Mu mimo support with highly directional antennas
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsMichelle X. Gong, Dmitry Akhmetov
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Abstract
In various embodiments, a network controller in a multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU MIMO) network may perform training for directional communications with multiple mobile devices. It may organize the mobile devices into different groups, with all the mobile devices in a single group able to communicate simultaneously with the network controller without excessive interference from each other. Various techniques may be used for such training and grouping.
Claims23
A method, comprising:
- transmitting, from a first of multiple antennas, training signals directionally in each of multiple sectors;
- repeating said transmitting from each of a remainder of the multiple antennas;
- receiving, from each of multiple mobile devices (MDs), information containing a sector identifier and an associated received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each training signal received by said each of the multiple MDs;
- locating each of the multiple MDs in a particular sector, based on the received RSSIs;
- determining, for each sector, a signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) for each combination of a transmission to that sector from one antenna and a transmission to another sector from another antenna;
- determining non-interfering combinations of sectors, based on said SINRs;
- and
- allocating the MDs into groups, with each group containing a maximum of one MD per sector for sectors whose SINR indicates simultaneous transmissions to all the MD's in the group from different antennas will not result in mutual interference.
The method of claim, further comprising repeating said transmitting, receiving, and associating for said each of the remainder of the multiple antennas.
An apparatus comprising a wireless communications device with multiple antennas, each antenna having multiple elements for directional communication, the device to:
- transmit, from a first of the multiple antennas, training signals directionally in each of multiple sectors;
- repeat said transmitting from each of a remainder of the multiple antennas;
- receive, from each of multiple mobile devices (MDs), information containing a sector identifier and an associated received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each training signal received by said each of the multiple MDs;
- locate each of the multiple MDs in a particular sector, based on the received RSSIs;
- determine, for each sector, a signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) for each combination of a transmission to that sector from one antenna and a transmission to another sector from another antenna;
- determine non-interfering combinations of sectors, based on said SINRs;
- and
- allocate the MDs into groups, with each group containing a maximum of one MD per sector for sectors whose SINR indicates simultaneous transmissions to all the MD's in the group from different antennas will not result in mutual interference.
An article comprising
- a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium that contains instructions, which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising:
- transmitting, from a first of multiple antennas, training signals directionally in each of multiple sectors;
- repeating said transmitting from each of a remainder of the multiple antennas;
- receiving, from each of multiple mobile devices (MDs), information containing a sector identifier and an associated received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each training signal received by said each of the multiple MDs;
- locating each of the multiple MDs in a particular sector, based on the received RSSIs;
- determining, for each sector, a signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) for each combination of a transmission to that sector from one antenna and a transmission to another sector from another antenna;
- determining non-interfering combinations of sectors, based on said SINRs;
- and
- allocating the MDs into groups, with each group containing a maximum of one MD per sector for sectors whose SINR indicates simultaneous transmissions to all the MD's in the group from different antennas will not result in mutual interference.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.