Apparatus and method for dual polarized antenna in a wireless communication system

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a 5G communication system or a 6G communication system for supporting higher data rates beyond a 4G communication system such as long term evolution (LTE). Apparatuses and methods for a dual-pol antenna for increasing panel gain from limited aperture area for massive MIMO base station in a wireless communication system. A method of a base station (BS) in a wireless communication system includes transmitting polarized electro-magnetic (EM) waves in a direction of a Z-axis via an antenna panel comprising at least one dual polarized antenna and at least one three-dimensional (3D) end-fire antenna, wherein: the at least one dual polarized antenna includes a set of dual polarized antenna elements, at least one individual single polarized antenna element being configured based on a staggered configuration to form the set of dual polarized antenna elements; and the at least one 3D end-fire antenna is configured based on the set of dual polarized antenna elements, the 3D end-fire antenna being oriented in a direction of the Z-axis.

Description

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DUAL POLARIZED ANTENNA IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication systems and, more specifically, the present disclosure relates to a dual polarized (dual-pol) antenna for panel gain from limited aperture area for massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) base station in a wireless communication system.

[0002] Considering the development of wireless communication from generation to generation, the technologies have been developed mainly for services targeting humans, such as voice calls, multimedia services, and data services. Following the commercialization of 5G (5th generation) communication systems, it is expected that the number of connected devices will exponentially grow. Increasingly, these will be connected to communication networks. Examples of connected things may include vehicles, robots, drones, home appliances, displays, smart sensors connected to various infrastructures, construction machines, and factory equipment. Mobile devices are expected to evolve in various form-factors, such as augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets, and hologram devices. In order to provide various services by connecting hundreds of billions of devices and things in the 6G (6th generation) era, there have been ongoing efforts to develop improved 6G communication systems. For these reasons, 6G communication systems are referred to as beyond-5G systems.

[0003] 6G communication systems, which are expected to be commercialized around 2030, will have a peak data rate of tera (1,000 giga)-level bit per second (bps) and a radio latency less than 100μsec, and thus will be 50 times as fast as 5G communication systems and have the 1 / 10 radio latency thereof.

[0004] In order to accomplish such a high data rate and an ultra-low latency, it has been considered to implement 6G communication systems in a terahertz (THz) band (for example, 95 gigahertz (GHz) to 3THz bands). It is expected that, due to severer path loss and atmospheric absorption in the terahertz bands than those in mmWave bands introduced in 5G, technologies capable of securing the signal transmission distance (that is, coverage) will become more crucial. It is necessary to develop, as major technologies for securing the coverage, Radio Frequency (RF) elements, antennas, novel waveforms having a better coverage than Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), beamforming and massive Multiple-input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas, and multiantenna transmission technologies such as large-scale antennas. In addition, there has been ongoing discussion on new technologies for improving the coverage of terahertz-band signals, such as metamaterial-based lenses and antennas, Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM), and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS).

[0005] Moreover, in order to improve the spectral efficiency and the overall network performances, the following technologies have been developed for 6G communication systems: a full-duplex technology for enabling an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission to simultaneously use the same frequency resource at the same time; a network technology for utilizing satellites, High-Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS), and the like in an integrated manner; an improved network structure for supporting mobile base stations and the like and enabling network operation optimization and automation and the like; a dynamic spectrum sharing technology via collision avoidance based on a prediction of spectrum usage; an use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in wireless communication for improvement of overall network operation by utilizing AI from a designing phase for developing 6G and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions; and a next-generation distributed computing technology for overcoming the limit of UE computing ability through reachable super-high-performance communication and computing resources (such as Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), clouds, and the like) over the network. In addition, through designing new protocols to be used in 6G communication systems, developing mechanisms for implementing a hardware-based security environment and safe use of data, and developing technologies for maintaining privacy, attempts to strengthen the connectivity between devices, optimize the network, promote softwarization of network entities, and increase the openness of wireless communications are continuing.

[0006] It is expected that research and development of 6G communication systems in hyper-connectivity, including person to machine (P2M) as well as machine to machine (M2M), will allow the next hyper-connected experience. Particularly, it is expected that services such as truly immersive eXtended Reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram, and digital replica could be provided through 6G communication systems. In addition, services such as remote surgery for security and reliability enhancement, industrial automation, and emergency response will be provided through the 6G communication system such that the technologies could be applied in various fields such as industry, medical care, automobiles, and home appliances.

[0007]

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

[0009] The disclosure relates to a dual-pol antenna for panel gain from limited aperture area for massive MIMO base station in a wireless communication system.

[0010] In one embodiment, a base station (BS) in a wireless communication system is provided. The BS comprises: a processor; an antenna panel comprising at least one dual polarized antenna and at least one three-dimensional (3D) end-fire antenna, wherein: the at least one dual polarized antenna includes a set of dual polarized antenna elements, at least one individual single polarized antenna element being configured based on a staggered configuration to form the set of dual polarized antenna elements, and the at least one 3D end-fire antenna is configured based on the set of dual polarized antenna elements, the 3D end-fire antenna being oriented in a direction of a Z-axis. The BS further comprises a transceiver operably coupled to the processor and the antenna panel, the transceiver configured to transmit polarized electro-magnetic (EM) waves in the direction of the Z-axis via the antenna panel.

[0011] In another embodiment, a method of a BS in a wireless communication system is provided. The method comprises: transmitting polarized EM waves in a direction of a Z-axis via an antenna panel comprising at least one dual polarized antenna and at least one 3D end-fire antenna, wherein: the at least one dual polarized antenna includes a set of dual polarized antenna elements, at least one individual single polarized antenna element being configured based on a staggered configuration to form the set of dual polarized antenna elements; and the at least one 3D end-fire antenna is configured based on the set of dual polarized antenna elements, the 3D end-fire antenna being oriented in a direction of the Z-axis.

[0012] Aspects of the disclosure are to address at least the above-mentioned problems and / or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described below. Accordingly, an aspect of the disclosure is to provide efficient communication methods in a wireless communication system.

[0013] For a more complete understanding of the disclosure and its advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts:

[0014] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of wireless network according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0015] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of gNB according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0016] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of UE according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0017] FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate examples of wireless transmit and receive paths according to this disclosure;

[0018] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a comparison of 2λ and 4λ subarray size to maintain same number of RF chains according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0019] FIG. 7 illustrates an example of structure of dual-pol Vivaldi antenna element with parasitic elements for gain improvement with height reduction according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0020] FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a dual-pol Vivaldi antenna with staggered configuration according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0021] FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of method for determining if Vivaldi based staggered MMU antenna is correct choice according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0022] FIG. 10 illustrates an example of size comparison of planar antenna MMU and 3D Vivaldi based staggered dual orthogonal polarized antenna MMU for same gain according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0023] FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a comparison of overall size of the planar antenna array panel and the 3D Vivaldi based staggered antenna array panel for achieving the same overall gain according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0024] FIG. 12 illustrates an example of smaller antenna element spacing for reducing degradation in the scan range seen by using high gain low beamwidth individual antenna elements according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0025] FIG. 13 illustrates an example of dual orthogonal antenna panel using 0 / 90 polarization according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0026] FIG. 14 illustrates an example of splitting each element in 1x2 array to achieve non staggered 45 / 135 polarization according to embodiments of the disclosure; and

[0027] FIG. 15 illustrates a flowchart of method for a dual-pol antenna for increasing panel gain from limited aperture area for massive MIMO base station in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the disclosure.

[0028] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0029] FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0030] FIG.18 is a block diagram of a network entity according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0031] Hereinafter, embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0032] In describing the embodiments, descriptions related to technical contents well-known in the art and not associated directly with the disclosure will be omitted. Such an omission of unnecessary descriptions is intended to prevent obscuring of the main idea of the disclosure and more clearly transfer the main idea.

[0033] For the same reason, in the accompanying drawings, some elements may be exaggerated, omitted, or schematically illustrated. Further, the size of each element does not completely reflect the actual size. In the drawings, identical or corresponding elements are provided with identical reference numerals or different reference numerals.

[0034] The advantages and features of the disclosure and ways to achieve them will be apparent by making reference to embodiments as described below in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the disclosure is not limited to the embodiments set forth below, but may be implemented in various different forms. The following embodiments are provided only to completely disclose the disclosure and inform those skilled in the art of the scope of the disclosure, and the disclosure is defined only by the scope of the appended claims. Throughout the specification, the same or like reference numerals designate the same or like elements. Furthermore, in describing the disclosure, a detailed description of known functions or constitution incorporated herein will be omitted in the case that it is determined that the description may make the subject matter of the disclosure unnecessarily unclear. The terms which will be described below are terms defined in consideration of the functions in the disclosure, and may be different according to users, intentions of the operators, or customs. Therefore, the definitions of the terms should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

[0035] Herein, it will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, may be performed based on computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded collectively onto at least one processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which perform through any one of, or in any combination of, the at least one processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for performing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s). These computer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitory computer usable or computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that perform the function specified in the flowchart block(s). The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a computer executed process such that the instructions that perform on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus provide steps for executing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s).

[0036] Further, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which includes one or more executable instructions for executing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order. For example, two blocks(or functions) shown in succession may in fact be performed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be performed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.

[0037] As used in embodiments of the disclosure, a “~unit” may refer to a software element or a hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), which performs a predetermined function. However, the term including the word “~unit” does not always have a meaning limited to software or hardware. The “~unit” may be constructed either to be stored in an addressable storage medium or to execute one or more processors. Therefore, the “~unit” includes, for example, software elements, object-oriented software elements, components such as class elements and task elements, processes, functions, properties, procedures, sub-routines, segments of a program code, drivers, firmware, micro-codes, circuits, data, database, data structures, tables, arrays, and parameters. The components and functions provided by the “~unit” may be either combined into a smaller number of components and a “~unit,” or divided into additional components and a “~unit.” Moreover, the components and “~units” may be implemented to reproduce one or more central processing units (CPUs) within a device or a security multimedia card. Further, in the embodiments, the “~unit” may include one or more processors.

[0038] It should be appreciated that the blocks in each flowchart and combinations of the flowcharts may be performed by one or more computer programs which include instructions. The entirety of the one or more computer programs may be stored in a single memory device or the one or more computer programs may be divided with different portions stored in different multiple memory devices.

[0039] Any of the functions or operations described herein can be processed by one processor or a combination of processors. The one processor or the combination of processors is circuitry performing processing and includes circuitry like an application processor (AP, e.g. a CPU), a communication processor (CP, e.g., a modem), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a neural processing unit (NPU) (e.g., an artificial intelligence (AI) chip), a Wi-Fi chip, a Bluetooth® chip, a global positioning system (GPS) chip, a near field communication (NFC) chip, connectivity chips, a sensor controller, a touch controller, a finger-print sensor controller, a display driver integrated circuit (IC), an audio CODEC chip, a universal serial bus (USB) controller, a camera controller, an image processing IC, a microprocessor unit (MPU), a system on chip (SoC), an IC, or the like.

[0040] It will be appreciated that various embodiments of the disclosure according to the claims and description in the specification can be realized in the form of hardware, software or a combination of hardware and software.

[0041] Any such software may be stored in non-transitory computer readable storage media. The non-transitory computer readable storage media store one or more computer programs (software modules), the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to perform a method of the disclosure.

[0042] Any such software may be stored in the form of volatile or non-volatile storage such as, for example, a storage device like read only memory (ROM), whether erasable or rewritable or not, or in the form of memory such as, for example, random access memory (RAM), memory chips, device or integrated circuits or on an optically or magnetically readable medium such as, for example, a compact disk (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disk or magnetic tape or the like. It will be appreciated that the storage devices and storage media are various embodiments of non-transitory machine-readable storage that are suitable for storing a computer program or computer programs comprising instructions that, when executed, implement various embodiments of the disclosure. Accordingly, various embodiments of the disclosure may provide a program comprising code for implementing apparatus or a method as claimed in any one of the claims of this specification and a non-transitory machine-readable storage storing such a program.

[0043] Hereinafter, the determination of priority between A and B in the disclosure may refer to various actions such as selecting the one having a higher priority based on a predefined priority rule and performing an operation corresponding thereto, or omitting or dropping an operation corresponding to the one having a lower priority.

[0044] Hereinafter, "A or B" as described in the disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0045] In addition, "at least one of A, B, and C" as described in the disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0046] In addition, "at least one of A, B, or C" as described in the disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0047] Furthermore, "A / B" as described in the disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0048] Furthermore, "A, B" as described in the disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0049] Furthermore, "A and B" as described in the disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0050] Furthermore, “if condition A and condition B are satisfied,” as described in the disclosure, may not be limited to a case where both condition A and condition B are satisfied, but may be understood to include a case where either condition A or condition B is individually satisfied, both condition A and condition B are satisfied, or one or more additional conditions are satisfied in combination.

[0051] Furthermore, throughout this disclosure, ordinal terms such as "first," "second," "third," etc., (and similar qualifiers) are used merely to distinguish between different instances, occurrences, configurations, messages, stages, or aspects of elements, operations, or information as described herein. Unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, the use of such ordinal terms does not itself require that the elements, operations, or information distinguished by these terms be structurally different, numerically distinct, or substantively dissimilar. For example, a "first signal" and a "second signal" may refer to instances of the same signal transmitted at different times or containing the same core information despite minor variations, or they may refer to signals with different content or characteristics, depending on the specific context. Similarly, a "first value" and a "second value" may represent the same magnitude but measured or applied in different circumstances, or they may represent different magnitudes. The interpretation should be guided by the specific technical context, function, and relationship described in the relevant portion of the specification and claims.

[0052] Furthermore, the terms “first ~”, “second ~”, etc., as described in the disclosure with respect to various elements (e.g., information, objects, operation, sequences, or the like), should not limit those elements. These terms may only be intended to distinguish one element from another, and may not be intended to indicate a specific order. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element.

[0053] Furthermore, even if “first ~” and “second ~” are described in the disclosure, it may be understood that element(s) referred to by “first ~” and “second ~” may be the same or different. For example, in case of element(s) being information, first information and second information may both be same information and, in some cases, are separate and different information.

[0054] In addition, the terms “if ~” and “in case that ~” as used in the disclosure or claims may be interpreted to include the meanings of “when (or upon) ~,” “in response to ~,” “based on ~,” or “according to ~,” and may be used interchangeably with these expressions. In addition, expressions other than those exemplified herein may also be used, as long as they have substantially the same meaning and do not impair the technical features of the disclosure.

[0055] For example, the physical layer signaling may be referred to as Layer 1 (L1) signaling and may include downlink control information (DCI). In addition, the higher layer signaling may include a medium access control (MAC) control message, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling message, a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling. It should be noted, however, that the higher layer signaling is not limited to the aforementioned examples.

[0056] In addition, the term "not perform" as used in the disclosure or claims may, in context, be understood to mean that the corresponding step is omitted or skipped. Such a term may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0057] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and B" as described in the disclosure, may be understood as encompassing both (i) transmitting A and B in a single message, and (ii) transmitting A and B separately via multiple messages (e.g., transmitting a first message including A and a second message including B). This interpretation may also apply to messages that include two or more items (e.g., A, B, C), transmitted either together or separately.

[0058] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and transmitting a message including B" may also be interpreted as transmitting a message including A and B in a single message.

[0059] In the specific embodiments of the disclosure described below, terms or components included in the disclosure may be expressed in singular or plural form depending on the specific embodiments presented. However, such singular or plural expressions are selected appropriately for convenience of description, and the disclosure is not limited to a singular or plural number of components. A component expressed in the plural form may be implemented as a single component, and a component expressed in the singular form may be implemented as multiple components.

[0060] The drawings or flowcharts described below illustrate exemplary methods that may be implemented according to the principles of the disclosure, and various modifications may be made to the methods illustrated in the flowcharts of the disclosure. For example, although illustrated as a series of steps, various steps in each drawing or flowchart may overlap, occur in parallel, occur in a different order, or be repeated. In other examples, any step may be omitted or replaced with another step.

[0061] The methods and apparatuses proposed in the embodiments of the disclosure are not limited to each embodiment individually, but may also be applied in combination of all or some of the embodiments proposed in the disclosure. Therefore, the embodiments of the disclosure may be modified and applied without significantly departing from the scope of the disclosure, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

[0062] In this case, even if certain wordings are described differently across embodiments, they may be used interchangeably or in substitution or in combination if their underlying concepts are equivalent. For example, for the same or equivalent concept, even if one embodiment uses the expression "A" and another embodiment uses the expression "B", such expressions may be understood interchangeably, in substitution, or in combination.

[0063] The terms used in the following description to refer to access nodes, network entities, messages, interfaces between network entities, various types of identification information, and the like, are provided merely for the convenience of explanation by way of example. Therefore, the disclosure is not limited to the terms described below, and other terms having equivalent technical meanings may also be used. Such terms may also be interchangeable with terms defined in any 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specifications (TS) where appropriate.

[0064] Hereinafter, a base station is an entity that allocates resources to terminals, and may be at least one of a gNode B, an eNode B, a Node B, a base station (BS), a wireless access unit, a BS controller, or a node on a network.

[0065] Furthermore, the base station of the disclosure may include a split architecture comprising a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). In this structure, the CU is configured to process the higher layers of the control and user planes, while the DU is configured to process lower-layer radio resource functions. The embodiments of the disclosure may be equally applicable to 5G base station architectures in which such CU and DU functional splits are implemented.

[0066] A terminal may include a UE, a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a smartphone, a computer, or a multimedia system capable of performing communication functions.

[0067] In the disclosure, a downlink (DL) refers to a radio link through which a BS transmits a signal to a UE, and an uplink (UL) refers to a radio link through which a UE transmits a signal to a BS.

[0068] Furthermore, hereinafter, 5th generation (5G) mobile communication technologies (e.g., 5G new radio (NR)), 6th generation (6G) mobile communication technologies may be described by way of example, but the embodiments of the disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems having similar technical backgrounds or channel types. For example, newly evolved mobile communication systems developed after 5G and 6G may be included. Furthermore, based on determinations by those skilled in the art, the embodiments of the disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems (e.g., Wi-Fi systems) through some modifications without significantly departing from the scope of the disclosure

[0069] In the following description, the terms physical channel and signal may be used interchangeably with data or control signal. For example, the term physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) refers to a physical channel through which data is transmitted, but the term PDSCH may also be used to refer to the data itself. That is, in the disclosure, the expression "transmit a physical channel" may be interpreted as being equivalent to the expression "transmit data or a signal via a physical channel."

[0070] Hereinafter, in the context of the disclosure, higher layer signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of the following: master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB) or SIB M (M = 1, 2, ...), radio resource control (RRC), or medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling.

[0071] In addition, L1 signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of signaling techniques using the at least one or any combination of the following physical layer channels or signaling: physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), downlink control information (DCI), user equipment (UE)-specific DCI, group-common DCI, common DCI, scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI used for scheduling downlink or uplink data), non-scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI not used for scheduling downlink or uplink data) physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or uplink control information (UCI). The L1 signaling message may be referred to as a physical layer signaling.

[0072] Hereinafter, the expression that information is configured by the BS, as used in the disclosure or claims, may, in context, be understood to mean that the terminal receives the corresponding information from the BS via a physical layer signaling or a higher layer signaling. Such an expression may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0073] Hereinafter, the operational principle of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0074] FIGS. 1-15, discussed below, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the disclosure in this patent document are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way to limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged system or device.

[0075] To meet the demand for wireless data traffic having increased since deployment of 4G communication systems and to enable various vertical applications, 5G / NR communication systems have been developed and are being deployed. The 5G / NR communication system is considered to be implemented in higher frequency (mmWave) bands, e.g., 28 GHz or 60GHz bands, so as to accomplish higher data rates or in lower frequency bands, such as 6 GHz, to enable robust coverage and mobility support. To decrease propagation loss of the radio waves and increase the transmission distance, the beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, an analog beam forming, large scale antenna techniques are discussed in 5G / NR communication systems.

[0076] In addition, in 5G / NR communication systems, development for system network improvement is under way based on advanced small cells, cloud radio access networks (RANs), ultra-dense networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, moving network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancelation and the like.

[0077] The discussion of 5G systems and frequency bands associated therewith is for reference as certain embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented in 5G systems. However, the disclosure is not limited to 5G systems, or the frequency bands associated therewith, and embodiments of the disclosure may be utilized in connection with any frequency band. For example, aspects of the disclosure may also be applied to deployment of 5G communication systems, 6G or even later releases which may use terahertz (THz) bands.

[0078] FIGS. 1-3 below describe various embodiments implemented in wireless communications systems and with the use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) or orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication techniques. The descriptions of FIGS. 1-3 are not meant to imply physical or architectural limitations to the manner in which different embodiments may be implemented. Different embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged communications system.

[0079] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of wireless network according to embodiments of the disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network shown in FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the wireless network 100 could be used without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0080] As shown in FIG. 1, the wireless network includes a gNB 101 (e.g., base station, BS), a gNB 102, and a gNB 103. The gNB 101 communicates with the gNB 102 and the gNB 103. The gNB 101 also communicates with at least one network 130, such as the Internet, a proprietary Internet Protocol (IP) network, or other data network.

[0081] The gNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a first plurality of user equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 of the gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs includes a UE 111, which may be located in a small business; a UE 112, which may be located in an enterprise; a UE 113, which may be a WiFi hotspot; a UE 114, which may be located in a first residence; a UE 115, which may be located in a second residence; and a UE 116, which may be a mobile device, such as a cell phone, a wireless laptop, a wireless PDA, or the like. The gNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage area 125 of the gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs includes the UE 115 and the UE 116. In some embodiments, one or more of the gNBs 101-103 may communicate with each other and with the UEs 111-116 using 5G / NR, long term evolution (LTE), long term evolution-advanced (LTE-A), WiMAX, WiFi, or other wireless communication techniques.

[0082] Depending on the network type, the term “base station” or “BS” can refer to any component (or collection of components) configured to provide wireless access to a network, such as transmit point (TP), transmit-receive point (TRP), an enhanced base station (eNodeB or eNB), a 5G / NR base station (gNB), a macrocell, a femtocell, a WiFi access point (AP), or other wirelessly enabled devices. Base stations may provide wireless access in accordance with one or more wireless communication protocols, e.g., 5G / NR 3rdgeneration partnership project (3GPP) NR, long term evolution (LTE), LTE advanced (LTE-A), high speed packet access (HSPA), Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac, etc. For the sake of convenience, the terms “BS” and “TRP” are used interchangeably in this patent document to refer to network infrastructure components that provide wireless access to remote terminals. Also, depending on the network type, the term “user equipment” or “UE” can refer to any component such as “mobile station,” “subscriber station,” “remote terminal,” “wireless terminal,” “receive point,” or “user device.” For the sake of convenience, the terms “user equipment” and “UE” are used in this patent document to refer to remote wireless equipment that wirelessly accesses a BS, whether the UE is a mobile device (such as a mobile telephone or smartphone) or is normally considered as a stationary device (such as a desktop computer or vending machine).

[0083] Dotted lines show the approximate extents of the coverage areas 120 and 125, which are shown as approximately circular for the purposes of illustration and explanation only. It should be clearly understood that the coverage areas associated with gNBs, such as the coverage areas 120 and 125, may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, depending upon the configuration of the gNBs and variations in the radio environment associated with natural and man-made obstructions.

[0084] As described in more detail below, one or more of the UEs 111-116 include circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof, for receiving a signal generated from a dual-pol antenna for increasing panel gain from limited aperture area for massive MIMO base station in a wireless communication system. In certain embodiments, and one or more of the gNBs 101-103 includes circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof, for supporting an operation for configurations for a dual-pol antenna for increasing panel gain from limited aperture area for massive MIMO base station in a wireless communication system.

[0085] Although FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a wireless network, various changes may be made to FIG. 1. For example, the wireless network could include any number of gNBs and any number of UEs in any suitable arrangement. Also, the gNB 101 could communicate directly with any number of UEs and provide those UEs with wireless broadband access to the network 130. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 could communicate directly with the network 130 and provide UEs with direct wireless broadband access to the network 130. Further, the gNBs 101, 102, and / or 103 could provide access to other or additional external networks, such as external telephone networks or other types of data networks.

[0086] FIG. 2 illustrates an example gNB 102 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The embodiment of the gNB 102 illustrated in FIG. 2 is for illustration only, and the gNBs 101 and 103 of FIG. 1 could have the same or similar configuration. However, gNBs come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 2 does not limit the scope of this disclosure to any particular implementation of a gNB.

[0087] As shown in FIG. 2, the gNB 102 includes multiple antennas 205a-205n, multiple transceivers 210a-210n, a controller / processor 225, a memory 230, and a backhaul or network interface 235.

[0088] The transceivers 210a-210n receive, from the antennas 205a-205n, incoming RF signals, such as signals transmitted by UEs in the network 100. The transceivers 210a-210n down-convert the incoming RF signals to generate IF or baseband signals. The IF or baseband signals are processed by receive (RX) processing circuitry in the transceivers 210a-210n and / or controller / processor 225, which generates processed baseband signals by filtering, decoding, and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signals. The controller / processor 225 may further process the baseband signals.

[0089] Transmit (TX) processing circuitry in the transceivers 210a-210n and / or controller / processor 225 receives analog or digital data (such as voice data, web data, e-mail, or interactive video game data) from the controller / processor 225. The TX processing circuitry encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate processed baseband or IF signals. The transceivers 210a-210n up-converts the baseband or IF signals to RF signals that are transmitted via the antennas 205a-205n.

[0090] The controller / processor 225 can include one or more processors or other processing devices that control the overall operation of the gNB 102. For example, the controller / processor 225 could control the reception of UL channel signals and the transmission of DL channel signals by the transceivers 210a-210n in accordance with well-known principles. The controller / processor 225 could support additional functions as well, such as more advanced wireless communication functions. For instance, the controller / processor 225 could support beam forming or directional routing operations in which outgoing / incoming signals from / to multiple antennas 205a-205n are weighted differently to effectively steer the outgoing signals in a desired direction. Any of a wide variety of other functions could be supported in the gNB 102 by the controller / processor 225.

[0091] The controller / processor 225 is also capable of executing programs and other processes resident in the memory 230, such as processes for supporting a dual-pol antenna for increasing panel gain from limited aperture area for massive MIMO base station in a wireless communication system. The controller / processor 225 can move data into or out of the memory 230 as performed by an executing process.

[0092] The controller / processor 225 is also coupled to the backhaul or network interface 235. The backhaul or network interface 235 allows the gNB 102 to communicate with other devices or systems over a backhaul connection or over a network. The interface 235 could support communications over any suitable wired or wireless connection(s). For example, when the gNB 102 is implemented as part of a cellular communication system (such as one supporting 5G / NR, LTE, or LTE-A), the interface 235 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate with other gNBs over a wired or wireless backhaul connection. When the gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, the interface 235 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate over a wired or wireless local area network or over a wired or wireless connection to a larger network (such as the Internet). The interface 235 includes any suitable structure supporting communications over a wired or wireless connection, such as an Ethernet or transceiver.

[0093] The memory 230 is coupled to the controller / processor 225. Part of the memory 230 could include a RAM, and another part of the memory 230 could include a Flash memory or other ROM.

[0094] Although FIG. 2 illustrates one example of gNB 102, various changes may be made to FIG. 2. For example, the gNB 102 could include any number of each component shown in FIG. 2. Also, various components in FIG. 2 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components could be added according to particular needs.

[0095] FIG. 3 illustrates an example UE 116 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The embodiment of the UE 116 illustrated in FIG. 3 is for illustration only, and the UEs 111-115 of FIG. 1 could have the same or similar configuration. However, UEs come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 3 does not limit the scope of this disclosure to any particular implementation of a UE.

[0096] As shown in FIG. 3, the UE　116 includes antenna(s) 305, a transceiver(s) 310, and a microphone 320. The UE　116 also includes a speaker 330, a processor 340, an input / output (I / O) interface (IF) 345, an input 350, a display 355, and a memory 360. The memory 360 includes an operating system (OS) 361 and one or more applications 362.

[0097] The transceiver(s) 310 receives from the antenna 305, an incoming RF signal transmitted by a gNB of the network 100. The transceiver(s) 310 down-converts the incoming RF signal to generate an intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is processed by RX processing circuitry in the transceiver(s) 310 and / or processor 340, which generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding, and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. The RX processing circuitry sends the processed baseband signal to the speaker 330 (such as for voice data) or is processed by the processor 340 (such as for web browsing data).

[0098] TX processing circuitry in the transceiver(s) 310 and / or processor 340 receives analog or digital voice data from the microphone 320 or other outgoing baseband data (such as web data, e-mail, or interactive video game data) from the processor 340. The TX processing circuitry encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. The transceiver(s) 310 up-converts the baseband or IF signal to an RF signal that is transmitted via the antenna(s) 305.

[0099] The processor 340 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute the OS 361 stored in the memory 360 in order to control the overall operation of the UE 116. For example, the processor 340 could control the reception of DL channel signals and the transmission of UL channel signals by the transceiver(s) 310 in accordance with well-known principles. In some embodiments, the processor 340 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0100] The processor 340 is also capable of executing other processes and programs resident in the memory 360, such as processes for receiving a signal generated from a dual-pol antenna for increasing panel gain from limited aperture area for massive MIMO base station in a wireless communication system.

[0101] The processor 340 can move data into or out of the memory 360 as performed by an executing process. In some embodiments, the processor 340 is configured to execute the applications 362 based on the OS 361 or in response to signals received from gNBs or an operator. The processor 340 is also coupled to the I / O interface 345, which provides the UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices, such as laptop computers and handheld computers. The I / O interface 345 is the communication path between these accessories and the processor 340.

[0102] The processor 340 is also coupled to the input 350 and the display 355 which includes for example, a touchscreen, keypad, etc., The operator of the UE 116 can use the input 350 to enter data into the UE 116. The display 355 may be a liquid crystal display, light emitting diode display, or other display capable of rendering text and / or at least limited graphics, such as from web sites.

[0103] The memory 360 is coupled to the processor 340. Part of the memory 360 could include a random-access memory (RAM), and another part of the memory 360 could include a Flash memory or other read-only memory (ROM).

[0104] Although FIG. 3 illustrates one example of UE 116, various changes may be made to FIG. 3. For example, various components in FIG. 3 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components could be added according to particular needs. As a particular example, the processor 340 could be divided into multiple processors, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processing units (GPUs). In another example, the transceiver(s) 310 may include any number of transceivers and signal processing chains and may be connected to any number of antennas. Also, while FIG. 3 illustrates the UE 116 configured as a mobile telephone or smartphone, UEs could be configured to operate as other types of mobile or stationary devices.

[0105] FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 illustrate example wireless transmit and receive paths according to this disclosure. In the following description, a transmit path 400 may be described as being implemented in a gNB (such as the gNB 102), while a receive path 500 may be described as being implemented in a UE (such as a UE 116). However, it may be understood that the receive path 500 can be implemented in a gNB and that the transmit path 400 can be implemented in a UE. In various embodiments, the receive path 500 can be implemented in a first UE and the transmit path 400 can be implemented in a second UE. In some embodiments, the transmit path 400 is configured to utilize a dual-pol antenna for increasing panel gain from limited aperture area for massive MIMO base station in a wireless communication system.

[0106] The transmit path 400 as illustrated in FIG. 4 includes a channel coding and modulation block 405, a serial-to-parallel (S-to-P) block 410, a size N inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) block 415, a parallel-to-serial (P-to-S) block 420, an add cyclic prefix block 425, and an up-converter (UC) 430. The receive path 500 as illustrated in FIG. 5 includes a down-converter (DC) 555, a remove cyclic prefix block 560, a serial-to-parallel (S-to-P) block 565, a size N fast Fourier transform (FFT) block 570, a parallel-to-serial (P-to-S) block 575, and a channel decoding and demodulation block 580.

[0107] As illustrated in FIG. 4, the channel coding and modulation block 405 receives a set of information bits, applies coding (such as a low-density parity check (LDPC) coding), and modulates the input bits (such as with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)) to generate a sequence of frequency-domain modulation symbols.

[0108] The serial-to-parallel block 410 converts (such as de-multiplexes) the serial modulated symbols to parallel data in order to generate N parallel symbol streams, where N is the IFFT / FFT size used in the gNB 102 and the UE 116. The size N IFFT block 415 performs an IFFT operation on the N parallel symbol streams to generate time-domain output signals. The parallel-to-serial block 420 converts (such as multiplexes) the parallel time-domain output symbols from the size N IFFT block 415 in order to generate a serial time-domain signal. The add cyclic prefix block 425 inserts a cyclic prefix to the time-domain signal. The up-converter 430 modulates (such as up-converts) the output of the add cyclic prefix block 425 to an RF frequency for transmission via a wireless channel. The signal may also be filtered at baseband before conversion to the RF frequency.

[0109] A transmitted RF signal from the gNB 102 arrives at the UE 116 after passing through the wireless channel, and reverse operations to those at the gNB 102 are performed at the UE 116.

[0110] As illustrated in FIG. 5, the down converter 555 down-converts the received signal to a baseband frequency, and the remove cyclic prefix block 560 removes the cyclic prefix to generate a serial time-domain baseband signal. The serial-to-parallel block 565 converts the time-domain baseband signal to parallel time domain signals. The size N FFT block 570 performs an FFT algorithm to generate N parallel frequency-domain signals. The parallel-to-serial block 575 converts the parallel frequency-domain signals to a sequence of modulated data symbols. The channel decoding and demodulation block 580 demodulates and decodes the modulated symbols to recover the original input data stream.

[0111] Each of the gNBs 101-103 may implement a transmit path 400 as illustrated in FIG. 4 that is analogous to transmitting in the downlink to UEs 111-116 and may implement a receive path 500 as illustrated in FIG. 5 that is analogous to receiving in the uplink from UEs 111-116. Similarly, each of UEs 111-116 may implement the transmit path 400 for transmitting in the uplink to the gNBs 101-103 and may implement the receive path 500 for receiving in the downlink from the gNBs 101-103.

[0112] Each of the components in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 can be implemented using only hardware or using a combination of hardware and software / firmware. As a particular example, at least some of the components in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 may be implemented in software, while other components may be implemented by configurable hardware or a mixture of software and configurable hardware. For instance, the FFT block 570 and the IFFT block 415 may be implemented as configurable software algorithms, where the value of size N may be modified according to the implementation.

[0113] Furthermore, although described as using FFT and IFFT, this is by way of illustration only and may not be construed to limit the scope of this disclosure. Other types of transforms, such as discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) functions, can be used. It may be appreciated that the value of the variable N may be any integer number (such as 1, 2, 3, 4, or the like) for DFT and IDFT functions, while the value of the variable N may be any integer number that is a power of two (such as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, or the like) for FFT and IFFT functions.

[0114] Although FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 illustrate examples of wireless transmit and receive paths, various changes may be made to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5. For example, various components in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 can be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components can be added according to particular needs. Also, FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are meant to illustrate examples of the types of transmit and receive paths that can be used in a wireless network. Any other suitable architectures can be used to support wireless communications in a wireless network.

[0115] For superior coverage at communication bands like a frequency range 1 (FR1), an FR2, and an FR3, it is necessary to boost the antenna gain from base-station antenna panels. This can be accomplished by either making the antenna size larger or by making the antenna aperture more efficient. For increasing the antenna panel gain by 3dB, it is necessary to double the antenna panel size if individual antenna elements are the same. Doubling the size increases the weight of the panel by two times and it may also be difficult to implement due to size and wind load constraints. Enhancing the antenna's aperture efficiency in X-Y plane is very hard with already ~100% efficient antennas used in base-station modules. In this way, not more than 0.2-0.3dB gain improvement can be obtained from same aperture size, even if 100% efficient antennas are used. In this case, for obtaining 3dB larger antenna gain, the antenna panel size is still necessary to increase by just a little lower than two times.

[0116] For base-station antennas, it can be assumed that the antenna is implemented in the X-Y plane and radiates along the Z-direction. For truly doubling the antenna panel gain without increasing the size of the panel by two times, it is necessary to utilize the Z-dimension for antenna implementation. By utilizing antenna aperture in X-Z or Y-Z direction, the X-Y aperture efficiency limit may be ignored. In this way, more antennas can be placed in the X-Y plane, with each element having a larger element gain than other used base-station antennas. Such end-fire antennas are shown to improve the gain of the antenna panel by 3dB without doubling the size of the panel. Such antennas also have better cross-pol isolation compared to antennas where both orthogonal radiation modes are supported on the same radiating element.

[0117] The fundamental problem is to increase the gain of the antenna panel on the massive MIMO unit (MMU) base-station. With increasing urban densification, it is proving difficult to effectively deploy 5G in dense urban areas due to reduced power resulting from obstacle-based attenuation. Alternatively, in non-dense environments, improving coverage of base-stations can give larger throughput at the same coverage distance, and improve the coverage distance for meeting the minimum SNR at the receiver. This can save on massive infrastructure costs resulting due to reduced number of base-stations for providing coverage.

[0118] The antenna design for base-station focuses on broadside antenna radiators that use the X-Y plane for an element design and a Z-direction for radiation. The aperture efficiency of such an antenna panel is given by equation (1):

[0119] [Equation 1]

[0120] (1).

[0121] In equation (1), G is the gain of the antenna, λ is the operational wavelength, and Aphis the physical area. According to this formula, there is only a finite amount of gain that can be extracted from a limited X-Y area. The antennas in the FR1 and FR3 product tend to be more than 90% efficient. If these antennas were exactly 100% aperture efficient, the additional gain improvement due to 10% efficiency increase may only be 0.4dB. Also, it is impossible to design an antenna with 100% efficiency considering all the finite substrate losses, conductor losses and mutual coupling.

[0122] Hence, the disclosure provides techniques that can increase the gain of the antenna panel on the base-station apart from improving the performance of the broadside antennas. In the disclosure, two methods are provided to improve the gain of the antenna panel (1) increasing the antenna panel size and (2) increasing element gain.

[0123] In one embodiment, this approach involves making the antenna panel larger in the vertical direction to refrain from increasing the number of RF chains. In the vertical direction, product MMUs already comprise subarray implementation. A subarray size of 2λ can be used in the vertical direction with 3 elements spaced 0.66λ apart or 4 elements placed 0.5λ apart. All the elements in the subarray are driven with the same phase since they are attached to only 1 power amplifier (PA) and a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) phase shifter. In order to increase the antenna panel size by two times to extract a 3dB larger gain, the subarray size is necessary to increase to 4λ with 6 or 8 elements to maintain the original number of RF chains.

[0124] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a comparison of 2λ and 4λ subarray size 600 to maintain the same number of RF chains according to embodiments of the disclosure. An embodiment of the comparison of 2λ and 4λ subarray size 600 shown in FIG. 6 is for illustration only.

[0125] The comparison between both these architectures is shown in FIG. 6. In this case, although the overall antenna gain is increased and the Azimuth steering is unaffected due to no change in horizontal antenna spacing, the vertical scan range is almost halved due to double spacing of 4λ between phase centers of adjacent subarray. With a 2λ spacing, the theoretical maximum steer range is 25°. But due to the increase in the subarray size to maintain the same number of RF chains with a larger antenna panel size, the steering range is reduced to about 15°. This is understood by determining the element phase shift range based on the subarray spacing and desired steer angle as shown in Equation (2).

[0126] Equation (1) is only valid if all the antenna elements are in the X-Y plane and radiating broadside in the Z-direction. Using Equation (2), the beam direction can be also predicted if the inter-element phase shift is known:

[0127] [Equation 2]

[0128] (2).

[0129] The maximum phase-shift between elements for generating an independent solution for phase shift is 180°. In Equation (2), the d specifies the distance between the phase centers of the subarray. When d=2λ, the maximum value of θ is ±14.47°. When d=4λ, i.e., the subarray size is made twice, the maximum value of θ is ±7.18°.

[0130] The degradation in the elevation steer range is a major drawback. To solve this issue, additional tuning after the PA may be implemented. Using electronic phase shifter (EPS) solutions by incorporating diodes and varactors in the power divider is one way of recovering the phase steer. However, these tuning elements introduce additional loss and reduce the gain of the antenna panel such that even two times the panel size gives less than 3dB gain increment.

[0131] The disclosure provides a solution for the second problem of the increased panel size. Most of the operators have strict specifications on the overall panel size for the MMU. Increasing the panel size by two times is not a feasible way to produce 3dB larger EIRP. Hence even though the vertical steering range is compromised, the fact that the panel size is increased by two times renders this idea infeasible.

[0132] In one embodiment, increasing the element gain can help to increase the overall antenna panel gain. The antenna panel gain is given by the sum of element gain and the normalized array factor. The normalized array factor is dependent on the spacing and the number of elements and tends to be constant. Hence if the element gain is 3dB larger, the overall panel gain can increase by 3dB. But this leads to the original problem of aperture efficiency.

[0133] According to Equation (1), the aperture efficiency cannot increase beyond 100% for the single element. Hence if a similar broadside radiating antenna is tried to optimally produce 3dB higher gain (or 50% higher aperture efficiency), it can only happen if the original antenna element has 50% or lower efficiency. Most commercial product antennas have an antenna only efficiency of >90%, which reduces the scope of increasing the gain beyond a very minimal value even if 100% efficient antennas are designed.

[0134] To overcome the drawback of approaching near 100% efficiency while designing the antennas, it is necessary to change the design philosophy. If antennas are not limited to the X-Y plane, then the aperture efficiency limit imposed by 2D apertures can be broken. The idea thus involves the use of 3D end-fire antennas., where the antennas are primarily oriented in the Z-direction and also radiate in the Z-direction. Then, by controlling the length of the antenna on Z-axis, the gain of each element can be increased or decreased. Also, in this way, more antennas in the X-Y plane can be packed and thereby have more RF ports in the same overall area.

[0135] In the disclosure, (i) utilizing one or more 3D end-fire antennas oriented and radiating in a Z-direction to reduce antenna panel size while maintaining MMU antenna gain are provided and (ii) integrating dual polarized 45-degree and 135-degree design with a high gain MMU antenna element based on a staggered configuration of one or more individual single polarized antenna elements is provided.

[0136] For increasing the element gain, a high gain end-fire Vivaldi based MMU antenna panel is provided. FIG. 7 shows the antenna element with parasitic structures for gain enhancement and size reduction.

[0137] FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a structure of dual-pol Vivaldi antenna element 700 with parasitic elements for gain improvement with height reduction according to embodiments of the disclosure. An embodiment of the structure of dual-pol Vivaldi antenna element 700 shown in FIG. 7 is for illustration only.

[0138] Some Vivaldi antenna elements have a height that is in multiple orders of wavelengths to achieve high gain. For the antenna in FIG. 7, the height is only 1λ, indicating that high gain can be obtained using limited structural dimension of the antenna. The antenna in FIG. 7 includes two linearly polarized antennas that can as one combined element radiate dual orthogonal cross-polarized EM waves. 701 shows one polarization of the Vivaldi element that radiates 45° Polarized EM waves. The structure includes a tapered sloe antenna with a light region indicating metal and dark region indicating dielectric. The antenna is made on a single layer PCB material with thickness of 0.005λ - 0.04λ. The length of the antenna element can vary from 0.96λ - 4λ and the width can vary from 0.3λ - 0.6λ.

[0139] As illustrated in FIG. 7, 702 is a parasitic rectangular element that increases the gain of the antenna element 701 by increasing the effective length where EM waves can radiate coherently. 703 includes an elliptical parasitic element with also increases the gain of the antenna element 701 and controls the resonance frequency based on major axis and eccentricity parameter of the ellipse. 704 is the second antenna element that radiates 135° polarized EM waves. 705 includes a rectangular element with dimensions similar to 702 and helps to increase the gain of antenna element 704. 706 includes a parasitic elliptical element that has dimensions similar to 703 and helps to increase gain and change resonance frequency of antenna element 704. 707 is a metal plate that acts like a reflector for EL waves to radiate in only the upper half region of the antenna. This also increases the gain of the antenna and increases the front-to-back ratio by reducing the leakage of electromagnetic waves in an undesired direction. 707 also acts as a baseboard for integrating individual Vivaldi elements into it to make a larger antenna array panel.

[0140] FIG. 8 illustrates an example of dual-pol Vivaldi antenna with staggered configuration 800 according to embodiments of the disclosure. An embodiment of the dual-pol Vivaldi antenna with staggered configuration 800 shown in FIG. 8 is for illustration only.

[0141] Some dual polarized Vivaldi structures are implemented using 0° and 90° dual-polarized structures in horizontal and vertical orientation. The disclosure uses staggered arrangement of antenna elements to get high, gain, low mutual coupling and high cross-pol isolation. FIG. 8 shows the finite array with staggered arrangement of dual-polarized antenna elements in 3D view and the top view. The second staggered polarization is 0.15λ-0.3λ offset in horizontal and vertical direction from the first polarization as seen in the top view. The 45° polarization is indicated by 203. The staggered 135° polarization is indicated by 804. The overall panel for one polarization is indicated by a size of x in horizontal direction and y in vertical direction.

[0142] As illustrated in FIG. 8, the panel enclosure for the first polarization is indicated by 801. The second polarization in 802 shares most of the area with 801 with only 1 element offset lying outside the 801 panel in the horizontal and the vertical direction. The dimensions of x and y are determined by the overall antenna array gain requirement. The number of antenna elements for each polarization within one panel are dictated by the element spacing requirements which can vary from 0.3λ to 0.8λ. Larger element spacing leads to a smaller number of RF chains and vice-versa. This change in the number of TRX ports directly affects the steering capability of the antenna array. The larger element gain for the Vivaldi based MMU antenna element as compared to the patch antenna elements leads to lower element beamwidth. Hence, with the 0.5λ spacing, the Vivaldi MMU antenna array has a lower scan capability as compared to the antenna array where antenna element has a lower gain but a wider beamwidth. One way to alleviate this problem is by having elements for Vivaldi MMU antenna array placed closer to each other. This leads to increase in scanning capability but also increases the number of TRX ports in the same panel area, which can have positive or negative system consequences. This way to reduce the antenna panel size by increasing the gain of the individual antenna elements, at cost of reducing the scan range, or increasing the number of TRX ports is indicated by the flowchart in FIG. 9.

[0143] FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of method 900 for determining if Vivaldi based staggered MMU antenna is correct choice according to embodiments of the disclosure. The method 900 may be performed by a BS (e.g., 101-103 as illustrated in FIG. 1). An embodiment of the method 900 shown in FIG. 9 is for illustration only. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 9 can be implemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform the noted functions or one or more of the components can be implemented by one or more processors executing instructions to perform the noted functions.

[0144] As illustrated in FIG. 9, 901 is used at the beginning to get the size requirement for the antenna panel. It is assumed at this point that the array gain cannot be met using other planar antenna approaches. Based on the additional gain that is necessary for the antenna panel, the Vivaldi antenna element is designed. Larger height of the antenna results in larger element gain at the cost of reduced 3dB beamwidth in 902. In 903, the antenna array gain for the staggered dual-pol Vivaldi element is compared to planar antenna based array. A comparison of the size of antenna array and staggered dual-pol Vivaldi antenna array for meeting the same gain is shown in FIG. 10.

[0145] FIG. 10 illustrates an example of size comparison of planar antenna MMU and 3D Vivaldi 1000 based staggered dual orthogonal polarized antenna MMU for same gain according to embodiments of the disclosure. An embodiment of the size comparison of planar antenna MMU and 3D Vivaldi 1000 shown in FIG. 10 is for illustration only.

[0146] The comparison is made for one instance of array size. The array, however, can be scaled to any larger or smaller size and the same comparison with scaled values for gain may still be valid.

[0147] The array in FIG. 10 is scaled to a larger size to meet the gain requirements for the base-station MMU antenna panel. The scaled antenna structure with polarization directions indicated by the arrow is shown in FIG. 11 for obtaining 3dB larger gain than a product gain of 26 dBi.

[0148] FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a comparison of overall size of the planar antenna array panel and the 3D Vivaldi 1100 based staggered antenna array panel for achieving the same overall gain according to embodiments of the disclosure. An embodiment of the comparison of overall size of the planar antenna array panel and the 3D Vivaldi 1100 shown in FIG. 11 is for illustration only.

[0149] As illustrated in overall size of FIG. 11, the planar MMU occupies an area of 16λ x 4λ which is double that of the product area of 8λ x 4λ to obtain 3dB larger gain of 29 dBi. The staggered dual pol Vivaldi MMU antenna, however, only occupies 1.5x area (12λ x 4λ) compared to a product area to obtain the same 29dBi gain. This 3dB additional gain comes at cost of larger panel height in the Z-direction.

[0150] In step 904 of FIG. 9, it is evaluated if the increased gain can meet the design requirements. Once the requirements are met, as for the example in FIG. 11, the element beamwidths are compared for another element and the high gain staggered dual-pol Vivaldi element. For the example illustrated in FIG. 11, it is seen that the element beamwidth for the staggered dual-pol Vivaldi element is 20° smaller in the azimuth direction as compared for the other planar antenna MMU. This translates to an overall steering range reduction of 20° if same element spacing as planar MMU antenna is maintained. This steering range and gain trade-off can be made smaller if the gain increment desired from the Vivaldi antenna panel is lower. The steering range reduction of 20° is also just one example.

[0151] Depending on a design of the MMU antenna, there may be more or less or no steering range reduction. Once the 3dB scan range requirement is assessed in step 906 in FIG. 9, it is evaluated if the degraded scan range is acceptable for the MMU antenna application by reviewing the system requirements. If the degraded scan range is acceptable in step 907 of FIG. 9, the MMU antenna can be used without any further changes in step 908 of FIG. 9. If the degraded scan range is not acceptable, one way to improve the scan range is by having more TRX ports in the same area, thereby having smaller spacing between the adjacent antenna elements in step 909 of FIG. 9.

[0152] Using smaller element spacing, the scan range can be improved until the specification for MMU antenna panel is met in step 911 of FIG. 9. Placing more TRX ports can influence the beam design and number of users serviced simultaneously. This changes the beam and frequency allocation drastically and may have positive or negative effects on overall system performance. Hence if number of TRX ports cannot be changed the beam scanning range does not meet the requirements, even though the Vivaldi based staggered MMU antenna panel produces more gain using smaller area, it cannot be used in the MMU application as indicated by step 910.

[0153] An advantage of using such a Vivaldi antenna structure is the ability to get a larger antenna gain than other patch types of antenna elements. An approach disclosed herein for using staggered individual antenna element configuration is to generate dual orthogonal 45° and 135° polarized MMU antenna is shown. The designed MMU antenna can produce the same gain using much smaller area than other planar antenna approaches and can be used in MIMO applications in base-station environment.

[0154] In one embodiment, scan range reduction addressed using closer spaced Vivaldi antenna elements is provided.

[0155] FIG. 12 illustrates an example of smaller antenna element spacing 1200 for reducing degradation in the scan range seen by using high gain low beamwidth individual antenna elements according to embodiments of the disclosure. An embodiment of the smaller antenna element spacing 1200 shown in FIG. 12 is for illustration only.

[0156] Larger element gain with 0.5λ spacing results in smaller scan range. In FIG. 12, an alternate 3D Vivaldi based antenna array is shown with smaller antenna element spacing to meet the ±50° scan range requirement.

[0157] In one embodiment, Vivaldi antenna element with 0° / 90° polarization instead of another 45° / 135° polarization is provided.

[0158] FIG. 13 illustrates an example of dual orthogonal antenna panel 1300 using 0 / 90 polarization according to embodiments of the disclosure. An embodiment of the dual orthogonal antenna panel 1300 shown in FIG. 13 is for illustration only.

[0159] MMU antennas are based on 45° / 135° polarization requirement. However, if 0° and 90° polarization is used, then it is possible to further reduce size of the MMU array without using staggered configuration as shown in FIG. 13. With additional elements in closer spacing, the steer range reduction is also eliminated. FIG. 13 illustrates a dual orthogonal antenna panel using 0 / 90 Polarization as an alternate embodiment to the staggered 45 / 135 Polarization.

[0160] In one embodiment, using 1x2 array for each Vivaldi element to intersect two polarizations at the center instead of staggering them is provided.

[0161] The primary embodiment uses staggered dual-orthogonal Vivaldi MMU antenna element. This is because if both polarizations occupied the same space by forming an X design instead of a T as seen from top-view, the center of each element may intersect with one another. Since each element is fed from the center, it may not be possible to feed both polarizations simultaneously. In this embodiment, each Vivaldi element is further split into a 1x2 array with each element in the array having reduced size as compared to the antenna element. In this way, at the center of the substrate there is a common ground plane which can be shared by both the polarizations. In this way, without staggering, dual-pol Vivaldi based MMU antenna can be supported as shown in FIG. 14.

[0162] FIG. 14 illustrates an example of splitting each element in 1x2 array 1400 to achieve non staggered 45 / 135 polarization according to embodiments of the disclosure. An embodiment of the splitting each element in 1x2 array 1400 shown in FIG. 14 is for illustration only.

[0163] FIG. 14 illustrates splitting each element in 1x2 array to achieve non staggered 45 / 135 Polarization on left as compared to primary embodiment of staggered configuration with single element for each polarization on the right.

[0164] FIG. 15 illustrates a flowchart of method 1500 for a dual-pol antenna for increasing panel gain from limited aperture area for massive MIMO base station in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the disclosure. The method 1500 may be performed by a BS (e.g., 101-103 as illustrated in FIG. 1 or a base station in FIG. 17). An embodiment of the method 1500 shown in FIG. 15 is for illustration only. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 15 can be implemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform the noted functions or one or more of the components can be implemented by one or more processors executing instructions to perform the noted functions.

[0165] As illustrated in FIG. 15, the method 1500 begins at step 1502. In step 1502, a BS identifies an antenna panel comprising at least one dual polarized antenna and at least one 3D end-fire antenna.

[0166] In step 1504, the BS identifies the at least one dual polarized antenna includes a set of dual polarized antenna elements, at least one individual single polarized antenna element being configured based on a staggered configuration to form the set of dual polarized antenna elements.

[0167] In step 1506, the BS identifies the at least one 3D end-fire antenna is configured based on the set of dual polarized antenna elements, the 3D end-fire antenna being oriented in a direction of a Z-axis.

[0168] In step 1508, the BS transmits polarized EM waves in the direction of the Z-axis via the antenna panel.

[0169] In one embodiment, the BS maintains a massive MMU antenna gain as a same level of antenna gain while transmitting the EM waves via the antenna panel.

[0170] In one embodiment, the set of dual polarized antenna elements comprises at least one orthogonal polarized antenna element.

[0171] In one embodiment, at least one orthogonal polarized antenna element is configured based on a 45 degree configuration and a 135 degree configuration.

[0172] In one embodiment, the 45 degree configuration and the 135 degree configuration are integrated with a set of massive MMU antenna elements based on the staggered configuration.

[0173] In one embodiment, at least one dual polarized antenna and the at least one 3D end-fire antenna are configured based on a tapered slot antenna structure with a first plate including a metal portion and a second plate including a dielectric portion.

[0174] In one embodiment, the first plate is configured to reflect the EM waves to radiate in an upper half region of the antenna panel to increase an antenna gain and a front-back ratio by reducing a leakage of the EM waves.

[0175] In one embodiment, a parasitic element of the antenna panel comprises a rectangular parasitic element and an elliptical parasitic element, the rectangular parasitic element is configured to increase a gain of antenna element by increasing a length where the EM waves radiate coherently, and the elliptical parasitic element is configured to increase the gain of the antenna element and control a resonance frequency based on a dominant axis and an eccentricity parameter of an ellipse.

[0176] In one embodiment, the staggered configuration comprises a staggered polarization with an offset between 0.15λ and 0.3λ in a horizontal and vertical direction.

[0177] In one embodiment, a dimension of the antenna panel is based on an antenna array gain requirement associated with a number of antenna elements for each polarization within the antenna panel.

[0178] The above flowcharts illustrate example methods that can be implemented in accordance with the principles of the disclosure and various changes could be made to the methods illustrated in the flowcharts herein. For example, while shown as a series of steps, various steps in each figure could overlap, occur in parallel, occur in a different order, or occur multiple times. In another example, steps may be omitted or replaced by other steps.

[0179] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) 1600 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0180] The terminal is an electronic device capable of wireless communication, may include a User Equipment (UE), a portable phone, a smartphone, a tablet, an Internet of things (IoT) device, etc., having various form factors, and may perform wireless communication with a base station (BS) through a wireless channel.

[0181] Referring to FIG. 16, the UE 1600 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply “transceiver”) 1601, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply “processor”) 1602, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply “memory”) 1603. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the disclosure, the transceiver 1601, the processor 1602, and the memory 1603 of the UE 1600 may operate. However, components of the UE 1600 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 16. In another embodiment, the UE 1600 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 1601, the processor 1602, or the memory 1603 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0182] The transceiver 1601 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the UE 1600 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 1601 may enable the UE 1600 to transmit or receive a signal to or from a BS through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another UE through cellular communication. For example, the transceiver 1601 may support at least one of various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4th generation (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6th generation (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (1601) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.

[0183] According to an embodiment, the UE 1600 may include a plurality of transceivers. For example, in the case of supporting evolved-universal terrestrial radio access-new radio (E-UTRA-NR) dual connectivity (EN-DC), the UE 1600 may include a first transceiver supporting the 4G LTE wireless communication and a second transceiver supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to another embodiment, in the case of supporting NR-dual connectivity (NR-DC), the UE 1600 may include a plurality of transceivers supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to still another embodiment, in the case of supporting near field wireless communication, the UE 1600 may separately include a transceiver supporting at least one standard in the group of wireless communication protocol standards as defined in the protocol standards for Bluetooth®, wireless local area network (WLAN) network (including institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.11-2016 standard or its amendments, e.g., 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, and 802.11be, without being limited thereto).

[0184] According to an embodiment, the transceiver 1601 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a BS through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 1601 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 1601 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 1602 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 1602.

[0185] The processor 1602 may control general operations of the UE 1600 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1602 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 1602 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1603, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1602 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0186] The processor 1602 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 1601 to control the transceiver 1601.

[0187] The processor 1602 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. For example, the processor 1602 may include a communication processor (CP) configured to control communication operations and an application processor (AP) configured to control execution of an upper layer (for example, an application layer) . In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1602 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 1602 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 1601 or the memory 1603.

[0188] The processor 1602 may perform or control or cause an operation of the UE 1600 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1602 may control operations of the UE 1600 for processing a downlink signal received from a BS or generating and transmitting an uplink signal to a BS. To this end, the processor 1602 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1603, so as to control other components of the UE 1600 to enable execution of various operations.

[0189] The memory 1603 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1603 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0190] The memory 1603 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1602 and may be accessed by the processor 1602.

[0191] The memory 1603 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1602. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1602 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1603, the processor 1602 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0192] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the UE 1600 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1603 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions. The UE 1600 may correspond to the UE in FIG.3.

[0193] FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0194] FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) 1700 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0195] The BS 1700 may perform wireless communication with at least one user equipment (UE) located within the area of the BS 1700 through a wireless channel.

[0196] Referring to FIG. 17, the BS 1700 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply “transceiver”) 1701, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply “processor”) 1702, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply “memory”) 1703. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the disclosure, the transceiver 1701, the processor 1702, and the memory 1703 of the BS 1700 may operate. However, components of the BS 1700 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 17. In another embodiment, the BS 1700 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 1701, the processor 1702, or the memory 1703 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0197] The transceiver 1701 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the BS 1700 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 1701 may enable the BS 1700 to transmit or receive a signal to or from the UE 1600 through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another network entity through wireless communication. For example, the transceiver 1701 may support various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4th generation (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6th generation (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (1701) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.. According to an embodiment, the transceiver 1701 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a UE through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 1701 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 1701 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 1702 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 1702.

[0198] Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the disclosure, the BS 1700 may perform communication with a node or an entity of a network through wired or wireless communication. For example, the BS 1700 may perform wired or wireless communication with an adjacent BS, or a node or an entity of a core network through a backhaul network. Although not illustrated in FIG. 17, when the BS 1700 performs wired communication, the BS 1700 may further include a separate network interface for wired communication in addition to the transceiver 1701. The network interface may be referred to as network interface circuitry or communication interface circuitry.

[0199] The processor 1702 may control general operations of the BS 1700 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1702 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 1702 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1703, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1702 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0200] The processor 1702 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 1701 to control the transceiver 1701.

[0201] The processor 1702 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1702 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 1702 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 1701 or the memory 1703.

[0202] The processor 1702 may perform or control or cause an operation of the BS 1700 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1702 may control operations of the BS 1700 for generating and transmitting a downlink signal to a UE or processing an uplink signal received from a UE. Otherwise, the BS 1700 may transmit or receive a signal to or from a neighboring BS, transfer a signal received from a UE to an upper node of the network, or transmit a signal transferred from an upper node of the network to a UE. To this end, the processor 1702 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1703, so as to control other components of the BS 1700 to enable execution of various operations.

[0203] The memory 1703 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1703 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0204] The memory 1703 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1702 and may be accessed by the processor 1702.

[0205] The memory 1703 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1702. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1702 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1703, the processor 1702 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0206] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the BS 1700 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1703 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions. The BS 1700 may correspond to the BS in FIG.2.

[0207] FIG.18 is a block diagram of a network entity according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0208] The UE or the base station may perform various communication procedures related to the control plane or the user plane by cooperating with one or more network entities based on wireless communication. For example, the UE may communicate with network entity such as an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) or a Session Management Function (SMF) via the base station, or the base station may perform at least one communication procedure by directly transmitting and receiving signals to / from, or relaying signals between, the network entities.

[0209] The structure of the above-described network entity will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

[0210] FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a network entity 1800 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0211] The network entity 1800 may include an entity (apparatus, device, or server, etc.) that performs one or more network functions (NFs) or a part of a network function constituting a core network (e.g., a 5th generation (5G) core (5GC)) in a communication system. In this case, multiple NFs may be implemented within a single network entity, or a single NF may be distributed and implemented across a plurality of network entities. In addition, when an NF is implemented within the network entity, the NF may be implemented in the form of software, and in such a case, a program for operating the NF may be stored in memory of the network entity 1800.

[0212] A single NF may be implemented by one or more instances, which may be deployed on the same network entity or distributed across multiple network entities to operate. The instance may be a software unit that logically executes a specific network function, and may be implemented in a form that is decoupled from physical hardware resources. Further, one or more NFs may be implemented in the form of one network slice to operate to satisfy specifications required by a particular service.

[0213] The NF may include at least one of an access and mobility management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), a local session management function (L-SMF), a user plane function (UPF), a local user plane function (L-UPF), a policy control function (PCF), a unified data management (UDM), a unified data repository (UDR), a network exposure function (NEF), a network repository function (NRF), an application function (AF), a network slice selection function (NSSF), a network data analytics function (NWDAF), a network slice admission control function (NSACF), an authentication server function (AUSF), or a data network (DN).

[0214] Referring to FIG. 18, the network entity 1800 may include at least one network interface 1801, at least one processor 1802 (hereinafter, “processor”), and at least one memory 1803 (hereinafter, “memory”). As described above, a NF may be implemented in the form of a physical device such as the network entity 1800, or may be virtualized and executed in the form of an instance. When implemented as an instance, the NF need not necessarily include physical components as illustrated in FIG. 18. In such a case, the instance may be logically represented as comprising one or more logical functional elements.

[0215] According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the disclosure, the network interface 1801, the processor 1802, and the memory 1803 of the network entity 1800 may operate. However, components of the network entity 1800 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 18. In another embodiment, the network entity 1800 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in an embodiment, the network interface 1801, the processor 1802, or the memory 1803 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0216] The network interface 1801 is a collective term for a transmitter part of the network entity 1800 and a receiver part of the network entity 1800, and may be a communication circuit for transmitting or receiving a signal to or from a user equipment (UE), a base station (BS), or another network entity. Here, the communication circuit may include both a communication circuit for wireless communication and a communication circuit for a wired communication. For example, the network interface 1801 may include a circuit, logic, hardware, etc., configured to exchange a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless communication or wired communication. The network interface 1801 may operate using various protocols (e.g., non-access stratum (NAS) protocol). The network interface 1801 may also be referred to, for convenience of description or depending on implementation, as communication circuitry, network interface circuitry, or a communication interface circuitry.

[0217] The processor 1802 may control general operations of the network entity 1800 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1802 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 1802 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1803, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1802 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme. Further, it should be noted that, according to another embodiment, in a case where NF is implemented in the form of an instance, the network function may be not necessarily configured by physical hardware.

[0218] According to an embodiment, the processor 1802 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the network interface 1801 to control the network interface 1801.

[0219] The processor 1802 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1802 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 1802 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the network interface 1801 or the memory 1803.

[0220] The processor 1802 may perform or control or cause an operation of the network entity 1800 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1802 may control operations of the network entity 1800 for exchanging a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless or wired communication, using various protocols (e.g., NAS protocol). To this end, the processor 1802 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1803, so as to control other components of the network entity 1800 to enable execution of various operations.

[0221] The memory 1803 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1803 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0222] The memory 1803 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1802 and may be accessed by the processor 1802.

[0223] The memory 1803 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1802. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1802 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1803, the processor 1802 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0224] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the network entity 1800 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1803 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0225] Meanwhile, although specific embodiments of the disclosure have been described in detail, various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the disclosure should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined by the claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

1.A base station (BS) comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver;an antenna panel comprising at least one dual polarized antenna and at least one three-dimensional (3D) end-fire antenna, wherein:the at least one dual polarized antenna includes a set of dual polarized antenna elements, at least one individual single polarized antenna element being configured based on a staggered configuration to form the set of dual polarized antenna elements, andthe at least one 3D end-fire antenna is configured based on the set of dual polarized antenna elements, the 3D end-fire antenna being oriented in a direction of a Z-axis; andat least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the base station to:transmit polarized electro-magnetic (EM) waves in the direction of the Z-axis via the antenna panel.2.The BS of Claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the BS to maintain a massive multi-input multi-output unit (MMU) antenna gain as a same level of antenna gain while transmitting the EM waves via the antenna panel.3.The BS of Claim 1, wherein the set of dual polarized antenna elements comprises at least one orthogonal polarized antenna element.4.The BS of Claim 3, wherein at least one orthogonal polarized antenna element is configured based on a 45 degree configuration and a 135 degree configuration.5.The BS of Claim 4, wherein the 45 degree configuration and the 135 degree configuration are integrated with a set of massive multi-input multi-output unit (MMU) antenna elements based on the staggered configuration.6.The BS of Claim 1, wherein at least one dual polarized antenna and the at least one 3D end-fire antenna are configured based on a tapered slot antenna structure with a first plate including a metal portion and a second plate including a dielectric portion.7.The BS of Claim 6, wherein the first plate is configured to reflect the EM waves to radiate in an upper half region of the antenna panel to increase an antenna gain and a front-back ratio by reducing a leakage of the EM waves.8.The BS of Claim 1,wherein a parasitic element of the antenna panel comprises a rectangular parasitic element and an elliptical parasitic element,wherein the rectangular parasitic element is configured to increase a gain of antenna element by increasing a length where the EM waves radiate coherently, andwherein the elliptical parasitic element is configured to increase the gain of the antenna element and control a resonance frequency based on a dominant axis and an eccentricity parameter of an ellipse.9.The BS of Claim 1, wherein the staggered configuration comprises a staggered polarization with an offset between 0.15λ and 0.3λ in a horizontal and vertical direction, andwherein a dimension of the antenna panel is based on an antenna array gain requirement associated with a number of antenna elements for each polarization within the antenna panel.10.A method performed by a base station (BS) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:transmitting polarized electro-magnetic (EM) waves in a direction of a Z-axis via an antenna panel comprising at least one dual polarized antenna and at least one three-dimensional (3D) end-fire antenna, andwherein the at least one dual polarized antenna includes a set of dual polarized antenna elements, at least one individual single polarized antenna element being configured based on a staggered configuration to form the set of dual polarized antenna elements, andwherein the at least one 3D end-fire antenna is configured based on the set of dual polarized antenna elements, the 3D end-fire antenna being oriented in a direction of the Z-axis.11.The method of Claim 10, further comprising maintaining a massive multi-input multi-output unit (MMU) antenna gain as a same level of antenna gain while transmitting the EM waves via the antenna panel.12.The method of Claim 10, wherein the set of dual polarized antenna elements comprises at least one orthogonal polarized antenna element,wherein at least one orthogonal polarized antenna element is configured based on a 45 degree configuration and a 135 degree configuration, andwherein the 45 degree configuration and the 135 degree configuration are integrated with a set of massive multi-input multi-output unit (MMU) antenna elements based on the staggered configuration.13.The method of Claim 10, wherein at least one dual polarized antenna and the at least one 3D end-fire antenna are configured based on a tapered slot antenna structure with a first plate including a metal portion and a second plate including a dielectric portion, andwherein the first plate is configured to reflect the EM waves to radiate in an upper half region of the antenna panel to increase an antenna gain and a front-back ratio by reducing a leakage of the EM waves.14.The method of Claim 10,wherein a parasitic element of the antenna panel comprises a rectangular parasitic element and an elliptical parasitic element,wherein the rectangular parasitic element is configured to increase a gain of antenna element by increasing a length where the EM waves radiate coherently, andwherein the elliptical parasitic element is configured to increase the gain of the antenna element and control a resonance frequency based on a dominant axis and an eccentricity parameter of an ellipse.15.The method of Claim 10, wherein the staggered configuration comprises a staggered polarization with an offset between 0.15λ and 0.3λ in a horizontal and vertical direction, andwherein a dimension of the antenna panel is based on an antenna array gain requirement associated with a number of antenna elements for each polarization within the antenna panel.

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