PUCCH Spatial Relation Signaling for Lower MAC CE Overhead
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wireless communication technologies require excessive signaling overheads due to the inability of a single MAC CE command to update or indicate spatial relation information for multiple PUCCH resources or groups, leading to inefficient beam management.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that utilize a MAC CE command to indicate spatial relation information for multiple PUCCH groups, allowing flexible indication and reduction of signaling overheads by grouping PUCCH resources and utilizing reserved bits in the MAC CE command to convey spatial relation information for multiple PUCCHs simultaneously.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If one MAC CE command updates spatial relation of only one PUCCH resource, then spatial relation indication is simple and precise, but signaling overhead increases when multiple PUCCH resources need updating
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functionality of multiple MAC CE commands into a single command structure. The unified MAC CE command can simultaneously indicate spatial relations for multiple PUCCH resources by incorporating multiple spatial relation indicators (SRI) within one command frame, thereby reducing signaling overhead while managing increased structural complexity through standardized field definitions
Solution Approach 2:
The MAC CE command is designed with multi-functionality to serve different purposes: it can indicate spatial relations for a single PUCCH resource or for multiple PUCCH resources simultaneously. This universal command structure adapts to different scenarios by activating or deactivating specific fields, eliminating the need for separate commands for different PUCCH resources
2Productivity
If spatial relation information is indicated for each PUCCH resource separately, then precision of spatial relation indication is high, but beam management efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the spatial relation indication into multiple independent indicators (SRI0, SRI1, ..., SRI5) within a single MAC CE command. Each SRI field can independently indicate spatial relation for a specific PUCCH resource, maintaining precision while allowing simultaneous updates across multiple resources to improve beam management efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a one-to-one mapping (one command per PUCCH resource) to a one-to-many mapping (one command for multiple PUCCH resources). This dimensional change in the command structure allows simultaneous indication of spatial relations for multiple PUCCH resources, improving efficiency without sacrificing the precision of individual spatial relation indications through the use of multiple SRI fields
Data Source
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AI summary
This disclosure pertains to the field of wireless communications technologies, and provides a method and an apparatus for indicating spatial relation information, and a communications device. The method for indicating spatial relation information is applied to a network-side device and includes: sending a media access control control element MAC CE command to user equipment, where the MAC CE command indicates spatial relation information of at least one PUCCH group, each PUCCH group includes at least one PUCCH, and each PUCCH group corresponds to one piece of spatial relation information.