Overlaid-Coded Beamforming

A method for radio communication between a transmitting node and a plurality of receiving nodes, wherein said method comprises:

• obtaining directions from said transmitting node to said receiving nodes and antenna gains needed for each direction of each of said receiving nodes;
• obtaining a beam forming solution having a high gain in said directions of a set of receiving nodes of said plurality of receiving nodes and with antenna gains adapted to said need of the link in each considered direction;
• obtaining, in said transmitting node, user data to be transmitted to said receiving nodes;
• overlay-coding said user data by at least one of a code-domain overlaid code and a frequency-domain overlaid code, separately for each respective receiving node, into overlaid-coded user data;
• combining said overlaid-coded user data into at least one combined signal stream;
• performing one of analog beamforming, hybrid beamforming and constrained beamforming on said at least one combined signal stream according to said beam forming solution;
• and
• transmitting said beamformed data from said transmitting node to said receiving nodes.

A transmitting node configured for radio communication with a plurality of receiving nodes, comprising:

• a transmitter configured for beamformed transmission;
• and
• processing circuitry operatively associated with the transmitter and configured to:
• obtain directions from said transmitting node to said receiving nodes and antenna gains needed for each direction of each of said receiving nodes;
• obtain a beamforming solution having a high gain in one or more of said directions that correspond to a set of receiving nodes of said plurality of receiving nodes and having antenna gains adapted to said antenna gain needs for each respective link in each direction of said plurality of receiving nodes;
• obtain user data to be transmitted to said receiving nodes;
• overlay-code said user data by at least one of a code-domain overlaid code and a frequency-domain overlaid code, separately for each respective receiving node, into overlaid-coded user data;
• combine said overlaid-coded user data into at least one combined signal stream;
• perform one of analog beamforming, hybrid beamforming, and constrained beamforming on said at least one combined signal stream according to said beamforming solution;
• and
• transmit said beamformed data to said receiving nodes via the transmitter.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program comprising instructions, that when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

• obtain directions from a transmitting node to a plurality of receiving nodes and antenna gains needed for each direction of each of said receiving nodes;
• obtain a beamforming solution having a high gain in said directions of a set of receiving nodes of said plurality of receiving nodes and with antenna gains adapted to said need of the link in each considered direction;
• obtain user data to be transmitted to said receiving nodes;
• overlay-code said user data by at least one of a code-domain overlaid code and a frequency-domain overlaid code, separately for each respective receiving node, into overlaid-coded user data;
• combine said overlaid-coded user data into at least one combined signal stream;
• perform one of analog beamforming, hybrid beamforming and constrained beamforming on said at least one combined signal stream according to said beam forming solution;
• and
• transmit said beamformed data from said transmitting node to said receiving nodes.

A transmitting node configured for radio communication with a plurality of receiving nodes, wherein said transmitting node comprises:

• a direction-obtaining module, for obtaining directions from said transmitting node to said receiving nodes and antenna gains needed for each direction of each of said receiving nodes;
• a beam-forming planning module, for obtaining a beam forming solution having a high gain in said directions of a set of receiving nodes of said plurality of receiving nodes and with antenna gains adapted to said need of the link in each considered direction;
• a user data module, for obtaining user data to be transmitted to said receiving nodes;
• an overlay-coder, for overlay-coding said user data by at least one of a code-domain overlaid code and a frequency-domain overlaid code, separately for each respective receiving node, into overlaid-coded user data;
• a combiner, for combining said overlaid-coded user data into at least one combined signal stream;
• a beamformer, for performing one of analog beamforming, hybrid beamforming and constrained beamforming on said at least one combined signal stream according to said beam forming solution;
• and
• a transmitter, for transmitting said beamformed data from said transmitting node to said receiving nodes.