Beamspace Imaging for Low-Latency Beam Acquisition in Wireless Networks
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current mobile and wireless telecommunication systems face challenges in efficiently identifying optimal beamforming directions for user equipment (UE) due to high path loss and the need for highly directional beams, which increases latency and control channel overhead.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves detecting radio frequency energy in a beamspace using one or more lenses, digitizing this energy with parallel processing of a two-dimensional array, and generating images based on the digitized energy. This architecture enables parallelized operations over the beamspace, reducing latency and improving beam management efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If highly directional beams are used to compensate for high path loss, then signal quality is improved, but beam acquisition latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The beamspace is segmented into multiple sectors, each covered by a limited set of beams. The system performs beam acquisition sector-by-sector rather than exhaustively searching all possible beams, significantly reducing acquisition latency while maintaining signal quality through directional beamforming in each sector.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary beam training in a coarse granularity (sector level) before fine-tuning beam directions. This preliminary action narrows down the search space, enabling faster beam acquisition while ensuring optimal signal quality through subsequent refinement.
2Measurement precision
If exhaustive beam search is performed to identify optimal beamforming directions, then beam accuracy is improved, but control channel overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The beam search process is segmented into two stages: coarse beam selection at sector level and fine beam refinement within selected sectors. This segmentation reduces the number of control signals needed for exhaustive search while maintaining beam accuracy through progressive refinement.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of performing exhaustive beam search across the entire beamspace, the system performs partial search limited to promising sectors identified in the coarse stage. This partial action reduces control channel overhead significantly while maintaining sufficient beam accuracy for practical communication.
3Adaptability or versatility
If traditional RF architecture is used, then system compatibility is maintained, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical RF switching and beamforming hardware with optical field-based beamforming using meta-surfaces and lens arrays. This substitution eliminates energy-consuming RF power amplifiers and switches, significantly reducing energy consumption while maintaining system compatibility through optical-to-RF conversion interfaces.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach reduces latency associated with beam acquisition, making it less sensitive to beamwidth and the number of beams, while also conserving energy through simplified RF circuits and enabling massive scalability and simultaneous multiplexing in both the beam-domain and user-domain.
Implementation Method 1
at least one lens configured to perform optical transformation on incident radio frequency signals to transform the incident radio frequency signals from a spatial domain to a beamspace domain
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for identifying optimal beamforming directions from a UE by using a beamspace image. One method may include detecting radio frequency energy in a beamspace of one or more lenses; digitizing, with parallel processing of a two-dimensional array, the detected radio frequency energy in the beamspace of the one or more lenses; and generating one or more images based upon the digitized radio frequency energy in the beamspace of the one or more lenses.