Beam Forming Method, Apparatus and System

A multi-antenna beam forming base station, configured to:

• retrieve an uplink allocation of a user equipment from a downlink control signal;
• receive from a user equipment an uplink signal using multiple narrow antenna beams;
• measure beam-specific pilot signal powers from the user uplink signal for all the beams;
• and
• use the measured pilot signal powers to determine, in a remote radio unit, which one or ones of the downlink narrow beams is to be used for a downlink signal for the user equipment.

A communications system comprising:

• at least one user equipment for enabling a user to access different network services;
• a remote radio head unit configured for:
• retrieving an uplink allocation of a user equipment from a downlink control signal;
• receiving an uplink control information from the base station base band unit;
• receiving from the user equipment an uplink signal using multiple narrow antenna beams;
• measuring beam-specific pilot signal powers from the user uplink signal for all the beams;
• and
• using the measured pilot signal powers to determine, in a remote radio unit, which one or ones of the downlink narrow beams is to be used for a downlink signal for the user equipment;
• and
• a base station unit for managing radio transmission to the user equipment and radio reception from the user equipment.

A computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:

• retrieve an uplink allocation of a user equipment from a downlink control signal;
• receive from a user equipment an uplink signal using multiple narrow antenna beams;
• measure beam-specific pilot signal powers from the user equipment uplink signal for all the beams;
• and
• use the measured pilot signal powers to determine, in a remote radio unit, which one or ones of the downlink narrow beams is to be used for a downlink signal for the user equipment.