CN111682889A

CN111682889A - Multi-beam tracking method and device

Info

Publication number: CN111682889A
Application number: CN201910180280.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 竺旭东; 秦博雅; 朱有团
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-03-11
Filing date: 2019-03-11
Publication date: 2020-09-18
Also published as: WO2020182155A1

Abstract

The application provides a multi-beam tracking method and device. The application provides a multi-beam tracking method, comprising: obtaining a beam set maintained for UE, wherein the beam set comprises a first subset and a second subset, the first subset comprises a current service beam of the UE, the second subset comprises M alternative beams, the M alternative beams are the first M beams after the K beams reported by the UE are sorted from long to short according to the distance between the K beams and the current service beam, M and K are natural numbers, and M < K; selecting a beam from a beam set of the UE, and transmitting information on the selected beam. The method and the device improve the success rate of beam switching, reduce the probability of communication interruption, realize multi-beam transmission and improve the communication performance of the UE.

Description

Multi-beam tracking method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to communications technologies, and in particular, to a multi-beam tracking method and apparatus.

Background

In a New air interface (New Radio, NR), a Millimeter Wave (mmWave) frequency band greater than 6GHz is introduced, frequency points commonly used for the introduction include 28GHz, 39GHz, 60GHz and the like, and when the mmWave frequency band is applied to wireless mobile communication, due to the short wavelength, the attenuation of signals is fast when the signals are transmitted in space. Therefore, in order to take advantage of the small size of the mmWave antenna (the antenna size is proportional to the wavelength), an antenna array is often used at the Base Station (BS) side to form Beamforming (BF), so that the Signal forms energy convergence in the space, and points to the direction of the User Equipment (UE) accurately, thereby improving the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of the Signal received by the UE. An example of an 8 row 8 column cross polarized mmWave antenna array is shown in fig. 1.

In order to improve the coverage and capacity of mmWave frequency bands, the BS will continuously enlarge the size of the antenna array and increase the number of antennas. Accordingly, the coverage of the formed beam in the horizontal and vertical directions will be smaller and smaller. As shown in fig. 2, in a typical 3-sector coverage scenario, each sector needs to cover an area of 120 ° horizontally and 30 ° vertically, and the BS performs coverage by generating N-4 × 8-32 beams.

In the related art, after the UE accesses the cell, the UE transmits and receives data through the service beam, and when the performance of the service beam deteriorates rapidly, for example, pedestrian or vehicle blocking occurs between the BS and the UE, the selection of an appropriate beam will cause communication interruption, and the UE can only go through the processes of link failure and re-access, thereby reducing the communication performance.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a multi-beam tracking method and a multi-beam tracking device, which are used for improving the success rate of beam switching, reducing the probability of communication interruption, realizing multi-beam transmission and improving the communication performance of UE.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a multi-beam tracking method, comprising: obtaining a beam set maintained for User Equipment (UE), wherein the beam set comprises a first subset and a second subset, the first subset comprises a current service beam of the UE, the second subset comprises M alternative beams, the M alternative beams are the first M beams after the K beams reported by the UE are sequenced from long to short according to the distance between the K beams and the current service beam, M and K are natural numbers, and M is less than K; selecting a beam from a beam set of the UE, and transmitting information on the selected beam.

By using the beam which is well isolated from the current service beam as the alternative beam, on one hand, the beam can be switched rapidly, efficiently and stably when the performance of the current service beam is deteriorated, and on the other hand, different antenna sub-arrays of the BS can transmit information by using different beams (the current service beam and the alternative beam) with good isolation, so that multi-beam diversity transmission is realized, the transmission robustness of mobile or edge UEs is improved, or multi-beam multi-stream transmission is realized, and the transmission rate of low-speed or near-point UEs is improved.

In one possible implementation manner, the selecting a beam from a beam set of the UE and transmitting information on the selected beam includes: when the communication of the current service beam is interrupted, selecting one beam from the second subset as a new service beam, and sending a beam switching signaling to the UE, wherein the beam switching signaling comprises identification information of the new service beam; transmitting information with the UE based on the new serving beam.

According to the method and the device, when the BS finds that the communication of the current service beam is interrupted, one beam is selected from the second subset as a new service beam, and due to the fact that the isolation degree of the beams in the second subset and the current service beam is good, even if the performance of the current service beam is rapidly deteriorated due to shielding and the like, the new service beam selected by the BS cannot be affected due to the same reason, the UE can be rapidly switched to the new service beam, the switching success rate of the beam is high, the probability of communication interruption is reduced, and the communication performance of the UE is guaranteed.

In one possible implementation manner, the selecting a beam from a beam set of the UE and transmitting information on the selected beam includes: and selecting N wave beams from the second subset, and transmitting the same information on the current service wave beam and the N wave beams, wherein N is a natural number and is less than or equal to M.

In one possible implementation manner, the selecting a beam from a beam set of the UE and transmitting information on the selected beam includes: and selecting N wave beams from the second subset, and transmitting different information on the current service wave beam and the N wave beams, wherein N is a natural number and is less than or equal to M.

In a possible implementation manner, before acquiring the beam set maintained for the UE, the method further includes: scanning a plurality of beams in a beam codebook one by one to send synchronization and broadcast information when the UE initially accesses; receiving response information sent by the UE, and determining a beam corresponding to an uplink resource bearing the response information as the current service beam of the UE, wherein the response information is information sent after the UE demodulates the synchronization and broadcast information.

In a possible implementation manner, before acquiring the beam set maintained for the UE, the method further includes: when the UE is in an access state, sending measurement reporting indication information to the UE, wherein the measurement reporting indication information comprises identification information of a plurality of beams; and receiving identification information and Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of K wave beams reported by the UE, wherein the K wave beams are the first K wave beams after the plurality of wave beams are sequenced from high to low according to the RSRP.

In one possible implementation, the current serving beam is a beam with the highest RSRP among the K beams.

In a possible implementation manner, the measurement reporting indication information is cell-level measurement reporting indication information, and the multiple beams are multiple beams in a beam codebook.

In a possible implementation manner, the measurement reporting indication information is user-level measurement reporting indication information, and the multiple beams are multiple beams in the beam set.

In one possible implementation, the beam set further includes a third subset, where the third subset includes a plurality of tracking beams, and a distance between the tracking beam and the current serving beam is smaller than a set value.

In the present application, the BS puts the beam closer to the current service beam into the third subset of the beam set as the tracking beam, and is adapted to track the continuous movement of the service beam.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a multi-beam tracking apparatus comprising: an obtaining module, configured to obtain a beam set maintained for a User Equipment (UE), where the beam set includes a first subset and a second subset, the first subset includes a current serving beam of the UE, the second subset includes M candidate beams, the M candidate beams are top M beams after K beams reported by the UE are sorted from long to short according to a distance from the current serving beam, M and K are natural numbers, and M < K; a transmission module, configured to select a beam from the beam set of the UE and transmit information on the selected beam.

In a possible implementation manner, the transmission module is specifically configured to select one beam from the second subset as a new serving beam when communication of the current serving beam is interrupted, and send a beam switching signaling to the UE, where the beam switching signaling includes identification information of the new serving beam; transmitting information with the UE based on the new serving beam.

In a possible implementation manner, the transmission module is specifically configured to select N beams from the second subset, and transmit the same information on the current service beam and the N beams, where N is a natural number and is equal to or less than M.

In a possible implementation manner, the transmission module is specifically configured to select N beams from the second subset, and transmit different information on the current service beam and the N beams, where N is a natural number and N is less than or equal to M.

In a possible implementation manner, the transmission module is further configured to scan a plurality of beams in a beam codebook one by one to transmit synchronization and broadcast information when the UE initially accesses; receiving response information sent by the UE, and determining a beam corresponding to an uplink resource bearing the response information as the current service beam of the UE, wherein the response information is information sent after the UE demodulates the synchronization and broadcast information.

In a possible implementation manner, the transmission module is further configured to send measurement reporting indication information to the UE when the UE is in an access state, where the measurement reporting indication information includes identification information of a plurality of beams; and receiving identification information and Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of K wave beams reported by the UE, wherein the K wave beams are the first K wave beams after the plurality of wave beams are sequenced from high to low according to the RSRP.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory for storing one or more programs;

when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement the method as described in any one of the first aspects above.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for performing the method of any of the first aspect above, when the instructions are run on a computer.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a computer program for performing the method of any one of the above first aspects when the computer program is executed by a computer.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an mmWave antenna array;

figure 2 is a schematic illustration of multi-beam coverage;

fig. 3 is a flow chart of an embodiment of the multi-beam transmission method of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of beam switching;

fig. 5 is a schematic illustration of multi-beam transmission;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of the multi-beam tracking apparatus of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of the communication device of the present application.

Detailed Description

To make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the present application clearer, the technical solutions in the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all embodiments of the present application. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of an embodiment of the multi-beam tracking method, and as shown in fig. 3, the method of the present embodiment may be performed by a BS, and the multi-beam tracking method includes:

step 301, a beam set maintained for the UE is obtained.

The beam set in this application includes a first subset and a second subset, the first subset includes a current serving beam of the UE, and usually the first subset includes only this one beam, and the second subset includes M candidate beams, and these M candidate beams have better isolation from the current serving beam, and the BS considers both the communication performance of the candidate beam and the interference between the candidate beam and the current serving beam when defining the isolation, that is, the candidate beam is a beam that the UE can measure its Reference-Signal Received Power (RSRP) and is as far away as possible from the current serving beam, so that the UE switches to the candidate beam when the performance of the current serving beam deteriorates, and does not affect communication. In the present application, the isolation degree may be measured by a distance between the candidate beam and the current service beam, and the distance may be an euclidean distance in an angle domain, that is, an euclidean distance between spatial pointing angles of the candidate beam and the current service beam. The distance may also be represented by a displacement vector of two beams, which is not specifically limited in this application. And the BS sorts the K beams from long to short according to the distance from the K beams to the current service beam in K beams reported by the UE (the UE compares the RSRPs of the beams which are measured latest, selects the identification information of the first K beams which are sorted from high to low and the RSRPs and reports the identification information to the BS), and takes the first M beams as alternative beams. Optionally, the BS may also use, as a candidate beam, a beam whose distance from the current serving beam is greater than or equal to a set value among the K beams reported by the UE, and determine, as the candidate beam, a beam with a higher RSRP among the candidate beams. The set value can be determined according to factors such as network optimization objectives and system parameters.

Step 302, select a beam from a beam set of the UE, and transmit information on the selected beam.

The BS may select beam transmission information in the first subset (i.e., the current serving beam), may select alternative beam transmission information in the second subset, and may simultaneously select beam transmission information in both the first subset and the second subset. Three information transmission modes are described below:

when the communication of the current service beam is interrupted, selecting one beam from the second subset as a new service beam, sending beam switching signaling to the UE, wherein the beam switching signaling comprises identification information of the new service beam, and transmitting information based on the new service beam with the UE.

In the present application, the BS and the UE transmit information on the basis of a certain beam, and if the communication performance of the beam is good all the time or does not fluctuate too much, the BS and the UE transmit information on the beam all the time. However, the communication environment is very variable, and once the performance of the current serving beam is rapidly deteriorated (for example, due to vehicle, building or pedestrian occlusion), that is, the communication of the current serving beam is interrupted, the BS notifies the UE to switch to a new beam as soon as possible to maintain the access state of the UE, otherwise, the UE may drop, and enter a process of triggering re-access due to link failure. Therefore, when the BS finds that the communication of the current service beam is interrupted, one beam (preferably, the candidate beam farthest from the current service beam) is selected from the second subset as a new service beam, because the isolation between the beam in the second subset and the current service beam is good (farthest), even if the performance of the current service beam and the beams around the current service beam is rapidly deteriorated due to occlusion, and the new service beam is less likely to be occluded due to the long distance, the new service beam is less affected or even not affected, so that the UE can be rapidly switched to the new service beam, and the switching success rate of the beam is high, the probability of the communication interruption is reduced, and the communication performance of the UE is ensured. Illustratively, as shown in fig. 4, the current serving beam 17 causes communication interruption due to occlusion, and the BS treats 14 as a new serving beam, and the new serving beam 14 can provide good communication service to the UE.

And secondly, selecting N wave beams from the second subset, and transmitting the same information on the current service wave beam and the N wave beams, wherein N is a natural number and is less than or equal to M.

And based on a plurality of antenna sub-arrays of the BS, different sub-arrays of the BS can select different beams from the first sub-array and the second sub-array, and the selection of the beam from the second sub-array can be selected from long to short according to the distance between the alternative beam in the second sub-array and the current service beam or from high to low according to the RSRP of the alternative beam in the second sub-array. For example, two antenna sub-arrays respectively select beams from the first subset and the second subset, and the two antenna sub-arrays transmit the same information, so as to realize multi-beam diversity transmission; alternatively, five antenna sub-arrays select one beam (current serving beam) from the first subset and four beams from the second subset, and the five antenna sub-arrays transmit the same information, thereby realizing multi-beam diversity transmission. Illustratively, as shown in fig. 5, the BS selects the current serving beam 17 and the beam 14 in the second subset at the same time, and transmits the same information on both beams, thereby implementing multi-beam diversity transmission.

And thirdly, selecting N wave beams from the second subset, and transmitting different information on the current service wave beam and the N wave beams, wherein N is a natural number and is less than or equal to M.

And based on a plurality of antenna sub-arrays of the BS, different sub-arrays of the BS can select different beams from the first sub-array and the second sub-array, and the selection of the beam from the second sub-array can be selected from long to short according to the distance between the alternative beam in the second sub-array and the current service beam or from high to low according to the RSRP of the alternative beam in the second sub-array. For example, two antenna subarrays respectively select a beam from the first subset and the second subset, and the two antenna subarrays transmit different information, so that multi-beam and multi-stream transmission is realized; or, five antenna sub-arrays select one beam (current service beam) from the first subset and four beams from the second subset, and the five antenna sub-arrays transmit different information, so that multi-beam and multi-stream transmission is realized. Illustratively, as shown in fig. 5, the BS selects the current serving beam 17 and the beam 14 in the second subset at the same time, and transmits different information on the two beams, thereby implementing multi-beam and multi-stream transmission.

According to the method and the device, the wave beam which is well isolated from the current service wave beam is used as the alternative wave beam, on one hand, the wave beam can be switched rapidly, efficiently and stably when the performance of the current service wave beam is deteriorated, on the other hand, different antenna sub-arrays of the BS can transmit information by adopting different wave beams (the current service wave beam and the alternative wave beam) with good isolation, multi-beam diversity transmission is achieved, the transmission robustness of mobile or edge UE is improved, or multi-beam multi-stream transmission is achieved, and the transmission rate of low-speed or near-point UE is improved.

On the basis of the above technical solution, the present application needs to maintain a beam set for the UE in advance, including:

when the UE initially accesses, the BS transmits synchronization and broadcast information using a plurality of beams in different beam codebooks in a round robin manner. When the UE initially accesses, the UE tries to demodulate the synchronization and broadcast information on a certain beam, and then sends response information on the uplink resource corresponding to the demodulated beam. And the BS determines the beam corresponding to the uplink resource carrying the response information as the current service beam of the UE, and maintains the first subset. Illustratively, as shown in fig. 2, the BS polls beams 0-31 and the UE completes access on beam 3, so the BS initializes the first subset {3} to establish connection and communication with the UE as soon as possible.

When the UE is in an access state, the BS sends cell-level measurement reporting indication information to the UE on a current service beam, wherein the cell-level measurement reporting indication information comprises identification information of a plurality of beams in a beam codebook. After receiving the cell-level measurement reporting indication information, the UE compares the RSRP of the currently latest measured beam, selects the identification information of the first K beams after the RSRP is sorted from high to low and the RSRP to report to the BS, wherein K can be indicated by the BS in a signaling or can be agreed with the BS in advance. It should be noted that when the UE receives the cell-level measurement report indication information, if the number of the latest measured beams exceeds K, the K beams with the highest RSRP are selected from the cell-level measurement report indication information for reporting, but if the number of the latest measured beams is less than K, the UE may directly report the latest measured beams. And the BS maintains a beam set according to the RSRP of the K beams, if the identification information of the first beam is different from the identification information of the current service beam, the current service beam in the first subset is switched to the first beam, the first beam is the beam with the highest RSRP in the K beams, and simultaneously the BS sends beam switching signaling to the UE, wherein the beam switching signaling comprises the identification information of the first beam. The BS also updates the beams in the second subset to the first M beams ordered by distance from the current serving beam from long to short. For example, as shown in fig. 2, the identification information of K ═ 4 beams reported by the UE is {17, 9, 18, 14} (RSRP ranging from high to low), the BS finds that the optimal beam 17 is different from the current serving beam 3, so that 17 is regarded as a new serving beam, and updates the first subset to {17}, and the BS notifies the UE of the beam switching operation. From the 4 beams reported by the UE, beams 9 and 18 are adjacent to the current serving beam 17, and beam 14 is farthest from the current serving beam 17, so the BS adds beam 14 to the second subset, and the previous serving beam 3 is closer to the current serving beam 17 than beam 14 but farther than

beams

9 and 18, so the BS can also add beam 3 to the second subset, resulting in the second subset {14, 3 }.

After the UE is accessed, the BS instructs the UE to perform scanning reporting on beams based on a cell level, and a processing period of the process is longer, and is usually on the order of 100ms, so to improve efficiency, the BS may also instruct the UE to perform scanning reporting on beams based on a user level, and a processing period is usually on the order of 10ms, that is, user-level measurement reporting instruction information is sent to the UE on a current serving beam, where the user-level measurement reporting instruction information includes identification information of a plurality of beams in a beam set, and the beam set is a latest set maintained by the BS. After receiving the user-level measurement reporting indication information, the UE compares the RSRP of the currently latest measured beam, selects the identification information of the first K beams ranked from high to low of the RSRP and the RSRP to report to the BS, where K may be indicated by the BS in a signaling or may be predetermined with the BS, and K in the process may be the same as or different from K in the cell-level measurement reporting process. It should be noted that when the UE receives the user-level measurement report indication information, if the number of the latest measured beams exceeds K, the K beams with the highest RSRP are selected from the user-level measurement report indication information for reporting, but if the number of the latest measured beams is less than K, the UE may directly report the latest measured beams. And the BS maintains a beam set according to the RSRP of the K beams, if the identification information of the first beam is different from the identification information of the current service beam, the current service beam in the first subset is switched to the first beam, the first beam is the beam with the highest RSRP in the K beams, and simultaneously the BS sends beam switching signaling to the UE, wherein the beam switching signaling comprises the identification information of the first beam. The BS also updates the beams in the second subset to the first M beams ordered by distance from the current serving beam from long to short. For example, as shown in fig. 2, after cell-level measurement reporting, the first subset of beams maintained by the BS is {17}, and the second subset is {14, 3}, where if the identification information of the optimal beam among the K beams reported by the UE is 17, the BS does not need to switch the serving beam of the UE, and if the identification information of the optimal beam is not 17, the BS may update the beam set by using the above method.

It should be noted that, after the UE is accessed, the cell-level measurement report is performed first under the instruction of the BS, and then the cell-level measurement report and the user-level measurement report may be performed alternately, and the specific execution sequence may be dynamically determined by the BS according to the number of the accessed UEs, the resource usage, and the like, which is not specifically limited in this application.

Further, the beam set maintained by the BS in the present application may further include a third subset, where the third subset includes a plurality of tracking beams, and a distance between a tracking beam and a current serving beam is smaller than a set value, where the set value may be determined according to factors such as a network optimization target and system parameters. In the above procedure of maintaining the beam set, when the BS determines the first subset, the beams in the third subset may be determined according to the distance, which may be the euclidian distance in the angle domain, i.e. the euclidian distance of the respective spatial pointing angles of the candidate beam and the current serving beam. The distance may also be represented by a displacement vector of two beams, which is not specifically limited in this application. For example, as shown in fig. 2, the BS determines a first subset {17} during cell-level measurement reporting, and the BS determines identification information {17, 9, 18, 14} of 4 beams according to K ═ reported by the UE, where

beams

9 and 18 are adjacent to beam 17, and thus a third subset {9, 18 }. The BS may also extend the third subset, e.g., 9, 18, 16, 25, or 8, 9, 10, 16, 18, 24, 25, 26, depending on the distance relationship between the beams, if the scanning resources are sufficient. In the process of reporting user-level measurements, if the optimal beam 18 reported by the UE is different from the current serving beam 17 in the first subset, the BS updates the first subset to {18}, and the BS maintains a third subset around the updated first subset to {10, 19, 26, 17}, in which case the previous serving beam 17 is updated into the third subset, so the BS cannot put the beam 17 into the second subset when updating the second subset.

In the present application, the beam closer to the current serving beam is placed in the third subset of the beam set as the tracking beam, and is suitable for tracking the continuous movement of the optimal beam.

For example, assuming that the first subset is {3}, the second subset is {14}, and the third subset is {2, 4, 11}, the UE is blocked by a passing vehicle during moving, the communication of the currently serving beam 3 is interrupted, and the gain of the beam 3 drops by about 3dB/10ms according to the field test, where the beams in the first subset and the third subset are blocked together, but the survival probability of the beam 14 in the second subset is greater. After the BS finds the communication interruption of the current service beam 3, the BS notifies the UE to switch the service beam to the beam 14, which reduces the probability of communication interruption.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of the multi-beam tracking apparatus of the present application, and as shown in fig. 6, the apparatus of the present embodiment may include: an obtaining module 601 and a transmitting module 602, where the obtaining module 601 is configured to obtain a beam set maintained for a UE, where the beam set includes a first subset and a second subset, the first subset includes a current service beam of the UE, the second subset includes M alternative beams, the M alternative beams are the first M beams after K beams reported by the UE are sorted from long to short according to a distance from the current service beam, M and K are natural numbers, and M < K; a transmission module 602, configured to select a beam from the beam set of the UE and transmit information on the selected beam.

The apparatus of this embodiment may be used to implement the technical solution of the method embodiment shown in fig. 3, and the implementation principle and the technical effect are similar, which are not described herein again.

In a possible implementation manner, the transmission module 602 is specifically configured to select one beam from the second subset as a new serving beam when communication of the current serving beam is interrupted, and send a beam switching signaling to the UE, where the beam switching signaling includes identification information of the new serving beam; transmitting information with the UE based on the new serving beam.

In a possible implementation manner, the transmission module 602 is specifically configured to select N beams from the second subset, and transmit the same information on the current service beam and the N beams, where N is a natural number and is equal to or less than M.

In a possible implementation manner, the transmission module 602 is specifically configured to select N beams from the second subset, and transmit different information on the current service beam and the N beams, where N is a natural number and N is less than or equal to M.

In a possible implementation manner, the transmission module 602 is further configured to scan multiple beams in a beam codebook one by one to transmit synchronization and broadcast information when the UE initially accesses; receiving response information sent by the UE, and determining a beam corresponding to an uplink resource bearing the response information as the current service beam of the UE, wherein the response information is information sent after the UE demodulates the synchronization and broadcast information.

In a possible implementation manner, the transmission module 602 is further configured to send measurement reporting indication information to the UE when the UE is in an access state, where the measurement reporting indication information includes identification information of multiple beams; and receiving the identification information and RSRP of K wave beams reported by the UE, wherein the K wave beams are the first K wave beams after the wave beams are sequenced from high to low according to the RSRP.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of the communication device of the present application, and as shown in fig. 7, the communication device includes a processor 701, a memory 702, and a communication device 703; the number of the processors 701 in the communication device may be one or more, and one processor 701 is taken as an example in fig. 7; the processor 701, the memory 702 and the communication means 703 in the communication device may be connected by a bus or other means, and fig. 7 illustrates an example of connection by a bus.

The memory 702 is a computer-readable storage medium for storing software programs, computer-executable programs, and modules, such as program instructions/modules corresponding to the method in the embodiment shown in fig. 3. The processor 701 executes various functional applications and data processing of the communication device by executing software programs, instructions, and modules stored in the memory 702, that is, implements the multi-beam tracking method described above.

The memory 702 may mainly include a program storage area and a data storage area, wherein the program storage area may store an operating system, an application program required for at least one function; the storage data area may store data created according to the use of the terminal, and the like. Further, the memory 702 may include high speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as at least one magnetic disk storage device, flash memory device, or other non-volatile solid state storage device. In some examples, the memory 702 may further include memory located remotely from the processor 701, which may be connected to a communication device via a network. Examples of such networks include, but are not limited to, the internet, intranets, local area networks, mobile communication networks, and combinations thereof.

The communication device 703 may be used to send and receive information.

In one possible implementation, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for performing the method in the embodiment shown in fig. 3 described above when the instructions are executed on a computer.

In one possible implementation, the present application provides a computer program for performing the method in the embodiment shown in fig. 3 described above when the computer program is executed by a computer.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: all or a portion of the steps of implementing the above-described method embodiments may be performed by hardware associated with program instructions. The program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. When executed, the program performs steps comprising the method embodiments described above; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as ROM, RAM, magnetic or optical disks.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only used for illustrating the technical solutions of the present application, and not for limiting the same; although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some or all of the technical features may be equivalently replaced; and the modifications or the substitutions do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions depart from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A multi-beam tracking method, comprising:

obtaining a beam set maintained for User Equipment (UE), wherein the beam set comprises a first subset and a second subset, the first subset comprises a current service beam of the UE, the second subset comprises M alternative beams, the M alternative beams are the first M beams after the K beams reported by the UE are sequenced from long to short according to the distance between the K beams and the current service beam, M and K are natural numbers, and M is less than K;

selecting a beam from a beam set of the UE, and transmitting information on the selected beam.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting a beam from a beam set of the UE and transmitting information on the selected beam comprises:

when the communication of the current service beam is interrupted, selecting one beam from the second subset as a new service beam, and sending a beam switching signaling to the UE, wherein the beam switching signaling comprises identification information of the new service beam;

transmitting information with the UE based on the new serving beam.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting a beam from a beam set of the UE and transmitting information on the selected beam comprises:

and selecting N wave beams from the second subset, and transmitting the same information on the current service wave beam and the N wave beams, wherein N is a natural number and is less than or equal to M.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting a beam from a beam set of the UE and transmitting information on the selected beam comprises:

and selecting N wave beams from the second subset, and transmitting different information on the current service wave beam and the N wave beams, wherein N is a natural number and is less than or equal to M.

5. The method of any of claims 1-4, wherein obtaining the set of beams maintained for the UE is preceded by:

when the UE is in an access state, sending measurement reporting indication information to the UE, wherein the measurement reporting indication information comprises identification information of a plurality of beams;

and receiving identification information and Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of K wave beams reported by the UE, wherein the K wave beams are the first K wave beams after the plurality of wave beams are sequenced from high to low according to the RSRP.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the current serving beam is a beam of the K beams having a highest RSRP.

7. The method of claim 5 or 6, wherein the measurement reporting indicator is a cell-level measurement reporting indicator, and the plurality of beams are a plurality of beams in a beam codebook.

8. The method of claim 5 or 6, wherein the measurement reporting indicator is a user-level measurement reporting indicator, and wherein the plurality of beams are a plurality of beams in the beam set.

9. The method of any of claims 1-8, wherein the set of beams further comprises a third subset, the third subset comprising a plurality of tracking beams, the tracking beams being less than a set value from the current serving beam.

10. A multi-beam tracking apparatus, comprising:

an obtaining module, configured to obtain a beam set maintained for a User Equipment (UE), where the beam set includes a first subset and a second subset, the first subset includes a current serving beam of the UE, the second subset includes M candidate beams, the M candidate beams are top M beams after K beams reported by the UE are sorted from long to short according to a distance from the current serving beam, M and K are natural numbers, and M < K;

a transmission module, configured to select a beam from the beam set of the UE and transmit information on the selected beam.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the transmission module is specifically configured to select one beam from the second subset as a new serving beam when the communication of the current serving beam is interrupted, and send beam switching signaling to the UE, where the beam switching signaling includes identification information of the new serving beam; transmitting information with the UE based on the new serving beam.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the transmission module is specifically configured to select N beams from the second subset, and transmit the same information on the current serving beam and the N beams, where N is a natural number and N is less than or equal to M.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the transmission module is specifically configured to select N beams from the second subset, and transmit different information on the current serving beam and the N beams, where N is a natural number and N is less than or equal to M.

14. The apparatus according to any of claims 10-13, wherein the transmitting module is further configured to send measurement reporting indication information to the UE when the UE is in an access state, where the measurement reporting indication information includes identification information of a plurality of beams; and receiving identification information and Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of K wave beams reported by the UE, wherein the K wave beams are the first K wave beams after the plurality of wave beams are sequenced from high to low according to the RSRP.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the current serving beam is a beam of the K beams having a highest RSRP.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 or 15, wherein the measurement reporting indicator is a cell-level measurement reporting indicator, and the plurality of beams are a plurality of beams in a beam codebook.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 or 15, wherein the measurement reporting indicator is a user-level measurement reporting indicator, and wherein the plurality of beams are a plurality of beams in the beam set.

18. The apparatus of any of claims 10-17, wherein the set of beams further comprises a third subset, the third subset comprising a plurality of tracking beams that are less than a set value from the current serving beam.

19. A communication device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory for storing one or more programs;

when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement the method of any one of claims 1-9.

20. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for performing the method of any one of claims 1-9 when the instructions are run on a computer.

21. A computer program for performing the method of any one of claims 1-9 when the computer program is executed by a computer.