Resolution of beam and node identities for dual connectivity

A base station of a first radio access network of a cellular communications system, the base station utilizing beamforming to transmit a plurality of beams, comprising:

• a network interface;
• a transceiver;
• a node processor comprising one or more processing circuits;
• and
• memory storing instructions executable by the node processor whereby the base station is adapted to:
• identify, based on a Beam Reference Symbol Received Power (BRS-RP) report received from a wireless device via a second base station of a second radio access network of the cellular communications system, a time-frequency resource that corresponds to a best BRS-RP measurement value from among one or more BRS-RP measurement values reported by the wireless device in the BRS-RP report, where the identified time-frequency resource maps, via a predefined Beam Reference Symbol (BRS) pattern, to two or more beams in two or more subframes;
• transmit, via the transceiver, messages comprising timing information on the two or more beams;
• receive a second BRS-RP report from the wireless device, the second BRS-RP comprising one or more BRS-RP measurement values for one or more time-frequency resources and corresponding timing information for the BRS-RP measurements that is based on the timing information comprised in one of the messages transmitted on the two or more beams that was received by the wireless device;
• and
• determine, based on the second BRS-RP report and the timing information comprised in the second BRS-RP report, that a beam that corresponds to a best BRS-RP measurement value reported by the wireless device in the second BRS-RP report is a best beam for transmission from the base station to the wireless device.

A method of operation of a wireless device in a cellular communications system, comprising:

• receiving one or more subframes for a first radio access network, the one or more subframes containing Beam Reference Symbols (BRSs) in a predefined BRS pattern;
• performing BRS Received Power (BRS-RP) measurements, using the BRSs, on time-frequency resources assigned to a plurality of beams via the predefined BRS pattern, the predefined BRS pattern being such that, for a time-frequency resource, BRSs for different beams are transmitted on the time-frequency resource in different subframes;
• sending a BRS-RP report to a first base station of the first radio access network via a second base station of a second radio access network, the BRS-RP report comprising BRS-RP measurement values for at least some of the time-frequency resources assigned to the BRSs;
• after sending the BRS-RP report, receiving, from the first radio access network, a message comprising at least one of a group consisting of:
• timing information for the first base station and a node identifier of one of a plurality of base stations included in the first radio access nodes, wherein the plurality of base stations includes the first base station and the node identifier identifies the one of the plurality of base stations from which the message was transmitted;
• and
• sending a second BRS-RP report comprising one or more second BRS-RP measurement values and at least one of the group consisting of:
• timing information for the one or more second BRS measurement values that is based on the timing information for the first base station and the node identifier.

A wireless device enabled to operate in a cellular communications system, comprising:

• a transceiver;
• a processor comprising one or more processing circuits;
• and
• memory storing instructions executable by the processor whereby the wireless device is adapted to:
• receive, via the transceiver, one or more subframes for a first radio access network, the one or more subframes containing Beam Reference Symbols, BRSs, in a predefined BRS pattern and perform BRS Received Power, BRS-RP, measurements, using the BRSs, on time-frequency resources assigned to a plurality of beams via the predefined BRS pattern, the predefined BRS pattern being such that, for a time-frequency resource, BRSs for different beams are transmitted on the time-frequency resource in different subframes;
• send, via the transceiver, a BRS-RP report to a first base station of the first radio access network via a second base station of a second radio access network, the BRS-RP report comprising BRS-RP measurement values for at least some of the time-frequency resources assigned to the BRSs;
• receive, from the first radio access network via the transceiver, a message comprising at least one of a group consisting of:
• timing information for the first base station and a node identifier of a base station from which the message was transmitted;
• and
• send, via the transceiver, a second BRS-RP report comprising one or more second BRS-RP measurement values and at least one of the group consisting of:
• timing information for the one or more second BRS-measurement values that is based on the timing information for the first base station and the node identifier of the base station from which the message was transmitted.