Beamformed Measurement Reporting for Accurate Handover Timing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wireless communication systems face challenges in accurately and efficiently monitoring beamformed communications due to stale measurements and inconsistent beam widths, leading to suboptimal handover decisions and reduced reliability.
Innovation Solution
The UE measures quality metrics using wider beams for the serving cell and neighbor cells, applies time thresholds to exclude outdated measurements, and configures reporting based on channel conditions, enabling timely and accurate measurement reports for improved handover decisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a UE uses a narrower refined beam for communication, then communication reliability is improved, but measurement consistency across cells deteriorates due to beam width differences
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using different beam widths for different purposes: narrower refined beams for actual communication to maximize reliability, and wider beams specifically for measurement purposes to ensure consistency across cells. This resolves the contradiction by making the measurement process itself have different characteristics than the communication process.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the beam usage into two distinct functions: refined beams for communication and wider beams for measurement. This segmentation allows each function to optimize for its specific purpose without compromising the other, enabling reliable communication while maintaining measurement consistency.
2Power
If a UE uses narrower refined beams for communication, then beam gain is improved, but measurement accuracy deteriorates due to stale measurements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments beam functionality into communication beams (narrow, high gain) and measurement beams (wider, more consistent). This allows the system to maintain high beam gain for communication while using separate wider beams for accurate, up-to-date measurements that don't suffer from staleness issues.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary measurements using wider beams before committing to handover decisions. This preliminary measurement action ensures that the most current channel conditions are captured, preventing stale measurements from affecting handover accuracy while the refined beams maintain their high gain for communication.
3Measurement precision
If a UE monitors all cells continuously, then handover accuracy is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by having the UE focus measurement efforts on specific cells that are most relevant for potential handovers, rather than continuously monitoring all cells with equal intensity. The wider beams enable the UE to efficiently scan and identify candidate cells without exhaustive continuous monitoring of every cell, reducing power consumption while maintaining handover accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described for measurement reporting in beamformed communications. A user equipment (UE) may establish a connection with a serving cell using one or more refined beams, and may measure one or more quality metrics of the serving cell using a wider beam than the refined beam, which may provide a uniform comparison with measured quality metrics of other cells using wider beams. Further, the UE may apply a time threshold to one or more quality metric measurements to exclude older measurements from a measurement report. A base station or serving cell may configure the UE to perform quality metric measurements and apply time thresholds for reporting measurements, which may be enabled or disabled based on one or more parameters.