Carrier Grouping for Beam Reporting in Multicarrier Systems

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Solution Overview

Problem

Multicarrier beamformed wireless communication systems face challenges in efficiently managing beam reporting and scheduling due to increased path loss at millimeter-wave frequencies, which affects data rates and reliability, especially when using analog beamforming with carrier aggregation.

Innovation Solution

The system partitions carriers into groups, with each carrier sharing antenna panels to be directed by a single transmit beam, allowing for efficient beam reporting and scheduling by transmitting a carrier grouping indication that maps group identifiers to beam identifiers, and requesting and receiving carrier measurement reports on a per-group basis to optimize beam usage.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If carrier aggregation is used to increase bandwidth and data rates, then data rates are improved, but reporting overhead and scheduling complexity increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata ratesVSAvoidreporting overhead

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments carriers into groups where carriers within each group share the same antenna panel and beam direction. This segmentation allows the system to manage multiple carriers more efficiently by treating them as unified groups rather than individual entities, reducing the complexity of beam reporting and scheduling while maintaining the bandwidth benefits of carrier aggregation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Reliability

If analog beamforming is used to overcome path loss at mmW frequencies, then reliability is improved, but beam management complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecommunication reliabilityVSAvoidbeam management complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges multiple carriers that share the same antenna panel into a single group with a unified beam identifier. This merging approach reduces beam management complexity by eliminating the need for separate beam reporting for each carrier, while still maintaining reliable analog beamforming for each carrier within the group.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Measurement precision

If per-carrier beam reporting is implemented, then beam alignment precision is improved, but signaling overhead increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvebeam alignment precisionVSAvoidsignaling overhead

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a universal beam reporting mechanism where a single beam identifier serves multiple carriers within a group. This multi-functional approach maintains beam alignment precision for each carrier while reducing signaling overhead, as the same beam identifier is universally applied across all carriers in the group that share the same antenna panel.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS11665568B2Beam reporting and scheduling in multicarrier beamformed communications

Publication Date: 2023.05.30 QUALCOMM INC

AI summary

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A base station may partition a plurality of carriers into one or more groups. Each carrier within a group may share one or more antenna panels so as to each be directed by a transmit beam in a same direction. The base station may transmit to a user equipment a carrier group indication that identifies the partitioning of the plurality of carriers into the one or more groups and maps a group identifier for at least one of the one or more groups to a beam identifier that identifies the corresponding transmit beam.