Radio frequency beam management and failure pre-emption

A method for performing radio frequency beam management in communication between a base station and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

• evaluating, by the UE, a beam quality metric against a threshold;
• switching, by the UE, from a first beam to a second beam in response to determining the beam quality metric falls below the threshold;
• transmitting, by the UE to the base station, a report that includes beam measurements in response to said switching by the UE from the first beam to the second beam;
• and
• wherein the report indicates the UE has performed said switching and that the beam measurements are with respect to the second beam.

A base station (BS)/user equipment (UE) attempting to pre-empt radio frequency beam failure in communication between a UE/BS, comprising:

• a memory, configured to store a threshold;
• a processor, configured to:
• associate narrower and broader beams between the BS and the UE;
• use the narrower beam, rather than the broader beam, to transfer user data between the BS and the UE;
• evaluate a beam quality metric of the narrower beam against the threshold;
• switch to using the broader beam, rather than the narrower beam, to transfer user data between the BS and the UE in response to determining the beam quality metric of the narrower beam falls below the threshold;
• construct a first beam set of wide beam reference signals (RS) each having a direction and a width, wherein the direction of each wide beam RS is unique from the others in the first beam set;
• construct a second beam set of narrow beam RS each having a direction and a width, wherein the direction of each narrow beam RS is unique from the others in the second beam set and the width of the narrow beam RS is narrower than the width of the wide beam RS;
• wherein each narrow beam RS of the second beam set is uniquely linked to a wide beam RS of the first beam set according to a linkage;
• wherein the direction of each narrow beam RS is spatially nested within the width of the wide beam RS to which it is uniquely linked;
• and
• wherein the associated narrower and broader beams are of the second and first beams sets, respectively, and are uniquely linked according to the linkage.

A method for attempting to pre-empt radio frequency beam failure in communication between a base station (BS) and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

• associating narrower and broader beams between the BS and the UE;
• using the narrower beam, rather than the broader beam, to transfer user data between the BS and the UE;
• evaluating a beam quality metric of the narrower beam against a threshold;
• switching to using the broader beam, rather than the narrower beam, to transfer user data between the BS and the UE in response to determining the beam quality metric of the narrower beam falls below the threshold;
• constructing, by the BS, a first beam set of wide beam reference signals (RS) each having a direction and a width, wherein the direction of each wide beam RS is unique from the others in the first beam set;
• constructing, by the BS, a second beam set of narrow beam RS each having a direction and a width, wherein the direction of each narrow beam RS is unique from the others in the second beam set and the width of the narrow beam RS is narrower than the width of the wide beam RS;
• wherein each narrow beam RS of the second beam set is uniquely linked to a wide beam RS of the first beam set according to a linkage;
• wherein the direction of each narrow beam RS is spatially nested within the width of the wide beam RS to which it is uniquely linked;
• and
• wherein the associated narrower and broader beams are of the second and first beams sets, resectively, and are uniquely linked according to the linkage.