CN112751596A - Apparatus and method for millimeter wave beam alignment - Google Patents
Apparatus and method for millimeter wave beam alignment Download PDFInfo
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- CN112751596A CN112751596A CN201911048462.XA CN201911048462A CN112751596A CN 112751596 A CN112751596 A CN 112751596A CN 201911048462 A CN201911048462 A CN 201911048462A CN 112751596 A CN112751596 A CN 112751596A
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
- H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
- H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
- H04B7/0413—MIMO systems
- H04B7/0426—Power distribution
- H04B7/043—Power distribution using best eigenmode, e.g. beam forming or beam steering
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
- H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
- H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
- H04B7/06—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station
- H04B7/0613—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission
- H04B7/0615—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission of weighted versions of same signal
- H04B7/0617—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission of weighted versions of same signal for beam forming
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
- H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
- H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
- H04B7/08—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the receiving station
- H04B7/0837—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the receiving station using pre-detection combining
- H04B7/0842—Weighted combining
- H04B7/086—Weighted combining using weights depending on external parameters, e.g. direction of arrival [DOA], predetermined weights or beamforming
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W72/00—Local resource management
- H04W72/04—Wireless resource allocation
- H04W72/044—Wireless resource allocation based on the type of the allocated resource
- H04W72/046—Wireless resource allocation based on the type of the allocated resource the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W72/00—Local resource management
- H04W72/50—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources
- H04W72/54—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria
- H04W72/542—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria using measured or perceived quality
Abstract
The present disclosure relates to a method for millimeter wave beam alignment, which involves a first communication device (such as a base station device) and a second communication device (such as a terminal device), and which may be implemented on the second communication device side. The method comprises the following steps: notifying the first communication device that the second communication device is communicating using a first beam of the first number of beams that the first communication device is capable of transmitting when at the first location; if the second communication device moves from the first location to the second location and the communication quality falls below a first threshold, then: obtaining a position offset vector from a first position to a second position; the communication quality is measured for the first communication device transmitting a second number of beams near the first beam, and if the communication quality achieved by a second beam of the second number of beams is greater than a second threshold, the first communication device is notified to communicate with the second beam, wherein the second number is less than the first number, and the second number is related to the size of the position offset vector.
Description
Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to the field of millimeter wave wireless communications, and in particular, to devices and methods for millimeter wave beam alignment.
Background
Millimeter wave wireless communication typically involves a frequency band of tens to hundreds of gigahertz (GHz), and most of the frequency bands in this range belong to unlicensed licensed frequency bands, and currently, the availability is not high. Millimeter wave communication is thus more flexible than the crowded frequency bands in conventional low frequency systems. Because the frequency band bandwidth corresponding to the millimeter wave frequency band is huge, high-rate transmission of gigabit level is easy to realize. In addition, the wavelength of the millimeter wave corresponds to the millimeter wave level, so that the antenna is allowed to be packaged in a miniaturized mode, and the integration degree of related equipment is high.
Millimeter wave band communication has become an important and potentially promising technology in 5G communication systems. Because the communication loss of millimeter wave transmission is large and the antenna size is small, directional transmission can be realized in the frequency band by using a large-scale multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. In particular, massive MIMO technology may enable precise Beamforming (Beamforming) between a base station device and a terminal device such that wireless signals concentrate energy in narrower beams to enhance 5G coverage and reduce interference.
However, in general, the position of the terminal device is not static, and when the position of the terminal device changes (typically, the position of the device changes due to hand shake or slight displacement of a user, etc.), the beam state of the millimeter waves is easily changed from beam alignment to beam misalignment. Fig. 1A and 1B show schematic diagrams 100A and 100B, respectively, of exemplary beam search methods before and after beam misalignment in existing systems. Specifically, in fig. 1A, base station apparatus 101 transmits all the number of beams that it can transmit to terminal apparatus 102 located at the first position at all angles, terminal apparatus 102 scans the beams, measures the communication quality corresponding to each beam, then selects one transmission beam (for example, the optimal beam that achieves the optimal communication quality) and notifies base station apparatus 101 of the number (or ID) of the beam, so that it schedules the optimal beam to align with terminal apparatus 102 and performs communication using the beam, thereby achieving beam alignment. In fig. 1B, when the terminal device 102 moves from the first position to the second position, a beam misalignment phenomenon may occur, i.e., the original optimal beam may not have achieved the desired communication quality. In this case, the base station apparatus 101 needs to perform the same method of transmitting all beams as in the foregoing fig. 1A to assist the terminal apparatus 102 located at the second position in performing the traversal search to find the misaligned optimal transmission beam. This approach typically causes frequent signaling overhead and degradation of communication quality. Therefore, there is a need for efficient and reliable communication methods and electronic devices for millimeter wave beam alignment.
Disclosure of Invention
The present disclosure provides novel electronic devices and communication methods for millimeter wave beam alignment.
According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a communication method for a first communication device side, the method including: receiving a notification from a second communication device at a first location to communicate using a first beam of a first number of beams that the first communication device is capable of transmitting; if the second communication device moves from the first location to the second location and the communication quality falls below a first threshold, then: transmitting a second number of beams near the first beam to a second communication device, receiving a notification from the second communication device to communicate using the second beam, wherein a quality of communication achieved by a second beam of the second number of beams is greater than a second threshold; wherein the second number is smaller than the first number and the second number is related to the magnitude of the position offset vector from the first position to the second position. Optionally, in the method: the second number may relate to a size of the position offset vector and may comprise the second number relating to a size of a projection of the position offset vector on a second axis, wherein the second axis is perpendicular to a first axis formed by a line connecting the position of the first communication device and the first position of the second communication device. Optionally, in the method: the second number related to the size of the position offset vector may comprise the second number related to the size of both a projection of the position offset vector on a second axis and a projection on a third axis, wherein the second axis, the third axis and the first axis formed by a line connecting the position of the first communication device and the first position of the second communication device are perpendicular to each other. In the method, the position offset vector is measured by a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) sensor and reported to the second communication device. In the method, the communication quality may include Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP), Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), and Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR). In the method, the first communication device may be a base station device and the second communication device may be a terminal device.
Correspondingly, according to a first aspect of the present disclosure, the present disclosure provides an electronic device for a first communication device side, comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories having executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a corresponding method.
Correspondingly, according to a first aspect of the present disclosure, the present disclosure also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a respective method.
According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a communication method for a second communication device side, including: notifying the first communication device that the second communication device is communicating using a first beam of the first number of beams that the first communication device is capable of transmitting when at the first location; if the second communication device moves from the first location to the second location and the communication quality falls below a first threshold, then: obtaining a position offset vector from a first position to a second position; the communication quality is measured for the first communication device transmitting a second number of beams near the first beam, and if the communication quality achieved by a second beam of the second number of beams is greater than a second threshold, the first communication device is notified to communicate with the second beam, wherein the second number is less than the first number, and the second number is related to the size of the position offset vector. Optionally, in the method: the second number may relate to a size of the position offset vector and may comprise the second number relating to a size of a projection of the position offset vector on a second axis, wherein the second axis is perpendicular to a first axis formed by a line connecting the position of the first communication device and the first position of the second communication device. Optionally, in the method: the second number related to the size of the position offset vector may comprise the second number related to the size of both a projection of the position offset vector on a second axis and a projection on a third axis, wherein the second axis, the third axis and the first axis formed by a line connecting the position of the first communication device and the first position of the second communication device are perpendicular to each other. In the method, the position offset vector is measured by a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) sensor and reported to the second communication device. In the method, the communication quality may include Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), signal to noise ratio (SNR), signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR). In the method, the first communication device may be a base station device and the second communication device may be a terminal device.
Correspondingly, according to a second aspect of the present disclosure, the present disclosure provides an electronic device for a first communication device side, comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories having executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a corresponding method.
Correspondingly, according to a second aspect of the present disclosure, the present disclosure also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a respective method.
Other features of the present disclosure and advantages thereof will become more apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments thereof, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Drawings
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
The present disclosure may be more clearly understood from the following detailed description, taken with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
fig. 1A and 1B illustrate schematic diagrams of an exemplary beam search method before and after beam misalignment in an existing system, respectively.
Fig. 2A and 2B illustrate a flow chart of a method for millimeter wave beam alignment according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
Fig. 3 illustrates a communication interaction diagram between electronic devices for millimeter wave beam alignment according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.
Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a method for millimeter wave beam alignment according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
Fig. 5 shows a schematic diagram of a method for millimeter wave beam alignment according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
Fig. 6 illustrates an exemplary configuration of a computing device in which exemplary embodiments according to the present disclosure may be implemented.
Detailed Description
Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that: the relative arrangement of the components and steps, the numerical expressions, and numerical values set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present disclosure unless specifically stated otherwise. In the following description, numerous details are set forth in order to better explain the present disclosure, however, it is understood that the present disclosure may be practiced without these details.
The following description of various exemplary embodiments is merely illustrative, and one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that other variations, modifications, and alternatives are possible. In this disclosure, the terms "first," "second," and the like are used merely to distinguish between elements or steps, and the like, and are not intended to indicate temporal order, priority, or importance.
Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to those of ordinary skill in the art may not be discussed in detail herein, but are intended to be considered a part of the specification where appropriate.
It should be understood that the term base station apparatus as referred to in this disclosure has its full breadth of ordinary meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station for facilitating communication as part of a wireless communication system or radio system. One or more antenna arrays may be included in the base station device for transmitting and receiving beams and wireless signals with the terminal device. The terminal devices referred to in this disclosure, also commonly referred to as user devices, include, but are not limited to, smart phones, tablet personal computers, laptop computers, portable game terminals, and digital camcorders, among others, having one or more antennas.
It should be appreciated that the millimeter wave communication system shown herein (such as the system of electronic devices in fig. 1A and 1B) is merely one example. Those skilled in the art may add more components or delete some components as necessary, and may modify the function and configuration of some components. For example, in some embodiments, there may be one base station device and multiple terminal devices, where beam alignment as shown herein is required between the base station device and each terminal device.
It is noted that, as an example, the following embodiments of the present disclosure are mainly directed to a transmission beam alignment procedure after millimeter wave beam misalignment on the base station device side, and a terminal device employs an antenna having an omni-directional reception beam pattern or a quasi-omni-directional reception beam pattern, but the related devices and methods are not limited thereto. For example, for a terminal device that employs an antenna array to form a directional transmit beam, the method of the present disclosure described below is equally applicable to a transmit beam alignment procedure on the terminal device side. Further, for the case where the terminal device employs a directional reception beam, the search method for the reception beam on the terminal device side may be based on an existing method and various methods that can be thought of later for further improving the efficiency of beam alignment and the like in conjunction with the transmission beam alignment method on the base station device side disclosed herein below.
In exemplary embodiments disclosed herein, methods are provided that utilize measurement data of changes in the location of a terminal device to assist in achieving efficient and reliable millimeter wave beam alignment. In this method, it is very important for accurate measurement of the position change of the terminal device. As an example, embodiments of the present disclosure employ a Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) sensor widely employed in smart terminal devices, which is capable of accurately sensing a location of the terminal device and a change in the environment. Although MEMS sensors have been widely used in the fields of camera shake prevention, motion monitoring, and the like, it is still rare that they are used in communication systems for millimeter wave beam alignment. Therefore, the present document, in combination with this terminal hardware capability, can further improve the beam alignment process of millimeter waves and the communication quality.
Fig. 2A and 2B illustrate a flow chart of a method for millimeter wave beam alignment according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, fig. 2A shows a method flowchart 200A for a first communication device (such as the base station device 101 shown in fig. 1A) side, and fig. 2B shows a method flowchart 200B for a second communication device (such as the terminal device 102 shown in fig. 1A) side.
At step S201A in fig. 2A, a notification is received by a first communication device from a second communication device at a first location to communicate with a first beam of a first number of beams that the first communication device is capable of transmitting. Thereafter, at step S202A, if the second communication device moves from the first location to the second location and the communication quality falls below the first threshold, the following are performed by the first communication device: transmitting a second number of beams near the first beam to a second communication device, receiving a notification from the second communication device to communicate using the second beam, wherein a quality of communication achieved by a second beam of the second number of beams is greater than a second threshold; wherein the second number is smaller than the first number and the second number is related to the magnitude of the position offset vector from the first position to the second position.
At step S201B of fig. 2B, the first communication device is informed by the second communication device located at the first location of communication using a first beam of the first number of beams that the first communication device is capable of transmitting. Thereafter, at step 202B, if the second communication device moves from the first location to the second location and the communication quality falls below the first threshold, then the following are performed by the second communication device: obtaining a position offset vector from a first position to a second position; the communication quality is measured for the first communication device transmitting a second number of beams near the first beam, and if the communication quality achieved by a second beam of the second number of beams is greater than a second threshold, the first communication device is notified to communicate with the second beam, wherein the second number is less than the first number, and the second number is related to the size of the position offset vector.
Fig. 3 illustrates a communication interaction diagram 300 between electronic devices for millimeter wave beam alignment according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. Fig. 3 is intended to illustrate and explain the method flow of millimeter wave beam alignment shown in fig. 2A and 2B in more detail.
First, the base station apparatus 101 and the terminal apparatus 102 located at the first position perform a beam alignment process. At 301, base station apparatus 101 sequentially transmits a first number of beams to terminal apparatus 102. At 302, terminal device 102 sequentially omni-directionally receives and scans the first number of transmit beams and measures a corresponding communication quality for each transmit beam. Generally, the parameters measuring the communication quality include, but are not limited to, Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR), and the like. The terminal device 102 selects a first beam according to the measured communication quality, which may typically be the optimal transmit beam that achieves the optimal communication quality (i.e. achieves the maximum RSRP, SNR or SINR, etc.). At 303, terminal device 102 reports beam decision information (including the number (or ID) of the optimal transmit beam, and a communication quality parameter (such as RSRP, SNR, or SINR) corresponding to the beam) to base station device 101, i.e., informs base station device 101 that it can communicate using the first beam.
After the beam alignment described above, the terminal device 102 moves from the first location to the second location and a significant degradation of the communication quality occurs (such as a degradation below a first threshold) at 304, where the first threshold may be a lower value defined in advance according to predetermined criteria or practical experience. In this case, a state in which the beam is misaligned occurs between the base station apparatus 101 and the terminal apparatus 102, and beam alignment needs to be performed anew. At 305, a position offset vector of the terminal device 102 from a first position to a second position may be measured with a precisely locatable device, such as a MEMS sensor, and reported to the terminal device 102. At 306, the terminal device 102 determines the number of beams for beam search alignment that should be transmitted at the base station device 101 (this number of beams is referred to herein as a second number) according to the size of the above-described position offset vector, the second number representing the size of the search range for which the terminal device 102 searches for the transmission beam of the base station device 101. In the present disclosure, the second number is smaller than the first number, and therefore the base station apparatus 101 can reduce the number of transmission beams used for beam alignment to a part of beams (of the second number) compared to traversing transmission of all beams (of the first number) in the related art. At 307, terminal device 102 sends a notification to base station device 101 to cause base station device 101 to sequentially transmit a second number of beams near the first beam (i.e., the previous optimal beam) for beam alignment at 308. The present disclosure does not limit the order of transmission of the second number of beams. For example, the second number of beams may transmit from the first beam or from any beam in the vicinity of the first beam. At 309, terminal device 102 omni-directionally receives and scans the second number of transmit beams in turn, measures a corresponding communication quality for each transmit beam, and selects a second beam based on the measured communication quality. The second beam may be the optimal transmit beam of the second number of beams that achieves the optimal communication quality (i.e., achieves the maximum RSRP, SNR, or SINR, etc.). To further improve efficiency, the second beam may be the first transmit beam in the measurement process that is capable of achieving a communication quality greater than a second threshold (i.e., achieving a better communication quality), where the second threshold may be a higher value defined in advance according to a predetermined criterion or practical experience. Finally, at 310, the terminal device 102 informs the first base station device 101 to communicate with the second beam. To this end, the base station apparatus 101 and the terminal apparatus 102 realize a beam realignment process after beam misalignment due to positional movement of the terminal apparatus.
By determining a more accurate search range for a transmission beam by using the magnitude of the position offset vector, the efficiency of beam alignment can be effectively improved, the search time can be reduced, and the signaling overhead can be reduced. The correspondence of the size of the position offset vector to the search range for the transmit beam will be set forth in detail in the description below with respect to fig. 4 and 5.
Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram 400 of a method for millimeter wave beam alignment according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
In the first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the base station apparatus 101 may employ a simpler antenna array including a one-dimensional antenna array (such as a linear antenna array, a loop antenna array, etc.), and the directional beam generated by the antenna array may be directed to any direction in a two-dimensional plane (for example, a two-dimensional plane composed of an x axis and a y axis perpendicular to each other, where a line connecting the position of the base station apparatus 101 and the first position of the terminal apparatus 102 forms the x axis). In fig. 4, the base station apparatus 101 is capable of generating M directional transmission beams (i.e., a first number of M). In the present exemplary embodiment, M is 9, and the transmission beams are numbered from 1 to 9. When the terminal apparatus 102 is located at the first position, an optimum beam that realizes the optimum communication quality, which is the transmission beam numbered 5 in the present exemplary embodiment, is selected by sequentially measuring the communication qualities corresponding to the 9 beams transmitted from the base station apparatus 101.
A beam misalignment phenomenon may occur after the terminal device 102 moves from the first position to the second position. If a significant degradation in communication quality occurs, such as below a lower threshold (first threshold), a beam misalignment may be determined, requiring a re-beam alignment. As shown in fig. 4, the terminal device 102 may obtain its measured position offset vector P from the first position to the second position from the MEMS sensor. The projection of the position shift vector P on the x-axis does not affect the search range for the transmit beam, and conversely, the projection P of the position shift vector P on the y-axis doesyThe size of the value of (c) determines the size of the search range for the transmit beam. As an example, terminal device 102 projects P based on a position offset vectoryDetermines that base station device 101 should transmit M beams for beam search alignment (i.e., the second number is M). In the present exemplary embodiment of the present invention,m ═ 5, that is, base station device 101 transmits 5 beams (i.e., beams numbered 3 to 7) near the first beam (i.e., beam numbered 5) to terminal device 102. Terminal apparatus 102 finds, through measurement, that the communication quality corresponding to transmission beam number 3 is superior, such as higher than a higher threshold (second threshold), and notifies base station apparatus 101 to communicate using the superior beam (i.e., second beam). Base station apparatus 101 adjusts from previous communication using beam number 5 to current communication using beam number 3, and achieves realignment after misalignment of the beams. In the prior art, after the beam misalignment, the base station device 101 needs to transmit M (9) beams in a traversal manner, and in the present exemplary embodiment, only M × multiple (5) beams need to be transmitted for the terminal device 102 to scan and measure, so that the beam alignment can be achieved again.
It should be appreciated that in the present exemplary embodiment, the selection of the second beam by the terminal device 102 is implemented based on the construction of the beam vector. Specifically, terminal apparatus 102 constructs a beam vector containing M elements, each element corresponding to one beam transmitted by base station apparatus 101, and the number of elements corresponding to the number of transmission beams. The terminal device searches M elements near the element corresponding to the first beam to obtain the number of the element that can obtain the better communication quality, and the beam corresponding to the element is the second beam of the base station device 101 for achieving beam alignment.
It should be appreciated that if the second position of the terminal device 102 after the movement is located at position a in fig. 4, the value of the y-axis projection of the vector due to the position offset is smaller than the above-mentioned PySo M ═ 4 can be obtained and the second beam is the transmit beam numbered 4. That is, when the terminal apparatus 102 has the same positional shift on the x axis, the larger the positional shift change on the y axis, the larger the corresponding search range for the base station apparatus side transmission beam. It should also be appreciated that, since the present disclosure does not limit the transmission order of M × beams, once terminal device 102 measures that the communication quality measurement corresponding to one of the beams exceeds the second threshold, base station device 101 may stop beam transmission and utilize the one beamThe beams communicate. Thus, base station apparatus 101 may in practice only need to transmit a number of beams less than M x to achieve fast alignment of the beams.
Fig. 5 shows a schematic diagram 500 of a method for millimeter wave beam alignment according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
In a second exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, base station apparatus 101 may employ a more complex antenna array including a two-dimensional antenna array (such as a planar antenna array, etc.), which may generate a directional beam that may be directed in any direction in a three-dimensional space (e.g., a three-dimensional space consisting of mutually perpendicular x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis, where a line connecting the position of base station apparatus 101 and the first position of terminal apparatus 102 forms the x-axis).
As shown in fig. 5, for a fixed z-coordinate, base station apparatus 101 is capable of generating M directional transmit beams whose beam directions move in the x-y plane, which is consistent with fig. 4. Similar to fig. 4, in the present exemplary embodiment M is 9 and the transmit beams are numbered from 1 to 9 (for purposes of clarity of illustration and illustration, fig. 5 only shows the beams numbered 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, which are illustrated in solid lines). This number is referred to herein simply as the y number. Since the beams in this example may be directed in any direction in three-dimensional space, for each of the M beams, their direction may be moved in the x-z plane resulting in a total of N transmit beams, N being 7 in this example embodiment, and numbered from 1' to 7' (all of these beams are illustrated in dashed lines except that the beam numbered 4' coincides with the beam numbered 5). This number is referred to herein simply as the z number. Therefore, the base station apparatus 101 can transmit M × N transmission beams in total. The terminal apparatus 102 performs a traversal search among the M × N transmission beams, and selects an optimal beam (i.e., a first beam) that achieves the optimal communication quality according to the measurement result, the first beam being a transmission beam whose y number is 5 and z number is 4' in the present exemplary embodiment.
After the terminal device 102 moves from the first position to the second position causing beam misalignment, the terminal device 102 performs the same as the first exemplary embodimentThe same search selection procedure in the embodiment, i.e. based on the projection P of the position-shift vector P on the y-axisyDetermines M x beams among the M beams to select for beam search alignment (M x 5 in this example). Similarly, terminal device 102 projects a position offset vector P on the z-axis based on PzDetermines to select N x beams among the N beams for beam search alignment. Thus, the number of beams (i.e., the second number) used for beam alignment is M × N. Since the positional movement of the terminal apparatus 102 in the z-axis direction is small, N ═ 3 in the present example. Terminal apparatus 102 is measured to find that the transmission beam with y number 3 and z number 5' corresponds to a better communication quality, such as higher than a higher threshold (second threshold), and then base station apparatus 101 is informed to communicate using the better beam (i.e., second beam). Base station apparatus 101 adjusts from previous communication using beams with y number 5 and z number 4 'to current communication using beams with y number 3 and z number 5', and achieves realignment after beam misalignment. In the prior art, after the beam misalignment, the base station device 101 needs to transmit M × N (63) beams in a traversal manner, and in the present exemplary embodiment, only M × N (15) beams at most need to be transmitted for the terminal device 102 to scan and measure, so that the beam alignment can be achieved again.
It should be understood that in the present exemplary embodiment, the selection of the second beam by the terminal device 102 is implemented based on the construction of the beam matrix. Specifically, terminal apparatus 102 constructs a beam matrix containing M × N elements, each of which corresponds to one beam transmitted by base station apparatus 101, and the row number and column number of the elements correspond to the y number and z number of the transmission beam, respectively. The terminal device searches M × N elements near the element corresponding to the first beam to obtain the row number and the column number of the element that can obtain the better communication quality, and the beam corresponding to the element is the second beam for which the base station device 101 realizes beam alignment.
It should be noted that in the first exemplary embodiment and the second exemplary embodiment disclosed herein, the number of beams (i.e., the second number) for beam alignment that the base station apparatus 101 needs to transmit after beam misalignment is related to the size of the projection of the position offset vector in the y-axis and the z-axis. Furthermore, the rotation of the terminal device 102 causes a change in the angle of the position offset vector P, the magnitude of which may also affect the magnitude of the second quantity. For example, when the position of the terminal apparatus 102 is not changed and the rotation angle is small, the search range for the transmission beam of the base station apparatus 101 is small.
The method and the device have the advantages that the MEMS sensor device which is widely adopted in the mobile intelligent terminal and can accurately measure the position information of the terminal equipment is combined, the capability of the non-communication device of the terminal equipment is used for assisting the communication capability, the hardware advantage of the intelligent terminal is fully exerted, and the communication capability of the terminal equipment is improved. In the millimeter wave communication process, after the beam between the base station device and the terminal device is misaligned, the position change of the terminal device is accurately measured by using the MEMS sensor, and the beam realignment process after the beam is misaligned is optimized. The search range reduction degree aiming at the base station equipment side transmission wave beam is determined based on the size of the position vector, so that the wave beam alignment process can be accelerated, and meanwhile, the signaling overhead is reduced. The method for beam alignment provided by the disclosure can effectively improve the search efficiency of the terminal equipment for the transmission beam at the side of the base station equipment, and greatly improves the communication efficiency of the millimeter wave wireless network.
It should be understood that the methods provided by the present disclosure may be applied to a wider range of terminal devices, such as Virtual Reality (VR) helmets, automotive on-board terminal devices, and the like. These terminal devices require a larger communication bandwidth than the aforementioned conventional terminal devices, and the location may be frequently moved. Thus, their communication efficiency can be significantly improved with the methods to be described herein.
Fig. 6 illustrates an exemplary configuration of a computing device 600 in which exemplary embodiments according to the present disclosure may be implemented. Computing device 600 is an example of a hardware device to which the above-described aspects of the disclosure may be applied. Computing device 600 may be any machine configured to perform processing and/or computing. Computing device 600 may be, but is not limited to, a workstation, a server, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), a smart phone, an in-vehicle computer, or a combination thereof.
As shown in fig. 6, computing device 600 may include one or more elements connected to or in communication with bus 602, possibly via one or more interfaces. Bus 602 can include, but is not limited to, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, an enhanced ISA (eisa) bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, among others. Computing device 600 may include, for example, one or more processors 604, one or more input devices 606, and one or more output devices 608. The one or more processors 604 may be any kind of processor and may include, but are not limited to, one or more general purpose processors or special purpose processors (such as special purpose processing chips). Input device 606 may be any type of input device capable of inputting information to a computing device and may include, but is not limited to, a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen, a microphone, and/or a remote controller. Output device 608 may be any type of device capable of presenting information and may include, but is not limited to, a display, speakers, a video/audio output terminal, a vibrator, and/or a printer.
Various aspects, embodiments, implementations or features of the foregoing embodiments may be used alone or in any combination. Various aspects of the foregoing embodiments may be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination of hardware and software.
For example, the foregoing embodiments may be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium is any data storage device that can store data which can thereafter be read by a computer system. Examples of a computer readable medium include read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic tape, hard drives, solid state drives, and optical data storage devices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.
For example, the foregoing embodiments may take the form of hardware circuitry. Hardware circuitry may include any combination of combinational logic circuitry, clocked storage devices (such as floppy disks, flip-flops, latches, etc.), finite state machines, memories such as static random access memories or embedded dynamic random access memories, custom designed circuits, programmable logic arrays, etc.
While some specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown in detail by way of example, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing examples are intended to be illustrative only and are not limiting upon the scope of the present disclosure. It should be appreciated that some of the steps of the foregoing methods need not be performed in the order illustrated, but rather they may be performed simultaneously, in a different order, or in an overlapping manner. In addition, one skilled in the art may add some steps or omit some steps as desired. Some of the components in the foregoing systems need not be arranged as shown, and those skilled in the art may add or omit some components as desired. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above-described embodiments may be modified without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure. The scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims.
Claims (16)
1. A communication method for a first communication device side, comprising:
receiving a notification from a second communication device at a first location to communicate using a first beam of a first number of beams that the first communication device is capable of transmitting;
if the second communication device moves from the first location to the second location and the communication quality falls below a first threshold, then:
transmitting a second number of beams near the first beam to a second communication device, receiving a notification from the second communication device to communicate using the second beam, wherein a quality of communication achieved by a second beam of the second number of beams is greater than a second threshold;
wherein the second number is smaller than the first number and the second number is related to the magnitude of the position offset vector from the first position to the second position.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein:
the second number related to the size of the position offset vector comprises the second number related to the size of the projection of the position offset vector on a second axis, wherein the second axis is perpendicular to a first axis formed by a line connecting the position of the first communication device and the first position of the second communication device.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein:
the second number related to the size of the position offset vector comprises the second number related to the size of both a projection of the position offset vector on a second axis and a projection on a third axis, wherein the second axis, the third axis and a first axis formed by a line connecting the position of the first communication device and the first position of the second communication device are perpendicular to each other.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the position offset vector is measured by a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensor and reported to a second communication device.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication quality comprises Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), signal to noise ratio (SNR), signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR).
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communication device is a base station and the second communication device is a terminal device.
7. A communication method for a second communication device side, comprising:
notifying the first communication device that the second communication device is communicating using a first beam of the first number of beams that the first communication device is capable of transmitting when at the first location;
if the second communication device moves from the first location to the second location and the communication quality falls below a first threshold, then:
obtaining a position offset vector from a first position to a second position;
measuring communication quality for a first communication device transmitting a second number of beams near the first beam, if the communication quality achieved by a second beam of the second number of beams is greater than a second threshold, notifying the first communication device to communicate with the second beam,
wherein the second number is smaller than the first number and the second number is related to the magnitude of the position offset vector.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein:
the second number related to the size of the position offset vector comprises the second number related to the size of the projection of the position offset vector on a second axis, wherein the second axis is perpendicular to a first axis formed by a line connecting the position of the first communication device and the first position of the second communication device.
9. The method of claim 7, wherein:
the second number related to the size of the position offset vector comprises the second number related to the size of both a projection of the position offset vector on a second axis and a projection on a third axis, wherein the second axis, the third axis and a first axis formed by a line connecting the position of the first communication device and the first position of the second communication device are perpendicular to each other.
10. The method of claim 7, wherein the position offset vector is measured by a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensor and reported to a second communication device.
11. The method of claim 7, wherein the communication quality comprises Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), signal to noise ratio (SNR), signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR).
12. The method of claim 7, the first communication device being a base station and the second communication device being a terminal device.
13. An electronic device for a first communication device side, comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more memories having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method of any one of claims 1-6.
14. An electronic device for a second communication device side, comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more memories having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method of any one of claims 7-12.
15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method of any one of claims 1-6.
16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method of any one of claims 7-12.
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