Beam Index Indication Formats for Wireless Signaling Overhead Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless communication systems face increased signaling overhead when indicating beam indices, particularly as the number of beams measured and reported by user equipment (UE) increases, leading to higher network resource consumption, traffic latency, and decreased throughput.
Innovation Solution
The use of combination indices and modified index reporting formats allows for efficient indication of selected reference signals, reducing signaling overhead by sequentially determining reference signal indices relative to a decreasing set of remaining reference signals, and enabling flexible format selection based on payload sizes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the number of reference signals measured and reported by UE increases, then beam measurement accuracy is improved, but signaling overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the beam indication process into two parts: a first beam indicator that identifies a subset of candidate beams, and a second beam indicator that selects from those candidates. This segmentation allows the UE to report only the indices of selected beams rather than all measured beams, reducing signaling overhead while maintaining measurement accuracy for the reported beams.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a hierarchical indexing approach where beam indicators operate in different dimensional levels. The first beam indicator provides coarse-grained identification at one level, while the second beam indicator provides fine-grained selection at another level. This dimensional transformation reduces the total number of bits needed compared to reporting all beam indices directly.
2Measurement precision
If more reference signals are reported, then network resource allocation accuracy is improved, but traffic latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary beam index information from the full set of measured reference signals. By using beam indicators to point to specific entries in a pre-configured list, the UE transmits only the essential selection information rather than all measurement data, reducing the time required for signal transmission and processing while maintaining accurate resource allocation.
Solution Approach 2:
The network node performs preliminary actions by configuring and providing lists of candidate beams and their corresponding indicators before the actual beam selection process. This pre-preparation eliminates the need for real-time generation of beam indicator mappings, reducing processing time and latency during the beam selection and resource allocation process.
3Quantity of substance
If beam index indication is simplified, then signaling overhead is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal beam indication mechanism that can be configured with different numbers of beam indicators and candidate beams depending on the specific deployment scenario. The same basic structure of first and second beam indicators working together with a list of candidates provides flexibility across different network configurations, reducing the need for multiple specialized mechanisms while maintaining low overhead.
Data Source
AI summary
Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. In some aspects, a user equipment (UE) may receive, from a network node, configuration information indicating that the UE is to measure N reference signals and report K reference signals, wherein N and K are integers. The UE may transmit, to the network node, a measurement report indicating a combination index associated with K selected reference signals of the N reference signals and measurement values for the K selected reference signals. Numerous other aspects are described.