDs 110a, 110b, 110c may communicate via a wired communication channel with a service provider or switch (not shown) and the Internet 150. PSTN 140 may include a circuit-switched telephone network for providing plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet 150 includes a network of computers and subnets (intranets) or both, and may incorporate protocols such as Internet Protocol (IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), etc. EDs 110a, 110b, 110c may be multi-mode devices capable of operating with multiple radio access technologies and may incorporate multiple transceivers necessary to support such.

[0033] FIG. 3 shows another example of an ED 110 and base stations 170a, 170b, and / or 170c. The ED 110 is used to connect people, things, machines, etc. The ED 110 may be widely used in various scenarios such as cellular communication, device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), peer-to-peer (P2P), machine-to-machine (M2M), machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearable, smart transportation, smart city, drones, robots, remote sensing, passive sensing, positioning, navigation and tracking, autonomous delivery and movement, etc.

[0034] Each ED110 represents any suitable end-user device for wireless operation, and such devices may include, among others, user equipment / devices (UEs), wireless transmit / receive units (WTRUs), mobile stations, fixed or mobile subscriber units, cellular phones, stations (STAs), machine type communication (MTC) devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs (registered trademark)), smartphones, laptops, computers, tablets, wireless sensors, consumer electronics devices, smartbooks, vehicles, automobiles, trucks, buses, trains, or IoT devices, industrial devices, or devices (e.g., communication modules, modems, or chips) in the aforementioned devices (or may be referred to as such). Future generation ED110s may be referred to using other terms. Base stations 170a and 170b, each of which is a T-TRP, will hereinafter be referred to as T-TRP170. As also shown in FIG. 3, the NT-TRP will hereinafter be referred to as NT-TRP172. Each ED110 connected to T-TRP170 and / or NT-TRP172 can be configured to turn on (i.e., be established, become active, or be enabled), turn off (i.e., be released, become inactive, or be disabled), and / or respond to one or both of connection availability; and connection necessity, either dynamically or semi-statically.

[0035] ED110 includes a transmitter 201 and a receiver 203 connected to one or more antennas 204. Only one antenna 204 is shown. One, some, or all of the antennas 204 may alternatively be panels. The transmitter 201 and the receiver 203 may be integrated, for example, as a transceiver. The transceiver is configured to modulate data or other content for transmission by at least one antenna 204 or a network interface controller (NIC). The transceiver may also be configured to demodulate data or other content received by at least one antenna 204. Each transceiver includes any suitable structure for generating signals for wireless or wired transmission and / or for processing signals received wirelessly or wired. Each antenna 204 includes any suitable structure for transmitting and / or receiving wireless or wired signals.

[0036] ED110 includes at least one memory 208. The memory 208 stores instructions and data used, generated, or collected by the ED110. For example, the memory 208 is configured to implement some or all of the functions and / or embodiments described herein and is capable of storing software instructions or modules to be executed by one or more processing units (e.g., processor 210). Each memory 208 includes any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile storage device and retrieval device. Any suitable type of memory may be used, such as random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), hard disk, optical disk, subscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory stick, secure digital (SD) memory card, or on-processor cache.

[0037] The ED110 may further include one or more input / output devices (not shown) or interfaces (e.g., a wired interface to the Internet 150 in FIG. 1). The input / output devices enable interaction with a user or other devices within the network. Each input / output device may include any suitable structure for providing information to or receiving information from a user, such as operating as a speaker, microphone, keypad, keyboard, display, or touch screen, and includes network interface communication.

[0038] ED110 includes a processor 210 for performing a plurality of operations, and the operations include operations related to preparing for transmission for uplink transmission to NT-TRP172 and / or T-TRP170, operations related to processing downlink transmission received from NT-TRP172 and / or T-TRP170, and operations related to processing sidelink transmission with another ED110. The processing operations related to preparing for transmission for uplink transmission may include operations such as encoding, modulation, transmission beamforming, and symbol generation for transmission. The processing operations related to processing downlink transmission may include operations such as reception beamforming, demodulation, and decoding of received symbols. Depending on the embodiment, the downlink transmission may optionally be received by the receiver 203 using reception beamforming, and the processor 210 may extract signaling from the downlink transmission (e.g., by detecting and / or decoding the signaling). An example of the signaling may be a reference signal transmitted by NT-TRP172 and / or T-TRP170. In some embodiments, the processor 210 performs transmission beamforming and / or reception beamforming based on an indication of a beam direction received from T-TRP170, such as beam angle information (BAI). In some embodiments, the processor 210 can perform operations related to network access (e.g., initial access) and / or downlink synchronization, such as operations related to detecting a synchronization sequence, decoding and obtaining system information, etc. In some embodiments, the processor 210 can perform channel estimation using, for example, a reference signal received from NT-TRP172 and / or T-TRP170.

[0039] Although not shown, the processor 210 may form part of the transmitter 201 and / or part of the receiver 203. Although not shown, the memory 208 may form part of the processor 210.

[0040] The processor 210, the processing components of the transmitter 201, and the processing components of the receiver 203 may each be implemented by the same or different one or more processors configured to execute instructions stored in a memory (e.g., memory 208). Alternatively, some or all of the processor 210, the processing components of the transmitter 201, and the processing components of the receiver 203 may each be implemented using a dedicated circuit such as a programmed field programmable gate array (FPGA), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

[0041] T-TRP170 may be known by other names in some implementations, for example, among others, base station, base transceiver station (BTS), radio base station, network node, network device, network-side device, transmit / receive node, Node B, evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB), home eNodeB, next generation NodeB (gNB), transmission point (TP), site controller, access point (AP), wireless router, relay station, remote radio head, terrestrial node, terrestrial network device, terrestrial base station, baseband unit (BBU), remote radio unit (RRU), active antenna unit (AAU), remote radio head (RRH), central unit (CU), distributed unit (DU), positioning node. T-TRP170 may be a macro BS, pico BS, relay node, donor node, etc., or a combination thereof. T-TRP170 may refer to the aforementioned devices or to devices within the aforementioned devices (e.g., communication modules, modems, or chips).

[0042] In some embodiments, each part of T-TRP170 may be distributed. For example, a part of the module of T-TRP170 may be located far away from the device housing the antenna 256 for T-TRP170, and may be connected to the device housing the antenna 256 using a communication link (not shown), such as a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) which may be known as a fronthaul. Thus, in some embodiments, the term T-TRP170 may also refer to a network-side module that performs processing operations such as determination of the position of ED110, resource allocation (scheduling), message generation, and encoding / decoding, and is not necessarily part of the device housing the antenna 256 of T-TRP170. The module may also be connected to other T-TRPs. In some embodiments, T-TRP170 may actually be a plurality of T-TRPs that operate together to provide services to ED110, for example, by using coordinated multipoint transmission.

[0043] As shown in FIG. 3, T-TRP170 includes at least one transmitter 252 and at least one receiver 254 coupled to one or more antennas 256. Only one antenna 256 is shown. One, some, or all of the antennas 256 may alternatively be panels. The transmitter 252 and the receiver 254 may be integrated as a transceiver. T-TRP170 further includes a processor 260 for performing a plurality of operations, the operations including preparing a transmission for downlink transmission to ED110; processing an uplink transmission received from ED110; preparing a transmission for backhaul transmission to NT-TRP172; and operations related to processing a transmission received from NT-TRP172 using the backhaul. The processing operations related to preparing a transmission for downlink or backhaul transmission may include operations such as encoding, modulation, precoding (e.g., multiple-input multiple-output “MIMO” precoding), transmit beamforming, and generation of symbols for transmission. The processing operations related to processing a transmission received on the uplink or using the backhaul may include operations such as receive beamforming, demodulation of received symbols, and decoding of received symbols. The processor 260 may also perform operations related to network access (e.g., initial access) and / or downlink synchronization, such as generation of the content of a synchronization signal block (SSB), generation of system information, etc. In some embodiments, the processor 260 may also generate an indication of a beam direction (e.g., BAI) that can be scheduled by a scheduler 253 for transmission. The processor 260 performs other network-side processing operations described herein, such as determining the location of ED110, determining the deployment location of NT-TRP172, etc. In some embodiments, the processor 260 may generate signaling, for example, to set one or more parameters of ED110 and / or one or more parameters of NT-TRP172.Any signaling generated by processor 260 is transmitted by transmitter 252. Note that "signaling" may alternatively be referred to as control signaling as used herein. Dynamic signaling may be transmitted on a control channel, e.g., a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and static or semi-static upper layer signaling may be included in packets transmitted on a data channel, e.g., a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH).

[0044] Scheduler 253 may be coupled to processor 260. Scheduler 253 may be included within or operate remote from T-TRP 170. Scheduler 253 may schedule uplink, downlink, and / or backhaul transmissions, which includes the issuance of scheduling grants and / or the configuration of scheduling-free ("configured grant") resources. T-TRP 170 further includes a memory 258 for storing information and data. Memory 258 stores instructions and data used, generated, or collected by T-TRP 170. For example, memory 258 can store software instructions or modules configured to implement some or all of the functions and / or embodiments described herein and executed by processor 260.

[0045] Although not shown, processor 260 may form part of transmitter 252 and / or part of receiver 254. Also, although not shown, processor 260 may implement scheduler 253. Although not shown, memory 258 may form part of processor 260.

[0046] The processing components of the processor 260, the scheduler 253, the transmitter 252, and the receiver 254 may each be implemented by the same one or more processors configured to execute instructions stored in a memory (e.g., memory 258), or by different ones of them. Alternatively, some or all of the processing components of the processor 260, the scheduler 253, the transmitter 252, and the receiver 254 may be implemented using a dedicated circuit such as an FPGA, a GPU, or an ASIC.

[0047] In particular, NT-TRP172 is shown as a drone by way of example only, and NT-TRP172 may be implemented in any suitable non-terrestrial form. Also, NT-TRP172 may be known by other names in some implementation examples, such as non-terrestrial node, non-terrestrial network device, or non-terrestrial base station. NT-TRP172 includes a transmitter 272 and a receiver 274 connected to one or more antennas 280. Only one antenna 280 is shown. One, some, or all of the antennas may alternatively be panels. The transmitter 272 and the receiver 274 may be integrated as a transceiver. NT-TRP172 further includes a processor 276 for performing a plurality of operations, the operations including preparing a transmission for downlink transmission to ED110; processing an uplink transmission received from ED110; preparing a transmission for backhaul transmission to T-TRP170; and operations related to processing a transmission received from T-TRP170 using the backhaul. The processing operations related to preparing a transmission for downlink or backhaul transmission may include operations such as encoding, modulation, precoding (e.g., MIMO precoding), transmission beamforming, and generation of symbols for transmission. The processing operations related to processing a transmission received on the uplink or using the backhaul may include operations such as reception beamforming, demodulation of the received signal, and decoding of the received symbols. In some embodiments, the processor 276 performs transmission beamforming and / or reception beamforming based on beam direction information (e.g., BAI) received from T-TRP170. In some embodiments, the processor 276 may generate signaling, for example, to set one or more parameters of ED110. In some embodiments, NT-TRP172 performs physical layer processing but does not implement higher layer functions such as functions in the medium access control (MAC) or radio link control (RLC) layer.Since this is just an example, more generally, NT-TRP172 may implement upper layer functions in addition to physical layer processing.

[0048] NT-TRP172 further includes a memory 278 for storing information and data. Although not shown, the processor 276 may form part of the transmitter 272 and / or part of the receiver 274. Although not shown, the memory 278 may form part of the processor 276.

[0049] The processor 276, the processing components of the transmitter 272, and the processing components of the receiver 274 may each be implemented by the same or different one or more processors configured to execute instructions stored in a memory (e.g., memory 278). Alternatively, some or all of the processor 276, the processing components of the transmitter 272, and the processing components of the receiver 274 may be implemented using a dedicated circuit such as a programmed FPGA, GPU, or ASIC. In some embodiments, NT-TRP172 may actually be a plurality of NT-TRPs operating together to provide services to the ED110, for example, by coordinated multipoint transmission.

[0050] T-TRP170, NT-TRP172, and / or ED110 may include other components, but these are omitted for clarity.

[0051] One or more steps of the method according to the embodiments provided herein may be performed by the corresponding unit or module according to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 shows units or modules within a device, such as within ED110, within T-TRP170, or within NT-TRP172. For example, a signal may be transmitted by a transmitting unit or module. A signal may be received by a receiving unit or module. A signal may be processed by a processing unit or module. Other steps may be performed by an artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) module. Each unit or module may be implemented using hardware, one or more components or devices that execute software, or a combination thereof. For example, one or both of the unit or module may be an integrated circuit such as a programmed FPGA, GPU, or ASIC. When such a group of modules is implemented using software for execution by a processor, for example, it will be understood that the group of modules may be individually or together, in whole or in part as needed, obtained by the processor in one or more instances for processing, and that the group of modules itself may include instructions for further deployment and instantiation.

[0052] Additional details regarding ED110, T-TRP170, and NT-TRP172 are known to those skilled in the art. Therefore, these details are omitted here.

[0053] An air interface generally includes a number of components and related parameters that collectively specify how transmissions are sent and / or received between two or more communication devices using a wireless communication link. For example, the air interface may include one or more components that define a waveform, frame structure, multiplexing scheme, protocol, coding scheme, and / or modulation scheme for transmitting information (e.g., data) using a wireless communication link. The wireless communication link may support a link between a radio access network and a user equipment (e.g., the "Uu" link), and / or the wireless communication link may support a link between devices, e.g., a link between two user equipments (e.g., the "sidelink"), and / or the wireless communication link may support a link between a non-terrestrial (NT) communication network and a user equipment (UE). The following are some examples of the above components.

[0054] In a waveform component, the shape and form of the signal to be transmitted can be specified. Waveform options may include orthogonal multiplexing waveforms and non-orthogonal multiplexing waveforms. Non-limiting examples of such waveform options include orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), filtered OFDM (f-OFDM), time-windowed OFDM, filter bank multicarrier (FBMC), universal filtered multicarrier (UFMC), generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), wavelet packet modulation (WPM), faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) waveforms, and low peak-to-average power ratio waveforms (low PAPR WF).

[0055] In a frame structure component, the composition of a frame or group of frames can be specified. The frame structure component may indicate one or more of time, frequency, pilot signature, code, or other parameters of the frame or group of frames. Further details of the frame structure will be described later.

[0056] Options for multiple access techniques, including techniques that define how communication devices share a common physical channel, in a component with a multiple connection method, for example, TDMA; FDMA; CDMA; SC-FDMA; low density signature multi-carrier CDMA (LDS-MC-CDMA); non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA); pattern division multiple access (PDMA); lattice partition multiple access (LPMA); resource spreading multiple access (RSMA); and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) can be specified. Further, options for multiple access techniques may include unscheduled access, also known as grant-free access, for scheduled access; orthogonal multiple access for non-orthogonal multiple access, for example, via dedicated channel resources (e.g., not shared among multiple communication devices); non-competitive based shared channel resources for contention-based shared channel resources; and cognitive radio based access.

[0057] In a component of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) protocol, how to perform transmission and / or retransmission can be specified. Non-limiting examples regarding options for transmission and / or retransmission mechanisms include the pipe size of scheduled data, the signaling mechanism for transmission and / or retransmission, and those that specify the retransmission mechanism.

[0058] In a component of coding and modulation, how the information to be transmitted can be encoded / decoded and modulated / demodulated for transmission / reception purposes can be specified. Coding may refer to methods for error detection and forward error correction. Non-limiting examples of coding options include turbo trellis codes, turbo product codes, fountain codes, low density parity check codes, and polar codes. Modulation may simply refer to constellations (including modulation methods and orders), or more specifically, various types of advanced modulation methods such as hierarchical modulation and low PAPR modulation.

[0059] In some embodiments, the air interface may be a "free size" concept. That is, for example, once the air interface is defined, it may not be possible to change or adapt the components within the air interface. In some implementation examples, only limited parameters or modes of the air interface, such as the length of the cyclic prefix (CP) or the MIMO mode, can be set. In some embodiments, the air interface design can provide a unified or flexible framework that supports both licensed and unlicensed access to frequencies below the known 6 GHz band and frequencies above the 6 GHz band (e.g., the millimeter wave band). As an example, the flexibility of the configurable air interface provided by scalable radio parameters and symbol durations may enable the optimization of transmission parameters for different spectral bands and different services / devices. As another example, a unified air interface may be embedded in the frequency domain, and the design embedded in the frequency domain can support more flexible RAN slicing through channel resource sharing between different services in both frequency and time.

[0060] A frame structure is a characteristic of the physical layer of wireless communication that defines the transmission structure of a time-domain signal and enables, for example, timing reference and timing alignment of basic time-domain transmission units. Wireless communication between communication devices may be performed using time-frequency resources determined by the frame structure. The frame structure may alternatively be referred to as a wireless frame structure.

[0061] Depending on the frame structure and / or the configuration of the frames within the frame structure, frequency division duplexing (FDD) and / or time division duplexing (TDD) and / or full duplex (FD) communication may be enabled. FDD communication is the case where transmissions in different directions (e.g., uplink versus downlink) are carried out in different frequency bands. TDD communication is the case where transmissions in different directions (e.g., uplink versus downlink) are carried out using different durations. FD communication is the case where transmission and reception are carried out on the same time-frequency resource. That is, a device can perform both transmission and reception simultaneously on the same frequency resource.

[0062] One example of a frame structure is the frame structure specified for use in a known long term evolution (LTE) cellular system and has the following specifications. That is, the duration of each frame is 10 ms; each frame has 10 subframes, and the duration of each subframe is 1 ms; each subframe includes 2 slots, and the duration of each slot is 0.5 ms; each slot is for transmitting 7 OFDM symbols (assuming standard CP); each OFDM symbol has a symbol duration and a specific bandwidth (or a part of the bandwidth or bandwidth segment) related to the number of subcarriers and the subcarrier spacing; the frame structure is based on OFDM waveform parameters such as subcarrier spacing and CP length (where CP has options of fixed length or limited length); and the switching gap between uplink and downlink in TDD is specified as an integer number of OFDM symbol durations.

[0063] Another example of a frame structure is a frame structure designated for use in a known New Radio (NR) cellular system and has the following specifications. That is, a plurality of subcarrier intervals are supported, and each subcarrier interval corresponds to respective radio parameters; the frame structure depends on the radio parameters, but in any case, the frame length is set to 10 ms, each frame is composed of 10 subframes, and the duration of each subframe is 1 ms; a slot is defined as 14 OFDM symbols; and the slot length depends on the radio parameters. For example, an NR frame structure with a normal CP and a subcarrier interval of 15 kHz ("radio parameter 1") and an NR frame structure with a normal CP and a subcarrier interval of 30 kHz ("radio parameter 2") are different. At a subcarrier interval of 15 kHz, the slot length is 1 ms, and at a subcarrier interval of 30 kHz, the slot length is 0.5 ms. The NR frame structure may be more flexible than the LTE frame structure.

[0064] Another example of a frame structure is, for example, for use in a 6G network or a subsequent network. In a flexible frame structure, a symbol block may be defined to have a duration that is the minimum duration of time that can be scheduled in the flexible frame structure. The symbol block may be a unit of transmission having an optional redundant portion (e.g., a CP portion) and an information (e.g., data) portion. An OFDM symbol is an example of a symbol block. The symbol block may alternatively be referred to as a symbol. Embodiments of the flexible frame structure include different parameters that may be configurable, such as frame length, subframe length, symbol block length, etc. A non-exhaustive listing of possible configurable parameters includes, in some embodiments of the flexible frame structure, frame length; subframe duration; slot configuration; subcarrier spacing (SCS); flexible transmission duration of the basic transmission unit; and flexible switch gap.

[0065] There is no need to limit the frame length to 10 ms, and the frame length can be set and may change over time. In some embodiments, each frame includes one or more downlink synchronization channels and / or one or more downlink broadcast channels, and each synchronization channel and / or broadcast channel may be transmitted in different directions with different beamforming. The frame length may be more than one possible value and may be set based on the application scenario. For example, an autonomous vehicle may require relatively fast initial access, and in this case, the frame length may be set to 5 ms for the application of the autonomous vehicle. As another example, a smart meter in a house may not require fast initial access, and in this case, the frame length may be set to 20 ms for the application of the smart meter.

[0066] Depending on the implementation example, sub-frames may or may not be defined with a flexible frame structure. For example, the frame may be defined to include slots but not sub-frames. For example, in a frame where sub-frames are defined for time-domain alignment, the duration of the sub-frame may be settable. For example, the sub-frame may be configured to have a length such as 0.1 ms or 0.2 ms or 0.5 ms or 1 ms or 2 ms or 5 ms. In some embodiments, if a sub-frame is not required in a particular scenario, it may or may not be determined that the sub-frame length is the same as the frame length.

[0067] Depending on the implementation example, the slots may or may not be defined with a flexible frame structure. In the frame that defines the slots, the definition of the slots may be set (e.g., by duration and / or the number of symbol blocks). In one embodiment, the slot configuration is common to all UEs 110 or a group of UEs 110. In this case, the slot configuration information may be transmitted to the UEs 110 on a broadcast channel or a common control channel. In other embodiments, the slot configuration may be UE-specific, and in this case, the slot configuration information may be transmitted on a UE-specific control channel. In some embodiments, the slot configuration signaling can be transmitted together with the frame configuration signaling and / or the sub-frame configuration signaling. In other embodiments, the slot configuration may be transmitted separately from the frame configuration signaling and / or the sub-frame configuration signaling. Generally, the slot configuration may be system common, base station common, UE group common, or UE-specific.

[0068] The SCS may range from 15 kHz to 480 kHz. The SCS may vary depending on the frequency of the spectrum and / or the maximum UE speed in order to minimize the effects of Doppler shift and phase noise. In some examples, there may be separate transmission frames and reception frames, and the SCS of the symbols in the reception frame structure may be set separately from the SCS of the symbols in the transmission frame structure. The SCS in the reception frame may be different from the SCS in the transmission frame. In some examples, the SCS of each transmission frame may be half of the SCS of each reception frame. When the SCS between the reception frame and the transmission frame is different, for example, when using the inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) instead of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) to achieve a more flexible symbol duration, the difference does not necessarily scale by a factor of two. Further examples of frame structures may be used with different SCSs.

[0069] The basic transmission unit may be a symbol block (alternatively referred to as a symbol), which generally includes a redundant part (referred to as CP) and an information (e.g., data) part. In some embodiments, the CP may be omitted from the symbol block. The CP length may be flexible and configurable. The CP length may be fixed within a frame or flexible within a frame, and the CP length may optionally vary from one frame to another, or from one group of frames to another group of frames, or from one subframe to another subframe, or from one slot to another slot, or dynamically from one scheduling to another scheduling. The information (e.g., data) part may be flexible and configurable. Another possible parameter that can be defined in relation to the symbol block is the ratio of the CP duration to the information (e.g., data) duration. In some embodiments, the symbol block length may be adjusted according to the channel state (e.g., multipath delay, Doppler); and / or latency requirements; and / or available duration. As another example, the symbol block length may be adjusted to fit the available duration within a frame.

[0070] The frame may include both a downlink part for downlink transmission from the base station 170 and an uplink part for uplink transmission from the UE 110. There may be a gap between each uplink part and downlink part, and this gap is called a switching gap. The switching gap length (duration) may be made configurable. The switching gap duration may be fixed within a frame or flexible within a frame, and the switching gap duration may optionally vary from one frame to another, or from one group of frames to another group of frames, or from one subframe to another subframe, or from one slot to another slot, or dynamically from one scheduling to another scheduling.

[0071] Devices such as base station 170 may provide coverage that covers a cell. Wireless communication with the device may be performed using one or more carrier frequencies. The carrier frequency will come to be called a carrier. The carrier may alternatively be called a component carrier (CC). The carrier may be characterized by its bandwidth and reference frequency, e.g., the center frequency, lowest frequency, or highest frequency of the carrier. The carrier may be on a licensed spectrum or on an unlicensed spectrum. Wireless communication with the device may further or alternatively be performed using one or more bandwidth parts (BWPs). For example, the carrier may have one or more BWPs. More generally, wireless communication with the device may be performed using a spectrum. The spectrum may include one or more carriers and / or one or more BWPs.

[0072] A cell may include one or more downlink resources and optionally one or more uplink resources. A cell may include one or more uplink resources and optionally one or more downlink resources. A cell may include both one or more downlink resources and one or more uplink resources. As an example, a cell may include only one downlink carrier / BWP, or only one uplink carrier / BWP, or multiple downlink carriers / BWPs, or multiple uplink carriers / BWPs, or one downlink carrier / BWP and one uplink carrier / BWP, or one downlink carrier / BWP and multiple uplink carriers / BWPs, or multiple downlink carriers / BWPs and one uplink carrier / BWP, or multiple downlink carriers / BWPs and multiple uplink carriers / BWPs. In some embodiments, a cell may alternatively or additionally include one or more sidelink resources, which include sidelink transmission and reception resources.

[0073] A BWP is a set of contiguous or discrete frequency subcarriers on a carrier, or a set of contiguous or discrete frequency subcarriers on multiple carriers, or a set of discrete or continuous frequency subcarriers that may have one or more carriers.

[0074] In some embodiments, a carrier may have one or more BWPs. For example, a carrier may have a bandwidth of 20 MHz and may be composed of one BWP, or a carrier may have a bandwidth of 80 MHz and may be composed of two adjacent and continuous BWPs. In other embodiments, a BWP may have one or more carriers. For example, a BWP may have a bandwidth of 40 MHz and may be composed of two adjacent and continuous carriers, where each carrier has a bandwidth of 20 MHz. In some embodiments, a BWP may include discrete spectrum resources, which are composed of a plurality of discrete carriers. The first carrier of the plurality of discrete carriers may be in the millimeter wave band, the second carrier may be in the low band (such as the 2 GHz band), the third carrier (if any) may be in the terahertz band, and the fourth carrier (if any) may be in the visible light band. The resources within one carrier belonging to a BWP may be continuous or discrete. In some embodiments, a BWP has discrete spectrum resources on one carrier.

[0075] A carrier, BWP, or occupied bandwidth may be known dynamically by a network device (e.g., base station 170), for example, by physical layer control signaling such as a known downlink control channel (DCI), or semi-statically, for example, by radio resource control (RRC) signaling or signaling in the media access control (MAC) layer, or may be predetermined based on an application scenario; or may be determined by UE110 according to other parameters known to UE110, or may be fixed, for example, by a standard.

[0076] In the future wireless network, the number of new devices may increase exponentially along with diverse functions. Additionally, more new applications and use cases may emerge along with more diverse service quality requirements than those related to 5G. These use cases will bring about very challenging new key performance indicators (KPIs) for future wireless networks (e.g., 6G networks). Therefore, sensing technology and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, especially machine learning and deep learning technologies, are being introduced into telecommunications to improve the performance and efficiency of the system.

[0077] AI technology may be applied to communication systems. Specifically, AI technology may be applied to communication in the physical layer and communication in the media access control (MAC) layer.

[0078] Regarding the physical layer, AI technology can be used to optimize component design and improve algorithm performance. For example, AI technology may be applied to channel coding, channel modeling, channel estimation, channel decoding, modulation, demodulation, MIMO, waveforms, multiple access, optimization and update of PHY element parameters, beamforming and tracking, and sensing and positioning, etc.

[0079] In the MAC layer, AI technology can be used in scenarios such as learning, prediction, and decision-making to solve complex optimization problems with better strategies and optimal solutions. As an example, AI technology can be used to optimize functions in the MAC, such as intelligent TRP management, intelligent beam management, intelligent channel resource allocation, intelligent power control, intelligent spectrum utilization, intelligent modulation and coding scheme selection, intelligent HARQ strategy, intelligent transmit / receive mode adaptation, etc.

[0080] AI architectures typically require multiple nodes. The multiple nodes may be configured in two modes, namely, a centralized mode and a distributed mode, and both of these modes may be deployed in an access network, a core network, or an edge computing system or a third network. Centralized training and computing architectures are restricted by communication overhead and strict user data privacy. Distributed training and computing architectures may be configured according to multiple frameworks, for example, distributed machine learning and federated learning. The AI architecture includes an intelligent controller, which can function as a single agent or a multi-agent based on joint optimization or individual optimization. New protocols and signaling mechanisms may be established, whereby the corresponding interface links can be personalized with customized parameters to meet specific requirements, minimize signaling overhead, and maximize the spectral efficiency of the entire system with personalized AI technology.

[0081] Additional terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks may enable a new range of services and applications such as Earth observation, remote sensing, passive sensing and positioning, navigation, tracking, autonomous delivery and mobility. Sensing based on terrestrial network and non-terrestrial network may provide an intelligent context-aware network and enhance the UE experience. For example, sensing based on terrestrial network and non-terrestrial network may be shown to provide opportunities for self-position estimation applications and sensing applications based on a new set of functions and service capabilities. Applications such as terahertz imaging and spectroscopy may provide continuous real-time physiological information for future digital health technologies through dynamic, non-invasive, non-contact measurements. In the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) method, not only advanced cross-reality (XR) applications are enabled, but also the navigation of autonomous objects such as vehicles and drones is enhanced. Further, in terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, measured channel data and sensing-positioning data can be obtained with large bandwidth, new spectrum, dense network, and more line-of-sight (LOS) links. Based on these data, a wireless environment map can be drawn by an AI method. In this map, since the channel information is linked to its corresponding positioning or environmental information, an improved physical layer design can be provided based on this map.

[0082] A sensing coordinator is a node within a network that can assist in sensing operations. These nodes can be stand-alone nodes specialized only in sensing operations or other nodes that perform sensing operations in parallel with communication transmissions (e.g., nodes within T-TRP170, ED110, or core network 130). Since new protocols and signaling mechanisms are required, the corresponding interface links are performed with customized parameters to meet specific requirements, minimize signaling overhead, and maximize the spectral efficiency of the entire system.

[0083] AI and sensing methods involve a large amount of data. To involve AI and sensing in wireless communication, it is necessary to collect, store, and exchange an increasing amount of data. The characteristics of wireless data are known to extend over a large range in multiple aspects, such as carrier frequencies from sub-6 GHz to millimeter to terahertz, scenarios from space, outdoor to indoor, and data types from text, voice to video. The collection, processing, and utilization of these data are carried out in a unified framework or different frameworks.

[0084] Terrestrial communication systems may also be referred to as land or ground communication systems, but terrestrial communication systems can also be, or instead, be realized over water or underwater. Non-terrestrial communication systems can fill the coverage gap in areas that do not receive sufficient services by using non-terrestrial nodes to expand the coverage of the cellular network, which is important for establishing global seamless coverage and providing mobile broadband services to areas that do not receive services / do not receive sufficient services. Currently, it is almost impossible to install terrestrial access point / base station infrastructure in areas such as the ocean, mountainous regions, forests, or other remote areas.

[0085] The terrestrial communication system may be a wireless communication system using 5G technology and / or subsequent generations of wireless technologies (e.g., 6G or later). In some examples, the terrestrial communication system may also support some legacy wireless technologies (e.g., 3G or 4G wireless technologies). The non-terrestrial communication system may be a communication system using a satellite constellation such as a conventional geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite, which is used to broadcast public / popular content to a local server. The non-terrestrial communication system may be a communication system using low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, which is known for establishing an excellent balance between a wide coverage area and propagation path loss / delay. The non-terrestrial communication system may be a communication system using stabilized satellites in very low Earth orbit (VLEO) technology, which significantly reduces the cost of launching satellites into low orbit. The non-terrestrial communication system may be a communication system using a high-altitude platform (HAP), which is known for being able to provide a low-path-loss air interface to users with limited power budgets. The non-terrestrial communication system may be a communication system using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) (or unmanned aerial systems, "UAS") such as floating bodies, balloons, quadcopters, drones, etc., which achieve dense deployment because the coverage can be limited to a local area. In some examples, GEO satellites, LEO satellites, UAVs, HAPs, and VLEOs may be horizontal and two-dimensional. In some examples, UAVs, HAPs, and VLEOs may be interlinked to integrate satellite communication into a cellular network. Emerging 3D vertical networks are composed of many moving stratospheric access points (other than geostationary satellites) such as UAVs, HAPs, and VLEOs.

[0086] In MIMO technology, an antenna array of multiple antennas enables signal transmission and reception that meets high transmission rate requirements. ED110 and T-TRP170 and / or NT-TRP may use MIMO to communicate using radio resource blocks. MIMO utilizes multiple antennas at the transmitter and transmits radio resource blocks with parallel radio signals. Therefore, it means that multiple antennas can be utilized at the receiver. MIMO may beamform parallel radio signals for reliable multipath transmission of radio resource blocks. MIMO can combine parallel radio signals carrying different data to increase the data rate of radio resource blocks.

[0087] In recent years, MIMO (Massive MIMO) wireless communication systems having T-TRP170 and / or NT-TRP172 configured using a large number of antennas have received wide attention from the academic and industrial communities. In a massive MIMO system, T-TRP170 and / or NT-TRP172 are generally composed of more than 10 antenna units (see antenna 256 and antenna 280 in FIG. 3). T-TRP170 and / or NT-TRP172 generally serve several tens (e.g., 40) of ED110. The large number of antenna units of T-TRP170 and NT-TRP172 significantly increases the spatial degrees of freedom of wireless communication, significantly improves the transmission rate, spectral efficiency, and power efficiency, and can significantly reduce the interference between cells. By increasing the number of antennas, it becomes possible to make each antenna unit small and low-cost. Using the spatial degrees of freedom provided by the large number of antenna units, T-TRP170 and NT-TRP172 of each cell can communicate simultaneously with many ED110 within the cell using the same time-frequency resources, so the spectral efficiency is significantly increased. The large number of antenna units of T-TRP170 and / or NT-TRP172 enables each user to ensure excellent spatial directivity for uplink and downlink transmissions, so the transmission power of T-TRP170 and / or NT-TRP172 and ED110 is reduced, and correspondingly the power efficiency is increased. When the number of antennas of T-TRP170 and / or NT-TRP172 becomes sufficiently large, the random channels between each ED110 and T-TRP170 and / or NT-TRP172 can approach orthogonality, so the interference between cells and users and the influence of noise can be reduced. Due to the multiple advantages described above, massive MIMO can have excellent application possibilities.

[0088] A MIMO system may include a receiver connected to a receiving (Rx) antenna, a transmitter connected to a transmitting (Tx) antenna, and a signal processor connected to the transmitter and the receiver. Each of the Rx antenna and the Tx antenna may include a plurality of antennas. For example, the Rx antenna may have a uniform linear array (ULA) antenna, in which a plurality of antennas are arranged in a row at equal intervals. When a radio frequency (RF) signal is transmitted through the Tx antenna, the Rx antenna can receive a signal reflected back from a target object in front.

[0089] Possible units of the MIMO system or possible configurable parameters or non-exhaustive enumerations in some embodiments include a panel; and a beam.

[0090] A panel is a unit of an antenna group, or an antenna array, or an antenna sub-array, and this unit can control the Tx beam or the Rx beam separately.

[0091] A beam may be formed by performing amplitude and / or phase weighting on data transmitted or received by at least one antenna port. The beam may be formed using another method, for example, by adjusting relevant parameters of the antenna unit. The beam may include a Tx beam and / or an Rx beam. The transmitted beam shows the distribution of signal intensities formed in different directions in space after the signal is transmitted through the antenna. The received beam shows the distribution of signal intensities in different directions in space of the radio signal received from the antenna. The beam information may include a beam identifier, or an antenna port identifier, or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource identifier, or an SSB resource identifier, or a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource identifier, or other reference signal resource identifiers.

[0092] As one of the important technologies of NR, MIMO can further improve the system capacity by using more spatial degrees of freedom.

[0093] Beam management is one of the elements for successful use of MIMO. In a typical beam management scheme, in a multi-antenna system, the weights of the antennas (ports) may be adjusted so that the energy of the transmitted signal has directivity. That is, the energy is concentrated in a certain direction. Such a concentration of energy is usually called a beam. In the case of NR, the entire air interface is designed based on beams; the uplink channel is transmitted with beams; and the downlink channel is received with beams. Beam management relates to the establishment and maintenance of a suitable beam pair. Examples of beam pairs include a transmitter-side beam having a transmitter-side beam direction and a corresponding receiver-side beam having a receiver-side beam direction. When properly implemented, beam pairs provide excellent connectivity in cooperation. Aspects of beam management include initial beam establishment, beam adjustment, and beam recovery. Further aspects of beam management include beam selection, beam measurement, beam reporting, beam switching, beam indication, and the like.

[0094] In the study of beam management, beam failure recovery (BFR) is an important issue. Beam recovery refers to the process of re-establishing the connection between the TRP 170 and the UE 110 when all monitored beam pairs cannot meet the transmission quality requirements.

[0095] In known (NR) BFR procedures, both beam failure detection and new beam identification are performed based on beam measurement. It can be shown that too many beam measurements may result in undesirable latency. Furthermore, known (NR) BFR procedures include identifying a new beam by selecting from a set of reference signals (RSs) for new beam identification as candidates. Therefore, it may be said that known (NR) BFR procedures achieve beam recovery in a passive manner.

[0096] Beam indication is an important component of beam management. In the current method, a pseudo-collocation-based (QCL-based) beam indication method may be used to indicate beam pairs. The QCL-based beam indication method generally shows the relationship between a target beam and a source reference beam. These two beams are considered to be QCL, which means that the characteristics of the target beam can be inferred from the characteristics of the source reference beam. After the RRC connection is established, the corresponding QCL type of one or two DL reference signals (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS, etc.) may be associated using the Transmit Configuration Indicator (TCI) state. The known QCL-based beam indication methods have several disadvantages. First, the known QCL-based beam indication methods can only show that the target RS and the source RS have a relationship with the same characteristics, and cannot show other relationships. Second, the known QCL-based beam indication methods require a source reference beam. In particular, since it is necessary to pre-train and measure the source reference beam in advance, a relatively large latency and a relatively large overhead are brought about. When the number of UEs 110 increases in future wireless communication networks, the overhead of beam training is expected to increase rapidly due to an increase in the amount of training or the number of measurement beams. Third, the known QCL-based beam indication methods cannot directly show the physical directional relationship between beams.

[0097] In NR, BFR belongs to passive beam management, and in 6G, the establishment of proactive UE-centric BFR is expected. In future wireless communication networks, the requirements for low-latency BFR are expected to become increasingly high.

[0098] With the modern developments in the area of sensing technology, it is understood that the devices of the 6G network will be given awareness about the environment. Thus, in addition to the angle of arrival (AOA) and angle of departure (AOD) of the connection to a given UE110, information such as the location of a given UE110 can be easily obtained using sensing signals for acquiring sensing information. With the aid of sensing information and AI technology, the TRP170 and the UE110 may be configured to realize a proactive UE-centric beam management scheme that includes identification of beam obstacles and identification of new beam directions. That is, the UE110 and the TRP170 can proactively obtain predictions of new transmission / reception beam directions. Such predictions may show a reduction in the application of pilots and beam training in beam obstacle recovery. It can be expected that such prediction capabilities will help reduce the overhead associated with pilots and beam training, thereby realizing low-latency beam obstacle recovery.

[0099] Figure 10 shows a known (NR) beam obstacle recovery process in a signal flow diagram. First, it is assumed that the TRP170 and the UE110 communicate on an existing communication link (not shown).

[0100] The TRP170 may configure a set of beam failure detection (BFD) reference signals (RSs) in one of two setting modes, namely, a default setting mode; and an explicit setting mode. In the default setting mode, the TRP170 configures periodic transmission of CSI-RS / SSB that is spatially quasi-collocated (QCL) with the PDCCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS). In the explicit setting mode, the TRP170 configures periodic transmission of CSI-RS and / or SSB.

[0101] The TRP170 may transmit the set of BFD RSs periodically (step 1001TX). Correspondingly, the UE110 may receive all or part of the set of BFD RSs (step 1001RX).

[0102] Based on the reception of BFD RS of type BFD RS, UE110 may detect a beam failure (step 1002). Specifically, UE110 may detect a beam failure in response to a determination that all of the configured failure detection beam pairs have not functioned for N consecutive times (step 1002). The beam failure detection (step 1002) may be regarded as a passive step.

[0103] UE110 may perform the detection of BFD RS at the physical layer (PHY). If it is determined that the link quality of all the detected BFD RS beams does not exceed the threshold, the PHY may report a beam failure instance to the MAC layer. The link quality metrics may include a virtual PDCCH block error rate (BLER) and / or a reuse radio link management (RLM) default BLER. The MAC layer of UE110 may consider that a beam failure has been detected after receiving N consecutive reports of beam failure instances (step 1002).

[0104] Next, UE110 performs new beam identification (step 1009). The new beam identification (step 1009) is used to find a new beam pair through beam training and re - establish a good communication connection between TRP170 and UE110.

[0105] TRP170 sets a plurality of candidate new beams to a set of reference signals (RS) for new beam identification. The plurality of candidate new beams in the set of RSs may include only SSBs, only CSI-RSs, or a combination of CSI-RSs and SSBs. TRP170 transmits the set of RSs for new beam identification (step 1006). The PHY of UE110 receives the set of RSs for new beam identification (step 1008). New beam identification (step 1009) includes evaluating each of the candidate new beams among the plurality of candidate new beams in the set of RSs. This evaluation is known to be based on layer 1 reference signal received power (L1-RSRP). The PHY provides the RS index of the new beam that exceeds the L1-RSRP threshold to the MAC layer. The MAC layer determines the optimal new beam based on the reported RSRP measurement of the new beam with the received index. Determining the optimal new beam includes selecting a new beam pair from among the set of configured beam pairs.

[0106] UE110 transmits an indication of the optimal new beam to TRP170 (step 1010). Beam training (steps 506, 508, 510, 512) combined with the QCL-based new beam identification method (step 1009) may be considered to cause undesirable latency. New beam identification (step 1009) may be considered a passive step.

[0107] The MAC layer of UE110 receives from the PHY of UE110 the beam failure indication and the RS index of the new beam that exceeds the L1-RSRP threshold, and determines that a beam failure state has occurred. The MAC layer then initiates beam failure recovery by transmitting a BFR request to TRP170 through the PRACH (step 1014). After transmitting the PRACH, the MAC layer starts a beam failure recovery timer. The PRACH resource is associated with the CSI-RS / SSB resource of the new beam identifier. Here, a QCL-based beam indication is used. There are two setup modes, contention-free PRACH; and contention-based RACH.

[0108] After transmitting the BFR request (step 1014), the UE 110 monitors the PDCCH of the optimal new beam for a BFR response. This monitoring is limited to a time window that is counted down by a beam failure recovery timer.

[0109] Upon receiving the BFR request (step 1016), the TRP 170 may transmit a BFR response (step 1018).

[0110] Upon receiving the BFR response (step 1020), the UE 110 determines that the BFR was successful. The PHY of the UE 110 provides a BFR success message to the MAC layer, and the beam failure recovery timer stops.

[0111] If the time window measured by the beam failure recovery timer expires and the UE 110 has not received a BFR response (step 1020), the PHY of the UE 110 provides a BFR failure message to the MAC layer.

[0112] Broadly speaking, aspects of the present application are related to proactive beam failure recovery initiation. The proactive initiation may be performed at the transmission and reception point or at the user equipment. The beam failure that causes the beam failure recovery initiation may be proactively detected using sensing or artificial intelligence (AI). Part of any beam failure recovery process involves new beam identification. Such new beam identification may be performed in a conventional manner using reference signal beam measurements and training. Alternatively, the new beam identification may be performed in a proactive manner using sensing or artificial intelligence. When indicating the new beam direction, a coordinate system may be used. This indication may refer to the absolute beam direction or the differential beam direction using the coordinate system.

[0113] First, a global coordinate system (GCS) and a plurality of local coordinate systems (LCS) may be defined. The GCS may be a global unified geographical coordinate system or a coordinate system defined in the RAN that consists of only some TRP170s and UE110s. From another perspective, the GCS may be UE-specific or common to a group of UEs. The antenna array of the TRP170 or UE110 may be defined in a local coordinate system (LCS). The LCS is used as a reference to define the vector far-field, which is the pattern and polarization of each antenna element in the array. The placement of the antenna array within the GCS is determined by the transformation between the GCS and the LCS. The orientation of the antenna array with respect to the GCS is generally determined by a series of rotations. The series of rotations may be represented by a set of angles α, β, γ. The set of angles {α, β, γ} may also be referred to as the orientation of the antenna array with respect to the GCS. The angle α is called the azimuth angle, the angle β is called the downtilt angle, and the angle γ is called the slant angle. FIG. 5 shows a series of rotations that relate the GCS and the LCS. In FIG. 5, any 3D rotation of the LCS is assumed with respect to the GCS given by the set of angles {α, β, γ}. The set of angles {α, β, γ} may also be referred to as the orientation of the antenna array with respect to the GCS. Any 3D rotation can be specified by a maximum of three elemental rotations, and according to the framework of FIG. 5, here

Number

Number

Number

[0114] Finally, [Number] The slant angle of the antenna is set by the third rotation γ centered on the axis. The azimuths of the x, y, and z axes after all three rotations are [Number] It may be represented by. These three dotted axes represent the final azimuth of the LCS and may be represented in the x′, y′, and z′ axes (local coordinate system or "primed" coordinate system) for notation purposes.

[0115] As shown in FIG. 6, the coordinate system is defined by the x, y, z axes, spherical angles, and spherical unit vectors. In the representation 600 of FIG. 6, the zenith angle θ and the azimuth angle φ are defined in a Cartesian coordinate system. [Number] is a given direction, and the zenith angle θ and the azimuth angle φ may be used as the physical angles relative to the given direction. Note that θ = 0 indicates the zenith and φ = 0 indicates the horizontal line.

[0116] A method for converting the spherical angles (θ, φ) of the GCS to the spherical angles (θ′, φ′) of the LCS according to the rotation operations defined by the angles α, β, and γ is given below.

[0117] To establish a mathematical formula for converting the coordinate system between the GCS and the LCS, a composite rotation matrix is determined that describes the conversion of a point (x, y, z) in the GCS to a point (x′, y′, z′) in the LCS. This rotation matrix is calculated as the product of three elemental rotation matrices. For angles α, β, and γ, in this order, respectively [Number] The matrix that describes the rotation about an axis is defined by Equation (1) as follows. [Equation (1)] [Number] The inverse transformation is given by the inverse of R. Since R is orthogonal, the inverse of R is equal to the transpose matrix of R. [Equation (2)] [Number] The simplified forward and inverse composite rotation matrices are given by Equations (3) and (4). [Equation (3)] [Number] [Equation (4)] [Number] These conversions may be used to derive the angular and offset relationships between the two coordinate systems. To establish the angular relationship, consider a point (x, y, z) on the unit sphere defined in spherical coordinates (ρ = 1, θ, φ). Here, ρ is the unit radius, θ is the zenith angle measured from the +z axis, and φ is the azimuth angle measured from the +x axis in the x - y plane. The orthogonal representation of this point is given by the following equation. [Equation (5)] [Number]

[0118] The zenith angle is [Number] is calculated as, and the azimuth angle is

Number

Number

Number

Number

Number

[0119] The beam link between the TRP 170 and a given UE 110 may be defined using various parameters. In the scenario of a local coordinate system having the TRP 170 at the origin, the parameters may be defined to include the relative physical angles and azimuth between the TRP 170 and a given UE 110. The relative physical angle, or beam direction “ξ”, may be used as one or two of the coordinates of the beam indication. The TRP 170 may obtain the beam direction ξ using a conventional sensing signal and associate it with a given UE 110.

[0120] When the coordinate system is defined by the x, y, and z axes, the position “(x, y, z)” of the TRP 170 or UE 110 may be used as one or two or three of the coordinates of the beam indication. The position “(x, y, z)” may be obtained using a sensing signal.

[0121] The beam direction may include a value representing the zenith of the angle of arrival, a value representing the zenith of the angle of departure, a value representing the azimuth of the angle of arrival, or the azimuth of the angle of departure.

[0122] The boresight azimuth may be used as one or two of the coordinates for beam indication. Further, the width may be used as one or two of the coordinates for beam indication.

[0123] The position information and azimuth information of the TRP 170 may be broadcast to all UEs 110 within the communication range of the TRP 170. Specifically, the position information of the TRP 170 may be included in a known System Information Block 1 (SIB1). Alternatively, the position information of the TRP 170 may be included as part of the configuration of a given UE 110.

[0124] According to the aspects of the absolute beam indication of the present application, when providing beam indication to a given UE 110, the TRP may indicate the beam direction ξ defined in the local coordinate system.

[0125] In contrast, according to the aspects of the differential beam indication of the present application, when providing beam indication to a given UE 110, the TRP may indicate the beam direction using the differential coordinates Δξ with respect to the reference beam direction. Naturally, this method relies on both the TRP 170 and a given UE 110 being configured using the reference beam direction.

[0126] It is also possible to determine the beam direction according to a predetermined spatial grid. FIG. 7 shows a two-dimensional planar antenna array structure 700 of a dual-polarization antenna. FIG. 8 shows a two-dimensional planar antenna array structure 800 of a single-polarization antenna. The antenna elements may be arranged in the vertical and horizontal directions as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, where N is the number of columns and M is the number of antenna elements having the same polarization in each column. The radio channel between the TRP 170 and the UE 110 may be divided into a plurality of regions. Alternatively, the physical space between the TRP 170 and the UE 110 may be divided into a plurality of 3D regions, and the plurality of spatial regions include a plurality of regions in the vertical and horizontal directions.

[0127] Referring to the grid 900 of the spatial region shown in FIG. 9, the beam indication may be an index of the spatial region, for example, an index of the grid. Here, N H may be the same as or different from N of the antenna array, and M V may be the same as or different from M of the antenna array. In the case of an X-pol antenna array, the beam directions of the dual-polarization antenna array can be indicated separately or by a single indication. Each of the grids corresponds to a column vector and a row vector, which are generated by part or all of the antenna array. Such a beam indication of the spatial region may be indicated by a combination of a spatial region beam and a frequency region vector. Further, the beam indication may be a one-dimensional index (X-pol antenna array or Y-pol antenna array) of the spatial region. Further, the beam indication may be a three-dimensional index (X-pol antenna array, Y-pol antenna array, and Z-pol antenna array) of the spatial region.

[0128] FIG. 11 shows a beam outage recovery process according to aspects of the present application in a signal flow diagram.

[0129] First, it is assumed that the TRP 170 and the UE 110 communicate via an existing communication link.

[0130] According to various aspects of the present application, TRP170 and UE110 have available communication links, but TRP170 proactively monitors the channel quality of the beams associated with the communication links. When it is detected that the link quality of all beams does not exceed a specific threshold (step 1102), the PHY of TRP170 may report a beam failure indication to the MAC layer of TRP170. TRP170 may then proactively identify one or more new transmission (Tx) beam directions (step 1104). Specifically, the TRP may obtain one or more new Tx beam directions using sensing or AI techniques (step 1104).

[0131] When a new Tx beam direction is identified (step 1104), TRP170 may transmit a training signal to UE110 using the identified new beam direction (step 1106). TRP170 can complete this transmission within a preset time window after detecting the beam failure state (step 1102) (step 1106).

[0132] To enable UE110 to obtain a preferred Rx beam, TRP170 may repeatedly transmit signals using the identified new beam directions (step 1106).

[0133] On the UE110 side, UE110 receives the signals transmitted using the identified new beam directions (step 1108). UE110 may receive signals using various different Rx beams in the scan mode (step 1108). Thus, UE110 can obtain the optimal Rx beam by measuring the beams. That is, UE110 performs Rx beam switching to achieve beam pair alignment. The PHY of UE110 performs L1-RSRP evaluation of the signals received in each of the identified new beam directions. The PHY then provides an indication of the identified new beam directions that exceed the L1-RSRP threshold to the MAC layer. The MAC layer may determine an optimal new beam pair including the Tx beam direction and the Rx beam direction based on the reported RSRP measurement values.

[0134] UE110 then transmits a new beam response to the TRP170 (step 1110). The new beam response may indicate, among other tasks, the new Tx beam direction, inform the TRP170 that a new beam pair has been established, and establish uplink synchronization based on the new beam.

[0135] There are multiple options for the channel used to transmit the new beam response to the TRP170 (step 1110). In one option, a new PHY channel may be defined for the explicit purpose of enabling the UE110 to respond to the new beam identification received in step 1108. In one example, the new PHY channel may be a dedicated uplink physical channel, such as a channel like PUCCH. In another option, the UE110 may transmit the new beam response to the TRP170 (step 1110) by reusing a PRACH resource or using a pre - defined preamble resource without a random access response (RAR).

[0136] The TRP170 is expected to pre - configure a time window and time / frequency resources to monitor the reception of the new beam response (step 1112). The pre - configured time window may be implemented as a beam failure recovery timer. The beam failure recovery timer is set by the duration of the time window and may start counting down in response to the TRP170 detecting a beam failure (step 1102).

[0137] If the TRP170 does not receive the new beam response (step 1112) within the pre - configured time window, i.e., before the beam failure recovery timer expires, the PHY of the TRP170 may report a BFR failure message to the MAC layer of the TRP170.

[0138] When TRP170 receives a new beam response (stage 1112), the PHY of TRP170 may report a BFR success message to the MAC layer of TRP170. Further, TRP170 may stop the countdown of the beam failure recovery timer.

[0139] When receiving a new beam response (stage 1112), TRP170 can start transmitting communication signals on the communication link in the new Tx beam direction.

[0140] In particular, in the existing NR procedure (Figure 10), beam failure detection (stage 1002), new beam identification (stage 1009), and BFR start (stage 1014) are all realized on the UE110 side. In contrast, in the signal flow of Figure 11, beam failure detection (stage 1102), new beam identification (stage 1104), and proactive BFR start (stage 1106) are performed on the TRP170 side.

[0141] Figure 12 shows a beam failure recovery process according to various aspects of the present application in a signal flow diagram.

[0142] First, it is assumed that TRP170 and UE110 communicate via an existing communication link. The existing communication link may include, among other known channels, PDCCH and / or PDSCH and / or PUCCH and / or PUSCH.

[0143] UE110 transmits a sensing signal (stage 1201TX), and in a situation where there is a signal block, UE110 receives the reflection of the sensing signal from the signal block (stage 1201RX). It should be easily understood that the presence of the signal block may cause various link qualities of the existing communication link between TRP170 and UE110 to deteriorate. The signal block is also called signal interference.

[0144] UE110 can monitor various link qualities of the existing communication link by monitoring the degree to which the sensing signal transmitted in stage 1201TX is received in stage 1201RX.

[0145] UE 110 may process (not shown) the received (step 1201RX) reflection of the sensing signal transmitted in step 1201TX using sensing and / or AI techniques. By processing the received reflection of the sensing signal, UE 110 may determine virtual metrics and associate them with existing communication links. The virtual metrics may include, for example, virtual PDCCH BLER and / or reused RLM default BLER.

[0146] When it is determined that various metrics do not exceed a predetermined threshold, the PHY of UE 110 may report a beam failure instance to the MAC layer of UE 110. After the MAC layer receives beam failure instances continuously for N times, UE 110 may consider that a beam failure has been detected (step 1202).

[0147] Then UE 110 performs new beam identification (step 1209). The new beam identification (step 1209) is used to find a new beam pair by beam training and re-establish a good communication connection between TRP 170 and UE 110.

[0148] TRP170 sets a plurality of candidate new beams to a set of RSs for new beam identification. The plurality of candidate new beams in the set of RSs may include only SSBs, only CSI-RSs, or a combination of CSI-RSs and SSBs. TRP170 transmits a set of RSs for new beam identification (step 1206). The PHY of UE110 receives the set of RSs for new beam identification (step 1208). New beam identification (step 1209) includes performing an evaluation for each of the candidate new beams among the plurality of candidate new beams in the set of RSs. This evaluation is known to be based on the layer 1 reference signal received power (L1-RSRP). The PHY provides the MAC layer with the RS index of the new beam that exceeds the threshold of the L1-RSRP. The MAC layer determines the optimal new beam based on the reported RSRP measurement value of the new beam with the received index. Determining the optimal new Tx beam direction includes selecting a new beam pair from among the set of configured beam pairs.

[0149] UE110 transmits an indication of the optimal new Tx beam direction to TRP170 (step 1210). New beam identification (step 1209) may be regarded as a passive step.

[0150] The MAC layer of UE110 receives from the PHY of UE110 the beam failure indication and the RS index of the new beam that exceeds the threshold of the L1-RSRP, and determines that a beam failure state has occurred. Then the MAC layer starts beam failure recovery by transmitting a BFR request to TRP170 through the PRACH (step 1214). After transmitting the PRACH, the MAC layer starts a beam failure recovery timer. The PRACH resource is associated with the CSI-RS / SSB resource of the new beam identifier. Here, a coordinate-based beam indication is used. There are two setup modes, contention-free PRACH; and contention-based RACH.

[0151] After transmitting the BFR request (step 1214), UE 110 monitors the PDCCH in the optimal new Tx beam direction for a BFR response. This monitoring is limited to a time window that is counted down by a beam failure recovery timer.

[0152] Upon receiving the BFR request (step 1216), TRP 170 may transmit a BFR response on the PDCCH in the optimal new Tx beam direction (step 1218).

[0153] Upon receiving the BFR response (step 1220), UE 110 determines that the BFR was successful. The PHY of UE 110 provides a BFR success message to the MAC layer, and the beam failure recovery timer stops.

[0154] If the time window measured by the beam failure recovery timer expires and UE 110 has not received a BFR response (step 1220), the PHY of UE 110 provides a BFR failure message to the MAC layer.

[0155] Upon receiving the BFR response (step 1220), UE 110 can start receiving communication signals from TRP 170 on the communication link transmitted by TRP 170 using the new Tx beam direction. That is, UE 110 uses the Rx beam direction corresponding to the new Tx beam direction.

[0156] In the signal flow of FIG. 12, beam failure detection (step 1202) is performed using sensing and / or AI techniques. Whether a beam is not functioning may be determined based on whether a beam block exists, and the presence of a beam block may be determined using sensing and / or AI techniques.

[0157] The use of sensing and / or AI techniques is a significant difference between the signal flow of FIG. 12 and the current NR BFR procedure represented by the signal flow of FIG. 10. By using sensing and / or AI techniques, it is not necessary to configure a set of BFD RSs.

[0158] In this method, the indication of the beam direction is performed by a coordinate-based beam indication method. This indication method uses coordinates and utilizes either the absolute beam direction or the differential beam direction.

[0159] The existing NR beam failure recovery procedure (Figure 10) includes four main stages, namely, beam failure detection (stage 1002); new beam identification (stage 1009); BFR request transmission (stage 1014); and BFR response transmission (stage 1018).

[0160] In particular, the signal flow in Figure 12 also includes four main stages, namely, beam failure detection (stage 1202); new beam identification (stage 1209); BFR request transmission (stage 1214); and BFR response transmission (stage 1218).

[0161] The signal flow in Figure 12 is different from the signal flow in Figure 10 mainly in that the beam failure detection stage (stage 1202) in the signal flow of Figure 12 is realized in a different way from the beam failure detection stage (stage 1002) in the signal flow of Figure 10.

[0162] Figure 13 shows the beam failure recovery process according to various aspects of the present application in a signal flow diagram.

[0163] First, it is assumed that the TRP 170 and the UE 110 communicate via an existing communication link. The existing communication link may include, among other known channels, the PDCCH and / or the PDSCH and / or the PUCCH and / or the PUSCH.

[0164] The UE 110 transmits a sensing signal (stage 1301TX), and in the situation where there is a signal block, the UE 110 receives the reflection of the sensing signal from the signal block (stage 1301RX). It should be easily understood that the presence of the signal block may degrade various link qualities of the existing communication link between the TRP 170 and the UE 110. The signal block is also called signal interference.

[0165] UE 110 can monitor various link qualities of an existing communication link by monitoring the degree to which the sensing signal transmitted in stage 1301TX is received in stage 1301RX.

[0166] UE 110 may process the received (in stage 1301RX) reflection of the sensing signal transmitted in stage 1301TX using sensing and / or AI techniques (not shown). By processing the received reflection of the sensing signal, UE 110 may determine virtual metrics and associate them with the existing communication link. The virtual metrics may include, for example, virtual PDCCH BLER and / or reused RLM default BLER.

[0167] When it is determined that various metrics do not exceed a predetermined threshold, the PHY of UE 110 may report a beam obstruction instance to the MAC layer of UE 110. After the MAC layer has received the beam obstruction instance N times in a row, UE 110 may consider that a beam obstruction has been detected (stage 1302).

[0168] Then UE 110 performs new beam identification (stage 1309). The new beam identification (stage 1309) uses sensing and / or AI techniques to find a new beam pair and is used to re-establish a good communication connection between TRP 170 and UE 110.

[0169] Then the MAC layer starts beam obstruction recovery by sending a BFR request to TRP 170 through PRACH (stage 1314). After sending the PRACH, the MAC layer starts a beam obstruction recovery timer. The PRACH resource is for the new beam identifier. Here, coordinate-based beam indication is used. After sending the BFR request (stage 1314), UE 110 monitors the PDCCH of the optimal new beam for the BFR response. This monitoring is limited to a time window counted down by the beam obstruction recovery timer.

[0170] When attempting to receive a BFR request (step 1316), TRP170 performs beam switching. When determining the TRP Rx beam direction that best matches the UE Tx beam direction used for receiving the BFR request (step 1316), TRP170 may be considered to have determined a beam pair. TRP170 is finding the optimal Rx beam by using AI technology or a beam training method based on the received PRACH beam direction that carries the BFR request.

[0171] Upon receiving a BFR request (step 1316), TRP170 may send a BFR response (step 1318).

[0172] Upon receiving a BFR response (step 1320), UE110 determines that the BFR was successful. The PHY of UE110 provides a BFR success message to the MAC layer, and the beam failure recovery timer stops.

[0173] If the time window measured by the beam failure recovery timer expires and UE110 has not received a BFR response (step 1320), the PHY of UE110 provides a BFR failure message to the MAC layer.

[0174] Upon receiving a BFR response (step 1320), UE110 can start transmitting a communication signal to TRP170 on a communication link transmitted using the new UE Tx beam direction. That is, UE110 uses the Tx beam direction corresponding to the new TRP Rx beam direction in the beam pair.

[0175] In the signal flow of Figure 13, beam failure detection (step 1302) is performed using sensing and / or AI technology. Whether a beam is malfunctioning may be determined based on the presence of a beam block, and the presence of a beam block may be determined using sensing and / or AI technology.

[0176] Furthermore, the new beam identification (step 1309) is implemented using sensing and / or AI technology. Since the new beam identification (step 1309) is implemented using sensing or AI technology, the BFR process will only have three steps, namely, beam obstacle detection (step 1302); BFR request transmission (step 1314); and BFR response transmission (step 1318). With the assistance of sensing or AI technology, the signal flow in FIG. 13 may be regarded as related to proactive BFR. Furthermore, since the use of beam measurement is significantly reduced in the signal flow of FIG. 13, the latency associated with beam measurement can be reduced accordingly. Furthermore, it is not necessary to set either the set of RSs for beam obstacle detection or the set of RSs for new beam identification.

[0177] It should be understood that one or more steps of the methods of the embodiments provided herein may be performed by corresponding units or modules. For example, data may be transmitted by a transmitting unit or module. Data may be received by a receiving unit or module. Data may be processed by a processing unit or module. Each unit / module may be hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For example, one or both of the unit / modules may be an integrated circuit such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). When such a group of modules is software, it will be understood that the group of modules may be obtained by a processor, individually or together, in whole or in part, as necessary, in one or more instances for processing, and that the group of modules itself may include instructions for further deployment and instantiation.

[0178] Although combinations of multiple features are shown in the illustrated embodiments, not all of them need to be combined to realize the benefits of various embodiments of the present disclosure. In other words, a system or method designed according to an embodiment of the present disclosure does not necessarily include all of the features shown in any one of the plurality of figures or all of the portions schematically shown in the plurality of figures. Further, selected features of one exemplary embodiment may be combined with selected features of other exemplary embodiments.

[0179] Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, this specification is not intended to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications and combinations of the exemplary embodiments, as well as other embodiments of the present disclosure, will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to this specification. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to embrace any such modifications or embodiments. [Other possible items] (Item 1) Transmitting an indication of a new beam direction, wherein the identification of the new beam direction is performed in response to the detection of a beam obstruction, the indication uses coordinate information, and the coordinate information is represented based on a predetermined coordinate system; Transmitting a beam obstruction recovery request; and Receiving a response to the beam obstruction recovery request A method comprising. (Item 2) The method according to claim 1, wherein the detection of the beam obstruction includes the use of artificial intelligence. (Item 3) The method according to claim 1, wherein the detection of the beam obstruction includes the use of sensing. (Item 4) The detection of the beam obstruction is Transmitting a sensing signal; Receiving a reflection of the sensing signal; and Processing the reflection of the sensing signal to obtain a virtual indicator of link quality The method according to claim 1, comprising. (Item 5) The method according to claim 4, wherein the virtual indicator of the link quality includes the block error rate of a virtual physical downlink control channel. (Item 6) The method according to claim 4, wherein the virtual indicator of the link quality includes the default block error rate of the reuse radio link management. (Item 7) The method according to claim 1, wherein the identification of the new beam direction includes the execution of a beam training procedure. (Item 8) The method according to claim 1, wherein the identification of the new beam direction includes the use of artificial intelligence. (Item 9) The method according to claim 1, wherein the identification of the new beam direction includes the use of sensing. (Item 10) A memory storing instructions; and By executing the instructions, Transmit an indication of a new beam direction, where the identification of the new beam direction is performed in response to the detection of a beam failure, the indication uses coordinate information, and the coordinate information is represented based on a predetermined coordinate system; Transmit a beam failure recovery request; and Receive a response to the beam failure recovery request A processor configured to A device comprising. (Item 11) Transmitting a communication signal on a communication link in a communication link transmission beam direction; Transmitting a training signal using a new transmission beam direction different from the communication link beam direction, where the identification of the new transmission beam direction is performed in response to the detection of a beam failure on the communication link; Receiving a response to the training signal; and Transmitting a communication signal on the communication link in the new transmission beam direction A method comprising. (Item 12) detecting the beam obstruction includes monitoring a link quality metric of a beam associated with the communication link; and detecting a beam obstruction in response to detecting that the link quality metric of the beam does not exceed a threshold The method according to claim 14, comprising: (Item 13) The method according to claim 14, wherein the identifying of the new transmission beam direction includes using artificial intelligence. (Item 14) The method according to claim 14, wherein the identifying of the new transmission beam direction includes using sensing. (Item 15) starting a timer in response to detecting the beam obstruction; and stopping the timer in response to receiving the response to the training signal The method according to claim 14, further comprising: (Item 16) The method according to claim 14, wherein the step of receiving the response to the training signal includes receiving the response on a new PHY channel. (Item 17) The method according to claim 19, wherein the new PHY channel is something like a physical downlink control channel. (Item 18) The method according to claim 14, wherein the step of receiving the response to the training signal includes receiving the response on a reused physical random access channel resource. (Item 19) The method according to claim 14, wherein the step of receiving the response to the training signal includes receiving the response using a predetermined preamble resource. (Item 20) a memory storing instructions; and executing the instructions to transmit a communication signal on a communication link in a communication link transmission beam direction; Transmitting a training signal using a new transmission beam direction different from the communication link beam direction, where the identification of the new transmission beam direction is performed in response to the detection of a beam obstruction on the communication link; Receiving a response to the training signal; and Transmitting a communication signal on the communication link in the new transmission beam direction A processor configured to Comprising a device.

Claims

1. Transmitting an indication of a new beam direction, where the identification of the new beam direction is performed in response to detection of a beam obstruction, the indication using coordinate information, the coordinate information being represented with reference to a predetermined coordinate system; Transmitting a beam obstruction recovery request; and Receiving a response to the beam obstruction recovery request comprising, wherein the detection of the beam obstruction comprises transmitting a sensing signal; receiving a reflection of the sensing signal; and processing the reflection of the sensing signal to obtain a virtual indicator of link quality including, wherein the virtual indicator of link quality includes a block error rate of a virtual physical downlink control channel, a method.

2. Transmitting an indication of a new beam direction, where the identification of the new beam direction is performed in response to detection of a beam obstruction, the indication using coordinate information, the coordinate information being represented with reference to a predetermined coordinate system; Transmitting a beam obstruction recovery request; and Receiving a response to the beam obstruction recovery request comprising, wherein the detection of the beam obstruction comprises transmitting a sensing signal; receiving a reflection of the sensing signal; and processing the reflection of the sensing signal to obtain a virtual indicator of link quality including, wherein the virtual indicator of link quality includes a default block error rate of reused radio link management, a method.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the detection of the beam obstruction includes the use of artificial intelligence.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the detection of the beam obstruction includes the use of sensing.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the identification of the new beam direction includes the execution of a beam training procedure.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the identification of the new beam direction includes the use of artificial intelligence.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the identification of the new beam direction includes the use of sensing.

8. A memory storing instructions; and A processor configured to execute the instructions to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 comprising a device.

9. A device comprising means for performing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

10. A computer program that causes a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

11. A method applied to a transmission / reception point (TRP), comprising: transmitting a communication signal on a communication link in a communication link transmission beam direction; detecting a beam obstacle; transmitting a training signal using a new transmission beam direction different from the communication link transmission beam direction, wherein the identification of the new transmission beam direction is performed in response to the detection of the beam obstacle on the communication link; receiving a response to the training signal; and transmitting a communication signal on the communication link in the new transmission beam direction .

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the detection of the beam obstacle includes: monitoring a link quality indicator of a beam related to the communication link; and detecting a beam obstacle in response to detecting that the link quality indicator of the beam does not exceed a threshold.

13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the identification of the new transmission beam direction includes the use of artificial intelligence.

14. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the identification of the new transmission beam direction includes the use of sensing.

15. starting a timer in response to the detection of the beam obstacle; and stopping the timer in response to the step of receiving the response to the training signal. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 14, further comprising:

16. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 15, wherein the step of receiving the response to the training signal includes receiving the response on a new PHY channel.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the new PHY channel is a physical downlink control channel.

18. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 17, wherein the step of receiving the response to the training signal includes receiving the response on a reused physical random access channel resource.

19. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 18, wherein the step of receiving the response to the training signal includes receiving the response using a predetermined preamble resource.

20. A method applied to a user equipment (UE), comprising: Receiving a communication signal on a communication link in a communication link transmission beam direction; Receiving a training signal from a transmission and reception point (TRP) using a new transmission beam direction different from the communication link transmission beam direction, wherein the training signal is transmitted from the TRP using the new transmission beam direction identified by the TRP in response to detection of a beam obstacle on the communication link by the TRP; Transmitting a response to the training signal; and Receiving a communication signal on the communication link in the new transmission beam direction A method comprising.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the step of transmitting the response to the training signal includes transmitting the response on a new PHY channel.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the new PHY channel is a physical downlink control channel.

23. The method according to claim 20, wherein the step of transmitting the response to the training signal includes transmitting the response using a reused physical random access channel resource.

24. The method according to claim 20, wherein the step of transmitting the response to the training signal includes transmitting the response using a predetermined preamble resource.

25. A memory storing instructions; and A processor configured to execute the instructions to perform the method according to any one of claims 11 to 19 or 20 A device comprising.

26. A device comprising means for performing the method according to any one of claims 11 to 19 or 20.

27. A computer program for causing a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 11 to 19 or 20.

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