Triggered Beam Sweeping for Fast 5G NR Beam Failure Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
5G NR systems using millimeter waves are susceptible to blockage and interference, leading to delays in beam failure recovery processes that are too long for critical use cases like mMTC and URLLC.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a beam sweeping mechanism at the UE and base station level, triggered by specific conditions, to rapidly switch between beams for improved communication resilience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional beam failure recovery processes are used in 5G NR millimeter wave systems, then beam failure detection is performed, but the recovery delay is too long for critical use cases like mMTC and URLLC
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary beam measurements and prepares alternative beam candidates before beam failure occurs. The UE continuously measures downlink beams and maintains a list of candidate beams, so when beam failure is detected, recovery can immediately switch to pre-identified alternative beams without extensive measurement delays.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements accelerated beam sweeping procedures that skip unnecessary measurement steps. When beam failure is detected, the system rushes through the beam recovery process by using pre-configured beam candidates and simplified measurement procedures, significantly reducing the recovery time compared to traditional exhaustive beam searching.
2Reliability
If beam sweeping is performed across all beams to ensure comprehensive coverage, then beam failure recovery is more reliable, but the process becomes too slow for critical applications
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different measurement and sweeping strategies to different beams based on their importance and characteristics. Critical beams used for current communication maintain detailed measurement information, while less critical beams use simplified procedures. This local differentiation ensures reliable recovery for important beams without slowing down the overall process.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent dynamically changes measurement parameters such as reference signal power thresholds, beam sweeping frequencies, and candidate beam selection criteria based on current channel conditions and service requirements. For critical URLLC traffic, the system uses more aggressive parameters that favor speed, while for other traffic it maintains more conservative settings for reliability.
Data Source
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AI summary
A user equipment (UE) of a wireless communication network receives conditions for sweeping beams between a base station of the network and the UE. The conditions include a beam sweeping trigger rule, and a beam measurement configuration for measuring at least one characteristic of each of the beams on downlink. The UE measures at least one characteristic of each of the beams in accordance with the measurement configuration. After the measuring, the UE detects a trigger in accordance with the trigger rule. In response to detecting the trigger, the UE sweeps the beams on uplink based on the measuring.