Symbol Level Scheduling With Beamforming For Millimeter Wave Overhead Reduction

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional wireless communication systems in millimeter wave (mmW) systems face challenges in reducing overhead while minimizing inter-symbol interference (ISI), as they often require guard intervals, cyclic prefixes, or cyclic suffixes, which increase overhead and decrease throughput.

Innovation Solution

Implementing symbol level time division multiplexing (TDM) with beamforming techniques to allocate symbols within a same transmission time interval (TTI) to different user equipments (UEs), reducing or eliminating guard intervals and cyclic prefixes, and using control information to indicate scheduling, allowing for directional transmissions that minimize ISI without detrimental impact on throughput.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If guard intervals, cyclic prefixes, or cyclic suffixes are used to reduce inter-symbol interference, then ISI is reduced, but overhead increases and throughput decreases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinter-symbol interference reductionVSAvoidthroughput
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and removes the guard interval from the transmission structure by utilizing beamforming directional isolation. Instead of inserting a guard interval between symbols, the system relies on spatial separation through directional beams to prevent interference, thereby eliminating the overhead associated with guard intervals while maintaining ISI reduction

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the temporal separation mechanism (guard intervals in time domain) with a spatial separation mechanism (beamforming in angular domain). This substitution allows symbols to be transmitted continuously in time while preventing interference through directional isolation, thus eliminating the need for guard intervals and improving throughput

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Reliability

If guard intervals are used to separate symbols in time, then inter-symbol interference is reduced, but the number of symbols that can be transmitted within a time interval decreases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesymbol separationVSAvoidnumber of symbols transmitted
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent transitions from one-dimensional temporal separation (guard intervals in time) to two-dimensional separation combining time and spatial dimensions. By introducing beamforming with directional control, the system achieves symbol separation through spatial dimension while maintaining continuous time transmission, thereby increasing the number of symbols that can be transmitted within a given time interval

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

3Productivity

If symbol level scheduling is implemented without beamforming, then more UEs can be scheduled within the same TTI, but inter-symbol interference increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenumber of UEs scheduledVSAvoidinter-symbol interference
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges symbol level scheduling with beamforming technology, combining the benefits of both approaches. The beamforming component provides directional isolation to prevent interference, while the symbol level scheduling component enables multiple UEs to be served within the same TTI. This merging allows the system to achieve both high productivity and reliability simultaneously

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentEP3704824B1Overhead reduction in millimeter wave systems
Publication Date: 2024.06.12 QUALCOMM INC
  • EP3704824B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3704824B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3704824B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. One method may include determining symbol level scheduling for a plurality of symbols allocated to a plurality of user equipments (UEs) within a transmission time interval (TTI); transmitting, in a control channel of the TTI, control information indicating the symbol level scheduling; and communicating, in accordance with the symbol level scheduling, the plurality of symbols within the TTI in a plurality of beamformed transmissions. Another method may include receiving, by a UE, control information in a control channel of a TTI; processing the control information to determine a subset of a plurality of symbols of the TTI allocated to the UE, a symbol length or duration of the subset of the plurality of symbols allocated to the UE, and symbol level scheduling for the subset of the plurality of symbols within the TTI; and receiving the subset of the plurality of symbols based on the control information.