TWI655850B - Beam measurement and reporting method and base station and user equipment using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for beam measurement and reward, suitable for a user equipment of a multi-beam wireless communication system, comprising: a beam configuration for receiving a plurality of first candidate beams. Channel measurements are performed on each of the first candidate beam waves in response to receiving the beam configuration. A beam message of at least one selected beam is returned from the first candidate beam in response to receiving the beam configuration.

Description

Beam wave measurement and reward method and base station and user equipment using the same

The present disclosure is directed to a method of beam measurement and reporting and a base station and user equipment using the method.

As the next generation of wireless communication systems (eg, 5G systems) demand better performance, some aspects of next-generation communication systems will be fully improved. High-frequency millimeter waves (mmWave) will significantly increase wireless capacity and speed for next-generation wireless communication systems. Since millimeter wave systems will operate at higher carrier frequencies, electromagnetic waves will experience greater path loss as they propagate. For example, electromagnetic waves around the millimeter wave frequency range will have attenuations that are significantly higher than attenuation around the microwave frequency range. Therefore, beamforming will be required to transmit in the millimeter wave frequency range.

In order to concentrate the radiant energy in a specific direction, the beam of the millimeter wave wireless communication system has a narrow filed-of-view (FoV) coverage, and therefore, To cover the full coverage, beam-wave multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems can be used. As shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of the coverage of a beam of a multi-beam wireless communication system. The base station (BS) 110 of FIG. 1 has a plurality of different millimeter beam waves 100, and each millimeter beam wave 100 has a different coverage range. The coverage of each millimeter beam wave 100 is relatively narrow. Therefore, as the user equipment (UE) 130 moves, the BS 110 needs to adaptively switch transmission and/or receive beam waves to communicate with the UE 130. As shown in FIG. 1, in each millimeter beam wave 100 of the BS 110, the energy of the beam 104 and the beam 105 is concentrated in the direction in which the UE 130 is located. Therefore, the beam 104 and the beam 105 may achieve better communication quality than other beam waves.

In order to select a better quality beam in a multi-beam wireless communication system, beam measurement and reward can be applied. In FIG. 1, the UE 130 separately performs beam-wave measurement on the plurality of beam waves 100 of the BS 110, and reports the measurement result to the BS 110. Specifically, the UE 130 separately receives the respective beam waves 100 and performs beam (or channel) measurement on the respective beam waves 100 to obtain measurement results corresponding to the respective beam waves 100. Then, the UE 130 selects one or more beamlets whose measurement result is better from the beam wave 100 as the selected beam, and transmits the payload in, for example, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). The payload) reports the beam identification code (ID) of the selected beam and the measurement result to the BS 110, so that the BS 110 schedules transmission resources for use by the selected beam selected by the UE 130.

In general, the number of selected beam selected by the UE is not fixed, so the data size of the measurement result reported by the UE is not fixed. For example, UE 130 may only Retrieving the measurement of beam 102 to BS 110 may suggest that BS 110 may select beamwave 105 to communicate with UE 130. Alternatively, UE 130 may also report measurements of beam 104 and beam 105 to BS 110 at the same time. It may be suggested that BS 110 may select at least one of beam 104 and beam 105 for communication with UE 130. Since the maximum payload size of the uplink channel (for example, PUCCH) may be fixed, the measurement result of the selected beam that the UE needs to report may exceed the maximum payload size of the PUCCH, thereby preventing the UE from transmitting through a single group of PUCCHs. The case of returning the complete selected beam information to the BS.

In order to solve the problem that the data size of the beam measurement result reported by the UE is not fixed, the method of beam wave measurement and reward needs to be improved.

Accordingly, the present disclosure relates to methods of beam measurement and reporting and base stations and user equipment using the methods.

The present disclosure provides a method for beam measurement and reward, which is applicable to a user equipment of a multi-beam wireless communication system, including: a beam configuration that receives a plurality of first candidate beams. Channel measurements are performed on each of the first candidate beam waves in response to receiving the beam configuration. A beam message of at least one selected beam is returned from the first candidate beam in response to receiving the beam configuration.

The present disclosure provides a method for beam measurement and reward, suitable for a base station of a multi-beam wireless communication system, comprising: transmitting a beam configuration for a plurality of first candidate beams. A beamlet message of at least one selected beam is received in response to the transmitted beam configuration.

The disclosure provides a user equipment, including: a transceiver and a processor. The processor is coupled to the receiver and configured to: receive a beamlet configuration of the plurality of first candidate beams through the transceiver. Channel measurements are performed on each of the first candidate beam waves in response to receiving the beam configuration. Transmitting, by the transceiver, a beamlet message of at least one selected beam from the first candidate beam in response to receiving the beam configuration.

The disclosure provides a base station, including: a transceiver and a processor. The processor is coupled to the receiver and configured to: transmit a beam configuration for the plurality of first candidate beams through the transceiver. A beam message of at least one selected beam is received by the transceiver in response to the transmitted beam configuration.

Based on the above, the base station of the present disclosure can control the bandwidth used by the user equipment to report the beam information of the selected beam through the beam configuration without exceeding the maximum payload size of the uplink channel. In addition, the base station can trigger the user equipment to report the beam information of the remaining beam via the PUSCH through the uplink grant. The user equipment can actively report the beam with good communication quality to the base station. Furthermore, the disclosure can reduce the amount of computation of the user equipment by setting a two-stage beam configuration.

The above described features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description.

100, 104, 105‧‧‧ beam

200, 300, 400, 500, 700, 800‧‧‧ methods of beam measurement and return

110, 210, 310, 410, 510, 610‧‧‧ base stations

130, 230, 330, 430, 530, 630‧‧‧ User equipment

231, 331, 431, 521, 551‧‧‧ dotted boxes

611, 631‧‧ ‧ processor

613, 633‧‧ ‧ transceiver

S210, S230, S250, S251, S251', S251", S253, S253', S253", S255, S255', S255", S270, S271, S273, S275, S310, S330, S350, S370, S390, S391, S393, S395, S410, S430, S450, S451, S451', S453, S453', S455', S470, S490, S510, S520, S530, S540, S550, S560, S570, S710, S730, S810, S830, S850 , S870‧‧‧ steps

Figure 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of the coverage of a beam of a multi-beam wireless communication system.

2A illustrates beam measurement and back in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Signaling diagram of the reported method.

2B further illustrates a schematic diagram of channel measurement results for the first embodiment of the method of FIG. 2A.

Figure 2C further illustrates the flow of step S250 of the first embodiment of the method of Figure 2A.

Figure 2D further illustrates the flow of step S270 of the first embodiment of the method of Figure 2A.

Figure 2E further illustrates a schematic diagram of channel measurements for the second embodiment of the method of Figure 2A.

Figure 2F further illustrates the flow of step S250 of the second embodiment of the method of Figure 2A.

2G further illustrates a schematic diagram of channel measurement results for a third embodiment of the method of FIG. 2A.

Figure 2H further illustrates the flow of step S250 of the third embodiment of the method of Figure 2A.

3A illustrates a signaling diagram of a method of beam wave measurement and reporting in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3B further illustrates the flow of step S390 of the method of FIG. 3A.

4A illustrates a signaling diagram of a method of beam measurement and reporting in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Figure 4B further illustrates the flow of step S450 of the first embodiment of the method of Figure 4A.

4C further illustrates the flow of step S450 of the second embodiment of the method 400 of FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5A illustrates a schematic diagram of different beam configuration in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5B illustrates a signaling diagram of a method 500 of beam measurement and reporting in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

5C and 5D are diagrams illustrating overlapping states of candidate beamlets of a first beam configuration and candidate beamlets of a second beamlet configuration in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6A illustrates a block diagram of a base station in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6B illustrates a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

7 illustrates a flow chart of a method for beam measurement and reporting for a base station in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

8 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for beam measurement and reporting for a user equipment in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

The present disclosure is directed to a method of beam measurement and reporting and a base station and user equipment using the method. Compared with the traditional beam measurement and reporting method, the method provided by the present disclosure can effectively reduce the signaling overhead between the BS and the UE. In the present disclosure, the term "base station" (BS) may refer to various embodiments. Including (but not limited to) an eNB (evolved NodeB, or eNodeB), a next generation gNB (next generation NodeB or gNodeB), an advanced base station (ABS), a base transceiver system (BTS), access Access point, home base station, relay station, scatter, repeater, intermediate node, intermediate device, and/or satellite-based communication base station (intermediary/satellite-based communication base station). The term "user equipment" (UE) may refer to various embodiments including, but not limited to, mobile stations, advanced mobile stations (AMS), servers, terminal devices, clients, desktop computers, notebooks. Computer, network computer, workstation, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), scanner, telephone device, pager, camera, TV, handheld game console, music device , wireless sensors, etc. In some applications, the UE may be a fixed computer device that operates in a mobile environment such as a bus, train, airplane, boat, car, or the like. The term "beam" can be represented by an antenna, an antenna 埠, an antenna element, an antenna group, an antenna 埠 group, or an antenna element group. For example, the first beam may be represented by a first antenna 埠 or a first antenna 埠 group. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

2A illustrates a signaling diagram of a method 200 of beam-wave measurement and reporting in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Method 200 can control, by BS 210, UE 230 to report beam-wave messages for N selected beams, where N To configure the number, it represents the maximum number of selected beam waves that the UE 230 can report. The method of selecting the selected beam will be explained later. Specifically, in step S210, the BS 210 may transmit K candidate beam waves. The beam comprising one or more reference signal resources is configured to the UE 230, so that the UE 230 performs channel measurement on the K candidate beams according to the received beam configuration, wherein the reference signals of the K candidate beams may be channels. A channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) and/or a synchronization signal block (SSB), but the disclosure is not limited thereto. In an embodiment, the one or more reference signal resources may further include K' CSI-RS resources corresponding to the K candidate beam waves, where K' may be equal to or not equal to K. The BS 210 may transmit the beam configuration through signaling of a higher-level wireless network protocol layer such as a radio resource control (RRC) layer or a media access control (MAC) layer. . Although FIG. 2A assumes K=8, the value of K can be adjusted according to actual needs.

The beamlet configuration may include a configuration number N indicating that up to N selected beamlets are returned by the UE 230 to the BS 210. For example, when the number of configurations N=4, the UE 230 may report the beam information of up to 4 sets of selected beams to the BS 210 through, for example, one or more sets of uplink channels (eg, PUCCH). N will not exceed K (ie: N K ). For example, when there are 8 candidate beamlets (i.e., K = 8), BS 210 will not instruct UE 230 to report beamlet messages for more than 8 selected beams.

In an embodiment, the beamlet configuration may also indicate that the UE 230 reports beam messages of up to N _i selected beams in each group of PUCCHs, where i is an index of the set of PUCCHs. For example, a beam configuration can be used to indicate a first number of configurations N ₁ and a second number of configurations N ₂ , where N ₁ + N ₂ =N. Although FIG. 2A assumes that N ₁ = 2 and N ₂ = 2, the values of N ₁ and N ₂ can be adjusted according to actual needs.

The first configured number N ₁ corresponds to a first uplink channel (eg, PUCCH) with an index of “1”, and may indicate that the UE 230 reports a beam message of at most N ₁ selected beams in the first uplink channel. The second configured number N ₂ corresponds to a second uplink channel (eg, PUCCH) with an index of “2”, and may indicate that the UE 230 reports a beam message of at most N ₂ selected beams in the second uplink channel. In this embodiment, only the beam configuration may indicate that the first configuration number N ₁ corresponding to the first uplink channel and the second configuration number N ₂ corresponding to the second uplink channel, but the beam configuration may also indicate that the beam configuration is corresponding to The number of configurations of multiple or fewer uplink channels, as long as the total number of configured uplink channels is equal to N (ie: Σ N _i = N , where i is the index of each group of PUCCHs).

At step S230, the UE 230 performs channel measurement for each of the K candidate beam waves in response to the received beam configuration, and selects N' of the K candidate beam waves according to the measurement result of the channel measurement. Selected beam, where N N ^' 1. In other words, the number of selected beamlets selected by the UE 230 can be less than or equal to the number of configurations N indicated by the BS 210. For example, when the BS 210 instructs the UE 230 to report the beam information of the four selected beams to the BS 210, if the UE 230 can find only three candidate beam with better communication quality as the selected beam according to the channel measurement result. At the time of the wave, the UE 230 can report only the beam information of the three selected beams to the BS 210.

The UE 230 selects a candidate beam with better communication quality as the selected beam according to the channel measurement result of each candidate beam. The selected beam can be based on the measured channel state information (CSI), reference signal received power (RSRP), and reference signal reception quality of the selected candidate beam. At least one of signal received quality (RSRQ), wherein the CSI may include a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), and a rank indicator (rank indicator, At least one of RI), but the disclosure is not limited thereto. Taking RSRP as an example, the dashed box 231 of FIG. 2A represents the RSRP strength measured by the UE 230 and the threshold T ₁ . Among the K candidate beam received by the UE 230, the RSRP values of the beam 2, the beam 5, the beam 6 and the beam 1 exceed the threshold T ₁ . Therefore, the UE 230 selects the beam 2, the beam 5, the beam 6 and the beam 1 as the selected beam. Threshold T ₁ may be determined by physical layer (PHY) signaling sent by base station 210 or higher level signaling than PHY layer.

In an embodiment, the UE 230 determines the selected beam based on a predetermined value. For example, the preset value may be a threshold T ₁ that is preset to the UE 230 instead of the signaling received from the BS 210, where the threshold T ₁ may be a threshold associated with channel parameters such as CSI, RSRP, and/or RSRQ.

In an embodiment, the UE 230 determines the selected beam based on beam ordering of the K candidate beams. In particular, the UE 230 ranks the K candidate beamlets based on the results of the channel measurements (eg, RSRP, RSRQ, and/or CSI). Referring to the broken line frame 231, the beam waves of the K candidate beam are sorted into beam 2, beam 5, beam 6, beam 1, beam 4, beam 3, beam 8 and beam 7, therefore, When selecting the selected beam, the UE 230 preferentially selects the beam 2 as the selected beam, then selects the beam 5 as the selected beam, and then selects the beam 6 as the selected. Beam, ..., and so on.

In an embodiment, the UE 230 determines the selected beam based on the correlation between the K candidate beams. For example, if there is a high spatial correlation between the beam 6 and the beam 4, this may represent that the beam 6 is similar to the FoV coverage of the beam 4. Based on this, the probability that the UE 230 selects both the beam 6 and the beam 4 as the selected beam will be reduced. Conversely, if there is a low spatial correlation between the beam 6 and the beam 4, this may mean that the FoV coverage of the beam 6 and the beam 4 is less overlapping. Based on this, the probability that the UE 230 simultaneously selects the beam 6 and the beam 4 as the selected beam will increase.

After selecting the selected beam, in an embodiment, the UE determines the selected selected beam as a failure beam based on a specific rule, thereby causing the fault beam to be selected from the selected beam. Eliminated.

In an embodiment, the UE 230 selects a selected beam having a poor communication quality as a fault beam according to the channel measurement result of each selected beam. The fault beam may be determined based on at least one of a measured CSI, RSRP, and/or RSRQ of the selected beam. Taking RSRP as an example, the dashed box 231 of FIG. 2A represents the RSRP strength measured by the UE 230 and the threshold T ₁ . It is assumed that the UE 230 has selected the beam 2, the beam 5, the beam 6, the beam 1 and the beam 4 as the selected beam. However, according to the result of the channel measurement, the RSRP value of the beam 4 is smaller than the threshold T ₁ . Therefore, the UE 230 will determine that the beam 4 is a fault beam. Threshold T ₁ may be determined by PHY layer signaling transmitted by base station 210 received by UE 230 or higher level signaling than the PHY layer.

In an embodiment, the UE 230 determines the fault beam based on a predetermined value. For example, the preset value may be a threshold T ₁ that is preset to the UE 230 instead of the signaling received from the BS 210.

In an embodiment, the UE 230 determines the fault beam based on the correlation between the N selected beamlets. For example, assume that N=4 (ie, UE 230 can only report at most 4 selected beams to BS 210), and UE 230 has initially selected beam 2, beam 5, according to any of the methods described above. When the beam 6, the beam 1 and the beam 4 are selected as the selected beam, the UE 230 can select the fault according to the spatial correlation between the beam 2, the beam 5, the beam 6, the beam 1 and the beam 4. Beam wave. More specifically, it is assumed that there is a high spatial correlation between the beam 6 and the beam 4, which may represent that the beam 6 is similar to the FoV coverage of the beam 4. Based on this, the UE 230 can regard one of the beam 6 and the beam 4 as a fault beam. In the case where it is determined that the beam 4 is a fault beam, the final selected beam will include beam 2, beam 5, beam 6 and beam 1.

In step S250, the UE 230 transmits the first uplink channel to select from among the K candidate beams according to the first configuration number N ₁ indicated by the beam configuration. Selected beams, and return the beam information of the selected beam to BS 210, where N ₁ . In other words, the number of selected beam waves that the UE 230 reports on the first upstream channel It may be less than or equal to the first number of configurations N ₁ indicated by the BS 210. For example, when the BS 210 instructs the UE 230 to report the beam information of the two selected beams to the BS 210 in the first uplink channel, if the UE 230 can find only one candidate beam with better communication quality according to the channel measurement result. As the selected beam, the UE 230 can only report the beam information of one selected beam to the BS 210 on the first uplink channel. In FIG. 2A, the UE 230 may select to send the beam wave information of the beam 2 with the highest RSRP and the beam wave 5 with the highest RSRP to the BS 210 in the first uplink channel, or may only report the RSRP in the first uplink channel. The beam signal of the highest beam 2 is given to the BS 210.

In addition, the UE 230 may report through the first uplink channel according to the first configured quantity N ₁ indicated by the beam configuration. The combined beam information of the selected beam is given to the BS 210, wherein Can be determined according to N ₁ or N (for example: N N ₁ ), or based on high-level (or physical layer) signaling. For example, the UE 230 may report the combined beam information of the beam 2 and the beam 5 to the BS 210 in the first uplink channel, where the joint beam information may include multi-wave correlation between the beam 2 and the beam 5 message.

In step S270, the UE 230 reports through the second uplink channel (for example, PUCCH) according to the second configuration number N ₂ indicated by the beam configuration. Beam signals of selected beams are given to BS 210, where N ₂ . In other words, the number of selected beam waves that the UE 230 reports on the second upstream channel It may be less than or equal to the second number of configurations N ₂ indicated by the BS 210. For example, when the BS 210 instructs the UE 230 to report the beam information of the two selected beams to the BS 210 in the second uplink channel, if the UE 230 can find only one candidate beam with better communication quality according to the channel measurement result. As the selected beam, the UE 230 returns only the beam information of one selected beam to the BS 210 in the second uplink channel. In FIG. 2A, if the UE 230 determines the selected beam based on the threshold T ₁ , the UE 230 reports the beam wave message of the beam 6 and the beam 1 whose RSRP is higher than the threshold T ₁ to the BS 210 in the second uplink channel. ,at this time . In addition, if the UE 230 determines the selected beam based on the threshold T ₂ , the UE 230 reports the beam wave message of the beam 6 whose RSRP is higher than the threshold T ₂ to the BS 210 at the second PUCCH. . when At this time, the UE 230 may skip step S270.

Furthermore, the UE 230 may report through the second uplink channel according to the second configured quantity N ₂ indicated by the beam configuration. The combined beam information of the selected beam is given to the BS 210, wherein Can be determined according to N ₂ or N (for example: N N ₂ ), or based on high-level (or physical layer) signaling. Since the UE 230 has obtained the information of the beam 2 and the beam 5 through the first uplink channel at step S250, the joint beam message reported by the UE 230 may be associated with the beam 2 and the beam 5 in step S270. . For example, the UE 230 may report the combined beam information of the beam 6 and the beam 1 to the BS 210 in the second uplink channel, where the joint beam information may include multi-wave correlation between the beam 6 and the beam 1 message. In addition, the UE 230 may also report the combined beam information of the beam 2, the beam 5 and the beam 6 to the BS 210 at the second PUCCH, wherein the joint beam message may include the beam 2, the beam 5 and the beam Multi-wave related information between 6.

The beamlet message may comprise at least one of: the number of selected beamlets, the index of the selected beam, the precoding matrix indicator (PMI) of each of the selected beamlets, the channel based measurement The beam order of the selected beam determined by the result (eg, RSRP, RSRQ, and/or CSI), the measurement result corresponding to each of the selected beam, the combined measurement result corresponding to the selected beam, And a differential value of the measurement result of the selected beam, wherein the difference is a value of a strongest beam of the at least one selected beam and a non-selection of the at least one selected beam The value of the strongest beam is determined by a difference operation, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. The beamlet message may further comprise a multi-beam related message of the selected beam, wherein the multi-beam related message may comprise at least one of: a joint precoding matrix indicator (joint PMI) of the selected beam and the selected Combined measurement of beam waves.

2B further illustrates a schematic diagram of channel measurement results for the first embodiment of the method 200 of FIG. 2A. As shown in FIG. 2B, the UE 230 performs channel measurement on each of the K candidate beam waves in response to the received beam configuration to obtain the PMI of the selected beam and the measurement result, and may also Joint channel measurements are performed on any of the K candidate beamlets to obtain joint PMI and joint measurements corresponding to the plurality of selected beamlets. The measurement result may be a channel quality indicator (CQI), and the joint measurement result may be a joint channel quality indicator (joint CQI). As shown in FIG. 2B, the UE 230 performs channel measurement on the beam 2 and the beam 5 in 8 (K=8) candidate beams, respectively, thereby obtaining channel estimation of the beam 2 and the beam 5. ) "H ₂ " and "H ₅ ". The UE 230 can determine the precoding vector "b ₂ " corresponding to the beam 2 based on "H ₂ ", and determine the precoding vector "b ₅ " corresponding to the beam ₅ based on the channel estimation "H ₅ ". After determining the precoding vector "b ₂ " of the beam ₂ and the precoding vector "b ₅ " of the beam 5, the UE 230 determines the precoding matrix indicator PMI ₂ according to the precoding vector "b ₂ " and according to the precoding. The vector "b ₅ " determines the precoding matrix indicator PMI ₅ . Next, the UE 230 calculates a channel 2 quality indicator CQI ₂ corresponding to the beam 2 according to the precoding matrix indicator PMI ₂ and the channel estimation "H ₂ ", and estimates "H ₅ according to the precoding matrix indicator PMI ₅ and the channel. Calculated to correspond to the beam 5 channel quality indicator CQI ₅ .

In addition, the UE 230 may further perform joint channel measurement on the combination of the beam 2 and the beam 5 in 8 (K=8) candidate beams, thereby obtaining a joint channel estimation of the beam 2 and the beam 5 "[H ₂ , H ₅ ]". UE 230 can be based on "[H _2, H _5]" corresponding to the determined precoding matrix wave beam 2 and 5 of the wave beam (precoding matrix, or pre-coder (Precoder)) "[b ₂ b _5]." After determining the precoding matrix "[b ₂ b ₅ ]" of the beam 2 and the beam 5, the UE 230 determines the joint precoding matrix indicator PMI _{2,5 in} accordance with the precoding matrix "[b ₂ b ₅ ]". Next, the UE 230 calculates a joint channel quality indicator CQI _2,5 corresponding to the beam 2 and the beam 5 based on the joint precoding matrix indicator PMI _{2, 5} and the channel estimate "[H ₂ , H ₅ ]".

2C further illustrates the flow of step S250 of the first embodiment of the method 200 of FIG. 2A. As shown in FIG. 2C, step S250 in the first embodiment of the method 200 of FIG. 2A can be further divided into steps S251, S253, and S255.

In step S251, the UE 230 reports the number of selected beam waves in the beam message and the index of the selected beam to the BS 210 through the first uplink channel. The method of returning the number of selected beams and the index of the selected beam can be selected according to actual needs. For example, the UE 230 may report the number of selected beam waves and the index of the selected beam to the BS 210 at one time using a bit map. More specifically, the UE 230 transmits the bit stream "01001000" to the BS 210 at step S251, wherein the length of the bit stream represents the number of candidate beam (K = 8). If the jth bit in the bit stream is "1", the jth candidate beam is selected as the selected beam by the UE 230; if the jth bit in the bit stream is "0", then The jth candidate beam is not selected by the UE 230 as the selected beam. The bit stream "01001000" represents that the UE 230 selects the beam 2 from the 8 candidate beams and the beam 5 is the selected beam. Accordingly, the total number of "1"s in the bit stream represents the number of selected beams that the UE 230 intends to report on the first upstream channel. And the position where "1" appears in the bit stream represents the index of the selected beam (ie, beam 2 and beam 5) that the UE 230 intends to report on the first uplink channel. In addition, the index of the selected beam may be expressed in the form of a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) or a SSB resource indicator (SSBRI).

In step S253, the UE 230 reports the CSI of the selected beam in the beam message to the BS 210 through the first uplink channel, where the CSI of the selected beam may include the PMI of the selected beam, and the beam of the selected beam. Wave ordering, and at least one of the measurements corresponding to the selected beam. The beam ordering of the selected beam indicates the ordering of the communication qualities of the selected beam returned by the BS 210 from the first upstream channel. When the beam order is {2, 5}, the BS 210 can know that the communication quality when using the beam 2 to communicate with the UE 230 is better than the communication quality when the beam 5 is used to communicate with the UE 230. Therefore, when selecting a transmission beam to the UE 230, the BS 210 preferentially selects the beam 2 to communicate with the UE 230. The PMI of the selected beam indicates the precoding matrix corresponding to the selected beam that the BS 210 reports via the first upstream channel. For example, when the BS 210 receives the PMI ₂ corresponding to the beam ₂ and the PMI ₅ corresponding to the beam 5 from the UE 230, the BS 210 will select a precoding matrix corresponding to the PMI ₂ when transmitting using the beam 2, And a precoding matrix corresponding to PMI ₅ is selected when transmitting using beam 5. The measurement result may inform the BS 210 of the channel measurement result of the selected beam that is reported via the first upstream channel. For example, when the UE 230 selects the beam 2 and the beam 5 as the selected beam, the UE 230 reports the CQI ₂ corresponding to the beam ₂ and the CQI ₅ corresponding to the beam ₅ to the BS 210 through the first uplink channel. The BS 210 is made aware of the communication quality of the beam 2 and the beam 5.

At step S255, the UE 230 reports the joint PMI corresponding to the selected beam and the joint measurement result to the BS 210 through the first uplink channel. Joint PMI and joint measurements can be applied to applications where multiple beams are used for transmission. Specifically, the BS 210 can instruct the UE 230 to turn on/off the function of multi-beam transmission through the PHY layer or higher layer signaling. When the function of multi-beam transmission is enabled, the BS 210 and the UE 230 simultaneously use a plurality of beam waves to communicate with each other. The UE 230 may use the joint PMI to report that the BS 210 selects a precoding matrix suitable for multi-beam transmission. When the BS 210 receives the joint precoding matrix indicator PMI ₂ , 5 corresponding to the beam 2 and the beam 5 from the UE 230, the BS 210 will select the corresponding when using the beam 2 and the beam 5 for multibeam transmission. Precoding matrix for PMI _2,5 . In addition, when the UE 230 selects the beam 2 and the beam 5 as the selected beam for performing multi-beam transmission, the UE 230 reports the joint channel quality indication corresponding to the beam 2 and the beam 5 through the first uplink channel. The CQI _{2, 5 is} given to the BS 210, so that the BS 210 knows the communication quality when the beam 2 and the beam 5 are simultaneously used for multi-beam transmission.

FIG. 2D further illustrates the flow of step S270 of the first embodiment of the method 200 of FIG. 2A. As shown in FIG. 2D, step S270 can be further divided into steps S271, S273, and S275. Steps S271 and S273 are similar to steps S251 and S253 of FIG. 2C, respectively, except that the uplink channels used are different and the selected selected beam is different, and no further details are provided herein. The difference between step S275 and step S255 is that, before step S275, the BS 210 has received the channel measurement results of the beam 2 and the beam 5 from the first upstream channel at step S250. Accordingly, the UE 230 can further report the return and beam 2 and the beam in addition to the combined PMI of the beam 6 and the beam 1 and the joint measurement result to the BS 210 through the second uplink channel (for example, PUCCH). Wave 5 is associated with the combined PMI and joint measurements to BS 210. For example, the UE 230 may report at least one of the following to the BS 210 in step S275: the joint precoding matrix indicator PMI _6, 1 of the beam 6 and the beam ₁ and the joint channel quality indicator CQI _{6, 1} ; Joint precoding matrix indicator PMI _{2,5 of} wave 2 and beam ₅ and joint channel quality indicator CQI _2,5 ; beam 2, combined precoding matrix indicator PMI _{2,5 of} beam 5 and beam 6 _,6 and joint channel quality indicator CQI _2,5,6 ; or beam 2, beam 5, beam 6 and beam 1 joint precoding matrix indicator PMI _2,5,6,1 and joint channel quality Indicator CQI ₂ , 5, _{6, 1} ... and so on. In addition, UE 230 may choose not to report any joint PMI and joint measurements to BS 210 at step S275 (eg, when BS 210 or UE 230 chooses not to implement multi-beam transmission).

2E further illustrates a schematic diagram of channel measurement results for a second embodiment of the method 200 of FIG. 2A. When the joint precoding matrix of beam 2 and beam 5 has a nested property, the individual precoding vectors of beam 2 and beam 5 can be derived from the joint precoding matrix of beam 2 and beam 5 , as shown in Figure 2E. Therefore, when the UE 230 reports the joint precoding matrix indicator PMI _{2,5 of the} beam 2 and the beam 5, the BS 210 can derive the beam from the precoding matrix "[b ₂ b ₅ ]" corresponding to the PMI _2,5 . The precoding vector "[b ₂ ]" of ₂ and the precoding vector "[b ₅ ]" of the beam 5. As such, the step of reporting the precoding matrix indicator PMI ₂ of the beam ₂ and the precoding matrix indicator PMI _{5 of the} beam ₅ to the BS 210 by the UE 230 may be omitted, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

Moreover, instead of reporting the CQI of the complete selected beam, the UE 230 may only report the difference in the measurements of the selected beam to the BS 210, thereby reducing the transmission resources required to transmit the CQI information. When the UE 230 returns the joint channel quality indicator CQI _{2,5 of the} beam 2 and the beam ₅ to the BS 210, instead of reporting the CQI _{2 of the} complete beam ₂ , the UE 230 only needs to report the CQI _{2, 5} and CQI ₂ difference △ ₂ to BS 210, BS 210 through a CQI can be received and △ _2,5 derive CQI ₂ 2 ₂ wave beam. Similarly, instead of a complete return to the wave beam 5 of ₅ CQI, UE 230 returns only CQI and CQI difference values △ _{5 2,5 5} to BS 210, BS 210 can be received through the CQI _2,5 △ ₅ Derive the CQI ₅ of the beam ₅ .

FIG. 2F further illustrates the flow of step S250 of the second embodiment of the method 200 of FIG. 2A. As shown in FIG. 2F, step S250 in the second embodiment of the method 200 of FIG. 2A can be further divided into steps S251', S253', and S255', wherein step S251' is similar to step S251 in FIG. 2C, This is not to be repeated.

In step S253', the UE 230 reports the beam order of the selected beam in the beam message, the joint PMI corresponding to the selected beam, and the joint measurement result to the BS 210 through the first uplink channel. The beam ordering of the selected beam suggests the ordering of the communication qualities of the selected beam returned by the BS 210 from the first upstream channel. When the beam order is {2, 5}, the BS 210 knows that the communication quality when using the beam 2 to communicate with the UE 230 is superior to the communication quality when the beam 5 is communicated with the UE 230. Therefore, when selecting a transmission beam to the UE 230, the BS 210 preferentially selects the beam 2 to communicate with the UE 230. Joint PMI and joint measurements can be applied to applications where multiple beams are used for transmission. When the BS 210 receives the joint precoding matrix indicator PMI ₂ , 5 corresponding to the beam 2 and the beam 5 from the UE 230, the BS 210 will select the corresponding when using the beam 2 and the beam 5 for multibeam transmission. Precoding matrix for PMI _2,5 . In addition, when the UE 230 selects the beam 2 and the beam 5 as the selected beam for performing multi-beam transmission, the UE 230 reports the joint channel quality indication corresponding to the beam 2 and the beam 5 through the first uplink channel. The CQI _{2, 5 is} given to the BS 210, so that the BS 210 knows the communication quality when the beam 2 and the beam 5 are simultaneously used for multi-beam transmission.

In step S255', the UE 230 reports the difference of the measurement results of the selected beam in the beam message to the BS 210 through the first uplink channel. The UE 230 reports the difference Δ ₂ between the CQI ₂ , ₅ and the CQI ₂ to the BS 210. The BS 210 derives the CQI ₂ of the beam 2 from the CQIs _{2, 5} and Δ ₂ received at step S253'. Similarly, UE 230 at step S255 'CQI PUCCH through a first return the CQI difference value △ _2,5 and ₅ of ₅ to BS 210. The BS 210 derives the CQI ₅ of the beam 5 from the CQIs _{2, 5} and Δ ₅ received at step S253'.

2G further illustrates a schematic diagram of channel measurement results for a third embodiment of the method 200 of FIG. 2A. When the precoding vector of the beam 2 and the beam 5 has a nested characteristic, the joint precoding matrix of the beam 2 and the beam 5 can be derived from the individual precoding vectors of the beam 2 and the beam 5, as shown in FIG. 2G. Show. Therefore, when the UE 230 reports the precoding matrix indicator PMI ₂ of the beam ₂ and the precoding matrix indicator PMI _{5 of the} beam ₅ to the BS 210, the BS 210 can respectively correspond to the precoding vector corresponding to the PMI ₂ and the PMI ₅ " [b ₂ ]" and the precoding vector "[b ₅ ]" derive the joint precoding matrix "[b ₂ b ₅ ]" of the beam 2 and the beam 5. As such, the step of reporting the joint precoding matrix indicator PMI _2, 5 of the beam 2 and the beam ₅ to the BS 210 by the UE 230 may be omitted, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

2H further illustrates the flow of step S250 of the third embodiment of the method 200 of FIG. 2A. As shown in FIG. 2H, step S250 in the third embodiment of the method 200 of FIG. 2A can be further divided into steps S251", S253" and S255", wherein step S251" is the same as step S251 in FIG. 2C and steps S253" is the same as step S253 in FIG. 2C, and will not be described here.

In step S255", the UE 230 reports the joint measurement (ie, CSI _{2, 5} ) corresponding to the selected beam to the BS 210 through the first uplink channel, and does not need to report a joint PMI corresponding to the selected beam. (ie: PMI _2,5) .BS 210 by the PMI the PMI ₅ and ₂ respectively corresponding precoding vector "[B _2]" and precoding vector "[B _5]" derived wave beam 2 and beam wave 5 Joint precoding matrix "[b ₂ b ₅ ]".

Take the uplink channel as an example of PUCCH. Since the maximum payload size of the PUCCH is fixed, the selected beam information that the UE needs to report may exceed the maximum payload size of the PUCCH, as shown in Equation 1: N ^' × ( b _BI + b _Quality )> Payload _PUCCH ... Equation 1 where N' represents the number of selected beam selected by the UE, and b _BI represents the number of bits required for the UE to report the beam index (BI) of the selected beam b _quality indicates the number of bits required for the UE to report the measurement result of the selected beam, and the Payload _PUCCH indicates the maximum payload size of a group of PUCCHs, wherein the channel state resource indicator (CSI-RS resource indicator, CRI) can be used. Or the SSB resource indicator (SSBRI) indicates a beam index, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. It can be known from Equation 1 that the larger the number of selected beam N', the more likely the information about the selected beam to be reported by the UE exceeds the maximum payload of the PUCCH. Therefore, it is important to control the number of selected beam waves that the UE reports in a single set of PUCCHs. The BS 210 of the disclosed method 200 can indicate the maximum value of the selected beam that the UE 230 reports in each group of uplink channels (eg, PUCCH) through the beam configuration. Thereby, the resource used by the UE 230 to report the beamlet message of the selected beam does not exceed the maximum payload size of the single group PUCCH.

3A illustrates a signaling diagram of a method 300 of beam-wave measurement and reporting in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Method 300 can control, by BS 310, UE 330 to report beam-wave messages of M selected beams, where M To configure the number, it represents the maximum number of selected beam waves that the UE 330 can report. Specifically, in step S310, the BS 310 may transmit a beam configuration including one or more reference signal resources to the UE 330 for the K candidate beams, so that the UE 330 configures the K candidate beams according to the received beam configuration. The wave performs channel measurement, wherein the reference signals of the K candidate beam waves can be, for example, a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) and/or a synchronization signal block (SSB). However, the disclosure is not limited to this. In an embodiment, the one or more reference signal resources may further include K' CSI-RS resources corresponding to the K candidate beam waves, where K' may be equal to or not equal to K. The BS 310 may transmit the beam configuration through signaling of a higher level wireless network protocol layer such as the RRC layer or the MAC layer. Although FIG. 3A assumes K=8, the value of K can be adjusted according to actual needs.

The beam configuration may include a configuration number M indicating that up to M selected beams are returned by the UE 330 to the BS 310. For example, when the configuration quantity M=4, the UE 330 reports the beam information of up to 4 sets of selected beams to the BS 310 through the uplink channel. M will not exceed K (ie: M K ). For example, when there are 8 candidate beamlets (i.e., K = 8), BS 310 will not instruct UE 330 to report beamlet messages for more than 8 selected beams.

In step S330, the UE 330 performs channel measurement on each of the K candidate beam waves in response to the received beam configuration, and selects M' from the K candidate beam waves according to the measurement result of the channel measurement. Selected beam (for example: beam 2, beam 5, beam 6 and beam 1). Then, the UE 330 selects a communication quality from the M' selected beams according to the measurement result of the channel measurement (for example, RSRP). Selected beam as Preferred beam (for example: beam 2 and beam 5), where M M ^' 1.

In step S350, the UE 330 returns through the first uplink channel according to the configured number M indicated by the beam configuration. The preferred beam is given to the BS 310. In this embodiment, the first uplink channel may be a PUCCH. In other words, the number of preferred beam waves reported by UE 330 on the first upstream channel may be less than or equal to the number M of configurations indicated by BS 310. For example, when the BS 310 instructs the UE 330 to report the beam information of the four beams to the BS 310, the UE 330 may report only the bundle of the two preferred beams (ie, the beam 2 and the beam 5) in the first uplink channel. The wave message is sent to BS 310. When the BS 310 receives the backhaul of the UE 330 When the beam wave information of the beam is preferred, the BS 310 can be based on the configured number M and the number of preferred beam waves. And determine the number of remaining beams ,among them . For example, when the BS 310 receives the beam information of the two preferred beams returned by the UE 330, the BS 310 may use the number of configurations M=4 and the number of preferred beam waves. And determine the number of remaining beams .

In step S370, the BS 310 transmits an uplink grant (uplink grant) to the UE 330, thereby instructing the UE 330 to report the beam information of the remaining beam to the BS 310. For example, the BS 310 may transmit an uplink grant to the UE 330 through a downlink control information (DCI) message, thereby instructing the UE 330 to report the beam information of the remaining beam to the BS 310 via the second uplink channel. In this embodiment, the second uplink channel may be a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). In addition, the DCI message is included to indicate the UE 330 return The number of configuration of the remaining beam of the remaining beam of the remaining beam to the number of remaining beams of the BS 310 . Alternatively, the BS 310 may not indicate the configured number of remaining beam waves of the UE 330. And the number of remaining beams to be returned by the UE 330 is determined by itself. .

In step S390, the UE 330 reports the beam information corresponding to the remaining beam to the BS 310 in response to receiving the uplink grant. For example, UE 330 can decide The selected beam other than the preferred beam (ie, beam 2 and beam 5) is the remaining beam (ie, beam 6 and beam 1), and the beam of the remaining beam is returned via the second upstream channel. The message is sent to BS 310.

FIG. 3B further illustrates the flow of step S390 of method 300 of FIG. 3A. As shown in FIG. 3B, step S390 can be further divided into steps S391, S393, and S395.

In step S391, the UE 330 transmits the number of remaining beam waves in the beam message through the second uplink channel. And the index of the remaining beam is reported to the BS 310. Report the number of remaining beams And the method of indexing the remaining beam waves can be selected according to actual needs. For example, the UE 330 may use a bit map to directly count the number of remaining beam waves at a time. And the index of the remaining beam is reported to the BS 310. More specifically, the UE 330 transmits the bit stream "10000100" to the BS 310 at step S391, wherein the length of the bit stream represents the number of candidate beam (K = 8). If the jth bit in the bit stream is "1", the jth candidate beam is determined by the UE 330 as the remaining beam; if the jth bit in the bit stream is "0", then The j candidate beam waves are not determined by the UE 330 as the remaining beam. The bit stream "10000100" represents that the UE 330 determines the beam 6 from the 8 candidate beams and the beam 1 as the remaining beam. Accordingly, the total number of "1"s in the bit stream represents the number of remaining beams that the UE 330 intends to report on the second upstream channel. And the position where "1" appears in the bit stream represents the index of the remaining beam (ie, beam 6 and beam 1) that the UE 330 intends to report on the PUSCH. Further, the index of the remaining beam waves may be expressed in the form of CRI.

In step S393, the UE 330 reports the CSI of the remaining beam in the beam message to the BS 310 through the PUSCH, wherein the CSI of the remaining beam may include the PMI of the remaining beam, the beam order of the remaining beam, and the remaining At least one of the measurements of the beam. The beam ordering of the remaining beam waves indicates the ordering of the communication qualities of the remaining beam waves that the BS 310 reports from the PUSCH. When the beam order is {6, 1}, the BS 310 knows that the communication quality when using the beam 6 to communicate with the UE 330 is better than the communication quality when the beam 1 is communicated with the UE 330. Therefore, when selecting a transmission beam to the UE 330, the BS 310 preferentially selects the beam 6 to communicate with the UE 330. The PMI of the remaining beam waves suggests a precoding matrix corresponding to each of the remaining beam waves that the BS 310 reports via the second upstream channel. For example, when the BS 310 receives the PMI ₆ corresponding to the beam ₆ and the PMI ₁ corresponding to the beam 1 from the UE 330, the BS 310 will select a precoding matrix corresponding to the PMI ₆ when transmitting using the beam 6. And the precoding matrix corresponding to PMI ₁ is selected when transmitting using beam 1 . The measurement result may inform the BS 310 of the channel measurement result of the remaining beam waves reported by the second upstream channel. For example, when the UE 330 determines that the beam 6 and the beam 1 are the remaining beams, the UE 330 reports the CQI ₆ corresponding to the beam ₆ and the CQI ₁ corresponding to the beam ₁ to the BS 310 through the second uplink channel, thereby BS 310 understands the communication quality of beam 6 and beam 1.

At step S395, the UE 330 reports the joint PMI corresponding to the remaining beam and the joint measurement result to the BS 310 through the second uplink channel. Joint PMI and joint measurements can be applied to applications where multiple beams are used for transmission. Specifically, the BS 310 can instruct the UE 330 to turn on/off the function of multi-beam transmission through the PHY layer or higher layer signaling. When the function of multi-beam transmission is enabled, the BS 310 and the UE 330 simultaneously use a plurality of beam waves to communicate with each other. The UE 330 can use the joint PMI to report that the BS 310 selects a precoding matrix suitable for multi-beam transmission. When the BS 310 receives the joint precoding matrix indicator PMI _6,1 corresponding to the beam 6 and the beam 1 from the UE 330, the BS 310 will select the corresponding when using the beam 6 and the beam 1 for multibeam transmission. Precoding matrix for PMI _6,1 . In addition, when the UE 330 determines that the beam 6 and the beam 1 are the remaining beams for performing multi-beam transmission, the UE 330 reports the joint channel quality indicator CQI ₆ corresponding to the beam 6 and the beam 1 through the PUSCH _{. 1 is} given to the BS 310, so that the BS 310 knows the communication quality when the beam wave 6 and the beam 1 are simultaneously used for multi-beam transmission.

Through the method 300 of the present disclosure, when the BS 310 needs more beam information, the BS 310 can trigger the UE 330 to report the beam information of the remaining beam via the PUSCH through the uplink grant. Thereby, the BS 310 can acquire more beam information by the UE 330 for scheduling of the transmission beam without additionally consuming the resources of the PUCCH.

4A illustrates a signaling diagram of a method 400 of beam measurement and reporting in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, in step S410, the BS 410 may transmit a beam configuration including one or more reference signal resources to the UE 430 for the K candidate beams, so that the UE 430 configures the K candidate beams according to the received beam configuration. The wave performs channel measurement, wherein the reference signals of the K candidate beams may be a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) and/or a synchronization signal block (SSB), but the disclosure is not limited thereto. In an embodiment, the one or more reference signal resources may include K' CSI-RS resources corresponding to the K candidate beam waves, where K' may be equal to or not equal to K. The BS 410 can transmit the beam configuration through signaling of a higher level wireless network protocol layer such as the RRC layer or the MAC layer. Although FIG. 4A assumes that K=8, the value of K can be adjusted according to actual needs. Different from step S210 or S310, in step S410, the BS 410 does not transmit the configured number to indicate the number of selected beam waves reported by the UE 430 to the UE 430.

In step S430, the UE 430 performs channel measurement on each of the K candidate beam waves in response to the received beam configuration, and selects O' from the K candidate beam waves according to the measurement result of the channel measurement. The selected beam (e.g., beam 2, beam 5, and beam 6), where the value of O' is not determined by BS 410, but is determined by UE 430. The selected beam may be determined, for example, based on at least one of CSI, RSRP, and/or RSRQ of the measured candidate beam. Taking RSRP as an example, the dashed box 431 of FIG. 4A represents the RSRP strength measured by the UE 430 and the threshold T ₂ . As indicated by the dashed box 431, among the K candidate beam received by the UE 430, the RSRP values of the beam 2, the beam 5, and the beam 6 exceed the threshold T ₂ . Therefore, the UE 430 will select the beam 2, the beam 5, and the beam 6 as the selected beam. Threshold T ₂ may be determined by PHY layer signaling transmitted by base station 410 received by UE 430 or by higher level signaling than the PHY layer.

In step S450, the UE 430 returns through the first uplink channel (for example, PUCCH). The beam information of the selected beam is given to the BS 410, wherein The value of this is determined by the UE 430. In the first embodiment of FIG. 4A, the UE 430 only reports the beam information of the beam 2 to the BS 410 through the first uplink channel. In the second embodiment of FIG. 4A, the UE 430 returns the beam wave information of the beam 2 and the beam 5 to the BS 410 through the first uplink channel. In addition, the UE 430 also reports the number of remaining beams through the first uplink channel. Give BS 410 to indicate that BS 410 still has The measurement results of the beam channel measurement are good. Therefore, BS 410 can understand that there is still The remaining beamlets can be used to communicate with the UE 430. UE 430 is based on the number of selected beam O's and And decided. In the first embodiment of FIG. 4A, the UE 430 reports that there are still 2 remaining beams (ie, beam 5 and beam 6) to the BS 410 through the first uplink channel. In the second embodiment of FIG. 4A, the UE 430 reports that there is still one remaining beam (ie, beam 6) to the BS 410 through the first uplink channel.

In step S470, the BS 410 transmits an uplink grant to the UE 430, thereby instructing the UE 430 to report the beam information of the remaining beam to the BS 410. For example, the BS 410 transmits an uplink grant to the UE 430 through the DCI message, thereby instructing the UE 430 to report the beam information of the remaining beam to the BS 410 via the second uplink channel (eg, PUSCH).

At step S490, the UE 430 reports in response to receiving the uplink grant. The beam wave message corresponding to the remaining beam is given to the BS 410.

In the first embodiment of FIG. 4A, the UE 430 reports the beam-wave information of the beam 5 and the beam 6 to the BS 410 through the second uplink channel.

In the second embodiment of FIG. 4A, the UE 430 reports the beam information of the beam 6 to the BS 410 through the second uplink channel.

Further, the UE 430 reports the joint beam information corresponding to the remaining beam to the BS 410 in response to receiving the uplink grant.

In the first embodiment of FIG. 4A, the UE 430 reports the combined beam information of the beam 5 and the beam 6 to the BS 410 through the second uplink channel.

In the second embodiment of FIG. 4A, since the remaining beam waves only include the beam wave 6, the UE 430 may not report any joint beam information to the BS 410. However, since the UE 430 has obtained the information of the beam 2 and the beam 5 through the first uplink channel, the UE 430 can selectively report the joint beam information associated with the beam 2 and the beam 5 to the BS 410. For example, the UE 430 may report the combined beam information of the beam 2, the beam 5, and the beam 6 to the BS 410 through the second uplink channel, where the joint beam information may include the beam 2, the beam 5, and the beam. Multi-wave related information between 6.

FIG. 4B further illustrates the flow of step S450 of the first embodiment of the method 400 of FIG. 4A. As shown in FIG. 4B, step S450 in the first embodiment of the method 400 of FIG. 4A can be further divided into steps S451 and S453.

In step S451, the UE 430 reports the number of selected beam waves in the beam message and the index of the selected beam to the BS 410 through the first uplink channel (eg, PUCCH). For example, the UE 430 uses the bit map to map the number of selected beams at a time. The quantity and the index of the selected beam are reported back to the BS 410. More specifically, the UE 430 transmits the bit stream "01000000" to the BS 410 at step S451. The bit stream "01000000" represents that the UE 430 has selected the beam 2 as the selected beam from among the 8 candidate beams. In addition, the index of the selected beam can be expressed in the form of CRI.

In step S453, the UE 430 reports the CSI of the selected beam (ie, beam 2) in the beam message to the BS 410 through the first uplink channel, where the CSI of the selected beam may include the PMI of the selected beam. And at least one of the measurement results corresponding to the selected beam. In addition, the UE 430 sends the number 2 of the remaining beam waves (ie, the beam 5 and the beam 6) in the beam message to the BS 410 through the first uplink channel, thereby notifying the BS 410 that there are still 2 beam channel measurements. The measurement results are good.

4C further illustrates the flow of step S450 of the second embodiment of the method 400 of FIG. 4A. As shown in FIG. 4B, step S450 in the second embodiment of the method 400 of FIG. 4A can be further divided into steps S451', S453', and S455'.

In step S451', the UE 430 reports the number of selected beam waves in the beam message and the index of the selected beam to the BS 410 through the first uplink channel. For example, the UE 430 reports the number of selected beam waves and the index of the selected beam to the BS 410 in a one-time manner using a bit map. More specifically, the UE 430 transmits the bit stream "01001000" to the BS 410 at step S451. The bit stream "01001000" represents that the UE 430 has selected the beam 2 from the 8 candidate beams and the beam 5 as the selected beam. In addition, the index of the selected beam can be expressed in the form of CRI.

In step S453', the UE 430 returns the CSI of the selected beam (ie, the beam 2 and the beam 5) in the beam message to the BS 410 through the first uplink channel, where The CSI of the selected beam may include at least one of a PMI of each of the selected beam, a beam order of the selected beam, and a measurement corresponding to each of the selected beams. In addition, the UE 430 can send the number 1 of the remaining beam waves (ie, the beam 6) in the beam information to the BS 410 through the first uplink channel, so as to notify the BS 410 that the measurement result of the channel measurement of one beam is good. .

At step S455', the UE 430 reports the joint PMI corresponding to the selected beam and the joint measurement result to the BS 410 through the first uplink channel. Joint PMI and joint measurements can be applied to applications where multiple beams are used for transmission. Specifically, the BS 410 can instruct the UE 430 to turn on/off the function of multi-beam transmission through the PHY layer or higher layer signaling. When the function of multi-beam transmission is enabled, the BS 410 and the UE 430 simultaneously use a plurality of beam waves to communicate with each other. The UE 430 recommends through the joint PMI that the BS 410 selects a precoding matrix suitable for multi-beam transmission. When the BS 410 receives the joint precoding matrix indicator PMI ₂ , 5 corresponding to the beam 2 and the beam 5 from the UE 430, the BS 410 will select the corresponding when using the beam 2 and the beam 5 for multibeam transmission. Precoding matrix for PMI _2,5 . In addition, when the UE 430 selects the beam 2 and the beam 5 as the selected beam for performing multi-beam transmission, the UE 430 reports the joint channel quality indication corresponding to the beam 2 and the beam 5 through the first uplink channel. The CQI _{2,5 is} given to the BS 410, so that the BS 410 knows the communication quality when the beam 2 and the beam 5 are simultaneously used for multi-beam transmission.

The UE 430 of the method 400 of the present disclosure may actively report the remaining good quality beam waves other than the at least one selected beam to the BS 410 when reporting at least one selected beam to the BS 410. When BS 410 needs more beam information, The BS 410 can trigger the UE 430 to report the remaining good quality beam by simply using the DCI.

There may be multiple different beam configurations between the BS and the UE, with different beam configurations having different numbers of candidate beams or having different FoV coverage. In response to the mobility of the UE, the BS and the UE may use different beam configuration at different points in time. FIG. 5A illustrates a schematic diagram of different beam configuration in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Taking FIG. 5A as an example, a BS and a UE may select to use the first beam configuration 51 or the second beam configuration 52 at different time points, wherein the first beam configuration 51 may have less (relative to the second beam) The candidate beam number K _1st (in the example of FIG. 5A, K _1st = 4) and the second beam configuration 52 have a larger number of candidate beam numbers K _2nd (in the example of FIG. 5A, K _2nd = 16), and each candidate beam of the first beam configuration 51 has a wider FoV coverage and each candidate beam of the second beam configuration 52 has a narrower FoV coverage.

In general, the BS and the UE pass each other through a beam index (BI) to indicate a particular one or more beam waves from a plurality of candidate beam waves. However, as the number of candidate beams is larger, the amount of data associated with the beam to be processed at the UE side will increase. In response to this, the method proposed by the present disclosure reduces the data of candidate beam waves to be processed at the UE end through a two-stage beam configuration.

FIG. 5B illustrates a signaling diagram of a method 500 of beam measurement and reporting in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. In step S510, the BS 510 transmits the reference signal of the K _1st first candidate beam (refer to FIG. 5A ) of the first beam configuration 51 for performing the first phase transmission to the UE 530, so that the UE 530 pairs K _1st The first candidate beam performs channel measurement. In addition, the BS 510 can transmit the reference signal of the K _2nd second candidate beam (refer to FIG. 5A ) of the second beam configuration 52 for performing the second phase transmission to the UE 530 at this stage, so that the UE 530 is paired with K. _2nd second candidate beam waves are used for channel measurement.

In step S520, UE 530 may perform channel measurements on each of a first candidate K _1st wave beam, and the measurement result of the measurement channel, selected from N _1st receiving a first number of first candidate K _1st wave bundle The beam is selected and the value of N _1st can be determined by BS 510. Specifically, the BS 510 can transmit the beam configuration to the UE 530 through signaling of a higher wireless network protocol layer such as the RRC layer or the MAC layer, thereby instructing the UE 530 to report N _1st first selected beams. In addition, the value of N _1st can also be determined by the UE 530.

In general, based on the mobility of the UE 530, each first candidate beam of the first beam configuration 51 has a wider FoV coverage, and thus has longer-term statistical characteristics for the BS 510 and the UE 530 (long- Term statistical property). Based on this, the UE 530 first selects, in step S520, channel measurement for each first candidate beam of the first beam configuration 51 having a small number of beam waves but a wide range of FoV coverage of a single beam, thereby lowering Calculate the approximate direction of the beam to be selected. In FIG. 5B, the UE 530 selects the beam c and the beam b of the first beam configuration 51 as the first selected beam based on the result of the channel measurement.

In step S530, the UE 530 reports the beam information of the N _1st first selected beam (ie, the beam c and the beam b) to the BS 510, and the reward may be transmitted through the PUCCH. The beam information of the first selected beam may include something similar to step S250 of FIG. 2A. For example, the precoding matrix indicator PMI _c of the beam c, the channel state information CSI _c of the beam _c , the precoding matrix indicator PMI _b of the beam b, and the channel state information CSI _{b of the} beam _b . Additionally, the beam information of the first selected beam may further include a correlation between the first selected beam. The correlation between the first selected beam can help the BS 510 select a candidate beam that is more suitable for the UE 530 from the second beam configuration 52 (please refer to FIG. 5A).

The following steps refer to FIG. 5B and FIG. 5C simultaneously. FIG. 5C illustrates a schematic diagram of the overlapping condition of the candidate beam of the first beam configuration 51 and the candidate beam of the second beam configuration 52 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. .

In step S540, the BS 510 selects a more suitable UE 530 from the K _2nd second candidate beams of the second beam configuration 52 according to the beam information of the first selected beam and an overlapping condition. Second candidate beam. Specifically, the BS 510 knows that the UE 530 is located approximately in the direction of the beam b and the beam c according to the beam information of the first selected beam, and the direction may be, for example, the direction A shown in FIG. 5C. Accordingly, the BS 510 selects from the K _2nd second candidate beam of the second beam configuration 52 to overlap with the first selected beam (ie, the beam c and the beam b) and/or is closer to the direction. A beam of A (ie: beam 7 ~ beam 10) as Second candidate beam. In addition, the BS 510 can select a more suitable UE 530 according to the correlation between the first selected beam. Second candidate beam. For example, if the correlation between the beam b and the beam c is too close, the BS 510 may be selected only by one of the beam b and the beam c. Second candidate beam.

In addition to the overlap condition illustrated in Figure 5C, Figure 5D depicts another possible overlap condition. In Figure 5D, assuming that the second beam configuration is configured as a beam configuration 53 as shown in Figure 5D, the overlap condition will change. The first selected beam is still In the case of the beam c and the beam b, the BS 510 will select the beam 3, the beam 4, and the beam 5 as the second candidate beam from the beam arrangement 53, wherein the beam 4 and the beam b, respectively And the beam c overlaps. Further, in the case where the first selected beam includes only the beam c, the BS 510 may select or not select the beam 4 as the second candidate beam in addition to the beam 5 as the second candidate beam.

In FIG. 5B and FIG. 5C, in step S550, the UE 530 can be Each of the second candidate beam waves performs channel measurement, and based on the measurement result of the channel measurement, N _2nd second selected beam waves are selected from the second candidate beam. In FIG. 5B, the UE 530 selects the beam 8 and the beam 9 of the second beam configuration 52 as the second selected beam based on the result of the channel measurement.

In step S560, the UE 530 reports the beam information of the N _2nd second selected beam (ie, the beam 8 and the beam 9) to the BS 510, and the reward may be transmitted through the uplink channel (eg, PUSCH). transmission. Since the beam 8 and the beam 9 of the second beam arrangement 52 overlap with the beam b and the beam c of the first beam arrangement 51, respectively, the channel characteristics of the beam 8 and the beam 9 may be different from the beam b. Similar to the channel characteristics of beam c. Specifically, the beam 8 can be quasi-co-located with the beam b, and the beam 9 can be co-located with the beam c. Taking the beam 8 and the beam b as an example, if the beam 8 is not in the same position as the beam b, the PMI and CSI reported by the UE 530 to the BS 510 are the precoding matrix indicator PMI _8' of the beam ₈ and the channel, respectively. Status information CSI _8' . If the beam 8 and the beam b are in the same position, the precoding matrix indicator PMI ₈ or the channel status information CSI ₈ of the beam 8 returned by the UE 530 to the BS 510 may include less data, that is, data of the PMI ₈ The amount will be less than or equal to the amount of data of PMI _8' , and the amount of data of CSI ₈ will be less than or equal to the amount of data of CSI _8' .

At step S570, BS 510 will communicate with UE 530 using beam 8 and/or beam 9 of second beam configuration 52.

The method 500 of the present disclosure may first set the first beam configuration 51 with a small number of beam waves to the UE 530, so that the UE 530 obtains the general direction of the beam wave for communicating with the BS 510. Next, the BS 510 may select a candidate beam suitable for the UE 530 from among the second beam configurations 52 having a larger number of beam waves based on the first beam configuration 51. As such, the UE 530 does not need to process the data for each of the second beam configurations 52, but only a portion of it needs to be processed. Thereby, the amount of calculation of the UE 530 can be effectively reduced.

FIG. 6A illustrates a block diagram of a base station (BS) 610 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The BS 610 can include a processor 611 and a transceiver 613. Processor 611 is configured to process digital signals and perform the functions of BS 210, BS 310, BS 410, or BS 510 in the present disclosure. The function of the processor 611 can be achieved by using a programmable unit such as a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processing (DSP) chip, or a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). To implement. The function of the processor 611 can also be implemented by a separate electronic device or an integrated circuit (IC), and the processor 611 can also be implemented by hardware or software. The transceiver 613 is configured to transmit and receive wireless signals. Transceiver 613 can also perform operations such as low noise amplification, impedance matching, mixing, upconversion or down conversion, filtering, amplification, and the like.

6B illustrates a user equipment in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. (UE) 630 block diagram. The UE 630 can include a processor 631 and a transceiver 633. Processor 631 is configured to process digital signals and perform the functions of UE 230, UE 330, UE 430, or UE 530 in the present disclosure. The functionality of processor 631 can be implemented by using a programmable unit such as a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processing chip, field programmable logic gate array, or the like. The function of the processor 631 can also be implemented by a separate electronic device or an integrated circuit, and the processor 631 can also be implemented by hardware or software. The transceiver 633 is configured to transmit and receive wireless signals. Transceiver 633 can also perform operations such as low noise amplification, impedance matching, mixing, upconversion or down conversion, filtering, amplification, and the like.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart 700 of a method of beam measurement and reporting in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the flowchart 700 being applicable to BS 610. In step S710, the processor 611 of the BS 610 transmits a beam configuration for a plurality of candidate beams to the UE 630 through the transceiver 613, and the UE 630 performs channel measurement on each of the candidate beamlets. In response to the transmit beam configuration, at step S730, the processor 611 can receive, via the transceiver 613, the beam information of the at least one selected beam selected from the candidate beam from the UE 630.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart 800 of a method of beam measurement and reporting in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the flowchart 800 being applicable to a UE 630. At step S810, the processor 631 of the UE 630 receives the beamlet configuration of the plurality of candidate beams from the BS 610 via the transceiver 633. In response to receiving the beam configuration, in step S830, the processor 631 can perform channel measurement on each of the candidate beams through the transceiver 633. In response to receiving the beamlet configuration, the processor 631 can receive the message in step S850. The transmitter 633 returns a beam message of at least one selected beam to the BS 610. After step S830, before step S850, the processor 631 may select at least one selected beam from the candidate beam according to the measurement result of the channel measurement.

In summary, the base station of the present disclosure can indicate the maximum value of the selected beam that the user equipment reports in the uplink channel through the beam configuration, and control the resources used by the user equipment when reporting the beam information of the selected beam. The maximum payload size of the upstream channel is exceeded. In addition, the base station of the present disclosure can trigger the user equipment to report the beam information of the remaining beam wave through the PUSCH through the uplink grant, thereby reducing the resource consumption of the PUCCH. In addition, the user equipment of the present disclosure can actively report the beam with good communication quality to the base station. Accordingly, when the base station needs more beam information, the base station only needs to trigger the user equipment to report the beam with good communication quality through a simple DCI. Furthermore, the disclosure can reduce the amount of computation of the user equipment by setting a two-stage beam configuration.

The present disclosure has been disclosed in the above embodiments, but it is not intended to limit the disclosure, and any person skilled in the art can make some changes and refinements without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. The scope of protection of this disclosure is subject to the definition of the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (40)

A method for beam measurement and reward, suitable for a user equipment of a multi-beam wireless communication system, comprising: receiving a beam configuration corresponding to a plurality of first candidate beams, wherein the beam configuration includes at least one selected beam a number of waves; performing channel measurements on each of the first candidate beams in response to receiving the beam configuration; and from the first candidate beam in response to receiving the beam configuration And returning the beam information of the at least one selected beam. The method of claim 1, wherein the beamlet configuration comprises one or more reference signal resources. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one selected beam is determined based on at least one of: a rule associated with beam quality, including at least one of: a threshold a correlation between the first candidate beam; and a preset value; a beam ordering of the first candidate beam; and a maximum number of the at least one selected beam. The method of claim 3, wherein the maximum number of the at least one selected beam is equal to or smaller than the number of the first candidate beam, or equal to or greater than the at least one selected beam. The number of waves. The method of claim 3, wherein the beam quality comprises at least one of: reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and channel status information (CSI). The method of claim 1, wherein the beamlet information comprises at least one of: a quantity of the at least one selected beam; a number of at least one remaining beam; the at least one An index of the selected beam; a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) of each of the at least one selected beam, a beam ordering of the at least one selected beam; and corresponding to the at least one selected The measurement result of each of the beam waves. The method of claim 6, wherein the measurement result comprises at least one of: channel state information (CSI), reference signal received power (RSRP), and reference signal reception quality (RSRQ). The method of claim 6, wherein the measurement result comprises a differential value, wherein the difference is a value of the strongest beam of the at least one selected beam and the The value of the non-strongest beam in at least one of the selected beams is determined by a difference operation. The method of claim 6, wherein the beamlet information further comprises at least one of: a joint precoding matrix indicator of the at least one selected beam and the at least one selected beam The combined measurement of the wave. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of reporting the beam information of the at least one selected beam further comprises: reporting a second beam message corresponding to the at least one remaining beam. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of reporting the beam information of the at least one selected beam further comprises receiving an uplink grant for reporting the second beam message. The method of claim 10, wherein the number of the at least one remaining beam is determined based on the maximum number of the at least one selected beam. The method of claim 10, wherein the second beam information comprises at least one of: a quantity of the at least one remaining beam; each of the at least one remaining beam An index; a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) of the at least one residual beam; a beam ordering of the at least one remaining beam; and a measurement corresponding to each of the at least one remaining beam. The method of claim 13, wherein the measurement result comprises at least one of: channel state information (CSI), reference signal received power (RSRP), and reference signal reception quality (RSRQ). The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a second beam configuration of the plurality of second candidate beams, wherein the first candidate beam is for the first phase transmission and the second The candidate beam is used in the second stage Transmitting; performing channel measurements on each of the second candidate beam waves in response to receiving the second beam configuration; and from the second candidate in response to receiving the second beam configuration A second wave message of at least one second selected beam is returned in the beam. The method of claim 15, wherein the second candidate beam is quasi co-located with the first candidate beam. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one second selected beam is determined based on at least one of: a rule associated with beam quality, including at least one of a threshold; a correlation between the second candidate beam; and a preset value; a beam ordering of the second candidate beam; and a maximum number of the at least one second selected beam. The method of claim 17, wherein the maximum number of the at least one second selected beam is equal to or smaller than the number of the second candidate beam, or equal to or greater than the at least one The number of selected beams. The method of claim 17, wherein the beam quality comprises at least one of: reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and channel status information (CSI). A method for beam measurement and reward, suitable for a base station of a multi-beam wireless communication system, comprising: transmitting a beam configuration corresponding to a plurality of first candidate beams, wherein the beam configuration is transmitted for use in Each of the first candidate beam waves performs a channel measurement, and the beam configuration includes the number of at least one selected beam; and receiving the at least one selected beam in response to transmitting the beam configuration Beam message. The method of claim 20, wherein the beam configuration comprises one or more reference signal resources. The method of claim 20, wherein the at least one selected beam is determined based on at least one of: a rule associated with beam quality, comprising at least one of: a threshold a correlation between the first candidate beam; and a preset value; a beam ordering of the first candidate beam; and a maximum number of the at least one selected beam. The method of claim 22, wherein the maximum number of the at least one selected beam is equal to or smaller than the number of the first candidate beam, or equal to or greater than the at least one selected beam. The number of waves. The method of claim 22, wherein the beam quality comprises at least one of: reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and channel status information (CSI). The method of claim 20, wherein the beamlet information comprises at least one of: a quantity of the at least one selected beam; a number of at least one remaining beam; the at least one An index of the selected beam; a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) of each of the at least one selected beam; a beam ordering of the at least one selected beam; and corresponding to the at least one selected The measurement result of each of the beam waves. The method of claim 25, wherein the measurement result comprises at least one of: channel state information (CSI), reference signal received power (RSRP), and reference signal reception quality (RSRQ). The method of claim 25, wherein the measurement result comprises a difference, wherein the difference is determined by a value of a strongest beam of the at least one selected beam and the at least one selected The value of the non-strongest beam in the beam is determined by a difference operation. The method of claim 25, wherein the beamlet message further comprises at least one of: a joint precoding matrix indicator of the at least one selected beam and the at least one selected beam The combined measurement of the wave. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of receiving the beam information of the at least one selected beam further comprises receiving a second beam message corresponding to the at least one remaining beam. The method of claim 29, wherein the step of receiving the beam information of the at least one selected beam further comprises transmitting an uplink grant for reporting the second beam message. The method of claim 29, wherein the number of the at least one remaining beam is determined based on the maximum number of the at least one selected beam. The method of claim 29, wherein the second beam message comprises at least one of: a quantity of the at least one remaining beam; an index of the at least one remaining beam; a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) of each of the at least one remaining beam; a beam ordering of the at least one remaining beam; and a measurement corresponding to each of the at least one remaining beam. The method of claim 32, wherein the measurement result comprises at least one of: channel state information (CSI), reference signal received power (RSRP), and reference signal reception quality (RSRQ). The method of claim 20, further comprising: transmitting a second beam configuration of the plurality of second candidate beams, wherein the first candidate beam is for the first phase transmission and the second The candidate beam is used in the second stage Transmitting; and receiving a second beam message of the at least one second selected beam in response to transmitting the second beam configuration. The method of claim 34, wherein the second candidate beam is quasi co-located with the first candidate beam. The method of claim 34, wherein the at least one second selected beam is determined based on at least one of: a rule associated with beam quality, including at least one of a threshold; a correlation between the second candidate beam; and a preset value; a beam ordering of the second candidate beam; and a maximum number of the at least one second selected beam. The method of claim 36, wherein the maximum number of the at least one second selected beam is equal to or smaller than the number of the second candidate beam, or equal to or greater than the at least one The number of selected beams. The method of claim 36, wherein the beam quality comprises at least one of: reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and channel status information (CSI). A user equipment comprising: a transceiver; and a processor coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to perform: Receiving, by the transceiver, a beamlet configuration corresponding to a plurality of first candidate beamlets, wherein the beamlet configuration includes a number of at least one selected beamlet; in response to receiving the beamlet configuration Passing a channel measurement for each of a candidate beam; and transmitting the at least one selected beam from the first candidate beam in response to receiving the beam configuration through the transceiver Beam message. A base station, comprising: a transceiver; and a processor coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to: transmit, by the transceiver, a beamlet configuration corresponding to a plurality of first candidate beamlets, wherein The beam configuration includes the number of at least one selected beam; and receiving, by the transceiver, a beam message of the at least one selected beam in response to transmitting the beam configuration.