5G Beam Management Using Subset Measurement and Quality Estimation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The high overhead associated with beam management in 5G New Radio communication systems, particularly due to the directional nature of millimeter wave frequencies, leads to inefficiencies when selecting communicating beams, as devices must be precisely oriented to ensure successful communication, and the number of beams required to cover an area increases overhead significantly.
Innovation Solution
A method where a device receives signals using a subset of beams, measures their quality, estimates the quality of other beams with overlapping coverage areas, and selects the best beam for communication based on these measurements, reducing the need for extensive beam quality assessments across the entire beam set.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If the number of beams is increased to improve coverage, then coverage area is improved, but beam management overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The beam set is divided into a first subset of beams and a second subset of beams. The first subset is used for actual communication while the second subset serves as reference beams for quality estimation. This segmentation allows the system to manage a larger total number of beams for improved coverage while reducing the overhead of directly managing and measuring all beams, as only the first subset requires direct measurement and reporting.
2Measurement precision
If beam quality measurement is performed for all beams, then beam selection accuracy is improved, but measurement time and overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The second subset of reference beams is configured and prepared in advance. These reference beams are used to estimate the quality of other beams through interpolation or extrapolation based on measurements from the first subset. This preliminary setup allows for accurate beam quality estimation without requiring direct measurement of all beams, thereby reducing the time and overhead associated with beam management while maintaining selection accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes receiving, from a second device, a signal using each beam of a first subset of beams of a beam set arranged in a layout, measuring a beam quality of the signal received using each beam of the first subset of beams, estimating a beam quality of the signal for each beam of a second subset of beams of the beam set, the first subset of beams and the second subset of beams comprising different beams, and the estimating being in accordance with the measured signal quality of the first subset of beams, selecting a beam from the beam set, selecting the beam being in accordance with the measured beam quality and the estimated beam quality, and communicating, with the second device, using the beam.