Uplink transmit beam sweep
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsYakun Sun, Anatoliy S. Ioffe, Ehsan Haghani, Rohit U. Nabar
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Abstract
Systems and methods related to partial beam correspondence may be used to address potential limitations of beamforming wireless networks. A user equipment electronic device and/or wireless network identifies a subset of available transmitter beams for the user equipment electronic device that are indicated as similar to a downlink reference signal received at the user equipment electronic device from a wireless network node. The user equipment electronic device sweeps the subset of available transmitter beams for communication with the wireless network node and uses a best beam from the sweep to communicate with the wireless network node.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- receiving a downlink reference signal at a user equipment electronic device (UE) from a wireless network node;
- identifying a subset of available transmitter beams for UE that are indicated as similar to a downlink reference signal;
- and
- sweeping, using the UE, the subset of available transmitter beams for communication with the wireless network node.
An electronic device comprising:
- a network interface configured to communicate with a wireless network node, wherein the network interface is configured to:
- receive a downlink reference signal from the wireless network node;
- in response to the received downlink reference signal, broadcast a pattern of possible transmitter beams toward the wireless network, wherein the pattern comprises transmitter beams near a direction corresponding to the downlink reference signal;
- receive a selection of at least one transmitter beam of the pattern from the wireless network node;
- and
- use the selected at least one transmitter beam to communicate with the wireless network node.
Tangible, non-transitory, and computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, that when executed by a processor, are configured to cause the processor to:
- detect a reception of a reference signal at an antenna array of a user equipment electronic device (UE) wherein there no beam correspondence exists between a beam receiving the reference signal and any transmitter beam;
- in response to the reception and the lack of beam correspondence, cause a coarse sweep of coarse transmitter beams from the UE, wherein the coarse sweep includes a pattern of the coarse transmitter beams that skips at least some transmitter beams;
- select a coarse beam from the pattern;
- based on the selected coarse beam, perform a refining sweep with interposing beams of the transmitter beams between coarse transmitter beams;
- based on the refining sweep, select a best beam from the interposing beams or the selected coarse beam;
- and
- cause communication with a wireless network node using the best beam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.