Reference Signals for Initial Acquisition in 5G Systems

An apparatus for a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

• processing circuitry configured to:
• decode respective primary synchronization signals (PSS) and secondary synchronization signals (SSS) from a plurality of different transmit (Tx) beams from abase station, wherein the PSS and SSS of a Tx beam are on different symbols, and wherein the PSS and SSS of different Tx beams are on different symbols, wherein the SSS includes a cell identifier;
• measure reference signals corresponding to the plurality of Tx beams, based on timing of the decoded PSSs and SSSs;
• select one of the Tx beams that was received with a highest power, as determined by measurements of the reference signals;
• and
• generate a report, for transmission to the base station, including an identification of the one of the selected Txbeams;
• and
• a memory configured to store the identification of the selected one of the Tx beams.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors to perform operations for communication by a User Equipment (UE), the operations to configure the UE to:

• receive respective primary synchronization signals (PSS) and secondary synchronization signals (SSS) from a plurality of different transmit (Tx) beams from a base station, wherein the PSS and SSS of a Tx beam are on different symbols, and wherein the PSS and SSS of different Tx beams are on different symbols, wherein the SSS includes a cell identifier;
• measure reference signals corresponding to the plurality of Tx beams, based on timing of the received PSSs and SSSs;
• select one of the Tx beams that was received with a highest power, as determined by measurements of the reference signals;
• and
• transmit to the base station a report including an identification of the selected one of the Tx beams.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors to perform operations for communication by a base station, the operations to configure the base station to:

• transmit respective primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS) and reference signals associated with a plurality of different transmit (Tx) beams, wherein the PSS and SSS of different Tx beams are on different symbols, wherein the SSS includes a cell identifier;
• and
• receive, from a User Equipment (UE), an identification of one of the Tx beams received by the UE with the highest power, as determined by measurements of the reference signals of the Tx beams by the UE,
• wherein for a particular Tx beam, the SSS is in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol subsequent to an OFDM symbol in which the PSS was transmitted, and
• wherein for each Tx beam, an OFDM symbol number relative to a start of synchronization signal/physical broadcasting channel (SS/PBCH) block for the PSS and the SSS is 0 and 2, respectively, and a subcarrier number relative to the start of a SS/PBCH block is between 56 and 182.