CN117833965A

CN117833965A - Beam forming method, system, device, communication equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN117833965A
Application number: CN202311817864.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨键泉; 陈林; 刘重军; 巫远宏
Original assignee: Comba Network Systems Co Ltd
Current assignee: Comba Network Systems Co Ltd
Priority date: 2023-12-26
Filing date: 2023-12-26
Publication date: 2024-04-05

Abstract

The application relates to a beam forming method, a beam forming system, a beam forming device, a beam forming communication device and a beam forming storage medium. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring beam information of an access link, and reporting the beam information to a base station; receiving beam indication information of the access link generated by the base station according to the beam information; the beam indication information comprises precoding information of a phased array antenna of the network control repeater; and controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information. The method can improve the beam pointing precision.

Description

Beam forming method, system, device, communication equipment and storage medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of mobile communications technologies, and in particular, to a beamforming method, a system, an apparatus, a communication device, and a storage medium.

Background

Coverage is a basic requirement of mobile cellular network deployment, and in the conventional technology, an RF (Radio Frequency) repeater is adopted to simply decode and forward a received signal, so that the coverage of the mobile cellular network is enlarged to a certain extent. With the advent of millimeter wave communication, signals have higher propagation loss in the transmission process, cell coverage is further limited, and it is difficult for an RF repeater to meet the demands of deployment of a millimeter wave band mobile cellular network.

In view of this, an NCR (Network Controlled Repeaters, network control repeater) technology is introduced in 3GPP Rel-18, where the NCR has the capability of processing side control information through a network end, so that not only can more efficient amplification and forwarding be realized, but also unnecessary noise amplification can be reduced and network integration can be simplified, however, in the current beam forming technology of the NCR, the beam pointing accuracy is not high, which is not beneficial to practical application of the NCR.

Therefore, the current NCR beam forming technology has the problem of low beam pointing precision.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a beamforming method, system, apparatus, communication device, computer-readable storage medium, and computer program product that can improve accuracy.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a beamforming method. The method is applied to a network control repeater, and the network control repeater is provided with a phased array antenna; the method comprises the following steps:

acquiring beam information of an access link, and reporting the beam information to a base station;

receiving beam indication information of the access link generated by the base station according to the beam information; the beam indication information comprises precoding information of a phased array antenna of the network control repeater;

And controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information.

In one embodiment, in the case where the phased array antenna is a rectangular planar array, the access link beam is a two-dimensional beam.

In one embodiment, the phased array antenna comprises a first layer of array elements and a second layer of array elements, the access link beam comprises at least one first beam and at least one second beam associated with the first beam, the first beam corresponds to the first layer of array elements, the second beam corresponds to the second layer of array elements, and the second beam has a width smaller than that of the first beam; and controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information, including:

controlling the phased array antenna to generate at least one first wave beam on the access link so as to determine a first target wave beam from the at least one first wave beam according to a first measurement result of each first wave beam returned by a terminal;

and controlling the phased array antenna to generate at least one second beam associated with the first target beam on the access link, so as to determine a second target beam from the at least one second beam according to second measurement results of the second beams returned by the terminal.

In one embodiment, the controlling the phased array antenna to generate the access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information includes:

according to a third measurement result reported by the terminal, determining phase shift information corresponding to the precoding information;

adjusting the precoding information according to the phase shift information to obtain adjusted precoding information;

and controlling the phased array antenna to generate the access link beam according to the adjusted precoding information.

In one embodiment, after controlling the phased array antenna to generate the access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information, the method further includes:

closing the forwarding function of the network control repeater under the condition that a control link between the base station and the network control repeater fails;

and under the condition of recovering the control link fault, starting the forwarding function, and controlling the phased array antenna to generate the access link beam according to the precoding information.

In one embodiment, after the forwarding function of the network control relay is turned off in the case that a control link between the base station and the network control relay fails, the method further includes:

Under the condition that the control link is recovered from faults and new beam indication information generated by the base station according to the new beam information is received, starting the forwarding function; the new beam indication information comprises new precoding information;

and controlling the phased array antenna to generate the access link beam according to the new precoding information.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a beamforming method. Is applied to a base station; the method comprises the following steps:

generating beam indication information of an access link according to the beam information of the access link sent by a network control relay; the network control repeater is provided with a phased array antenna, and the beam indication information comprises precoding information of the phased array antenna;

and sending the beam indication information to the network control relay so that the network control relay controls the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information.

In a third aspect, the present application further provides a beamforming system. The system comprises a base station and a network control repeater; the network control repeater is provided with a phased array antenna;

The base station is configured to generate beam indication information of an access link according to the beam information of the access link sent by the network control relay, and send the beam indication information to the network control relay; the beam indication information comprises precoding information of a phased array antenna of the network control repeater;

and the network control repeater is used for controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information.

In a fourth aspect, the present application further provides a beamforming apparatus. The method is applied to a network control repeater, and the network control repeater is provided with a phased array antenna; the device comprises:

the reporting module is used for acquiring the beam information of the access link and reporting the beam information to the base station;

the receiving module is used for receiving the beam indication information of the access link generated by the base station according to the beam information; the beam indication information comprises precoding information of a phased array antenna of the network control repeater;

and the control module is used for controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information.

In a fifth aspect, the present application further provides a beamforming apparatus. Is applied to a base station; the device comprises:

the generation module is used for generating beam indication information of the access link according to the beam information of the access link sent by the network control relay; the network control repeater is provided with a phased array antenna, and the beam indication information comprises precoding information of the phased array antenna;

and the sending module is used for sending the beam indication information to the network control relay so that the network control relay can control the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information.

In a sixth aspect, the present application also provides a communication device. The communication device comprises a memory storing a computer program, and a processor implementing the steps of the beamforming method of any of the first aspect or the beamforming method of any of the second aspect when the computer program is executed.

In a seventh aspect, the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the beamforming method of any of the first aspect or the beamforming method of any of the second aspect described above.

In an eighth aspect, the present application also provides a computer program product. The computer program product comprising a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the beamforming method of any of the first or second aspects described above.

The beam forming method, the system, the device, the communication equipment, the storage medium and the computer program product are used for reporting the beam information to the base station by acquiring the beam information of the access link, receiving the beam indication information of the access link generated by the base station according to the beam information, wherein the beam indication information comprises the precoding information of the phased array antenna of the network control repeater, and controlling the phased array antenna to generate the access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information; the phased array antenna arranged on the network control repeater can be utilized to carry out beam forming on the access link, and as the phased array antenna can accurately determine each beam direction of the access link, the accuracy of the beam direction is improved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an application environment of a beam shaping method in one embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a beam shaping method according to one embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of indexing access link beams in one embodiment;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of indexing access link beams in another embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a method of C-link beam fault handling in one embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a beam shaping method according to another embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a beam shaping system in one embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a beam shaping device in one embodiment;

fig. 9 is an internal structural diagram of a communication device in one embodiment.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the present application will be further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the present application.

The beamforming method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to an application environment shown in fig. 1. Wherein a terminal (UE) 102 and a base station 104 relay communication through a network control relay 106. The terminal 102 may be, but not limited to, various personal computers, notebook computers, smart phones, tablet computers, internet of things devices, and portable wearable devices, where the internet of things devices may be smart speakers, smart televisions, smart air conditioners, smart vehicle devices, and the like. The portable wearable device may be a smart watch, smart bracelet, headset, or the like. Base stations 104 include, but are not limited to, gNB (the next Generation Node B, next generation base station).

The network control repeater 106 may include an NCR-MT (control function) module and an NCR-Fwd (forwarding function) module, and B-link (feedback link) between the base station 104 and the NCR-Fwd and Ac-link (access link) between the NCR-Fwd and the terminal 102 are used for performing relay communication, and C-link (control link) between the base station 104 and the NCR-MT is used for transmitting control signaling for relay communication. Wherein a phased array antenna may be disposed on the network control repeater 106.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 2, a beamforming method is provided, which is illustrated by using the method applied to the network control repeater 106 in fig. 1 as an example, and includes the following steps:

step S210, acquiring the beam information of the access link, and reporting the beam information to the base station.

The beam information includes, but is not limited to, information such as beam index, beam width, beam direction, etc.

In a specific implementation, the NCR may acquire beam information of the access link, and report the beam information to the base station.

In practical applications, the NCR may transmit in Ac-link using a wide beam or a narrow beam, where the wide beam is used for coverage scanning of a target area, and transmits information such as MIB (Master Information Block, management information block), SIB1 (System Information Block ), SSB (Synchronization Signal Block, synchronization signal block), and the like; the narrow beam is used for transmitting UE traffic information, for example, information transmission of PUSCH (physical uplink shared channel) of UL (uplink), PUCCH (physical uplink control channel), PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) of SRS (sounding reference signal) and DL (downlink), PDCCH (physical downlink control channel), CSI-RS (channel state information reference signal), and the like. The NCR may obtain the beam index of each beam of the Ac-link and correlate the beam width and beam direction of each beam with the beam index to form beam information.

Fig. 3 provides a schematic diagram of indexing access link beams. According to fig. 3, 2 wide beams may be set in Ac-link, the beam indexes are respectively the wide beam 0 and the wide beam 1, and Z narrow beams may be set under each wide beam, the beam indexes are respectively the narrow beams 0~Z-1, and the ncr may report the beam indexes, the beam widths, and the beam directions of the respective beams including the wide beam and the narrow beam as beam information to the gNB.

Step S220, receiving beam indication information of an access link generated by a base station according to the beam information; the beam indication information includes precoding information of a phased array antenna of the network control repeater.

The beam indication information may be beam information indicating relay transmission.

The precoding information may be a precoding codebook of the phased array antenna.

In a specific implementation, the base station may determine, according to the received beam information, a beam for relay transmission from each beam of the access link, generate beam indication information of the access link, send the beam indication information to the NCR, and the NCR acquires precoding information of the phased array antenna from the received beam indication information.

In practical application, the gNB may first control the NCR to scan a wide beam of the UE, determine a target wide beam from a plurality of wide beams according to a measurement result reported by the UE, then control the NCR to scan a narrow beam of the UE in the target wide beam, determine a target narrow beam from a plurality of narrow beams according to a measurement result reported by the UE, and generate a precoding codebook of the NCR phased array antenna according to the target wide beam and the target narrow beam, and send beam indication information carrying the precoding codebook to the NCR.

Step S230, the phased array antenna is controlled to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information.

The access link beam may be a beam used by the access link for signal transmission.

In a specific implementation, the NCR may control the phase of each array element of the phased array antenna according to the received precoding information, so that the phased array antenna forms an access link beam, and the access link information is sent and received through the access link beam.

In practical application, the NCR may control the phased array antenna to generate a target wide beam according to the received precoding codebook, for transmitting information such as MIB, SIB1, SSB, etc., and may also control the phased array antenna to generate a target narrow beam, for transmitting UE service information.

According to the beam forming method, the beam information of the access link is acquired and reported to the base station, the beam indication information of the access link generated by the base station according to the beam information is received, the beam indication information comprises the precoding information of the phased array antenna of the network control repeater, and the phased array antenna is controlled to generate the access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information; the phased array antenna arranged on the network control repeater can be utilized to carry out beam forming on the access link, and as the phased array antenna can accurately determine each beam direction of the access link, the accuracy of the beam direction is improved.

In one embodiment, where the phased array antenna is a rectangular planar array, the access link beam is a two-dimensional beam.

In a specific implementation, the access link beam generated by the NCR may correspond to an array element of the phased array antenna, and if the phased array antenna is a rectangular planar array, the access link beam may be laid out in two dimensions in a transmission space to form a two-dimensional beam.

Fig. 4 provides a schematic diagram of indexing access link beams. According to fig. 4, if the phased array antenna is a rectangular planar array, the access link may have m×n wide beams, where the beam index in the horizontal direction is m=0, … …, M-1, and the beam index in the vertical direction is n=0, … …, N-1; each wide beam may be provided with x×y narrow beams with beam indices x=0, … …, X-1 in the horizontal direction and y=0, … …, Y-1 in the vertical direction.

In this embodiment, when the phased array antenna is a rectangular planar array, the access link beam is a two-dimensional beam, so that the phased array antenna can accurately control the direction of the access link beam in the transmission space, and the accuracy of beam forming is improved.

In one embodiment, the phased array antenna includes a first layer of array elements and a second layer of array elements, the access link beam includes at least one first beam and at least one second beam associated with the first beam, the first beam corresponds to the first layer of array elements, the second beam corresponds to the second layer of array elements, and a width of the second beam is smaller than a width of the first beam; the step S230 may specifically include: controlling the phased array antenna to generate at least one first wave beam on an access link so as to determine a first target wave beam from at least one first wave beam according to first measurement results of the first wave beams returned by the terminal; and controlling the phased array antenna to generate at least one second beam associated with the first target beam on the access link so as to determine the second target beam from the at least one second beam according to second measurement results of the second beams returned by the terminal.

Wherein, the first layer array element can be an array element for generating wide wave beam. The second layer of elements may be elements that generate a narrow beam. The first beam may be a wide beam. The second beam may be a narrow beam. The first target beam may be a target wide beam selected for access link transmission. The second target beam may be a target narrow beam selected for access link transmission. The first measurement result may be a measurement result obtained by the terminal measuring the received wide beam. The second measurement result may be a measurement result obtained by the terminal measuring the received narrow beam.

In a specific implementation, a first layer of array elements may be provided in the phased array antenna for generating a wide beam, and a second layer of array elements associated with the first layer of array elements may be provided for generating a narrow beam under the wide beam. The NCR firstly controls the phased array antenna to generate a plurality of wide beams in the access link, the terminal measures each received wide beam to obtain a first measurement result, the first measurement result is fed back to the NCR, the NCR can directly determine a target wide beam in the plurality of wide beams according to the first measurement result, or the first measurement result is forwarded to the base station, the base station determines the target wide beam in the plurality of wide beams according to the first measurement result, and the information of the target wide beam is fed back to the NCR. Then, the NCR may control the phased array antenna to generate a plurality of narrow beams under the target wide beam, send the plurality of narrow beams to the terminal, measure each received narrow beam by the terminal to obtain a second measurement result, feed back the second measurement result to the NCR, and directly determine the target narrow beam in the plurality of narrow beams according to the second measurement result, or forward the second measurement result to the base station, and the base station determines the target narrow beam in the plurality of narrow beams according to the second measurement result, and returns information of the target narrow beam to the NCR.

For example, the NCR may forward the SSB signal of the gNB to the UE in a polling manner through m×n wide beams, and the UE measures the RSRP (Reference Signal Receiving Power, reference signal received power) corresponding to each wide beam according to the received SSB signal, and feeds back to the NCR or the gNB, where the NCR or the gNB determines the wide beam corresponding to the maximum RSRP as the target wide beam, and the subsequent NCR forwards the SSB signal of the gNB through the target wide beam; the NCR can also forward the CSI-RS signals of the gNB to the UE in a polling mode through X multiplied by Y narrow beams under the target wide beam, the UE measures the RSRP corresponding to each narrow beam according to the received CSI-RS signals and feeds back the RSRP to the NCR or the gNB, the NCR or the gNB determines the narrow beam corresponding to the maximum RSRP as the target narrow beam, and the NCR subsequently forwards the CSI-RS signals of the gNB through the target narrow beam.

In this embodiment, at least one first beam is generated on an access link by controlling a phased array antenna, so as to determine a first target beam from at least one first beam according to first measurement results of the first beams returned by the terminal; and controlling the phased array antenna to generate at least one second beam associated with the first target beam on the access link so as to determine the second target beam from at least one second beam according to a second measurement result of each second beam returned by the terminal, and accurately and efficiently covering the communication distance by searching the wide beam and then searching the narrow beam, thereby improving the throughput of users.

In one embodiment, the step S230 may specifically further include: according to a third measurement result reported by the terminal, determining phase shift information corresponding to the precoding information; adjusting the precoding information according to the phase shift information to obtain adjusted precoding information; and controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link wave beam according to the adjusted precoding information.

The third measurement result may be RSRP measured for the received wide beam or narrow beam. The phase shift information may be a phase shift value determined from the third measurement result.

In a specific implementation, in view of large transmission loss of signals in frequency bands such as FR2 (millimeter wave), a phase shift may be introduced in a transmission process by a beam generated according to a precoding codebook, in order to improve accuracy of beamforming, an NCR may generate an analog precoding codebook of a phased array antenna, control the phased array antenna to transmit a wide beam or a narrow beam to a terminal through the analog precoding codebook, measure RSRP according to the received wide beam or narrow beam, report the RSRP as a third measurement result to the NCR, and the NCR determines a phase difference corresponding to the analog precoding codebook according to the received RSRP, determines a phase shift value to be compensated for the analog precoding codebook according to the phase difference, adjusts the analog precoding codebook according to the phase shift value, and obtains an adjusted precoding codebook, and then the NCR may control the phased array antenna to generate the wide beam or the narrow beam of an access link according to the adjusted precoding codebook.

In this embodiment, the phase shift information corresponding to the precoding information is determined according to the third measurement result reported by the terminal; adjusting the precoding information according to the phase shift information to obtain adjusted precoding information; and controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link wave beam according to the adjusted precoding information, compensating a phase shift value formed in the wave beam forming process, increasing the accuracy of wave beam forming and improving the transmission performance of the system.

In one embodiment, after the step S230, the method may specifically further include: closing the forwarding function of the network control repeater under the condition that a control link between the base station and the network control repeater fails; and under the condition of controlling the link fault recovery, starting a forwarding function, and controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam according to the precoding information.

In a specific implementation, if a control link between a base station and an NCR fails, a feedback link may also transmit a signal inaccurately, at this time, the NCR closes a forwarding function, and if the control link fails, then the NCR may open the forwarding function, and control the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam according to original precoding information before the control link fails.

In this embodiment, the forwarding function of the network control repeater is turned off when the control link between the base station and the network control repeater fails; under the condition of control link fault recovery, a forwarding function is started, and the phased array antenna is controlled to generate an access link beam according to precoding information, so that the access link beam can be quickly generated when the control link fault is recovered, and communication delay is reduced.

In one embodiment, after the step of turning off the forwarding function of the network control repeater in the case that the control link between the base station and the network control repeater fails, the method specifically may further include: under the condition that the control link is recovered from faults and new beam indication information generated by the base station according to the new beam information is received, starting a forwarding function; the new beam indication information comprises new precoding information; and controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam according to the new precoding information.

In a specific implementation, under the condition that a control link between a base station and an NCR is recovered, the base station can acquire the beam information of the access link again, generate new beam indication information of the access link according to the new beam information, send the new beam indication information to the NCR, and under the condition that the NCR receives the new beam indication information, the NCR can start a forwarding function, and control the phased array antenna to generate the beam of the access link according to a new precoding codebook in the new beam indication information.

Fig. 5 provides a flow chart of a method for processing C-link beam faults. According to fig. 5, after the NCR-MT module detects a beam failure in the C-link, the NCR-Fwd module may perform the following processing:

step S301, when the NCR-MT module detects that the C-link fails, the C-link beam is inaccurate, and under the condition that the B-link and the C-link send the same RF signal, the B-link beam is also inaccurate, so that the NCR-Fwd module should be adjusted to an OFF state; in addition, even if the B-link and the C-link have independent RF, during the period that the NCR-MT module fails in the beam state, the NCR-MT module cannot receive the side control information of the gNB, and it is uncertain whether the gNB has beam indication behavior, and the beam information cannot be forwarded under a proper configuration, so that the NCR-Fwd module needs to be turned off;

step S302, when the NCR-MT module detects beam fault recovery, the NCR-Fwd module enters an ON state or keeps an OFF state;

step S303, under the condition that the NCR-Fwd module is started, using the beam configuration of the access link before the beam failure, namely using a precoding codebook before the C-link fails to generate an access link beam;

in step S304, when the NCR-MT module receives the latest beam indication configuration of the C-link under the condition that the NCR-Fwd module remains closed, the NCR-Fwd module opens, generates a new precoding codebook according to the new beam indication configuration, and further forms a new access link beam.

In this embodiment, the forwarding function is turned on under the condition that the control link is recovered and new beam indication information generated by the base station according to the new beam information is received; the new beam indication information comprises new precoding information; according to the new precoding information, the phased array antenna is controlled to generate an access link wave beam, and the precoding codebook can be updated when the control link is recovered from fault, so that the precoding codebook is matched with the real-time state of the access link, and the reliability of signal transmission of the access link is improved.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 6, a beamforming method is provided, which is illustrated by using the method applied to the base station 104 in fig. 1 as an example, and includes the following steps:

step S410, generating beam indication information of an access link according to the beam information of the access link sent by the network control relay; the network control repeater is provided with a phased array antenna, and the beam indication information comprises precoding information of the phased array antenna;

step S420, the beam indication information is sent to the network control relay, so that the network control relay controls the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information.

In the specific implementation, NCR acquires beam information of an access link, reports the beam information to a base station, the base station determines a beam for relay transmission from each beam of the access link according to the received beam information, generates beam indication information of the access link, sends the beam indication information to NCR, and NCR acquires precoding information of a phased array antenna from the received beam indication information and controls the phased array antenna to generate the beam of the access link according to the precoding information.

Since the specific processing procedure of the base station is described in detail in the foregoing embodiments, details are not repeated here.

According to the beam forming method, the beam indication information of the access link is generated according to the beam information of the access link sent by the network control relay, and the beam indication information is sent to the network control relay; the phased array antenna arranged on the network control repeater can be utilized to carry out beam forming on the access link, and as the phased array antenna can accurately determine each beam direction of the access link, the accuracy of the beam direction is improved.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 7, a beamforming system is provided, comprising a base station 104 and a network control repeater 106; the network control repeater 106 is provided with a phased array antenna;

The base station 104 is configured to generate beam indication information of an access link according to the beam information of the access link sent by the network control relay 106, and send the beam indication information to the network control relay 106; the beam indication information includes precoding information of the phased array antenna of the network control repeater 106;

and the network control repeater 106 is used for controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information.

Since the specific processing procedures of the base station and NCR are described in detail in the foregoing embodiments, they are not described in detail herein.

According to the beam forming system, the base station generates beam indication information of the access link according to the beam information of the access link sent by the network control relay, the beam indication information is sent to the network control relay, and the network control relay controls the phased array antenna to generate the beam of the access link according to the precoding information; the phased array antenna arranged on the network control repeater can be utilized to carry out beam forming on the access link, and as the phased array antenna can accurately determine each beam direction of the access link, the accuracy of the beam direction is improved.

In order to facilitate a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present application by those skilled in the art, the following description will be provided in connection with a specific example.

The application provides a network-controlled beam forming repeater, which aims to realize the beam forming of NCR through a precoding algorithm and provide a solution of beam information and beam management so as to effectively expand the coverage range of a wireless network.

The NCR proposed in the present application is an enhancement to conventional RF repeaters, with the ability to receive and process side control information from the network, which can enable the NCR to perform signal amplification and forwarding in a more efficient manner while mitigating unnecessary noise amplification, transmission and reception with better spatial substantivity, and simplifying network integration. As shown in FIG. 1, the NCR comprises an NCR-MT module and an NCR-Fwd module, the NCR-Fwd module has similar functions to the traditional RF repeater, the information interaction between the base station and the NCR is realized through B-link, the information interaction between the NCR and the user is realized through Ac-link, and the newly added NCR-MT module receives the edge control information from the base station through C-link, so that the information interaction is realized.

In the embodiment of the application, service transmission can be performed between the 5G base station and the user terminal through NCR, and service scenarios include, but are not limited to, eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband), emtc (large-scale machine type communication), URLLC (high reliability low delay communication), V2X (internet of vehicles) communication, and the like.

In one embodiment, an apparatus for implementing beamforming by phased array is provided, and information interaction is implemented by a beam searching method on an access link. The beamforming of the planar array in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction of the access link can be realized by a phased array precoding method.

NCR uses two types of beams for transmission at Ac-link, a wide beam and a narrow beam, respectively. The wide beam is used for coverage scanning of a target area and transmitting information such as MIB, SIB1, SSB and the like; the narrow beam scanning is used for transmitting UE traffic information, for example, PUSCH, PUCCH, SRS information in UL and PDSCH, PDCCH, CSI-RS in DL, etc., where the narrow beam has the effect of enhancing signal quality and throughput. In view of reducing signaling overhead, the number of beams accessing the link may be limited, for example, in FR1 (below 6 GHz) band, 2 wide beams may be used for broadcasting, 4-8 narrow beams may be used for UE signal transmission, and in view of large propagation loss in FR2 band, 4 wide beams may be used for broadcasting, and 4-8 narrow beams may be used for UE signal transmission.

Each beam is defined by { beam indication, beam width, beam direction }, and the NCR may report its access beam information to the gNB, which determines the access beam set of the NCR from the received access beam information, according to the spatial relationship between the beam width and the beam direction defining beams.

The NCR realizes beam forming in two directions of horizontal and vertical through a phased array, and indexes the wide beam first and then indexes the narrow beam according to a predefined rule, an indexing mechanism is shown in fig. 3, the wide beam can be indexed by 0-1, the narrow beam can be indexed by 0~Z-1, two different types of beams of the wide beam and the narrow beam are respectively and independently numbered, and the wide beam can be sequentially indexed according to different scenes first and then the narrow beam is sequentially indexed from the selected one wide beam.

The method for hierarchically distributing the wide beam and the narrow beam according to the phased array planar array distribution may be as shown in fig. 4, where fig. 4 shows a layout of the wide beam and the narrow beam, where M and N respectively represent the number of wide beams in the vertical and horizontal directions, and X and Y respectively represent the number of narrow beams in the vertical and horizontal directions, and the number of wide beams may be calculated to be equal to m×n, and the number of narrow beams in each wide beam is equal to x×y. To identify each physical beam of the NCR access link, the beam index along with the above-described NCR beam characteristic information { beam indication, beam width, beam direction } may be explicitly passed to the gNB, while the spatial relationship between the beams may be represented by beam indication, defining the beam indication for identifying the physical beam of the access link, in general the bit width required for the beam indication depends on the number of beams. The above-described unified numbering mechanism is simple, however, the signaling cost may be high when the NCR access link beam number is large.

The direction of the conventional relay antenna is mostly fixed, and the wide beam scanning coverage is usually performed on the relay side, so that the base station device cannot adjust the relay beam. In the embodiment of the application, the base station device can configure the sending beam, the receiving beam and the forwarding beam of the relay, and service the terminal devices in different geographic positions by adopting beams with different directions and different sizes. In addition, since the NCR link module is divided into backhaul and access links, the conventional beam indication mechanism TCI (Transmission Configuration Indication, transmission configuration indicator) and the corresponding spatial relationship-QCL (Quasi Co Location, quasi co-ordination), reference signal-cannot be directly utilized. The present application also proposes an optimal receive and transmit beam scheme for beam management of NCR.

In one embodiment, on the base station and the repeater side, the gNB sends a fixed directional beam to the NCR at a fixed location, where the beam carries beam control information (SSB signal) to inform the NCR how to perform beam scanning on the extended coverage area, and the NCR receiving end determines a receiving beam on the gNB side by adopting a polling mode, and receives the beam control information through the beam; the gNB transmits a fixed directional beam to the NCR at a fixed position, the beam carries control information (CSI-RS signal) of beam management, the NCR is informed of how to perform narrow beam scanning on the beam coverage area of the optimal SSB signal, and the NCR receives the beam control information from the gNB at a receiving end.

For an access link between a repeater and terminal equipment, the NCR transmits SSB signals of beams in an extended coverage area in a polling mode according to beam management control information indication of a base station, and the UE receives the SSB signals forwarded by the NCR and controlled by the gNB by adopting fixed receiving beams; the NCR can also send the CSI-RS signal of the wave beam in a polling mode in the wave beam coverage area of the optimal SSB signal according to the gNB wave beam control information indication, and the receiving end UE carries out the CSI-RS wave beam measurement and reports the CSI-RSRP.

In one embodiment, an NCR beam calibration scheme in the FR2 band is proposed. In order to compensate an unknown phase difference and realize accurate beamforming, the application sets a proper phase shift value in a multi-chain NCR of an FR2 frequency band, and when the unknown phase difference is unchanged, the NCR finds a phase shift value suitable for adaptive NCR beamforming according to beam scanning measured by using an SSB scene and a CSI-RS/SRS by using a phased array analog precoding codebook.

If the unknown phase difference becomes fast and occasional uncertain phase jumps occur, it is not easy to track the phase shift value and control the beam direction accurately, such unknown phase jumps are usually caused by RF state changes, e.g. DL-UL switches, OFF-ON transitions and NCR-Fwd gain control, so to support beamforming of FR2 NCR the feasibility of maintaining continuous relative errors in different forward radio frequency links should be ensured.

Through simulation verification of three conditions of no NCR, no phase compensation of NCR and simultaneous phase compensation of NCR, in FR2 frequency band simulation, simulation results show that under the condition of no NCR, throughput performance is not changed, after NCR is introduced, throughput gain of NCR is increased along with the increase of the number of antennas, and the NCR system has better throughput performance after phase compensation.

In one embodiment, the NCR-Fwd module of the NCR may configure periodic, semi-persistent, and aperiodic time domain resource information and beam pointing information through RRC (Radio Resource Control, radio resource control protocol) signaling, where the time domain resource information includes frequency, reference subcarrier spacing, starting symbol and duration in a slot, and the like. One forwarding resource set includes periodic indication information, and in downlink data forwarding, the SSB broadcast period is determined to be 20 ms through RRC configuration, and the number of SSB blocks and the frequency domain location of the SSB blocks are determined.

When the NCR-MT module detects beam failure in the C-link, the solution of the NCR-Fwd module may be as shown in fig. 5, and specifically includes the following steps:

in step S301, when the NCR-MT detects that the C-link fails, it means that the beam of the C-link is inaccurate, and assuming that the B-link and the C-link transmit the same RF signal, the beam signal of the B-link is obviously inaccurate, so that the NCR-Fwd module should be turned to the OFF state. Even if the B-link and the C-link have independent RF, during the occurrence of a beam state failure of the NCR-MT, the NCR-MT cannot receive the side control information of the gNB, so the gNB does not determine whether there is a behavior indicating a beam during the occurrence of a beam state of the NCR-MT, and the beam information cannot be forwarded under an appropriate configuration. In order to avoid interference of NCR-Fwd by forwarding inaccurate side control information, NCR closes NCR-Fwd when beam fault occurs in C-link;

Step S302, during the period from the time when the NCR-MT detects the beam fault to the time when the beam fault is recovered, the NCR-Fwd can be in an ON state or an OFF state according to the scene;

step S303, when the C-link beam failure causes the NCR-Fwd to be closed, but does not affect the beam signal of the access link, after the beam failure is recovered, the NCR receives time domain resource indication information, updates the NCR-Fwd state to ON, and simultaneously uses the beam configuration of the access link before the beam failure;

in step S304, after the beam fault is recovered, NCR-Fwd is still closed, and after the NCR-MT receives the latest beam indication configuration of the C-link, NCR-Fwd is opened.

The network control repeater effectively realizes beam forming by a phased array precoding method, and expands the coverage area of a wireless network; compared with the traditional repeater, the method can effectively solve the problem that the coverage range of the base station in the FR2 frequency band is limited, and can effectively reduce signaling overhead by controlling signaling information through a network end; the beam forming repeater can cover the communication distance more accurately and efficiently in a mode of sequential index of wide and narrow beams, and improves the throughput of users; meanwhile, by providing a method for controlling the access link to use the beam after the beam of the control link fails and after the beam is restored, the delay influence caused by communication faults is effectively reduced.

It should be understood that, although the steps in the flowcharts related to the embodiments described above are sequentially shown as indicated by arrows, these steps are not necessarily sequentially performed in the order indicated by the arrows. The steps are not strictly limited to the order of execution unless explicitly recited herein, and the steps may be executed in other orders. Moreover, at least some of the steps in the flowcharts described in the above embodiments may include a plurality of steps or a plurality of stages, which are not necessarily performed at the same time, but may be performed at different times, and the order of the steps or stages is not necessarily performed sequentially, but may be performed alternately or alternately with at least some of the other steps or stages.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the application also provides a beamforming device for realizing the beamforming method. The implementation of the solution provided by the apparatus is similar to the implementation described in the above method, so the specific limitation in one or more embodiments of the beamforming apparatus provided below may be referred to the limitation of the beamforming method hereinabove, and will not be described herein.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 8, there is provided a beamforming apparatus, including: reporting module 510, receiving module 520, and control module 530, wherein:

the reporting module 510 is configured to obtain beam information of an access link, and report the beam information to a base station;

a receiving module 520, configured to receive beam indication information of the access link generated by the base station according to the beam information; the beam indication information comprises precoding information of a phased array antenna of the network control repeater;

and a control module 530, configured to control the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information.

In one embodiment, the control module 530 is further configured to control the phased array antenna to generate at least one first beam on the access link, so as to determine a first target beam from the at least one first beam according to a first measurement result of each first beam returned by the terminal; and controlling the phased array antenna to generate at least one second beam associated with the first target beam on the access link, so as to determine a second target beam from the at least one second beam according to second measurement results of the second beams returned by the terminal.

In an embodiment, the control module 530 is further configured to determine phase shift information corresponding to the precoding information according to a third measurement result reported by the terminal; adjusting the precoding information according to the phase shift information to obtain adjusted precoding information; and controlling the phased array antenna to generate the access link beam according to the adjusted precoding information.

In one embodiment, the beamforming device further includes:

a forwarding function closing module, configured to close a forwarding function of the network control relay in case of a failure of a control link between the base station and the network control relay;

and the forwarding function starting module is used for starting the forwarding function under the condition of recovering the control link fault and controlling the phased array antenna to generate the access link beam according to the precoding information.

In one embodiment, the beamforming device further includes:

the information updating module is used for starting the forwarding function under the condition that the control link is recovered from faults and new beam indication information generated by the base station according to the new beam information is received; the new beam indication information comprises new precoding information; and controlling the phased array antenna to generate the access link beam according to the new precoding information.

In one embodiment, there is provided a beamforming apparatus including:

The various modules in the beamforming apparatus described above may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, or a combination thereof. The above modules may be embedded in hardware or may be independent of a processor in the communication device, or may be stored in software in a memory in the communication device, so that the processor may call and execute operations corresponding to the above modules.

In one embodiment, a communication device is provided, which may be a server, and the internal structure of which may be as shown in fig. 9. The communication device comprises a processor, a memory, an Input/Output interface (I/O) and a communication interface. The processor, the memory and the input/output interface are connected through a system bus, and the communication interface is connected to the system bus through the input/output interface. Wherein the processor of the communication device is configured to provide computing and control capabilities. The memory of the communication device includes a non-volatile storage medium and an internal memory. The non-volatile storage medium stores an operating system, computer programs, and a database. The internal memory provides an environment for the operation of the operating system and computer programs in the non-volatile storage media. The database of the communication device is for storing beamforming data. The input/output interface of the communication device is used to exchange information between the processor and the external device. The communication interface of the communication device is used for communicating with an external terminal through a network connection. The computer program is executed by a processor to implement a beamforming method.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the structure shown in fig. 9 is merely a block diagram of a portion of the structure associated with the present application and is not limiting of the communication device to which the present application is applied, and that a particular communication device may include more or fewer components than shown, or may combine certain components, or have a different arrangement of components.

In an embodiment, there is also provided a communication device including a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program, the processor implementing the steps of the method embodiments described above when executing the computer program.

In one embodiment, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, on which a computer program is stored which, when executed by a processor, carries out the steps of the method embodiments described above.

In an embodiment, a computer program product is provided, comprising a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the method embodiments described above.

It should be noted that, the user information (including, but not limited to, user equipment information, user personal information, etc.) and the data (including, but not limited to, data for analysis, stored data, presented data, etc.) referred to in the present application are information and data authorized by the user or sufficiently authorized by each party, and the collection, use and processing of the related data are required to comply with the related laws and regulations and standards of the related countries and regions.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that implementing all or part of the above described methods may be accomplished by way of a computer program stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, which when executed, may comprise the steps of the embodiments of the methods described above. Any reference to memory, database, or other medium used in the various embodiments provided herein may include at least one of non-volatile and volatile memory. The nonvolatile Memory may include Read-Only Memory (ROM), magnetic tape, floppy disk, flash Memory, optical Memory, high density embedded nonvolatile Memory, resistive random access Memory (ReRAM), magnetic random access Memory (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory, MRAM), ferroelectric Memory (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory, FRAM), phase change Memory (Phase Change Memory, PCM), graphene Memory, and the like. Volatile memory can include random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM) or external cache memory, and the like. By way of illustration, and not limitation, RAM can be in the form of a variety of forms, such as static random access memory (Static Random Access Memory, SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (Dynamic Random Access Memory, DRAM), and the like. The databases referred to in the various embodiments provided herein may include at least one of relational databases and non-relational databases. The non-relational database may include, but is not limited to, a blockchain-based distributed database, and the like. The processors referred to in the embodiments provided herein may be general purpose processors, central processing units, graphics processors, digital signal processors, programmable logic units, quantum computing-based data processing logic units, etc., without being limited thereto.

The technical features of the above embodiments may be arbitrarily combined, and all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are not described for brevity of description, however, as long as there is no contradiction between the combinations of the technical features, they should be considered as the scope of the description.

The above examples only represent a few embodiments of the present application, which are described in more detail and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the present application. It should be noted that it would be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and improvements could be made without departing from the spirit of the present application, which would be within the scope of the present application. Accordingly, the scope of protection of the present application shall be subject to the appended claims.

Claims

1. A beamforming method, characterized by being applied to a network control repeater, the network control repeater being provided with a phased array antenna; the method comprises the following steps:

2. The beamforming method according to claim 1, wherein in case the phased array antenna is a rectangular planar array, the access link beam is a two-dimensional beam.

3. The beamforming method according to claim 2, wherein the phased array antenna comprises a first layer of elements and a second layer of elements, the access link beam comprises at least one first beam and at least one second beam associated with the first beam, the first beam corresponds to the first layer of elements, the second beam corresponds to the second layer of elements, and a width of the second beam is smaller than a width of the first beam; and controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information, including:

4. The beamforming method according to claim 1, wherein said controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information comprises:

5. The beamforming method according to claim 1, wherein after controlling the phased array antenna to generate an access link beam of the access link according to the precoding information, further comprising:

6. The beamforming method according to claim 5, wherein, in case of failure of a control link between said base station and said network control repeater, after switching off a forwarding function of said network control repeater, further comprising:

7. A beam forming method, which is characterized by being applied to a base station; the method comprises the following steps:

8. A beam forming system, comprising a base station and a network control repeater; the network control repeater is provided with a phased array antenna;

9. A beamforming device, characterized by being applied to a network control repeater provided with a phased array antenna; the device comprises:

10. A communication device comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program, characterized in that the processor implements the steps of the method of any of claims 1 to 7 when the computer program is executed.

11. A computer readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, characterized in that the computer program, when being executed by a processor, implements the steps of the method of any of claims 1 to 7.