KR20220060986A - Method and apparatus of downlink scheduling and coordinated transmission in communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a technology for downlink scheduling and coordinated transmission in a communication system. The method for operating a terminal of a communication system comprises the steps of: selecting the best analog beam and the second best analog beam based on a utility function for each base station among the set of analog beams for each base station; requesting scheduling from a first base station corresponding to a first analog beam having the maximal utility function among the best analog beams; requesting scheduling from a second base station corresponding to a second analog beam having the maximal utility function among the best analog beams and the second best analog beams transmitted by a second panel different from a first panel transmitting the first analog beam; and assigning the first analog beam to the first panel and assigning the second analog beam to the second panel. Therefore, a terminal using a dual antenna panel additionally obtains more duplication gain and more diversity gain than a terminal using a single antenna panel.

Description

Downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission method and apparatus in a communication system

The present invention relates to downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission technology in a communication system, and more particularly, to downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission for terminals having dual antenna panels in a multi-cell environment. It relates to scheduling and cooperative transmission techniques.

With the development of information and communication technology, various wireless communication technologies are being developed. Representative wireless communication technologies include long term evolution (LTE) and new radio (NR) defined in 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) standards. LTE may be one of 4G (4th Generation) wireless communication technologies, and NR may be one of 5G (5th Generation) wireless communication technologies.

For the processing of wireless data rapidly increasing after commercialization of a 4G communication system (eg, a communication system supporting LTE), a frequency band of a 4G communication system (eg, a frequency band of 6 GHz or less) as well as a 4G communication system A 5G communication system (eg, a communication system supporting NR) using a frequency band (eg, a frequency band of 6 GHz or more) higher than the frequency band of ' is being considered. The 5G communication system may support enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communication (URLLC), and Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC).

In such a communication system, the multi-cell environment may mean an environment in which a plurality of base stations provide communication services to a terminal based on a physical cell boundary. The communication implementation method most supported in such a multi-cell environment may be a communication method using hybrid beamforming in a millimeter wave (mmWave) band. A general terminal currently using hybrid beamforming may select one of two antenna panels to perform transmission/reception. Accordingly, when the terminal uses all of the dual antenna panels, downlink scheduling and a cooperative transmission method may be required.

It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems, downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission in a communication system that includes a dual antenna panel to perform downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission for terminals using all of the dual antenna panels To provide a method and apparatus.

In order to achieve the above object, the downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission method in the communication system according to the first embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object is a method of operating a terminal of the communication system, based on an utility function for each base station in analog beam sets for each base station. selecting a best analog beam and a next best analog beam; requesting scheduling from a corresponding first base station for a first analog beam having a maximum utility function in best analog beams; requesting scheduling from a corresponding second base station for a second analog beam having a maximum utility function in the best analog beams and the suboptimal analog beams transmitted by a second panel different from the first panel transmitting the first analog beam; ; and allocating the first analog beam to the first panel and allocating the second analog beam to the second panel.

According to the present invention, a terminal using a dual antenna panel can additionally obtain more multiplexing gain and diversity gain than a terminal using a single antenna panel.

In addition, according to the present invention, a terminal using a dual antenna panel can additionally obtain a multiplexing gain, a diversity gain, and the like, so that a higher data rate and transmission stability can be obtained by utilizing them.

In addition, according to the present invention, since both panels receive services by different base stations for a terminal belonging to a lower rank in downlink transmission performance, the probability of signal outage can be reduced, thereby improving the terminal user experience.

In addition, according to the present invention, an analog beam sweeping and allocation scheme can be implemented with low memory complexity and computational complexity, which can be practical.

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a communication system.
2 is a block diagram illustrating a first embodiment of communication nodes constituting a communication system.
3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a ceiling-mount type antenna module of a base station.
4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a back-to-back antenna module of a terminal.
5 is a flowchart illustrating a first embodiment of a method for downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission in a communication system.
6 is a flowchart illustrating a second embodiment of a method for downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission in a communication system.

Since the present invention can have various changes and can have various embodiments, specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, and it should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Terms such as first, second, etc. may be used to describe various elements, but the elements should not be limited by the terms. The above terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, a first component may be referred to as a second component, and similarly, a second component may also be referred to as a first component. and/or includes a combination of a plurality of related listed items or any of a plurality of related listed items.

When an element is referred to as being “connected” or “connected” to another element, it is understood that it may be directly connected or connected to the other element, but other elements may exist in between. it should be On the other hand, when it is said that a certain element is "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another element, it should be understood that the other element does not exist in the middle.

The terms used in the present application are only used to describe specific embodiments, and are not intended to limit the present invention. The singular expression includes the plural expression unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In the present application, terms such as “comprise” or “have” are intended to designate that a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification exists, but one or more other features It should be understood that this does not preclude the existence or addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical and scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in a commonly used dictionary should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning in the context of the related art, and should not be interpreted in an ideal or excessively formal meaning unless explicitly defined in the present application. does not

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In describing the present invention, in order to facilitate the overall understanding, the same reference numerals are used for the same components in the drawings, and duplicate descriptions of the same components are omitted.

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a communication system.

1, the communication system 100 is a plurality of communication nodes (110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, 120-2, 130-1, 130-2, 130-3, 130-4, 130-5, 130-6). Here, the communication system may be referred to as a “communication network”. Each of the plurality of communication nodes may support at least one communication protocol. For example, each of the plurality of communication nodes may include a code division multiple access (CDMA)-based communication protocol, a wideband CDMA (WCDMA)-based communication protocol, a time division multiple access (TDMA)-based communication protocol, and a frequency division multiple (FDMA)-based communication protocol. access) based communication protocol, OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) based communication protocol, OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division multiple access) based communication protocol, SC (single carrier)-FDMA based communication protocol, NOMA (non-orthogonal multiple) access)-based communication protocol, space division multiple access (SDMA)-based communication protocol, etc. may be supported. Each of the plurality of communication nodes may have the following structure.

2 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a communication node constituting a communication system.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the communication node 200 may include at least one processor 210 , a memory 220 , and a transceiver 230 connected to a network to perform communication. In addition, the communication node 200 may further include an input interface device 240 , an output interface device 250 , a storage device 260 , and the like. Each of the components included in the communication node 200 may be connected by a bus 270 to communicate with each other. However, each of the components included in the communication node 200 may not be connected to the common bus 270 but to the processor 210 through an individual interface or an individual bus. For example, the processor 210 may be connected to at least one of the memory 220 , the transceiver 230 , the input interface device 240 , the output interface device 250 , and the storage device 260 through a dedicated interface. .

The processor 210 may execute a program command stored in at least one of the memory 220 and the storage device 260 . The processor 210 may mean a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or a dedicated processor on which methods according to embodiments of the present invention are performed. Each of the memory 220 and the storage device 260 may be configured as at least one of a volatile storage medium and a non-volatile storage medium. For example, the memory 220 may be configured as at least one of a read only memory (ROM) and a random access memory (RAM).

Referring back to FIG. 1 , the communication system 100 includes a plurality of base stations 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, 120-2, and a plurality of terminals. (130-1, 130-2, 130-3, 130-4, 130-5, 130-6). Each of the first base station 110-1, the second base station 110-2, and the third base station 110-3 may form a macro cell. Each of the fourth base station 120-1 and the fifth base station 120-2 may form a small cell. The fourth base station 120-1, the third terminal 130-3, and the fourth terminal 130-4 may belong to the coverage of the first base station 110-1. The second terminal 130-2, the fourth terminal 130-4, and the fifth terminal 130-5 may belong to the coverage of the second base station 110-2. The fifth base station 120-2, the fourth terminal 130-4, the fifth terminal 130-5, and the sixth terminal 130-6 may belong within the coverage of the third base station 110-3. . The first terminal 130-1 may belong to the coverage of the fourth base station 120-1. The sixth terminal 130-6 may belong to the coverage of the fifth base station 120-2.

Here, each of the plurality of base stations 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, 120-2 is a NodeB (NodeB), an advanced NodeB (evolved NodeB), a BTS (base transceiver station), A radio base station, a radio transceiver, an access point, an access node, a road side unit (RSU), a digital unit (DU), a cloud digital unit (CDU) , a radio remote head (RRH), a radio unit (RU), a transmission point (TP), a transmission and reception point (TRP), a relay node, and the like. Each of the plurality of terminals 130-1, 130-2, 130-3, 130-4, 130-5, 130-6 is an access terminal, a mobile terminal, a station, It may be referred to as a subscriber station, a mobile station, a portable subscriber station, user equipment (UE), a node, a device, and the like.

A plurality of communication nodes (110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, 120-2, 130-1, 130-2, 130-3, 130-4, 130-5, 130-6) Each may support cellular (cellular) communication (eg, long term evolution (LTE), LTE-A (advanced), etc. defined in the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) standard). Each of the plurality of base stations 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, and 120-2 may operate in different frequency bands or may operate in the same frequency band. Each of the plurality of base stations 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, and 120-2 may be connected to each other through an ideal backhaul or a non-ideal backhaul, and the ideal backhaul Alternatively, information may be exchanged with each other through a non-ideal backhaul. Each of the plurality of base stations 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, and 120-2 may be connected to a core network (not shown) through an ideal backhaul or a non-ideal backhaul. Each of the plurality of base stations 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, and 120-2 transmits a signal received from the core network to the corresponding terminals 130-1, 130-2, 130-3, 130 -4, 130-5, 130-6), and a signal received from the corresponding terminal (130-1, 130-2, 130-3, 130-4, 130-5, 130-6) is transmitted to the core network can be sent to

Each of the plurality of base stations 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, and 120-2 may support OFDMA-based downlink (DL) transmission, and SC-FDMA-based uplink (uplink, UL) transmission may be supported. In addition, each of the plurality of base stations 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, and 120-2 transmits multiple input multiple output (MIMO) (eg, single user (SU)-MIMO, MU (multi user)-MIMO, massive MIMO, etc.), coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission, carrier aggregation transmission, transmission in an unlicensed band, device to device, D2D ) communication (or Proximity services (ProSe), etc.), etc. Here, each of the plurality of terminals 130-1, 130-2, 130-3, 130-4, 130-5, 130-6 is a base station. (110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, 120-2) and corresponding operation, by the base station (110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, 120-2) Supported actions can be performed.

For example, the second base station 110-2 may transmit a signal to the fourth terminal 130-4 based on the SU-MIMO method, and the fourth terminal 130-4 may transmit a signal based on the SU-MIMO method. A signal may be received from the second base station 110 - 2 . Alternatively, the second base station 110 - 2 may transmit a signal to the fourth terminal 130 - 4 and the fifth terminal 130 - 5 based on the MU-MIMO scheme, and the fourth terminal 130 - 4 . and each of the fifth terminals 130 - 5 may receive a signal from the second base station 110 - 2 by the MU-MIMO method. Each of the first base station 110-1, the second base station 110-2, and the third base station 110-3 may transmit a signal to the fourth terminal 130-4 based on the CoMP scheme, and the fourth The terminal 130-4 may receive signals from the first base station 110-1, the second base station 110-2, and the third base station 110-3 by the CoMP method. Each of the plurality of base stations 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, and 120-2 includes the terminals 130-1, 130-2, 130-3, 130-4, 130-5, 130-6) and a signal may be transmitted/received based on the CA method. Each of the first base station 110-1, the second base station 110-2, and the third base station 110-3 coordinates D2D communication between the fourth terminal 130-4 and the fifth terminal 130-5. (coordination), each of the fourth terminal 130-4 and the fifth terminal 130-5 is D2D communication by the coordination of each of the second base station 110-2 and the third base station 110-3 can be performed.

Meanwhile, in such a communication system, the multi-cell environment may mean an environment in which a plurality of base stations provide communication services to a terminal based on a physical cell boundary. As a scheduling method in a multi-cell environment, there may be many techniques ranging from the simplest round robin method to a proportional fair method. In addition, in the multi-cell environment, the cooperative transmission scheme may include technologies such as CoMP transmission and interference alignment transmission. A communication implementation method most supported in the current multi-cell environment may be a communication method using hybrid beamforming in a millimeter wave (mmWave) band. The terminal has a plurality of antenna elements by using the millimeter wave band, so that independent signals can be exchanged with each other through a multi-path channel in a limited physical form. The independent input/output of such a terminal may enable the pursuit of a diversity gain or a multiplexing gain. However, since the method of connecting the RF (radio frequency) front-end to each of the individual antenna elements of the terminal causes an excessive hardware burden, a digital beamformer with high control and utility is a method to compensate for this. Hybrid beamforming that combines

In a communication system using such a millimeter wave, a terminal may have two antenna panels attached to each other in a typical back-to-back form. In such a terminal, each antenna panel may be composed of a plurality of antenna elements. In addition, the antenna elements may be divided into two antenna element groups aligned in two different directions to receive two types of polarized signals. A general terminal using hybrid beamforming in an existing communication system may perform transmission/reception by selecting one from two antenna panels. Accordingly, when the UE uses all of the dual antenna panels, a method for downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission may be required. That is, in a case where the terminal can mount a dual antenna panel in a multi-cell environment and there is a hardware capacity capable of using the mounted dual antenna panels at the same time, a downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission method may be required. According to this need, when the UE receives the downlink signal through the dual antenna panel at the same time through independent paths, the scheduling scheme and the cooperative transmission scheme can be newly defined.

In order to understand the communication environment in which the newly defined scheduling method and the cooperative transmission method operate, it may be necessary to understand the characteristics of the antenna module of the typical base station and the terminal. In general, if the antenna elements are separated by a distance of half a wavelength, the phases of the channels may be probabilistically independent from each other. Accordingly, the base station and the terminal may be provided with a large number of antenna elements by combining the short wavelength characteristic of the millimeter wave with the antenna module. In this way, when the base station and the terminal have a large number of antenna elements, if each RF front end is mounted on each antenna element, it may act as a burden of a large hardware cost. For this reason, the base station and the terminal can perform analog beamforming through a simple analog structure by bundling several antenna elements, and a hybrid beamforming method in which digital beamforming is performed by connecting an RF front end to the output port of the antenna element bundle can be employed

3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a ceiling-mount type antenna module of a base station.

Referring to FIG. 3 , the ceiling type antenna module of the base station may include one panel 300 , and may include 64 antenna elements 310 . In addition, the size of the 64 antenna elements 310 is normalized to a wavelength unit, so that it can be expressed numerically without a unit. Among these 64 antenna elements 310 , the antenna elements 310 indicated by thick solid lines and the antenna elements 310 indicated by thin solid lines may use different polarizations. And, by collecting the 16 antenna elements 310 out of the 64 antenna elements 310, four antenna groups 320-1 to 320-4 may be formed. The above-described ceiling-type antenna module of the base station may allow the antenna elements 310 using the same polarization of the same antenna group to have one output port. Accordingly, 64 antenna elements 310 may configure 8 antenna ports.

4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a back-to-back antenna module of a terminal.

Referring to FIG. 4 , the terminal's back-to-back antenna module may be configured with two panels 400 - 1 and 400 - 2 each including 16 antenna elements 410 . Here, since the size of the antenna elements 410 is normalized in units of wavelengths, they can be expressed numerically without units. Although the two panels 400 - 1 and 400 - 2 face opposite sides to each other, a gap may be formed in the drawing for understanding. In the back-to-back type antenna module of the terminal, the first panel 400-1 uses different polarizations between the antenna elements 410 indicated by thick solid lines and the antenna elements 410 indicated by thin solid lines on the front side. can The first panel 400 - 1 may have one output port by binding the antenna elements 410 using the same polarization in an analog beamforming structure.

Accordingly, the 16 antenna elements 410 of the first panel 400 - 1 may configure two antenna ports. Next, in the second panel 400 - 2 , the antenna elements 410 indicated by thick dashed lines and the antenna elements 410 indicated by thin broken lines on the rear side may use different polarizations. The second panel 400 - 2 may have one output port by grouping the antenna elements 410 using the same polarization in an analog beamforming structure. Accordingly, the 16 antenna elements 410 of the second panel 400 - 2 may configure two antenna ports. As such, the terminal's back-to-back antenna module may form four output ports using 32 antenna elements 410 .

A general terminal may select one panel from the two panels 400-1 and 400-2 and transmit a signal while switching two output ports. However, here, the terminal may use all four output ports of the two panels 400-1 and 400-2. In the multi-cell network including the 8-port base station and the 4-port terminal illustrated above, it can be assumed that the panels of each terminal are connected to different base stations and receive two-layer transmission per panel. An 8-port base station may not use all dimensions of a channel, and may assume a situation in which two layers are respectively serviced to three terminals to service a total of six layers.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a first embodiment of a method for downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission in a communication system.

Referring to FIG. 5 , the downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission method in a communication system may include an analog beam sweeping step S510 , a scheduling step S520 , and an analog beam assignment step S530 . In the analog beam sweeping step, terminals may select the best analog beams for each base station from analog beam sets for each base station including all analog beam candidates for each base station for transmitting and receiving data to and from the base stations (S511). In addition, the terminals may store beam indices of the best analog beams for each selected base station. Here, the best analog beam for each base station may mean, for example, an analog beam candidate for each base station that maximizes a utility function in a set of analog beam candidates for each base station for one terminal to transmit data to one base station.

Next, the terminals may select sub-optimal analog beams for each base station from the analog beam candidate sets for each base station for transmitting data to the base stations (S512). In addition, the terminals may store beam indices of the selected next-lane analog beams for each base station. Here, the sub-optimal analog beam for each base station is a base station that maximizes the utility function in analog beam candidates for each base station except for analog beam candidates for each base station used by the panel of the corresponding terminal that transmits and receives the best analog beam for each base station in the analog beam candidate set for each base station It may mean an analog beam candidate. Looking at this in more detail, for example, if the best analog beam for each base station selected by one terminal for one base station is a beam for transmitting data to the corresponding base station using the first panel of the terminal, the second best analog beam is used for the second panel Thus, it may mean an analog beam candidate for each base station that maximizes a utility function among analog beam candidates for each base station that transmits data to the base station. In this way, the analog beam candidate for each base station is the analog beam candidate for each base station that can be transmitted through the panel opposite to the panel that transmits the best analog beam for each base station while leaving the analog beam candidates for each terminal of the base station as it is. It may mean an analog candidate beam for each base station that can achieve the maximum utility function when limited to a set. Here, the utility function may typically use a reference signal received power (RSRP) value.

Next, in the scheduling step (S520), the terminals compare the utility functions of the best analog beams for each base station in each time slot (S521) and preferentially request scheduling from the base station corresponding to the best analog beam for each base station having the maximum utility function. There is (S522). Thereafter, when the terminals transmit data with the base stations through a panel other than the panel using the best analog beam for each base station requesting scheduling, the best analog beams for each base station and the sub-optimal analog beams for each base station selected in relation to the corresponding panel It is possible to select an analog beam for each base station that maximizes the utility function in . Then, the terminals may request scheduling from the base stations corresponding to the selected analog beams for each base station (S523).

Thereafter, in the analog beam allocating step (S530), the terminals may allocate the two analog beams for each base station that maximizes the utility function obtained when each terminal performs scheduling in each time slot to both panels (S531). That is, in the scheduling step, the terminals may compare the utility functions of the best analog beams for each base station and preferentially allocate the best analog beams for each base station having the maximum utility function to the corresponding panel. In addition, the terminals may allocate the analog beam for each base station that maximizes the utility function from the best analog beams for each base station and the next best analog beams for each base station selected for the other panel to the corresponding other panel.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a second embodiment of a method for downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission in a communication system.

Referring to FIG. 6 , the downlink scheduling and cooperative transmission method in a communication system may include a beam sweeping step S610 , a scheduling step S620 , and an analog beam assignment step S630 . In the beam sweeping step, the base stations may select the best analog beams for each terminal from analog beam sets for each terminal including all analog beam candidates for each terminal for transmitting data to each terminal ( S611 ). In addition, the base stations may store beam indices of the selected best analog beams for each terminal. Here, the best analog beam for each terminal may mean, for example, an analog beam candidate for each terminal that maximizes a utility function in a set of analog beam candidates for each terminal for one base station to transmit data to one terminal.

Next, the base stations may select sub-optimal analog beams for each terminal from the analog beam candidate sets for each terminal for transmitting data to each terminal ( S612 ). In addition, the base stations may store beam indices of the selected next-lane analog beams for each terminal. Here, the sub-optimal analog beam for each terminal is an analog beam for each terminal that maximizes a utility function from a set of analog beam candidates for each terminal that can be used when data is transmitted for a panel different from the panel of the terminal that receives the best analog beam for each terminal It could mean a candidate. Looking at this in more detail, as an example, if the best analog beam for each terminal selected by the base station is a beam for transmitting data to the first panel of the terminal having a dual antenna panel, the next best analog beam for each terminal is transmitted to the second panel by the base station When data is transmitted using beam candidates, it may mean an analog beam candidate for each terminal that maximizes a utility function. Here, the utility function can typically use the RSRP value.

Meanwhile, in the scheduling step (S620), the base stations may receive scheduling requests from the terminals for each time slot (S621). In addition, the base stations may perform scheduling in each time slot using analog beams for each terminal according to the scheduling requests of the terminals (S622). Then, the base stations may notify the terminals of the scheduling for each time slot (S623). When scheduling, the base stations may ensure that the number of terminals scheduled to each base station does not exceed the maximum number of accommodating terminals.

Thereafter, in the analog beam assignment step, the base stations may allocate the analog beams for each terminal to the antenna groups according to the scheduling requests of the terminals for each time slot ( S631 ). Then, the base stations may overlap the already allocated analog beams for each terminal to the remaining antenna groups (S632).

The methods according to the present invention may be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed by various computer means and recorded in a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the computer-readable medium may be specially designed and configured for the present invention, or may be known and available to those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of computer-readable media may include hardware devices specially configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions may include not only machine language codes such as those generated by a compiler, but also high-level language codes that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware device described above may be configured to operate as at least one software module to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

In addition, the above-described method or apparatus may be implemented by combining all or part of its configuration or function, or may be implemented separately.

Although the above has been described with reference to preferred embodiments of the present invention, those skilled in the art can variously modify and change the present invention within the scope without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims below. You will understand that it can be done.

Claims (1)

A method of operating a terminal of a communication system, comprising:
selecting a best analog beam and a next best analog beam from the analog beam sets for each base station based on a utility function for each base station;
requesting scheduling from a corresponding first base station for a first analog beam having a maximum utility function in best analog beams;
requesting scheduling from a corresponding second base station for a second analog beam having a maximum utility function in the best analog beams and the suboptimal analog beams transmitted by a second panel different from the first panel transmitting the first analog beam; ; and
and allocating the first analog beam to the first panel and allocating the second analog beam to the second panel.

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