Methods, apparatus and machine-readable media relating to channel estimation

A base station for estimating a radio channel between the base station and a wireless device, the base station comprising an antenna system which is configurable to utilize beam space processing for receiving radio transmissions, processing circuitry and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the base station to:

• use the antenna system to detect wireless energy from the wireless device in a plurality of beam directions;
• obtain historical data relating to a likelihood that wireless energy in the plurality of beam directions contains channel information;
• select a subset of the plurality of beam directions based on the detected wireless energy and the historical data;
• and
• process wireless energy detected in the subset of beam directions to estimate a channel between the base station and the wireless device.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by processing circuitry of a network node, cause the network node to:

• use an antenna system of a base station to detect wireless energy from a wireless device in a plurality of beam directions;
• obtain historical data relating to a likelihood that wireless energy in the plurality of beam directions contains channel information;
• select a subset of the plurality of beam directions based on the detected wireless energy and the historical data;
• and
• process wireless energy detected in the subset of beam directions to estimate a channel between the base station and the wireless device.