CN110166094B - Wireless communication device and beam scanning method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a beam scanning method performed by a wireless communication device, comprising: transmitting or receiving wireless signals by scanning beams in a non-sequential order. In this way, there may be a situation where the next beam may not be adjacent to the previous beam, thereby avoiding interference generated between adjacent beams and reducing interference at the boundary of beam switching. In the present invention, the beams are scanned in a beam interleaving manner, thereby further reducing the inter-symbol interference between orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.

Description

Wireless communication device and beam scanning method

technical field

The present invention relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a wireless communication device and a beam scanning method.

Background technique

The fifth generation (5G, fifth generation) New Radio (NR, New Radio) technology is an improvement to the fourth generation (4G, fourth generation) Long Term Evolution (LTE, Long Term Evolution) technology. Higher and unlicensed spectrum bands (such as above 30GHz, commonly known as millimeter-wave (mmWave, millimeterWave)), provide enormous data (transmission) speeds and capacities for wireless broadband communications. Due to the huge path and penetration losses at mmWave wavelengths, a technique called "beamforming" is employed, which plays an important role in establishing and maintaining robust communication links.

Beamforming typically requires one or more antenna arrays, each including multiple antennas. By appropriately setting the antenna weights that define the contribution of each antenna to the transmit or receive operation, the transmit/receive sensitivity can be shaped to a particularly high value in a particular beamforming direction. By applying different antenna weights, different beam patterns can be achieved, eg, beams of different directions can be employed sequentially.

During transmit (Tx) operations, beamforming can direct signals to receivers of interest. Likewise, during receive (Rx) operation, beamforming can provide high sensitivity when receiving signals originating from the transmitter of interest. Since the transmitted power can be focused anisotropically, eg to the solid angle of interest, when compared to the traditional approach which does not employ beamforming and relies more or less on isotropy , beamforming can provide a better link budget due to the lower required Tx power and higher received signal power.

However, this technique as described above faces certain challenges. For example, in the initial access phase of wireless communication, multi-beam operation is often performed to scan all beams to select an appropriate beam pair for wireless transmission and reception. Typically, beam scanning is performed by sequentially pointing directional beams to discover transceivers of interest. Specifically, during the initial access phase of the 5G NR system, there is a continuous random access channel (RACH, Random Access Channel) opportunity (occasion) allocated to the next generation Node-B (gNB, generation Node-B) to perform In the case of beam scanning for wireless reception. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating sequential allocation of consecutive RACH occasions to gNBs for Rx beam scanning. As the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP, 3rd Generation Partnership Project) has reached an agreement, for a carrier frequency above 24 GHz, the ON-OFF transient period of UE (User Equipment, user equipment) is 5 microseconds. As shown in Figure 1, the 5 microsecond transient period for the UE may introduce significant interference to other UEs attempting to access the gNB in preceding and following RACH occasions.

Therefore, it is desirable in the art to have a more robust beam scanning approach that can mitigate interference at the beam switching boundary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of this, the present invention provides a wireless communication device and a beam scanning method, which can alleviate interference at the boundary of beam switching.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a beam scanning method performed by a wireless communication device is disclosed, comprising:

Wireless signals are transmitted or received by scanning beams in a non-sequential order.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a wireless communication device is disclosed, comprising:

controller; and

a storage device operably coupled to the controller;

Wherein, the controller is configured to execute program code stored in the storage device to perform operations including the beam scanning method described above.

The beam scanning method provided by the present invention includes: transmitting or receiving wireless signals by scanning beams in a non-sequential order. In this way, there may be a situation where the next beam may not be adjacent to the previous beam, thereby avoiding interference generated between adjacent beams and reducing interference at the boundary of beam switching. In the present invention, the beams are scanned in a beam interleaving manner, thereby further reducing the inter-symbol interference between orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.

These and other objects of the present invention will no doubt become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment shown in the various drawings.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating sequential allocation of consecutive RACH occasions to gNBs for Rx beam scanning.

2 is a block diagram of a wireless communication environment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating UE 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a block diagram illustrating a cellular station according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a direction sequence of a beam according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a beam scanning method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a block diagram illustrating beam scanning in a non-sequential order according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a block diagram illustrating beam scanning in a non-sequential order according to another embodiment of the present invention.

9 is a block diagram illustrating beam scanning in a non-sequential order according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating interference of beams according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating interference of beams according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

Throughout the specification and the claims that follow, specific terms are used to refer to specific components. As those skilled in the art will recognize, manufacturers may refer to components by different names. This document is not intended to distinguish between components that have different names but have the same function. In the following specification and claims, the terms "including" and "including" are used in the open-ended style and should therefore be interpreted to mean "including, but not limited to...". Furthermore, the term "coupled" is intended to mean an indirect or direct electrical connection. Thus, if one device is coupled to another device, the connection may be a direct electrical connection, or an indirect electrical connection via the other device and connection.

The following description is the best contemplated mode of carrying out the invention. This description is intended to illustrate the general principles of the invention and not to limit the invention. The scope of the invention is determined by the appended claims.

The invention will be described below with reference to specific embodiments and with reference to certain drawings, but the invention is not limited thereto and only by the claims. The drawings described are only schematic and not restrictive. In the drawings, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated and not drawn on scale for illustrative purposes. In the practice of the present invention, dimensions and relative dimensions do not correspond to actual dimensions.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a wireless communication environment according to an embodiment of the present application. The wireless communication environment 100 includes a user equipment (UE) 110 and a 5G NR network 120, wherein the UE 110 is wirelessly connected to the 5G NR network 120 for mobile services.

The UE 110 may be a feature phone, a smartphone, a panel PC (Personal Computer), a laptop computer or a 5G NR network 120 and/or wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) , Wireless-Fidelity) technology, any wireless communication device that supports wireless technology (ie 5G NR technology). In particular, wireless communication devices employ beamforming techniques for wireless transmission and/or reception.

The 5G NR network 120 includes a Radio Access Network (RAN, Radio Access Network) 121 and a Next Generation Core Network (NG-CN, Next Generation Core Network) 122 .

The RAN 121 is responsible for processing radio signals, terminating radio protocols, and connecting the UE 110 with the NG-CN 122. The RAN 121 may include one or more gNBs supporting high frequency bands (eg, higher than 24 GHz), and each gNB may also include one or more Transmission Reception Points (TRPs), where each gNB or TRP may be called It is a 5G cellular base station. Some gNB functions can be distributed over different TRPs, while other functions can be grouped together, leaving flexibility and scope for specific deployments to meet specific usage requirements. Specifically, each gNB or TRP may employ beamforming techniques to generate one or more beams, each beam having a different beamforming direction, for wireless transmission and/or reception.

NG-CN 122 is usually composed of various network functions, including Access and Mobility Function (AMF, Access and Mobility Function), Session Management Function (SMF, Session Management Function), Policy Control Function (PCF, Policy Control Function), application function (AF, Application Function), Authentication Server Function (AUSF, Authentication Server Function), User Plane Function (UPF, User Plane Function) and User Data Management (UDM, User Data Management), each of which can be implemented as dedicated hardware A network element on a network, either implemented as an instance of software running on dedicated hardware, or as an instance of a virtualized function on a suitable platform, such as a cloud infrastructure.

AMF provides UE-based authentication, authorization, mobility management, and the like. The SMF is responsible for session management and allocating an Internet Protocol (IP, Internet Protocol) address to the UE. The SMF also selects and controls the UPF for data transfer. If the UE has multiple sessions, different SMFs may be assigned to each session to manage each session individually, and different SMFs may provide different functions in each session. The AF provides information about the packet flow (packetflow) to the PCF responsible for policy control in order to support Quality of Service (QoS). Based on this information, the PCF determines policies regarding mobility and session management to enable AMF and SMF to function properly. The AUSF stores data for authentication of the UE, while the UDM stores the subscription data for the UE.

It should be noted that the 5G NR network 120 depicted in Figure 2 is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. The present invention can be applied to other wireless technologies. For example, UE 110 may be a wireless communication device that supports Wi-Fi technology and may connect wirelessly to a Wi-Fi network that also supports beamforming technology for wireless transmission and/or reception to/from UE 110 .

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating UE 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The UE 110 includes a wireless transceiver 10 , a controller 20 , a storage device 30 , a display device 40 and an input/output (I/O, Input/Output) device 50 .

Wireless transceiver 10 is configured to perform wireless transmission to and wireless reception from RAN 121 (shown in FIG. 2 ). Specifically, the wireless transceiver 10 includes a radio frequency (RF, Radio Frequency) device 11 , a baseband processing device 12 and an antenna 13 . Among them, the one or more antennas 13 may include one or more antennas for beamforming. The baseband processing device 12 is configured to perform baseband signal processing and to control communications between a subscriber identity card (not shown) and the RF device 11 . The baseband processing device 12 may contain a number of hardware components to perform baseband signal processing, including analog-to-digital conversion (ADC, Digital-to-Analog Conversion)/digital-to-analog conversion (DAC, Digital-to-Analog Conversion), gain adjustment, modulation/ Demodulation, encoding/decoding, etc. The RF device 11 may receive RF wireless signals via the antenna 13, convert the received RF wireless signals into baseband signals that are processed by the baseband processing device 12, or receive baseband signals from the baseband processing device 12 and convert the received RF wireless signals For the baseband signal, the baseband signal will be transmitted through the antenna 13 later. RF device 11 may also contain a number of hard devices to perform radio frequency conversion. For example, the RF device 11 may include a mixer for multiplying the baseband signal with a carrier oscillating in the radio frequency of the supported wireless technology, where the radio frequency may be any radio frequency used for 5G NR technology or other radio frequencies (eg for 30GHz to 300GHz for mmWave (millimeter wave), depending on the wireless technology used.

To clarify further, beamforming is a signal processing technique used in the antenna array 13 or implemented by the baseband processing device 12, or a signal processing technique used by a combination of both for directional signal transmission/reception. In beamforming, beams are formed by combining elements in a phased antenna array such that signals at certain angles experience constructive interference, while other signals experience destructive interference. Use multiple antenna arrays to form different beams simultaneously. The number of beams simultaneously in the time/frequency domain depends on the number of antenna arrays and the radio frequency used.

The controller 20 may be a general-purpose processor, a micro control unit (MCU, Micro Control Unit), an application processor, a digital signal processor (DSP, Digital Signal Processor), an application processor (AP, Application Processor), etc. The controller 20 includes Various circuits for providing data processing and computing functions, controlling wireless transceiver 10 to communicate wirelessly with RAN 121, storing data (eg, program code) to and retrieving data (eg, program code) from storage device 30 ), transmits a series of frames of data (eg, representing text messages, graphics, images, etc.) to display device 40, and receives signals from I/O device 50. In particular, the controller 20 coordinates the operations of the aforementioned wireless transceiver 10, storage device 30, display device 40 and I/O device 50 for performing the beam scanning method of the present invention.

In another embodiment, the controller 20 may be incorporated into the baseband processing device 12 to function as a baseband processor.

The storage device 30 is a non-transitory (non-transitory) machine-readable storage medium, including memory, such as FLASH memory or non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM, Non-Volatile Random Access Memory), or a magnetic storage device , such as hard disks, or magnetic tapes, or optical disks, or any combination of instructions and/or program codes for storing the applications, communication protocols and/or beam scanning methods of the present invention.

The display device 40 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD, Liquid-Crystal Display), a light emitting diode (LED, Light-Emitting Diode) display, or an electronic paper display (EPD, Electronic Paper Display), etc., for providing a display function. Alternatively, the display device 40 may further include one or more touch sensors disposed above or below the display device 40 for sensing touch, contact or proximity of an object (eg, a finger or a stylus).

The I/O device 50 may include one or more buttons, a keyboard, a mouse, a touchpad, a camera, a microphone and/or a speaker, etc. to function as a Man-Machine Interface (MMI) for interacting with a user.

It should be understood that the components depicted in the embodiment of FIG. 3 are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application. For example, UE 110 may include more components, such as a power source or a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, where the power source may be a mobile/replaceable battery that provides power to all other components of UE 110, and the GPS device may The location information of the UE 110 is provided to use some location based services or applications.

4 is a block diagram illustrating a cellular base station according to an embodiment of the present invention. The cellular base station can be a 5G cellular base station, such as a gNB or TRP. The cellular base station includes a wireless transceiver 60 , a controller 70 , a storage device 80 and a wired interface 90 . Wireless communication devices may also include cellular base stations or 5G cellular base stations, among others.

The wireless transceiver 60 is configured to perform wireless transmission to and reception from the UE 110 . Specifically, the wireless transceiver 60 includes an RF device 61, a baseband processing device 62, and an antenna 63, which may include one or more antennas for beamforming. The functions of the RF device 61 , the baseband processing device 62 and the antenna 63 may be similar to the functions of the RF device 11 , the baseband processing device 12 and the antenna 13 described in the embodiment of FIG. 3 . Therefore, for the sake of brevity, the detailed description is not repeated here.

The controller 70 may be a general purpose processor, MCU, application processor, DSP, AP, etc. The controller 70 includes various circuits for providing data processing and computing functions, and controls the wireless transceiver 60 for wireless communication with the UE 110 , storing and retrieving data (eg, program code) to and from storage device 80 (eg, program code), and to/from other network entities (eg, other cellular base stations in RAN 121 or NG-CN 122 via wired interface 90 ) other network entities) to transmit/receive messages. In particular, the controller 70 as described above coordinates the operations of the wireless transceiver 60, the storage device 80 and the wired interface 90 to perform the scanning method of the present invention.

In another embodiment, the controller 70 may be incorporated into the baseband processing device 62 to function as a baseband processor.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the circuits of controllers 20 (shown in FIG. 3 ) and 70 will typically include transistors configured in a manner to control the operation of the circuits in accordance with the functions and operations described herein. As will be further understood, the particular structure or interconnection of the transistors will typically be determined by a compiler, such as a Register Transfer Language (RTL) compiler. An RTL compiler can be run by a processor on a script very similar to assembly language code to compile the script into a form for laying out or fabricating a final circuit. In fact, RTL is best known for its role and use in facilitating the design process of electronic and digital systems.

The storage device 80 may be a memory, such as FLASH memory or NVRAM, or a magnetic storage device, such as a hard disk or magnetic tape, or an optical disk, or for storing application instructions and/or program code, communication protocols, and/or beam scanning of the present application any combination of methods.

The wired interface 90 is responsible for providing wired communication with other network entities such as other cellular base stations in the RAN 121 or other network entities in the NG-CN 122. The wired interface 90 may include a cable modem, an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) modem, a Fiber-Optic Modem (FOM) and/or an Ethernet network interface.

It should be understood that the components described in the embodiment of FIG. 4 are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application. For example, a cellular base station may also include other functional devices such as display devices (eg, LCD, LED display, or EPD, etc.), I/O devices (eg, buttons, keyboard, mouse, touchpad, camera, microphone, speakers, etc.) and/or power supply, etc.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a sequence of directions of beams according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 5, there are 5 beams in the sequence, represented by numbers from 0 to 4, and generated sequentially at different times. For example, beam 0 is generated in the first time interval, beam 1 is generated in the second time interval, and so on. In particular, all beams are generated with the same beam width, but the direction of the generated beams is turned counter-clockwise at a later time. Note that traditionally, beam scanning is performed in a sequence of directions (ie, beam 0 is scanned first, then beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4 are scanned in sequence). That is, FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of beam scanning performed by all beams in a sequential order.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a beam scanning method according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the beam scanning method may be applied to a wireless communication device, such as UE 110 (shown in Figure 2) or a 5G cellular base station or Wi-Fi router, for transmit or receive operations. First, the wireless communication device performs wireless transmission or reception by scanning beams in a non-sequential order (step S610), and the method ends. Specifically, the beams are generated in different time intervals, eg, different RACH occasions allocated in the time domain, and the non-sequential order indicates that some or all of the beams do not follow their neighbors. In other words, different from the conventional method, in the present invention, beams are scanned in a beam-interleaving manner, thereby further reducing the need for inter-OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) inter-symbol (inter-OFDM) -symbol) interference. For example, this embodiment has a first time interval and a second time interval, and the first time interval and the second time interval are adjacent (that is, the next time interval of the first time interval is the second time interval , or the next time interval of the second time interval is the first time interval), wherein the scanning of the first beam is performed in the first time interval, and the scanning of the second beam is performed in the second time interval. In the beam scanning method in this embodiment, at least one is the case, that is, the first beam and the second beam are not adjacent, that is, the first beam and the second beam are separated by other beams ( For example, the third beam, or the third beam and the fourth beam, etc.). Of course, the beam scanning method in the present invention does not mean that all the first beams and the second beams are not adjacent. Scanning in two time intervals) are not adjacent, in the present invention, there may also be another first beam and (scanning in another first time interval) another second beam (scanning in another second time interval) Adjacent, specific reference may be made to the following descriptions about FIG. 7 , FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 .

During the beam scanning process, the wireless communication device may determine whether the interference of the boundary between the current beam and the adjacent beam is greater than a predetermined threshold, and if so, may preferably select a non-adjacent beam as the next beam. Otherwise, an adjacent beam or a non-adjacent beam can be selected as the next beam. In another embodiment, the wireless communication device may separately calculate the interference at the boundary between the current beam and each of the remaining beams, and select one of the remaining beams with the least interference as the next beam. For example, the area of the overlapping area between each beam and other beams can be calculated, and the predetermined threshold can be set as the area of the overlapping area equal to 10% of the total area of the beam; that is, if the area of the overlapping area between the beam and any other beam is greater than the total area of the beam 10% of the area, this beam is not selected as the next beam, but other overlapping areas with smaller areas are selected. The predetermined threshold can also be other values. For example, the predetermined threshold can be set as the area of the overlapping area is equal to 7%, 8%, 11%, 16%, 22%, 30%, etc. of the total area of the beam, which can be freely set according to requirements. .

In one embodiment, the wireless transmission in step S610 may refer to the UE transmitting multiple physical random access channels (PRACHs) in different time intervals (eg, consecutive time slots) using different beams in a non-sequential order, Physical Random Access Channel) signal.

In another embodiment, the wireless transmission in step S610 may refer to that the UE transmits multiple Sounding Reference Signals (SRS, Sounding Reference Signal) in different time intervals (eg, consecutive time slots) using different beams in a non-sequential order. . In addition, the UE can also use different beams in a non-sequential order to transmit the physical random access channel signal and the sounding reference signal at different time intervals (such as consecutive time slots); that is, within the same time period, the UE can Either the incoming channel signal or the sounding reference signal is transmitted or transmitted simultaneously.

In another embodiment, the wireless transmission in step S610 may refer to a 5G cellular base station (eg gNB or TRP) transmitting synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) in different time intervals (eg consecutive time slots) using different beams in a non-sequential order , Synchronization Signal Block) and Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH, Physical Broadcast Channel) information.

In another embodiment, the wireless transmission in step S610 may refer to the 5G cellular base station (eg gNB or TRP) transmitting the channel state information reference signal in different time intervals (eg consecutive time slots) using different beams in a non-sequential order (CSI-RS, Channel State Information Reference Signal). In addition, 5G cellular base stations can also use different beams in a non-sequential order to transmit synchronization signal blocks, physical broadcast channel information and channel state information reference signals at different time intervals (such as consecutive time slots); that is, within the same time period, The 5G cellular base station can choose to transmit one or both of the synchronization signal block and physical broadcast channel information and channel state information.

In one embodiment, the wireless reception in step S610 may refer to a 5G cellular base station (eg, gNB or TRP) receiving multiple PRACH signals in different time intervals (eg, consecutive time slots) using different beams in a non-sequential order.

In another embodiment, the wireless reception in step S610 may refer to a 5G cellular base station (eg gNB or TRP) receiving multiple physical uplinks in different time intervals (eg consecutive time slots) using different beams in a non-sequential order Channel shared channel (PUSCH, Physical Uplink Control Channel) signal.

In another embodiment, the wireless reception in step S610 may refer to a 5G cellular base station (eg gNB or TRP) receiving multiple physical uplinks in different time intervals (eg consecutive time slots) using different beams in a non-sequential order control channel (PUCCH) signal. In addition, the wireless reception in step S610 may also refer to a 5G cellular base station (eg, gNB or TRP) receiving multiple SRSs in different time intervals (eg, consecutive time slots) using different beams in a non-sequential order.

In another embodiment, the wireless reception in step S610 may refer to a 5G cellular base station (eg gNB or TRP) receiving different types of signals (eg, consecutive time slots) using different beams in a non-sequential order in different time intervals (eg, consecutive time slots). For example, including at least two of PRACH signal, SRS, PUCCH signal and PUSCH signal). In another embodiment, the wireless reception in step S610 may mean that the wireless communication device uses different beams in a non-sequential order for each symbol time interval (eg, every time the wireless communication device transmits or receives a symbol, the wireless communication device uses a different beam for each symbol time interval). different beams, and the beams are switched in a non-sequential order) to transmit or receive signals.

7 is a block diagram illustrating beam scanning in a non-sequential order according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a sequence of 5 beams (represented by numbers from 0 to 4) are generated at different time intervals for wireless transmission or reception.

As shown in Figure 7, during the first time interval, beam 0 is generated and scanned. During the second time interval, beam 2 is generated and scanned. In the third time interval, beam 4 is generated and scanned. In the fourth time interval, beam 1 is generated and scanned. Finally, in the fifth time interval, beam 3 is generated and scanned. That is, FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram of beam scanning performed by all beams in a non-sequential order.

Please note that in the present invention, the direction sequence of the beams is ignored, and the beam scanning is performed in a non-sequential order, that is, the beam scanning is performed in a beam interleaving manner. With the specific arrangement of the non-sequential order as shown in Figure 7, all beams do not follow their neighbors. In addition, in response to the above description of FIG. 6 , in this embodiment, there are a first time interval and a second time interval, and the first time interval and the second time interval are adjacent, wherein the first beam is performed in the first time interval. scanning, the scanning of the second beam is performed at the second time interval. In the beam scanning method of the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 , the first beam (eg, the beam 0 scanned at the first time interval) and the second beam (eg, the beam 2 scanned at the second time interval) are not adjacent, and the That is to say, other beams (such as beam 1) are spaced between the first beam (such as beam 0) and the second beam (such as beam 2); of course, specifically, beam 2 and beam 4 may not be adjacent to each other. Beam 3 is spaced; Beam 4 is not adjacent to Beam 1, and is separated by Beams 2 and 3; Beam 1 is not adjacent to Beam 3, and is separated by Beam 2.

8 is a block diagram illustrating beam scanning in a non-sequential order according to another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a sequence of 5 beams (represented by numbers from 0 to 4) are generated at different time intervals for wireless transmission or reception.

As shown in Figure 8, during the first time interval, beam 0 is generated and scanned. During the second time interval, beam 2 is generated and scanned. In the third time interval, beam 4 is generated and scanned. In the fourth time interval, beam 3 (ie, the adjacent beam of the previous beam (beam 4 )) is generated and scanned. Finally, in the fifth time interval, beam 1 is generated and scanned. That is, FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of beam scanning in a non-sequential order for some beams, wherein after beam 4 is generated, the next beam (ie beam 3) follows beam 4, so beam 4 to beam 3 is in sequence Beam scanning is performed sequentially, while the remaining beams (e.g. beam 2, beam 4, beam 1) do not follow adjacent beams (e.g. beam 0 before beam 2, beam 2 before beam 4) , the previous beam of beam 1 is beam 3, it should be noted that the first beam of beam 0, so beam 0 does not have the previous beam in this case), that is, the rest of the beams are beams in non-sequential order scanning.

Please note that in the present invention, the direction sequence of the beams is ignored, and the beam scanning is performed in a non-sequential order, that is, the beam scanning is performed in a beam interleaving manner. With the specific arrangement of the non-sequential order shown in Figure 8, some of the beams do not follow the adjacent beams of these beams. In addition, in this embodiment, the order of beam scanning may also be 0-2-3-4-1 or 0-1-3-2-4 or other transformations. That is, the non-sequential order in this embodiment may be an adjacent beam indicating that some or all of the beams do not follow the corresponding beam. For example, in the embodiment of FIG. 7, all beams do not follow adjacent beams of the corresponding beam, for example, beam 0 does not follow beam 1 (beam 1 is an adjacent beam of beam 0), and beam 1 does not follow beam 0 or 2 (beam 0 or 2 is the adjacent beam of beam 1, the others below are similar), beam 2 does not follow beam 1 or 3, beam 3 does not follow beam 2 or 4, and beam 4 does not follow beam 3. For example, in the embodiment of FIG. 8 , some beams do not follow adjacent beams of the corresponding beam, for example, beam 0 does not follow beam 1 (beam 1 is an adjacent beam of beam 0), and beam 1 does not follow beam 0 or 2 (beam 0 or 2). 2 is the adjacent beam of beam 1, the following others are similar), beam 2 does not follow beam 1 or 3, but beam 3 follows beam 4 (beam 3 follows beam 2), although beam 4 does not follow beam 3 but Beam 3 is the next beam to beam 4.

In addition, in response to the above description of FIG. 6 , in this embodiment, there are a first time interval and a second time interval, and the first time interval and the second time interval are adjacent, wherein the first time interval is performed in the first time interval. The scanning of the beam, the scanning of the second beam is performed at the second time interval. In the beam scanning method of the embodiment shown in FIG. 8 , the first beam (eg, the beam 0 scanned at the first time interval) and the second beam (eg, the beam 2 scanned at the second time interval) are not adjacent, and the That is to say, other beams (such as beam 1) are spaced between the first beam (such as beam 0) and the second beam (such as beam 2); of course, specifically, beam 2 and beam 4 may not be adjacent to each other. Beam 3 is spaced apart; Beam 3 is not adjacent to Beam 1, and is separated by Beam 2; however, in the example shown in Figure 8, beam 4 is simultaneously present (another first time interval (the third time interval) scanned in another A first beam (beam 4)) is adjacent to beam 3 (another second beam (beam 3) scanned in another second time interval (fourth time interval)), so in this embodiment, it can be At the same time, the beams scanned by two adjacent time intervals are adjacent or not adjacent to each other.

9 is a block diagram illustrating beam scanning in a non-sequential order according to another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a sequence of 4 beams (represented by numbers from 0 to 3) are generated at different time intervals for wireless transmission or reception.

As shown in Figure 9, in a first time interval, beam 0 is generated and scanned. During the second time interval, beam 2 is generated and scanned. In the third time interval, beam 1 (ie, the adjacent beam of the previous beam (beam 2)) is generated and scanned. Finally, in the fourth time interval, beam 3 is generated and scanned. Therefore, in this embodiment, all beams may be selected not to follow adjacent beams, and of course, some beams may not follow adjacent beams, and some beams may follow adjacent beams. That is, FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of beam scanning in a non-sequential order for some beams, wherein after beam 2 is generated, the next beam (ie beam 1) follows beam 2, so the sequence from beam 2 to beam 1 is sequential. Beam scanning is performed sequentially, while the remaining beams (such as beam 2, beam 3) do not follow adjacent beams (such as beam 0 on the previous beam of beam 2, and beam 1 on the previous beam of beam 3, it should be noted that is the first beam of beam 0, so beam 0 has no previous beam in this case), i.e. the rest of the beams are beam scans in non-sequential order.

Please note that in the present invention, the direction sequence of the beams is ignored, and the beam scanning is performed in a non-sequential order, that is, the beam scanning is performed in a beam interleaving manner. With the specific arrangement of the non-sequential order as shown in Figure 9, some of the beams do not follow the adjacent beams of these beams. Therefore, according to the examples in FIGS. 8 and 9 , at least one beam in the beam scanning in the present invention will not follow the adjacent beams of this beam. That is to say, the non-sequential order scanning beams to transmit or receive wireless signals in the present invention means that at least one beam is non-sequential order scanning beams to transmit or receive wireless signals. Of course, two or more beams may scan the beams in non-sequential order to transmit or receive wireless signals. In addition, for example, when there are only three beams, such as in the example of FIG. 8 or FIG. 9 above, when there are only beam 0, beam 1 and beam 2, the order of beam scanning can be beam 0, then beam 2, and finally beam 1, where beam 2 does not follow beam 0, but beam 1 follows beam 2.

As described above, before or during beam scanning, the wireless communication device may select a non-adjacent beam as the next beam, or may determine whether the boundary between the current beam and adjacent beams has interference greater than a predetermined threshold. If so, a non-adjacent beam may preferably be selected as the next beam. Otherwise, an adjacent beam or a non-adjacent beam can be selected as the next beam. This embodiment can be specifically described with reference to FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 , wherein FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating the interference of a beam according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating the interference of a beam according to another embodiment of the present invention. Schematic. As shown in FIG. 10 , there is an overlapping area R01 between beam 0 and beam 1, an overlapping area R12 between beam 1 and beam 2, and an overlapping area R23 between beam 2 and beam 3. In this embodiment, the area of the overlapping area between the beam and the other beam can be used to represent the interference between the beam and the other beam. For example, the size of the interference between beam 0 and beam 1 can be measured or measured using the size of the overlapping area R01; the size of the interference between beam 1 and beam 2 can be measured or measured using the size of the overlapping area R12; the beam The magnitude of the interference between beam 2 and beam 3 can be measured or measured using the size of the area of the overlapping region R23. For example, in this embodiment, when it is detected that the interference between a beam (eg, beam 2 ) and another beam (eg, beam 3 ) just reaches a predetermined threshold, the area of the overlapping region (eg, R23 ) can be calculated to obtain the corresponding Area threshold of a predetermined threshold (eg St). In this way, if the area of the overlapping area between the beam and another beam exceeds the area threshold St, it is considered that the interference between the beam and the other beam is greater than the predetermined threshold, then one of the two beams may not be selected. Beam next to another. For example, when the area of the overlapping region R01 between beam 0 and beam 1 is greater than the area threshold St (that is, it indicates that the interference between beam 0 and beam 1 is greater than the predetermined threshold), in the case that beam 0 is the current beam, the next The beam does not select beam 1, and can select beam 2 or beam 3 (for example, beam 2 can be selected in a sequential order). Of course, when the area of the overlapping region R01 between beam 0 and beam 1 is less than or equal to the area threshold (that is, it indicates that the interference between beam 0 and beam 1 is less than or equal to the predetermined threshold), in the case that beam 0 is the current beam, the following One beam can select beam 1, and of course, beam 2 or beam 3 can also be selected (beam 0 has less interference with beam 2 or beam 3, and beam 2 can be selected in sequential order). In this embodiment, there is no overlap between beam 0 and beam 2 or beam 3, so it can be considered that the interference between beam 0 and beam 2 or beam 3 is zero or very small. In addition, in this embodiment, when it is detected that the interference between a beam (eg, beam 2 ) and another beam (eg, beam 3 ) just reaches a predetermined threshold, the area of the overlapping region (eg, R23 ) can be calculated to the total area of the entire beam (e.g. the total area of beam 2, where the total area of beam 2 can be equal to the total area of beam 1, beam 0, beam 3), resulting in an area percentage threshold corresponding to a predetermined threshold (e.g. is t), and the area percentage threshold t is, for example, 8%, then for example, when the overlap area R01 accounts for more than 8% of the total area of the entire beam 0, it is considered that the interference between beam 0 and beam 1 exceeds the predetermined threshold. , so when the current beam is beam 0, the next beam will not select beam 1 (or when the current beam is beam 1, the next beam will not select beam 0). Of course, when the proportion of the overlapping area R01 in the total area of the entire beam 0 is less than or equal to 8% (that is, it means that the interference between beam 0 and beam 1 is less than or equal to the predetermined threshold), beam 1 can be selected as the next beam (of course also Either beam 2 or beam 3 can be selected as the next beam). In addition, the percentage threshold t can also be, for example, 5%, 9%, 10%, 11%, 16%, 22%, 35%, etc., which can be freely set according to requirements. In this embodiment, the proportion of the overlap region R12 between the beam 1 and the beam 2 in the total area of the entire beam 1 (or the beam 2 ) may be small (for example, less than the overlap region R01 in the entire beam 0 (or the beam 1) ) ratio of the total area), so the ratio of the overlapping area R12 to the total area of the entire beam 1 (or beam 2) may be less than the area percentage threshold t (for example, less than or equal to 8%), so if the current beam is beam 1, you can Select beam 2 as the next beam (if the current beam is beam 2, beam 1 can be selected as the next beam); of course, beam 3 can also be selected as the next beam, so that the interference is smaller. In addition, in this embodiment, when it is detected that the interference between a beam (eg, beam 2 ) and another beam (eg, beam 3 ) just reaches a predetermined threshold, the total area of the beam (eg, beam 2 or beam 3 ) can be calculated. 3) minus the area of the overlapping region (e.g. R23) as the remaining area threshold corresponding to a predetermined threshold (e.g. Sn, where Sn+St may be equal to the total of beams 0, 1, 2, or 3) area), or the remaining area percentage of the total area of the beam (eg the total area of beam 2 or 3) occupied by the remaining area as the remaining area percentage threshold (eg t') corresponding to a predetermined threshold. When the remaining area after subtracting the area of the overlapping region R01 from the total area of beam 0 (or beam 1) is less than the remaining area threshold, it can be considered that the interference between beam 0 and beam 1 exceeds (or is greater than) a predetermined threshold, Therefore, when the current beam is beam 0, the next beam will not select beam 1 (or when the current beam is beam 1, the next beam will not select beam 0). Of course, when the total area of beam 0 (or beam 1) minus the area of overlap region R01 and the remaining area is greater than or equal to the remaining area threshold, it can be considered that the interference between beam 0 and beam 1 does not exceed (or is less than or equal to) A predetermined threshold, so when the current beam is beam 0, beam 1 can be selected for the next beam. In this embodiment, the determination of the interference between other beams can also be performed in a similar manner as described above (for example, whether the area of the overlapping regions R12 and R23 is greater than the area threshold, or whether the percentage is greater than the area percentage threshold, etc.). Repeat.

处的点P0(即线段P01P0的长度为线段P01P01’长度的

)，之后，在P0点出作垂直于线段P01P01’的直线，并分别与波束1和波束0相交，分别得到交点P1和P2；其中交点P1和P2可以代表在线段P01P01’往两侧的信号强度的取值，例如-3dB至+3dB；因此波束0与波束1的跨度角θ1即为角度P1P01P2(也即∠P1P01P2)。波束1和波束2之间具有两个交点P12和P12’；波束2和波束3之间具有两个交点P23和P23’；其中交点P01，P12和P23相对交点P01’，P12’和P23’更加聚集(或相互之间更加靠近)一些。按照与上述类似的方法，以P12为起点，取线段P12P12’的

处的点P3，以P3点作垂直于线段P12P12’的直线，分别得到与波束2的交点P4和与波束1的交点P5；以及以P23为起点，取线段P23P23’的

处的点P6，以P6点作垂直于线段P23P23’的直线，分别得到与波束3的交点P7和与波束2的交点P8。因此波束1与波束2的跨度角θ2即为角度P4P12P5(也即∠P4P12P5)，波束2与波束3的跨度角θ3即为角度P7P23P8(也即∠P7P23P8)。需要说明的是，上述以交点P01(或P12，P23)为起点，取线段P01P01’(或P12P12’，P23P23’)的

处的点P0(或P3，P6)作垂直线得到的交点P1和P2(或P4和P5，P7和P8)，代表线段P01P01’往两侧的信号强度为-3dB至+3dB的取值，这仅仅是举例说明，本领域技术人员可以了解到，可以以交点P01为起点，取线段P01P01’(或P12P12’，P23P23’)的其他数值(例如

1/2等)处的点作垂直线得到与波束1和波束0的交点，并且这些交点代表的是其他信号强度的取值，这些可以根据实际需要或方便计算的角度自由选择，本发明中并没有限制。也就是说，跨度角可以是：在两个波束相交的两点联机形成的线段上取值得到点之后，以该点作垂直于该线段后分别与两个波束的交点，将这两个交点分别与两个波束的交点(该交点是波束之间更加聚集一些的交点)联机之后形成的角度(顶角)，其中在该线段上的取值(例如

1/2等)可以根据需求自由设置，示例的，可以根据预设的信号强度的取值(例如-3dB至+3dB，或其他值)来确定在该线段上的取值。示例的，本实施例中波束1与波束2之间的跨度角θ2较小，也即波束1与波束2之间的干扰较小；波束2与波束3之间的跨度角θ3稍大一点，也即波束2与波束3之间的干扰稍大一些；而波束0与波束1之间的跨度角更大一些，也即波束0与波束1之间的干扰更大一些(例如比波束2与波束3之间的干扰大)。此外，本实施例中还可以使用其他的方式判定波束之间的干扰是否大于预定阈值。例如两个波束的两个短轴的端点的中较靠近的两个端点形成线段的长度，例如线段P1P2的长度(即P1联机到P2后形成的线段的长度)，线段P4P5的长度，线段P7P8的长度；或者线段P01P01’的长度，线段P12P12’的长度，线段P23P23’的长度等等。通过上述描述，本领域技术人员可以理解，判断波束与另一波束之间的干扰是否大于预定阈值可以有很多种不同的实现方式，上述仅为举例，而非对本发明的限制。In addition, in this embodiment, other methods may also be used to determine whether the interference between beams is greater than a predetermined threshold. For example, as shown in FIG. 11 , when it is detected that the interference between a beam (eg, beam 2 ) and another beam (eg, beam 3 ) just reaches a predetermined threshold, it is possible to calculate the difference between a beam (eg, beam 2 ) and another beam (eg, beam 3 ) The span angle between beams 3) is obtained to obtain a span angle threshold (eg θt) corresponding to a predetermined threshold. In this way, if the span angle between the beam and the other beam exceeds the span angle threshold θt, it is considered that the interference between the beam and the other beam is greater than the predetermined threshold, then one of the two beams may not be selected as the The next beam of the other. For example, when the span angle θ1 between beam 0 and beam 1 is greater than the span angle threshold θt (that is, it indicates that the interference between beam 0 and beam 1 is greater than the predetermined threshold), in the case that beam 0 is the current beam, the next beam Instead of selecting beam 1, beam 2 or beam 3 may be selected (eg, beam 2 may be selected in a sequential order). Of course, when the span angle threshold θ1 between beam 0 and beam 1 is less than or equal to the span angle threshold θt (that is, it means that the interference between beam 0 and beam 1 is less than or equal to the predetermined threshold), in the case that beam 0 is the current beam, Beam 1 can be selected for the next beam, and of course, beam 2 or beam 3 can also be selected (beam 0 has less interference with beam 2 or beam 3, and beam 2 can be selected in sequence). In addition, in this embodiment, for example, when the span angle θ2 between beam 1 and beam 2 is small, for example, less than or equal to the span angle threshold θt (that is, it indicates that the interference between beam 0 and beam 1 is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold), in When beam 1 is the current beam, beam 2 can be selected for the next beam (of course, beam 3 can also be selected); or when beam 2 is the current beam, beam 1 can be selected for the next beam (of course, it can also be selected). beam 0). In addition, the calculation method of the span angle will be specifically described in this embodiment. As shown in Figure 11, there are two intersection points P01 and P01' between beam 0 and beam 1, and the intersection points P01 and P01' are connected to obtain line segment P01P01'; then P01 As the starting point, take the line segment P01P01'

point P0 (that is, the length of the line segment P01P0 is the length of the line segment P01P01'

), then draw a straight line perpendicular to the line segment P01P01' at point P0, and intersect with beam 1 and beam 0, respectively, to obtain the intersection points P1 and P2; where the intersection points P1 and P2 can represent the signal on both sides of the line segment P01P01' The value of the intensity is, for example, -3dB to +3dB; therefore, the span angle θ1 between beam 0 and beam 1 is the angle P1P01P2 (ie, ∠P1P01P2). There are two intersection points P12 and P12' between beam 1 and beam 2; there are two intersection points P23 and P23' between beam 2 and beam 3; where the intersection points P01, P12 and P23 are more relative to the intersection points P01', P12' and P23' Gather (or get closer to each other) a little bit. In a similar way to the above, with P12 as the starting point, take the line segment P12P12'

At the point P3, take the point P3 as a straight line perpendicular to the line segment P12P12', and obtain the intersection point P4 with the beam 2 and the intersection point P5 with the beam 1; and take P23 as the starting point, take the line segment P23P23'

The point P6 at the point P6 is used as a straight line perpendicular to the line segment P23P23', and the intersection point P7 with the beam 3 and the intersection point P8 with the beam 2 are obtained respectively. Therefore, the span angle θ2 between beam 1 and beam 2 is the angle P4P12P5 (ie ∠P4P12P5), and the span angle θ3 between beam 2 and beam 3 is the angle P7P23P8 (ie ∠P7P23P8). It should be noted that the above takes the intersection point P01 (or P12, P23) as the starting point, and takes the line segment P01P01' (or P12P12', P23P23')

The intersection points P1 and P2 (or P4 and P5, P7 and P8) obtained by making the point P0 (or P3, P6) at the vertical line represent the value of the signal strength on both sides of the line segment P01P01' from -3dB to +3dB, This is just an example, and those skilled in the art can understand that the intersection point P01 can be taken as the starting point, and other values (for example,

1/2, etc.) as a vertical line to obtain the intersection with beam 1 and beam 0, and these intersections represent the values of other signal strengths, which can be freely selected according to actual needs or angles that are convenient for calculation, in the present invention There are no restrictions. That is to say, the span angle can be: after obtaining a point on the line segment formed by the two points where the two beams intersect, take this point as the point of intersection with the two beams after being perpendicular to the line segment, and divide the two points of intersection with the two beams respectively. The angle (vertical angle) formed after connecting with the intersection of the two beams (the intersection is the more concentrated intersection between the beams), where the value on the line segment (for example,

1/2, etc.) can be freely set according to requirements. For example, the value on the line segment can be determined according to a preset signal strength value (for example, -3dB to +3dB, or other values). For example, in this embodiment, the span angle θ2 between beam 1 and beam 2 is relatively small, that is, the interference between beam 1 and beam 2 is relatively small; the span angle θ3 between beam 2 and beam 3 is slightly larger, That is, the interference between beam 2 and beam 3 is slightly larger; and the span angle between beam 0 and beam 1 is larger, that is, the interference between beam 0 and beam 1 is larger (for example, than beam 2 and beam 1). Interference between beams 3 is large). In addition, in this embodiment, other methods may also be used to determine whether the interference between the beams is greater than a predetermined threshold. For example, the two end points of the two short axes of the two beams form the length of the line segment, such as the length of the line segment P1P2 (that is, the length of the line segment formed after P1 is connected to P2), the length of the line segment P4P5, and the line segment P7P8 or the length of the line segment P01P01', the length of the line segment P12P12', the length of the line segment P23P23', and so on. From the above description, those skilled in the art can understand that there are many different implementation manners for judging whether the interference between a beam and another beam is greater than a predetermined threshold.

In view of the foregoing embodiments, it should be understood that in the present invention, at least one of the next beams may not be adjacent to the previous beam (that is, there may be at least one beam spaced between the next beam and the previous beam), so as to avoid adjacent beams. The interference generated between beams, mitigates the interference at the boundary of beam switching. The present invention advantageously mitigates interference at beam switching boundaries by configuring the beams to be scanned in a non-sequential order. Specifically, the non-sequential order indicates that some or all of the beams do not follow their neighbors. Of course, in the present invention, whether the next beam is an adjacent beam of the current beam can also be determined by detecting whether the interference of the boundary between the current beam and the adjacent beam is greater than a predetermined threshold. For example, in Figure 11, when the span angle between beam 0 and its adjacent beam 1 is greater than a predetermined threshold, in order to avoid interference between adjacent beams, a non-adjacent beam should be selected as the next transmit or receive beam . Although examples of non-sequential sequences are provided in FIGS. 7-9, it should also be understood that these examples are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. For example, beam scanning may be performed according to a sequence of directions as shown in FIG. 5 . That is, beam scanning can be performed by switching between the different embodiments depicted in Figures 5 and 7-9.

The use of ordinal terms such as "first," "second," etc. in the claims to modify claim elements does not in itself imply any priority, precedence, or sequence, or chronological order. However, it is only used as a marker to distinguish one claim element with a particular name from another element with the same name (but for use of ordinal terms) to distinguish claim elements.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that many modifications and variations of the apparatus and method can be made while maintaining the teachings of the present invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed to be limited only by the bounds and scope of the appended claims.

Claims (13)

1. A method of beam scanning performed by a wireless communication device, comprising:

transmitting or receiving wireless signals by scanning beams in a non-sequential order;

wherein a first beam and at least one second beam adjacent to the first beam are included, the non-sequential order indicating that one of the first beam and the second beam does not follow the other when interference between the first beam and the second beam is greater than a predetermined threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-sequential order indicates that some or all beams do not follow neighboring beams of a corresponding beam.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein when an area of an overlapping region between the first beam and the second beam is greater than an area threshold, then interference between the first beam and the second beam is greater than a predetermined threshold.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein when a span angle between the first beam and the second beam is greater than a span angle threshold, then interference between the first beam and the second beam is greater than a predetermined threshold.

5. The beam scanning method of claim 1, wherein the wireless signal transmitted comprises a plurality of physical random access channel signals in different time intervals when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G user device.

6. The beam scanning method of claim 1, wherein the transmitted wireless signal comprises a plurality of sounding reference signals in different time intervals when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G user device.

7. The beam scanning method of claim 1, wherein the transmitted wireless signals comprise synchronization signal blocks and physical broadcast channel information in different time intervals when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular base station.

8. The beam scanning method of claim 1, wherein the transmitted wireless signal comprises a plurality of channel state information reference signals in different time intervals when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular base station.

9. The beam scanning method of claim 1, wherein the received wireless signals comprise a plurality of physical random access channel signals in different time intervals when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular base station.

10. The beam scanning method of claim 1, wherein the received wireless signal comprises a plurality of physical uplink shared channel signals in different time intervals when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular base station.

11. The beam scanning method of claim 1, wherein the received wireless signals comprise a plurality of physical uplink control channel signals in different time intervals when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular base station.

12. The beam scanning method of claim 1, wherein the received wireless signals comprise at least two of the received physical random access channel signal, sounding reference signal, physical uplink control channel signal and physical uplink shared channel signal in different time intervals when the wireless communication device is configured as a 5G cellular base station.

13. A wireless communication device, comprising:

a controller; and

a storage device operatively coupled to the controller;

wherein the controller is configured to execute program code stored in the memory device to perform the operations of any of claims 1-12.

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