CN113242595B

CN113242595B - Timing advance for beamforming systems

Info

Publication number: CN113242595B
Application number: CN202110530378.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 牛华宁; 朱源; 苗洪雷; 李庆华; 昌文婷; 张羽书; 黄敏; 郭辉; 王国童
Original assignee: Apple Inc
Current assignee: Apple Inc
Priority date: 2016-07-29
Filing date: 2017-07-28
Publication date: 2025-03-25
Anticipated expiration: 2037-07-28
Also published as: CN113242595A; CN109417765A; WO2018023086A1

Abstract

An apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) is described. The apparatus may include a first circuit, a second circuit, and a third circuit. The first circuitry is operable to determine a preferred UE beam. The second circuitry is operable to generate a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission associated with the preferred eNB beam for transmission on the preferred UE beam. The third circuit is operable to process Random Access Response (RAR) transmissions carrying a Timing Advance (TA) received over the preferred UE beam. The apparatus may also include an interface to send the PRACH transmission to a transmit circuit and to receive the RAR transmission from a receive circuit.

Description

Timing advance for beamforming systems

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The application is a divisional application of the application patent application with international application number of PCT/US2017/044540, international application date of 2017, 7-28, entering China national stage at 2018, 12-29, china national application number of 201780041249.9 and the application of 'timing advance for beamforming system'.

Priority request

The present application claims priority from patent cooperation treaty international patent application number PCT/CN2016/092285, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TA ADJUSTMENT FOR BEAM FORMING SYSTEM" filed on day 29 of 2016, 7, and patent cooperation treaty international patent application number PCT/CN2017/077097, entitled "REDUCTION OF USER EQUIPMENT (UE) SIDE INTER-PANEL INTERFERENCE", filed on day 17 of 2017, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Background

Various wireless cellular communication systems have been implemented including third generation partnership project (3 GPP) universal mobile telecommunications systems, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, and 3GPP LTE-advanced (LTE-a) systems. Next generation wireless cellular communication systems based on LTE and LTE-a systems, such as fifth generation (5G) wireless systems/5G mobile network systems, are being developed. The next generation wireless cellular communication system may provide support for higher bandwidths in part by supporting beamforming.

Drawings

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be more fully understood from the detailed description given below and the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the disclosure. Although the drawings are for illustration and understanding, they are merely helpful and should not be construed to limit the disclosure to the specific embodiments described herein.

Fig. 1 illustrates a scenario of various arrival times of different beams versus links according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 illustrates a Timing Advance (TA) estimation method of an initial access phase according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 illustrates a TA estimation method of an initial access phase according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates a scenario of TA measurement errors for a non-reciprocal system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates a two-step TA measurement method according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 illustrates a message 3 (Msg 3) frame structure according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 illustrates an Msg3 frame structure according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 illustrates a beam aggregation scenario according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 illustrates a scenario of inter-panel interference (IPI) in beam aggregation according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 illustrates a memory structure for a channel according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 11 illustrates a TA indication structure according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 12 illustrates an evolved node B (eNB) and a User Equipment (UE) according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 13 illustrates hardware processing circuitry of a UE for beam-specific TA adjustment and TA measurement for a non-reciprocal beam forming system, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 14 illustrates hardware processing circuitry of a UE for reducing inter-panel self-interference for multi-beam operation in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 15 illustrates a method of beam-specific TA adjustment and TA measurement for a non-reciprocal beamforming system for a UE according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 16 illustrates a method for reducing inter-panel self-interference of a UE for multi-beam operation in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 17 illustrates example components of a device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 18 illustrates an example interface of baseband circuitry according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Various wireless cellular communication systems have been implemented or proposed including a third generation partnership project (3 GPP) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a 3GPP LTE-advanced system, and a fifth generation wireless system/a fifth generation mobile network (5G) system/a fifth generation New Radio (NR) system.

An attractive aspect of 5G systems is high-band communication. In the high frequency band, beamforming, which may include transmit (Tx) side and receive (Rx) side beamforming, may be used to enhance the beamforming gain, for example, by compensating for path loss (which may be severe) and reducing mutual user interference. The beamforming gain obtained can greatly impact system capacity, system coverage, or both.

After beamforming, delay spread may be greatly reduced, so that the length of a Cyclic Prefix (CP) may be reduced and CP overhead may be advantageously reduced. But different beams may be aligned to different clusters of channels, which in turn may result in beam specific Timing Advance (TA). Therefore, when beam switching occurs, TA can be adjusted accordingly.

In the case of a non-reciprocal system, the Downlink (DL) beam pattern and the Uplink (UL) beam pattern may be different. This may result in a preferred DL channel cluster being different from a preferred UL channel cluster, which in turn may suggest that the transmission delay experienced by the DL may be different from that experienced by the UL. In addition, when the eNB derives the TA value, additional errors may be introduced.

Beam-specific TA adjustment and TA measurement mechanisms and methods for non-reciprocal beamforming systems are discussed herein. These mechanisms and methods may advantageously help the system experience the difference between the preferred DL channel cluster and the preferred UL channel cluster and may advantageously help the system experience additional TA errors.

In addition, hybrid beamforming may be used in the high frequency band of the 5G or NR system, while analog beamforming may be used for the eNB side and the UE side. For each eNB and UE, a good Tx-Rx beam pair link may help to increase the link budget. In addition, for the high frequency band, the number of strong channel clusters may be limited, which may result in a lower level digital precoder than that of the low frequency band (e.g., LTE). Beam aggregation may be used to increase rank. But beam aggregation may be accompanied by inter-panel interference (IPI).

Discussed herein are methods and mechanisms for reducing inter-panel self-interference for multi-beam operation, where multiple beams may come from different link directions in different panels. These mechanisms and methods may include inter-eNB coordinated scheduling enhancements and may also include UE-based IPI cancellation for multi-beam operation.

In the following description, numerous details are discussed to provide a more thorough explanation of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring embodiments of the present disclosure.

Note that in the corresponding drawings of the embodiments, signals are represented by lines. Some lines may be thicker, to indicate a greater number of constituent signal paths, and/or have arrows at one or more ends, to indicate the direction of information flow. Such indications are not intended to be limiting. Rather, these lines are used in conjunction with one or more exemplary embodiments to facilitate a more readily understood understanding of a circuit or logic element. Any represented signal, as specified by design needs or preferences, may actually comprise one or more signals that may travel in either direction, and may be implemented with any suitable type of signal scheme.

Throughout this specification, and in the claims, the term "connected" means a direct electrical, mechanical, or magnetic connection between things that are connected without any intervening devices. The term "coupled" means a direct electrical, mechanical, or magnetic connection between things that are connected, or an indirect connection through one or more passive or active intermediary devices. The term "circuit" or "module" may refer to one or more passive and/or active components arranged to cooperate with each other to provide a desired function. The term "signal" may refer to at least one current signal, voltage signal, magnetic signal, or data/clock signal. The meaning of "a", "an", and "the" include plural references. The meaning of "in" is included "in: the term" sum "in the term. The following. Upper part.

The terms "substantially," "closely," "approximately," "nearly," and "approximately" generally refer to within +/-10% of a target value. Unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinal adjectives "first", "second", and "third", etc., to describe a common object merely indicate that different instances of like objects are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the invention described herein are, for example, capable of operation in other orientations than those illustrated or otherwise described herein.

The terms "left", "right", "front", "rear", "top", "bottom", "above", "below" and the like (if any) in this specification and in the claims are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing permanent relative positions.

For purposes of the embodiments, the transistors in the various circuits, modules, and logic blocks are Tunnel FETs (TFETs). Some transistors of various embodiments may include Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) transistors including drain, source, gate, and bulk terminals. Transistors may also include tri-gate and FinFET transistors, gate all around cylindrical transistors, square-line or rectangular ribbon transistors, or other devices that implement transistor functionality, such as carbon nanotubes or spintronics. The source and drain terminals of a MOSFET are symmetrical i.e. the same terminals and are used interchangeably herein. TFET devices, on the other hand, have asymmetric source and drain terminals. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other transistors (e.g., bipolar junction transistor-BJT PNP/NPN, biCMOS, CMOS, etc.) may be used for some transistors without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

For the purposes of this disclosure, the phrases "a and/or B" and "a or B" mean (a), (B) or (a and B). For the purposes of this disclosure, the phrase "A, B and/or C" means (a), (B), (C), (a and B), (a and C), (B and C), or (A, B and C).

In addition, the various elements of combinational and sequential logic discussed in this disclosure may all involve physical structures (such as AND gates, OR gates, or exclusive OR gates) or a synthetic or optimized collection of devices implementing the logic structure as a Boolean equivalent to the logic in question.

In addition, for purposes of this disclosure, the term "eNB" may refer to a legacy LTE-capable evolved node B (eNB), a next generation or 5G-capable eNB (e.g., gNB), a millimeter wave (mmWave) capable eNB or mmWave small cell, an Access Point (AP), a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) capable eNB, a cellular internet of things (CIoT) capable eNB, a Machine Type Communication (MTC) capable eNB, and/or another base station for a wireless communication system. For purposes of this disclosure, the term "UE" may refer to a legacy LTE-capable User Equipment (UE), a next generation or 5G-capable UE, a mmWave-capable UE, a Station (STA), and/or another mobile device for a wireless communication system.

Various embodiments of enbs and/or UEs discussed below may handle various types of one or more transmissions. Some processing of the transmission may include demodulating, decoding, detecting, parsing, and/or otherwise handling the already received transmission. In some embodiments, the eNB or UE handling the transmission may determine or recognize the type of transmission and/or the conditions associated with the transmission. For some embodiments, the eNB or UE handling the transmission may act according to the type of transmission and/or may act conditionally based on the type of transmission. The eNB or UE handling the transmission may also recognize one or more values or fields of the data carried over the transmission. Processing a transmission may include moving the transmission through one or more layers of a protocol stack (which may be implemented in, for example, hardware and/or software configured elements), such as by moving the transmission that has been received by an eNB or UE through one or more layers of the protocol stack.

Various embodiments of enbs and/or UEs discussed below may also generate various types of one or more transmissions. Some generation of the transmission may include modulating, encoding, formatting, assembling, and/or otherwise handling the transmission to be sent. In some embodiments, the eNB or UE generating the transmission may establish a type of transmission and/or a condition associated with the transmission. For some embodiments, the eNB or UE generating the transmission may act according to the type of transmission and/or may act conditionally based on the type of transmission. The eNB or UE generating the transmission may also determine one or more values or fields of data carried over the transmission. Generating the transmission may include moving the transmission through one or more layers of a protocol stack (which may be implemented in, for example, hardware and/or software configured elements), such as by moving the transmission to be sent by the eNB or UE via one or more layers of the protocol stack.

In various embodiments, the resources may span various Resource Blocks (RBs), physical Resource Blocks (PRBs), and/or time periods (e.g., frames, subframes, and/or slots) of the wireless communication system. In some contexts, allocated resources (e.g., channels, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFMD) symbols, subcarrier frequencies, resource Elements (REs), and/or portions thereof) may be formatted for transmission over (and prior to) a wireless communication link. In other contexts, the allocated resources (e.g., channels, OFDM symbols, subcarrier frequencies, REs, and/or portions thereof) may be detected from (and subsequent to) reception over the wireless communication link.

Fig. 1 illustrates a scenario of various arrival times of different beams versus links according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Scenario 100 may include a wireless communication system having a first beam pair link 101 and a second beam pair link 102.

In the system of scenario 100 (which may operate in one or more high frequency bands), beamforming may be used to compensate for severe path loss. The first beam pair link 101 may be an active beam pair link and the second beam pair link 102 may be a candidate beam pair link. Accordingly, rather than only maintaining an active beam pair link, the system of scenario 100 may also support candidate beam pair links. Maintaining candidate beams to the link in turn increases robustness to signal blocking and/or time-varying fast fading. For example, the first robustness 151 may correspond to the first beam pair link 101 and the second robustness 152 may correspond to the second beam pair link 102.

Different pairs of beams may correspond to different clusters of channels and the arrival times of the different clusters of channels may be different. In the system of scenario 100, the CP length of the beamformed channel may be designed for low overhead such that the difference between different clusters may exceed the guard interval (GP) of the CP.

Fig. 2 illustrates a TA estimation method of an initial access phase according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 200 may include scanning and selecting 210, transmitting 220, and/or detecting, estimating, and transmitting 230. In scan 210, beam scanning may be performed, which may be based on a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) or another suitable signal, and a preferred Network (NW)/UE beam pair link may be selected. In transmission 220, the UE may transmit a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), which in some embodiments may be a 5G PRACH (xPRACH). The PRACH or xPRACH may be based on the preferred UE beam acquired in the scan and selection 210. In the detecting, estimating, and transmitting 230, the eNB may detect PRACH or xPRACH (this may be based on the preferred NW beam acquired in the scanning and selection 210). The eNB may then estimate the TA and send an indicator of the TA to the UE via a Random Access Response (RAR) transmission.

According to the method 200, in some embodiments, the TA measured based on the effective beam pair may be configured by the eNB and the UE may maintain the delay difference itself. For some embodiments, TA may be measured based on a beam-to-link, where the beam-to-link may include an NW beam (which may be derived based on an association with PRACH or xPRACH (e.g., PRACH or xPRACH resources and/or indices)) and a UE beam (which may be used for PRACH or xPRACH transmissions).

In some embodiments, the TA may be configured by the eNB along with the NW beam index, and the eNB may inform the UE which NW beam is the reference beam for TA measurement.

For some embodiments, the UE may maintain a time difference between one particular beam and the reference beam and may update the time difference accordingly during beam switching (e.g., switching from candidate beam pair link to active beam pair link). For example, if the first beam pair link is used as a reference beam for the timing advance TA ₁, the UE may calculate the time difference of arrival Δ _TA between the second beam pair link and the first beam pair link. The UE may update the timing advance to delta _TA+TA₁ when beam switching occurs to transition from the first beam pair link to the second beam pair link. The UE may perform such updating at and/or in the subframes where beam switching occurs.

Fig. 3 illustrates a TA estimation method of an initial access phase according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 300 may include signaling and deriving 310, transmitting and deriving 320, and/or transmitting 330. In signaling and deriving 310, synchronization signals may be transmitted (e.g., by an eNB) with a repeated single beam, which may facilitate UE derivation of a UE-side beam (e.g., for a beam-to-link). In the transmitting and deriving 320, the UE may repeatedly transmit a PRACH or xPRACH based on the acquired UE beam, and the eNB may then derive a receive NW-side beam (e.g., for a beam-to-link). In transmission 330, the eNB may transmit the TA and a corresponding beam index (e.g., NW-side beam index) to the UE via RAR transmission.

According to method 300, in some embodiments, on the originating side (e.g., eNB), a single beam synchronization signal may be transmitted, which may enable the UE to detect the UE side beam. The UE may then transmit PRACH or xPRACH based on the UE-side beam, and the eNB may then transmit the TA along with a beam index (e.g., an index of the eNB-side or NW-side beam).

Fig. 4 illustrates a scenario of TA measurement errors for a non-reciprocal system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The first scenario 410 may include a wireless communication system having a first beam pair link 411 and a second beam pair link 412, while the second scenario 420 may include a wireless communication system having a first beam pair link 421 and a second beam pair link 422. The first scenario 410 may correspond to a DL beam scanning procedure and the second scenario 420 may correspond to an UL beam scanning procedure.

In the system of scenario 410 and/or scenario 420, the beam pattern on the UE side in the UL direction may be different from the beam pattern on the UE side in the DL direction in embodiments incorporating a non-reciprocal system. Accordingly, DL beam pair links and UL beam pair links may be directed to different channel clusters that may have TA errors. If the transmission delay involved in the first cluster is t ₁ and the transmission delay involved in the second cluster is t ₂, the timing advance error may be (t ₂-t₁)/2.

Fig. 5 illustrates a two-step TA measurement method according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 500 may include a first portion 510, a second portion 520, a third portion 530, a fourth portion 540, and a fifth portion 550. In the first part 510, the PRACH or xPRACH may be transmitted by the UE 501. The eNB 502 may then measure the TA and in a second portion 520, the eNB 502 may configure the UE with the TA via RAR transmission. The UE 501 may then transmit Msg3 in section 530. Since the TA may contain a time error due to the DL and UL beams not matching, the eNB 502 may estimate the TA error based on Msg3 in the fourth portion 540 and may configure the UE 501 with an indicator of the time error. In the fifth portion 550, UL data may be transmitted based on the configured TA and/or the configured time error.

In some embodiments, in the fourth portion 540, a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) for further TA adjustments may be added and/or incorporated in the fourth portion 540.

Fig. 6 illustrates a message 3 (Msg 3) frame structure according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The first frame structure 610 may include a frame 612 having a plurality of OFDM symbols (e.g., fourteen OFDM symbols). Msg3 transmission window 614 may span a subset of OFDM symbols of frame 612. The second frame structure 620 may include a frame 622 having a plurality of OFDM symbols, and the Msg3 transmission window 624 may span a subset of the OFDM symbols of the frame 622.

In some embodiments, frame structures such as first frame structure 610 and second frame structure 620 may facilitate eNB measurement of residential (accounting) TA errors. In Msg3 transmission window 614 and/or Msg3 transmission window 624, a first OFDM symbol and/or a last OFDM symbol may be reserved in a configured available time window for Msg3 transmission.

The eNB may detect a starting position of a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) in Msg3 using a time domain filtering window (e.g., msg3 transmission window 614 and/or Msg3 transmission window 624). The eNB may estimate the home TA based on the DMRS, extract one or more subsequent OFDM data symbols with the corrected home TA, and inform the UE of the home TA (e.g., in a fourth portion of the TA measurement procedure, e.g., in a fourth portion 540 of the method 500).

Fig. 7 illustrates an Msg3 frame structure according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The frame structure 710 may include a frame 712 having a plurality of OFDM symbols (e.g., fourteen OFDM symbols), and the Msg3 transmission window 724 may span a subset of the OFDM symbols of the frame 712. Frame structure 710 may be substantially similar to frame structure 610 and/or frame structure 620.

In some embodiments, other frame structures of Msg3 may include Msg3 data and DMRS transmitted with long CPs, and may advantageously support a fixed symbol extraction window. Different UEs may be received by different panels (e.g., different eNB panels) and may support a particular symbol extraction window for Msg3 reception.

For example, symbol number 0 may contain the complete DMRS for channel estimation when the signal arrives earlier, such as in earlier arriving scene 720. The eNB may then calculate the home error and the symbols with even indices may contain the complete DMRS and/or data information that may be used for data demodulation. Alternatively, when a signal arrives later, such as in a later arriving scene 740, the symbols with odd indices may contain complete DMRS and/or data information, which may be used for data demodulation.

In various embodiments, the reserved guard interval may be equal to:

where N ₁ may be the number of OFDM symbols used for Msg3 transmission (e.g., 11 OFDM symbols depicted for Msg transmission window 714), N _CP may be the CP length, and N _OFDM may be the OFDM length.

In some embodiments, the UE may calculate the time difference between the two clusters from the DL beam measurements (e.g., t ₁-t₂). For some embodiments, more than two bits of indicator may be configured by the eNB with contention resolution, where a first value of the indicator (e.g., value "00") may represent that the signal arrives on time or "correct", a second value of the indicator (e.g., value "01") may represent that the signal arrives later, and a third value of the indicator (e.g., value "10") may represent that the signal arrives earlier. (the fourth value of the indicator, e.g., the value "11" may be reserved).

For some embodiments, the UE may transmit one PRACH or xPRACH sequence during one OFDM symbol based on the TA acquired in the RAR. The NW/UE beam pair link may be acquired in PRACH or xPRACH stages. The eNB may calculate a home TA error and may indicate the home TA error to the UE. After the UE receives the second RAR, the UE may send Msg3 based on timing adjustment derived from the two TAs (e.g., the TA acquired in the RAR and the residential TA error acquired in the second RAR).

In some embodiments, the first RAR may be a reduced TA that contains only TA values, while the second RAR may contain the entire RAR field. For some embodiments, the time domain resources, frequency domain resources, and/or code resources for additional PRACH or xPRACH transmissions may be configured by the eNB or may be predetermined.

Fig. 8 illustrates a beam aggregation scenario according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The scenario 800 may include a first eNB 810, a second eNB 820, and a UE 830. The first eNB 810 may be a serving eNB while the second eNB 820 may be an assistant eNB. The UE 830 may wirelessly communicate with the first eNB 810 and the second eNB 820 via the first panel and the second panel, respectively.

In addition, beam aggregation may be employed in scenario 800, wherein different transport blocks may be transmitted and/or received over different Tx-Rx beam pairs links. In various embodiments, beam aggregation may be implemented with or without a central scheduler. For the independent scheduler case, beam aggregation may operate in a manner similar to multi-connectivity, and different enbs may schedule different directions. For example, the serving eNB may schedule DL transmissions while the assistant eNB may schedule UL transmissions.

Fig. 9 illustrates a scenario of inter-panel interference in beam aggregation according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The scenario 900 may include a first eNB 910, a second eNB 920, and a UE 930. The first eNB 910 may be a serving eNB while the second eNB 920 may be an assistant eNB. The UE 930 may wirelessly communicate with the first eNB 910 and the second eNB 920 via the first panel and the second panel, respectively.

Although there may be some degree of physical isolation between the first panel of the UE 930 and the second panel of the UE 930, interference may be a problem if the UE 930 is in a cell edge region. In this case, UL transmission power (e.g., power of the UE 930 related to UL transmission 932 transmitted from the interfering panel) may approach the maximum UL transmission power due to power control. Meanwhile, DL received power (e.g., power of the UE 930 related to DL transmission 912 received by the interfered panel) may be relatively low. The IPI may then be observed in the interfered panel of the UE 930.

The reduction of IPI can be challenging due to various factors. First, multi-beam operation may be used for DL and UL. Second, UL and DL may be for different enbs and a large timing gap between UL and DL may be observed as propagation delay may be different and the network may be asynchronous (e.g., not synchronized). Third, the UE may have more than two active antenna panels, so the total number of Tx antenna ports and antenna elements and Rx antenna ports and antenna elements may be different.

The various mechanisms and methods discussed herein may advantageously reduce IPI for multi-beam operation (e.g., for beam aggregation), where beams may reach different panels of a UE from different directions. In some embodiments, IPI may be reduced by inter-eNB coordinated scheduling enhancements. For some embodiments, IPI may be reduced by multiple enbs serving a UE simultaneously avoiding scheduling different link transmissions simultaneously (e.g., avoiding scheduling different UL/DL directional link transmissions simultaneously).

Additionally, the various mechanisms and methods discussed herein may facilitate UE IPI cancellation for multi-beam operation. In some embodiments, channel estimation associated with IPI may be performed (which may be performed during a UE Radio Frequency (RF) front-end correction phase). For some embodiments, the estimated channel coefficients in the time domain or frequency domain may be stored in an IPI cancellation module. In some embodiments, IPI elimination may be performed if triggered by various conditions (e.g., by an IPI level that may be a predetermined threshold).

The UE may have an antenna structure having a plurality of antenna panels, and the antenna panels may be respectively directed to different directions. Table 1 below provides the antenna elements for one panel.

TABLE 1 antenna element for a Panel

Although there is some isolation between the different antenna panels, the IPI is still larger if the transmit power from the interfering panel is larger. For example, if the UE is in a cell edge region, the transmit power may be relatively large, e.g., due to power control. In addition, beam aggregation may be used for cell edge UEs.

In some embodiments, IPI may be suppressed by coordinating scheduling. Multiple enbs may schedule the same direction (e.g., UL or DL) for all the panels of one UE at the same time.

But the effectiveness of coordinated scheduling may be reduced in some cases. For example, in the case of an asynchronous network, scheduling the same direction simultaneously for multiple enbs can pose challenges, although beam aggregation may be used for an asynchronous network. In addition, due to propagation delay, IPI may still occur due to TA even though the network is synchronized and coordinated scheduling is utilized. Thus, the UE may advantageously employ mechanisms and methods to suppress IPI.

Fig. 10 illustrates a memory structure for a channel according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The memory structure 1000 may include a plurality of stored channel estimates 1010 between each Tx beam/Rx beam pair from different channels.

In some embodiments, IPI may be suppressed by the UE receiver. According to one option, the UE may predefine (or predetermine) its Tx beam and Rx beam grids and estimate the channel between each Tx beam/Rx beam pair from different panels. Thus, the UE may store the time domain channel and/or the frequency domain channel (or channel estimate) for each Tx beam/Rx beam pair in memory.

For example, referring to the memory structure 1000 (which may be used for a dual panel UE or a UE having at least two panels), there may be R Rx beams and T Tx beams, and each channel H _a,b,c,d may represent a channel associated with an Rx beam number c (of the R Rx beams) of panel a and a Tx beam number d (of the T Tx beams) of panel b paired therewith.

It should be noted that for IPI cancellation, the various embodiments may consider only those channel coefficients corresponding to beam pairs that potentially result in significant IPI. In addition, the IPI elimination method can only be applied when a substantial IPI is present. In other words, IPI elimination may not be required if the predicted IPI level is very small. Thus, various embodiments may eliminate the on-off mechanism (e.g., threshold-based on-off mechanism) in conjunction with IPI.

The stored channels may be channels in the frequency domain or the time domain. In some embodiments, the stored channel may include two vectors, one vector being a delay vector indicating the delay of each tap (which may or may not be quantized) and the other vector being the channel coefficients of each tap. Then, since the UE can learn the channel and transmission signal between the interfered panel and the interfering panel, interference cancellation can be performed in the time domain or the frequency domain. Note that if channel reciprocity can be confirmed between panels, the grid of beams in each panel is the same, and the channels need to be stored for only one direction (e.g., H _0,1,x,y).

In the time domain, the received signal for one antenna port can be given by:

where h _j N may indicate an equivalent beamforming channel from the serving eNB in Tx antenna port j, x _j N may represent DL time domain signals in Tx antenna port j, h _j ' N may indicate an equivalent beamforming inter-panel channel in Tx antenna port j, x _j ' N may indicate UL time domain signals in Tx antenna port j, σ _j N may represent interference plus noise, N _Tx may be the number of Tx antenna ports in the serving eNB, and N _Tx ' may be the number of Tx antenna ports in the interference panel.

To reduce interference in the time domain, the received signal in each antenna port may be given by:

Where hj "[ n ] may indicate a pre-stored channel from the antenna port j of the interfering panel.

In the frequency domain, the received signal in one subcarrier can be derived from the following equation:

Y=HX+H'X'+N

Where H, X, H ', X ', and N are frequency domain metrics of all Tx antenna ports h _j[n]、x_j[n]、h_j'[n]、x_j ' N and σ _j N. The IPI in the frequency domain can then be derived from:

Y-H”X'

where H "may indicate a frequency domain memory channel.

In some embodiments, to save memory, the UE may estimate the instantaneous inter-panel channel for each subframe (because different Tx beams may be used in different UL channels). The inter-panel channel may be estimated on a per physical channel basis. For example, one channel may be estimated from a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) and another channel may be estimated from a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). Because the UE may have TA information, the interference to be suppressed for each symbol may then be determined from the TA, or from the TA plus the propagation delay between the two channels. The propagation delay may be ignored or measured by the UE and stored in advance. After estimating the inter-panel channel, a Serial Interference Cancellation (SIC) receiver or a Maximum Likelihood Detection (MLD) receiver may be used to equalize the DL signal.

For some embodiments, the UE may store the coupling loss between the two antenna panels between each Tx beam and the Rx beam. Then, upon receiving the DL signal, the UE may estimate noise plus interference through channel estimation or interference measurement resources. The UE may turn on the advanced receiver to reduce IPI when the following condition is true:

wherein: May represent estimated noise plus interference in dB, P _tx may indicate Tx power of the adjacent antenna panel, γ _i,j may refer to the coupling loss between the stored Rx beam i and Tx beam j, which may be used for current DL reception and/or current UL transmission.

In various embodiments, the features discussed above may be extended to the case where the UE may have more than two antenna panels.

In some embodiments, for a UE with multiple antenna panels, the UE may have multiple TAs. For some embodiments, the UE may receive more than one TA from the same eNB. One antenna panel may be considered as a group of antenna ports. The TA may then be antenna port group specific. The number of antenna ports per group may be predefined (or predetermined) or may be reported and/or configured by higher layer signaling.

In addition, for some embodiments, the UE may have more physical antenna panels than RF chains. Thus, since a UE may have P antenna ports per group, G antenna port groups, and F RF chains, there is one case of PxG > F. As a result, the UE may be set to report the number of Tx/Rx antenna ports and the maximum number of antenna ports at the same time when reporting UE capabilities.

Fig. 11 illustrates a TA indication structure according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The first TA indication structure 1110 may indicate TAs for all antenna port groups and may accordingly have a MAC CE structure similar to the depicted structure. The second TA indication structure 1120 may indicate the TA of one AP group and the AP group index, and may accordingly have a structure (e.g., a MAC CE structure) similar to the depicted structure.

When triggered by PRACH or xPRACH for TA estimation, the eNB may indicate an antenna port group index to the UE to ensure that the UE is informed of which antenna port or ports should be used and/or which antenna panel should be used.

Fig. 12 illustrates an eNB and a UE according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 12 includes a block diagram of an eNB 1210 and a UE 1230 operable to coexist with each other and with other elements of an LTE network. Advanced simplified architecture of eNB 1210 and UE 1230 is described to avoid obscuring the embodiments. It should be noted that in some embodiments, the eNB 1210 may be a stationary non-mobile device.

The eNB 1210 is coupled to one or more antennas 1205, and the UE 1230 is similarly coupled to one or more antennas 1225. In some embodiments, however, the eNB 1210 may incorporate or include an antenna 1205 and in various embodiments, the UE 1230 may incorporate or include an antenna 1225.

In some embodiments, antennas 1205 and/or 1225 may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas including monopole antennas, dipole antennas, loop antennas, patch antennas, microstrip antennas, coplanar wave antennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some MIMO (multiple input multiple output) embodiments, the antennas 1205 may be separated to exploit spatial diversity.

The eNB1210 and the UE 1230 are operable to communicate with each other over a network, such as a wireless network. The eNB1210 and the UE 1230 may communicate with each other over a wireless communication channel 1250 having a downlink path from the eNB1210 to the UE 1230 and an uplink path from the UE 1230 to the eNB 1210.

As shown in fig. 12, in some embodiments, the eNB 1210 may include physical layer circuitry 1212, MAC (medium access control) circuitry 1214, a processor 1216, memory 1218, and hardware processing circuitry 1220. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other components not shown in the figures other than those shown in the figures may be used to form a complete eNB.

In some embodiments, the physical layer circuitry 1212 includes a transceiver 1213 for providing signals to and from the UE 1230. The transceiver 1213 provides signals to and from a UE or other device using one or more antennas 1205. In some embodiments, the MAC circuitry 1214 controls access to the wireless medium. Memory 1218 may be or include storage media/media such as magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tape or disk), optical storage media (e.g., optical disk), electronic storage media (e.g., a conventional hard disk drive, solid state disk drive, or flash memory-based storage media), or any tangible or non-transitory storage media. The hardware processing circuitry 1220 may include logic devices or circuitry to perform various operations. In some embodiments, the processor 1216 and the memory 1218 are arranged to perform the operations of the hardware processing circuitry 1220, e.g., the operations described herein with reference to the eNB 1210 and/or logic devices and circuitry in the hardware processing circuitry 1220.

Accordingly, in some embodiments, the eNB 1210 may be a device including an application processor, memory, one or more antenna ports, and an interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device.

In addition, as shown in fig. 12, in some embodiments, the UE 1230 may include physical layer circuitry 1232, MAC circuitry 1234, a processor 1236, memory 1238, hardware processing circuitry 1240, a wireless interface 1242, and a display 1244. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other components not shown in the figures other than those shown in the figures may be used to form a complete UE.

In some embodiments, the physical layer circuitry 1232 includes a transceiver 1233 for providing signals to and from the eNB1210 (and other enbs). The transceiver 1233 provides signals to and from enbs or other devices using one or more antennas 1225. In some embodiments, MAC circuit 1234 controls access to the wireless medium. Memory 1238 may be or include a storage medium/media such as a magnetic storage medium (e.g., magnetic tape or disk), an optical storage medium (e.g., optical disk), an electronic storage medium (e.g., a conventional hard disk drive, a solid state disk drive, or a flash memory-based storage medium), or any tangible storage medium or non-transitory storage medium. Wireless interface 1242 may be arranged to allow the processor to communicate with another device. The display 1244 may provide a visual and/or tactile display, such as a touch screen display, for a user to interact with the UE 1230. The hardware processing circuitry 1240 may include logic devices or circuitry to perform various operations. In some embodiments, the processor 1236 and the memory 1238 may be arranged to perform the operations of the hardware processing circuitry 1240, e.g., the operations described herein with reference to the UE 1230 and/or logic devices and circuitry in the hardware processing circuitry 1240.

Accordingly, in some embodiments, the UE 1230 may be a device that includes an application processor, memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface to allow the application processor to communicate with another device, and a touch screen display.

Elements of fig. 12 and elements of other figures having the same names or reference numbers may operate or function in the manner described herein for any of these figures (although the operation and function of these elements is not limited to these descriptions). For example, fig. 13-14 and 17-18 also illustrate embodiments of an eNB, hardware processing circuitry of an eNB, a UE, and/or hardware processing circuitry of a UE, and the embodiments described with respect to fig. 12, 13-14, and 17-18 may operate or function in the manner described herein with respect to any of the figures.

In addition, although the eNB 1210 and the UE 1230 are each described as having several separate functional elements, one or more of these functional elements may be combined and implemented by combinations of software-configured elements and/or other hardware elements. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a functional element may refer to one or more processes running on one or more processing elements. Examples of software and/or hardware configuration elements include a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs), and the like.

Fig. 13 illustrates hardware processing circuitry of a UE for beam-specific TA adjustment and TA measurement for a non-reciprocal beam forming system, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 14 illustrates hardware processing circuitry of a UE for reducing inter-panel self-interference for multi-beam operation in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Referring to fig. 12, a ue may include various hardware processing circuitry discussed herein (e.g., hardware processing circuitry 1300 of fig. 13 and hardware processing circuitry 1400 of fig. 14) that, in turn, may include logic and/or circuitry operable to perform various operations. For example, in fig. 12, the UE 1230 (or various elements or components therein, e.g., hardware processing circuitry 1240, or a combination of elements or components herein) may include some or all of these hardware processing circuitry.

In some embodiments, one or more devices or circuits of these hardware processing circuits may be implemented with a combination of software-configured elements and/or hardware-configured elements. For example, the processor 1236 (and/or one or more other processors that the UE1230 may include), the memory 1238, and/or other elements or components of the UE1230 (which may include the hardware processing circuitry 1240) may be arranged to perform the operations of these hardware processing circuitry, e.g., the operations described herein with reference to the devices and circuitry in these hardware processing circuitry. In some embodiments, the processor 1236 (and/or one or more other processors that the UE1230 may include) may be a baseband processor.

Turning to fig. 13, an apparatus of a UE 1230 (or another UE or mobile handset) may comprise hardware processing circuitry 1300 wherein the UE 1230 is operable to communicate with one or more enbs over a wireless network. In some embodiments, the hardware processing circuit 1300 may include one or more antenna ports 1305 operable to provide various transmissions over a wireless communication channel (e.g., wireless communication channel 1250). The antenna port 1305 may be coupled to one or more antennas 1307 (which may be an antenna 1225). In some embodiments, the hardware processing circuit 1300 may be coupled to the antenna 1307, while in other embodiments, the hardware processing circuit 1300 may be coupled only to the antenna 1307.

The antenna ports 1305 and the antennas 1307 are operable to provide signals from the UE to the wireless communication channel and/or eNB and are operable to provide signals from the eNB and/or wireless communication channel to the UE. For example, the antenna port 1305 and the antenna 1307 may be operable to provide for transmission from the UE 1230 to the wireless communication channel 1250 (and to provide for transmission from the wireless communication channel 1250 to the eNB 1210 or another eNB). Similarly, the antenna 1307 and the antenna port 1305 are operable to provide for transmission from the wireless communication channel 1250 (and from the eNB 1210 or another eNB) to the UE 1230.

The hardware processing circuit 1300 may include various circuits that may operate in accordance with the various embodiments discussed herein. Referring to fig. 13, the hardware processing circuit 1300 may include a first circuit 1310, a second circuit 1320, and/or a third circuit 1330. The first circuitry 1310 is operable to determine a preferred UE beam. The second circuitry 1320 is operable to generate PRACH transmissions associated with the preferred eNB beam for transmission on the preferred UE beam. The first circuitry 1310 is operable to provide an indicator of a preferred UE beam to the second circuitry 1320 via the interface 1315. The third circuit 1330 is operable to process the received RAR transmissions carrying the TA over the preferred UE beam. The hardware processing circuitry 1300 may also include an interface for sending PRACH transmissions to the transmit circuitry and for receiving RAR transmissions from the receive circuitry.

In some embodiments, the TA may be measured based on a beam-to-link including an eNB beam and a preferred UE beam associated with the PRACH transmission. For some embodiments, the eNB may identify an eNB beam associated with PRACH transmissions to the UE. In some embodiments, the beam pair link may be a first beam pair link, the TA may be a first TA, the UE may maintain a first association between the first beam pair link and the first TA, and the UE may maintain a second association between the second beam pair link and the second TA.

For some embodiments, the UE may update the TA used from the first TA to the second TA when switching beams from the first beam pair link to the second beam pair link. In some embodiments, the UE may update the used TA based on a time difference between the first TA and the second TA. For some embodiments, the RAR transmission may carry an index corresponding to a preferred eNB beam based on the PRACH transmission. In some embodiments, the preferred UE beam may be based on one or more repeated single beam synchronization signals from the eNB.

In some embodiments, the second circuit 1320 is operable to generate an Msg3 transmission. For some embodiments, the third circuit 1330 is operable to process transmissions carrying TA information and beam indicators based on Msg 3.

For some embodiments, the MAC CE may be associated with TA information and a beam indicator. In some embodiments, the Msg3 transmission may carry a DMRS. In some embodiments, the TA information and beam indicator may be carried by subsequent data.

In some embodiments, msg3 may be generated to transmit with a long CP, and Msg3 may carry copies of two DMRS followed by one or more data portions over multiple OFDM symbols.

For some embodiments, the transmission carrying the TA information may additionally carry an indicator having at least a first value corresponding to a correct arrival, a second value corresponding to an early arrival, and a third value corresponding to a late arrival.

In some embodiments, the PRACH transmission may be a first PRACH transmission and the RAR transmission may be a first RAR transmission. The second circuitry 1320 is operable to generate a second PRACH transmission for transmission on the preferred UE beam based on the TA. The third circuit 1330 is operable to process a second RAR transmission carrying a TA error indicator based on the second PRACH transmission.

For some embodiments, the first RAR transmission may carry TA information. In some embodiments, the second RAR transmission may carry the entire RAR field. For some embodiments, the time domain resources, frequency domain resources, and/or code resources may be configured based on a configuration sent by the eNB or a predetermined setting.

In some embodiments, the first circuit 1310, the second circuit 1320, and/or the third circuit 1330 may be implemented as different circuits. In other embodiments, the first circuit 1310, the second circuit 1320, and/or the third circuit 1330 may be combined and implemented together in a circuit without changing the essence of the embodiments.

Turning to fig. 14, an apparatus of a UE1230 (or another UE or mobile handset) operable to communicate with one or more enbs over a wireless network may comprise hardware processing circuitry 1400. In some embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 1400 may include one or more antenna ports 1405 operable to provide various transmissions over a wireless communication channel (e.g., wireless communication channel 1250). The antenna port 1405 may be coupled to one or more antennas 1407 (which may be the antenna 1225). In some embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 1400 may incorporate antenna 1407, while in other embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 14000 may be coupled only to antenna 1407.

The antenna port 1405 and the antenna 1407 are operable to provide signals from the UE to the wireless communication channel and/or eNB and are operable to provide signals from the eNB and/or wireless communication channel to the UE. For example, antenna port 1405 and antenna 1407 may be operable to provide for transmission from UE 1230 to wireless communication channel 1250 (and from wireless communication channel 1250 to eNB 1210 or another eNB). Similarly, the antenna 1407 and the antenna port 1405 are operable to provide transmission from the wireless communication channel 1250 (and from the eNB 1210 or another eNB) to the UE 1230.

The hardware processing circuitry 1400 may include various circuits operable to operate in accordance with the various embodiments discussed herein. Referring to fig. 14, the hardware processing circuit 1400 may include a first circuit 1410, a second circuit 1420, and/or a third circuit 1430. The first circuitry 1410 is operable to process a first transmission received over a first UE beam associated with a first antenna panel. The first circuitry 1410 is further operable to process a second transmission received over a second UE beam associated with a second antenna panel. The first antenna panel may be associated with a first TA and the second antenna panel may be associated with a second TA. The hardware processing circuitry 1400 may also include an interface for receiving the first transmission and the second transmission from the receiving circuitry.

In some embodiments, the first TA may correspond to one or more first antenna ports and/or first groups of antenna ports and the second TA may correspond to one or more second antenna ports and/or second groups of antenna ports. For some embodiments, the first antenna panel may correspond to a first antenna port group having one or more first antenna ports and the second antenna panel may correspond to a second antenna port group having one or more second antenna ports. In some embodiments, the first transmission may be from a first eNB and the second transmission may be from a second eNB.

For some embodiments, the second circuit 1420 is operable to generate report transmissions carrying an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports, an indicator of a number of antenna ports per antenna port group, an indicator of a number of antenna groups, and/or an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports that may be used for both transmission and reception.

In some embodiments, the MAC CE may include an indicator of the first TA and an indicator of the second TA. For some embodiments, the MAC CE may carry an indicator of TA, an indicator of a group of antenna ports, and/or an indicator of one or more antenna ports. In some embodiments, the first transmission may be associated with a first schedule. For some embodiments, the second transmission may be associated with a second schedule. In some embodiments, the UL/DL direction of the first schedule may be synchronized with the UL/DL direction of the second schedule.

For some embodiments, the third circuit 1430 is operable to store estimated channel coefficients for IPIs at the first antenna panel due to the second antenna panel. In some embodiments, the third circuit 1430 is operable to determine when the coupling loss between the first antenna panel and the second antenna panel is less than a predetermined threshold. For some embodiments, the third circuit 1430 is operable to report the ability to suppress IPI. The first circuit 1410 is operable to provide an indicator of the estimated channel coefficient of IPI at the first antenna panel due to the second antenna panel to the third circuit 1430 via the interface 1415. The first circuit 1410 is further operable to provide an indicator of coupling loss between the first antenna panel and the second antenna panel to the third circuit 1430 via the interface 1415.

In some embodiments, the first circuit 1410, the second circuit 1420, and/or the third circuit 1430 may be implemented as different circuits. In other embodiments, the first circuit 1410, the second circuit 1420, and/or the third circuit 1430 may be combined and implemented together in a circuit without changing the essence of the embodiments.

Fig. 15 illustrates a beam-specific TA adjustment and TA measurement method for a non-reciprocal beamforming system by a UE according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 16 illustrates a method for a UE to reduce inter-panel self-interference for multi-beam operation in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Referring to fig. 12, a method that may involve the UE 1230 and hardware processing circuitry 1240 is discussed herein. Although the acts in the method 1500 of fig. 15 and the method 1600 of fig. 16 are illustrated in a particular order, the order of the acts may be modified. Thus, the illustrated embodiments may be performed in a different order, and some acts may be performed in parallel. Some of the acts and/or operations listed in fig. 15 and 16 are optional according to some embodiments. The numbering of the acts is presented for the sake of clarity and is not intended to dictate the order in which the various acts must be performed. In addition, operations from various flows may be used in various combinations.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the machine-readable storage medium may have executable instructions that, when executed, cause the UE 1230 and/or hardware processing circuitry 1240 to perform operations comprising the methods of fig. 15 and 16. Such machine-readable storage media may include any of a variety of storage media, such as magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tape or disk), optical storage media (e.g., optical disk), electronic storage media (e.g., a conventional hard disk drive, a solid state disk drive, or a flash-based storage media), or any other tangible storage media or non-transitory storage media.

In some embodiments, an apparatus may comprise means for performing various actions and/or operations of the methods of fig. 15 and 16.

Turning to fig. 15, various methods may be in accordance with various embodiments discussed herein. The method 1500 may include determining 1510, generating 1515, and processing 1520. The method 1500 may also include generating 1530, processing 1535, generating 1540, and/or processing 1545.

In determination 1510, a preferred UE beam may be determined. In generating 1515, a PRACH transmission associated with the preferred eNB beam may be generated for transmission on the preferred UE beam. In process 1520, a TA-carrying RAR transmission that may be received over a preferred UE beam may be processed.

In some embodiments, in generating 1530, an Msg3 transmission may be generated. For some embodiments, in process 1535, transmissions carrying TA information and beam indicators based on Msg3 may be processed.

In some embodiments, msg3 may be generated to transmit with a long CP, and Msg3 may carry copies of two DMRS and subsequent one or more data portions over multiple OFDM symbols.

In some embodiments, the PRACH transmission may be a first PRACH transmission and the RAR transmission may be a first RAR transmission. At generation 1540, a second PRACH transmission may be generated for transmission on the preferred UE beam based on the TA. In process 1545, a second RAR transmission carrying a TA error indicator may be processed based on the second PRACH transmission.

Turning to fig. 16, various methods may be in accordance with various embodiments discussed herein. Method 1600 may include process 1610 and process 1615. Method 1600 may also include generating 1620, storing 1630, determining 1640, and/or reporting 1650.

In process 1610, a first transmission received over a first UE beam associated with a first antenna panel may be processed. In process 1620, a second transmission received over a second UE beam associated with a second antenna panel may be processed. The first antenna panel may be associated with a first TA and the second antenna panel may be associated with a second TA.

For some embodiments, in generating 1620, a report transmission may be generated that carries an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports, an indicator of a number of antenna ports per antenna port group, an indicator of a number of antenna groups, and/or an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports for both transmission and reception.

For some embodiments, in storage 1630, the estimated channel coefficients of IPI at the first antenna panel due to the second antenna panel may be stored. In some embodiments, in determination 1640, it may be determined that the coupling loss between the first antenna panel and the second antenna panel is less than a predetermined threshold. For some embodiments, the ability to suppress IPI may be reported.

Fig. 17 illustrates example components of a device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, device 1700 may include application circuitry 1702, baseband circuitry 1704, radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1706, front End Module (FEM) circuitry 1708, one or more antennas 1710, and Power Management Circuitry (PMC) 1712 coupled together at least as shown. The illustrated components of device 1700 may be included in a UE or RAN node. In some embodiments, device 1700 may include fewer elements (e.g., the RAN node may not utilize application circuitry 1702, but instead may include a processor/controller that processes IP data received from the EPC). In some embodiments, device 1700 may include additional elements such as memory/storage devices, displays, cameras, sensors, or input/output (I/O) interfaces. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., the circuitry may be included in more than one device separately for a cloud RAN (C-RAC) implementation).

The application circuit 1702 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuit 1702 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The one or more processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor may be coupled to and/or include a memory/storage device and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on device 1700. In some embodiments, the processor of application circuit 1702 may process IP data packets received from the EPC.

Baseband circuitry 1704 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 1704 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1706 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1706. Baseband processing circuit 1704 may interface with application circuit 1702 for generating and processing baseband signals and for controlling the operation of RF circuit 1706. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1704 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 1704A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1704B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 1704C, or one or more other baseband processors 1704D for other existing generations, generations under development or to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 1704 (e.g., one or more baseband processors 1704A-D) can handle various radio control functions of communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 1706. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 1704A-D may be included in modules stored in memory 1704G and may be executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1704E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, and the like. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry 1704 may include Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 1704 may include convolution, tail biting convolution, turbo, viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functions. Embodiments of the modem and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1704 may include one or more audio Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) 1704F. The audio DSP 1704F may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. The components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or in some embodiments arranged on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuitry 1704 and application circuitry 1702 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1704 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1704 may support communication with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN), wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). An embodiment in which baseband circuitry 1704 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as a multi-mode baseband circuit.

The RF circuitry 1706 may enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, RF circuit 1706 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with a wireless network. The RF circuit 1706 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuit 1708 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuit 1704. The RF circuit 1706 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry to up-convert the baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 1704 and provide an RF output signal to the FEM circuit 1708 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of RF circuit 1706 may include a mixer circuit 1706A, an amplifier circuit 1706B, and a filter circuit 1706C. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 1706 may include a filter circuit 1706C and a mixer circuit 1706A. The RF circuit 1706 may also include a synthesizer circuit 1706D for synthesizing frequencies for use by the mixer circuit 1706A of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1706A of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 1708 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1706D. The amplifier circuit 1706B may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal and the filter circuit 1706C may be a Low Pass Filter (LPF) or a Band Pass Filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 1704 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, although this is not required. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 1706A of the receive signal path may comprise a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1706A of the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert the input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1706D to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 1708. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuit 1704 and may be filtered by filter circuit 1706C.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1706A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1706A of the transmit signal path may include more than two mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1706A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1706A of the transmit signal path may include more than two mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1706A and mixer circuit 1706A of the receive signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1706A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1706A of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 1706 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuits, and the baseband circuit 1704 may include a digital baseband interface in communication with the RF circuit 1706.

In some dual mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuits may be provided for processing the signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1706D may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/n+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuit 1706D may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuit 1706D may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuit 1706A of the RF circuit 1706 based on the frequency input and the divider control input. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1706D may be a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1704 or the application processor 1702 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on the channel indicated by the application processor 1702.

Synthesizer circuit 1706D of RF circuit 1706 may include a frequency divider, a Delay Locked Loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-mode frequency divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a Digital Phase Accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or n+1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional divide ratio. In some example embodiments, a DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to divide the VCO period into Nd equal phase packets, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO period.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1706D may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as an output frequency, but in other embodiments the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and may be used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and a divider circuit to generate a plurality of signals at the carrier frequency having a plurality of phases that are different from one another. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be an LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 1706 may include an IQ/polarity converter.

The FEM circuitry 1708 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from the one or more antennas 1710, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1706 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 1708 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify a transmit signal provided by the RF circuitry 1706 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 1710. In various embodiments, amplification by the transmit or receive signal paths may be performed in the RF circuit 1706 alone, in the FEM 1708 alone, or in both the RF circuit 1706 and FEM 1708.

In some embodiments, FEM circuitry 1708 may include a TX/RX switch that switches between transmit mode operation and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include an LNA to amplify the receive RF signal and provide the amplified receive RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1706). The transmit signal path of FEM circuitry 1708 may include a Power Amplifier (PA) that amplifies an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1706), and one or more filters that generate the RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., one or more of one or more antennas 1710).

In some embodiments, PMC 1712 may manage the power provided to baseband circuitry 1704. In particular, the PMC 1712 may control power supply selection, voltage regulation, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. When device 1700 is capable of being charged by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE, PMC 1712 may generally be included in device 1700. The PMC 1712 may increase power conversion efficiency while providing desired implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

Although fig. 17 shows PMC 1712 coupled only with baseband circuitry 1704. In other embodiments, however, PMC 1712 may additionally or alternatively be coupled to other components such as, but not limited to, application circuit 1702, RF circuit 1706, or FEM 1708, and may perform similar power management operations for these components.

In some embodiments, PMC 1712 may control or be part of the various power saving mechanisms of device 1700. For example, if the device 1700 is in an RCC connected state (where it is still connected to the RAN node because it is expected to receive traffic immediately), it may enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, device 1700 may be powered down during a short time interval, thereby saving power.

If there is no data traffic activity for a long period of time, the device 1700 may transition to an RCC idle mode in which it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. Device 1700 enters a very low power state and it performs paging by periodically waking up to listen for the network and then powering down again. The device 1700 may not receive data in this state and must transition back to the RRC connected state in order to receive the data.

The additional power saving mode may make the device unavailable to the network for a period longer than the paging interval (from seconds to hours). During this time, the device is completely unreachable to the network and may be completely powered down. Any data transmitted during this period causes a large delay and this delay is assumed to be acceptable.

The processor of the application circuit 1702 and the processor of the baseband circuit 1704 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of baseband circuitry 1704, either alone or in combination, may be employed to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processors of application circuitry 1704 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., transmission Communication Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, as described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, as described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include a Physical (PHY) layer of the UE/RAN node, as described in further detail below.

Fig. 18 illustrates an example interface of baseband circuitry according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As discussed above, the baseband circuitry 1704 of fig. 17 may include processors 1704A-1704E and memory 1704G used by the processors. Each of the processors 1704A-1704E may include a memory interface 1804A-1804E that respectively sends/receives data to/from a memory 1704G.

Baseband circuitry 1704 may also include one or more interfaces communicatively coupled to other circuits/devices, such as a memory interface 1812 (e.g., an interface to/receive memory to/from external to baseband circuitry 1704), an application circuitry interface 1814 (e.g., an interface to/receive data to/from application circuitry 1702 of fig. 17), an RF circuitry interface 1816 (e.g., an interface to/receive data to/from RF circuitry 1706 of fig. 17), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 1818 (e.g., an interface to/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) component),Assembly [ (Assembly)Low energy), a,Component, and other communication components), a power management interface 1820 (e.g., an interface that transmits/receives power or control signals to/from the PMC 1712).

It should be noted that in various embodiments, elements in some of the figures herein having the same reference numerals and/or names as elements in other figures herein may operate or function similar to (but are not limited to operating or functioning in this manner as) those elements of other figures.

Reference in the specification to "an embodiment," "one embodiment," "some embodiments," or "other embodiments" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments is included in at least some embodiments, but not necessarily all embodiments. The various appearances of "an embodiment," "one embodiment," or "some embodiments" are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiments. If the specification states a component, feature, structure, or characteristic "may", "might", or "could" be included, that particular component, feature, structure, or characteristic is not required to be included. If the specification or claim refers to "a" or "an" element, that does not mean there is only one of the element. If the specification or claims refer to "an additional" element, that does not preclude the presence of more than one of the additional element.

Furthermore, the particular features, structures, functions, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. For example, a first embodiment may be combined with a second embodiment in which particular features, structures, functions, or characteristics associated with the two embodiments are not mutually exclusive.

While the present disclosure has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, many alternatives, modifications, and variations of those embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing description. For example, other memory architectures, such as Dynamic RAM (DRAM), may use the embodiments discussed. The disclosed embodiments are intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variances which fall within the broad scope of the appended claims.

Additionally, well-known power/ground connections to Integrated Circuit (IC) chips and other components may or may not be shown within the given figures for simplicity of illustration and discussion, so as not to obscure the disclosure. Additionally, to avoid obscuring the disclosure and in view of the fact that the specifics of the implementations with respect to these block diagram arrangements are highly dependent upon the platform within which the present disclosure is implemented (i.e., such specifics should be within purview of one skilled in the art), these arrangements may be shown in block diagram form. Where specific details (e.g., circuits) are provided to describe example embodiments of the disclosure, it should be apparent to one skilled in the art that the disclosure can be practiced without, or with variation of, these specific details. The description is to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

The following examples relate to further embodiments. The specific details in the examples may be used anywhere in one or more embodiments. All optional features of the apparatus described herein may also be implemented for a method or process.

Example 1 provides an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an evolved node B (eNB) over a wireless network, comprising one or more processors to determine a preferred UE beam, generate a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission associated with the preferred eNB beam for transmission on the preferred UE beam, and process a Random Access Response (RAR) transmission carrying a Timing Advance (TA) received over the preferred UE beam, and an interface to send the PRACH transmission to a transmit circuit and to receive the RAR transmission from a receive circuit.

In example 2, the apparatus of example 1, wherein the TA is based on beam-to-link measurements including an eNB beam and a preferred UE beam associated with the PRACH transmission.

In example 3, the apparatus of example 2, wherein the UE receives, from the eNB, an identification of an eNB beam associated with a PRACH transmission to the UE.

In example 4, the apparatus of example 2 or 3, wherein the beam pair link is a first beam pair link and the TA is a first TA, wherein the UE maintains a first association between the first beam pair link and the first TA, and wherein the UE maintains a second association between the second beam pair link and the second TA.

In example 5, the apparatus of example 4, wherein the UE updates the TA used from the first TA to the second TA when switching beams from the first beam pair link to the second beam pair link.

In example 6, the apparatus of example 5, wherein the UE updates the TA used based on a time difference between the first TA and the second TA.

In example 7, the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 6, wherein the RAR transmission carries an index corresponding to a preferred eNB based on the PRACH transmission.

In example 8, the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 7, wherein the preferred UE beam is based on one or more repeated single beam synchronization signals from the eNB.

In example 9, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 8, wherein the one or more processors are to generate a message 3 (Msg 3) transmission and process the transmission carrying the TA information and the beam indicator based on the Msg 3.

In example 10, the apparatus of example 9, wherein a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) is associated with the TA information and the beam indicator.

In example 11, the apparatus of example 9 or 10, wherein the Msg3 transmission carries a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and wherein the TA information and the beam indicator are carried by subsequent data.

In example 12, the apparatus of any of examples 9 to 11, wherein Msg3 is generated to transmit with a long Cyclic Prefix (CP), and wherein Msg3 carries two DMRS and subsequent copies of one or more data portions over a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.

In example 13, the apparatus of any of examples 9 to 12, wherein the transmission carrying the TA information additionally carries an indicator having at least a first value corresponding to a correct arrival, a second value corresponding to an early arrival, and a third value corresponding to a late arrival.

In example 14, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 13, wherein the PRACH transmission is a first PRACH transmission, wherein the RAR transmission is a first RAR transmission, and wherein the one or more processors generate a second PRACH transmission for transmission on the preferred UE beam based on the TA, and process the second RAR transmission carrying the TA error indicator based on the second PRACH transmission.

In example 15, the apparatus of example 14, wherein the first RAR transmission carries TA information, and wherein the second RAR transmission carries a complete RAR field.

In example 16, the apparatus of example 14 or 15, wherein at least one of the time domain resources, the frequency domain resources, and the code resources are configured based on a configuration transmitted by the eNB or a predetermined setting.

Example 17 provides a User Equipment (UE) device comprising an application processor, a memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface to allow the application processor to communicate with another device, and a touch screen display, the UE device comprising the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 16.

Example 18 provides a method comprising determining a preferred UE beam for a User Equipment (UE), generating a physical random access control channel (PRACH) transmission associated with a preferred evolved node B (eNB) beam for transmission on the preferred UE beam, and processing a Random Access Response (RAR) transmission carrying a Timing Advance (TA) received over the preferred UE beam.

In example 19, the method of example 18, wherein the TA is measured based on a beam-to-link comprising an eNB beam and a preferred UE beam associated with the PRACH transmission.

In example 20, the method of example 19, wherein the UE receives, from the eNB, an identification of an eNB beam associated with the PRACH transmission to the UE.

In example 21, the method of example 19 or 20, wherein the beam pair link is a first beam pair link and the TA is a first TA, wherein the UE maintains a first association between the first beam pair link and the first TA, and wherein the UE maintains a second association between the second beam pair link and the second TA.

In example 22, the method of example 21, wherein the UE updates the TA used from the first TA to the second TA when switching beams from the first beam pair link to the second beam pair link.

In example 23, the method of example 22, wherein the UE updates the TA used based on a time difference between the first TA and the second TA.

In example 24, the method of any of examples 18 to 23, wherein the RAR transmission carries an index corresponding to a preferred eNB beam based on the PRACH transmission.

In example 25, the method of any one of examples 18 to 24, wherein the preferred UE beam is based on one or more repeated single beam synchronization signals from the eNB.

In example 26, the method of any of examples 18 to 25, comprising generating a message 3 (Msg 3) transmission and processing the transmission carrying the TA information and the beam indicator based on the Msg 3.

In example 27, the method of example 26, wherein a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) is associated with the TA information and the beam indicator.

In example 28, the method of example 26 or 27, wherein the Msg3 transmission carries demodulation reference signals (DMRS), and wherein the TA information and the beam indicator are carried by subsequent data.

In example 29, the method of any of examples 26 to 28, wherein Msg3 is generated to transmit with a long Cyclic Prefix (CP), and wherein Msg3 carries two DMRS and subsequent copies of one or more data portions over a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.

In example 30, the method of any of examples 26 to 29, wherein the transmission carrying the TA information additionally carries an indicator having at least a first value corresponding to a correct arrival, a second value corresponding to an early arrival, and a third value corresponding to a late arrival.

In example 31, the method of any of examples 18 to 30, wherein the PRACH transmission is a first PRACH transmission, wherein the RAR transmission is a first RAR transmission, and the method includes generating a second PRACH transmission based on the TA for transmission on the preferred UE beam, and processing the second RAR transmission carrying the TA error indicator based on the second PRACH transmission.

In example 32, the method of example 31, wherein the first RAR transmission carries TA information, and wherein the second RAR transmission carries the entire RAR field.

In example 33, the method of example 31 or 32, wherein at least one of the time domain resource, the frequency domain resource, and the code resource is configured based on one of a configuration sent by the eNB or a predetermined setting.

Example 34 provides a machine-readable storage medium storing machine-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform the method according to any one of examples 18 to 33.

Example 35 provides an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an evolved node B (eNB) over a wireless network, comprising means for determining a preferred UE beam, means for generating a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission associated with the preferred eNB beam for transmission on the preferred UE beam, and means for processing a Random Access Response (RAR) transmission carrying a Timing Advance (TA) received over the preferred UE beam.

In example 36, the apparatus of example 35, wherein the TA is based on beam-to-link measurements including an eNB beam and a preferred UE beam associated with the PRACH transmission.

In example 37, the apparatus of example 36, wherein the UE receives, from the eNB, an identification of an eNB beam associated with the PRACH transmission to the UE.

In example 38, the apparatus of example 36 or 37, wherein the beam pair link is a first beam pair link and the TA is a first TA, wherein the UE maintains a first association between the first beam pair link and the first TA, and wherein the UE maintains a second association between the second beam pair link and the second TA.

In example 39, the apparatus of example 38, wherein the UE updates the TA used from the first TA to the second TA when switching beams from the first beam pair link to the second beam pair link.

In example 40, the apparatus of example 39, wherein the UE updates the TA used based on a time difference between the first TA and the second TA.

In example 41, the apparatus of any of examples 35 to 40, wherein the RAR transmission carries an index corresponding to a preferred eNB beam based on the PRACH transmission.

In example 42, the apparatus of any one of examples 35 to 41, wherein the preferred UE beam is based on one or more repeated single beam synchronization signals from the eNB.

In example 43, the apparatus of any of examples 35 to 42, comprising means for generating a message 3 (Msg 3) transmission, and means for processing the transmission carrying the TA information and the beam indicator based on the Msg 3.

In example 44, the apparatus of example 43, wherein a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) is associated with the TA information and the beam indicator.

In example 45, the apparatus of example 43 or 44, wherein the Msg3 transmission carries a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and wherein the TA information and the beam indicator are carried by subsequent data.

In example 46, the apparatus of any of examples 43 to 45, wherein Msg3 is generated to transmit with a long Cyclic Prefix (CP), and wherein Msg3 carries two DMRS and subsequent copies of one or more data portions over a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.

In example 47, the apparatus of any of examples 43-46, wherein the transmission carrying the TA information additionally carries an indicator having at least a first value corresponding to a correct arrival, a second value corresponding to an early arrival, and a third value corresponding to a late arrival.

In example 48, the apparatus of any of examples 35 to 47, wherein the PRACH transmission is a first PRACH transmission, wherein the RAR transmission is a first RAR transmission, and the apparatus comprises means for generating a second PRACH transmission based on TA for transmission on the preferred UE beam, and means for processing the second RAR transmission carrying the TA error indicator based on the second PRACH transmission.

In example 49, the apparatus of example 48, wherein the first RAR transmission carries TA information, and wherein the second RAR transmission carries the entire RAR field.

In example 50, the apparatus of examples 48 or 49, wherein at least one of the time domain resource, the frequency domain resource, and the code resource is configured based on one of a configuration sent by the eNB or a predetermined setting.

Example 51 provides a machine-readable storage medium having machine-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an evolved node B (eNB) over a wireless network to perform operations comprising determining a preferred UE beam, generating a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission associated with the preferred eNB beam for transmission on the preferred UE beam, and processing a Random Access Response (RAR) transmission carrying a Timing Advance (TA) received over the preferred UE beam.

In example 52, the machine-readable storage medium of example 51, wherein the TA is based on beam-to-link measurements comprising an eNB beam and a preferred UE beam associated with the PRACH transmission.

In example 53, the machine-readable storage medium of example 52, wherein the UE receives, from the eNB, an identification of an eNB beam associated with a PRACH transmission to the UE.

In example 54, the machine-readable storage medium of example 52 or 53, wherein the beam pair link is a first beam pair link and the TA is a first TA, wherein the UE maintains a first association between the first beam pair link and the first TA, and wherein the UE maintains a second association between the second beam pair link and the second TA.

In example 55, the machine-readable storage medium of example 54, wherein the UE updates the TA used from the first TA to the second TA when switching beams from the first beam pair link to the second beam pair link.

In example 56, the machine-readable storage medium of example 55, wherein the UE updates the TA used based on a time difference between the first TA and the second TA.

In example 57, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 51 to 56, wherein the RAR transmission carries an index corresponding to a preferred eNB beam based on the PRACH transmission.

In example 58, the machine readable storage medium of any of examples 51 to 57, wherein the preferred UE beam is based on one or more repeated single beam synchronization signals from the eNB.

In example 59, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 51-58, the operations comprising generating a message 3 (Msg 3) transmission, and processing the transmission carrying the TA information and the beam indicator based on the Msg 3.

In example 60, the machine-readable storage medium of example 59, wherein the Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) is associated with the TA information and the beam indicator.

In example 61, the machine-readable storage medium of example 69 or 60, wherein the Msg transmission carries demodulation reference signals (DMRS), and wherein the TA information and the beam indicator are carried by subsequent data.

In example 62, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 59 to 61, wherein the Msg3 is generated to transmit with a long Cyclic Prefix (CP), and wherein the Msg3 carries two DMRS and subsequent copies of one or more data portions over a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.

In example 63, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 59 to 62, wherein the transmission carrying the TA additionally carries an indicator having at least a first value corresponding to a correct arrival, a second value corresponding to an early arrival, and a third value corresponding to a late arrival.

In example 64, the machine readable storage medium of any of examples 51-63, wherein the PRACH transmission is a first PRACH transmission, wherein the RAR transmission is a first RAR transmission, and the operations include generating a second PRACH transmission based on the TA for transmission on the preferred UE beam, processing the second RAR transmission carrying the TA error indicator based on the second PRACH transmission.

In example 65, the machine-readable storage medium of example 64, wherein the first RAR transmission carries TA information, and wherein the second RAR transmission carries the entire RAR field.

In example 66, the machine-readable storage medium of example 64 or 65, wherein at least one of the time domain resources, the frequency domain resources, and the code resources are configured based on one of a configuration sent by the eNB or a predetermined setting.

Example 67 provides an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with one or more evolved node bs (enbs) over a wireless network, comprising one or more processors to process a first transmission received over a first UE beam associated with a first antenna panel, process a second transmission received over a second UE beam associated with a second antenna panel, wherein the first antenna panel is associated with a first Timing Advance (TA) and the second antenna panel is associated with a second TA, and an interface to receive the first transmission and the second transmission from a receive circuit.

In example 68, the apparatus of example 67, wherein the first TA corresponds to at least one of one or more first antenna ports, or a first group of antenna ports, and wherein the second TA corresponds to at least one of one or more second antenna ports, or a second group of antenna ports.

In example 69, the apparatus of example 67 or 68, wherein the first antenna panel corresponds to a first antenna port group having one or more first antenna ports, and wherein the second antenna panel corresponds to a second antenna port group having one or more second antenna ports.

In example 70, the apparatus of any of examples 67 to 69, wherein the first transmission is from a first evolved node B (eNB) and the second transmission is from a second eNB.

In example 71, the apparatus of any of examples 67 to 70, wherein the one or more processors generate report transmissions carrying one or more of an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports, an indicator of a number of antenna ports per antenna port group, an indicator of a number of antenna groups, or an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports for both transmission and reception.

In example 72, the apparatus of any of examples 67 to 71, wherein the Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) comprises an indicator of the first TA and an indicator of the second TA.

In example 73, the apparatus of any of examples 67 to 72, wherein the Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) is to carry an indicator of TA and an indicator of at least one of a group of antenna ports or one or more antenna ports.

In example 74, the apparatus of any of examples 67 to 73, wherein the first transmission is associated with a first schedule, the second transmission is associated with a second schedule, and an Uplink (UL)/Downlink (DL) direction of the first schedule is synchronized with an UL/DL direction of the second schedule.

In example 75, the apparatus of any of examples 67 to 74, wherein the one or more processors are to store estimated channel coefficients of inter-panel interference (IPI) at the first antenna panel due to the second antenna panel.

In example 76, the apparatus of example 75, wherein the one or more processors determine when a coupling loss between the first antenna panel and the second antenna panel is less than a predetermined threshold.

In example 77, the apparatus of any one of examples 67 to 76, wherein the one or more processors report an ability to suppress inter-panel interference (IPI).

Example 78 provides a User Equipment (UE) comprising an application processor, memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface to allow the application processor to communicate with another device, and a touch screen display, the UE device comprising the apparatus of any of examples 67 to 77.

Example 79 provides a method comprising processing, for a User Equipment (UE), a first transmission received over a first UE beam associated with a first antenna panel, and processing a second transmission received over a second UE beam associated with a second antenna panel, wherein the first antenna panel is associated with a first Timing Advance (TA), and the second antenna panel is associated with a second TA.

In example 80, the method of example 79, wherein the first TA corresponds to at least one of one or more first antenna ports, or a first group of antenna ports, and wherein the second TA corresponds to at least one of one or more second antenna ports, or a second group of antenna ports.

In example 81, the method of example 79 or 80, wherein the first antenna panel corresponds to a first antenna port group having one or more first antenna ports, and wherein the second antenna panel corresponds to a second antenna port group having one or more second antenna ports.

In example 82, the method of any one of examples 79 to 81, wherein the first transmission is from a first evolved node B (eNB) and the second transmission is from a second eNB.

In example 83, the method of any of examples 79 to 82, comprising generating a report transmission carrying one or more of an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports, an indicator of a number of antenna ports per antenna port group, an indicator of a number of antenna groups, or an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports for both transmission and reception.

In example 84, the method of any of examples 79 to 83, wherein the Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) includes an indicator of the first TA and an indicator of the second TA.

In example 85, the method of any of examples 79 to 84, wherein the Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) carries an indicator of TA and an indicator of at least one of a group of antenna ports, or one or more antenna ports.

In example 86, the method of any of examples 79 to 85, wherein the first transmission is associated with a first schedule, the second transmission is associated with a second schedule, and an Uplink (UL)/Downlink (DL) direction of the first schedule is synchronized with an UL/DL direction of the second schedule.

In example 87, the method of any of examples 79 to 86, comprising storing estimated channel coefficients of inter-panel interference (IPI) at the first antenna panel due to the second antenna panel.

In example 88, the method of example 87, comprising determining when a coupling loss between the first antenna panel and the second antenna panel is less than a predetermined threshold.

In example 89, the method of any of examples 79 to 88, comprising reporting an ability to suppress inter-panel interference (IPI).

Example 90 provides a machine-readable storage medium storing machine-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform the method according to any one of examples 79 to 89.

Example 91 provides an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with one or more evolved node bs (enbs) over a wireless network, comprising means for processing a first transmission received over a first UE beam associated with a first antenna panel, and means for processing a second transmission received over a second UE beam associated with a second antenna panel, wherein the first antenna panel is associated with a first Timing Advance (TA), and the second antenna panel is associated with a second TA.

In example 92, the apparatus of example 91, wherein the first TA corresponds to at least one of one or more first antenna ports, or a first group of antenna ports, and wherein the second TA corresponds to at least one of one or more second antenna ports, or a second group of antenna ports.

In example 93, the apparatus of example 91 or 92, wherein the first antenna panel corresponds to a first antenna port group having one or more first antenna ports, and wherein the second antenna panel corresponds to a second antenna port group having one or more second antenna ports.

In example 94, the apparatus of any one of examples 91 to 93, wherein the first transmission is from a first evolved node B (eNB) and the second transmission is from a second eNB.

In example 95, the apparatus of any of examples 91 to 94, comprising means for generating a report transmission carrying one or more of an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports, an indicator of a number of antenna ports per antenna port group, an indicator of a number of antenna groups, or an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports for both transmitting and receiving.

In example 96, the apparatus of any one of examples 91 to 95, wherein the Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) includes an indicator of the first TA and an indicator of the second TA.

In example 97, the apparatus of any of examples 91 to 96, wherein the Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) carries an indicator of TA and an indicator of at least one of a group of antenna ports or one or more antenna ports.

In example 98, the apparatus of any of examples 91 to 97, wherein the first transmission is associated with a first schedule, the second transmission is associated with a second schedule, and an Uplink (UL)/Downlink (DL) direction of the first schedule is synchronized with an UL/DL direction of the second schedule.

In example 99, the apparatus of any of examples 91-98, comprising means for storing an estimated channel coefficient of inter-panel interference (IPI) at the first antenna panel due to the second antenna panel.

In example 100, the apparatus of example 99, comprising means for determining when a coupling loss between the first antenna panel and the second antenna panel is less than a predetermined threshold.

In example 101, the method of any of examples 91 to 100, comprising means for reporting an ability to suppress inter-panel interference (IPI).

Example 102 provides a machine-readable storage medium having machine-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an evolved node B (eNB) over a wireless network to perform operations comprising processing a first transmission received over a first UE beam associated with a first antenna panel and processing a second transmission received over a second UE beam associated with a second antenna panel, wherein the first antenna panel is associated with a first Timing Advance (TA) and the second antenna panel is associated with a second TA.

In example 103, the machine-readable storage medium of example 102, wherein the first TA corresponds to at least one of one or more first antenna ports, or a first group of antenna ports, and wherein the second TA corresponds to at least one of one or more second antenna ports, or a second group of antenna ports.

In example 104, the machine-readable storage medium of example 102 or 103, wherein the first antenna panel corresponds to a first antenna port group having one or more first antenna ports, and wherein the second antenna panel corresponds to a second antenna port group having one or more second antenna ports.

In example 105, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 102 to 104, wherein the first transmission is from a first evolved node B (eNB) and the second transmission is from a second eNB.

In example 106, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 102 to 105, the operations comprising generating a report transmission carrying one or more of an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports, an indicator of a number of antenna ports per antenna port group, an indicator of a number of antenna groups, or an indicator of a maximum number of antenna ports for simultaneous transmission and reception.

In example 107, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 102 to 106, wherein the Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) includes an indicator of the first TA and an indicator of the second TA.

In example 108, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 102 to 107, wherein the Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) carries an indicator of TA and an indicator of at least one of a group of antenna ports or one or more antenna ports.

In example 109, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of examples 102 to 108, wherein the first transmission is associated with a first schedule, the second transmission is associated with a second schedule, and an Uplink (UL)/Downlink (DL) direction of the first schedule is synchronized with a UL/DL direction of the second schedule.

In example 110, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 102 to 109, the operations comprising storing estimated channel coefficients of inter-panel interference (IPI) at the first antenna panel due to the second antenna panel.

In example 111, the machine-readable storage medium of example 10, the operations comprising determining when a coupling loss between the first antenna panel and the second antenna panel is less than a predetermined threshold.

In example 112, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 102 to 111, the operations comprising reporting an ability to suppress inter-panel interference (IPI).

In example 113, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 16 and 67 to 77, wherein the one or more processors comprise a baseband processor.

In example 114, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 16 and 67 to 77, comprising a memory to store instructions, the memory coupled to the one or more processors.

In example 115, the apparatus of any of examples 1-16 and 67-77, comprising transceiver circuitry to generate a transmission, encode a transmission, process a transmission, or decode a transmission.

In example 116, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 16 and 67 to 77, comprising transceiver circuitry to generate the transmission and process the transmission.

An abstract is provided that allows the reader to ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to limit the scope or meaning of the claims. The following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims

1. An apparatus of a user equipment, UE, operable to communicate with one or more base stations, BS, over a wireless network, comprising:

one or more of the processors of the present invention, the one or more processors are configured to:

receiving a first transmission over a first UE beam associated with a first antenna panel;

transmitting a second transmission over a second UE beam associated with a second antenna panel;

Wherein the first antenna panel is associated with a first timing advance, TA, and the second antenna panel is associated with a second TA,

Determining an inter-panel interference IPI caused by the first transmission and the second transmission, and

Performing IPI suppression if the determined IPI exceeds a threshold, and

An interface for receiving the first transmission from the receiving circuit and for sending the second transmission to the sending circuit.

2. The device according to claim 1,

Wherein the first TA corresponds to at least one of one or more first antenna ports or first antenna port groups, and

Wherein the second TA corresponds to at least one of one or more second antenna ports or second groups of antenna ports.

3. The device according to claim 1,

Wherein the first antenna panel corresponds to a first antenna port group having one or more first antenna ports, and

Wherein the second antenna panel corresponds to a second antenna port group having one or more second antenna ports.

4. The device according to claim 1,

Wherein the first transmission is from a first base station BS and the second transmission is to a second BS.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the IPI suppression comprises coordinated scheduling of further transmissions via the first UE beam and the second UE beam associated with the first panel and the second panel, respectively.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the coordinated scheduling comprises avoiding simultaneous first and second transmissions associated with the first and second panels of the UE, respectively, in different transmission directions, wherein the different transmission directions comprise an uplink, UL, direction and a downlink, DL, direction.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the coordinated scheduling comprises scheduling the first transmission associated with the first panel of the UE and a third transmission associated with the second panel of the UE simultaneously in a same transmission direction.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the IPI suppression comprises the one or more processors configured to:

Accessing a memory of the UE containing a plurality of channel estimates, wherein each channel estimate is associated with a transmit beam/receive beam pair between one or more eNBs from a different channel and the UE, and

IPI cancellation is performed in the time domain or the frequency domain using a selected one of the channel estimates.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the IPI suppression comprises the one or more processors configured to:

Estimating an inter-real-time inter-panel channel on a per-physical channel basis, and

IPI cancellation is performed based on IPI determined from the first TA and the second TA or the first TA and the second TA plus a propagation delay between two channels associated with the first transmission and the second transmission.

10. A user equipment, UE, apparatus comprising an application processor, a memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another apparatus, the UE apparatus comprising the apparatus of any of claims 1 to 9.

11. A method for communication, comprising:

Receiving, at a user equipment, UE, a first transmission via a first UE beam associated with a first antenna panel, and

A second transmission is sent at the UE over a second UE beam associated with a second antenna panel,

And if the determined IPI exceeds a threshold, performing IPI suppression.

12. The method according to claim 11,

Wherein the first TA corresponds to at least one of one or more first antenna ports, or a first group of antenna ports, and

Wherein the second TA corresponds to at least one of one or more second antenna ports, or a second group of antenna ports.

13. The method according to claim 12,

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the first transmission is from a first base station BS and the second transmission is to a second BS.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein performing the IPI suppression comprises coordinated scheduling of further transmissions via the first UE beam and the second UE beam associated with the first panel and the second panel, respectively.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein performing the coordinated scheduling comprises avoiding simultaneous first and second transmissions associated with the first and second panels of the UE, respectively, in different transmission directions, wherein the different transmission directions comprise an uplink, UL, direction and a downlink, DL, direction.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein performing the coordinated scheduling comprises scheduling the first transmission associated with the first panel of the UE and a third transmission associated with the second panel of the UE simultaneously in a same transmission direction.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein performing the IPI suppression comprises:

19. The method of claim 11, wherein performing the IPI suppression comprises: