Cellular Beam Management Using Sidelink Measurement Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Low-complexity terminal devices in modern cellular systems face resource and power consumption challenges in performing beam management due to the need for measuring multiple directive beams, which is particularly complex on higher frequency ranges.
Innovation Solution
Terminal devices share beam measurement reports over a sidelink, allowing them to select beams based on reports from proximal devices, thereby reducing the need for individual measurements and simplifying the beam management process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If terminal devices perform measurements on multiple directive beams individually, then beam selection accuracy is improved, but device complexity and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
A first terminal device acts as an intermediary by performing beam measurements and sharing the results with a second terminal device through sidelink communication. This mediator approach allows the second device to obtain accurate beam measurement data without performing its own measurements, thereby reducing its complexity while maintaining measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The first terminal device creates a copy of its beam measurement report and transmits it to the second terminal device. This copying mechanism enables the second device to reuse the measurement data generated by the first device, avoiding duplicate measurement operations and reducing overall system complexity.
2Measurement precision
If terminal devices perform measurements on multiple directive beams individually, then beam selection quality is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The first terminal device serves as an intermediary that performs the energy-consuming beam measurements and shares results with the second device. This distributes the energy burden to only one device instead of requiring both devices to perform measurements, thereby improving beam measurement quality while reducing overall power consumption in the system.
Solution Approach 2:
By copying and sharing the beam measurement report from the first terminal device to the second terminal device, the system avoids duplicate power-consuming measurement operations. The second device can achieve high-quality beam selection by using the copied measurement data rather than generating its own measurements.
3Device complexity
If terminal devices share beam measurement reports over sidelink, then beam management complexity is reduced, but communication overhead is introduced
Solution Approach 1:
The beam measurement reporting function is extracted from the second terminal device and performed only by the first terminal device. The measurement report is then shared via sidelink, removing the complexity of beam measurement management from the second device while introducing controlled communication overhead through the sidelink transmission.
Data Source
AI summary
This document discloses a solution for facilitated beam management procedure. According to an aspect, a method comprises in an apparatus: receiving, directly from a terminal device over a sidelink between the apparatus and the terminal device, a beam measurement report, the beam measurement report indicating at least one beam of a plurality of directive beams transmitted by an access node; using the beam measurement report to select a beam amongst the at least one beam; and communicating with the access node in communication resources of the selected beam.