Relative Beam Direction Indication for Wireless Beam Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless communication systems face inefficiencies in beam management, particularly during the beam selection process, where user equipment (UE) randomly selects receive beams, leading to wasted resources and increased power consumption due to testing of obviously bad transmit/receive beam pairs, and the inability to utilize beamformed measurements with low-resolution ADCs or DACs.
Innovation Solution
The system implements relative beam direction indication, where a transmitting device sends a relative direction indication to the receiving device, allowing it to select a receive beam based on an angular range associated with the transmit beams, thereby reducing the number of candidate beam pairs and performing beamformed channel measurements only for relevant pairs, which decreases signaling and processing overhead and power consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the UE randomly selects receive beams for beam management, then all possible beam pairs can be tested, but this leads to increased power consumption and wasted resources due to testing obviously bad beam pairs
Solution Approach 1:
The base station performs preliminary actions by determining the transmit beam direction and calculating the corresponding angular range before the UE performs receive beam testing. This preliminary direction information is provided to the UE through relative direction indication, allowing the UE to pre-filter candidate receive beams and avoid testing obviously bad beam pairs, thereby reducing power consumption while maintaining reliable beam selection
Solution Approach 2:
The angular range serves as an intermediary between the base station's transmit beam direction and the UE's receive beam selection. Instead of the UE randomly testing all possible beam pairs, the angular range acts as a guide that narrows down the candidate receive beams, enabling the UE to focus testing only on relevant beam pairs and reduce unnecessary power consumption
2Measurement precision
If the UE tests all possible beam pairs, then comprehensive channel measurement can be performed, but this increases signaling overhead and processing overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The base station performs preliminary calculation of the angular range corresponding to the transmit beam direction before the UE performs channel measurement. This preliminary direction information allows the UE to pre-identify candidate receive beams, reducing the number of beam pairs that need to be tested and processed, thereby lowering processing overhead while maintaining measurement precision for relevant beam pairs
Solution Approach 2:
The angular range extraction method extracts only the necessary directional information from the base station's transmit beam configuration. This extracted angular range is then used to filter and select only the relevant candidate receive beams, removing unnecessary beam pairs from the testing process and reducing signaling overhead while preserving the essential channel measurement information
3Device complexity
If the UE uses low-resolution ADCs or DACs, then device complexity is reduced, but the UE cannot utilize beamformed measurements for all beam pairs
Solution Approach 1:
The base station performs preliminary determination of the transmit beam direction and calculates the corresponding angular range before the UE performs beamformed measurements. This preliminary direction information enables the UE to focus beamformed measurements only on the relevant candidate receive beams within the angular range, making effective use of low-resolution ADCs or DACs while maintaining measurement precision for the most important beam pairs
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of requiring the UE to perform beamformed measurements for all possible beam pairs (excessive action), the angular range indication enables the UE to perform measurements only on the necessary subset of candidate beam pairs (partial action). This partial measurement approach is sufficient for reliable beam selection and works effectively with low-resolution ADCs or DACs, reducing device complexity while maintaining essential measurement capability
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. The method may involve a receiving device selecting a receive beam for receiving a signal from a transmitting device based on a relative direction of the transmit beam used to transmit the signal. A first wireless device may receive, from a second wireless device, an indication of a first angular range. The first angular range may be associated with a set of transmit beams for the second wireless device and correspond to at least two transmit beams of the set of transmit beams. The first wireless device may select a receive beam from a set of receive beams based on the first angular range and receive a reference signal, from the second wireless device, using the selected receive beam. The first device may also transmit channel information, to second wireless device, based on the reference signal.