Configuration of relay antenna beams for communication via network controlled repeaters and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces

A network node arranged to configure an advanced antenna system, AAS, of the network node to generate a relay antenna beam associated with transmission to and from a repeater node of the network node, where the network node comprises:

• processing circuitry;
• a network interface coupled to the processing circuitry;
• and
• a storage medium coupled to the processing circuitry, wherein the medium comprises machine readable computer program instructions that, when executed by the processing circuitry, causes the network node to:
• receive information related to a repeater node,
• determine a configuration of a relay antenna beam of the network node associated with transmission to and from the repeater node of the network node based on the information, and
• store the configuration of the relay antenna beam together with its associated repeater node.

A repeater node, comprising:

• processing circuitry;
• a network interface coupled to the processing circuitry;
• and
• a storage medium coupled to the processing circuitry, wherein the medium comprises machine readable computer program instructions that, when executed by the processing circuitry, causes the repeater node to:
• configure an antenna system of the repeater node to receive a radio signal from a network node,
• evaluate a signal quality metric for at least two candidate antenna beams of the antenna system, and
• select a preferred antenna beam out of the at least two candidate antenna beams for communication with the network node.