Reuse of mobility reference signals to perform radio link monitoring in a beam-based system

A user equipment (UE) configured for operation in a wireless communication network, the UE comprising:

• transceiver circuitry;
• and
• processing circuitry operatively associated with the transceiver circuitry and configured to:
• receive, using the transceiver circuitry, in a downlink signal having a series of subframes, a beam-formed reference signal in each of a plurality of subframes, such that the beam-formed reference signals are received in fewer than all of the subframes of the downlink signal;
• perform mobility management measurements using at least a first subset of the received beam-formed reference signals;
• and
• perform radio link monitoring (RLM) using at least some of the first subset of beam-formed reference signals used for the mobility management measurements.

An access node of a wireless communications system, comprising:

• transceiver circuitry;
• and
• processing circuitry operatively associated with the transceiver circuitry and configured to:
• transmit, using the transceiver circuitry, in a first downlink signal having a series of subframes, a beam-formed reference signal in each of a plurality of subframes, wherein the beam-formed reference signals are transmitted in fewer than all of the subframes of the downlink signal;
• and
• configure a user equipment (UE) to perform mobility management measurements using at least a first subset of the beam-formed reference signals and to perform radio link monitoring (RLM) using at least some of the first subset of beam-formed reference signals used for the mobility management measurements.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program comprising program instructions that, when executed on at least one processing circuit of a UE configured for operation in a wireless communication network, configures the UE to:

• receive, in a downlink signal having a series of subframes, a beam-formed reference signal in each of a plurality of subframes, wherein the beam-formed reference signals are received in fewer than all of the subframes of the downlink signal;
• perform mobility management measurements using at least a first subset of the received beam-formed reference signals;
• and
• perform radio link monitoring (RLM) using at least some of the first subset of beam-formed reference signals used for the mobility management measurements.