CN116964954A

CN116964954A - Signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications

Info

Publication number: CN116964954A
Application number: CN202280019052.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: V·拉加万; M·A·塔索德基; R·N·查拉
Original assignee: Qualcomm Inc
Current assignee: Qualcomm Inc
Priority date: 2021-03-11
Filing date: 2022-02-16
Publication date: 2023-10-27

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices are described for mitigating blocked wireless communications in wireless signals between wireless devices. The UE may detect that a blocking presence (e.g., a hand blocking) such as by detecting that the received signal strength from the transmitting device (e.g., a base station or access network entity) has dropped by more than a threshold. Based on the blocking detection, the UE may measure an amplitude of one or more reference signals at one or more of the plurality of antenna elements. The UE may also measure one or more reference signals for one or more phase shifter values applied to the plurality of antenna elements. The UE may determine an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set for the plurality of antenna elements based on the measurements and apply the weighting sets to communications with the transmitting device.

Description

Signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications

Cross reference

This patent application claims priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No.17/671,922, entitled "SIGNAL BLOCKAGE MITIGATION TECHNIQUES IN WIERELESS COMMUNICATIONS (Signal blocking mitigation technique in Wireless COMMUNICATIONS)" filed by RAGHAVIN et al at 2, 15, 2022, which claims benefit from U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No.63/159,875, entitled "SIGNAL BLOCKAGE MITIGATION TECHNIQUES IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS (Signal blocking mitigation technique in Wireless COMMUNICATIONS)" filed by RAGHAVIN et al at 11, 3, 2021, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The following relates to wireless communications, including signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications.

Background

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be able to support communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple access systems include fourth generation (4G) systems such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, LTE-advanced (LTE-a) systems, or LTE-a Pro systems, and fifth generation (5G) systems, which may be referred to as New Radio (NR) systems. These systems may employ various techniques such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), or discrete fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM). A wireless multiple-access communication system may include one or more base stations or one or more network access nodes, each of which simultaneously support communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise referred to as User Equipment (UE).

Wireless communication systems may operate in a number of different frequency ranges, some of which may be relatively vulnerable to blockage by nearby objects or parts of the user's body (e.g., hands, shoulders, face, etc.). For example, in the millimeter wave (mmW) frequency range, e.g., 26GHz, 28GHz, 39GHz, 57-71GHz, etc., wireless communications may be associated with increased signal attenuation (e.g., path loss, penetration loss, blocking loss) and increased blocking susceptibility. A transmitting device (e.g., TRxP) may coherently combine energy and overcome path loss using signal processing techniques such as beamforming, and a receiving device (e.g., UE) may configure antenna elements using beamforming techniques to receive transmissions in a directional manner. Techniques for improving beamforming and mitigating signal attenuation may be desirable for achieving higher reliability and throughput in wireless communication systems.

SUMMARY

The described technology relates to improved methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses that support signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications. According to various aspects, the described techniques provide for the determination of an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set that may be applied to an antenna array in order to mitigate blocking associated with the antenna array. In some cases, a User Equipment (UE) may detect that a blockage exists (e.g., a hand blockage), such as by detecting that the received signal strength from a transmitting device (e.g., a base station) has dropped by more than a threshold. Based on the blocking detection, the UE may measure an amplitude of one or more reference signals at one or more antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements (e.g., at each antenna element of the antenna array). The UE may also measure one or more reference signals for one or more phase shifter values (e.g., over a phase shifter search space) applied to the plurality of antenna elements. The UE may determine an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set for the plurality of antenna elements based on the measurements and apply the weighting sets to receive communications from the transmitting device. These sets of weights can also be used for uplink transmission using the beam correspondence principle. The weighting for both amplitude and phase may provide enhanced barrier mitigation relative to weighting based on phase measurements alone.

A method for wireless communication at a User Equipment (UE) is described. The method may include: for one or more antenna elements of a set of multiple antenna elements at the UE, measuring an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity, measuring a received power of the one or more reference signals for one or more of a set of multiple phase shifter values applied to the set of multiple antenna elements, applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to the set of multiple antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based on the measured received power, and receiving one or more downlink transmissions from the access network entity based on the amplitude weighting set and the phase weighting set applied to the set of multiple antenna elements.

An apparatus for wireless communication at a UE is described. The apparatus may include a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, and instructions stored in the memory. The instructions are executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: for one or more antenna elements of a set of multiple antenna elements at the UE, measuring an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity, measuring a received power of the one or more reference signals for one or more of a set of multiple phase shifter values applied to the set of multiple antenna elements, applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to the set of multiple antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based on the measured received power, and receiving one or more downlink transmissions from the access network entity based on the amplitude weighting set and the phase weighting set applied to the set of multiple antenna elements.

Another apparatus for wireless communication at a UE is described. The apparatus may include: means for measuring, for one or more antenna elements of a set of multiple antenna elements at the UE, an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity, means for measuring, for one or more of a set of multiple phase shifter values applied to the set of multiple antenna elements, a received power of the one or more reference signals, means for applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to the set of multiple antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based on the measured received power, and means for receiving one or more downlink transmissions from the access network entity based on the amplitude weighting set and the phase weighting set applied to the set of multiple antenna elements.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication at a UE is described. The code may include instructions executable by a processor to: for one or more antenna elements of a set of multiple antenna elements at the UE, measuring an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity, measuring a received power of the one or more reference signals for one or more of a set of multiple phase shifter values applied to the set of multiple antenna elements, applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to the set of multiple antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based on the measured received power, and receiving one or more downlink transmissions from the access network entity based on the amplitude weighting set and the phase weighting set applied to the set of multiple antenna elements.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include operations, features, means or instructions for: a procedure is initiated to obtain the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights based on detection of a decrease in signal strength at the UE exceeding a threshold. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the detection of the signal strength decrease exceeding the threshold may be based on periodic reference signal measurements of the UE, and wherein the threshold corresponds to a strength decrease indicative of hand blockage of one or more antenna elements of the set of multiple antenna elements.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the set of phase weights may be determined based on one or more aperiodic reference signals transmitted by the access network entity. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the one or more non-periodic reference signals derandomize phase distortion caused by blocking of one or more antenna elements of the set of multiple antenna elements.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the amplitude of the one or more reference signals may be measured for one antenna element in an antenna array comprising a set of the plurality of antenna elements at a time. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the measured amplitude and the measured received power correspond to a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the one or more reference signals.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, applying the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights may include operations, features, apparatus or instructions for: a product matrix of the amplitude weighting and the phase weighting is applied to the signal for each antenna, where the matrix may be weighted based on the sum of the measured amplitudes. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the amplitude weighting associated with each antenna element may be applied to the corresponding phase weighting as an amplitude that is the square root of the reference signal received power of the one or more reference signals measured at the corresponding antenna element. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the matrix may be weighted by the inverse of the square root of the sum of each of the measured RSRP to provide unit energy beamforming.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the set of multiple phase shifter values may be determined based on a B-bit phase shifter search and based on a number of phase factors of a number of antenna elements in the set of multiple antenna elements. In some examples of the methods, apparatus (devices) and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the number of phase factors may be set one less than the number of antenna elements.

Brief Description of Drawings

Fig. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of a portion of a wireless communication system supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3A and 3B illustrate examples of signal blocking-derived amplitude perturbations in wireless communications according to aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a flow chart for a signal blocking mitigation technique in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates an example of an architecture supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 and 7 illustrate block diagrams of devices supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 illustrates a block diagram of a communication manager supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communication in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

Fig. 9 illustrates a diagram of a system including a device supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communication, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10-12 illustrate flow diagrams that are known to illustrate methods of supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

A wireless communication system may include a transmitting device and a receiving device (e.g., a base station, a User Equipment (UE) device, a remote radio head, etc.) that use multiple antennas for communication. For example, the UE may include a plurality of different antenna panels/sub-arrays, each including a plurality of antenna elements that may have antenna spacing based on an operating frequency range of the antenna sub-arrays. In the case where one or more antenna sub-arrays may be configured for a relatively high frequency range, such as a millimeter wave (mmW) frequency range, e.g., 26GHz, 28GHz, 39GHz, 57-71GHz, etc., signal processing techniques (e.g., beamforming) may be used to overcome path loss. For example, a transmitting device (e.g., a transmitting receiving point (TRxP), base station, or UE) may coherently combine transmit energy on one or more antenna elements and overcome path loss at an operating frequency. In other examples, a receiving device (e.g., a UE or a base station) may use beamforming techniques to configure antenna elements for directional signal reception. Communications at mmW frequencies may also be more susceptible to blockage relative to sub-6 GHz frequencies, such as blockage caused by objects or portions of the user's body that may be located in the direction of the directed beam path and significantly attenuate the beam. In addition, the antenna elements may be relatively closely spaced, which may make the antenna sub-array relatively vulnerable to hand blocking, wherein one or more fingers of a user may block multiple antenna elements. The techniques discussed herein provide barrier mitigation at the UE, which may help to enhance reliability and efficiency of communications.

In some cases, the UE and the base station may determine the beamforming parameters according to a codebook-based directional beamforming procedure in which one or more candidate beams are identified for use in communication. To address memory and complexity limitations, some systems implement a fixed codebook (which may also be denoted as a static codebook because it is fixed) that may be stored in the memory of a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) on both the base station side and the UE side, and may perform beam training on this fixed codebook (e.g., using hierarchical beam training such as established P-1, P-2, and P-3 procedures defined by the third generation partnership project (3 GPP)). In some cases, adaptive or dynamic beam weights beyond the fixed beam weights of the static codebook may be beneficial. According to aspects discussed herein, a UE, a base station, or both may apply adaptive or dynamic beam weights beyond the codebook beam weight set in order to mitigate blocking conditions, such as hand blocking, at the UE.

In some cases, the UE may detect that a blocking presence (e.g., a hand blocking), such as by detecting that the received signal strength from the transmitting device (e.g., a base station or access network entity) has dropped by more than a threshold. Based on the blocking detection, the UE may measure an amplitude of one or more reference signals at one or more antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements (e.g., at each antenna element of the antenna array). The UE may also measure one or more reference signals for one or more phase shifter values (e.g., over a phase shifter search space) applied to the plurality of antenna elements. The UE may determine an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set for the plurality of antenna elements based on the measurements and apply the weighting sets to receive communications from the transmitting device. The weighting for both amplitude and phase may provide enhanced barrier mitigation relative to weighting based on phase measurements alone.

Aspects of the present disclosure are initially described in the context of a wireless communication system. Aspects of the present disclosure are further illustrated and described by and with reference to flow diagrams, system architectures, device diagrams, system diagrams, and flow charts relating to signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications for certain blocked antenna attenuation examples.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system 100 supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless communication system 100 may include one or more base stations 105, one or more UEs 115, and a core network 130. In some examples, the wireless communication system 100 may be a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, an LTE-advanced (LTE-a) network, an LTE-a Pro network, or a New Radio (NR) network. In some examples, the wireless communication system 100 may support enhanced broadband communications, ultra-reliable (e.g., mission critical) communications, low latency communications, communications with low cost and low complexity devices, or any combination thereof.

The base stations 105 may be dispersed throughout a geographic area to form the wireless communication system 100 and may be different forms of devices or devices with different capabilities. The base station 105 and the UE 115 may communicate wirelessly via one or more communication links 125. Each base station 105 may provide a coverage area 110 and ues 115 and base stations 105 may establish one or more communication links 125 over the coverage area 110. Coverage area 110 may be an example of a geographic area over which base station 105 and UE 115 may support signal communications in accordance with one or more radio access technologies.

The UEs 115 may be dispersed throughout the coverage area 110 of the wireless communication system 100, and each UE 115 may be stationary or mobile, or stationary and mobile at different times. Each UE 115 may be a different form of device or a device with different capabilities. Some example UEs 115 are illustrated in fig. 1. The UEs 115 described herein may be capable of communicating with various types of devices, such as other UEs 115, base stations 105, or network equipment (e.g., core network nodes, relay devices, integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) nodes, or other network equipment), as shown in fig. 1.

Each base station 105 may communicate with the core network 130, or with each other, or both. For example, the base station 105 may interface with the core network 130 through one or more backhaul links 120 (e.g., via S1, N2, N3, or other interfaces). The base stations 105 may communicate with each other directly (e.g., directly between the base stations 105), or indirectly (e.g., via the core network 130), or both directly and indirectly over the backhaul link 120 (e.g., via an X2, xn, or other interface). In some examples, the backhaul link 120 may be or include one or more wireless links.

One or more of the base stations 105 described herein may include or may be referred to by those of ordinary skill in the art as a base transceiver station, a radio base station, an access point, a radio transceiver, a node B, an evolved node B (eNB), a next generation node B or a giganode B (any of which may be referred to as a gNB), a home node B, a home evolved node B, or other suitable terminology.

UE 115 may include or may be referred to as a mobile device, a wireless device, a remote device, a handheld device, or a subscriber device, or some other suitable terminology, where "device" may also be referred to as a unit, station, terminal, client, or the like. The UE 115 may also include or be referred to as a personal electronic device, such as a cellular telephone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, or a personal computer. In some examples, the UE 115 may include or be referred to as a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, an internet of things (IoT) device, a internet of everything (IoE) device, or a Machine Type Communication (MTC) device, etc., which may be implemented in various objects such as appliances or vehicles, meters, etc.

The UEs 115 described herein may be capable of communicating with various types of devices, such as other UEs 115 that may sometimes act as relays, as well as base stations 105 and network equipment including macro enbs or gnbs, small cell enbs or gnbs, relay base stations, etc., as shown in fig. 1.

The UE 115 and the base station 105 may wirelessly communicate with each other over one or more carriers via one or more communication links 125. The term "carrier" may refer to a set of radio frequency spectrum resources having a defined physical layer structure for supporting the communication link 125. For example, the carrier for the communication link 125 may include a portion (e.g., a bandwidth portion (BWP)) of the radio frequency spectrum band that operates according to one or more physical layer channels for a given radio access technology (e.g., LTE-A, LTE-a Pro, NR). Each physical layer channel may carry acquisition signaling (e.g., synchronization signals, system information), control signaling to coordinate carrier operation, user data, or other signaling. The wireless communication system 100 may support communication with UEs 115 using carrier aggregation or multi-carrier operation. The UE 115 may be configured with multiple downlink component carriers and one or more uplink component carriers according to a carrier aggregation configuration. Carrier aggregation may be used with Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) component carriers.

The signal waveform transmitted on the carrier may include a plurality of subcarriers (e.g., using a multi-carrier modulation (MCM) technique such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) or discrete fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM)). In a system employing MCM techniques, the resource elements may include one symbol period (e.g., duration of one modulation symbol) and one subcarrier, where the symbol period and subcarrier spacing are inversely related. The number of bits carried by each resource element may depend on the modulation scheme (e.g., the order of the modulation scheme, the code rate of the modulation scheme, or both). Thus, the more resource elements that the UE 115 receives and the higher the order of the modulation scheme, the higher the data rate of the UE 115 may be. The wireless communication resources may refer to a combination of radio frequency spectrum resources, time resources, and spatial resources (e.g., spatial layers or beams), and the use of multiple spatial layers may further improve the data rate or data integrity of the communication with the UE 115.

The time interval of the base station 105 or the UE 115 may be expressed in multiples of a basic time unit, which may refer to, for example, a sampling period T _s ＝1/(Δf _max ·N _f ) Second, Δf _max Can represent the maximum supported subcarrier spacing, and N _f The maximum supported Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) size may be represented. The time intervals of the communication resources may be organized according to radio frames each having a specified duration (e.g., 10 milliseconds (ms)). Each radio frame may be identified by a System Frame Number (SFN) (e.g., ranging from 0 to 1023).

Each frame may include a plurality of consecutively numbered subframes or slots, and each subframe or slot may have the same duration. In some examples, a frame may be divided (e.g., in the time domain) into subframes, and each subframe may be further divided into a number of slots. Alternatively, each frame may include a variable number of slots, and the number of slots may depend on the subcarrier spacing. Each slot may include several symbol periods (e.g., depending on the length of the cyclic prefix added before each symbol period). In some wireless communication systems 100, a time slot may be further divided into a plurality of mini-slots containing one or more symbols. Excluding cyclic prefix, each symbol period may contain one or more (e.g., N _f A number) of sampling periods. The duration of the symbol period may depend on the subcarrier spacing or the operating frequency band.

A subframe, slot, mini-slot, or symbol may be a minimum scheduling unit (e.g., in the time domain) of the wireless communication system 100 and may be referred to as a Transmission Time Interval (TTI). In some examples, the TTI duration (e.g., the number of symbol periods in the TTI) may be variable. Additionally or alternatively, the smallest scheduling unit of the wireless communication system 100 may be dynamically selected (e.g., in bursts of shortened TTIs (sTTI)).

The physical channels may be multiplexed on the carrier according to various techniques. The physical control channels and physical data channels may be multiplexed on the downlink carrier, for example, using one or more of Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) techniques, frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) techniques, or hybrid TDM-FDM techniques. The control region (e.g., control resource set (CORESET)) for the physical control channel may be defined by a number of symbol periods and may extend across a system bandwidth or a subset of the system bandwidth of the carrier. One or more control regions (e.g., core) may be configured for the set of UEs 115. For example, one or more of the UEs 115 may monitor or search the control region for control information according to one or more sets of search spaces, and each set of search spaces may include one or more control channel candidates in one or more aggregation levels arranged in a cascaded manner. The aggregation level for control channel candidates may refer to the number of control channel resources (e.g., control Channel Elements (CCEs)) associated with encoded information for a control information format having a given payload size. The set of search spaces may include a common set of search spaces configured to transmit control information to a plurality of UEs 115 and a set of UE-specific search spaces configured to transmit control information to a particular UE 115.

In some examples, the base station 105 may be mobile and thus provide communication coverage to the mobile geographic coverage area 110. In some examples, different geographic coverage areas 110 associated with different technologies may overlap, but different geographic coverage areas 110 may be supported by the same base station 105. In other examples, overlapping geographic coverage areas 110 associated with different technologies may be supported by different base stations 105. The wireless communication system 100 may include, for example, a heterogeneous network in which different types of base stations 105 use the same or different radio access technologies to provide coverage for various geographic coverage areas 110.

Some UEs 115, such as MTC or IoT devices, may be low cost or low complexity devices and may provide automated communication between machines (e.g., via machine-to-machine (M2M) communication). M2M communication or MTC may refer to a data communication technology that allows devices to communicate with each other or with the base station 105 without human intervention. In some examples, M2M communications or MTC may include communications from devices integrated with sensors or meters to measure or capture information and relay such information to a central server or application that utilizes or presents the information to a person interacting with the application. Some UEs 115 may be designed to collect information or to implement automated behavior of a machine or other device. Examples of applications for MTC devices include: smart metering, inventory monitoring, water level monitoring, equipment monitoring, health care monitoring, field survival monitoring, weather and geographic event monitoring, queue management and tracking, remote security sensing, physical access control, and transaction-based business charging.

The wireless communication system 100 may be configured to support ultra-reliable communication or low latency communication or various combinations thereof. For example, the wireless communication system 100 may be configured to support ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) or mission critical communications. The UE 115 may be designed to support ultra-reliable, low latency, or critical functions (e.g., mission critical functions). Ultra-reliable communications may include private communications or group communications, and may be supported by one or more mission critical services, such as mission critical push-to-talk (MCPTT), mission critical video (MCVideo), or mission critical data (MCData). Support for mission critical functions may include prioritizing services, and mission critical services may be used for public safety or general business applications. The terms ultra-reliable, low-latency, mission-critical, and ultra-reliable low-latency may be used interchangeably herein.

In some examples, the UE 115 may also be capable of communicating directly with other UEs 115 over a device-to-device (D2D) communication link 135 (e.g., using peer-to-peer (P2P) or D2D protocols). One or more UEs 115 utilizing D2D communication may be within the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 105. Other UEs 115 in such a group may be outside of the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 105 or otherwise unable to receive transmissions from the base station 105. In some examples, groups of UEs 115 communicating via D2D communication may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system in which each UE 115 transmits to each other UE 115 in the group. In some examples, the base station 105 facilitates scheduling of resources for D2D communications. In other cases, D2D communication is performed between UEs 115 without involving base station 105.

In some systems, D2D communication link 135 may be an example of a communication channel (such as a side link communication channel) between vehicles (e.g., UEs 115). In some examples, the vehicles may communicate using vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, or some combination of these communications. The vehicle may signal information related to traffic conditions, signal scheduling, weather, safety, emergency, or any other information related to the V2X system. In some examples, vehicles in the V2X system may communicate with a roadside infrastructure, such as a roadside unit, or with a network, or with both, via one or more network nodes (e.g., base stations 105) using vehicle-to-network (V2N) communications.

The core network 130 may provide user authentication, access authorization, tracking, internet Protocol (IP) connectivity, and other access, routing, or mobility functions. The core network 130 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or a 5G core (5 GC), which may include at least one control plane entity (e.g., a Mobility Management Entity (MME), an access and mobility management function (AMF)) that manages access and mobility, and at least one user plane entity (e.g., a serving gateway (S-GW), a Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway (P-GW), or a User Plane Function (UPF)) that routes packets or interconnects to an external network. The control plane entity may manage non-access stratum (NAS) functions such as mobility, authentication, and bearer management for UEs 115 served by base stations 105 associated with the core network 130. User IP packets may be communicated through a user plane entity that may provide IP address assignment, as well as other functions. The user plane entity may be connected to IP services 150 of one or more network operators. The IP service 150 may include access to the internet, an intranet, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), or a packet switched streaming service.

Some network devices, such as base station 105, may include subcomponents, such as access network entity 140, which may be an example of an Access Node Controller (ANC). Each access network entity 140 may communicate with each UE 115 through one or more other access network transport entities 145, which may be referred to as radio heads, intelligent radio heads, or transmission/reception points (TRPs). Each access network transport entity 145 may include one or more antenna panels. In some configurations, the various functions of each access network entity 140 or base station 105 may be distributed across various network devices (e.g., radio heads and ANCs) or incorporated into a single network device (e.g., base station 105).

The wireless communication system 100 may operate using one or more frequency bands, typically in the range of 300 megahertz (MHz) to 300 gigahertz (GHz). Generally, a region of 300MHz to 3GHz is called a Ultra High Frequency (UHF) region or a decimeter band because the wavelength ranges from about 1 decimeter to 1 meter long. UHF waves may be blocked or redirected by building and environmental features, but these waves may penetrate various structures for macro cells sufficiently to serve UEs 115 located indoors. Transmission of UHF waves may be associated with smaller antennas and shorter ranges (e.g., less than 100 km) than transmission of smaller and longer waves using High Frequency (HF) or Very High Frequency (VHF) portions of the spectrum below 300 MHz.

The wireless communication system 100 may also operate in an ultra-high frequency (SHF) region using a frequency band from 3GHz to 30GHz (also referred to as a centimeter frequency band) or in an extremely-high frequency (EHF) region of a frequency spectrum (e.g., from 30GHz to 300 GHz) (also referred to as a millimeter frequency band). In some examples, wireless communication system 100 may support millimeter wave (mmW) communication between UE 115 and base station 105, and EHF antennas of respective devices may be smaller and more closely spaced than UHF antennas. In some examples, this may facilitate the use of antenna arrays within the device. However, the propagation of EHF transmissions may experience even greater atmospheric attenuation and shorter range than SHF or UHF transmissions. The techniques disclosed herein may be employed across transmissions using one or more different frequency regions, and the frequency band usage specified across these frequency regions may vary from country to country or regulatory agency to regulatory agency.

The wireless communication system 100 may utilize both licensed and unlicensed radio frequency spectrum bands. For example, the wireless communication system 100 may employ Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), LTE unlicensed (LTE-U) radio access technology, or NR technology in unlicensed frequency bands, such as the 5GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) frequency bands. When operating in the unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, devices such as base station 105 and UE 115 may employ carrier sensing for collision detection and avoidance. In some examples, operation in the unlicensed band may be based on a carrier aggregation configuration (e.g., LAA) in conjunction with component carriers operating in the licensed band. Operations in the unlicensed spectrum may include downlink transmissions, uplink transmissions, P2P transmissions, or D2D transmissions, among others.

The base station 105 or UE 115 may be equipped with multiple antennas that may be used to employ techniques such as transmit diversity, receive diversity, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication, or beamforming. The antennas of base station 105 or UE 115 may be located within one or more antenna arrays or antenna panels that may support MIMO operation or transmit or receive beamforming. For example, one or more base station antennas or antenna arrays may be co-located at an antenna assembly (such as an antenna tower). In some examples, antennas or antenna arrays associated with base station 105 may be located in different geographic locations. The base station 105 may have an antenna array with several rows and columns of antenna ports that the base station 105 may use to support beamforming for communication with the UE 115. Likewise, UE 115 may have one or more antenna arrays that may support various MIMO or beamforming operations. Additionally or alternatively, the antenna panel may support radio frequency beamforming for signals transmitted via the antenna ports.

Base station 105 or UE 115 may utilize multipath signal propagation and improve spectral efficiency by transmitting or receiving multiple signals via different spatial layers using MIMO communication. Such techniques may be referred to as spatial multiplexing. For example, the transmitting device may transmit multiple signals via different antennas or different combinations of antennas. Likewise, the receiving device may receive multiple signals via different antennas or different combinations of antennas. Each of the plurality of signals may be referred to as a separate spatial stream and may carry bits associated with the same data stream (e.g., the same codeword) or a different data stream (e.g., a different codeword). Different spatial layers may be associated with different antenna ports for channel measurement and reporting. MIMO techniques include single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) in which multiple spatial layers are transmitted to the same receiver device; and multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO), wherein the plurality of spatial layers are transmitted to the plurality of devices.

Beamforming (which may also be referred to as spatial filtering, directional transmission, or directional reception) is a signal processing technique that may be used at a transmitting device or a receiving device (e.g., base station 105, UE 115) to shape or steer antenna beams (e.g., transmit beams, receive beams) along a spatial path between the transmitting device and the receiving device. Beamforming may be implemented by combining signals communicated via antenna elements of an antenna array such that some signals propagating in a particular orientation relative to the antenna array experience constructive interference while other signals experience destructive interference. The adjustment of the signal communicated via the antenna element may include the transmitting device or the receiving device applying an amplitude offset, a phase offset, or both, to the signal carried via the antenna element associated with the device. The adjustment associated with each antenna element may be defined by a set of beamforming weights associated with a particular orientation (e.g., with respect to an antenna array of a transmitting device or a receiving device, or with respect to some other orientation).

The base station 105 or UE 115 may use beam sweep techniques as part of the beamforming operation. For example, the base station 105 may use multiple antennas or antenna arrays (e.g., antenna panels) for beamforming operations for directional communication with the UE 115. Some signals (e.g., synchronization signals, reference signals, beam selection signals, or other control signals) may be transmitted multiple times by the base station 105 in different directions. For example, the base station 105 may transmit signals according to different sets of beamforming weights associated with different transmission directions. Transmissions in different beam directions may be used (e.g., by a transmitting device (such as base station 105) or a receiving device (such as UE 115)) to identify the beam direction used by base station 105 for later transmission or reception.

Some signals, such as data signals associated with a particular recipient device, may be transmitted by the base station 105 in a single beam direction (e.g., a direction associated with the recipient device, such as the UE 115). In some examples, the beam direction associated with transmissions in a single beam direction may be determined based on signals transmitted in one or more beam directions. For example, UE 115 may receive one or more signals transmitted by base station 105 in different directions and may report to base station 105 an indication of the signal received by UE 115 with the highest signal quality or other acceptable signal quality.

In some examples, the transmission by the device (e.g., by the base station 105 or the UE 115) may be performed using multiple beam directions, and the device may use a combination of digital precoding or radio frequency beamforming to generate a combined beam for transmission (e.g., from the base station 105 to the UE 115). The UE 115 may report feedback indicating precoding weights for one or more beam directions and the feedback may correspond to a configured number of beams across a system bandwidth or one or more subbands. The base station 105 may transmit reference signals (e.g., cell-specific reference signals (CRSs), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS)) that may be precoded or not precoded. The UE 115 may provide feedback for beam selection, which may be a Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI) or codebook-based feedback (e.g., a multi-panel type codebook, a linear combination type codebook, a port selection type codebook). Although these techniques are described with reference to signals transmitted by base station 105 in one or more directions, UE 115 may use similar techniques for transmitting signals multiple times in different directions (e.g., for identifying a beam direction for subsequent transmission or reception by UE 115) or for transmitting signals in a single direction (e.g., for transmitting data to a recipient device).

The receiving device (e.g., UE 115) may attempt multiple reception configurations (e.g., directed listening) upon receiving various signals (such as synchronization signals, reference signals, beam selection signals, or other control signals) from the base station 105. For example, the recipient device may attempt multiple directions of reception by: the received signals are received via different antenna sub-arrays, processed according to different antenna sub-arrays, received according to different sets of receive beamforming weights applied to signals received at multiple antenna elements of the antenna array (e.g., different sets of directional listening weights), or processed according to different sets of receive beamforming weights applied to signals received at multiple antenna elements of the antenna array, any of which may be referred to as "listening" according to different receive configurations or receive directions. In some examples, the recipient device may use a single receive configuration to receive in a single beam direction (e.g., when receiving the data signal). A single receive configuration may be aligned on a beam direction determined based on listening according to different receive configuration directions (e.g., a beam direction determined to have the highest signal strength, highest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or other acceptable signal quality based on listening according to multiple beam directions).

The wireless communication system 100 may be a packet-based network that operates according to a layered protocol stack. At the user plane, the communication of the bearer or Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer may be IP-based. The Radio Link Control (RLC) layer may perform packet segmentation and reassembly to communicate over logical channels. A Medium Access Control (MAC) layer may perform priority handling and multiplex logical channels into transport channels. The MAC layer may also use error detection techniques, error correction techniques, or both to support retransmission by the MAC layer to improve link efficiency. In the control plane, a Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol layer may provide establishment, configuration, and maintenance of an RRC connection between the UE 115 and the base station 105 or the core network 130 supporting radio bearers of user plane data. At the physical layer, transport channels may be mapped to physical channels.

The UE 115 and the base station 105 may support retransmission of data to increase the likelihood that the data is successfully received. Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback is a technique for increasing the likelihood that data is properly received over the communication link 125. HARQ may include a combination of error detection (e.g., using Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)), forward Error Correction (FEC), and retransmission (e.g., automatic repeat request (ARQ)). HARQ may improve throughput of the MAC layer in poor radio conditions (e.g., low signal-to-noise conditions). In some examples, a device may support simultaneous slot HARQ feedback, where the device may provide HARQ feedback in a particular slot for data received in a previous symbol in the slot. In other cases, the device may provide HARQ feedback in a subsequent time slot or according to some other time interval.

In some cases, UE 115 may detect that a blockage exists (e.g., a hand blockage), such as by detecting that the received signal strength from base station 105 has dropped by more than a threshold. Based on the blocking detection, UE 115 may determine an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set for the plurality of antenna elements based on an amplitude measurement of one or more reference signals at the one or more antenna elements (e.g., at each antenna element of the antenna array) and a phase measurement of the one or more reference signals at the one or more antenna elements. The set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights may be applied as a complement to the set of static codebooks of antenna weights to help mitigate blocking and enhance reliability of communications between the UE 115 and the base station 105.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system 200 supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the disclosure. The wireless communication system 200 may include a UE 115-a and a base station 105-a, which may be examples of corresponding devices described with reference to fig. 1.

The UE 115-a may support a communication link 205 (or multiple links) with the base station 105-a. The communication link 205 may have multiple transmission paths such that a first portion of the communication link 205-a has a direct or line of sight (LOS) path and a second portion of the communication link 205-b and a third portion of the communication link 205-c may have an indirect or non-LOS path. In addition, UE 115-a may support an antenna panel including a plurality of antenna elements, which may include a first sub-array 210-a, a second sub-array 210-b, a third sub-array 210-c, and a fourth sub-array 210-d. Each sub-array may include a plurality of antenna elements (e.g., a 4x1 antenna array may include four antenna elements arranged in a single row, a 4x2 antenna array may include eight antenna elements arranged in two rows of four antenna elements, etc.).

In this example, the user's hand 215 may be placed such that one or more subarrays 210 may be blocked. In the example of fig. 2, such blocking may result in one or more coverage areas associated with the antenna array being significantly attenuated. An example of exemplary blocked signal attenuation for one and two fingers is illustrated in fig. 3A and 3B. In cases where the beam used is affected by blocking, significant signal attenuation may be experienced, which may result in less reliable communication. In aspects of the present disclosure, mitigation of blocking may be performed dynamically by the UE 115-a such that static codebook weights of the codebook (e.g., generated from a beam training procedure) may be updated with dynamic weights that help mitigate blocking.

In some cases, UE 115-a may perform a search on the amplitude and phase shifter values for mitigation of blocking. In some cases, for amplitude values, the UE 115-a may measure a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the reference signal and thus estimate the amplitude of the signal seen by the antenna element(s). When measuring the amplitude, the UE 115-a may determine the square root of RSRP observed at a single antenna element (e.g., a pseudo-omni-beam used in initial link acquisition). In some cases, the amplitude RSRP measurement may be based on CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) transmissions by the base station 105-a using established CSI-RS resources. When performing phase shifter measurements, the UE 115-a may perform a search over the space of the phase shifters. In some cases, each antenna element of sub-array 210 may be sampled with a plurality of different phase shifts and a plurality of phase factors (e.g., a combination of different phase shifts at different antenna elements) so as to be used for that day Several phase combinations of the line oscillators are tested (e.g., a two-bit phase shifter search per antenna oscillator over three phase factors may result in 64= (2) ² ) ³ The possible beam weights).

For example, the fourth subarray 210-d may be determined to have a blockage (e.g., due to the thumb of the user's hand 215 blocking one or more antenna elements). The fourth sub-array 210-d may be a 4x1 array and the amplitude measurements may use a beam weight vector w _i (wherein w is ₁ ＝[1 0 0 0]，w ₂ ＝[0 1 0 0]，w ₃ ＝[0 0 1 0]And w is ₄ ＝[0 0 0 1]) To measure RSRP indicative of observed RSRP _i (wherein i=1, 2, 3, 4). Based on the amplitude measurements, an amplitude weighting for hand blockage mitigation may be generated according to:

wherein based on RSRP being a power measurement, the square root of the measured RSRP is used as a representation of the amplitude, and the matrix is weighted by the inverse of the square root of the sum of each of the measured RSRP to provide unit energy beamforming.

Such techniques provide an estimate of the channel at the UE 115-a, where the effective channel seen by the 4x1 sub-array 210 is [ h ] ₁ h ₂ h ₃ h ₄ ]And the optimal beam weight to be used may be one corresponding to h ₁ h ₂ h ₃ h ₄ ]Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) beam weights. In the case where the phase shifter search alone is used for blocking mitigation, only [ h ] is incorporated ₁ h ₂ h ₃ h ₄ ]And an effective channel h can be provided by searching both using amplitude and phase shifters ₁ h ₂ h ₃ h ₄ ]Is a better estimate or approximation of (a). For the phase shifter search, a plurality of phase settings per antenna element may be used, where the number of phase settings per antenna element may be based on a B-bit phase shifter (e.g., a 2-bit phase shifter resulting in 4 phases per antenna element,or a 3-bit phase shifter resulting in 8 phases per antenna element). The phase shifter search may also depend on the number of phase factors, which may be based on the number of antenna elements. For example, for a 4x1 sub-array 210, four antenna elements with B-bit phase shifters may provide four phase factors. However, since only relative phase measurements are used, thenWith 0 set, the search may be reduced to only 3 phase factors (e.g., the phase factors may be determined based on the number of antenna elements minus one).

In some cases, implementing the techniques discussed herein may provide higher beamforming gains than techniques that use only phase searching to determine matrix weights applied to an antenna array. For example, if four Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) beams are used in the 4x1 sub-array 210, it is contemplated that different dynamic beam search codebooks may be used for 2-bit or 3-bit shifter searches (e.g., the B value of a B-bit shifter may be 2 or 3, although other B values may be used in some cases). In some cases, further incorporating amplitude measurements into matrix weights in addition to phase-only search may result in additional beams for dynamic codebooks based on the number of RSRPs (e.g., for four RSRPs of a 4x1 array where b=3 and three phase factors, 512= (2) may be searched ³ ) ³ A number of possible beams). The UE 115-a may determine to apply to (e.g., [ h ] based on searching on the dynamic codebook ₁ h ₂ h ₃ h ₄ ]) Weighting of antenna elements of a sub-array. In some cases, adding additional RSRP possibilities for a 4x1 array of b=2, the beamforming gain over the coverage area of the 4x1 array (e.g., 210 ° azimuth x180 ° elevation) (plotted as a spherical coverage curve) may result in a 1.5dB median gain, and greater than 3dB for a 90 percent gain, and may provide an improvement on the order of 0.5dB at the median value, and 1.0dB at 90 percent compared to a shifter-only search.

Fig. 3A and 3B illustrate examples of signal blocking-derived amplitude perturbations 300 and 350 in wireless communications according to aspects of the present disclosure. In the example of fig. 3A, the illustration shows an exemplary amplitude disturbance 300 in azimuth (Φ) and elevation (θ) based on one finger blocking a 4x1 antenna sub-array (e.g., sub-array 210 of fig. 2) relative to undisturbed free space antenna operation. In the example of fig. 3B, the illustration shows an exemplary amplitude disturbance 350 in azimuth (Φ) and elevation (θ) based on a two finger blocking 4x1 antenna sub-array (e.g., sub-array 210 of fig. 2) relative to undisturbed free space antenna operation.

As can be observed from the amplitude disturbance 300, the presence of one finger near the antenna element in the antenna module results in a relatively large loss region, as well as some regions that are unattenuated and regions of relatively small presence gain (e.g., due to phase disturbance in a small gap associated with the finger that results in signal gain). In addition, as can be observed from the amplitude disturbance 350, the presence of two fingers near the antenna element in the antenna module results in a larger loss region as well as a smaller unattenuated region and a region with gain. In cases such as illustrated in fig. 3A and 3B, techniques as described herein may be implemented that may provide dynamic or adaptive beam weights in order to provide beams directed to relatively unattenuated regions. Such techniques may result in increased reliability, reduced power consumption, reduced latency, and an enhanced user experience in wireless communications.

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a flow chart 400 supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In some examples, the operations of flowchart 400 may be implemented by a UE (such as described with reference to fig. 1 and 2). Although the example of fig. 4 is discussed in connection with a UE, these operations and techniques may be implemented by other devices (such as a base station or other wireless node) and operations at other types of devices are within the scope of the present disclosure. In the description of flowchart 400 below, the operations described may be performed in an order different from the example order shown. Some operations may also be omitted from flowchart 400, and other operations may be added to flowchart 400.

In some examples, the operations illustrated in flowchart 400 may be performed by hardware (e.g., including circuitry, processing blocks, logic components, and other components), code executed by a processor (e.g., software or firmware), or any combination thereof. The following alternative examples may be implemented in which some of the operations are performed in a different order than described or not performed at all. In some cases, the operations may include additional features not mentioned below, or further operations may be added.

At 405, the ue may measure reference signal strengths of one or more reference signals. In some cases, the UE may measure RSRP of the CSI-RS. In other cases, one or more other reference signals (e.g., demodulation reference signals (DMRS), sounding Reference Signals (SRS), phase Tracking Reference Signals (PTRS), or a combination thereof) may be measured in addition to or in place of CSI-RS measurements. In addition, in some cases, one or more synchronization signals (e.g., primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), or both) may be measured. In some cases, reference signal strength measurements may be made from periodic CSI measurements performed at the UE using monitored and measured CSI-RS resources.

At 410, the ue may determine whether the signal strength reduction exceeds a threshold. In some cases, the UE may compare the current signal strength measurement to one or more previous measurements, and the threshold may be based on a percentage decrease in the measured value (e.g., if RSRP decreases by a percentage). In some cases, additionally or alternatively, the signal strength reduction determination may be based on a rate of observed reduction (e.g., if the rate of change of RSRP is greater than a threshold), which may indicate that the user has changed grip on the UE, and thus that there is or the hand blockage has changed. In other cases, additionally or alternatively, the determination of the signal strength decrease may be based at least in part on a number of HARQ Negative Acknowledgements (NACKs) associated with the one or more transmissions having been transmitted (e.g., if a ratio of NACKs increases by more than a threshold amount), which may indicate that a new barrier is being observed at the UE. Additionally, in some cases, the determination of the signal strength reduction may be based at least in part on a predictive model (e.g., based on artificial intelligence or machine learning), where one or more inputs at the UE (e.g., an application or data type being transmitted, inputs from one or more sensors (such as an orientation or measured impedance of the UE, etc.) where the UE determines that the signal strength reduction is not present, operations at 405 may be repeated.

In 415, in the event that the UE determines that a signal strength reduction exists, the UE may identify CSI-RS resources for amplitude and phase measurements as part of a dynamic or adaptive beam weight determination to determine beam weights of the static codebook set that exceed the beam weights. In some cases, the CSI-RS resources may include periodic CSI-RS resources, aperiodic CSI-RS resources, or any combination thereof. In some cases, aperiodic CSI-RS resources may be triggered by the UE (e.g., based on a request from the UE or CSI reports provided by the UE). In other cases, one or more other reference signals may be measured in addition to or in lieu of the CSI-RS.

At 420, the ue may measure the signal strength of the test/sample beam at each antenna element. In some cases, the signal strength may be measured as RSRP, although other signal strength or amplitude measurements may be used. In some cases, signal strength may be measured as the square root of RSRP observed with a single antenna element (e.g., a pseudo-omni-directional beam).

At 425, the ue may measure the phase shift spatially on the phase shifter. In some cases, the UE may use a B-bit phase shifter (e.g., b=2 or b=3 for a 4x1 antenna sub-array) to measure RSRP for a number of phase factors associated with a number of antenna elements of the antenna array. In some cases, the phase shift may be estimated with aperiodic CSI-RS resources to derandomize phase distortion caused by hand blocking. In other cases, one or more other reference signals may be used alone or in combination with CSI-RS.

At 430, the ue may determine amplitude and phase weights based on the signal strength and the phase shifter measurements. In some cases, the UE may search over a set of beams and RSRP (such as discussed with reference to fig. 2). At 435, the ue may apply amplitude and phase weighting to the antenna elements for communication with a base station or other wireless device. The UE may then continue with the operations as described beginning at 405 (e.g., in the event that the user changes their grip on the UE, etc.).

Fig. 5 illustrates an example of an architecture 500 supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. In some examples, architecture 500 may implement aspects of wireless communication system 100 or 200 as described with reference to fig. 1 and 2. In some examples, architecture 500 may be an example of components of a UE or other device that may perform signal blocking mitigation techniques as described herein.

Broadly, fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating example hardware components of a wireless device in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. The illustrated components may include those components that may be used for antenna element selection and/or beamforming for wireless signal transmission. There are numerous architectures for antenna element selection and implementing phase shifting and amplitude weighting, only one of which is illustrated here. Architecture 500 includes modem (modulator/demodulator) 502, digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 505, first mixer 506, second mixer 508, and splitter 510. Architecture 500 further includes a plurality of first amplifiers 512, a plurality of phase shifters 515, a plurality of second amplifiers 516, and an antenna array 520 including a plurality of antenna elements 518. Transmission lines or other waveguides, wires, traces, etc. are shown connecting the various components to illustrate how signals to be transmitted may travel between the components. Blocks 522, 525, 526, and 528 indicate areas in architecture 500 where different types of signals travel or are processed. Specifically, block 522 indicates an area in which a digital baseband signal is traveling or being processed, block 525 indicates an area in which an analog baseband signal is traveling or being processed, block 526 indicates an area in which an analog Intermediate Frequency (IF) signal is traveling or being processed, and block 528 indicates an area in which an analog Radio Frequency (RF) signal is traveling or being processed. The architecture also includes a local oscillator a 530, a local oscillator B532, and a communication manager 535.

Each of the antenna elements 520 may include one or more sub-elements (not shown) for radiating or receiving RF signals. For example, a single antenna element 520 may include a first sub-element cross-polarized with a second sub-element that may be used to independently transmit cross-polarized signals. The antenna element 520 may include a patch antenna or other type of antenna arranged in a linear, two-dimensional, or other pattern. The spacing between the antenna elements 520 may be such that signals having a desired wavelength transmitted separately by the antenna elements 520 may interact or interfere (e.g., to form a desired beam). For example, given a desired range of wavelengths or frequencies, the spacing may provide a quarter wavelength, half wavelength, or other fraction of the spacing between adjacent antenna elements 520 to allow interaction or interference of signals transmitted by individual antenna elements 520 within the desired range.

The modem 502 processes and generates digital baseband signals and may also control the operation of the DAC 505, the first and second mixers 506, 508, the splitter 510, the first amplifier 512, the phase shifter 515, and/or the second amplifier 516 to transmit signals via one or more or all of the antenna elements 520. Modem 502 may process signals and control operations according to a communication standard, such as the wireless standard discussed herein. DAC 505 may convert digital baseband signals received (and to be transmitted) from modem 502 into analog baseband signals. The first mixer 506 uses the local oscillator a530 to up-convert the analog baseband signal to an analog IF signal within the IF. For example, the first mixer 506 may mix the signal with an oscillating signal generated by the local oscillator a530 to "shift" the baseband analog signal to IF. In some cases, some processing or filtering may be done at the IF. The second mixer 508 uses the local oscillator B532 to up-convert the analog IF signal to an analog RF signal. Similar to the first mixer, the second mixer 508 may mix the signal with an oscillating signal generated by the local oscillator B532 to "shift" the IF analog signal to RF, or the frequency at which the signal is to be transmitted or received. Modem 502 and/or communications manager 535 may adjust the frequency of local oscillator a530 and/or local oscillator B532 so that the desired IF and/or RF frequency is produced and used to facilitate processing and transmission of signals within the desired bandwidth.

In the illustrated architecture 500, the signal upconverted by the second mixer 508 is split or duplicated into a plurality of signals by a splitter 510. Splitter 510 in architecture 500 splits the RF signal into multiple identical or nearly identical RF signals, as indicated by their presence in block 528. In other examples, any type of signal (including a baseband digital signal, a baseband analog signal, or an IF analog signal) may be split. Each of these signals may correspond to an antenna element 520 and the signal travels through or is processed by the amplifiers 512, 516, phase shifters 515, and/or other elements corresponding to the respective antenna element 520 to be provided to a corresponding antenna element 520 of the antenna array 518 and transmitted by a corresponding antenna element 520 of the antenna array 518. In one example, splitter 510 may be an active splitter that is connected to a power source and provides some gain such that the RF signal exiting splitter 510 is at a power level equal to or greater than the signal entering splitter 510. In another example, splitter 510 is a passive splitter that is not connected to a power source, and the RF signal exiting splitter 510 may be at a lower power level than the RF signal entering splitter 510.

After splitting by splitter 510, the resulting RF signal may enter an amplifier (such as first amplifier 512) or phase shifter 515 corresponding to antenna element 520. The first amplifier 512 and the second amplifier 516 are illustrated in dashed lines, as in some implementations one or both of them may not be necessary. In one implementation, both the first amplifier 512 and the second amplifier 516 are present. In another implementation, neither the first amplifier 512 nor the second amplifier 516 is present. In other implementations, one of the two amplifiers 512, 516 is present, but the other is not. As an example, if the splitter 510 is an active splitter, the first amplifier 512 may not be used. As a further example, if the phase shifter 515 is an active phase shifter that can provide gain, the second amplifier 516 may not be used. The amplifiers 512, 516 may provide a desired level of positive or negative gain. Positive gain (positive dB) may be used to increase the amplitude of the signal for radiation by a particular antenna element 520. Negative gains (negative dB) may be used to reduce the amplitude of the signal radiated by a particular antenna element and/or suppress its radiation. Each of the amplifiers 512, 516 may be independently controlled (e.g., by the modem 502 or the communications manager 535) to provide independent control of the gain for each antenna element 520. For example, modem 502 and/or communications manager 535 may have at least one control line connected to each of splitter 510, first amplifier 512, phase shifter 515, and/or second amplifier 516, which may be used to configure the gain to provide a desired amount of gain for each component and thus for each antenna element 520.

The phase shifter 515 may provide a configurable phase shift or phase offset to the corresponding RF signal to be transmitted. The phase shifter 515 may be a passive phase shifter that is not directly connected to a power source. Passive phase shifters may introduce some insertion loss. The second amplifier 516 may boost the signal to compensate for insertion loss. The phase shifter 515 may be an active phase shifter connected to a power supply such that the active phase shifter provides a certain amount of gain or prevents insertion loss. The setting of each phase shifter 515 is independent, meaning that each phase shifter may be set to provide a desired amount of phase shift or the same amount of phase shift or some other configuration. Modem 502 and/or communications manager 535 may have at least one control line connected to each phase shifter 515, and the at least one control line may be used to configure phase shifters 515 to provide a desired amount of phase shift or phase offset between antenna elements 520.

In the illustrated architecture 500, RF signals received by the antenna element 520 are provided to one or more of the first amplifiers 556 to boost signal strength. The first amplifier 556 may be connected to the same antenna array 518, for example, for TDD operation. The first amplifier 556 may be connected to different antenna arrays 518. The boosted RF signal is input to one or more of the phase shifters 555 to provide a configurable phase shift or phase offset for the corresponding received RF signal. The phase shifter 555 may be an active phase shifter or a passive phase shifter. The arrangement of the phase shifters 555 is independent, meaning that each phase shifter may be arranged to provide a desired amount of phase shift or the same amount of phase shift or some other configuration. Modem 502 and/or communications manager 535 may have at least one control line connected to each phase shifter 555, and the at least one control line may be used to configure phase shifters 555 to provide a desired amount of phase shift or phase offset between antenna elements 520.

The output of the phase shifter 555 may be input to one or more second amplifiers 552 for signal amplification of the phase-shifted received RF signal. The second amplifier 552 may be individually configured to provide a configured amount of gain. The second amplifier 552 may be individually configured to provide an amount of gain to ensure that the signals input to the combiner 550 have the same amplitude. Amplifiers 552 and/or 556 are illustrated in dashed lines, as they may not be necessary in some implementations. In one implementation, both amplifier 552 and amplifier 556 are present. In another implementation, both amplifier 552 and amplifier 556 are absent. In other implementations, one of the amplifiers 552, 556 is present, but the other is not.

In the illustrated architecture 500, the signals output by the phase shifter 555 (output via the amplifier 552 when the amplifier 552 is present) are combined in the combiner 550. Combiner 550 in the architecture combines the RF signals into a signal, as indicated by its presence in block 528. Combiner 550 may be a passive combiner (e.g., not connected to a power supply), which may result in some insertion loss. Combiner 550 may be an active combiner (e.g., connected to a power supply), which may result in some signal gain. When the combiner 550 is an active combiner, it may provide a different (e.g., configurable) amount of gain for each input signal so that the input signals have the same amplitude when combined. When the combiner 550 is an active combiner, it may not require the second amplifier 552 because the active combiner may provide signal amplification.

The output of combiner 550 is input to mixers 558 and 559. Mixers 558 and 559 typically down-convert the received RF signal using inputs from local oscillators 572 and 570, respectively, to produce an intermediate or baseband signal carrying the encoded and modulated information. The outputs of the mixers 558 and 559 are input into an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 557 for conversion to an analog signal. The analog signal output from the ADC 557 is input to the modem 502 for baseband processing, such as decoding, deinterleaving, and the like.

Architecture 500 is given by way of example only to illustrate an architecture for transmitting and/or receiving signals, where amplitude and phase weighting may be applied to received or transmitted signals in accordance with the techniques discussed herein. It will be appreciated that the architecture 500 and/or each portion of the architecture 500 may be repeated multiple times within the architecture to accommodate or provide any number of RF chains, antenna elements, and/or antenna panels. Moreover, numerous alternative architectures are possible and contemplated. For example, while only a single antenna array 518 is shown, two, three, or more antenna arrays may be included, each with its own corresponding one or more of an amplifier, phase shifter, splitter, mixer, DAC, ADC, and/or modem. For example, a single UE may include two, four, or more antenna arrays for transmitting or receiving signals at different physical locations or in different directions on the UE. Furthermore, in different implemented architectures, mixers, splitters, amplifiers, phase shifters, and other components may be located in different signal type areas (e.g., different ones of blocks 522, 525, 526, 528). In one example, the functionality of one or more components may be combined into one component. For example, the phase shifter 555 may perform amplification to include or replace the first amplifier 556 and/or the second amplifier 552.

The modem 502 and/or the communication manager 535 may control one or more of the other components 505-572 to select one or more antenna elements 520 and/or to form a beam for transmitting one or more signals. For example, the antenna element 520 may be individually selected for transmission or reception of the signal (or signals) or deselected by controlling the amplitude of one or more corresponding amplifiers, such as the first amplifier 512, 556 and/or the second amplifier 516, 552. Beamforming includes generating a beam using a plurality of signals on different antenna elements, wherein one or more or all of the plurality of signals are phase shifted relative to each other. The formed beams may carry physical layer or higher layer reference signals or information. When each of the plurality of signals is radiated from a respective antenna element 520, the radiated signals interact, interfere (constructive and destructive) and amplify each other to form a resulting beam. The shape (such as the amplitude, width, and/or presence of side lobes) and direction (such as the angle of the beam relative to the surface of the antenna array 518) may be dynamically controlled by modifying the phase shift or phase offset imparted by the phase shifter and the amplitude imparted by the amplifier for the plurality of signals relative to each other.

When architecture 500 is configured as a recipient device, communication manager 535 may provide for measuring the amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity for one or more antenna elements 520 in a set of multiple antenna elements 520. The communication manager 535 may also provide for measuring the received power of one or more reference signals for one or more of a plurality of sets of phase shifter values applied to a set of the plurality of antenna elements 520. The communication manager 535 may apply an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to the set of the plurality of antenna elements 520, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based on the measured received power. The communication manager 535 may control the reception of one or more downlink transmissions from the access network entity based on the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights applied to the set of multiple antenna elements.

Fig. 6 illustrates a block diagram 600 of an apparatus 605 supporting signal blocker mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The device 605 may be an example of aspects of the UE 115 as described herein. The device 605 may include a receiver 610, a transmitter 615, and a communication manager 620. The device 605 may also include a processor. Each of these components may be in communication with each other (e.g., via one or more buses).

Receiver 610 may provide means for receiving information, such as packets associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, information channels related to signal block mitigation techniques in wireless communications), user data, control information, or any combination thereof. Information may be passed on to other components of the device 605. The receiver 610 may utilize a single antenna or a set comprising multiple antennas.

The transmitter 615 may provide a means for transmitting signals generated by other components of the device 605. For example, the transmitter 615 may transmit information such as packets associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, information channels related to signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications), user data, control information, or any combination thereof. In some examples, the transmitter 615 may be co-located with the receiver 610 in a transceiver module. The transmitter 615 may utilize a single antenna or a set including multiple antennas.

The communication manager 620, receiver 610, transmitter 615, or various combinations thereof, or various components thereof, may be examples of means for performing aspects of signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications as described herein. For example, the communication manager 620, the receiver 610, the transmitter 615, or various combinations or components thereof may support methods for performing one or more of the functions described herein.

In some examples, the communication manager 620, the receiver 610, the transmitter 615, or various combinations or components thereof, may be implemented in hardware (e.g., in communication management circuitry). The hardware may include processors, digital Signal Processors (DSPs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinations thereof, configured or otherwise supporting the apparatus for performing the functions described in the present disclosure. In some examples, a processor and a memory coupled to the processor may be configured to perform one or more functions described herein (e.g., by the processor executing instructions stored in the memory).

Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the communication manager 620, receiver 610, transmitter 615, or various combinations or components thereof, may be implemented by code (e.g., as communication management software or firmware) that is executed by a processor. If implemented in code executed by a processor, the functions of the communication manager 620, receiver 610, transmitter 615, or various combinations or components thereof, may be performed by a general purpose processor, DSP, central Processing Unit (CPU), ASIC, FPGA, or any combination of these or other programmable logic devices (e.g., means configured or otherwise supported for performing the functions described herein).

In some examples, the communication manager 620 may be configured to perform various operations (e.g., receive, monitor, transmit) using or otherwise in conjunction with the receiver 610, the transmitter 615, or both. For example, the communication manager 620 may receive information from the receiver 610, send information to the transmitter 615, or be integrated with the receiver 610, the transmitter 615, or both to receive information, transmit information, or perform various other operations described herein.

The communication manager 620 may support wireless communication at the UE according to examples disclosed herein. For example, the communication manager 620 may be configured or otherwise support means for measuring, for one or more antenna elements of a set of multiple antenna elements at the UE, an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity. The communication manager 620 may be configured or otherwise support means for measuring received power of one or more reference signals for one or more of a plurality of sets of phase shifter values applied to a plurality of sets of antenna elements. The communication manager 620 may be configured or otherwise support means for applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to a set of multiple antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based on the measured received power. The communication manager 620 may be configured or otherwise support means for receiving one or more downlink transmissions from an access network entity based on a set of amplitude weights and a set of phase weights applied to a set of multiple antenna elements.

By including or configuring a communication manager 620 according to examples as described herein, a device 605 (e.g., a processor controlling or otherwise coupled to a receiver 610, a transmitter 615, a communication manager 620, or a combination thereof) may support techniques for blocking detection and mitigation based on amplitude weighting and phase weighting, which may enhance communication reliability, provide reduced latency, reduced power consumption, more efficient communication resource utilization, or any combination thereof.

Fig. 7 illustrates a block diagram 700 of a device 705 that supports signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Device 705 may be an example of aspects of device 605 or UE 115 as described herein. Device 705 may include a receiver 710, a transmitter 715, and a communication manager 720. The device 705 may also include a processor. Each of these components may be in communication with each other (e.g., via one or more buses).

Receiver 710 may provide means for receiving information, such as packets associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, information channels related to signal block mitigation techniques in wireless communications), user data, control information, or any combination thereof. Information may be passed on to other components of device 705. The receiver 710 may utilize a single antenna or a set comprising multiple antennas.

Transmitter 715 may provide means for transmitting signals generated by other components of device 705. For example, the transmitter 715 may transmit information such as packets associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, information channels related to signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications), user data, control information, or any combination thereof. In some examples, the transmitter 715 may be co-located with the receiver 710 in a transceiver module. The transmitter 715 may utilize a single antenna or a set including multiple antennas.

Device 705, or various components thereof, may be an example of an apparatus for performing aspects of signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications as described herein. For example, the communication manager 720 may include an amplitude measurement manager 725, a phase measurement manager 730, a beam weighting manager 735, a downlink reception manager 740, or any combination thereof. Communication manager 720 may be an example of aspects of communication manager 620 as described herein. In some examples, the communication manager 720 or various components thereof may be configured to perform various operations (e.g., receive, monitor, transmit) using or otherwise in conjunction with the receiver 710, the transmitter 715, or both. For example, the communication manager 720 may receive information from the receiver 710, send information to the transmitter 715, or be integrated with the receiver 710, the transmitter 715, or both to receive information, transmit information, or perform various other operations described herein.

The communication manager 720 may support wireless communication at the UE in accordance with examples disclosed herein. The amplitude measurement manager 725 may be configured or otherwise support means for measuring, for one or more antenna elements of a set of multiple antenna elements at the UE, an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity. The phase measurement manager 730 may be configured or otherwise support means for measuring received power of one or more reference signals for one or more of a plurality of sets of phase shifter values applied to a set of a plurality of antenna elements. The beam weight manager 735 may be configured or otherwise support means for applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to a set of multiple antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based on measured amplitudes and the phase weighting set is based on measured received powers. The downlink reception manager 740 may be configured or otherwise support means for receiving one or more downlink transmissions from an access network entity based on an amplitude weight set and a phase weight set applied to a set of multiple antenna elements.

Fig. 8 illustrates a block diagram 800 of a communication manager 820 supporting signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communication in accordance with aspects of the disclosure. Communication manager 820 may be an example of aspects of communication manager 620, communication manager 720, or both described herein. Communication manager 820 or various components thereof may be an example of an apparatus for performing aspects of signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communication as described herein. For example, communication manager 820 may include an amplitude measurement manager 825, a phase measurement manager 830, a beam weighting manager 835, a downlink reception manager 840, a block mitigation manager 845, or any combination thereof. Each of these components may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., via one or more buses).

The communication manager 820 may support wireless communication at a UE according to examples disclosed herein. The amplitude measurement manager 825 may be configured or otherwise enabled to measure, for one or more antenna elements of a set of multiple antenna elements at the UE, an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from the access network entity. The phase measurement manager 830 may be configured or otherwise support means for measuring received power of one or more reference signals for one or more of a plurality of sets of phase shifter values applied to a set of a plurality of antenna elements. The beam weight manager 835 may be configured or otherwise support means for applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to a set of multiple antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based on the measured received power. The downlink reception manager 840 may be configured or otherwise support means for receiving one or more downlink transmissions from an access network entity based on an amplitude weight set and a phase weight set applied to a set of multiple antenna elements.

In some examples, the block-mitigation manager 845 may be configured or otherwise support means for initiating a procedure to obtain an amplitude weighted set and a phase weighted set based on detection of a signal strength decrease at the UE exceeding a threshold. In some examples, the detection of the decrease in signal strength exceeding a threshold is based on a periodic reference signal measurement of the UE, and wherein the threshold corresponds to a decrease in strength indicative of a hand blockage of one or more antenna elements of the set of multiple antenna elements.

In some examples, the set of phase weights is determined based on one or more aperiodic reference signals transmitted by the access network entity. In some examples, the one or more aperiodic reference signals derandomize phase distortion caused by blocking of one or more antenna elements in the set of multiple antenna elements.

In some examples, an amplitude of one or more reference signals is measured for one antenna element in an antenna array comprising a set of multiple antenna elements at a time. In some examples, the measured amplitude and the measured received power correspond to Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of one or more reference signals.

In some examples, to support the application of the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights, the beam weight manager 835 may be configured or otherwise support means for applying a product matrix of the amplitude weights and the phase weights to the signal of each antenna, wherein the matrix is weighted based on the sum of the measured amplitudes. In some examples, the amplitude weighting associated with each antenna element is applied as an amplitude to a corresponding phase weighting, the amplitude being the square root of the reference signal received power of one or more reference signals measured at the corresponding antenna element. In some examples, the matrix is weighted by the inverse of the square root of the sum of each of the measured RSRP to provide unit energy beamforming. In some examples, the set of multiple phase shifter values is determined based on a B-bit phase shifter search and based on a number of phase factors for a number of antenna elements in the set of multiple antenna elements. In some examples, the number of phase factors is set one less than the number of antenna elements.

Fig. 9 illustrates a diagram of a system 900 that includes a device 905 that supports signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The device 905 may be an example of or include components of the device 605, the device 705, or the UE 115 as described herein. The device 905 may communicate wirelessly with one or more base stations 105, UEs 115, or any combination thereof. The device 905 may include components for two-way voice and data communications, including components for transmitting and receiving communications, such as a communications manager 920, an input/output (I/O) controller 910, a transceiver 915, an antenna 925, a memory 930, code 935, and a processor 940. These components may be in electronic communication or otherwise coupled (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) via one or more buses (e.g., bus 945).

The I/O controller 910 may manage input and output signals for the device 905. The I/O controller 910 may also manage peripheral devices that are not integrated into the device 905. In some cases, the I/O controller 910 may represent a physical connection or port to an external peripheral device. In some cases, I/O controller 910 may utilize an operating system, such as Or another known operating system. Additionally or alternatively, the I/O controller 910 may represent or interact with a modem, keyboard, mouse, touch screen, or similar device. In some cases, I/O controller 910 may be implemented as part of a processor, such as processor 940. In some cases, a user may interact with the device 905 via the I/O controller 910 or via hardware components controlled by the I/O controller 910.

In some cases, the device 905 may include a single antenna 925. However, in some other cases, the device 905 may have more than one antenna 925, which may be capable of concurrently transmitting or receiving multiple wireless transmissions. The transceiver 915 may communicate bi-directionally via one or more antennas 925, wired or wireless links, as described herein. For example, transceiver 915 may represent a wireless transceiver and may be in two-way communication with another wireless transceiver. The transceiver 915 may also include a modem to modulate packets and provide the modulated packets to one or more antennas 925 for transmission, and to demodulate packets received from the one or more antennas 925. The transceiver 915, or the transceiver 915 and one or more antennas 925, may be examples of a transmitter 615, a transmitter 715, a receiver 610, a receiver 710, or any combination thereof or component thereof, as described herein.

Memory 930 may include Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory (ROM). The memory 930 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code 935 comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor 940, cause the device 905 to perform the various functions described herein. Code 935 may be stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium, such as system memory or other types of memory. In some cases, code 935 may not be directly executable by processor 940, but may cause a computer (e.g., when compiled and executed) to perform the functions described herein. In some cases, memory 930 may include, among other things, a basic I/O system (BIOS) that may control basic hardware or software operations, such as interactions with peripheral components or devices.

Processor 940 may include intelligent hardware devices (e.g., general purpose processors, DSPs, CPUs, microcontrollers, ASICs, FPGAs, programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic components, discrete hardware components, or any combinations thereof). In some cases, processor 940 may be configured to operate the memory array using a memory controller. In some other cases, the memory controller may be integrated into the processor 940. Processor 940 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory (e.g., memory 930) to cause device 905 to perform various functions (e.g., functions or tasks that support signal-blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications). For example, the device 905 or components of the device 905 may include a processor 940 and a memory 930 coupled to the processor 940, the processor 940 and the memory 930 configured to perform various functions described herein.

The communication manager 920 may support wireless communication at a UE according to examples disclosed herein. For example, the communication manager 920 may be configured or otherwise enabled to measure, for one or more antenna elements of a set of multiple antenna elements at the UE, an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity. The communication manager 920 may be configured or otherwise support means for measuring received power of one or more reference signals for one or more of a plurality of sets of phase shifter values applied to a set of a plurality of antenna elements. The communication manager 920 may be configured or otherwise support means for applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to a set of multiple antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based on the measured received power. The communication manager 920 may be configured or otherwise support means for receiving one or more downlink transmissions from an access network entity based on a set of amplitude weights and a set of phase weights applied to a set of multiple antenna elements.

By including or configuring the communication manager 920 according to examples as described herein, the device 905 may support techniques for blocking detection and mitigation based on amplitude weighting and phase weighting, which may enhance communication reliability, provide reduced latency, reduced power consumption, more efficient communication resource utilization, or any combination thereof.

In some examples, the communication manager 920 may be configured to perform various operations (e.g., receive, monitor, transmit) using or otherwise in conjunction with the transceiver 915, one or more antennas 925, or any combination thereof. Although the communication manager 920 is illustrated as a separate component, in some examples, one or more functions described with reference to the communication manager 920 may be supported or performed by the processor 940, the memory 930, the code 935, or any combination thereof. For example, code 935 may include instructions executable by processor 940 to cause device 905 to perform various aspects of signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications as described herein, or processor 940 and memory 930 may be otherwise configured to perform or support such operations.

Fig. 10 illustrates a flow chart that is an understanding of a method 1000 that supports signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 1000 may be implemented by a UE or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1000 may be performed by UE 115 as described with reference to fig. 1-9. In some examples, the UE may execute a set of instructions to control functional elements of the UE to perform the described functions. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the described functionality.

At 1005, the method may include measuring, for one or more antenna elements of a set of multiple antenna elements at the UE, an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity. Operations of 1005 may be performed in accordance with examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1005 may be performed by the amplitude measurement manager 825 as described with reference to fig. 8.

At 1010, the method may include measuring received power of one or more reference signals for one or more of a set of multiple phase shifter values applied to a set of multiple antenna elements. The operations of 1010 may be performed in accordance with examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1010 may be performed by phase measurement manager 830 as described with reference to fig. 8. In some cases, the measured amplitude and the measured received power correspond to RSRP of one or more reference signals. In some cases, the set of multiple phase shifter values is determined based on a B-bit phase shifter search and a number of phase factors based on a number of antenna elements in the set of multiple antenna elements. In some cases, the number of phase factors is set to one less than the number of antenna elements.

At 1015, the method may include applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to a set of the plurality of antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based on the measured received power. 1015 may be performed in accordance with examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1015 may be performed by beam weighting manager 835 as described with reference to fig. 8. In some cases, the set of phase weights is determined based on one or more aperiodic reference signals transmitted by the access network entity. In some cases, the measurements are made based on one or more aperiodic reference signals that derandomize phase distortion caused by blocking of one or more antenna elements in the set of multiple antenna elements. In some cases, the amplitude of one or more reference signals is measured for one antenna element in an antenna array comprising a set of multiple antenna elements at a time.

At 1020, the method may include receiving one or more downlink transmissions from an access network entity based on the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights applied to the set of multiple antenna elements. Operations of 1020 may be performed according to examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1020 may be performed by downlink reception manager 840 as described with reference to fig. 8.

Fig. 11 illustrates a flow chart that is an understanding of a method 1100 that supports signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 1100 may be implemented by a UE or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1100 may be performed by UE 115 as described with reference to fig. 1-9. In some examples, the UE may execute a set of instructions to control functional elements of the UE to perform the described functions. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the described functionality.

At 1105, the method may include initiating a procedure to obtain an amplitude weighted set and a phase weighted set based on detection of a signal strength decrease at the UE exceeding a threshold. The operations of 1105 may be performed in accordance with examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1105 may be performed by the block mitigation manager 845 as described with reference to fig. 8. In some cases, the detection of the decrease in signal strength exceeding a threshold is based on a periodic reference signal measurement of the UE, and wherein the threshold corresponds to a decrease in strength indicative of a hand blockage of one or more antenna elements of the set of multiple antenna elements.

At 1110, the method may include measuring, for one or more antenna elements of a set of multiple antenna elements at the UE, an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity. 1110 may be performed in accordance with examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1110 may be performed by the amplitude measurement manager 825 as described with reference to fig. 8.

At 1115, the method may include measuring received power of one or more reference signals for one or more of a set of multiple phase shifter values applied to a set of multiple antenna elements. 1115 may be performed according to examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1115 may be performed by phase measurement manager 830 as described with reference to fig. 8.

At 1120, the method may include applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to the set of the plurality of antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based on the measured received power. The operations of 1120 may be performed according to examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1120 may be performed by beam weight manager 835 as described with reference to fig. 8.

At 1125, the method may include receiving one or more downlink transmissions from an access network entity based on the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights applied to the set of multiple antenna elements. 1125 may be performed according to examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1125 may be performed by downlink reception manager 840 as described with reference to fig. 8.

Fig. 12 illustrates a flow chart that is an understanding of a method 1200 that supports signal blocking mitigation techniques in wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 1200 may be implemented by a UE or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1200 may be performed by UE 115 as described with reference to fig. 1-9. In some examples, the UE may execute a set of instructions to control functional elements of the UE to perform the described functions. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the described functionality.

At 1205, the method may include measuring, for one or more antenna elements of a set of multiple antenna elements at the UE, an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity. Operations of 1205 may be performed in accordance with examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1205 may be performed by the amplitude measurement manager 825 as described with reference to fig. 8.

At 1210, the method may include measuring received power of one or more reference signals for one or more of a set of a plurality of phase shifter values applied to a set of a plurality of antenna elements. The operations of 1210 may be performed according to examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1210 may be performed by phase measurement manager 830 as described with reference to fig. 8.

At 1215, the method may include determining an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set for the set of multiple antenna elements based on the measured amplitude and the measured received power. The operations of 1215 may be performed in accordance with examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1215 may be performed by the beam weighting manager 835 as described with reference to fig. 8.

At 1220, the method may include applying a product matrix of the amplitude weighting and the phase weighting to the signal for each antenna, where the matrix is weighted based on a sum of the measured amplitudes. 1220 may be performed in accordance with examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1220 may be performed by beam weight manager 835 as described with reference to fig. 8. In some cases, the amplitude weighting associated with each antenna element is applied as an amplitude to a corresponding phase weighting, the amplitude being the square root of the reference signal received power of one or more reference signals measured at the corresponding antenna element. In some cases, the matrix is weighted by the inverse of the square root of the sum of each of the measured RSRP to provide unit energy beamforming.

At 1225, the method may include receiving one or more downlink transmissions from the access network entity based on the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights applied to the set of multiple antenna elements. 1225 may be performed according to examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1225 may be performed by downlink reception manager 840 as described with reference to fig. 8.

The following provides an overview of aspects of the disclosure:

aspect 1: a method for wireless communication at a UE, comprising: for one or more antenna elements of a plurality of antenna elements at the UE, measuring an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity; measuring received power of one or more reference signals for one or more of a plurality of phase shifter values applied to the plurality of antenna elements; applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to the plurality of antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based at least in part on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based at least in part on the measured received power; and receiving one or more downlink transmissions from the access network entity based at least in part on the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights applied to the plurality of antenna elements.

Aspect 2: the method of aspect 1, further comprising: a procedure is initiated to obtain the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights based at least in part on detection of a decrease in signal strength at the UE exceeding a threshold.

Aspect 3: the method of aspect 2, wherein the detection of the signal strength decrease exceeding the threshold is measured based at least in part on a periodic reference signal of the UE, and wherein the threshold corresponds to a strength decrease indicative of hand blockage of one or more antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements.

Aspect 4: a method as in any of aspects 1-3, wherein the set of phase weights is determined based at least in part on one or more aperiodic reference signals transmitted by the access network entity.

Aspect 5: the method of aspect 4, wherein the one or more aperiodic reference signals derandomize phase distortion caused by blocking of one or more antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements.

Aspect 6: the method of any one of aspects 1 to 5, wherein the amplitude of one or more reference signals is measured for one antenna element in an antenna array comprising the plurality of antenna elements at a time.

Aspect 7: the method of any one of aspects 1-6, wherein the measured amplitude and the measured received power correspond to Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the one or more reference signals.

Aspect 8: the method of any of aspects 1-7, wherein applying the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights comprises: a product matrix of the amplitude weighting and the phase weighting is applied to the signal for each antenna, wherein the matrix is weighted based at least in part on the sum of the measured amplitudes.

Aspect 9: the method of aspect 8, wherein the amplitude weighting associated with each antenna element is applied as an amplitude to a corresponding phase weighting, the amplitude being a square root of reference signal received power of the one or more reference signals measured at the corresponding antenna element.

Aspect 10: the method of aspect 9, wherein the matrix is weighted by the inverse of the square root of the sum of each of the measured RSRP to provide unit energy beamforming.

Aspect 11: the method of any one of aspects 1-10, wherein the plurality of phase shifter values are determined based at least in part on a B-bit phase shifter search and based at least in part on a number of phase factors of a number of antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements.

Aspect 12: the method of aspect 11, wherein the number of phase factors is set to one less than the number of antenna elements.

Aspect 13: an apparatus for wireless communication at a UE, comprising: a processor; a memory coupled to the processor; and instructions stored in the memory that are executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of aspects 1 to 12.

Aspect 14: an apparatus for wireless communication at a UE, comprising at least one means for performing the method of any of aspects 1-12.

Aspect 15: a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication at a UE, the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to perform the method of any of aspects 1 to 12.

It should be noted that the methods described herein describe possible implementations, and that the operations and steps may be rearranged or otherwise modified and other implementations are possible. Further, aspects from two or more methods may be combined.

Although aspects of the LTE, LTE-A, LTE-a Pro or NR system may be described for exemplary purposes and LTE, LTE-A, LTE-a Pro or NR terminology may be used in much of the description, the techniques described herein may also be applied to networks other than LTE, LTE-A, LTE-a Pro or NR networks. For example, the described techniques may be applied to various other wireless communication systems such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, flash-OFDM, and other systems and radio technologies not explicitly mentioned herein.

The information and signals described herein may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

The various illustrative blocks and components described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, CPU, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration).

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software for execution by a processor, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are within the scope of the disclosure and the appended claims. For example, due to the nature of software, the functions described herein may be implemented using software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwired or any combination thereof. Features that implement the functions may also be physically located in various places including being distributed such that parts of the functions are implemented at different physical locations.

Computer-readable media includes both non-transitory computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Non-transitory storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, non-transitory computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, compact Disk (CD) ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transitory medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of computer-readable medium. Disk (disc) and disc (disc), as used herein, includes CD, laser disc, optical disc, digital Versatile Disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of computer-readable media.

As used herein (including in the claims), an "or" used in an item enumeration (e.g., an item enumeration with a phrase such as "at least one of" or "one or more of" attached) indicates an inclusive enumeration, such that, for example, enumeration of at least one of A, B or C means a or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., a and B and C). Also, as used herein, the phrase "based on" should not be construed as referring to a closed set of conditions. For example, example steps described as "based on condition a" may be based on both condition a and condition B without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In other words, as used herein, the phrase "based on" should be read in the same manner as the phrase "based at least in part on".

The term "determining" or "determining" encompasses a wide variety of actions, and as such, "determining" may include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, exploring, looking up (such as via looking up in a table, database or other data structure), ascertaining, and the like. In addition, "determining" may include receiving (such as receiving information), accessing (such as accessing data in memory), and the like. Additionally, "determining" may include parsing, selecting, choosing, establishing, and other such similar actions.

In the drawings, similar components or features may have the same reference numerals. Further, individual components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference number is used in the specification, the description may be applied to any one of the similar components having the same first reference number, regardless of the second reference number, or other subsequent reference numbers.

The description set forth herein in connection with the appended drawings describes example configurations and is not intended to represent all examples that may be implemented or fall within the scope of the claims. The term "example" as used herein means "serving as an example, instance, or illustration," and does not mean "better than" or "over other examples. The detailed description includes specific details to provide an understanding of the described technology. However, the techniques may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the concepts of the described examples.

The description herein is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication at a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

for one or more antenna elements of a plurality of antenna elements at the UE, measuring an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity;

measuring received power of the one or more reference signals for one or more of a plurality of phase shifter values applied to the plurality of antenna elements;

applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to the plurality of antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based at least in part on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based at least in part on the measured received power; and

one or more downlink transmissions are received from the access network entity based at least in part on the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights applied to the plurality of antenna elements.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a procedure is initiated to obtain the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights based at least in part on detection of a decrease in signal strength at the UE exceeding a threshold.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the detection of the signal strength decrease exceeding the threshold is measured based at least in part on a periodic reference signal of the UE, and wherein the threshold corresponds to a strength decrease indicative of hand blockage of one or more of the plurality of antenna elements.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of phase weights is determined based at least in part on one or more aperiodic reference signals transmitted by the access network entity.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more aperiodic reference signals derandomize phase distortion caused by blocking of one or more of the plurality of antenna elements.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the amplitudes of the one or more reference signals are measured for one antenna element in an antenna array comprising the plurality of antenna elements at a time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the measured amplitude and the measured received power correspond to Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the one or more reference signals.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights comprises:

a product matrix of the amplitude weighting and the phase weighting is applied to the signal for each antenna, wherein the matrix is weighted based at least in part on the sum of the measured amplitudes.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the amplitude weighting associated with each antenna element is applied as an amplitude to a corresponding phase weighting, the amplitude being a square root of reference signal received power of the one or more reference signals measured at the corresponding antenna element.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the matrix is weighted by the inverse of the square root of the sum of each of the measured RSRP to provide unit energy beamforming.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of phase shifter values are determined based at least in part on a B-bit phase shifter search and based at least in part on a number of phase factors for a number of antenna elements in the plurality of antenna elements.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the number of phase factors is set to one less than the number of antenna elements.

13. An apparatus for wireless communication at a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor; and

instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the detection of the signal strength decrease exceeding the threshold is measured based at least in part on a periodic reference signal of the UE, and wherein the threshold corresponds to a strength decrease indicative of hand blockage of one or more of the plurality of antenna elements.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the set of phase weights is determined based at least in part on one or more aperiodic reference signals transmitted by the access network entity.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the one or more aperiodic reference signals derandomize phase distortion caused by blocking of one or more antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the amplitudes of the one or more reference signals are measured for one antenna element in an antenna array comprising the plurality of antenna elements at a time.

19. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the measured amplitude and the measured received power correspond to Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the one or more reference signals.

20. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the instructions for applying the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights are executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the amplitude weighting associated with each antenna element is applied as an amplitude to a corresponding phase weighting, the amplitude being a square root of reference signal received power of the one or more reference signals measured at the corresponding antenna element.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the matrix is weighted by the inverse of the square root of the sum of each of the measured RSRP to provide unit energy beamforming.

23. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the plurality of phase shifter values are determined based at least in part on a B-bit phase shifter search and based at least in part on a number of phase factors for a number of antenna elements in the plurality of antenna elements.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the number of phase factors is set to one less than the number of antenna elements.

25. An apparatus for wireless communication at a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

means for measuring, for one or more antenna elements of a plurality of antenna elements at the UE, an amplitude of one or more reference signals received from an access network entity;

means for measuring received power of the one or more reference signals for one or more of a plurality of phase shifter values applied to the plurality of antenna elements;

means for applying an amplitude weighting set and a phase weighting set to the plurality of antenna elements, wherein the amplitude weighting set is based at least in part on the measured amplitude and the phase weighting set is based at least in part on the measured received power; and

Means for receiving one or more downlink transmissions from the access network entity based at least in part on the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights applied to the plurality of antenna elements.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the set of phase weights is determined based at least in part on one or more aperiodic reference signals transmitted by the access network entity.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein means for applying the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights comprises:

means for applying a product matrix of the amplitude weighting and the phase weighting to the signal of each antenna, wherein the matrix is weighted based at least in part on the sum of the measured amplitudes.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication at a User Equipment (UE), the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to:

29. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the set of phase weights is determined based at least in part on one or more aperiodic reference signals transmitted by the access network entity.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the instructions for applying the set of amplitude weights and the set of phase weights are executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: