CN116647257A

CN116647257A - Signal processing method, signal transmitting method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN116647257A
Application number: CN202210138782.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 朱翔
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-02-15
Filing date: 2022-02-15
Publication date: 2023-08-25

Abstract

The application provides a signal processing method, a signal transmitting method and a communication device. The signal transmitting method comprises the following steps: the transmitting device determines K groups of beam forming vectors, forms beams according to the K groups of beam forming vectors, obtains K formed beams, and transmits reference signals at K times based on the K formed beams respectively. The K groups of beamforming vectors meet that the gain of the space beamforming of the antenna array is located in a preset range. According to the method, the transmitting device transmits the reference signal, so that the space field intensity after the superposition of K beams of the antenna array is respectively received by the receiving device at K times, and the beamforming gain of the antenna array is relatively flat. I.e. a wide beam with a relatively flat gain can be obtained by this method.

Description

Signal processing method, signal transmitting method and communication device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a signal processing method, a signal sending method, and a communications device.

Background

Beamforming is a technique for directional transmission or reception of signals using an antenna array. Beamforming improves communication performance by changing the amplitude and phase of individual antenna signals in an antenna array to form a directional beam such that signals in some directions experience constructive interference and signals in other directions experience destructive interference. In general, the narrower the beam, the greater the signal gain, but the larger the resource overhead of the reference signal. In order to reduce the resource overhead of the sounding reference signal, the communication can be performed with a wide beam under the condition that the signal gain requirement is not large.

The amplitude and phase vector of each beam is generally calculated according to the number of radiating elements of the antenna array, the number of beams, and the like, and a wide beam is generated according to the vector Xiang Shiliang. But the generated wide beam is essentially multi-beam and the signal gain is not flat. How to obtain a wide beam with a flat signal gain is a technical problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a signal processing method, a signal transmitting method and a communication device, which can obtain wide beams with flat signal gain, thereby reducing the resource expenditure of sounding reference signals.

In a first aspect, a signal processing method is provided, which may be performed by a first communication device, which may be a communication apparatus, such as a network device or a terminal device, or a communication device, such as a chip system or a functional module, capable of supporting the functions required for the communication apparatus to implement the method, which chip system or functional module is provided in the communication apparatus, for example. The method may also be implemented by logic modules or software that are capable of carrying out all or part of the functions of the first communication device. The following describes an example of the communication apparatus as a receiving device. The method comprises the following steps:

the receiving device receives K beams of the antenna array at K times respectively, obtains superimposed spatial field intensity based on the spatial field intensity corresponding to the K beams respectively, and processes reference signals on the K beams according to the superimposed spatial field intensity. The K times correspond to the K beams one by one, and the superimposed space field intensity meets the requirement that the beam forming gain of the antenna array is located in a preset range. The beamforming gain of the antenna array is located in a preset range, and it can be understood that the beamforming gain of the antenna array is relatively flat.

In a second aspect, a signal transmission method is provided, which may be performed by a second communication device, which may be a communication apparatus, such as a network device or a terminal device, or a communication device, such as a chip system or a functional module, capable of supporting the functions required for the communication apparatus to implement the method, the chip system or the functional module being provided in the communication apparatus, for example. The method may also be implemented by logic modules or software that are capable of carrying out all or part of the functionality of the second communication device. The following describes an example of the communication apparatus as a transmitting device. The method comprises the following steps:

the transmitting device determines K groups of beam forming vectors, forms the beams according to the K groups of beam forming vectors to obtain K formed beams, and transmits reference signals at K times based on the K formed beams. The K groups of beamforming vectors are in one-to-one correspondence with the K beams, and the K groups of beamforming vectors satisfy that the gain of the space beamforming of the antenna array is located in a preset range, which may also be understood that after the K groups of beamforming vectors are used to superimpose the space field strengths corresponding to the K beamforms obtained by the beamforming of the beams, the beamforming gain of the antenna array may be located in the preset range.

It should be appreciated that the K sets of beamforming vectors are in one-to-one correspondence with the K beams and the K beams are in one-to-one correspondence with the K times, and thus the K times are in one-to-one correspondence with the K sets of beamforming vectors. It is also understood that the beamforming vector is determined based on a time slicing manner. In the embodiment of the application, the beamforming vectors corresponding to the allowed different times can be different, and compared with the same beamforming vector corresponding to the different times, the beamforming vector corresponding to each time can be considered to be optimal, so that the gain of the space field intensity generated by the corresponding beam can be larger as much as possible. For each of the K times, the transmitting apparatus may select a beamforming vector corresponding to the time to shape a corresponding beam. So that the gain in the spatial field strength of the K beams is large. For the receiving device, the spatial field strengths corresponding to the received K beams can be overlapped, so that a wide beam with relatively flat gain is obtained. By the scheme, wide beams with flat gains can be obtained, so that the resource cost of the sounding reference signal is reduced.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect or the second aspect, the reference signal is a positioning reference signal or a channel estimation reference signal. For example, the embodiment of the application can send the positioning reference signal based on the wide wave beam with relatively flat gain, and can improve the recognition rate of the first transmission path in a plurality of transmission paths undergone by the positioning reference signal, thereby improving the positioning precision. Similarly, the embodiment of the application can send the channel estimation reference signal based on the wide wave beam with relatively flat gain, and can improve the accuracy of channel estimation.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the antenna array is a dual polarized antenna array, and the spatial field strength after superposition in the first direction satisfies the following formula:wherein θ is the angle between the first direction and the z-axis of the spatial coordinate, the origin of the spatial coordinate is the center of the antenna array, φ is the angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the spatial coordinate and the x-axis, and +.>For a beam forming weight vector in one polarization direction,/for a beam forming weight>For beamforming weight vector in the other polarization direction, F ^T S is an intermediate parameter based on the approximation of the Bessel function to y (θ, φ).

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the K sets of beamforming vectors are obtained after optimization by an objective function, where the objective function satisfies that a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of the K space powers in time is minimum. The difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the K space powers in time is minimum, which is understood as that the fluctuation of the beamforming gain is minimum, that is, the beamforming gain is the flattest. The objective function may be used to optimize the K sets of beamforming vectors to obtain a beamforming vector that can make the beamforming gain flattest.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the antenna array is a dual polarized antenna array, and the objective function satisfies the following formula:

minimize|10log10(max(P))-10log10(min(P))|

Where s.t denotes the constraint, P is the spatial power over K times,for a beam-forming vector optimized in one polarization direction,/>For the optimized beam forming vector in the other polarization direction, C _i For the gain fluctuation value, i=1, 2, θ is the included angle between the first direction in which one array element of the antenna array is located and the z-axis of the spatial coordinate, phi is the included angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the spatial coordinate and the x-axis, and the origin of the spatial coordinate is the center of the antenna array.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, before determining the K sets of beamforming vectors, the method further includes:

the transmitting device acquires the spatial field intensity of the nth array element of the antenna array in the first direction, and superimposes the spatial field intensity of the N array elements in the first direction for each of the K times to acquire K spatial superimposed field intensities of the antenna array, and the K spatial superimposed field intensities are vectorized to acquire an initial K-group beamforming vector. The center of the antenna array is taken as the origin of the space coordinate, the included angle between the first direction and the z axis of the space coordinate is theta, the included angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the space coordinate and the x axis is phi, N epsilon [1, N ], N is the number of array elements included in the antenna array, theta epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ] ], phi epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ] ]. That is, the transmitting apparatus may acquire an initial K-set of beamforming vectors in a 360 ° range before transmitting K beams, thereby obtaining K-set beamforming vectors that can make beamforming gains flattest in the 360 ° range. By this scheme, a gain-flattened omni-directional radiation broad beam can be generated.

the method comprises the steps that a transmitting device obtains a first height h of an nth array element of an antenna array and space field intensity in a first direction, traverses h with a first step length for each time of K times, superimposes the space field intensity of N array elements in the first direction to obtain K space superimposed field intensities of the antenna array, and vectorizes the K space superimposed field intensities to obtain initial K groups of beam forming vectors. The center of the antenna array is taken as the origin of the space coordinate, the included angle between the first direction and the z axis of the space coordinate is theta, the included angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the space coordinate and the x axis is phi, N epsilon [1, N ], N is the number of array elements included in the antenna array, theta epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ] ], phi epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ] ]. That is, the transmitting apparatus may acquire the initial K sets of beamforming vectors in a 360 ° range based on the height information before transmitting the K beams, thereby obtaining K sets of beamforming vectors having a certain height that can make the beamforming gain flattest in the 360 ° range. By this scheme, a wide beam with a flat gain can be generated on different height planes.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method further includes: the transmitting device traverses (theta, phi) with a second step length to determine K groups of beam forming weights respectively corresponding to the K groups of beam forming vectors; the corresponding wave beams are shaped through K groups of wave beam shaping weights, and K wave beams after shaping are obtained; if the gain of the space beam forming of the K beams is in a preset range, determining K groups of beam forming vectors corresponding to the K beams as K groups of beam forming vectors of an objective function. According to the scheme, the objective function can be optimized, so that K groups of beamforming vectors subjected to objective function optimization can generate wide beams with flat gains.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the antenna array is a circular dual polarized antenna array.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, where the communication device has a function of implementing the functions of the embodiment of the method of the first aspect, and beneficial effects may be referred to the description of the first aspect, which is not repeated herein. The communication apparatus may be the first device of the first aspect, or the communication apparatus may be an apparatus, such as a chip or a chip system, capable of implementing the method provided by the first aspect.

In one possible design, the communication device comprises corresponding means (means) or modules for performing the method of the first aspect. For example, the communication device: including a processing unit (sometimes also referred to as a processing module or processor) and/or a transceiver unit (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver module or transceiver). These units (modules) may perform the corresponding functions in the method examples of the first aspect, which are specifically referred to in the detailed description of the method examples and are not described here in detail.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, where the communication device has a function of implementing the behavior in the method example of the second aspect, and the beneficial effects may be referred to the description of the second aspect and are not repeated herein. The communication means may be the second device in the second aspect, or the communication means may be a device, such as a chip or a chip system, capable of supporting the functionality required by the second device in the second aspect to implement the method provided in the second aspect.

In one possible design, the communication device comprises corresponding means (means) or modules for performing the method of the second aspect. For example, the communication device: including a processing unit (sometimes also referred to as a processing module or processor) and/or a transceiver unit (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver module or transceiver). These units (modules) may perform the corresponding functions in the method examples of the second aspect described above, and are specifically referred to in the detailed description of the method examples, which are not described herein.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, which may be the communication device in the third aspect or the fourth aspect of the above embodiments, or a chip system provided in the communication device in the third aspect or the fourth aspect. The communication device comprises a communication interface and a processor, and optionally a memory. The memory is used for storing a computer program, and the processor is coupled with the memory and the communication interface, when the processor reads the computer program or instructions, the communication device executes the method executed by the receiving device in the method embodiment or executes the method executed by the transmitting device in the method embodiment.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device including an input-output interface and a logic circuit. The input-output interface is used for inputting and/or outputting information. The logic circuitry is to perform the method described in the first aspect or the logic circuitry is to perform the method described in the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a chip system, which includes a processor, and may further include a memory and/or a communication interface, for implementing the method described in the first aspect or the second aspect. In a possible implementation, the chip system further includes a memory for storing a computer program. The chip system may be formed of a chip or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, including the communication apparatus according to the third aspect and the communication apparatus according to the fourth aspect; or the communication system comprises the communication device according to the third aspect and the communication device according to the fifth aspect for performing the method of the second aspect; or the communication system comprises the communication device according to the fourth aspect and the communication device according to the fifth aspect for performing the method of the first aspect.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer readable storage medium storing a computer program which, when executed, causes the method of the first or second aspect described above to be performed.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising: computer program code which, when run, causes the method of the first or second aspect described above to be performed.

Advantageous effects of the above third to tenth aspects and implementations thereof reference may be made to the description of the advantageous effects of the first aspect or the first aspect and implementations thereof.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a signal sending method and a signal processing method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of spatial coordinates centered on an antenna array according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a graph of three-dimensional results of the spatial gain of an antenna array according to the present application as a function of (θ, φ);

FIG. 5 is a three-dimensional polar graph of the spatial gain of an antenna array as a function of (θ, φ) provided in embodiments of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

Detailed Description

The technical scheme provided by the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: a fifth generation (5th generation,5G) New Radio (NR) system, a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, and the like. The technical scheme provided by the application can also be applied to future communication systems, such as a sixth generation mobile communication system. The technical solution provided by the present application may also be applied to device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M) communication, machine type communication (machine type communication, MTC), and internet of things (internet of things, ioT) communication systems or other communication systems.

As an example, please refer to fig. 1, which is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system adapted to an embodiment of the present application. The communication system shown in fig. 1 may include a network device and a terminal device. The terminal device is connected with the network device in a wireless mode. It should be noted that fig. 1 is only a schematic diagram, and the number of network devices and terminal devices included in the communication system is not limited by the embodiment of the present application. In addition, the communication system may also include other network devices, such as wireless relay devices, wireless backhaul devices, core network devices, and the like.

Wherein the network device is an access device to which the terminal device accesses the mobile communication system by wireless means, e.g. comprising a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) device, e.g. a base station, an access point, etc. The network device may also refer to a device that communicates with the terminal over an air interface, such as other possible terminal apparatuses. For example, the network device in a V2X technology is a Road Side Unit (RSU). The RSU may be a fixed infrastructure entity supporting V2X applications, which may exchange messages with other entities supporting V2X applications. The network device may include an LTE system or an evolved Node B (evolved Node B) in long term evolution advanced (long term evolution-advanced, LTE-a), or may be simply referred to as an eNB or e-NodeB; or may also include a next generation node B (next generation node B, gNB) in a 5G NR system; or may also include an access node in a wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) system, etc.; or the network device may be a relay station, an in-vehicle device, and future evolved public land mobile network (Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN) device, a device in a D2D network, a device in an M2M network, a device in an IoT network, etc. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific technology and the specific equipment form adopted by the wireless network equipment. For example, the network device in fig. 1 may be a base station, and correspond to different devices in different systems, e.g., the network device in fig. 1 may correspond to an eNB in a fourth generation mobile communication technology (the fourth generation, 4G) system, and to a gNB in a 5G system.

In addition, the base station in the embodiment of the present application may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU), and a plurality of DUs may be centrally controlled by one CU. The CU and the DU may be divided according to functions of protocol layers of a wireless network that they have, for example, functions of a packet data convergence protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer and above are provided at the CU, and functions of protocol layers below PDCP, for example, functions of a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer and a medium access control (medium access control, MAC) layer, etc. are provided at the DU. It should be noted that this division of protocol layers is only an example, and may be divided at other protocol layers. The radio frequency device can be remote, not placed in the DU, integrated in the DU, or partially remote and partially integrated in the DU, and the embodiment of the application is not limited in any way. In addition, in some embodiments, a Control Plane (CP) and a User Plane (UP) of the CU may be implemented separately and separated into different entities, which are a control plane CU entity (CU-CP entity) and a user plane CU entity (CU-UP entity), respectively. In this network architecture, the CU generated signaling may be transmitted to the terminal device through a DU, or the UE generated signaling may be transmitted to the CU through a DU. The DU may be passed through to the UE or CU directly through the protocol layer encapsulation without parsing the signaling. In this network architecture, the CU may be used as a network device on the RAN side, or the CU may be used as a network device on the Core Network (CN) side, which is not limited by the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the means for implementing the function of the network device may be the network device, or may be a means capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, for example, a chip system, and the apparatus may be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, an apparatus for implementing a function of a network device is exemplified by a network device.

The terminal device is a device having a wireless transceiving function, and can transmit a signal to or receive a signal from the network device. A terminal device may be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), sometimes also referred to as a terminal, access station, UE station, remote station, wireless communication device, or user equipment, among others. The terminal device is used for connecting people, objects, machines and the like, and can be widely used in various scenes, including but not limited to the following scenes: cellular communication, D2D, V X, machine-to-machine/machine-type communication (M2M/MTC), ioT, virtual Reality (VR), augmented reality (augmented reality, AR), industrial control (industrial control), unmanned driving (self driving), remote medical (remote medical), smart grid (smart grid), smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city (smart city), unmanned, robotic, and the like. The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal device in the above scenario. For example, the terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with wireless transceiving function, a VR terminal, an AR terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned driving, a smart speaker in IoT network, a wireless terminal device in telemedicine, a wireless terminal device in smart grid, a wireless terminal device in transportation security, a wireless terminal device in smart city, a wireless terminal device in smart home, or the like.

By way of example, and not limitation, in embodiments of the application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. The wearable device can also be called as a wearable intelligent device or an intelligent wearable device, and is a generic name for intelligently designing daily wear and developing wearable devices, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothes, shoes, and the like, by applying wearable technology. The terminal device may also include a relay (relay), for example, the terminal device may be a customer terminal device (customer premise equipment, CPE) that may receive signals from the network device and forward the signals to other terminal devices. Or it is understood that all that is capable of data communication with a base station can be seen as a terminal device. The various terminal devices described above, if located on a vehicle (e.g., placed in a vehicle or installed in a vehicle), may be considered as in-vehicle terminal devices, also referred to as in-vehicle units (OBUs), for example.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may refer to a device for implementing a function of the terminal device, or may be a device capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the function, for example, a chip system, and the device may be installed in the terminal device. For example, the terminal device may also be a vehicle detector. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal device is described by taking the terminal device as an example.

In the embodiments of the present application, the number of nouns, unless otherwise indicated, means "a singular noun or a plural noun", i.e. "one or more". "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. For example, A/B, means: a or B. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, represents: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a and b and c, wherein a, b, c may be single or plural. The ordinal terms such as "first," "second," and the like in the embodiments of the present application are used for distinguishing a plurality of objects, and are not used for limiting the size, content, sequence, timing, priority, importance, and the like of the plurality of objects.

The embodiment of the application relates to beam forming, and first, the related content of beam forming is briefly introduced.

Beamforming is a technique for directional transmission or reception of signals using an antenna array. Beamforming improves communication performance by changing the amplitude and phase of individual antenna signals in an antenna array to form a directional beam such that signals in some directions experience constructive interference and signals in other directions experience destructive interference. For example, the received signal-to-noise ratio may be increased by beamforming, thereby effectively combating path loss.

In general, the narrower the beam, the greater the signal gain, but the greater the resource overhead of the reference signal. The wider the beam, the smaller the signal gain and the less the resource overhead of the reference signal. Therefore, in the case where the signal gain requirement is not large, communication can be performed using a wide beam. For example, positioning requires a lower signal-to-noise ratio of signals than data signals between a base station and a terminal device, and the gains may be accumulated over a period of time for positioning, so that a wide beam may be used in a positioning scenario to minimize the overhead of reference signals. It should be noted that, the wide beam in the embodiment of the present application refers to a beam having a width of approximately 180 °, and a beam having a flat signal gain, for example, a beam having a signal gain of about 3dB may be understood. For example, at a signal gain of 3dB, the beamwidth is greater than or equal to 178.

The method of generating a wide beam includes two methods, one of which is to modify an antenna structure from a physical structure, thereby generating a wide beam. For example, the antenna structures of the microstrip antenna, the wide-beam dielectric resonator antenna and the like are reconstructed by designing the antenna, the wide-beam splitting, and the like to generate wider beams. Alternatively, the plurality of antennas may be arranged in a manner that improves upon the physical structure to produce a wider beam. It can be seen that the improvement of the antenna structure from the physical structure requires the design of a special antenna structure, and the design process is complex and the cost is high. And it is difficult to ensure that the generated beam is a beam having a width of approximately 180 °.

Another approach is to optimize the beam shaping by a beam shaping algorithm to produce a wide beam. In general, a beamforming algorithm calculates an amplitude-phase vector of each beam according to the number of radiating elements of an antenna array, the number of beams, and the like, and generates a wider beam according to the phase vector. The wide beam generated by this method is essentially multi-beam, i.e. a wider beam is achieved by superposition of multiple beams. I.e. the beam produced by this method is not a beam of approximately 180 deg. in width and the signal gain is not flat.

In view of this, a technical solution of the embodiment of the present application is provided. In the embodiment of the application, the beamforming vectors used for beamforming can be divided into a plurality of groups according to time, and one time corresponds to one group of beamforming vectors. The transmitting device uses the corresponding beamforming vector to perform beamforming on the wave beam at each time, so that the gain of the spatial field intensity of the wave beam at each time is as large as possible. For the receiving device, the spatial field intensities corresponding to the received beams can be overlapped, so that a wide beam with relatively flat gain is obtained, and the resource overhead of the sounding reference signal can be reduced.

The following describes the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present application, terms such as "beam gain", "signal gain", "beam forming gain", "space beam forming gain" and the like represent the same feature, that is, represent the gain for beam transmitting signals, and are not clearly distinguished hereinafter. A beam with a flat gain, it is understood that the beam has a beam forming gain within a preset range, or the width of the beam is approximately 180 °. In addition, the antenna array in the embodiment of the application can be a monopole antenna or a dual-polarized antenna, and the embodiment of the application does not limit the type of the antenna array. For example, an antenna array circular polarized loop antenna, a circular polarized microstrip antenna, a low profile circular polarized antenna, and the like in the embodiment of the present application.

The method provided by the embodiment of the application can be executed by two communication devices, such as a transmitting device and a receiving device. In the following description, the method provided is applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 1 as an example. The transmitting means described in the embodiments below are, for example, terminal devices or access network devices in the network architecture shown in fig. 1, and the receiving means described in the embodiments below are, for example, access network devices or terminal devices in the network architecture shown in fig. 1. It can be understood that when the transmitting device is a terminal device, the receiving device is an access network device; when the transmitting device is an access network device, the receiving device is a terminal device. For convenience of description, the following takes an example that the transmitting apparatus is an access network device and the receiving apparatus is a terminal device, unless otherwise specified. Of course, the sending device may be an access network device or a communication device capable of supporting the functions required by the access network device to implement the method, or may also be other communication devices, such as a chip system. The receiving means may be a terminal device or a communication means capable of supporting the functions required by the terminal device to implement the method, or may also be other communication means, such as a chip system. And the implementation manner of the transmitting device and the receiving device is not limited, for example, the transmitting device may be an access network device, the receiving device may be a terminal device, or the transmitting device may be an access network device, the receiving device may be a communication device capable of supporting functions required for the terminal device to implement the method, and so on.

Referring to fig. 2, a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. Fig. 2 relates to a flow of transmitting signals by an access network device, and a flow of receiving signals by a terminal device and processing the received signals. In fig. 2, the method is illustrated by taking the transmitting device and the receiving device as the execution subjects of the interactive instruction, but the present application is not limited to the execution subjects of the interactive instruction. For example, the transmitting device in fig. 2 may be a chip, a chip system, or a processor that supports the transmitting device to implement the method, or may be a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the transmitting device; the receiving device in fig. 2 may also be a chip, a system-on-chip, or a processor that supports the receiving device to implement the method, or may be a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the receiving device. Specifically, the flow shown in fig. 2 includes the following steps.

S201, an access network device determines K groups of beamforming vectors, wherein the K groups of beamforming vectors are beamforming vectors respectively corresponding to the antenna array at K times, the K groups of beamforming vectors meet the condition that the space beamforming gain of the antenna array is in a preset range, and K is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

The beamforming vector may be used to shape the beam so as to maximize the gain of the spatial beamforming. In the embodiment of the application, the beamforming vectors used for beamforming the beams of the antenna can be divided into a plurality of groups according to time, and one group of beamforming vectors corresponds to one time. For example, the beamforming vectors may be divided into K groups according to K times, to obtain K groups of beamforming vectors. The K groups of beamforming vectors are in one-to-one correspondence with the K times. The K times may be K times or K time periods, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

The access network device may beamform an ith beam of the K beams at an ith time of the K times using the ith set of beamforming vectors of the K sets of beamforming vectors. It is understood that i is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to K. It is also understood that the beamforming vector is determined based on a time slicing manner. In the embodiment of the application, the beamforming vectors corresponding to different allowed times can be different. That is, the beamforming vectors corresponding to different times may be the same or different. Therefore, the beamforming vector corresponding to each time is optimal, and the gain of the space field intensity generated by the corresponding wave beam can be made larger as much as possible. For example, the ith beam is shaped by the ith group of beamforming vectors at the ith time, so that the beamforming gain of the ith beam is larger, and the beamforming gain of each beam is larger. Because the spatial beamforming gain of the antenna array is equivalent to the superposition of the spatial beamforming gains corresponding to the K beams, the ith beam of the K beams is beamformed by using the ith beam forming vector of the K beam forming vectors in the ith time of the K times, so that the spatial beamforming gain of the antenna array is positioned in a preset range, and a wide beam with relatively flat gain is obtained.

Optionally, the K sets of beamforming vectors may be optimized for the initial K sets of beamforming vectors, so that the spatial beamforming gains of the beams corresponding to the K sets of beamforming vectors respectively are as large as possible. For ease of distinction, the K sets of beamforming vectors before optimization are hereinafter referred to as the initial K sets of beamforming vectors. Unless otherwise specified, herein, K sets of beamforming vectors refer to K sets of optimized beamforming vectors. Illustratively, the access network device may optimize the initial K sets of beamforming vectors by the objective function, i.e., the K sets of beamforming vectors are obtained by optimizing the initial K sets of beamforming vectors by the objective function. The spatial shaping gain of the beam is maximized, which is also understood to mean that the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the spatial power corresponding to the spatial field strength is minimized. From this point of view, the objective function can be considered to satisfy the minimum difference between the maximum and minimum values of the spatial power over K times. The content of the objective function will be described below.

First, taking a circular dual-polarized antenna array as an example, how to obtain the optimized K groups of beamforming vectors is described.

As an example, the access network device may first obtain a spatial superposition field strength of the antenna array in a first direction, and quantize the spatial superposition field strength to obtain a set of beamforming vectors; and dividing the group of beam forming vectors into K groups of beam forming vectors according to K times, namely obtaining the initial K groups of beam forming vectors. The first direction is shown in fig. 3, that is, the center of the antenna array is taken as the origin of the space coordinate, the included angle between the first direction and the z axis of the space coordinate is θ, and the included angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the space coordinate and the x axis is Φ. It will be appreciated that θ ε [ -180 °,180 ° ]，φ∈[-180°，180°]. The angle between the nth antenna element of the antenna array and the x-axis is phi _n ＝2πn/N，n∈[1，N]N is the number of array elements included in the antenna array. Fig. 3 illustrates an example in which the antenna array includes 16 antenna elements, i.e., n=16.

Because the space fields in the two polarization directions of the dual-polarized antenna are mutually independent, independent channels are also adopted in the beam forming process, and therefore, the method for obtaining the space superposition field intensity in the two polarization directions is similar. In the following, it is described how to obtain a spatially superimposed field strength of the antenna array in a first direction, taking for example a spatially superimposed field strength in one polarization direction.

For example, the access network device may obtain that the spatial superposition field strength of the nth antenna element of the antenna array in the first direction satisfies:wherein y (theta, phi) is the spatial superposition field intensity of the nth antenna array element in the first direction. A is that _n For the current intensity of the n-th antenna array element transmitting signal, alpha _n For the phase of the signal transmitted by the nth antenna element, λ is the wavelength of the transmitted signal, R is the radius of the antenna array, r=λ/[4sin (pi/N)]。

From 1 stAnd overlapping the spatial overlapping field intensity of the N antenna elements in the first direction from the N antenna elements to obtain the spatial overlapping field intensity of the antenna array in the first direction. Assuming that the current intensities of the signals transmitted by N antenna array elements are the same, namely A _n ≡1, then the spatial overlap field strength y (θ, Φ) of the antenna array in the first direction satisfies the following formula:

the spatial superimposed field strength y (θ, φ) of the antenna array in a first direction is vectorized to obtain a spatial superimposed field strength vector. For example, the spatial superimposed field strength y (θ, Φ) of the antenna array in the first direction may be bezier-extended by a bezier function, and y (θ, Φ) satisfies the following formula:

wherein, the liquid crystal display device comprises a liquid crystal display device,represents k _i The first class of Bessel functions. Y (θ, φ) is approximated by M polynomials. For example, let:

then the approximation of y (θ, φ) with M polynomials may be:

wherein, the liquid crystal display device comprises a liquid crystal display device,is a beamforming vector in one polarization direction. Wherein k is _1,i I=1, 2, …, M represents the order of the bessel function. It will be appreciated that the approximate matrix of the spatial superimposed field strength y (θ, φ) is:t represents the matrix transpose.

It will be appreciated that the approximate matrix of the spatial superimposed field strengths y (θ, φ) of the dual polarized antenna array is:

wherein W is _α And W is _α,p Which are the beamforming vectors in the two polarization directions, respectively. On the basis of dual-polarized antenna beam forming, y (theta, phi) is segmented according to K times, and an initial K groups of beam forming vectors are obtained. It will be appreciated that, due to the two polarization directions, each set of beamforming vectors comprises 2 vectors, then the approximate matrix of the spatial superposition field strength y (θ, φ) of the dual polarized antenna array may be:

Wherein (1)>And->Respectively t _i I=1, 2, …, the beamforming vectors in both polarization directions at K times.

And after the access network equipment obtains the initial K groups of beamforming vectors, optimizing the initial K groups of beamforming vectors. The optimization aims at minimizing the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the spatial power of the antenna array over K times, i.e. making the beamforming gain of the antenna array over K times flatter. Optionally, the access network device may acquire the initial K sets of beamforming vectors through a processing module, and optimize the initial K sets of beamforming vectors. Alternatively, the access network device may also acquire the initial K sets of beamforming vectors through one processing module, and optimize the initial K sets of beamforming vectors through another processing module.

The access network device may optimize the initial K sets of beamforming vectors by an objective function. How the objective function is obtained is described below. For example, we can walk (θ, φ) in steps of 1 °, assuming a total traversal length L, M polynomials S of approximately y (θ, φ) satisfy:

with K time-slicing Y (θ, Φ), a vector Y with L elements can be obtained, Y satisfying:

the power in the K time two polarization directions is overlapped to obtain a distribution result P (theta, phi) of the total space power of the antenna array, wherein the P (theta, phi) meets the following formula:

And converting the element value in the Y into a dB value of the space power, and acquiring the maximum value and the minimum value of the space power, so that the absolute value of the difference value between the maximum value and the minimum value of the space power is minimum, and thus, the objective function is obtained. The objective function satisfies the following formula:

minimize|10log10(max(P))-10log10(min(P))|

where s.t denotes the constraint, P is the spatial power over K times,for a beam-forming vector optimized in one polarization direction,/>For the optimized beam forming vector in the other polarization direction, C _i I=1, 2 for the gain fluctuation value. Optimizing the K groups of beamforming vectors through an objective function to obtain the optimized K groups of beamforming vectors, namely

In the above example, based on the initial K sets of beamforming vectors acquired on the plane within the 360 ° range, K sets of beamforming vectors that can make the beamforming gain flattest within the 360 ° range can be obtained, and thus, an omni-directional radiation wide beam with flat gain can be generated.

In view of the fact that it may be necessary to guarantee a beamforming gain at a certain elevation plane, in a possible implementation, an initial K-set of beamforming vectors containing elevation information may be obtained and optimized by an objective function.

It will be appreciated that the spatial overlap field strength y (θ, φ, h) of the antenna array in the height h and first direction satisfies the following equation:h∈[0.1,1]。

similar to optimizing the initial K sets of beamforming vectors on the plane in the 360 ° range, when optimizing the initial K sets of beamforming vectors containing the height information, the three-dimensional matrix y (θ, Φ, h) can be obtained by traversing (θ, Φ) with a step size of 1 ° and traversing h with a step size of 0.1. For example, at θ∈ { [ -180 °, -91 °],[-89°,89°],[91°,180°]}，φ∈[-180°,180°],h∈[0.1,1]And (3) traversing (theta, phi) with a step length of 1 DEG, traversing h with a step length of 0.1, and obtaining the three-dimensional matrix y (theta, phi, h). The three-dimensional matrix y (theta, phi, h) can be segmented in K times, and for the dual-polarized antenna array, 2xM three-dimensional matrices can be obtained in K time-segmented three-dimensional matrices y (theta, phi, h)Wherein, the liquid crystal display device comprises a liquid crystal display device,m represents the mth time, p _i I=1, 2 denotes the i-th polarization direction.

The power in the K time two polarization directions is overlapped to obtain a distribution result P (theta, phi, h) of the total space power of the antenna array, wherein the P (theta, phi, h) meets the following formula:

the objective function may be: minimum max (10 log10 (P (θ, Φ, h))) -min (10 log10 (P (θ, Φ, h))), wherein minimum (.) represents a minimum value and max (.) represents a maximum value.

The initial K groups of beamforming vectors are optimized through an objective function, so that the optimized K groups of beamforming vectors alpha can be obtained, and the alpha meets the following conditions:

Based on the initial K groups of beamforming vectors containing height information obtained on the planes within the range of 360 degrees, the beamforming gains on the planes with different heights can be approximately equal by optimizing the initial K groups of beamforming vectors through an objective function, so that wide beams with flat gains can be obtained on the planes with different heights.

S202, the access network equipment carries out beam shaping on the beams according to the K groups of beam shaping vectors, and K shaped beams are obtained.

After the access network device obtains the optimized K wave beam forming vector, the wave beam is formed according to the optimized K wave beam forming vector, and K wave beams after forming can be obtained. For example, the access network device performs beamforming on the ith beam of the K beams at the ith time of the K times by using the ith set of beamforming vectors of the K sets of optimized beamforming vectors.

S203, the access network equipment respectively transmits reference signals at K times based on the K shaped beams.

The access network equipment obtains K shaped wave beams and can respectively send reference signals at K times, wherein the K wave beams correspond to the K times one by one. For example, the access network device transmits the reference signal at an ith time of the K times based on an ith beam of the K shaped beams. The reference signal may also vary in different application scenarios. For example, in a positioning application scenario, the reference signal is a positioning reference signal, such as a downlink reference signal ((Downlink Positioning Reference Signal, DL-PRS). In a channel estimation scenario, the reference signal is a reference signal for channel estimation, such as a sounding reference signal (sounding reference signal, SRS), and for example, the reference signal may be a channel state information reference signal (channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS). The above positioning reference signal and the reference signal for channel estimation are merely examples, and the specific types of the reference signals are not limited by the embodiments of the present application.

S204, the terminal equipment receives K wave beams of the antenna array at K times respectively, wherein the K times correspond to the K wave beams one by one.

The access network device sends K wave beams respectively at K times, and the terminal device receives the K wave beams respectively at the K times. For example, the terminal device receives an ith beam of the K beams at an ith time of the K times. Alternatively, the terminal device may scan the K beams and select the beam with the largest gain as the reception beam.

S205, the terminal equipment obtains the superimposed space field intensity based on the space field intensities corresponding to the K beams respectively, wherein the superimposed space field intensity meets the requirement that the beam forming gain of the antenna array is located in a preset range.

After receiving the K beams, the terminal device may superimpose spatial field strengths corresponding to the K beams respectively, so as to obtain a superimposed spatial scene, which is also referred to as a spatial superimposed field strength. For example, from the 1 st beam to the K th beam, spatial field strengths of the beams in the first direction are sequentially overlapped, and the obtained overlapped spatial field strengths satisfy the following formula:wherein θ is a first direction and a spatial coordinatePhi is the angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the spatial coordinates and said x axis,/o >For a beam forming weight vector in one polarization direction,/for a beam forming weight>For beamforming weight vector in the other polarization direction, F ^T S is an intermediate parameter based on the approximation of the Bessel function to y (θ, φ). The origin of the spatial coordinates is the center of the antenna array.

It will be appreciated that the spatial beamforming gain of the antenna array is equivalent to the superposition of the spatial beamforming gains corresponding to the K beams. And the access network equipment uses the ith group of beam forming vectors in the optimized K groups of beam forming vectors to carry out beam forming on the ith beam in the K beams in the ith time of the K times, so that the beam forming gain of each beam is as flat as possible, and therefore, the terminal equipment superimposes the space field intensity corresponding to the K beams, so that the space beam forming gain of the antenna array is relatively flat, and a wide beam with relatively flat gain is obtained.

Taking k=3 as an example, assuming that the antenna array is a dual polarized antenna array, the antenna array includes 16 antenna elements, then the optimized 6 sets of beamforming vectors can be obtained, and total beamforming weights are 6×16=96. And (3) bringing the optimized beamforming weight into the spatial power distribution result P (theta, phi), so as to obtain a three-dimensional beamforming result schematic diagram shown in fig. 4 and 5. Wherein fig. 4 is a three-dimensional result graph of the spatial gain as a function of (θ, Φ), and fig. 5 is a three-dimensional polar graph of the spatial gain as a function of (θ, Φ). The distance between each point and the origin of coordinates in fig. 4 is equal to the beamforming gain value. As can be seen from fig. 4, the overall gain fluctuation of the spatial beamforming of the array antenna with 16 antenna elements within the 180 ° beam range is about 3.5dB, and the gains in all directions are above 6dB, which is relatively flat. In fig. 5, the distances from the coordinates (0, 0) of the coordinate points in different directions on the spherical surface are equal to the gains in the respective directions. As can be seen from fig. 5, the three-dimensional polar plot of the spatial beamforming gain is approximately spherical in three-dimensional space, i.e., the spatial beamforming gain is flat.

S206, the terminal equipment respectively processes the reference signals on the K wave beams according to the superimposed space field intensity.

The terminal device can process the reference signals received by the K wave beams according to the superimposed space field intensity. For example, the reference signal is a positioning reference signal, and the terminal device may calculate the location of the terminal device according to the positioning reference signal. For another example, the reference signal is a channel state information reference signal, and the terminal device may determine channel quality of a spatial channel transmitting the reference signal according to the channel state information reference signal.

In the embodiment of the application, the transmitting device can divide the beamforming vectors used for beamforming into a plurality of groups according to time, and one time corresponds to one group of beamforming vectors. The transmitting apparatus performs beamforming on the beam at a certain time using a beamforming vector corresponding to the certain time, so that the gain of the spatial field intensity of the beam at each time is as large as possible. For the receiving device, the spatial field intensities corresponding to the received beams can be overlapped, so that a wide beam with relatively flat gain is obtained, and the resource overhead of the sounding reference signal can be reduced.

It should be noted that, the flow shown in fig. 2 takes the access network device to send the reference signal, and the terminal device to receive the reference signal as an example. In a possible implementation, the terminal device may also send a reference signal, which the access network device receives. In other words, in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, the access network device may be replaced by a terminal device, and the terminal device may be replaced by the access network device.

By the method, the wide beam with flat gain can be generated, and the method is suitable for scenes with little requirement on the gain. For example, the method shown in the embodiment of the application can be applied to positioning. For example, the method in the embodiment of the application can be applied to downlink positioning, uplink positioning and uplink and downlink combined positioning. Here, the uplink and the downlink are relatively, and if the transmission direction from the access network device to the terminal device is downlink (this is taken as an example here), the transmission direction from the terminal device to the access network device is uplink. Conversely, if the transmission direction from the access network device to the terminal device is uplink, the transmission direction from the terminal device to the access network device is downlink.

And downlink positioning, namely measuring a downlink positioning reference signal sent by the network side by the terminal equipment. And the terminal equipment estimates the position of the terminal equipment according to the measurement result, and realizes downlink positioning. Accordingly, the access network device may beamform an ith beam of the K beams at an ith time of the K times using an ith set of beamforming vectors of the K sets of beamforming vectors. And then, the access network equipment transmits downlink positioning reference signals based on the K wave beams after wave beam forming. And the terminal equipment receives the ith wave beam in the K wave beams at the ith time in the K times and superimposes the spatial field intensity of the received K wave beams.

Uplink positioning, i.e. the access network device measures uplink positioning reference signals (uplink positioning reference signal, UL-PRS) sent by the terminal device. And the access network equipment estimates the position of the terminal equipment according to the measurement result, and realizes uplink positioning. The uplink positioning reference signal may be an SRS, or other reference signal that may be used for uplink measurements. The embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto. Accordingly, the terminal device may perform beamforming on the ith beam of the K beams at the ith time of the K times using the ith set of beamforming vectors of the K sets of beamforming vectors. And then, the terminal equipment transmits downlink positioning reference signals based on the K beams after the beam forming. And the access network equipment receives the ith wave beam in the K wave beams at the ith time in the K times and superimposes the spatial field intensity of the received K wave beams.

Uplink and downlink combined positioning, namely, the access network equipment measures uplink positioning signals from the terminal equipment and the terminal equipment measures downlink positioning reference signals from the access network equipment. The position of the terminal device is estimated based on the measurement results of the access network device and the measurement results of the terminal device. Reference may be made to existing methods for how to determine the location of the terminal device, which are not described in detail herein. Accordingly, the access network device may beamform an ith beam of the K beams at an ith time of the K times using an ith set of beamforming vectors of the K sets of beamforming vectors. And then, the access network equipment transmits downlink positioning reference signals based on the K wave beams after wave beam forming. And the terminal equipment receives the ith wave beam in the K wave beams at the ith time in the K times and superimposes the spatial field intensity of the received K wave beams. And the terminal device also performs beamforming on the ith beam in the K beams by using the ith beam forming vector in the K beam forming vectors at the ith time in the K times. And then, the terminal equipment transmits downlink positioning reference signals based on the K beams after the beam forming. And the access network equipment receives the ith wave beam in the K wave beams at the ith time in the K times and superimposes the spatial field intensity of the received K wave beams.

It will be appreciated that the reference signal transmission may experience multipath effects, i.e. the reference signal transmitted to the receiving end may experience multiple transmission paths. It should be appreciated that due to the time delay during transmission of the reference signal, the time delays for the different paths may be different, and that the reference signal passes through the multiple paths, and the time for the time delay to reach the receiving end may be different. Because of the phase difference caused by different delays of the multipath, the signals of the multipath are strong in frequency and weak in frequency after being combined. That is, if the transmission delays corresponding to the transmission paths are different, frequency selective fading of the frequency domain signal is caused, and the first path (which may be simply referred to as the first path) in the multipath cannot be accurately identified, so that positioning accuracy is low. The narrow beam is narrower, so that the beam of the transmitting end cannot be aligned with the receiving end, and the accurate first path cannot be acquired. According to the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the reference signal is sent based on the wide beam, and the transmitting end can be aligned to the receiving end due to the wide beam of the wide beam, so that the accuracy of identifying the first path is improved, and the positioning accuracy is improved. In addition, since frequency selective fading of a signal is more serious at a high frequency, the first path recognition is more difficult at a high frequency. In high-frequency positioning, the optical path difference among multiple channels is greatly influenced due to large phase deviation, angle measurement is further difficult, and positioning estimation based on the arrival angle is not suitable for high-frequency positioning. However, the method provided by the embodiment of the application can improve the accuracy of identifying the head path even under the high-frequency condition, is applicable to positioning based on the arrival angle, and has wider application range.

In the embodiment provided by the application, the method provided by the embodiment of the application is introduced from the interaction point of the sending device and the receiving device respectively. In order to implement the functions of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the transmitting device and the receiving device may include hardware structures and/or software modules, and implement the functions in the form of hardware structures, software modules, or a combination of hardware structures and software modules. Some of the functions described above are performed in a hardware configuration, a software module, or a combination of hardware and software modules, depending on the specific application of the solution and design constraints.

Based on the same concept as the method embodiment, the embodiment of the application provides a communication device. Communication devices for implementing the above method in the embodiments of the present application are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 600 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 600 may include a processing module 610 and a transceiver module 620. Optionally, a storage unit may be included, which may be used to store instructions (code or programs) and/or data. The processing module 610 and the transceiver module 620 may be coupled to the storage unit, for example, the processing module 610 may read instructions (codes or programs) and/or data in the storage unit to implement the corresponding methods. The above modules may be independently provided, or may be partially or fully integrated.

In some possible embodiments, the communications device 600 may be configured to implement the actions and functions of the sending device in the foregoing method embodiments, where the communications device 600 may be a sending device, a component (such as a chip or a circuit) applied in the sending device, or a chip or a chipset in the sending device or a part of a chip for performing the related method functions. In other possible embodiments, the communications device 600 may be configured to implement the behaviors and functions of the receiving device in the foregoing method embodiments, where the communications device 600 may be a receiving device, or may be a component (such as a chip or a circuit) applied in the receiving device, or may be a chip or a chipset in the receiving device or a part of a chip for performing the related method functions.

For example, the communication device 600 implements the method performed by the transmitting device in the embodiment of fig. 2. The processing module 610 is configured to determine K sets of beamforming vectors, and perform beamforming on beams according to the K sets of beamforming vectors, so as to obtain K beamformed beams. The K groups of beamforming vectors are beamforming vectors respectively corresponding to the antenna array at K times, the K groups of beamforming vectors meet the requirement that the gain of space beamforming of the antenna array is in a preset range, and K is an integer greater than or equal to 2. The transceiver module 620 is configured to transmit reference signals at K times based on the K shaped beams, respectively.

As an alternative implementation manner, the K sets of beamforming vectors are obtained after optimization by an objective function, where the objective function satisfies that the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the K space powers in time is minimum.

As an alternative implementation, the antenna array is a dual polarized antenna array, and the objective function satisfies the following formula:

minimize|10log10(max(P))-10log10(min(P))|

where s.t denotes the constraint, P is the spatial power over K times,for a beam-forming vector optimized in one polarization direction,/>For the optimized beam forming vector in the other polarization direction, C _i For gain fluctuation values, i=1, 2, θ is the dayAnd an included angle between a first direction of an array element of the line array and a z-axis of the space coordinate, wherein phi is an included angle between a projection of the first direction on an x-y axis of the space coordinate and the x-axis, and an origin of the space coordinate is the center of the antenna array.

As an alternative implementation, the processing module 610 is further configured to: the method comprises the steps of obtaining space field intensity of an nth array element of an antenna array in a first direction, superposing the space field intensity of N array elements in the first direction for each time of K times to obtain K space superposition field intensities of the antenna array, and vectorizing the K space superposition field intensities to obtain initial K groups of beam forming vectors. The center of the antenna array is taken as the origin of the space coordinate, the included angle between the first direction and the z axis of the space coordinate is theta, the included angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the space coordinate and the x axis is phi, N epsilon [1, N ], N is the number of array elements included in the antenna array, theta epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ] ], phi epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ] ].

As an alternative implementation, the processing module 610 is further configured to: the method comprises the steps of obtaining a first height h of an nth array element of an antenna array and space field intensity in a first direction, traversing h with a first step length for each time of K times, superposing the space field intensity of N array elements in the first direction to obtain K space superposition field intensities of the antenna array, and vectorizing the K space superposition field intensities to obtain initial K groups of beam forming vectors. The center of the antenna array is taken as the origin of the space coordinate, the included angle between the first direction and the z axis of the space coordinate is theta, the included angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the space coordinate and the x axis is phi, N epsilon [1, N ], N is the number of array elements included in the antenna array, theta epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ] ], phi epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ] ].

As an alternative implementation, the processing module 610 is further configured to: traversing (theta, phi) with a second step length to determine K groups of beamforming weights respectively corresponding to the K groups of beamforming vectors; the corresponding wave beams are shaped through K groups of wave beam shaping weights, and K wave beams after shaping are obtained; if the gain of the space beam forming of the K beams is in a preset range, determining K groups of beam forming vectors corresponding to the K beams as K groups of beam forming vectors of an objective function.

As an alternative implementation, the antenna array is a dual polarized antenna array.

As another example, the communication device 600 implements the method performed by the receiving device in the embodiment of fig. 2. The transceiver module 620 is configured to receive K beams of the antenna array at K times, respectively. The processing module 610 is configured to obtain a superimposed spatial field strength based on spatial field strengths corresponding to the K beams, and process reference signals on the K beams according to the superimposed spatial field strength. The superimposed space field intensity meets the requirement that the beam forming gain of the antenna array is located in a preset range.

As an alternative implementation, the reference signal is a positioning reference signal or a channel estimation reference signal.

As an alternative implementation manner, the antenna array is a dual polarized antenna array, and the spatial field intensity after superposition in the first direction satisfies the following formula:wherein θ is the angle between the first direction and the z-axis of the spatial coordinate, the origin of the spatial coordinate is the center of the antenna array, φ is the angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the spatial coordinate and the x-axis, and +.>For a beam forming weight vector in one polarization direction,/for a beam forming weight>For beamforming weight vector in the other polarization direction, F ^T S is an intermediate parameter based on the approximation of the Bessel function to y (θ, φ).

Optionally, the communication apparatus 600 is an access network device or a terminal device.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 700 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 700 may be a terminal device, and may implement the functions of the transmitting device or the receiving device in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application. The communication device 700 may also be a device capable of supporting the transmitting device or the receiving device to implement the corresponding functions in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, where the communication device 700 may be a system-on-chip. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system can be formed by a chip, and can also comprise the chip and other discrete devices. Specific functions can be seen from the description of the method embodiments described above.

The communication device 700 includes one or more processors 701 for implementing or for supporting the communication device 700 to implement the functions of a transmitting device or a receiving device in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application. Reference is made specifically to the detailed description in the method examples, and details are not described here. The processor 701 may also be referred to as a processing unit or a processing module, and may implement certain control functions. The processor 701 may be a general purpose processor or a special purpose processor, etc. For example, it includes: a central processor, an application processor, a modem processor, a graphics processor, an image signal processor, a digital signal processor, a video codec processor, a controller, a memory, and/or a neural network processor, etc. The central processor may be used to control the communication device 700, execute software programs, and/or process data. The different processors may be separate devices or may be integrated in one or more processors, e.g., integrated on one or more application specific integrated circuits.

Optionally, the communication device 700 comprises one or more memories 702 for storing instructions 704, which can be executed on the processor 701, to cause the communication device 700 to perform the method described in the method embodiments described above. The memory 702 and the processor 701 may be provided separately or may be integrated, and it may be considered that the memory 702 and the processor 701 are coupled. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units, or modules, which may be in electrical, mechanical, or other forms for information interaction between the devices, units, or modules. The processor 701 may operate in conjunction with the memory 702. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor. The memory 702 is not necessarily shown in fig. 7 by a broken line.

Optionally, the memory 702 may also store data therein. The processor and the memory may be provided separately or may be integrated. In an embodiment of the present application, the memory 702 may be a nonvolatile memory, such as a hard disk (HDD) or a Solid State Drive (SSD), or may be a volatile memory (volatile memory), for example, a random-access memory (RAM). The memory is any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to such. The memory in embodiments of the present application may also be circuitry or any other device capable of performing memory functions for storing program instructions and/or data.

Optionally, the communication device 700 may comprise instructions 703 (sometimes also referred to as code or program), which instructions 703 may be executed on the processor, causing the communication device 700 to perform the method described in the above embodiments. The processor 701 may store data therein.

Optionally, the communication device 700 may also include a transceiver 705 and an antenna 706. The transceiver 705 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver module, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, an input-output interface, etc. for implementing the transceiver function of the communication device 700 via the antenna 706.

The processor 701 and transceiver 705 described in the present application may be implemented on an integrated circuit (integrated circuit, IC), analog IC, radio frequency integrated circuit (radio frequency identification, RFID), mixed signal IC, ASIC, printed circuit board (printed circuit board, PCB), or electronic device, among others. The communication apparatus described herein may be implemented as a stand-alone device (e.g., a stand-alone integrated circuit, a mobile phone, etc.), or may be part of a larger device (e.g., a module that may be embedded in another device), and reference may be made specifically to the foregoing description of the terminal device and the network device, which is not repeated herein.

Optionally, the communication device 700 may further include one or more of the following: wireless communication modules, audio modules, external memory interfaces, internal memory, universal serial bus (universal serial bus, USB) interfaces, power management modules, antennas, speakers, microphones, input/output modules, sensor modules, motors, cameras, or displays, among others. It is to be appreciated that in some embodiments, the communication device 700 may include more or fewer components, or some components may be integrated, or some components may be split. These components may be hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware implementations.

The communication device in the above embodiment may be a circuit, a chip applied to a transmitting device (or a receiving device), or other combination devices or components having the functions of the transmitting device (or the receiving device). When the communication device is a transmitting device (or a receiving device), the transceiver module may be a transceiver, may include an antenna, a radio frequency circuit, and the like, and the processing module may be a processor, for example: a central processing module (central processing unit, CPU). When the communication device is a component having the function of the first terminal device (or network device) described above, the transceiver module may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing module may be a processor. When the communication device is a system-on-chip, the communication device may be a field programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA), an application specific integrated chip (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a CPU, a network processor (network processor, NP), a digital signal processing circuit (digital signal processor, DSP), a microcontroller (micro controller unit, MCU), a programmable controller (programmable logic device, PLD) or other integrated chip. The processing module may be a processor of a system-on-chip. The transceiver module or communication interface may be an input-output interface or interface circuit of a system-on-chip. For example, the interface circuit may be a code/data read-write interface circuit. The interface circuit may be configured to receive code instructions (the code instructions being stored in the memory, being readable directly from the memory, or being readable from the memory via other means) and to transmit to the processor; the processor may be configured to execute the code instructions to perform the methods of the method embodiments described above. For another example, the interface circuit may also be a signal transmission interface circuit between the communication processor and the transceiver.

When the communication device is a chip-like device or circuit, the device may comprise a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The receiving and transmitting unit can be an input and output circuit and/or a communication interface; the processing unit is an integrated processor or microprocessor or integrated circuit.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication system, in particular to the communication system which comprises at least one sending device and at least one receiving device. Illustratively, the communication system includes a transmitting means and a receiving means for implementing the relevant functions described above in fig. 2. Please refer to the related description in the above method embodiment, and the description is omitted here.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method performed by the transmitting apparatus of fig. 2; or when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method performed by the receiving device in fig. 2.

There is also provided in an embodiment of the application a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method performed by the transmitting apparatus of fig. 2; or when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method performed by the receiving device in fig. 2.

The embodiment of the application provides a chip system, which comprises a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is used for realizing the function of a transmitting device in the method; or for implementing the functions of the receiving device in the aforementioned method. The chip system may be formed of a chip or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the foregoing processes do not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by the functions and internal logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks (illustrative logical block) and steps (steps) described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be essentially contributing or part of the technical solution may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, etc., which can store program codes.

It is evident that various modifications and variations may be made to the present application by those skilled in the art. The present application is intended to include such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. A signal processing method, comprising:

receiving K wave beams of an antenna array at K times respectively, wherein the K times correspond to the K wave beams one by one;

Based on the spatial field strengths corresponding to the K beams respectively, obtaining a superimposed spatial field strength, wherein the superimposed spatial field strength meets the requirement that the beam forming gain of the antenna array is located in a preset range;

and respectively processing the reference signals on the K wave beams according to the superimposed space field intensity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference signal is a positioning reference signal or a channel estimation reference signal.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the antenna array is a dual polarized antenna array, and the superimposed spatial field strength in the first direction satisfies the following formula:wherein θ is an angle between the first direction and the z-axis of the spatial coordinate, the origin of the spatial coordinate is the center of the antenna array, and φ is an angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the spatial coordinate and the x-axis, and the angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the spatial coordinate and the x-axis is the angle between the first direction on the x-y axis of the spatial coordinate and the x-axis of the antenna array>For a beam forming weight vector in one polarization direction,/for a beam forming weight>For beamforming weight vector in the other polarization direction, F ^T S is an intermediate parameter based on the approximation of the Bessel function to y (θ, φ).

4. A method of signaling, comprising:

Determining K groups of beamforming vectors, wherein the K groups of beamforming vectors are beamforming vectors respectively corresponding to the antenna array at K times, the K groups of beamforming vectors meet the condition that the gain of space beamforming of the antenna array is in a preset range, and K is an integer greater than or equal to 2;

the beams are shaped according to the K groups of beam shaping vectors, and K shaped beams are obtained;

and respectively transmitting reference signals at the K times based on the K shaped beams.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the K sets of beamforming vectors are optimized by an objective function that satisfies a minimum difference between a maximum and a minimum of spatial power of the antenna array over the K times.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the antenna array is a dual polarized antenna array, and the objective function satisfies the following formula:

minimize|10log10(max(P))-10log10(min(P))|

s.t.

where s.t denotes a constraint, P is the spatial power over the K times,for a beam-forming vector optimized in one polarization direction,/>For the optimized beam forming vector in the other polarization direction, C _i For the gain fluctuation value, i=1, 2, θ is an included angle between a first direction in which an array element of the antenna array is located and a z-axis of a spatial coordinate, and phi is an included angle between a projection of the first direction on an x-y axis of the spatial coordinate and the x-axis, where an origin of the spatial coordinate is a center of the antenna array.

7. The method of any of claims 4-6, wherein prior to determining the K sets of beamforming vectors, the method further comprises:

acquiring the space field intensity of an nth array element of the antenna array in a first direction, wherein the center of the antenna array is taken as an origin of space coordinates, an included angle between the first direction and a z axis of the space coordinates is theta, an included angle between the projection of the first direction on an x-y axis of the space coordinates and the x axis is phi, N epsilon [1, N ], wherein N is the number of array elements included in the antenna array, theta epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ], phi epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ];

for each time of the K times, overlapping the spatial field strengths of the N array elements in the first direction to obtain K spatial overlapping field strengths of the antenna array;

and vectorizing the K space superposition field intensities respectively to obtain K groups of beam forming vectors.

8. The method of any of claims 4-6, wherein prior to determining the K sets of beamforming vectors, the method further comprises:

acquiring the space superposition field intensity of an nth array element of the antenna array at a first height h and in a first direction, wherein the center of the antenna array is taken as an origin of a space coordinate, an included angle between the first direction and a z axis of the space coordinate is theta, an included angle between the projection of the first direction on an x-y axis of the space coordinate and the x axis is phi, N epsilon [1, N ], the N is the number of array elements included in the antenna array, theta epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ], phi epsilon [ -180 degrees, 180 degrees ], and h epsilon [0.1,1];

traversing h according to a first step length for each time of the K times, and superposing the spatial superposition field intensity of the N array elements in the first direction to obtain K spatial superposition field intensities of the antenna array;

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the method further comprises:

traversing (theta, phi) with a second step length, and determining K groups of beamforming weights respectively corresponding to the K groups of beamforming vectors;

The corresponding wave beams are shaped through the K groups of wave beam shaping weights, and the K shaped wave beams are obtained;

and if the gain of the space beam forming of the K beams is in the preset range, determining K groups of beam forming vectors corresponding to the K beams as K groups of beam forming vectors of the objective function.

10. The method of any one of claims 1-9, wherein the antenna array is a circular dual polarized antenna array.

11. A communication device, comprising a processing module and a transceiver module;

the receiving and transmitting module is used for respectively receiving K wave beams of the antenna array at K times, wherein the K times correspond to the K wave beams one by one;

the processing module is used for obtaining superimposed space field intensity based on the space field intensity corresponding to the K beams respectively, and processing the reference signals on the K beams according to the superimposed space field intensity respectively, wherein the superimposed space field intensity meets the condition that the beam forming gain of the antenna array is located in a preset range.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the reference signal is a positioning reference signal or a channel estimation reference signal.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 or 12, wherein the antenna array is a dual polarized antenna array, and the superimposed spatial field strength in the first direction satisfies the following formula:wherein θ is an angle between the first direction and the z-axis of the spatial coordinate, the origin of the spatial coordinate is the center of the antenna array, and φ is an angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the spatial coordinate and the x-axis, and the angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the spatial coordinate and the x-axis is the angle between the first direction on the x-y axis of the spatial coordinate and the x-axis of the antenna array>For a beam forming weight vector in one polarization direction,/for a beam forming weight>For beamforming weight vector in the other polarization direction, F ^T S is an intermediate parameter based on the approximation of the Bessel function to y (θ, φ).

14. A communication device, comprising a processing module and a transceiver module;

the processing module is used for determining K groups of beam forming vectors, forming beams according to the K groups of beam forming vectors to obtain K formed beams, wherein the K groups of beam forming vectors are beam forming vectors respectively corresponding to the antenna array at K times, the K groups of beam forming vectors meet the condition that the space beam forming gain of the antenna array is in a preset range, and K is an integer greater than or equal to 2;

The transceiver module is configured to send reference signals at the K times based on the K shaped beams, respectively.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the K sets of beamforming vectors are optimized by an objective function that satisfies a minimum difference between a maximum and a minimum of the K temporal spatial powers.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the antenna array is a dual polarized antenna array, and the objective function satisfies the following formula:

minimize|10log10(max(P))-10log10(min(P))|

s.t.

where s.t denotes a constraint, P is the spatial power over the K times,for a beam-forming vector optimized in one polarization direction,/>For the optimized beam forming vector in the other polarization direction, C _i For the gain fluctuation value, i=1, 2, θ is the nip between the first direction in which one element of the antenna array is located and the z-axis of the spatial coordinatesAnd an angle phi is an included angle between the projection of the first direction on the x-y axis of the space coordinate and the x axis, wherein the origin of the space coordinate is the center of the antenna array.

17. The apparatus of any of claims 14-16, wherein the processing module is further to:

18. The apparatus of any of claims 14-16, wherein the processing module is further to:

19. The apparatus of claim 17 or 18, wherein the processing module is further to:

20. The apparatus of any one of claims 11-19, wherein the antenna array is a circular dual polarized antenna array.

21. A communication device, comprising: a processor coupled to a memory for storing a program or instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1-3.

22. A communication device, comprising: a processor coupled to a memory for storing a program or instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 4-10.

23. A computer readable storage medium storing computer instructions which, when executed, cause the method of any one of claims 1-3 to be performed or cause the method of any one of claims 4-10 to be performed.

24. A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product comprises a computer program which, when run, causes the method of any one of claims 1-3 to be performed or causes the method of any one of claims 4-10 to be performed.