Method and apparatus for managing beam selection in a mobile handset
AssigneeSprint Spectrum L.P.
InventorJohn Cheong Wai Ngan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for managing beam selection in a mobile station. The mobile station determines that, using a currently selected beam, the mobile station would have to transmit at too high of a power level in order to maintain a balance between a forward link path and a reverse link path. The mobile station computes a transmit power on the currently selected beam and compares the computed transmit power to a predefined threshold value. If the computed transmit power exceeds the predefined threshold value, the mobile station may switch to another beam. Otherwise, the mobile station will stay with the current beam, regardless of whether the current beam has the highest receive power.
Claims20
In a first communication device arranged to communicate over an air interface with a second communication device, wherein the first communication device includes a switched beam antenna system, a method of determining whether to switch from operating on a given beam of the switched beam antenna system to operating on another beam of the switched beam antenna system, the method comprising:
- receiving, on the given beam of the switched beam antenna system, signaling from the second communication device, wherein the signaling indicates operational parameters of the second communication device;
- using at least the indicated operational parameters of the second communication device as a basis to determine a proposed transmit power for the first communication device;
- and
- determining, based at least on the proposed transmit power, whether to switch over to use another beam of the switched beam antenna system.
In a mobile station arranged to communicate over an air interface with a base station, wherein the mobile station includes a switched beam antenna system, a method of determining whether to switch from operating on a given beam of the switched beam antenna system to operating on another beam of the antenna system, the method comprising:
- receiving, on the given beam of the switched beam antenna system, signaling from the base station, wherein the signaling indicates at least a base station transmit power and a base station receive power;
- computing a proposed transmit power for the given beam of the switched beam antenna system, based at least on factors including the indicated base station transmit power, the indicated base station receive power, and mobile station receive power at the given beam of the switched beam antenna system,
- making a determination of whether the proposed transmit power exceeds a threshold;
- if the determination is that the proposed transmit power does not exceed the threshold, then determining to not switch over to use another beam of the switched beam antenna system;
- and
- if the determination is that the proposed transmit power exceeds the threshold, then performing an operational comparison of beams of the switched beam antenna system to determine whether to switch over to using another beam of the switched beam antenna system.
A mobile station comprising:
- a switched beam antenna;
- a wireless communication interface;
- a processing unit;
- and
- a data storage,
- wherein the mobile station (i) receives, on a given beam of the switched beam antenna system, signaling from a base station, wherein the signaling indicates at least a base station transmit power and a base station receive power, (ii) computes a proposed transmit power for the given beam of the switched beam antenna system, based at least on factors including the indicated base station transmit power, the indicated base station receive power, and mobile station receive power at the given beam of the switched beam antenna system, (iii) makes a determination of whether the proposed transmit power exceeds a threshold, (iv) if the determination is that the proposed transmit power does not exceed the threshold, then determines to not switch over to use another beam of the switched beam antenna system, and (v) if the determination is that the proposed transmit power exceeds the threshold, then performs an operational comparison of beams of the switched beam antenna system to determine whether to switch over to using another beam of the switched beam antenna system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.