Neighbor Relation Establishment in Ultra-Lean Wireless Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Next-generation wireless networks with ultra-lean design and dynamic beamforming challenge the establishment of neighbor relations, as always-on reference signals and unique cell identifiers may be absent, making it difficult for access nodes to maintain beam neighbor lists and coordinate Mobility Reference Signal usage.
Innovation Solution
A method where a serving access node forces a UE to connect with an unknown node by configuring it to access nodes not in its blacklist, allowing the UE to report the serving node's identifier, enabling the unknown node to establish a neighbor relation with the serving node, thus updating the neighbor list.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If always-on reference signals and unique cell identifiers are absent in ultra-lean design, then network resource consumption is reduced, but neighbor relation establishment becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The serving access node proactively configures the UE with a blacklist of known neighbor nodes before the UE attempts to access unknown nodes. This preliminary configuration enables the serving node to later identify unknown nodes that the UE connects to, allowing neighbor relation establishment without requiring always-on reference signals or unique cell identifiers from the unknown nodes.
2Reliability
If the serving access node maintains a comprehensive neighbor list, then handover coordination is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the UE's own random access attempts to unknown nodes as the mechanism for discovering and establishing neighbor relations. The UE inadvertently performs the neighbor discovery function by attempting to connect to unknown nodes, and the serving access node exploits these attempts to automatically build and update its neighbor list without requiring complex active scanning or reporting mechanisms.
3Reliability
If the UE is configured to access only known nodes, then connection reliability is improved, but mobility flexibility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The serving access node applies different access policies to different nodes: the UE is restricted from accessing known neighbor nodes (which have established relations) but is explicitly permitted to access unknown nodes (which trigger new neighbor relation establishment). This localized differentiation allows the system to maintain reliability for known connections while enabling flexibility for discovering new neighbors through controlled unknown node access.
Data Source
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AI summary
According to an aspect, a wireless device receives, from a first node, a blacklist with random access response identifiers. The wireless device transmits a random access preamble to initiate random access to another node and receives a random access response. The wireless device compares a random access response identifier included in the received random access response to the random access response identifiers in the blacklist and establishes a connection to a second node that corresponds to the received random access response, responsive to determining that the random access response identifier in the received random access response is not included in the blacklist. The wireless device sends, to the second node, an identifier for the first node or an identifier for a beam transmitted by the first node, or both.