Higher-Layer Beam Management With Timer-Based Counter Reset
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing beam management systems in 5G/NR cellular communication face issues with unnecessary beam failure detection due to the accumulation of beam failure instance indications without proper resetting, leading to excessive signaling load and incorrect beam failure declarations.
Innovation Solution
Implementing timers (beam failure detection and candidate detection timers) on the MAC layer to reset counters upon timer expiry, ensuring that beam failure and candidate detection are only declared when the counters reach their respective thresholds before timer expiration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If beam failure instance indications are accumulated without resetting, then beam failure detection sensitivity is improved, but false beam failure declarations increase and signaling load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies periodic action by introducing a beam failure detection timer that periodically resets the beam failure instance counter. The timer is started when a beam failure instance indication is received and expires after a configured duration. When the timer expires, the counter is reset to zero, preventing indefinite accumulation of beam failure indications. This periodic resetting mechanism ensures that transient or temporary beam quality deteriorations do not lead to false beam failure declarations, while still allowing sustained beam failures to be detected when the counter reaches the threshold before timer expiration.
2Speed
If beam failure instance counter threshold is lowered, then beam failure detection speed is improved, but false detections increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by configuring both a beam failure instance counter threshold and a beam failure detection timer duration before operation. These parameters are pre-configured to establish the detection criteria. The timer is started in advance when the first beam failure instance indication is received, creating a time window within which the counter can reach the threshold. This preliminary configuration allows the system to detect beam failures quickly when the threshold is reached, while the pre-set timer duration ensures that the detection is only confirmed if the condition persists long enough to be genuine, not transient.
3Reliability
If beam management timer is extended, then accurate beam failure detection is improved, but detection responsiveness is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the beam failure detection process adaptive through the interaction between the counter and timer. The effective detection time window is dynamic - it extends as long as beam failure instance indications continue to be received before the timer expires. If indications are frequent and sustained, the counter reaches the threshold quickly within the timer window, achieving fast detection. If indications are sparse or temporary, the timer may expire before the threshold is reached, preventing false detection. This dynamic mechanism balances accuracy and responsiveness based on the actual beam condition pattern.
Data Source
AI summary
There are provided measures for enabling/realizing higher-layer beam management, e.g., beam failure detection or beam candidate detection in a higher layer such as a MAC entity. Such measures exemplarily comprise that a beam management timer is started when a (first) beam management instance indication from a lower layer is obtained, beam management is executed, wherein a beam management instance counter is incremented whenever a beam management instance indication from the lower layer is obtained and a beam management event is detected when the beam management instance counter reaches a beam management instance threshold before expiry of the beam management timer, and the beam management instance counter is reset upon expiry of the beam management timer.