Search

EP-4248684-B1 - BATCH-WISE FREQUENCY SCANNING

EP4248684B1EP 4248684 B1EP4248684 B1EP 4248684B1EP-4248684-B1

Inventors

  • ANANDA, Raghavendra Shyam
  • NAGAMANI, GANESH
  • MENON, SRIKANTH

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20211118

Claims (15)

  1. A method (900) for wireless communication at a user equipment, UE (205), comprising: identifying (905) that the UE (205) is to scan one or more frequency bands during a cell acquisition procedure; receiving (910) one or more over-the-air signals, each of the one or more over-the-air signals having a respective bandwidth that includes a corresponding plurality of channels from a frequency band of the one or more frequency bands, wherein receiving the one or more over-the-air signals comprises receiving a plurality of over-the-air signals and storing consecutively-received ones of the plurality of over-the-air signals in different buffers for processing and evaluating of the plurality of over-the-air signals; processing (915) individual ones of the one or more over-the-air signals, wherein processing the individual ones of the one or more over-the-air signals comprises processing a first over-the-air signal of the one or more over-the-air signals while receiving a second over-the-air signal of the one or more over-the-air signals; evaluating (920), in corresponding batches for each of the individual ones of the one or more over-the-air signals, each of the corresponding pluralities of channels for cell acquisition, wherein evaluating each of the corresponding pluralities of channels for cell acquisition comprises evaluating, as a batch, each of the corresponding pluralities of channels in parallel; and acquiring (925) a cell via batch-wise evaluation of the corresponding pluralities of channels.
  2. The method (900) of claim 1, further comprising: reducing power to radio frequency components of the UE (205) during at least a portion of the processing of the individual ones of the one or more over-the-air signals.
  3. The method (900) of claim 1, wherein evaluating each of the corresponding pluralities of channels for cell acquisition comprises: scanning for a narrowband primary synchronization signal in each of the corresponding pluralities of channels.
  4. The method (900) of claim 1, further comprising: completing a full frequency scan of each of the one or more frequency bands during the cell acquisition procedure.
  5. The method (900) of claim 1, further comprising: terminating the cell acquisition procedure without completing a full frequency scan of each of the one or more frequency bands based at least in part on a successful detection of a cell during the evaluating.
  6. The method (900) of claim 1, wherein evaluating each of the corresponding pluralities of channels for cell acquisition comprises: evaluating individual evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access, E-UTRA Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Numbers, eARFCNs within a single over-the-air signal of the one or more over-the-air signals.
  7. The method (900) of claim 1, wherein the UE (205) is a narrow-band Internet of Things device.
  8. A user equipment, UE apparatus (205) for wireless communication, comprising: means for identifying (905) that the UE (205) is to scan one or more frequency bands during a cell acquisition procedure; means for receiving (910) one or more over-the-air signals, each of the one or more over-the-air signals having a respective bandwidth that includes a corresponding plurality of channels from a frequency band of the one or more frequency bands, wherein receiving the one or more over-the-air signals comprises receiving a plurality of over-the-air signals and storing consecutively-received ones of the plurality of over-the-air signals in different buffers for processing and evaluating of the plurality of over-the-air signals; means for processing (915) individual ones of the one or more over-the-air signals, wherein processing the individual ones of the one or more over-the-air signals comprises processing a first over-the-air signal of the one or more over-the-air signals while receiving a second over-the-air signal of the one or more over-the-air signals; means for evaluating (920), in corresponding batches for each of the individual ones of the one or more over-the-air signals, each of the corresponding pluralities of channels for cell acquisition, wherein evaluating each of the corresponding pluralities of channels for cell acquisition comprises evaluating, as a batch, each of the corresponding pluralities of channels in parallel; and means for acquiring (925) a cell via batch-wise evaluation of the corresponding pluralities of channels.
  9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising: means for reducing power to radio frequency components of the UE (205) during at least a portion of the processing of the individual ones of the one or more over-the-air signals.
  10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein evaluating each of the corresponding pluralities of channels for cell acquisition comprises: scanning for a narrowband primary synchronization signal in each of the corresponding pluralities of channels.
  11. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising: means for completing a full frequency scan of each of the one or more frequency bands during the cell acquisition procedure.
  12. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising: means for terminating the cell acquisition procedure without completing a full frequency scan of each of the one or more frequency bands based at least in part on a successful detection of a cell during the evaluating.
  13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein evaluating each of the corresponding pluralities of channels for cell acquisition comprises: evaluating individual evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access, E-UTRA Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Numbers, eARFCNs within a single over-the-air signal of the one or more over-the-air signals.
  14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the UE (205) is a narrow-band Internet of Things device.
  15. A computer program comprising program instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, carry out all steps of the method of anyone of claims 1 to 7.

Description

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY The following relates to wireless communications, including batch-wise frequency scanning. BACKGROUND Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include fourth generation (4G) systems such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems, or LTE-A Pro systems, and fifth generation (5G) systems which may be referred to as New Radio (NR) systems. These systems may employ technologies such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), or discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM). A wireless multiple-access communications system may include one or more base stations or one or more network access nodes, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE). US 8 346 251 B2 discloses a cellular device that has a stacked protocol, with an upper layer and a lower layer. The lower layer includes a multiple carrier detection unit, a memory and a digital processing system. The multiple carrier detection unit receives a plurality of wireless carrier signals and provides a respective plurality of output digital streams. The memory is used to store a target cell search list, and the digital processing system processes the digital streams in parallel based upon parameters within the target cell search list. The parameters may include a frequency indicator and a radio access technology (RAT) indicator. The lower layer controls the multiple carrier detection unit to detect the wireless carrier signals based upon the frequencies and RATs in the target cell search list. EP 2 117 128 A1 discloses a system acquisition method suitable for use in W-CDMA that utilizes a receiver having an automatic frequency control (AFC) circuit. A system acquisition scan is performed over a plurality of candidate frequencies in an RF band. During the system acquisition scan, a pilot signal of a system on one of the candidate frequencies is detected. When information of the system is successfully decoded, and the system is different from a requested system (e.g. not the RPLMN or HPLMN), the pilot signal of the system is assigned as a timing reference in the receiver for one or more remaining candidate frequencies of the system acquisition scan. Therefore, an AFC window time otherwise needed to converge on a remaining candidate frequency is not needed or reduced. US 5 666 355 A discloses a subscriber unit of a time division multiple access (TDMA) radiotelephone system that is, from a power consumption standpoint, reconfigured in each time slot of a TDMA frame to a power consumption tessellation in which subscriber unit circuit components not needed for communication signal processing in that time slot are powered down, and other components are powered up. SUMMARY The described techniques relate to improved method, user equipment and computer program that support batch-wise frequency scanning. Generally, the described techniques provide for scanning and detection by a narrowband user equipment (UE) to be performed on a batch-wise basis. In particular, rather than the UE scanning a single channel at a time, multiple channels may be scanned by the UE at the same time and then processed offline to reduce the total scanning time. To do this, the UE may scan a wideband signal (one that encompasses several narrowband channels). The UE may obtain the wideband signal and store the signals (e.g., individual subcarriers within the channel) in a buffer (for example, buffer A). The UE may then process the signal in buffer A while the UE retunes its RF components to acquire a different wideband signal (one that encompasses several different narrowband channels). Thus, while the UE is processing the channels obtained through the first signal, the UE is also obtaining a second signal (to be stored in, for example, buffer B). Evaluation of the different channels within an obtained signal occurs in parallel - batch-wise. Thus, the width of the obtained signal may correspond to K channels, where K is the maximum number of channels that the UE may process in parallel. While processing, the RF components may be turned off if the processing takes longer than the time it takes the UE to obtain the signals, thus saving power. Each channel may correspond to an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number (eARFCN). The invention is defined by the independent claims. BRIEF DESCRIPT