Bidirectional Iterative Beam Forming Protocol for mmWave Wireless Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional beam forming protocols in mmWave wireless communication systems, such as those operating at the 60 GHz frequency band, face significant training time overhead and latency due to the reliance on low-rate channels for feedback information, which is inadequate for bidirectional high-speed data communications, especially in computing-centric applications.
Innovation Solution
An enhanced bidirectional beam forming protocol that delays feedback information until two-way transmit/receive beam forming weights are trained, allowing it to be sent over higher-rate channels, and interleaves transmit and receive operations to utilize partially trained links for efficient communication, thereby reducing the need for low-rate channels during beam forming.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If conventional beam forming protocols use low-rate channels for feedback information, then bidirectional communication channels can be established, but training time overhead and latency are significantly increased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent dynamically switches feedback channel rates based on training progress. Initially, low-rate channels are used for feedback during beam forming training. Once training is complete and high-rate channels are established, the system transitions to using these high-rate channels for subsequent feedback transmission. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by allowing fast data transmission while managing training time efficiently through staged channel utilization.
2Productivity
If feedback information is transmitted immediately during beam forming training, then training can proceed, but training time overhead increases due to reliance on low-rate channels
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary beam forming training using low-rate channels to establish the initial communication link. Once this preliminary training is complete and high-rate channels are available, subsequent feedback transmission utilizes these faster channels. This preliminary action approach reduces overall training overhead by separating the initial link establishment phase from the subsequent optimized communication phase.
3Productivity
If bidirectional beam forming is performed simultaneously, then symmetric high-speed communication can be achieved, but training complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the bidirectional beam forming process into distinct phases: forward link training and reverse link training. Each direction is trained separately using dedicated training sequences and feedback mechanisms. This segmentation simplifies the overall protocol complexity by breaking down the complex simultaneous bidirectional training into manageable sequential steps, while still achieving symmetric high-speed communication capability.
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AI summary
Bidirectional iterative beam forming techniques are described. An apparatus may include a wireless device having an antenna control module operative to initiate beam formation operations using an iterative training scheme to form a pair of communications channels for a wireless network, the antenna control module to communicate training signals and feedback information with a peer device via the transceiver and phased antenna array using partially or fully formed high rate channels, and iteratively determine antenna-array weight vectors for a directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array using feedback information from the peer device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.