CN114223150A

CN114223150A - Electronic device, communication method, and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN114223150A
Application number: CN202080057831.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 曹建飞; 刘敏
Original assignee: Sony Group Corp
Current assignee: Sony Group Corp
Priority date: 2019-08-23
Filing date: 2020-08-19
Publication date: 2022-03-22
Also published as: CN112422160A; WO2021036875A1

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to an electronic device, a communication method, and a storage medium in a wireless communication system. There is provided an electronic device at a User Equipment (UE) side, comprising processing circuitry configured to: for a set of transmit beams available for data transmission between the UE and a base station, detecting whether each transmit beam meets maximum allowed exposure (MPE) requirements; selecting at least one candidate beam from the set of transmit beams by imposing a restriction on the transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements, wherein the at least one candidate beam is a candidate from which to determine an optimal transmit beam to be used for the data transmission based on the associated beam measurements.

Description

Electronic device, communication method, and storage medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to an electronic device, a communication method, and a storage medium, and more particularly, to an electronic device, a communication method, and a storage medium for managing beams used in a wireless communication system to overcome an electromagnetic radiation problem to a human body.

Background

To meet the high data rates required by future wireless communication systems, the industry is constantly exploring ways to provide large bandwidths on the ultra high frequency (SHF) and even the Extremely High Frequency (EHF). The 5G NR (New Radio), which is a next-generation wireless communication standard, uses a millimeter wave frequency band of, for example, 30GHz to 300GHz, and applies a large-scale antenna technology and a multi-beam system, thereby being capable of providing higher system rate and communication performance. Massive mimo (massive mimo) technology further expands the utilization of the spatial domain by using Beamforming (Beamforming) technology to combat the large path loss present in high frequency channels by forming a narrow directional beam in a particular direction. These technologies have become key technologies for 5G communications.

However, the higher frequency band and antenna gain also raise concerns about the impact of electromagnetic radiation on human health. Some industry standards-setting organizations and government regulatory agencies have placed limits on radio frequency electromagnetic radiation. For higher frequency bands, e.g. above 6GHz, the electromagnetic waves tend to interact with the skin surface, so the power per unit area of the electromagnetic radiation is limited by the maximum allowable Exposure (MPE). For example, the United states Federal Communications Commission (FCC) limits on MPE is 1mW/cm²I.e. the Power Density (PD) per square centimeter of surface should be below 1 mW. The following table shows the FCC specific definition for MPE.

As can be seen from the above table, the FCC makes provisions regarding the maximum radiation that the human body can withstand in the uplink transmission scenario: for an antenna array used by a user equipment, the Power Density (PD) is equal to 1 milliwatt per square centimeter, the distance from the skin is 5 millimeters, the average area is 4 square centimeters, and under the condition of a specific duty ratio, the Power density corresponds to a maximum allowable equivalent omnidirectional Radiated Power (EIRP). EIRP is the power radiated by the transmitting antenna in the central axis of the beam, and is expressed in dBm (dBm corresponds to the power value calculated in milliwatts), and the formula is expressed as EIRP P_Tx-P _loss+G _bf，P _TxFor transmitting power of the transmitting antenna, Ploss is the line loss of the antenna, G_bfBeamforming gain for the antenna. In addition, the duty cycle represents the ratio of the duration of the uplink transmission to the total time.

Currently, the RAN4 working group of 3GPP focuses on the MPE problem in the NR standard in the R16 release, and reduces the influence of MPE on the human body in two ways in order to meet the requirements of FCC or other government regulatory bodies for MPE: one way is to schedule the maximum percentage of uplink symbols within a certain evaluation period by configuring the maxuplinkdtycycle field, which may take the values n60, n70, n80, n90, n100, for example, to schedule 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 100% uplink time, respectively, as specified in TS 38.101; another way is to configure Maximum Power Reduction (MPR) to reduce the Maximum transmit Power.

However, current solutions to overcome the MPE problem have an unavoidable drawback that the transmission rate or signal coverage of the uplink is necessarily compromised to some extent. Therefore, there is a need for an improved scheme that avoids the MPE problem.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure provides techniques to mitigate or even overcome the MPE problem by managing beams for data transmission. The above-described needs are met by one or more aspects of the present disclosure.

The following presents a simplified summary of the disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. However, it should be understood that this summary is not an exhaustive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure or to delineate the scope of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device at a User Equipment (UE) side, comprising processing circuitry configured to: for a set of transmit beams available for data transmission between the UE and a base station, detecting whether each transmit beam meets maximum allowed exposure (MPE) requirements; selecting at least one candidate beam from the set of transmit beams by imposing a restriction on the transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements, wherein the at least one candidate beam is a candidate from which to determine an optimal transmit beam to be used for the data transmission based on the associated beam measurements.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device on a base station side, including a processing circuit configured to: determining an optimal beam for data transmission between a base station and a user equipment based on beam measurements associated with at least one candidate beam and a restriction, wherein the restriction is applied by the User Equipment (UE) to beams detected to be non-compliant with a maximum allowed exposure (MPE) by detecting whether each beam of a set of beams available for the data transmission complies with the MPE requirement; and indicating a result of the determination to the user equipment.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device on a user equipment side, comprising processing circuitry configured to: detecting whether a first transmit beam for data transmission between a user equipment and a base station complies with Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements; in response to detecting that the first transmit beam does not comply with MPE requirements, selecting for use a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the second transmit beam is detected as complying with MPE requirements; and transmitting identification information of the second transmission beam to a base station.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device on a base station side, including a processing circuit configured to: scheduling use of the first transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and the base station; receiving identification information of a second transmission beam from the user equipment; scheduling use of a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the first transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as not meeting Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements and the second transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as meeting MPE requirements.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a communication method including: for a set of transmit beams available for data transmission between the UE and a base station, detecting whether each transmit beam meets maximum allowed exposure (MPE) requirements; selecting at least one candidate beam from the set of transmit beams by imposing a restriction on the transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements, wherein the at least one candidate beam is a candidate from which to determine an optimal transmit beam to be used for the data transmission based on the associated beam measurements.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a communication method including: determining an optimal beam for data transmission between a base station and a user equipment based on beam measurements associated with at least one candidate beam and a restriction, wherein the restriction is applied by the User Equipment (UE) to beams detected to be non-compliant with a maximum allowed exposure (MPE) by detecting whether each beam of a set of beams available for the data transmission complies with the MPE requirement; and indicating a result of the determination to the user equipment.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a communication method including: detecting whether a first transmit beam for data transmission between a user equipment and a base station complies with Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements; in response to detecting that the first transmit beam does not comply with MPE requirements, selecting for use a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the second transmit beam is detected as complying with MPE requirements; and transmitting identification information of the second transmission beam to a base station.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a communication method including: scheduling use of the first transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and the base station; receiving identification information of a second transmission beam from the user equipment; scheduling use of a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the first transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as not meeting Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements and the second transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as meeting MPE requirements.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that, when executed, implement a communication method as described above.

According to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the MPE problem can be overcome without affecting communication performance.

Drawings

The disclosure may be better understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like or similar reference numerals are used throughout the figures to designate like or similar elements. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, further illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure and explain the principles and advantages of the disclosure. Wherein:

fig. 1 is a simplified diagram illustrating the architecture of an NR communication system;

fig. 2A and 2B are NR radio protocol architectures for the user plane and the control plane, respectively;

fig. 3A shows an example of an antenna array arranged in a matrix;

fig. 3B illustrates a mapping between antenna elements, transmit receive units (TXRUs) and antenna ports;

fig. 4 schematically shows beams that can be used by a base station and a UE.

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an uplink beam training procedure according to the first embodiment.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram showing, in simplified form, beams available to a base station and a UE.

Fig. 7A shows an example of a format of a CSI report used by a UE for beam reporting.

Fig. 7B shows bit widths of fields of the CSI report in fig. 7A.

Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating a downlink beam training procedure according to the first embodiment.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram showing, in simplified form, beams available to a base station and a UE.

Fig. 10 illustrates an example of a format of a CSI report used by a UE for beam reporting.

Fig. 11 illustrates an example of a format of a CSI report used by a UE for beam reporting.

Fig. 12 is a diagram illustrating a downlink beam training procedure according to the first embodiment.

Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram showing, in simplified form, beams available to a base station and a UE.

Fig. 14 illustrates an example of a format of a CSI report used by a UE for beam reporting.

Fig. 15 illustrates an example of a format of a CSI report used by a UE for beam reporting.

Fig. 16A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment.

Fig. 16B illustrates a communication method performed by the electronic device shown in fig. 16A.

Fig. 17A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device on the base station side according to the first embodiment.

Fig. 17B illustrates a communication method performed by the electronic device shown in fig. 17A.

Fig. 18 is a diagram illustrating a beam adjustment process according to the second embodiment.

Fig. 19 illustrates example 1 of a beam adjustment procedure according to the second embodiment.

Fig. 20A illustrates a conventional SRI indication scheme.

Fig. 20B illustrates an SRI indication scheme according to the second embodiment.

Fig. 21 illustrates example 2 of a beam adjustment procedure according to the second embodiment.

Fig. 22 illustrates example 3 of a beam adjustment procedure according to the second embodiment.

Fig. 23 shows example 4 of the beam adjustment process according to the second embodiment.

Fig. 24 illustrates an exemplary scenario where MPE problems occur in downstream data transmission.

Fig. 25 shows an example of a downlink transmission beam adjustment procedure according to the second embodiment.

Fig. 26A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment.

Fig. 26B illustrates a communication method performed by the electronic device shown in fig. 26A.

Fig. 27A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device on the base station side according to the first embodiment.

Fig. 27B illustrates a communication method performed by the electronic device shown in fig. 27A.

Fig. 28 illustrates a first example of a schematic configuration of a base station according to the present disclosure;

fig. 29 illustrates a second example of a schematic configuration of a base station according to the present disclosure;

fig. 30 illustrates a schematic configuration example of a smartphone according to the present disclosure;

fig. 31 illustrates a schematic configuration example of a car navigation device according to the present disclosure.

The features and aspects of the present disclosure will be clearly understood by reading the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Detailed Description

Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the interest of clarity and conciseness, not all features of an embodiment have been described in this specification. It should be noted, however, that many implementation-specific settings may be made in implementing embodiments of the present disclosure according to specific needs, for example, to comply with those restrictions related to devices and services, and these restrictions may vary from implementation to implementation.

Further, it should be noted that only processing steps and/or device structures that are closely related to technical contents of the present disclosure are illustrated in the drawings, and other details are omitted, in order to avoid obscuring the present disclosure with unnecessary details.

Exemplary embodiments and application examples according to the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The description of the exemplary embodiments is merely illustrative and is not intended to serve as any limitation on the present disclosure and its applications.

For ease of explanation, various aspects of the disclosure will be described below in the context of 5G NR. It should be noted, however, that this is not a limitation on the scope of application of the present disclosure, and one or more aspects of the present disclosure may also be applied to existing wireless communication systems such as 4G LTE/LTE-a or various wireless communication systems developed in the future. The architectures, entities, functions, procedures, etc. referred to in the following description may find correspondence in NR or other communication standards.

[ SYSTEM SUMMARY ]

Fig. 1 is a simplified diagram illustrating the architecture of an NR communication system. As shown in fig. 1, on the network side, a radio access network (NG-RAN) node of the NR communication system includes a gNB and a NG-eNB, wherein the gNB is a node newly defined in the 5G NR communication standard, which is connected to a 5G core network (5GC) via an NG interface, and provides NR user plane and control plane protocols terminating with a terminal device (may also be referred to as "user equipment", hereinafter simply referred to as "UE"); the NG-eNB is a node defined for compatibility with the 4G LTE communication system, which may be an upgrade of an evolved node b (eNB) of the LTE radio access network, connects the device to the 5G core network via an NG interface, and provides an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocol terminated with the UE. An Xn interface is provided between NG-RAN nodes (e.g., gNB, NG-eNB) to facilitate intercommunication between the nodes. The gNB and ng-eNB are collectively referred to hereinafter as a "base station".

It should be noted, however, that the term "base station" as used in this disclosure is not limited to only these two nodes, but encompasses various control devices on the network side. For example, in addition to the gNB and ng-eNB specified in the 5G communication standard, the "base station" may also be, for example, an eNB in an LTE communication system, a remote radio head, a wireless access point, an unmanned tower, a control node in an automation plant, or a communication device or element thereof performing a similar function, depending on the scenario in which the technical solution of the present disclosure is applied. The following sections will describe application examples of the base station in detail.

In addition, the term "UE" as used in this disclosure has its full breadth of general meaning, including various terminal devices or vehicle-mounted devices that communicate with a base station. By way of example, the UE may be, for example, a mobile phone, a laptop, a tablet, a vehicle communication device, a drone, a terminal device such as a sensor and an actuator in an automation plant, or an element thereof. The following sections will describe application examples of the UE in detail.

The NR radio protocol architecture for the base station and UE in fig. 1 is described next in conjunction with fig. 2A and 2B. Fig. 2A shows the radio protocol stacks for the user plane of the UE and the gNB, and fig. 2B shows the radio protocol stacks for the control plane of the UE and the gNB.

Layer 1(L1) of the radio protocol stack is the lowest layer, sometimes also referred to as the physical layer. The L1 layer implements various physical layer signal processing to provide transparent transport functions for signals.

Layer 2 of the radio protocol stack (layer L2) is above the physical layer and is responsible for managing the radio link between the UE and the base station. In the user plane, the L2 layer includes a Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) sublayer, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) sublayer, and a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) sublayer. In addition, in the control plane, the L2 layer includes a MAC sublayer, an RLC sublayer, and a PDCP sublayer. The relationship of these sublayers is: the physical layer provides a transmission channel for the MAC sublayer, the MAC sublayer provides a logical channel for the RLC sublayer, the RLC sublayer provides an RLC channel for the PDCP sublayer, and the PDCP sublayer provides a radio bearer for the SDAP sublayer. In particular, the MAC sublayer is responsible for allocating various radio resources (e.g., time-frequency resource blocks) in one cell among the various UEs.

In the control plane, a Radio Resource Control (RRC) sublayer in layer 3(L3 layer) is also included in the UE and the base station. The RRC sublayer is responsible for obtaining radio resources (i.e., radio bearers) and for configuring the lower layers using RRC signaling. In addition, the non-access stratum (NAS) control protocol in the UE performs functions such as authentication, mobility management, security control, and the like.

To support the application of massive MIMO technology, both the base station and the UE have many antennas, e.g., tens, hundreds, or even thousands of antennas. For the antenna model, three levels of mapping relationships are generally defined around the antenna, so that the antenna model can smoothly support the channel model and the communication standard.

The first stage is the most basic physical element, the antenna, which may also be referred to as an antenna element. Each antenna element radiates electromagnetic waves according to respective amplitude parameters and phase parameters.

The antenna elements are arranged in a desired pattern into one or more antenna arrays. An antenna array may be composed of antenna elements in whole rows, whole columns, multiple rows and multiple columns. On this level, each antenna array actually constitutes a Transceiver Unit (TXRU). Each TXRU may be independently configurable. The adjustment of the antenna pattern of the TXRU is realized by configuring the amplitude parameter and/or the phase parameter of the antenna elements forming the TXRU, and the electromagnetic wave radiation emitted by all the antenna elements in the antenna array forms a narrower beam pointing to a specific spatial direction, that is, beam forming is realized. FIG. 3A shows an example of an antenna array arranged in a matrix, where M_gAnd N_g(M _g≥1，N _g≧ 1) represents the number of antenna arrays in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, respectively. In general, a base station can contain more antennas (e.g., up to 1024) than a UE, and thus has a stronger beamforming capability.

The TXRU and its antenna elements can be configured into various corresponding relations, thereby changing the beamforming capability and characteristics. From a TXRU perspective, a single TXRU may contain only a single row or column of antenna elements, a so-called one-dimensional TXRU, where the TXRU can only steer the beam in one dimension; a single TXRU may also contain a plurality of rows or columns of antenna elements, so-called two-dimensional TXRUs, where the TXRU is capable of steering the beam in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. From the perspective of the antenna array element, the antenna array element can form a plurality of TXRUs in a partial connection mode, and each TXRU only uses partial antenna array elements to form a beam; multiple TXRUs may also be formed by full-connection, where each TXRU may adjust the weighting coefficients of all antenna elements to form a beam.

Finally, one or more TXRUs construct Antenna Ports (Antenna Ports) seen at the system level through logical mapping. The TXRU is equivalent to the antenna port when a one-to-one mapping relationship is employed between the TXRU and the antenna port, as shown in fig. 3B. When two or more TXRUs are of the coherent beam selection type, they may together constitute one antenna port. Where "antenna port" is defined such that a channel carrying a symbol on a certain antenna port can be inferred from a channel carrying another symbol on the same antenna port. In general, antenna ports may be characterized by reference signals, such as channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), cell-specific reference signals (CRS), Sounding Reference Signals (SRS), DMRS, and so on.

A procedure in which a base station or a UE transmits a signal using an antenna array is briefly described. First, the baseband signal representing the user data stream is mapped onto m (m ≧ 1) radio links by digital precoding. By performing digital precoding on the antenna port level, more flexible digital beamforming can be achieved, for example, precoding for a single user or multiple users, and multi-stream or multi-user transmission can be achieved. Each radio frequency link up-converts the baseband signal to obtain a radio frequency signal, and transmits the radio frequency signal to the antenna array of the corresponding antenna port. The antenna array performs beamforming (also referred to as "analog precoding") on the radio frequency signals by adjusting the amplitude and phase according to beamforming parameters to form a narrower beam directed to the transmit direction. The antenna array receives the signal in the reverse process.

The beamforming parameters may be embodied as spatial domain filters. A particular spatial domain transmit filter is used by the transmitting end to form a "transmit beam" pointing in a particular spatial direction, while a particular spatial domain receive filter is used by the receiving end to form a "receive beam" pointing in a particular spatial direction. The "reception beam" is actually a statement proposed for the purpose of easy understanding, the reception beam corresponds to a spatial domain reception filter that receives a beam signal from a specific spatial direction, and the antenna array at the receiving end does not form an actual beam. The beamforming parameters may be codebook-based, pre-configured and stored at the transmitting or receiving end. The beamforming parameters may also be non-codebook based, e.g., may correspond to channel directions, and a base station or UE, which is a transmitting end or a receiving end, may calculate beamforming parameters for forming a spatial domain transmit filter or a spatial domain receive filter based on the channel directions.

On one hand, the adoption of the beam forming technology can concentrate electromagnetic wave energy and increase the gain of the antenna, but on the other hand, the influence of electromagnetic radiation on human health is also a factor to be considered. The direct radiation of the electromagnetic wave beam by the user device on the human body or skin may violate the MPE requirements specified by the industry standards organization or regulatory body. As introduced in the previous section, the conventional solution is to adjust the duty cycle of the uplink symbols or to reduce the maximum transmit power, but at the cost of a loss in transmission rate or coverage.

There is therefore a need for an improved scheme that avoids the MPE problem. The inventors of the present disclosure paid attention to the following facts: due to the strong indicativity of the beams, the UE generally needs to support many beams with different directions to achieve good access to the base station, and the beams available to the UE include beams directed to the human body and beams not directed to the human body, wherein the beams directed to the human body are likely to cause MPE problems, and the beams not directed to the human body are unlikely to cause MPE problems.

In view of the above, the present disclosure is directed from a beam perspective to avoid MPE issues while not affecting transmission rate and signal coverage, with an improved beam management mechanism. The present disclosure further designs a beam management method suitable for various specific scenarios. Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below.

[ first embodiment ] A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device

The base station and the UE have the capability of forming many beams pointing to different directions, and the directions of the beams need to be matched with the channel directions to ensure the received signal quality, i.e., at the transmitting end, the transmitting beam is aligned as much as possible with the channel transmission Angle (AOD), and at the receiving end, the receiving beam is aligned as much as possible with the channel Arrival Angle (AOA).

Fig. 4 schematically shows beams that can be used by a base station and a UE. In fig. 4, the arrow to the right indicates the downlink direction from the base station 1000 to the UE1004, and the arrow to the left indicates the uplink direction from the UE1004 to the base station 1000. In downlink transmission, the base station 1000 may use n aligned to different directions respectively_{t_DL}A (n)_{t_DL}A natural number greater than or equal to 1), the UE1004 may use n respectively aligned in different directions_{r_DL}A (n)_{r_DL}A natural number equal to or greater than 1). Similarly, in uplink transmission, the UE1004 may also use n respectively aligned to different directions_{t_UL}A (n)_{t_UL}A natural number greater than or equal to 1), the base station 1000 may also use n respectively aligned in different directions_{r_UL}A (n)_{r_UL}A natural number equal to or greater than 1) uplink reception beams. Although fig. 4 shows that the number of uplink reception beams and downlink transmission beams 1002 and the coverage area of each beam of base station 1000 are the same, and the number of uplink transmission beams and downlink reception beams 1006 and the coverage area of each beam of UE1004 are the same, the present invention is not limited to this.

Uplink beam training considering uplink MPE

In order to determine the best transmit-receive beam pair for uplink data transmission, uplink beam training may be performed between the base station 1000 and the UE 1004. Generally, the uplink beam training process generally includes the stages of beam scanning (S1), beam measurement (S2), beam determination (S3), and beam indication (S4). The uplink beam training procedure is briefly described below.

First, the UE1004 scans a set of candidate transmit beams, such as n illustrated in fig. 4, in an uplink scanning subframe_{t_UL}A plurality of transmit beams 1006. N is_{t_UL}The transmit beams may be from a beamforming codebook of the UE 1004. The beam scanning may utilize uplink reference signal resources, such as SRS resources. In such reference signal based beam scanning, the UE1004 transmits n to the base station 1000 through each transmit beam_{r_UL}The reference signals allocated for the transmission beam are transmitted in total n_{t_UL}×n _{r_UL}A reference signal.

Base station 1000 sequentially scans a set of candidate receive beams, such as n illustrated in fig. 4, in an uplink scan subframe_{r_UL}A plurality of receive beams 1002 for receiving each transmit beam 1006 to produce n_{t_UL}×n _{r_UL}A receive instance representing all possible transmit beam-receive beam pairs consisting of a candidate transmit beam for UE1004 and a candidate receive beam for base station 1000. The base station 1000 is for the n_{t_UL}×n _{r_UL}The reference signals received by the respective receiving instances are measured, for example, Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), etc.

Next, based on the result of the beam measurement, the base station 1000 determines an optimal reception beam available for receiving uplink data from its candidate reception beams according to a predetermined beam determination strategy. For example, the base station 1000 may determine the receive beam used by the receive instance with the highest L1-RSRP measurement value as the best receive beam, whose direction generally best matches the channel direction.

The base station 1000 needs to indicate the beam determination result to the UE1004 (beam indication), for example, identification information (e.g., SRS resource indicator, SRI) of the reference signal received by the reception instance with the best measurement result may be sent to the UE1004 through a Transmission Configuration Information (TCI) state, so that the UE1004 may determine the transmission beam used for transmitting the reference signal in the beam scanning phase as the best transmission beam.

Through the uplink beam training procedure as described above, the base station 1000 and the UE1004 determine the uplink transmit beam-receive beam pairs that best match the channel direction and use them for subsequent uplink data transmission.

A first embodiment of the present disclosure features introducing MPE requirements into the beam training process prior to data transmission to achieve early perception and avoidance of MPE problems. Generally, the UE is close to the user, and there is an MPE requirement for a UE transmission beam for uplink data transmission (which may be referred to as an "uplink MPE requirement"). The uplink beam training procedure according to the first embodiment is described in detail below with reference to fig. 5 and 6.

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an uplink beam training procedure according to the first embodiment. As shown in fig. 5, the uplink beam training according to the first embodiment further includes MPE detection and restriction application processing.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating, in simplified form, beams available to a base station 1000 and a UE 1004. For convenience of illustration, it is assumed that the UE1004 may transmit uplink data using the transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, and the base station 1000 may receive uplink data using the receive beams Rx1, Rx2, Rx3, Rx 4. It should be understood that fig. 6 is merely exemplary and the number of beams that the base station 1000 and the UE1004 can use for uplink data transmission is not limited thereto.

The UE1004 may perform MPE detection for each of its transmit beams. Such MPE detection can be considered in terms of beam direction and beam power.

The beam formed by the antenna array has a larger power in its main lobe direction and a smaller power in its side lobe direction. Therefore, if the main lobe of the beam is directed to a part of the human body, a concern about human health may be raised, and conversely, if the human body is not in the propagation direction of the main lobe of the beam, the influence on human health is small.

Based on this consideration, the UE1004 can determine the relative orientation of the UE transmit beam with respect to the human body. The UE1004 may utilize various sensing devices equipped on the user equipment to perform such detection.

In one example, the UE may be equipped with a gyroscope, inertial navigator, or other device that the UE may use to perceive the attitude of the UE, thereby determining which beam or beams are likely to be directed toward the human body in conjunction with the direction of the transmitted beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3 relative to the antenna panel of the UE.

In one example, the UE may be equipped with a camera, such as a front or rear camera, and the UE may determine the relative orientation of the UE with respect to the human body by capturing an image of a human face or other part with such a camera, thereby determining which beam or beams are likely to be directed toward the human body in conjunction with the direction of the transmitted beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3 with respect to the antenna panel of the UE.

In one example, the UE may be equipped with a proximity sensor, infrared sensor, etc., which the UE may use to sense the location of a human body in the vicinity of the UE, in conjunction with the direction of the transmitted beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3 relative to the antenna panel of the UE to determine which beam or beams are likely to be directed toward the human body.

In one example, the UE may make the determination according to a usage scenario of the UE, for example, in a case where the UE is a mobile phone, when a user is talking the mobile phone close to an ear, it may be determined that a beam emitted from a front face of the mobile phone may be directed toward a head of a person, and when the user operates the mobile phone with one hand to browse a web page, it may be determined that a beam emitted from an antenna panel at a part of the mobile phone held by the hand may be directed toward a hand of the person, and so on.

It should be appreciated that while several examples for determining the relative orientation of the UE transmit beam with respect to the human body are briefly described above, the present disclosure is not so limited and the UE may utilize any one or combination of the several approaches listed above or other possible approaches.

In addition to the beam direction (e.g., the central direction of the main lobe of the beam), the UE also needs to detect whether the power of the transmit beam meets MPE requirements according to the requirements of the regulatory body or standards organization for signal power. For example, the FCC regulates the maximum EIRP allowable. According to the calculation formula of EIRP, EIRP is equal to P_Tx-P _loss+G _bfThe UE can calculate whether the EIRP of the transmitted beam with the beam direction facing the human body meets the requirement, wherein P_TxIs the transmitted power of the beam, P_lossFor line loss of the antenna, G_bfBeamforming gain for the antenna. Transmission power P_TxMay be the uplink transmit power configured by the base station for the UE through Transmit Power Command (TPC) signaling. The UE compares the calculated EIRP for each transmit beam with the specified EIRP.

A transmit beam may be considered to be non-compliant with MPE requirements when its beam direction is detected as being towards the body and its transmit power (e.g. EIRP) exceeds a specified power requirement. On the contrary, when the beam direction of a certain transmitting beam is not directly directed to the human body, or when the transmitting power of a certain transmitting beam does not exceed the specified power requirement, the transmitting beam is considered to be in accordance with the MPE requirement.

It is assumed that the UE's transmit beam Tx3 is detected as not meeting MPE requirements through the MPE detection described above, as indicated by the shading in fig. 6. For transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements, the UE will impose restrictions on its use.

The limitation referred to herein means that transmission beams not meeting MPE requirements are set with a lower priority in use than transmission beams detected as being MPE compliant.

In one example, the limiting measures include disabling that the MPE non-compliant transmit beam will be prohibited from being selected as the best transmit beam for uplink data transmission, in other words, in the example shown in fig. 6, the non-compliant MPE beam Tx3 will not be a candidate for the best transmit beam. For example, the UE1004 may not transmit the beam Tx3 in the beam scanning (S1) phase, and thus the base station 1000 will not receive the beam signal of the beam Tx 3. Alternatively, the UE1004 may transmit the beam Tx3 with zero power in the beam scanning (S1) phase, whereby the base station 1000 does not receive the beam signal of the beam Tx3 as well.

Thus, the UE1004 may scan only the MPE compliant beams Tx1, Tx 2. The beam sweep may transmit beam Tx2 with, for example, an SRS, e.g., UE1004 with a first SRS resource Tx1, and with a second, different SRS resource, so that beams Tx1, Tx2 may be identified by SRS Resource Indicators (SRIs) on the UE side and the base station side. For the base station to receive with receive beams Rx1, Rx2, Rx3, Rx4, respectively, the UE1004 may repeat transmitting each transmit beam 4 times.

The base station 1000 scans its receive beams Rx1, Rx2, Rx3, Rx4, sequentially receives the SRS transmitted by the UE1004, resulting in 8 receive instances, corresponding to 8 transmit beam-receive beam pairs, respectively. Subsequently, the base station 1000 may perform beam measurement on the 8 reception instances (S2), and perform beam determination based on the beam measurement results (S3), and perform beam indication (S4) to indicate the result of the beam determination to the UE 1004. The specific operation is as described above and will not be described herein.

Due to the limitations imposed on the MPE non-compliant transmit beam Tx3, the base station 1000 determines that the candidates for the best transmit beam include only the transmit beams Tx1 and Tx2, and the transmit beam Tx3 does not actually participate in the beam training process described above, thereby avoiding being selected for uplink data transmission.

In another example, the limitation measure includes a power limitation. The UE1004 may perform Maximum Power Reduction (MPR) on transmit beams that do not meet MPE requirements. For example, in the example shown in fig. 6, the UE1004 resets its transmit power by backing off the maximum transmit power of the transmit beam Tx3 to comply with MPE requirements.

In the beam scanning (S1) phase, the UE1004 scans the transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3 in an uplink scanning subframe. Specifically, the UE1004 transmits the beam Tx1 using the first SRS resource, transmits the Tx2 using the second SRS resource, and transmits the beam Tx3 using the third SRS resource, wherein the transmit power of the beams Tx1 and Tx2 may be the power configured by the base station 1000 through TPC signaling, and the transmit power of the beam Tx3 is the power backed off by the UE1004 to the power conforming to the MPE requirement based on the power configured by the base station 1000. In this way, the received power of beam Tx3 measured by base station 1000 is also reduced accordingly. This corresponds to a reduction in the competitiveness of the transmit beam Tx3 compared to the other MPE compliant transmit beams Tx1, Tx 2. For the base station to receive with receive beams Rx1, Rx2, Rx3, Rx4, respectively, the UE1004 may repeat transmitting each transmit beam 4 times. Subsequently, the base station 1000 may perform beam measurement on the 12 reception instances (S2), and perform beam determination based on the beam measurement results (S3), and perform beam indication (S4) to indicate the result of the beam determination to the UE 1004. The specific operation is as described above and will not be described herein.

In this example, the UE1004 selects the transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3 as candidates for the best transmit beam, except that the transmit beam Tx3 has been maximum power backed off. If the transmit beam Tx3 still results in the best measurement reception instance after the power back-off, this transmit beam Tx3 may likewise be determined as the best transmit beam for uplink data transmission, since its transmit power already complies with MPE requirements.

Downlink beam training considering uplink MPE

The case where the transmit beam-receive beam pair for uplink data transmission is determined through the uplink beam training procedure is discussed above. However, in the case where the transmission beam and the reception beam of the base station or the UE have beam correspondences (beam correlation), it is also possible to determine the best transmission-reception beam pair for uplink data transmission while determining the best transmission-reception beam pair for downlink data transmission through the downlink beam training process.

In the present disclosure, the beam correspondence means that since a downlink and an uplink are substantially symmetrical, a spatial domain reception filter for generating a reception beam of a base station (or UE) can be determined according to a spatial domain transmission filter for generating a transmission beam of a base station (or UE), or a spatial domain transmission filter for generating a transmission beam of a base station (or UE) can be determined according to a spatial domain reception filter for generating a reception beam of a base station (or UE). The transmit beam and the receive beam having beam correspondence have diametrically opposite directions.

The downlink beam training procedure will be briefly described with reference to fig. 4 again. Generally, the uplink beam training procedure may include beam scanning (S1), beam measurement (S2), beam reporting (S3), beam determination (S4), beam indication (S5), and so on.

First, the base station 1000 sequentially scans a set of candidate transmission beams, such as n illustrated in fig. 4, in a downlink scanning subframe_{t_DL}A transmit beam 1002. N is_{t_DL}The transmit beams may be from a beamforming codebook of the base station 1000. The beam scanning may utilize various downlink reference signal resources, such as non-zero power CSI-RS (NZP-CSI-RS) resources. In addition, the beam scanning may also utilize Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) resources, where SSB plays a similar role as CSI-RS, and thus reference to reference signal resources configured for beam scanning in the following may include CSI-RS resources, SSB resources, and the like. In such reference signal based beam scanning, the base station 1000 transmits n to the UE1004 through each transmit beam_{r_DL}Transmitting n again for the reference signal allocated to the transmission beam_{t_DL}×n _{r_DL}A reference signal. These reference signals may be from a set of reference signal resources that have been configured for the UE.

The UE1004 scans a set of candidate receive beams, such as n illustrated in fig. 4, in sequence in a downlink scanning subframe_{r_DL}A plurality of receive beams 1006 for receiving the beam signal of each transmit beam 1006 to generate n_{t_DL}×n _{r_DL}And receiving the instance. These receive instances represent all possible transmit beam-receive beam pairs consisting of a candidate transmit beam for UE1004 and a candidate receive beam for base station 1000. UE1004 for these n_{t_DL}×n _{r_DL}The beam signals received by each receive instance are measured, e.g., to measure Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), etc.

Next, the UE1004 reports the beam measurement result to the base station 1000. The burden of reporting all measurement results is heavy, and in order to reduce the amount of data reported, the UE1004 may report, for example, measurement results of only Nr reference signals (Nr is preconfigured by the base station 1000, generally 1 ≦ Nr ≦ 4) according to the configuration of the base station. Therefore, the UE1004 may select the reception quality that is the best based on the beam measurement resultsGood Nr transmit beams. The beam reporting (S3) may be achieved by transmitting a beam report such as a CSI report on a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). Fig. 7A shows an example of a format of a CSI report. As shown in fig. 7A, identification information of reference signals corresponding to transmission beams to be reported (such as CRI or SSBRI) and measurement results for the transmission beams (such as RSRP or differential RSRP) may be included in the CSI report, where bit widths of CRI, SSBRI, RSRP, differential RSRP fields are as shown in fig. 7B, where bit widths of the CRI, SSBRI, RSRP, differential RSRP fields are as shown in fig. 7B

Indicates the number of CSI-RS resources in the set of CSI-RS resources used,

indicating the number of SSBs configured in the SSB resource set.

Based on the beam report from the UE1004, the base station 1000 determines the best transmit beam to be used for downlink data transmission according to a predetermined beam determination strategy. For example, the base station 1000 may determine, from the Nr transmission beams reported by the UE1004, the transmission beam with the highest L1-RSRP measurement value as the best transmission beam, whose direction generally best matches the channel direction.

The base station 1000 needs to indicate the beam determination result to the UE1004, and for example, may transmit identification information (e.g., CRI or SSBRI) of a reference signal corresponding to the determined best transmission beam to the UE1004 through a Transmission Configuration Information (TCI) state, so that the UE1004 may determine a reception beam that achieves best reception for the reference signal in a beam scanning phase as a best reception beam.

Through the above procedure, the base station 1000 and the UE1004 select a transmit beam-receive beam pair that best matches the channel direction. Thereafter, the base station 1000 and the UE1004 will be able to use the determined best transmit beam and best receive beam for downlink data transmission.

In the case where the transmit beam and the receive beam of the UE1004 have beam correspondence, the UE1004 may determine the transmit beam for uplink data transmission according to the determined best receive beam. Similarly, in the case where the transmission beam and the reception beam of the base station 1000 have beam correspondence, the base station 1000 may determine the reception beam for uplink data transmission according to the determined optimal transmission beam.

A first embodiment of the present disclosure features introducing MPE requirements into the downlink beam training process prior to data transmission to achieve early sensing and avoidance of MPE problems. The downlink beam training procedure according to the first embodiment is described in detail below with reference to fig. 8 and 9.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating, in simplified form, beams available to a base station 1000 and a UE 1004. For convenience of illustration, it is assumed that the UE1004 may transmit uplink data using the transmit beams Tx1 ', Tx2 ', Tx3 ' and the base station 1000 may receive uplink data using the receive beams Rx1 ', Rx2 ', Rx3 ', Rx4 ' in the uplink direction. In addition, in the downlink direction, the base station 1000 may transmit downlink data using the transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx4, and the UE1004 may receive downlink data using the receive beams Rx1, Rx2, Rx 3. The downlink receive beams Rx1, Rx2, Rx3 of the UE1004 have beam correspondences with the uplink transmit beams Tx1 ', Tx2 ', Tx3 ', respectively, and the uplink receive beams Rx1 ', Rx2 ', Rx3 ', Rx4 ' of the base station 1000 have beam correspondences with the downlink transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx4, respectively. It should be understood that fig. 9 is merely exemplary and that the number of beams available to the base station 1000 and the UE1004 is not limited thereto.

Fig. 8 illustrates a downlink beam training procedure according to the first embodiment. As shown in fig. 8, the downlink beam training procedure according to the first embodiment further includes MPE detection and restriction application.

For uplink MPE requirements, the UE1004 may perform MPE detection on each of its uplink transmit beams Tx1 ', Tx2 ', Tx3 '. MPE detection can be performed based on the beam direction and the transmission power of each transmission beam in various manners as described above, and a description thereof will not be repeated.

It is assumed that the UE's transmit beam Tx 3' is detected as not meeting MPE requirements through the MPE detection described above, as shown by the shading in fig. 9. For transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements, the UE will impose restrictions on its use.

In one example, the limiting measures include disabling that the MPE non-compliant transmit beam will be disabled as the best transmit beam for uplink data transmission, in other words, in the example shown in fig. 10, the non-compliant transmit beam Tx 3' will not be a candidate for the best uplink transmit beam.

Due to the beam correspondence between the transmit beam and the receive beam of the UE, the optimal uplink transmit beam corresponds to the optimal downlink receive beam for downlink data transmission determined at the time of downlink beam training, which are determined in correlation with each other. This means that the same disabling limit is imposed on the downlink receive beam Rx 3'.

As shown in fig. 8, after undergoing the above-described restriction process, when the base station 1000 scans its candidate transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx4 in a downlink scanning subframe, the UE1004 may scan only its receive beams Rx1, Rx2, sequentially receiving reference signals such as CSI-RS or SSB transmitted by the base station 1000, thereby generating a total of 8 receive instances at the UE1004, corresponding to 8 different transmit beam-receive beam pairs, respectively. In the beam measurement (S2) phase, the UE1004 respectively measures the received beam signals to obtain L1-RSRP, e.g., CSI-RS or SSB. The UE1004 may selectively report Nr (Nr may be 1, 2, 4, etc., pre-configured by the base station) of the transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx4 based on the beam measurement results, e.g., in the form of CSI reports shown in fig. 7A.

Alternatively, when the base station 1000 scans its candidate transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx4 in the downlink scanning subframe, the UE1004 may still scan its receive beams Rx1, Rx2, Rx3, sequentially receiving CSI-RS or SSB transmitted by the base station 1000, thereby generating a total of 12 receive instances at the UE1004, corresponding to 12 different transmit beam-receive beam pairs respectively. In the beam measurement (S2) phase, the UEs 1004 respectively perform measurement on the received beam signals. However, unlike the above scheme, the UE1004 may not consider the measurement results of the received signal for beam Rx3 in selecting the transmit beam to report.

Upon receiving the beam measurement result from the UE1004, the base station 1000 may perform beam determination (S4) and beam indication (S5), with the specific operations as described above.

Next, when receiving an indication from the base station 1000 about the best transmit beam determined by the base station, the UE1004 may determine a receive beam for which best reception is achieved for the best transmit beam in the beam scanning phase as the best receive beam for downlink data transmission. The best receive beam is selected from receive beams Rx1 and Rx2 because receive beam Rx3 has been limited.

In another example, the limiting means includes adding a flag. For example, the UE1004 may mark the transmit beam Tx3 'in fig. 9 as not meeting MPE requirements and accordingly may apply the same marking to the receive beam Rx3 having beam correspondence with the transmit beam Tx 3'. In the beam scanning (S1) and beam measurement (S2) phases, there is no difference in the operation of the reception beams Rx1, Rx2 and Rx3 of the UE 1004. When the base station 1000 scans its candidate transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx4 in the downlink scanning subframe, the UE1004 may scan its receive beams Rx1, Rx2, Rx3 to sequentially receive CSI-RS or SSB transmitted by the base station 1000, thereby generating 12 receive instances at the UE1004, and the UE1004 measures the received beam signals respectively to obtain L1-RSRP of the CSI-RS or SSB, for example. The UE1004 may selectively report Nr (Nr may be 1, 2, 4, etc., pre-configured by the base station) of the transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx4 based on the beam measurement results.

Fig. 10 illustrates a format of a CSI report that may be used by the UE 1004. Compared to the CSI report shown in fig. 7A, the CSI report illustrated in fig. 10 further includes uplink MPE problem indication bits. If the measurement result of the transmit beam to be reported (identified by the CRI or SSBRI of the corresponding reference signal) is obtained by a receive instance using the receive beam Rx3, its uplink MPE problem indication bit may be set to "1", indicating that the use of the transmit beam may cause an uplink MPE problem. Conversely, if the receive instance from which the measurement of this transmit beam is obtained is independent of the receive beam Rx3, the corresponding uplink MPE problem indication bit can be set to "0" indicating that the use of this transmit beam does not cause uplink MPE problems. Upon receiving such CSI reports, the base station 1000 may take MPE issues into account in the beam determination phase. Depending on the determination strategy adopted by the base station at the beam determination (S4) node. The determination strategy biased toward communication quality may result in selection of a transmit beam with an uplink MPE problem indication bit of "1", such that the UE1004 may determine the receive beam Rx3 for downlink data transmission and further determine the transmit beam Tx 3' for uplink data transmission. Conversely, a determination strategy that is biased toward avoiding the MPE problem would exclude the transmit beam with the uplink MPE problem indication bit "1" so that the UE1004 would not determine the receive beam Rx3 and the transmit beam Tx 3' for data transmission.

In another example, the limiting means includes performing power limiting. As shown in fig. 9, the UE1004 may perform maximum power back-off on the uplink transmission beam Tx 3', for example, to meet MPE requirements, and the power back-off value Δ P is P_Tx-P _MPEIn which P is_TxIs the transmit power, P, configured by the base station 1000 for beam Tx 3' by TPC signaling_MPEIs the maximum transmit power calculated from the MPE requirements. With this power back-off, the transmit beam Tx3 ' is less competitive with respect to the transmit beams Tx1 ', Tx2 '.

Accordingly, this limitation should be similarly present on the receive beam Rx3 of UE 1004. Specifically, in the beam scanning (S1) phase shown in fig. 8, the UE1004 may scan its receive beams Rx1, Rx2, Rx3, sequentially receiving CSI-RS or SSB transmitted by the base station 1000, thereby generating a total of 12 receive instances at the UE 1004. The UE1004 measures the received beam signals to obtain L1-RSRP, e.g., CSI-RS or SSB, respectively.

For receive instances using receive beam Rx3, UE1004 may modify its measurement results, e.g., reduce the measurement values of all receive instances associated with receive beam Rx3 by Δ P while the measurement values of the receive instances associated with receive beams Rx1, Rx2 are unchanged. This will affect the ordering between the measurements of all received instances.

Subsequently, in a beam reporting (S3) phase, the UE1004 selectively reports Nr (Nr may be 1, 2, 4, etc., pre-configured by the base station) of the transmission beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx 4.

Fig. 11 illustrates a format of a CSI report that may be used by the UE 1004. In contrast to the CSI report shown in fig. 7A, the measurement result of the transmit beam to be reported (identified by the CRI or SSBRI of the corresponding reference signal) is modified if it is obtained by a receive instance using the receive beam Rx 3.

Next, the base station 1000 performs beam determination (S4), beam indication (S5), and detailed description is not repeated here. If the best reception of the best transmit beam determined by the base station 1000 is achieved by the receive beam Rx3 of the UE1004, the UE1004 can still determine the receive beam Rx3 as the best receive beam for downlink data transmission because the uplink transmit beam Tx 3' with its beam correspondence has already passed the maximum power backoff and can meet the MPE requirements.

Downlink beam training considering downlink MPE requirements

Beam management mechanisms that take into account the uplink MPE issues are discussed above. However, there may also be MPE requirements for the base station transmit beam for downlink data transmission (which may be referred to as downlink MPE requirements). The first embodiment of the present disclosure also features consideration of downlink MPE requirements in determining an optimal transmit-receive beam pair for downlink data transmission to achieve early perception and avoidance of MPE issues.

Fig. 13 is a diagram illustrating, in simplified form, beams available to a base station 1000 and a UE 1004. For convenience of illustration, it is assumed that the base station 1000 may transmit downlink data using the receive beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx4, and the UE1004 may receive downlink data using the receive beams Rx1, Rx2, Rx 3. It should be understood that fig. 13 is merely exemplary and that the number of beams available to the base station 1000 and the UE1004 is not limited thereto.

Fig. 12 shows a downlink beam training procedure according to the first embodiment. As shown in fig. 12, the downlink beam training procedure according to the first embodiment further includes MPE detection and restriction application processing.

In the beam scanning (S1) phase, the base station 1000 scans its candidate transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx4 in a downlink scanning subframe, and the UE1004 sequentially receives a reference signal such as CSI-RS or SSB transmitted by the base station 1000 using its candidate receive beams Rx1, Rx2, Rx3, thereby generating a total of 12 receive instances at the UE1004, corresponding to 12 different transmit beam-receive beam pairs respectively. In the beam measurement (S2) phase, the UE1004 measures the beam signals of the respective reception instances to obtain L1-RSRP, e.g., CSI-RS or SSB.

For downlink MPE requirements, the UE1004 may perform MPE detection on each of the base station's transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx 4. Unlike MPE detection of uplink transmit beams, MPE detection of downlink transmit beams can only consider power, not beam direction, because the UE's ability to receive beam signals transmitted by the base station means that these beam signals can be directed to the human body in the vicinity of the UE.

The UE1004 may detect whether the transmission beam of the base station meets MPE requirements according to the measured reception power of the beam signal. In particular, if the measurement result (e.g., L1-RSRP) for any receive instance of a certain transmit beam of the base station 1000 exceeds MPE requirements, that transmit beam is detected as not meeting MPE requirements.

It is assumed that the base station's transmit beam Tx4 is detected as not meeting MPE requirements through the MPE detection described above, as shown by the shading in fig. 13. For transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements, the UE will impose restrictions on its use.

In one example, the limiting measures include disabling that the MPE-unsatisfactory transmit beam will be prohibited from being selected as the best transmit beam for downlink data transmission, in other words, in the example shown in fig. 13, the MPE-unsatisfactory transmit beam Tx4 will not be reported by the UE1004 to the base station 1000 and will not be a candidate for the best downlink transmit beam.

In another example, the limiting means includes adding a flag. For example, in the case where the UE1004 is to report a transmit beam Tx4, the transmit beam Tx4 may be marked as not meeting MPE requirements in the beam report. Fig. 14 illustrates a format of a CSI report that may be used by the UE 1004. Compared to the CSI report shown in fig. 7A, the CSI report illustrated in fig. 14 further includes downlink MPE problem indication bits. If the transmit beam to be reported (identified by the CRI or SSBRI of the corresponding reference signal) is detected as not meeting MPE requirements, its downlink MPE problem indication bit can be set to "1", indicating that the use of the transmit beam may cause downlink MPE problems. Conversely, if the transmit beam is found to be detected as meeting MPE requirements, the corresponding downlink MPE problem indication bit may be set to "0" indicating that the use of the transmit beam does not result in downlink MPE problems. When receiving such CSI reports, the base station 1000 may weigh whether to select a transmit beam with downlink MPE issues, depending on the beam determination strategy employed by the base station. The determination strategy biased toward the communication quality may result in determining the transmit beam Tx4 as the best transmit beam for the downlink data transmission. Conversely, a determination strategy that is biased toward avoiding the MPE problem will avoid determining the transmit beam Tx4 as the best transmit beam for downstream data transmission.

In another example, the limiting means includes performing power limiting. For example, if the measurement results of one or more receive instances associated with transmit beam Tx4 exceed MPE requirements, UE1004 may modify the measurement results of the one or more receive instances, e.g., to comply with MPE requirements with a power back-off value Δ P ═ P_Rx-P _MPEIn which P is_RxIs a received power measurement, P, at UE1004 of a beam signal of transmit beam Tx4_MPEIs the power calculated from the MPE requirements, so there is an assumption that: if the base station 1000 reduces the transmit power of the transmit beam Tx4 by Δ P, then correspondingly, the receive power of the transmit beam Tx4 to the UE1004 is also reduced by about Δ P, thus complying with the downlink MPE requirements. This power limitation actually reduces the competitiveness of the transmit beam Tx4 with respect to the transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, affecting the ordering between the measurements of the receive instances. Based on the modified measurement results, the UE1004 selectively reports N of the transmit beams Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx4r (Nr may be 1, 2, 4, etc., and is configured in advance by the base station).

Fig. 15 illustrates a format of a CSI report that may be used by the UE 1004. In contrast to the CSI report shown in fig. 7A, if the transmit beam Tx4 (identified by the CRI or SSBRI of the corresponding reference signal) is to be reported, the measurement result of the transmit beam Tx4 included in the CSI report is modified, while the measurement results of the other transmit beams are not modified. For transmit beam Tx4, the CSI report also includes the UE proposed power backoff value Δ P.

When receiving such CSI report, the base station 1000 determines an optimal transmit beam for downlink data transmission from Nr transmit beams reported by the UE1004 according to a predetermined beam determination strategy. If the base station 1000 determines the transmit beam Tx4 as the best transmit beam, the base station 1000 may reconfigure the transmit power of the transmit beam Tx4 according to the power backoff value suggested in the CSI inclusion.

Subsequently, the base station 1000 may indicate the result of the beam determination to the UE1004, so that the UE1004 can determine a reception beam that achieves the best reception for the best transmission beam of the base station 1000 in the beam scanning (S1) phase as the best reception beam for downlink data transmission.

An electronic device and a communication method to which the first embodiment of the present disclosure can be applied are described next.

Fig. 16A is a block diagram illustrating the electronic apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment. The electronic device 100 may be a UE or a component of a UE.

As shown in fig. 16A, the electronic device 100 includes a processing circuit 101. The processing circuitry 101 comprises at least a MPE detection unit 102 and a candidate beam selection unit 103. The processing circuit 101 may be configured to perform the communication method shown in fig. 16B. The processing circuitry 101 may refer to various implementations of digital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed-signal (a combination of analog and digital signals) circuitry that perform functions in a UE, such as the UE1004 described above.

The MPE detecting unit 102 of the processing circuitry 101 is configured to detect, for a set of transmission beams available for data transmission between the UE and the base station, whether each transmission beam complies with MPE requirements, i.e. to perform step S101 in fig. 16B. For uplink MPE requirements, the MPE detection unit 102 can perform detection on a set of transmit beams of the UE. For example, the MPE detecting unit 102 may detect whether the beam direction of each transmission beam is directed toward the human body, and whether the transmission power of each transmission beam exceeds the transmission power specified by the MPE requirement. For downlink MPE requirements the MPE detection unit 102 can perform detection on a set of transmit beams of the base station. For example, the MPE detecting unit 102 may detect whether the reception power of the beam signal of each transmission beam received by the UE exceeds the power specified by the MPE requirement.

The candidate beam selection unit 103 is configured to apply a restriction to the transmission beams that the MPE detecting unit 102 detects as not meeting the MPE requirement to select at least one candidate beam from the above-described set of transmission beams, i.e., to perform step S102 in fig. 16B. The at least one candidate beam selected by the candidate beam selection unit 103 serves as a candidate from which the best transmit beam to be used for data transmission is determined based on the associated beam measurements.

For example, the candidate beam selection unit 103 may avoid selecting a transmission beam that does not meet MPE requirements as a candidate beam. For example, the candidate beam selection unit 103 may set the transmission power of the transmission beam that does not comply with the MPE requirements to zero power, or may back the transmission power of the transmission beam that does not comply with the MPE requirements to comply with the MPE requirements. For example, the candidate beam selection unit 103 may add a flag indicating whether the corresponding transmission beam meets MPE requirements. For example, the candidate beam selection unit 103 may modify the measurement values of beam signals received by UE reception beams having beam correspondence with UE transmission beams not meeting MPE requirements in case the set of transmission beams is UE transmission beams available for uplink data transmission, or modify the measurement values of beam signals of transmission beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements in case the set of transmission beams is UE transmission beams available for downlink data transmission, and wherein the reporting comprises reporting the modified measurement values to the base station.

The electronic device 100 may further comprise a communication unit 105. The communication unit 105 may be configured to communicate with a base station (e.g., the base station 1000 described above) under control of the processing circuit 101. In one example, the communication unit 105 may be implemented as a transmitter or transceiver, including an antenna array and/or a radio frequency link, among other communication components. The communication unit 105 is depicted with a dashed line, since it may also be located outside the electronic device 100. The communication unit 105 may transmit a set of candidate transmit beams to the base station, or may send beam measurements, etc. to the base station.

The electronic device 100 may also include a memory 106. The memory 106 may store various data and instructions, such as programs and data for operation of the electronic device 100, various data generated by the processing circuitry 101, various control signaling or traffic data sent or received by the communication unit 105, and so forth. The memory 106 is depicted with dashed lines, since it may also be located within the processing circuit 101 or outside the electronic device 100.

Fig. 17A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic apparatus 200 according to the first embodiment. The electronic device 200 may be a base station device or be located in a base station device.

As shown in fig. 17A, the electronic device 200 includes a processing circuit 201. The processing circuit 201 comprises at least a beam determination unit 202 and a beam indication unit 203. The processing circuit 201 may be configured to perform the communication method shown in fig. 17B. Processing circuitry 201 may refer to various implementations of digital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed-signal (a combination of analog and digital signals) circuitry that perform functions in a base station device, such as base station 1000 described above.

The beam determination unit 202 may be configured to determine the best beam for data transmission between the base station and the user equipment based on the beam measurement result and the restriction associated with the at least one candidate beam, i.e. to perform step S201 in fig. 17B. Wherein the restriction is applied by the UE to beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements by detecting whether each beam of a set of beams available for the data transmission meets MPE.

In one example, a UE may select at least one candidate beam from a set of UE transmission beams by imposing a limitation, such as a disable, flag, or power limitation, on the transmission beams that do not comply with MPE requirements from the set of UE transmission beams and transmit the candidate beams or beam measurements associated with the candidate beams to a base station, whereby the base station may determine an optimal UE transmission beam for uplink data transmission or an optimal base station transmission beam for downlink data transmission from the beam measurements. In another example, the UE may select at least one candidate beam from a set of base station transmit beams by imposing a limitation, such as a disable, flag, or power limitation, on the transmit beams that do not meet MPE requirements for the set of base station transmit beams, and send beam measurements associated with the candidate beams to the base station, whereby the base station may determine a best base station transmit beam for downlink data transmission based on the beam measurements.

The beam indicating unit 203 may be configured to indicate the result of the beam determination by the beam determining unit 202 to the UE, i.e., to perform step S202 in fig. 17B. The beam indicating unit 203 may perform beam indication by transmitting an indicator of a reference signal corresponding to the determined beam to the UE.

The electronic device 200 may further comprise a communication unit 205. The communication unit 205 may be configured to communicate with the UE under control of the processing circuitry 201. In one example, the communication unit 205 may be implemented as a transmitter or transceiver, including antenna arrays and/or communication components such as radio frequency links. The communication unit 205 is depicted with a dashed line, since it may also be located outside the electronic device 200.

The electronic device 200 may also include memory 206. The memory 206 may store various data and instructions, programs and data for operation of the electronic device 200, various data generated by the processing circuit 201, data to be transmitted by the communication unit 205, and the like. The memory 206 is depicted with dashed lines because it may also be located within the processing circuit 201 or external to the electronic device 200.

[ second embodiment ]

The first embodiment above discusses early perception and avoidance of MPE problems during beam training between the base station and the UE. However, in some instances, the MPE requirements may not be taken into account during beam training, resulting in the determined beam not meeting the MPE requirements. Accordingly, there is a need for improved beam management mechanisms.

A second embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for dynamic adjustment of beams in an attempt to avoid violating MPE requirements while not affecting transmission rate and communication quality. A second embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail below.

Beam adjustment for uplink MPE requirements

Fig. 18 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a beam adjustment process according to the second embodiment.

First, in S11, the base station may schedule the first transmit beam using the UE for uplink data transmission. For example, the base station may indicate to the UE to use the first transmit beam according to the results of the beam training.

In S12, the UE may detect whether the first transmit beam meets the uplink MPE requirement before performing uplink data transmission. For example, the UE may detect from both the beam direction and the transmit power of the first transmit beam using the MPE detection method described in the first embodiment above. If the first transmit beam is detected as meeting the MPE requirements, the UE may transmit uplink data on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) resource allocated thereto using the first transmit beam. In S17, the base station receives and decodes data transmitted by the UE.

If the first transmit beam is detected as not meeting MPE requirements, the UE determines to switch to a second transmit beam different from the first transmit beam. The second transmit beam may be a beam that was historically used, or the second transmit beam may be a beam that was second only in link quality to the first transmit beam in a previous beam training procedure. In addition, the second transmit beam complies with uplink MPE requirements.

In S14, the UE may send identification information of the second transmission beam, e.g., an indicator of a reference signal with the second transmission beam, to the base station, thereby informing the base station that the UE is ready to enable the second transmission beam to transmit data, so that the base station can instead perform uplink transmission using the reception beam that achieves the best reception for the second transmission beam.

Alternatively, the UE may transmit data on the allocated PUSCH resources directly with the second transmit beam. At this point, the base station still receives using the receive beam that was originally used to receive the first transmit beam. The base station may decode the received signal and send an ACK to the UE if the data can be successfully decoded. In this case, the UE need not inform the base station that the second transmit beam is enabled. However, the receive beam used to receive the first transmit beam is likely not to be able to receive the second transmit beam with high quality, and thus the base station may not be able to decode out the data and send a NACK to the UE. In response to receiving the NACK, the UE informs the base station that a new transmit beam will be enabled by sending identification information of the second transmit beam to the base station.

In S15, after receiving the identification information of the second transmission beam, the base station may schedule the UE to use the second transmission beam for uplink data transmission. In addition, the base station may determine, for example, a receive beam that achieves optimal reception for the second transmit beam during beam training for uplink reception.

In S16, the UE instead transmits data using the second transmit beam in response to receiving the schedule from the base station.

It should be noted that the adjustment of the beam should be completed before the PUSCH transmission time scheduled by the base station for the UE, otherwise the UE has no time to inform the base station of the new transmit beam it uses, resulting in the base station not receiving with the correct receive beam.

Various examples of the beam adjustment procedure according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure are described in detail below.

Fig. 19 illustrates example 1 of a beam adjustment procedure according to the second embodiment, example 1 being applicable to a base station scheduled PUSCH, i.e. a grant based PUSCH. Under the PUSCH scene scheduled by the base station, each PUSCH transmission of the UE needs the base station to schedule time-frequency resources.

As shown in fig. 19, when the UE has data to transmit to the base station but has no PUSCH resource for transmitting the data, the UE may transmit a Scheduling Request (SR) to the base station through a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). The base station receiving the SR may allocate a small amount of PUSCH resources for the UE, and only allow the UE to send a Buffer Status Report (BSR). The UE may send a BSR to the base station using the allocated PUSCH resources, where the BSR indicates how much data needs to be uploaded to the base station in the uplink buffer of the UE. After receiving the BSR from the UE, the base station allocates a certain amount of PUSCH resources to the UE according to a predetermined resource scheduling scheme. The UE transmits uplink data on the time-frequency resources allocated thereto using a transmission beam previously indicated by the base station (first uplink transmission beam). And the base station receives and decodes the data sent by the UE, and if the data can be decoded correctly, the base station sends ACK to the UE, otherwise, the base station sends NACK to the UE.

When the UE detects that the currently used first uplink transmission beam does not meet MPE requirements, according to the prior art, the UE may decrease the duty cycle of the uplink symbol, but this may decrease the uplink transmission rate, or the UE may decrease the uplink transmission power, but this may affect the communication quality.

However, according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE may forgo using the current first uplink transmission beam. The UE may select a transmit beam (second uplink transmit beam) having a link quality second only to the first uplink transmit beam based on the performance of other available transmit beams in the previously performed beam training. The UE may transmit identification information of the second uplink transmission beam, such as an SRI corresponding to the second uplink transmission beam, to the base station through the PUCCH. Thus, the base station will know that the UE has adjusted its transmit beam and will receive the PUSCH transmitted by the UE using the receive beam that achieves the best reception for the second uplink transmit beam.

And then, on the time-frequency resource scheduled by the base station for the UE, the UE sends uplink data to the base station through the PUSCH.

Example 2 of the beam adjustment method according to the second embodiment is described with reference to fig. 20A to 20B and fig. 21. Example 2 is equally applicable to the PUSCH scenario for base station scheduling.

The base station dynamically indicates the uplink transmission beam for the PUSCH transmission by placing the SRI corresponding to the transmission beam in the DCI. Fig. 20A illustrates a conventional SRI indication scheme. As shown in fig. 20A, in case of conventional codebook-based transmission, 1-bit SRI is included in DCI to indicate one SRS resource of two SRS resources in an SRS resource set configured for a UE, and a transmission beam of PUSCH is a transmission beam of the indicated SRS resource. In the case of conventional non-codebook-based transmission, a 2-bit SRI is included in the DCI to indicate one SRS resource of four SRS resources in an SRS resource set configured for a UE, and a transmission beam of the PUSCH is a transmission beam of the indicated SRS resource.

According to example 2 of the present disclosure, the scheme of dynamically indicating a transmission beam based on SRI is still applicable, but is different from the conventional indication scheme in that the base station may configure more than one SRS resource set for the UE in advance through RRC signaling for the UE to choose. Fig. 20B shows an SRI indication scheme according to the present example. As shown in fig. 20B, the RRC signaling of the base station configures 4 SRS resource sets for the UE, the MAC Control Element (CE) of the UE selects one SRS resource set from the four SRS resource sets, and then the SRI placed in the DCI by the base station selects one SRS resource in the resource set selected by the MAC CE.

A beam adjustment method according to the present example is described with reference to fig. 21. As shown in fig. 21, when the UE detects that the current transmission beam indicated by the UE does not meet the uplink MPE requirement, the UE may select one SRS resource set from multiple SRS resource sets configured by the base station, where the transmission beams corresponding to the SRS resources in the SRS resource set may all meet the uplink MPE requirement. The UE indicates the selected set of SRS resources to the base station through the MAC CE. At this time, the PUSCH for transmitting the MAC CE may still use the current transmission beam. The base station sends an ACK or NACK for this PUSCH transmission. The ACK indicates that the base station already knows to enable the new set of SRS resources. NACK indicates a transmission failure, and the UE may initiate a retransmission or find another occasion, depending on the strategy adopted by the UE.

When the UE has data to upload to the base station, the UE may request the base station to schedule a PUSCH for transmitting the data for the UE by sequentially transmitting an SR and a BSR. In response to the request of the UE, the base station may schedule time-frequency resources for PUSCH transmission for the UE, and enable the UE to transmit data by enabling a new uplink transmit beam by placing the reselected SRI in the DCI.

It should be noted that in fig. 21, because the semi-static beam adjustment is based on the MAC CE, the time for the UE to find the MPE problem needs to be as early as possible, so that there is enough time for the MAC CE level adjustment and the additional overhead caused by RRC reconfiguration is avoided.

Example 3 of the beam adjustment method according to the second embodiment is described with reference to fig. 22. Example 3 applies to a configuration granted PUSCH (CG-PUSCH) of Type 1 Type. Under the CG-PUSCH scene, the base station pre-configures time-frequency resources for PUSCH transmission for the UE through RRC signaling, so that the UE does not need to request before each transmission.

As shown in fig. 22, at a certain time, when the UE detects that the uplink transmission beam preconfigured by the base station does not meet the MPE requirement, the UE may select a new transmission beam meeting the MPE requirement from among the available transmission beams thereof, and transmit identification information of the selected new transmission beam, such as SRI, to the base station through a PUCCH or a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH).

Then, if the UE has data to be uploaded to the base station, the UE may use the new transmit beam to perform PUSCH transmission on the time-frequency resource pre-configured by the base station.

Fig. 23 shows example 4 of the beam adjustment method according to the second embodiment. Example 4 applies to Type 2 Type CG-PUSCH. Example 4 differs from example 3 in that, after the UE transmits the identification information of the selected new transmission beam to the base station through the PUCCH or the PRACH, the base station transmits DCI to the UE to confirm enablement of the new transmission beam. The remaining operation is similar to example 3 and will not be described again.

It was mentioned above that the UE can adjust the beam by sending the PUCCH containing the identification information of the newly selected transmission beam to the base station. However, whether the UE transmits the PUCCH may be MPE detection for the first transmission beam depending on the UE, or the base station may add a dynamic trigger to the PUCCH in Downlink Control Information (DCI), that is, the DCI-triggered PUCCH. However, regardless of the type of PUCCH, the transmission time of the PUCCH including the identification information of the switched transmission beam should be earlier than the transmission time of the PUSCH (e.g., time resources allocated for the PUSCH).

Beam adjustment for downlink MPE requirements

The second embodiment of the present disclosure also relates to the adjustment of the downlink transmission beam of the base station.

In downlink transmission, the base station determines each downlink channel (downlink transmission beam) and transmission power. As shown in fig. 24, only the UE has the opportunity to detect whether the downlink signal meets MPE requirements at the user of the UE. Therefore, the UE may be required to trigger a mechanism to adjust the downlink transmit beam.

In one example, the UE may perform MPE detection on the beam signal from the base station, e.g., measuring whether the received power of the beam signal of the base station transmit beam exceeds MPE requirements. If the base station's transmit beam does not meet MPE requirements, a power back-off recommendation is sent to the base station for the transmit beam.

For example, the UE sends stepped power back-off recommendations, such as each recommendation representing a 3dB power back-off. If the UE still detects the downlink MPE problem after a certain period of time, the UE can send a power back-off suggestion again until the MPE requirement is met.

For another example, the UE may calculate the power back-off recommendation Δ P ═ P for the base station transmit beam_Rx-P _MPEIn which P is_RxIs a received power measurement, P, of the base station transmit beam at UE1004_MPEIs the power calculated from the MPE requirements, so there is an assumption that: if the base station reduces the transmit power of the transmit beam by Δ P, the receive power that the transmit beam arrives at is correspondingly reduced by about Δ P, thus meeting downlink MPE requirements. The UE sends the power back-off recommendation value to the base station for the base station to adjust the transmission power of its transmission beam.

In another example, the UE may trigger the base station to switch downlink transmit beams. Fig. 25 shows an example of downlink transmit beam adjustment according to the present example. As shown in fig. 25, the base station schedules a PDSCH for downlink data transmission for the UE, the PDSCH transmission utilizing the first downlink transmit beam. The UE may detect whether the beam is downlink MPE requirement based on the received power of the first downlink transmit beam. When detecting that the first downlink transmit beam does not meet MPE requirements, the UE may select another base station transmit beam (a second downlink transmit beam), e.g., based on beam measurements obtained in a previous downlink beam training, and send identification information of the second downlink transmit beam, such as CRI or SSBRI, to the base station over the PUCCH. Therefore, the base station can use the second downlink transmission beam for data transmission instead in the following downlink data transmission according to the suggestion of the UE.

An electronic device and a communication method to which the second embodiment of the present disclosure can be applied are described next.

Fig. 26A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic apparatus 300 according to the first embodiment. The electronic device 300 may be a UE or a component of a UE.

As shown in fig. 26A, the electronic device 300 includes a processing circuit 301. The processing circuitry 301 comprises at least an MPE detection unit 302, a determination unit 303 and a transmission unit 304. The processing circuit 301 may be configured to perform the communication method shown in fig. 26B. The processing circuitry 301 may refer to various implementations of digital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed-signal (a combination of analog and digital signals) circuitry that perform functions in a UE, such as the UE1004 described above.

The MPE detecting unit 302 of the processing circuitry 301 is configured to detect, for a first transmission beam used for data transmission between the UE and the base station, whether the transmission beam complies with MPE requirements, i.e. step S301 in fig. 26B is performed. In the case that the first transmit beam is an uplink transmit beam indicated for the UE, the MPE detecting unit 302 may detect whether the transmit beam meets an uplink MPE requirement. In the case where the first transmit beam is a downlink transmit beam of the base station, the MPE detecting unit 302 may detect whether the transmit beam meets a downlink MPE requirement.

The selection unit 203 is configured to select to use the second transmit beam for data transmission in response to detecting that the first transmit beam does not comply with MPE requirements, wherein the second transmit beam is detected to comply with MPE requirements, i.e. step S302 in fig. 26B is performed.

The transmitting unit 304 is configured to transmit the identification information of the second transmission beam to the base station, i.e., perform step S303 in fig. 26B. In case that the second transmission beam is an uplink transmission beam, the transmitting unit 304 may transmit an SRI identifying the second transmission beam to the base station through a PUCCH, or may indicate an SRS resource set including an SRS resource with the second transmission beam through a MAC CE. In case that the first transmission beam is a downlink transmission beam, the transmitting unit 304 may transmit the CRI or SSBRI identifying the second transmission beam to the base station through the PUCCH.

The electronic device 300 may further comprise a communication unit 305. The communication unit 305 may be configured to communicate with a base station (e.g., the base station 1000 described above) under control of the processing circuit 301. In one example, the communication unit 305 may be implemented as a transmitter or transceiver, including antenna arrays and/or communication components such as radio frequency links. The communication unit 305 is depicted with a dashed line, since it may also be located outside the electronic device 300.

The electronic device 300 may also include a memory 306. The memory 306 may store various data and instructions, such as programs and data for operation of the electronic device 300, various data generated by the processing circuit 301, various control signaling or traffic data sent or received by the communication unit 305, and so forth. The memory 306 is depicted with dashed lines, since it may also be located within the processing circuit 301 or outside the electronic device 300.

Fig. 27A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic apparatus 400 according to the first embodiment. The electronic device 400 may be a base station device or be located in a base station device.

As shown in fig. 27A, the electronic device 400 includes a processing circuit 401. The processing circuit 401 comprises at least a scheduling unit 402 and a receiving unit 403. The processing circuit 401 may be configured to perform the communication method shown in fig. 27B. Processing circuitry 401 may refer to various implementations of digital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed-signal (a combination of analog and digital signals) circuitry that perform functions in a base station device, such as base station 1000 described above.

The scheduling unit 402 may be configured to schedule the use of the first transmit beam for data transmission between the UE and the base station, i.e. to perform step S401 in fig. 27B.

The receiving unit 403 may be configured to receive the identification information of the second transmission beam from the UE, i.e., perform step S402 in fig. 27B. The identification information of the second transmit beam may be received on the PUCCH, including an SRI identifying the uplink transmit beam or a CRI or SSBRI identifying the downlink transmit beam. The identification information of the second transmit beam may also be received by the MAC CE, including identification information of a set of SRS resources corresponding to the group of transmit beams.

In response to the reception unit 403 receiving the identification information of the second transmission beam, the scheduling unit 402 may be configured to schedule the use of the second transmission beam for data transmission, i.e., perform step S403 in fig. 27B. Thus, it is possible to avoid using a first transmit beam which is detected by the UE as not meeting MPE requirements, and instead use a second transmit beam which is detected by the UE as meeting MPE requirements.

The electronic device 400 may further comprise a communication unit 405. The communication unit 405 may be configured to communicate with the UE under control of the processing circuitry 401. In one example, the communication unit 405 may be implemented as a transmitter or transceiver, including communication components such as an antenna array and/or a radio frequency link. The communication unit 405 is depicted with a dashed line, since it may also be located outside the electronic device 400.

The electronic device 400 may also include memory 406. The memory 406 may store various data and instructions, programs and data for operation of the electronic device 400, various data generated by the processing circuit 401, data to be transmitted by the communication unit 405, and so forth. The memory 406 is depicted with dashed lines because it may also be located within the processing circuit 401 or external to the electronic device 400.

Various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail above, but it should be noted that the above is for the purpose of describing the structure, arrangement, type, number, etc. of the antenna arrays shown, ports, reference signals, communication devices, communication methods, etc., and is not intended to limit aspects of the present disclosure to these particular examples.

It should be understood that the units of the electronic devices 100, 200, 300, and 4000 described in the above embodiments are only logic modules divided according to the specific functions implemented by the logic modules, and are not used to limit the specific implementation manner. In actual implementation, the above units may be implemented as separate physical entities, or may be implemented by a single entity (e.g., a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.).

It should be understood that the processing circuits 101, 201, 301, 401 described in the embodiments above may comprise, for example, circuitry such as an Integrated Circuit (IC), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), portions or circuitry of individual processor cores, an entire processor core, individual processors, a programmable hardware device such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), and/or a system comprising multiple processors. The memory 106, 206, 306, 406 may be volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. For example, the memory 106, 206, 306, 406 may include, but is not limited to, Random Access Memory (RAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), flash memory.

[ exemplary implementations of the present disclosure ]

Various implementations of implementing the concepts of the present disclosure are contemplated in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, including but not limited to:

1) an electronic device on a User Equipment (UE) side, comprising processing circuitry configured to: for a set of transmit beams available for data transmission between the UE and a base station, detecting whether each transmit beam meets maximum allowed exposure (MPE) requirements; selecting at least one candidate beam from the set of transmit beams by imposing a restriction on the transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements, wherein the at least one candidate beam is a candidate from which to determine an optimal transmit beam to be used for the data transmission based on the associated beam measurements.

2) The electronic device of claim 1), wherein the set of transmit beams is a set of UE transmit beams available for uplink data transmission, and wherein the detecting comprises: and detecting whether each transmission beam meets MPE requirements or not based on the beam direction and the transmission power of the transmission beam.

3) The electronic device of claim 1), wherein the set of transmit beams is a set of base station transmit beams available for downlink data transmission, and wherein the detecting comprises: and detecting whether each transmission beam meets MPE requirements or not based on the measurement result of the beam signal of the UE for the transmission beam.

4) The electronic device of claim 2), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: the at least one candidate beam is transmitted to the base station at a corresponding transmit power, enabling the base station to determine an optimal transmit beam to be used for uplink data transmission based on the measurement of the beam signal for each candidate beam.

5) The electronic device of claim 2), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: receiving and measuring beam signals from a base station with a set of UE receive beams having beam correspondence with the set of transmit beams; and reporting the measurement result to a base station.

6) The electronic device of claim 3), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: receiving and measuring the set of transmit beams from the base station with a set of UE receive beams; and reporting the measurement result to a base station.

7) The electronic device of claim 4), wherein the imposing the limitation comprises avoiding selection of a transmit beam detected as not meeting MPE requirements as a candidate beam.

8) The electronic device of claim 4), wherein the imposing the limit comprises setting a transmit power of a transmit beam detected as not meeting MPE requirements to zero power.

9) The electronic device of claim 4), wherein the imposing the limit comprises backing off the transmit power of the transmit beam detected as not meeting MPE requirements to meet MPE requirements.

10) The electronic device of claim 5) or 6), wherein the imposing the restrictions comprises adding a flag indicating whether the corresponding transmit beam meets MPE requirements, and wherein the reporting further comprises sending the flag to the base station.

11) The electronic device of claim 5), wherein the imposing the restrictions comprises avoiding selection of a transmission beam detected as not meeting MPE requirements as a candidate beam, and wherein the reporting further comprises reporting only measurements of beam signals received by UE reception beams having beam correspondence with the at least one candidate beam.

12) The electronic device of claim 6), wherein the imposing the limitation comprises avoiding selecting as a candidate beam a transmission beam that is detected as not meeting MPE requirements, and wherein the reporting further comprises reporting only measurements of beam signals of the at least one candidate beam.

13) The electronic device of claim 5), wherein the imposing the limits comprises modifying measured values of beam signals received by UE receive beams having beam correspondence with transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements to fall back to meeting MPE requirements, and wherein the reporting comprises reporting the modified measured values to a base station.

14) The electronic device of claim 6), wherein the imposing the limits comprises modifying measured values of beam signals of the transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements to fall back to meeting MPE requirements, and wherein the reporting comprises reporting the modified measured values and a suggested fall back value to a base station.

15) The electronic device of claim 2), wherein the best transmit beam is determined from the at least one candidate beam by a base station from associated beam measurements, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive identification information of the best transmit beam from a base station.

16) The electronic device of claim 15), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: determining an optimal reception beam for achieving optimal reception for the optimal transmission beam based on the identification information of the optimal transmission beam and the measurement result of the beam signal for the optimal transmission beam.

17) An electronic device on a base station side, comprising processing circuitry configured to: determining an optimal beam for data transmission between a base station and a user equipment based on beam measurements associated with at least one candidate beam and a restriction, wherein the restriction is applied by the User Equipment (UE) to beams detected to be non-compliant with a maximum allowed exposure (MPE) by detecting whether each beam of a set of beams available for the data transmission complies with the MPE requirement; and indicating a result of the determination to the user equipment.

18) The electronic device of claim 17), wherein the set of beams is a set of UE transmit beams available for uplink data transmission, and wherein the detecting comprises: and detecting whether the UE transmission beam meets MPE requirements or not based on the beam direction and the transmission power of each UE transmission beam.

19) The electronic device of claim 17), wherein the set of beams is a set of UE receive beams available for uplink data transmission, and wherein the detecting comprises: and detecting whether the UE receiving beam and the UE transmitting beam conform to MPE requirements or not based on the beam direction and the transmitting power of the UE transmitting beam having the beam correspondence with each UE receiving beam.

20) The electronic device of claim 17), wherein the set of beams is a set of base station transmit beams available for downlink data transmission, and wherein the detecting comprises: based on the received power of each transmit beam at the UE, it is detected whether the transmit beam meets MPE requirements.

21) The electronic device of, 19) or 20), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: information regarding beam measurements and restrictions associated with at least one candidate beam is received from a user equipment.

22) An electronic device at a user device side, comprising processing circuitry configured to: detecting whether a first transmit beam for data transmission between a user equipment and a base station complies with Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements; in response to detecting that the first transmit beam does not comply with MPE requirements, selecting for use a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the second transmit beam is detected as complying with MPE requirements; and transmitting identification information of the second transmission beam to a base station.

23) The electronic device of 22), wherein the first and second transmit beams are UE transmit beams available for uplink data transmission, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to detect whether the first and second transmit beams comply with MPE requirements based on their beam direction and transmit power.

24) The electronic device of 22), wherein the first and second transmit beams have different beam directions.

25) The electronic device of 22), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to transmit identification information of the second transmit beam to a base station over a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH).

26) The electronic device of claim 25), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive Downlink Control Information (DCI) from a base station confirming that a second transmit beam is to be used for data transmission between the user device and the base station.

27) The electronic device of claim 21), wherein the second transmit beam comprises a set of UE transmit beams, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: transmitting, by a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE), identification information of the group of UE transmission beams to a base station, and receiving, from the base station, Downlink Control Information (DCI) confirming use of a selected beam of the group of UE transmission beams for data transmission between the user equipment and the base station.

28) The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the first and second transmit beams are base station transmit beams available for downlink data transmission, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to detect whether the first and second transmit beams comply with MPE requirements based on their received power.

29) The electronic device of 28), wherein the second transmit beam has the same beam direction as the first transmit beam, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to send a back-off recommendation to the base station for the power of the second transmit beam compared to the power of the first transmit beam.

30) The electronic device of claim 22), wherein the processing circuit is configured to transmit identification information of a second transmit beam to a base station before the second transmit beam is used for data transmission between the user device and the base station.

31) An electronic device on a base station side, comprising processing circuitry configured to: scheduling use of the first transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and the base station; receiving identification information of a second transmission beam from the user equipment; scheduling use of a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the first transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as not meeting Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements and the second transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as meeting MPE requirements.

32) The electronic device of claim 31), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive identification information of the second transmit beam over a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH).

33) The electronic device of claim 32), wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to transmit Downlink Control Information (DCI) to the user equipment acknowledging use of a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station.

34) The electronic device of claim 31), wherein the second transmit beam comprises a set of UE transmit beams, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: receiving, from the user equipment, a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) including identification information of the group of UE transmission beams; selecting a beam from the set of UE transmit beams for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station; transmitting Downlink Control Information (DCI) including identification information of the selected beam to the user equipment.

35) A communication method comprises the following steps: for a set of transmit beams available for data transmission between the UE and a base station, detecting whether each transmit beam meets maximum allowed exposure (MPE) requirements; selecting at least one candidate beam from the set of transmit beams by imposing a restriction on the transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements, wherein the at least one candidate beam is a candidate from which to determine an optimal transmit beam to be used for the data transmission based on the associated beam measurements.

36) A communication method comprises the following steps: determining an optimal beam for data transmission between a base station and a user equipment based on beam measurements associated with at least one candidate beam and a restriction, wherein the restriction is applied by the User Equipment (UE) to beams detected to be non-compliant with a maximum allowed exposure (MPE) by detecting whether each beam of a set of beams available for the data transmission complies with the MPE requirement; and indicating a result of the determination to the user equipment.

37) A communication method comprises the following steps: detecting whether a first transmit beam for data transmission between a user equipment and a base station complies with Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements; in response to detecting that the first transmit beam does not comply with MPE requirements, selecting for use a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the second transmit beam is detected as complying with MPE requirements; and transmitting identification information of the second transmission beam to a base station.

38) A communication method comprises the following steps: scheduling use of the first transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and the base station; receiving identification information of a second transmission beam from the user equipment; scheduling use of a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the first transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as not meeting Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements and the second transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as meeting MPE requirements.

39) A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing executable instructions that when executed implement the communication method of any one of 35) -38).

[ examples of application of the present disclosure ]

The techniques described in this disclosure can be applied to a variety of products.

For example, the electronic device 200 or 400 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may be implemented as or installed in various base stations, and the electronic device 100 or 300 may be implemented as or installed in various user devices.

The communication method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by various base stations or user equipments; methods and operations according to embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied as computer-executable instructions, stored in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and executable by various base stations or user equipment to implement one or more of the functions described above.

Techniques according to embodiments of the present disclosure may be made as various computer program products to be used in various base stations or user equipment to implement one or more of the functions described above.

The base stations referred to in this disclosure may be implemented as any type of base station, preferably such as macro-gNB and ng-eNB as defined in the 5G NR standard of 3 GPP. The gNB may be a gNB covering a cell smaller than a macro cell, such as a pico gNB, a micro gNB, and a home (femto) gNB. Alternatively, the base station may be implemented as any other type of base station, such as a NodeB, an eNodeB, and a Base Transceiver Station (BTS). The base station may further include: a main body configured to control wireless communication, and one or more Remote Radio Heads (RRHs), wireless relay stations, drone towers, control nodes in an automation plant, etc., disposed in a different place from the main body.

The user equipment may be implemented as a mobile terminal such as a smart phone, a tablet Personal Computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable/cryptographic dog-type mobile router, and a digital camera, or a vehicle-mounted terminal such as a car navigation apparatus. The user equipment may also be implemented as terminals (also referred to as Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminals) that perform machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, drones, sensors and actuators in automation plants, and the like. Further, the user equipment may be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single chip) mounted on each of the above-described terminals.

Examples of base stations and user equipment to which the techniques of this disclosure may be applied are briefly described below.

It should be understood that the term "base station" as used in this disclosure has its full breadth of ordinary meaning and includes at least a wireless communication station that is used to facilitate communications as part of a wireless communication system or radio system. Examples of base stations may be for example, but not limited to, the following: one or both of a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and a Base Station Controller (BSC) in a GSM communication system; one or both of a Radio Network Controller (RNC) and a NodeB in a 3G communication system; eNB in 4G LTE and LTE-A systems; gNB and ng-eNB in a 5G communication system. In the D2D, M2M, and V2V communication scenarios, a logical entity having a control function for communication may also be referred to as a base station. In the cognitive radio communication scenario, a logical entity playing a role in spectrum coordination may also be referred to as a base station. In an automation plant, the logical entity providing the network control function may be referred to as a base station.

First application example of base station

Fig. 28 is a block diagram showing a first example of a schematic configuration of a base station to which the technique of the present disclosure can be applied. In fig. 28, the base station may be implemented as a gNB 1400. The gbb 1400 includes a plurality of antennas 1410 and a base station apparatus 1420. The base station apparatus 1420 and each antenna 1410 may be connected to each other via an RF cable. In one implementation, the gNB 1400 (or the base station apparatus 1420) herein may correspond to the base station apparatus 200 or the base station apparatus 400 described above.

Antenna 1410 includes multiple antenna elements, such as one or more antenna arrays as shown in fig. 3A. The antennas 1410 may be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and used for the base station apparatus 1420 to transmit and receive wireless signals. For example, the multiple antennas 1410 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the gNB 1400.

The base station equipment 1420 includes a controller 1421, memory 1422, a network interface 1423, and a wireless communication interface 1425.

The controller 1421 may be, for example, a CPU or a DSP, and operates various functions of the higher layers of the base station apparatus 1420. For example, the controller 1421 may include the processing circuit 201 or 401 described above, perform the communication method described in fig. 17B or 27B, or control the respective components of the base station apparatus 200, 400. For example, the controller 1421 generates a data packet from data in a signal processed by the wireless communication interface 1425 and transfers the generated packet via the network interface 1423. The controller 1421 may bundle data from a plurality of baseband processors to generate a bundle packet, and transfer the generated bundle packet. The controller 1421 may have a logic function of performing control as follows: such as radio resource control, radio bearer control, mobility management, admission control and scheduling. This control may be performed in connection with a nearby gNB or core network node. The memory 1422 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores programs executed by the controller 1421 and various types of control data (such as a terminal list, transmission power data, and scheduling data).

The network interface 1423 is a communication interface for connecting the base station apparatus 1420 to a core network 1424 (e.g., a 5G core network). The controller 1421 may communicate with a core network node or another gNB via a network interface 1423. In this case, the gNB 1400 and the core network node or other gnbs may be connected to each other through logical interfaces such as an NG interface and an Xn interface. The network interface 1423 may also be a wired communication interface or a wireless communication interface for wireless backhaul. If the network interface 1423 is a wireless communication interface, the network interface 1423 may use a higher frequency band for wireless communication than the frequency band used by the wireless communication interface 1425.

Wireless communication interface 1425 supports any cellular communication scheme, such as 5G NR, and provides wireless connectivity to terminals located in the cells of the gNB 1400 via antennas 1410. The wireless communication interface 1425 may generally include, for example, a baseband (BB) processor 1426 and RF circuitry 1427. The BB processor 1426 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding, modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for each layer (e.g., physical layer, MAC layer, RLC layer, PDCP layer, SDAP layer). The BB processor 1426 may have a part or all of the above-described logic functions in place of the controller 1421. The BB processor 1426 may be a memory storing a communication control program, or a module including a processor and related circuits configured to execute a program. The update program may cause the function of the BB processor 1426 to change. The module may be a card or blade that is inserted into a slot of the base station device 1420. Alternatively, the module may be a chip mounted on a card or blade. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1427 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive a wireless signal via the antenna 1410. Although fig. 28 shows an example in which one RF circuit 1427 is connected to one antenna 1410, the present disclosure is not limited to this illustration, and one RF circuit 1427 may be connected to a plurality of antennas 1410 at the same time.

As shown in fig. 28, the wireless communication interface 1425 may include a plurality of BB processors 1426. For example, the plurality of BB processors 1426 may be compatible with the plurality of frequency bands used by the gNB 1400. As shown in fig. 28, wireless communication interface 1425 may include a plurality of RF circuits 1427. For example, the plurality of RF circuits 1427 may be compatible with a plurality of antenna elements. Although fig. 28 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1425 includes a plurality of BB processors 1426 and a plurality of RF circuits 1427, the wireless communication interface 1425 may also include a single BB processor 1426 or a single RF circuit 1427.

In the gNB 1400 shown in fig. 28, one or more units (e.g., the receiving unit 403) included in the processing circuit 201 described with reference to fig. 17A or the processing circuit 401 described with reference to fig. 27A may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 825. Alternatively, at least a portion of these components may be implemented in the controller 821. For example, the gNB 1400 includes a portion (e.g., the BB processor 1426) or all of the wireless communication interface 1425, and/or a module including the controller 1421, and one or more components can be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform operations of one or more components), and may execute the program. As another example, a program to allow a processor to function as one or more components can be installed in the gNB 1400, and the wireless communication interface 1425 (e.g., BB processor 1426) and/or controller 1421 can execute the program. As described above, as an apparatus including one or more components, the gNB 1400, the base station apparatus 1420, or a module may be provided, and a program for allowing a processor to function as the one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium in which the program is recorded may be provided.

Second application example of base station

Fig. 29 is a block diagram showing a second example of a schematic configuration of a base station to which the technique of the present disclosure can be applied. In fig. 29, the base station is shown as a gNB 1530. The gNB 1530 includes multiple antennas 1540, base station equipment 1550, and RRHs 1560. The RRH 1560 and each antenna 1540 may be connected to each other via an RF cable. The base station apparatus 1550 and the RRH 1560 may be connected to each other via a high-speed line such as an optical fiber cable. In one implementation, the gNB 1530 (or the base station apparatus 1550) herein may correspond to the base station apparatus 200 or the base station apparatus 400 described above.

The antenna 1540 includes multiple antenna elements, such as one or more antenna arrays as shown in fig. 3A. The antennas 1540 may be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and used for the base station apparatus 1550 to transmit and receive wireless signals. For example, the multiple antennas 1540 may be compatible with the multiple frequency bands used by the gNB 1530.

Base station equipment 1550 includes a controller 1551, memory 1552, a network interface 1553, a wireless communication interface 1555, and a connection interface 1557. The controller 1551, memory 1552 and network interface 1553 are identical to the controller 1421, memory 1422 and network interface 1423 described with reference to fig. 28.

The wireless communication interface 1555 supports any cellular communication scheme, such as 5G NR, and provides wireless communication via RRH 1560 and antenna 1540 to terminals located in the sector corresponding to RRH 1560. Wireless communication interface 1555 may generally include, for example, BB processor 1556. BB processor 1556 is identical to BB processor 1426 described with reference to fig. 28, except that BB processor 1556 is connected to RF circuitry 1564 of RRH 1560 via connection interface 1557. As shown in fig. 29, wireless communication interface 1555 may include multiple BB processors 1556. For example, multiple BB processors 1556 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the gNB 1530. Although fig. 29 shows an example in which wireless communication interface 1555 includes multiple BB processors 1556, wireless communication interface 1555 can also include a single BB processor 1556.

The connection interface 1557 is an interface for connecting the base station apparatus 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560. The connection interface 1557 may also be a communication module for communication in the above-described high-speed line connecting the base station apparatus 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560.

RRH 1560 includes connection interface 1561 and wireless communication interface 1563.

The connection interface 1561 is an interface for connecting the RRH 1560 (wireless communication interface 1563) to the base station apparatus 1550. The connection interface 1561 may also be a communication module used for communication in the above-described high-speed line.

The wireless communication interface 1563 transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1540. Wireless communication interface 1563 may typically include, for example, RF circuitry 1564. The RF circuit 1564 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives a wireless signal via the antenna 1540. Although fig. 29 shows an example in which one RF circuit 1564 is connected to one antenna 1540, the present disclosure is not limited to this illustration, and one RF circuit 1564 may simultaneously connect a plurality of antennas 1540.

As shown in fig. 29, wireless communication interface 1563 may include a plurality of RF circuits 1564. For example, multiple RF circuits 1564 may support multiple antenna elements. Although fig. 29 shows an example in which wireless communication interface 1563 includes multiple RF circuits 1564, wireless communication interface 1563 may also include a single RF circuit 1564.

In the gNB 1500 shown in fig. 29, one or more units (e.g., the receiving unit 403) included in the processing circuit 201 described with reference to fig. 17A or the processing circuit 401 described with reference to fig. 27A may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1525. Alternatively, at least a portion of these components may be implemented in the controller 1521. For example, the gNB 1500 includes a portion (e.g., the BB processor 1526) or all of the wireless communication interface 1525 and/or a module including the controller 1521, and one or more components can be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform operations of one or more components), and may execute the program. As another example, a program for allowing a processor to function as one or more components can be installed in the gNB 1500, and the wireless communication interface 1525 (e.g., BB processor 1526) and/or controller 1521 can execute the program. As described above, as an apparatus including one or more components, the gNB 1500, the base station apparatus 1520, or a module may be provided, and a program for allowing a processor to function as the one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium in which the program is recorded may be provided.

First application example of user equipment

Fig. 30 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone 1600 to which the techniques of this disclosure may be applied. In one example, the smartphone 1600 may be implemented as the electronic device 100 or 300 described in this disclosure.

The smartphone 1600 includes a processor 1601, memory 1602, storage 1603, external connection interfaces 1604, camera 1606, sensors 1607, a microphone 1608, an input device 1609, a display 1610, a speaker 1611, a wireless communication interface 1612, one or more antenna switches 1615, one or more antennas 1616, a bus 1617, a battery 1618, and an auxiliary controller 1619.

The processor 1601 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on a chip (SoC), and controls the functions of an application layer and another layer of the smartphone 1600. The processor 1601 may include or function as the processing circuit 101 described with reference to fig. 16A or the processing circuit 301 described with reference to fig. 26A. The memory 1602 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 1601 to implement the communication method described with reference to fig. 16B or 26B. The storage device 1603 may include a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory and a hard disk. The external connection interface 1604 is an interface for connecting external devices, such as a memory card and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device, to the smartphone 1600.

The image pickup device 1606 includes an image sensor such as a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) and a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS), and generates a captured image. The sensors 1607 may include a set of sensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 1608 converts sound input to the smartphone 1600 into an audio signal. The input device 1609 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a keypad, a keyboard, buttons, or switches configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1610, and receives an operation or information input from a user. The display device 1610 includes a screen, such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display, and displays an output image of the smartphone 1600. The speaker 1611 converts an audio signal output from the smartphone 1600 into sound.

The wireless communication interface 1612 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 4G LTE or 5G NR, etc.) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1612 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1613 and RF circuitry 1614. The BB processor 1613 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding, modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1614 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive a wireless signal via the antenna 1616. The wireless communication interface 1612 may be one chip module on which the BB processor 1613 and the RF circuit 1614 are integrated. As shown in fig. 30, the wireless communication interface 1612 may include a plurality of BB processors 1613 and a plurality of RF circuits 1614. Although fig. 30 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1612 includes a plurality of BB processors 1613 and a plurality of RF circuits 1614, the wireless communication interface 1612 may also include a single BB processor 1613 or a single RF circuit 1614.

Further, the wireless communication interface 1612 may support another type of wireless communication scheme, such as a short-range wireless communication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) scheme, in addition to the cellular communication scheme. In this case, the wireless communication interface 1612 may include the BB processor 1613 and the RF circuit 1614 for each wireless communication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 1615 switches a connection destination of the antenna 1616 between a plurality of circuits (for example, circuits for different wireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communication interface 1612.

The antenna 1616 includes multiple antenna elements, such as one or more antenna arrays as shown in fig. 3A. The antennas 1616 may be arranged, for example, in an antenna array matrix, and used for the wireless communication interface 1612 to transmit and receive wireless signals. The smartphone 1600 may include one or more antenna panels (not shown).

Further, the smartphone 1600 may include an antenna 1616 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1615 may be omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 1600.

The bus 1617 connects the processor 1601, the memory 1602, the storage device 1603, the external connection interface 1604, the image pickup device 1606, the sensor 1607, the microphone 1608, the input device 1609, the display device 1610, the speaker 1611, the wireless communication interface 1612, and the auxiliary controller 1619 to each other. The battery 1618 provides power to the various blocks of the smartphone 1600 shown in fig. 30 via a feed line, which is partially shown in the figure as a dashed line. The secondary controller 1619 operates the minimum necessary functions of the smartphone 1600, for example, in a sleep mode.

In the smartphone 1600 shown in fig. 30, one or more components included in the processing circuitry may be implemented in a wireless communication interface 1612, such as the transmitting unit 304 of the processing circuitry 301 described with reference to fig. 26A. Alternatively, at least a portion of these components may be implemented in the processor 1601 or the auxiliary controller 1619. As one example, the smartphone 1600 includes a portion (e.g., the BB processor 1613) or the entirety of the wireless communication interface 1612 and/or a module that includes the processor 1601 and/or the secondary controller 1619, and one or more components can be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that allows the process to function as one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform the operation of one or more components), and may execute the program. As another example, a program for allowing a processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the smartphone 1600 and executed by the wireless communication interface 1612 (e.g., the BB processor 1613), the processor 1601, and/or the auxiliary controller 1619. As described above, the smartphone 1600 or module may be provided as an apparatus including one or more components, and a program for allowing a processor to function as the one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium in which the program is recorded may be provided.

Second application of user equipmentExample (b)

Fig. 31 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation apparatus 1720 to which the technique of the present disclosure can be applied. The car navigation apparatus 1720 may be implemented as the electronic apparatus 100 described with reference to fig. 16A or the electronic apparatus 300 described with reference to fig. 26A. The car navigation device 1720 includes a processor 1721, a memory 1722, a Global Positioning System (GPS) module 1724, sensors 1725, a data interface 1726, a content player 1727, a storage medium interface 1728, an input device 1729, a display device 1730, speakers 1731, a wireless communication interface 1733, one or more antenna switches 1736, one or more antennas 1737, and a battery 1738. In one example, the car navigation device 1720 may be implemented as a UE as described in this disclosure.

The processor 1721 may be, for example, a CPU or a SoC, and controls the navigation function and further functions of the car navigation device 1720. The memory 1722 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 1721.

The GPS module 1724 measures the position (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude) of the car navigation device 1720 using GPS signals received from GPS satellites. The sensors 1725 may include a set of sensors, such as a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an air pressure sensor. The data interface 1726 is connected to, for example, an in-vehicle network 1741 via a terminal not shown, and acquires data generated by a vehicle (such as vehicle speed data).

The content player 1727 reproduces content stored in a storage medium (such as a CD and a DVD) inserted into the storage medium interface 1728. The input device 1729 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1730, and receives an operation or information input from a user. The display device 1730 includes a screen such as an LCD or OLED display, and displays an image of a navigation function or reproduced content. The speaker 1731 outputs the sound of the navigation function or the reproduced content.

Wireless communication interface 1733 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 4G LTE or 5G NR) and performs wireless communication. Wireless communication interface 1733 may generally include, for example, BB processor 1734 and RF circuitry 1735. The BB processor 1734 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding, modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1735 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive a wireless signal via the antenna 1737. Wireless communication interface 1733 may also be a chip module having BB processor 1734 and RF circuitry 1735 integrated thereon. As shown in fig. 31, wireless communication interface 1733 may include multiple BB processors 1734 and multiple RF circuits 1735. Although fig. 31 shows an example in which wireless communication interface 1733 includes multiple BB processors 1734 and multiple RF circuits 1735, wireless communication interface 1733 may also include a single BB processor 1734 or a single RF circuit 1735.

Further, wireless communication interface 1733 may support additional types of wireless communication schemes, such as a short-range wireless communication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wireless LAN scheme, in addition to the cellular communication scheme. In this case, wireless communication interface 1733 may include BB processor 1734 and RF circuitry 1735 for each wireless communication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 1736 switches a connection destination of the antenna 1737 among a plurality of circuits included in the wireless communication interface 1733 (such as circuits for different wireless communication schemes).

Antenna 1737 includes multiple antenna elements, such as one or more antenna arrays as described in fig. 3A. Antennas 1737 may be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and used for wireless communication interface 1733 to transmit and receive wireless signals.

Further, the car navigation device 1720 may include an antenna 1737 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1736 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigation device 1720.

The battery 1738 provides power to the various blocks of the car navigation device 1720 shown in fig. 31 via a feed line, which is partially shown in the figure as a dashed line. The battery 1738 accumulates power supplied from the vehicle.

In the car navigation device 1720 shown in fig. 31, one or more components included in the processing circuit may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1733, such as the transmitting unit 304 of the processing circuit 301 described with reference to fig. 26A. Alternatively, at least a portion of these components may be implemented in the processor 1721. As one example, the car navigation device 1720 includes a portion (e.g., BB processor 1734) or all of the wireless communication interface 1733, and/or a module including the processor 1721, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that allows the process to function as one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform the operation of one or more components), and may execute the program. As another example, a program for allowing a processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the car navigation device 1720, and the wireless communication interface 1733 (e.g., BB processor 1734) and/or processor 1721 may execute the program. As described above, as a device including one or more components, the car navigation device 1720 or the module may be provided, and a program for allowing the processor to function as the one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium in which the program is recorded may be provided.

The techniques of this disclosure may also be implemented as an in-vehicle system (or vehicle) 1740 including one or more blocks of the car navigation device 1720, the in-vehicle network 1741, and the vehicle module 1742. The vehicle module 1742 generates vehicle data (such as vehicle speed, engine speed, and fault information) and outputs the generated data to the on-board network 1741.

The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to the drawings, but the present disclosure is of course not limited to the above examples. Various changes and modifications within the scope of the appended claims may be made by those skilled in the art, and it should be understood that these changes and modifications naturally will fall within the technical scope of the present disclosure.

For example, a plurality of functions included in one unit may be implemented by separate devices in the above embodiments. Alternatively, a plurality of functions implemented by a plurality of units in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices, respectively. In addition, one of the above functions may be implemented by a plurality of units. Needless to say, such a configuration is included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

In this specification, the steps described in the flowcharts include not only the processing performed in time series in the described order but also the processing performed in parallel or individually without necessarily being performed in time series. Further, even in the steps processed in time series, needless to say, the order can be changed as appropriate.

Although the present disclosure and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Also, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, of the embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

Claims

An electronic device on a User Equipment (UE) side, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

for a set of transmit beams available for data transmission between the UE and a base station, detecting whether each transmit beam meets maximum allowed exposure (MPE) requirements;

selecting at least one candidate beam from the set of transmit beams by applying a restriction to transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements,

wherein the at least one candidate beam serves as a candidate from which to determine the best transmit beam to be used for the data transmission based on the associated beam measurements.
The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the set of transmit beams is a set of UE transmit beams available for uplink data transmission, and wherein the detecting comprises: and detecting whether each transmission beam meets MPE requirements or not based on the beam direction and the transmission power of the transmission beam.
The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the set of transmit beams is a set of base station transmit beams available for downlink data transmission, and wherein the detecting comprises: and detecting whether each transmission beam meets MPE requirements or not based on the measurement result of the beam signal of the UE for the transmission beam.
The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

the at least one candidate beam is transmitted to the base station at a corresponding transmit power, enabling the base station to determine an optimal transmit beam to be used for uplink data transmission based on the measurement of the beam signal for each candidate beam.
The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

receiving and measuring beam signals from a base station with a set of UE receive beams having beam correspondence with the set of transmit beams;

and reporting the measurement result to a base station.
The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

receiving and measuring the set of transmit beams from the base station with a set of UE receive beams;

and reporting the measurement result to a base station.
The electronic device of claim 4, wherein said imposing limits includes avoiding selection of transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements as candidate beams.
The electronic device of claim 4, wherein said imposing limits comprises setting the transmit power of the transmit beam detected as not meeting MPE requirements to zero power.
The electronic device of claim 4 wherein the imposing limits includes backing off the transmit power of the transmit beam detected as not meeting MPE requirements to meeting MPE requirements.
An electronic device as claimed in claim 5 or 6, wherein said imposing a restriction comprises adding a flag indicating whether the corresponding transmit beam meets MPE requirements, and wherein said reporting further comprises sending the flag to the base station.
The electronic device of claim 5, wherein said imposing limits comprises avoiding selection of a transmission beam detected as not meeting MPE requirements as a candidate beam, and wherein said reporting further comprises reporting only measurements of beam signals received by UE reception beams having beam correspondence with said at least one candidate beam.
The electronic device of claim 6, wherein said imposing limits comprises avoiding selection of a transmission beam detected as not meeting MPE requirements as a candidate beam, and wherein said reporting further comprises reporting only measurements of beam signals of said at least one candidate beam.
The electronic device of claim 5, wherein said imposing the limits comprises modifying measured values of beam signals received by UE receive beams having beam correspondence with transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements to fall back to meeting MPE requirements, and wherein said reporting comprises reporting the modified measured values to a base station.
An electronic device as claimed in claim 6, wherein said imposing limits comprises modifying measured values of beam signals of the transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements to fall back to MPE requirements, and wherein said reporting comprises reporting the modified measured values and a suggested fall back value to a base station.
The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the best transmit beam is determined from the at least one candidate beam by a base station from associated beam measurements and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive identification information for the best transmit beam from a base station.
The electronic device defined in claim 15 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

determining an optimal receive beam for optimal reception of the optimal transmit beam based on the identification information of the optimal transmit beam and the measurement results of the beam signals for the optimal transmit beam.
A base station side electronic device comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

determining an optimal beam for data transmission between a base station and a user equipment based on beam measurements associated with at least one candidate beam and a restriction, wherein the restriction is applied by the User Equipment (UE) to beams detected to be non-compliant with a maximum allowed exposure (MPE) by detecting whether each beam of a set of beams available for the data transmission complies with the MPE requirement; and

indicating a result of the determination to the user equipment.
The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the set of beams is a set of UE transmit beams available for uplink data transmission, and wherein the detecting comprises: and detecting whether the UE transmission beam meets MPE requirements or not based on the beam direction and the transmission power of each UE transmission beam.
The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the set of beams is a set of UE receive beams available for uplink data transmission, and wherein the detecting comprises: and detecting whether the UE receiving beam and the UE transmitting beam conform to MPE requirements or not based on the beam direction and the transmitting power of the UE transmitting beam having the beam correspondence with each UE receiving beam.
The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the set of beams is a set of base station transmit beams available for downlink data transmission, and wherein the detecting comprises: based on the received power of each transmit beam at the UE, it is detected whether the transmit beam meets MPE requirements.
The electronic device of claim 19 or 20, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

information regarding beam measurements and restrictions associated with at least one candidate beam is received from a user equipment.
An electronic device on a User Equipment (UE) side, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

detecting whether a first transmit beam for data transmission between a user equipment and a base station complies with Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements;

in response to detecting that the first transmit beam does not comply with MPE requirements, selecting for use a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the second transmit beam is detected as complying with MPE requirements; and

and sending the identification information of the second transmitting beam to a base station.
The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the first and second transmit beams are UE transmit beams available for uplink data transmission, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to detect whether the first and second transmit beams comply with MPE requirements based on their beam direction and transmit power.
The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the first and second transmit beams have different beam directions.
The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to transmit identification information of the second transmit beam to a base station over a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH).
The electronic device of claim 25, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive Downlink Control Information (DCI) from a base station acknowledging that a second transmit beam is to be used for data transmission between the user equipment and base station.
The electronic device of claim 21, wherein the second transmit beam comprises a set of UE transmit beams, and

wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

transmitting identification information of the set of UE transmission beams to a base station through a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE), an

Receiving Downlink Control Information (DCI) from a base station confirming use of a selected beam of the set of UE transmit beams for data transmission between the user equipment and the base station.
The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the first and second transmit beams are base station transmit beams available for downlink data transmission,

wherein the processing circuitry is configured to detect whether the first and second transmit beams comply with MPE requirements based on their received power.
The electronic device of claim 28, wherein the second transmit beam has the same beam direction as the first transmit beam,

wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to send a back-off recommendation to the base station of the power of the second transmit beam compared to the power of the first transmit beam.
The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to transmit identification information of a second transmit beam to a base station before the second transmit beam is used for data transmission between the user equipment and the base station.
A base station side electronic device comprising:

a processing circuit configured to:

scheduling use of the first transmit beam for data transmission between a User Equipment (UE) and a base station;

receiving identification information of a second transmission beam from the user equipment;

scheduling use of a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the first transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as not meeting Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements and the second transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as meeting MPE requirements.
The electronic device of claim 31, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive identification information for a second transmit beam over a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH).
The electronic device of claim 32, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to transmit Downlink Control Information (DCI) to the user equipment acknowledging use of a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station.
The electronic device of claim 31, wherein the second transmit beam comprises a set of UE transmit beams, and

wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

receiving, from the user equipment, a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) including identification information of the group of UE transmission beams;

selecting a beam from the set of UE transmission beams for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station;

transmitting Downlink Control Information (DCI) including identification information of the selected beam to the user equipment.
A method of communication, comprising:

for a set of transmit beams available for data transmission between the UE and a base station, detecting whether each transmit beam meets maximum allowed exposure (MPE) requirements;

selecting at least one candidate beam from the set of transmit beams by applying a restriction to transmit beams detected as not meeting MPE requirements,

wherein the at least one candidate beam serves as a candidate from which to determine the best transmit beam to be used for the data transmission based on the associated beam measurements.
A method of communication, comprising:

determining an optimal beam for data transmission between a base station and a user equipment based on beam measurements associated with at least one candidate beam and a restriction, wherein the restriction is applied by the User Equipment (UE) to beams detected to be non-compliant with a maximum allowed exposure (MPE) by detecting whether each beam of a set of beams available for the data transmission complies with the MPE requirement; and

indicating a result of the determination to the user equipment.
A method of communication, comprising:

detecting whether a first transmit beam for data transmission between a user equipment and a base station complies with Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements;

in response to detecting that the first transmit beam does not comply with MPE requirements, selecting for use a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the second transmit beam is detected as complying with MPE requirements; and

and sending the identification information of the second transmitting beam to a base station.
A method of communication, comprising:

scheduling use of the first transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and the base station;

receiving identification information of a second transmission beam from the user equipment;

scheduling use of a second transmit beam for data transmission between the user equipment and a base station, wherein the first transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as not meeting Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) requirements and the second transmit beam is detected by the user equipment as meeting MPE requirements.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that, when executed, implement the communication method of any one of claims 35-38.