5G Beam Index Association for Accurate Serving Beam Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
In 5G communication systems, UEs face challenges in accurately determining the association between refinement beam indices and logical beam indices, leading to uncertainty in serving beam tracking and potential radio link failures due to incorrect beam alignment.
Innovation Solution
The method involves determining an association between reported refinement beam indices and logical beam indices by a network node, and providing this association to the user equipment, using MAC, DCI, or RRC signaling to indicate beam changes, thereby enhancing beam tracking accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If beamforming is used to compensate for path loss at higher frequencies, then cell coverage is improved, but the complexity of transceiver architecture increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the beam management process by introducing refinement beam indices (RBI) that separately identify specific beams within broader beam groups. This segmentation allows the system to maintain coverage with fewer broad beams while enabling precise beam identification through RBI, thereby improving coverage without proportionally increasing architecture complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a new dimension to beam identification by introducing refinement beam indices as a secondary layer of beam identification. Instead of relying solely on beam indices (BI), the system now uses RBI to provide finer granularity, effectively adding an additional dimension to the beam management space that enables precise tracking without requiring a complete rearchitecture of the transceiver
2Measurement precision
If refinement beam indices are introduced for precise beam identification, then beam tracking accuracy is improved, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring beam associations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces beam group indices (BGI) as an intermediary between beam indices and refinement beam indices. The BGI groups multiple BIs together and provides a coarser level of identification that mediates between the broad beam coverage and the fine-grained RBI identification, making the association detection process more manageable by breaking it into hierarchical steps
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary beam group identification using BGI before refining to specific beams using RBI. This preliminary action of grouping beams first reduces the search space and simplifies the initial detection process, making the subsequent precise measurement of individual beams more efficient and less complex
3Area of stationary object
If multiple beams are used to cover cell area, then coverage capacity is improved, but the complexity of managing beam associations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the large set of beams into multiple beam groups identified by BGI, with each group containing multiple individual beams. This segmentation reduces the management complexity by organizing beams hierarchically, allowing the system to manage coverage capacity through group-level control while maintaining individual beam precision through RBI when needed
Solution Approach 2:
The beam group index serves multiple functions: it identifies a group of beams for coverage purposes, provides a coarser identification layer that simplifies initial beam selection, and enables efficient resource allocation across multiple beams. This multi-functionality reduces management complexity by having a single identifier (BGI) perform multiple roles
Data Source
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AI summary
Various communication systems may benefit from appropriate designation of communication mechanisms. For example, fifth generation communication systems may use refinement beam index beam identifier association. A method can include determining, by an access node, an association between at least one reported refinement beam index and at least one logical beam index based on reception of a refinement beam index report. The method can also include providing the association to a user equipment.