Terminal Reference Signal Grouping for Coverage With Lower Overhead

Solution Overview

Problem

In future radio communication systems, increasing the number of beams for coverage improvement leads to increased overhead, which degrades communication throughput.

Innovation Solution

A terminal with a receiving section that processes multiple reference signals using different resources and a control section that manages the reception of these signals based on the reception of one reference signal, allowing for a number of reference signals greater than 64.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Area of stationary object

If the number of beams is increased for coverage improvement, then coverage is improved, but overhead increases which degrades communication throughput

Engineering Contradiction:

ImprovecoverageVSAvoidcommunication throughput

Core Design Contradiction:

Area of stationary objectVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies partial action by having the terminal receive and process only a subset of reference signals (specifically, one reference signal from each beam group) rather than all reference signals. This partial processing approach reduces the terminal's processing burden and the overhead associated with transmitting all reference signals, while still maintaining sufficient coverage information through the group-based selection mechanism.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent segments the reference signals into groups where each group contains multiple reference signals corresponding to different beams. The terminal then processes only one reference signal from each group, effectively dividing the full set of reference signals into manageable segments. This segmentation reduces the total number of reference signals the terminal must handle while preserving the essential coverage information through the group structure.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Area of stationary object

If beams are made narrower for coverage improvement, then coverage is improved, but overhead increases

Engineering Contradiction:

ImprovecoverageVSAvoidoverhead

Core Design Contradiction:

Area of stationary objectVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies partial action by having the terminal receive and process only a subset of reference signals (specifically, one reference signal from each beam group) rather than all reference signals. This partial processing approach reduces the terminal's processing burden and the overhead associated with transmitting all reference signals, while still maintaining sufficient coverage information through the group-based selection mechanism.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent merges multiple reference signals into groups, where each group represents a set of beams. By combining these reference signals into groups and selecting one representative from each group, the system achieves the coverage benefits of narrow beams while reducing the overall complexity and overhead of processing all individual reference signals separately.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentUS20250260538A1Terminal, radio communication method, and base station

Publication Date: 2025.08.14 NTT DOCOMO INC

AI summary

A terminal according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes: a receiving section that receives one reference signal among a plurality of reference signals transmitted by using respective different resources; and a control section that controls reception of two or more reference signals among the plurality of reference signals, based on a result of reception of the one reference signal. The number of the plurality of reference signals is larger than 64. According to one aspect of the present disclosure, coverage can be improved in consideration of overhead.