Beam Management for Spatially Quasi Co-located Carriers

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Solution Overview

Problem

High frequency carriers in 5G new radio (NR) face significant path loss, leading to reduced transmission efficiency, and existing beam management techniques incur high overhead in beamforming and quasi co-location operations.

Innovation Solution

The method involves communicating with user equipment (UE) over multiple spatially quasi co-located (SQCL) carrier groups, where beam management information from one carrier is used to configure and manage beams for another carrier, reducing overhead and improving communication efficiency by establishing spatial quasi co-location across component carriers.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of energy

If beamforming techniques are employed to combat path loss of high frequency carriers, then transmission efficiency is improved, but beam management overhead increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepath lossVSAvoidbeam management overhead
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of energyVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies universality by establishing spatial quasi co-location relationships between reference signals on different component carriers, allowing the same beam management information to be reused across multiple carriers. This multi-functional approach enables a single beam configuration to serve multiple carriers simultaneously, reducing the overall beam management overhead while maintaining transmission efficiency on high frequency carriers

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements preliminary action by pre-configuring spatial quasi co-location relationships between reference signals on different carriers before actual data transmission. The network device预先 establishes the SQCL group associations and notifies the terminal, so that when high frequency carrier transmission occurs, the beam management information is already available, reducing real-time overhead and complexity

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Reliability

If beam management procedures are defined and used to manage beamforming processes, then transmission reliability is improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetransmission reliabilityVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges beam management operations across multiple component carriers by establishing spatial quasi co-location relationships. Instead of managing beams independently on each carrier, the system combines beam management information through SQCL group associations, allowing shared use of reference signals and beam configurations across carriers, thereby reducing system complexity while maintaining transmission reliability

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Loss of energy

If multiple high-gain transmit and receive beams are formed in different angular directions, then path loss compensation is improved, but beam management overhead increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepath loss compensationVSAvoidbeam management overhead
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of energyVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies copying by reusing reference signal configurations and beam management information from one component carrier and applying them to another carrier through spatial quasi co-location relationships. Instead of creating entirely new beam configurations for each carrier, the system copies proven beam settings across carriers that share similar spatial characteristics, reducing the quantity of beam management overhead while maintaining path loss compensation effectiveness

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentEP3593507B1System and method for beam management in high frequency multi-carrier operations with spatial quasi co-locations
Publication Date: 2023.09.06 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
  • EP3593507B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3593507B1 patent drawingFigure 2~3
  • EP3593507B1 patent drawingFigure 4~5

AI summary

When spatial quasi co-location is established between component carriers, beam management, e.g., beam configuration or reference signal configuration, of one component carrier may be performed based at least in part on beam management information of the other. Information specifying that component carriers or reference signals cross component carriers are spatially quasi co-located, or information about a SQCL group including spatially quasi co-located carriers, may be transmitted to a UE, e.g., using broadcast signaling, radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a media access control-control element (MAC-CE), downlink control information (DCI) signaling, or a combination thereof.