US-12627334-B2 - Supplemental reconfigurable intelligent surfaces for downlink communication

US12627334B2US 12627334 B2US12627334 B2US 12627334B2US-12627334-B2

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A communication device, such as a user equipment (UE) may receive a configuration (for example, via control signaling) of a set of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). The UE may select a primary RIS for bidirectional wireless communication (for example, uplink and downlink) and one or more secondary RISs for unidirectional wireless communication (for example, downlink) based on the configuration. The UE may use the one or more secondary RISs to enable higher throughput and extended coverage in the wireless communication system, for example, for downlink. The UE may communicate with the base station using the primary RIS, or the secondary RIS, or both.

Inventors

Hung Dinh Ly
Saeid SAHRAEI
Yu Zhang
Krishna Kiran Mukkavilli

Assignees

QUALCOMM INCORPORATED

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20210315

Claims (20)

1 . A method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving, from a base station, an indication of a configuration of a set of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, the set of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces comprising a first reconfigurable intelligent surface and a second reconfigurable intelligent surface, wherein the configuration is based at least in part on a UE capability of each band of a plurality of bands, or of each band combination of the plurality of bands, or both for using the second reconfigurable intelligent surface for unidirectional wireless communication with the base station; selecting the first reconfigurable intelligent surface for bidirectional wireless communication with the base station based at least in part on the configuration, the bidirectional wireless communication comprising uplink wireless communication and downlink wireless communication; selecting the second reconfigurable intelligent surface for the unidirectional wireless communication with the base station based at least in part on the configuration, the unidirectional wireless communication comprising downlink wireless communication; and communicating with the base station via the first reconfigurable intelligent surface and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting UE capability information, wherein receiving, from the base station, the indication of the configuration of the set of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces is based at least in part on the UE capability information.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the UE capability information indicates the UE capability.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein communicating with the base station comprises receiving, from the base station via the second reconfigurable intelligent surface, one or more downlink wireless communication on one or more downlink channels, wherein the one or more downlink channels comprises one or more of a physical downlink control channel or a physical downlink shared channel.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein communicating with the base station comprises receiving, from the base station via the second reconfigurable intelligent surface, one or more reference signals, the one or more reference signals comprising one or more of a channel state information-reference signal or a demodulation reference signal.
6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining, based at least in part on the configuration, an active downlink bandwidth part for receiving the downlink wireless communication via the first reconfigurable intelligent surface and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface; and receiving the downlink wireless communication from the base station via the first reconfigurable intelligent surface on the active downlink bandwidth part, or the second reconfigurable intelligent surface on the active downlink bandwidth part, or both.
7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining, based at least in part on the configuration, a first active downlink bandwidth part for receiving the downlink wireless communication via the first reconfigurable intelligent surface and a second active downlink bandwidth part for receiving the downlink wireless communication via the second reconfigurable intelligent surface; and receiving the downlink wireless communication from the base station via the first reconfigurable intelligent surface on the first active downlink bandwidth part, or the second reconfigurable intelligent surface on the second active downlink bandwidth part, or both.
8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining, based at least in part on the configuration, that the first reconfigurable intelligent surface operates as a primary reconfigurable intelligent surface for the downlink wireless communication and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface operates as a supplemental reconfigurable intelligent surface for the downlink wireless communication; and receiving the downlink wireless communication from the base station via the primary reconfigurable intelligent surface, or the supplemental reconfigurable intelligent surface, or both, based at least in part on the configuration.
9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising switching a use of the first reconfigurable intelligent surface to operate as the supplemental reconfigurable intelligent surface for the downlink wireless communication and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface to operate as the primary reconfigurable intelligent surface for the downlink wireless communication, wherein the selecting of the first reconfigurable intelligent surface for the bidirectional wireless communication with the base station and the selecting of the second reconfigurable intelligent surface for the unidirectional wireless communication with the base station is based at least in part on the switching of the use of the first reconfigurable intelligent surface and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface.
10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising receiving, from the base station, a message including a second indication to reassign the first reconfigurable intelligent surface as the supplemental reconfigurable intelligent surface for the downlink wireless communication and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface as the primary reconfigurable intelligent surface for the downlink wireless communication, wherein the switching is based at least in part on receiving the message.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the message comprises a radio resource control message, a downlink control information message, or a medium access control-control element message, or a combination thereof.
12 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising determining a transmission configuration indicator state configuration associated with the first reconfigurable intelligent surface or the second reconfigurable intelligent surface, or both, wherein reassigning the first reconfigurable intelligent surface as the supplemental reconfigurable intelligent surface for the downlink wireless communication and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface as the primary reconfigurable intelligent surface for the downlink wireless communication is based at least in part on the transmission configuration indicator state configuration associated with the first reconfigurable intelligent surface or the second reconfigurable intelligent surface, or both.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first reconfigurable intelligent surface and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface are associated with the same carrier.
14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first reconfigurable intelligent surface corresponds to a first carrier and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface corresponds to a second carrier different than the first carrier.
15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein communicating with the base station comprises receiving, from the base station via the first reconfigurable intelligent surface, or the second reconfigurable intelligent surface, or both, one or more random access messages associated with a random access procedure, based at least in part on the configuration.
16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the UE is operating in a full-duplex mode or a subband full-duplex mode, the method further comprising: receiving a second indication of a plurality of reconfigurable intelligent surface configurations for one or more of uplink wireless communications or downlink wireless communications; and selecting a third reconfigurable intelligent surface for communicating with the base station based at least in part on the plurality of reconfigurable intelligent surface configurations for one or more of uplink wireless communications or downlink wireless communications.
17 . A method for wireless communication at a base station, comprising: selecting a first reconfigurable intelligent surface for bidirectional wireless communication with a user equipment (UE), the bidirectional wireless communication comprising uplink wireless communication and downlink wireless communication; selecting a second reconfigurable intelligent surface for unidirectional wireless communication with the UE, the unidirectional wireless communication comprising downlink wireless communication; transmitting, to the UE, an indication of a configuration of the first reconfigurable intelligent surface and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface, the configuration indicating the first reconfigurable intelligent surface for the bidirectional wireless communication and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface for the unidirectional wireless communication, wherein the configuration is based at least in part on a UE capability of each band of a plurality of bands, or of each band combination of the plurality of bands, or both for using the second reconfigurable intelligent surface for the unidirectional wireless communication with the base station; and communicating with the UE via the first reconfigurable intelligent surface and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface based at least in part on the configuration.
18 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising receiving UE capability information, wherein transmitting, to the UE, the indication of the configuration of the first reconfigurable intelligent surface and the second reconfigurable intelligent surface is based at least in part on the UE capability information.
19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the UE capability information indicates the UE capability.
20 . The method of claim 17 , wherein communicating with the UE comprises transmitting, to the UE via the second reconfigurable intelligent surface, one or more downlink wireless communication on one or more downlink channels, wherein the one or more downlink channels comprises one or more of a physical downlink control channel or a physical downlink shared channel.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE The present Application is a 371 national stage filing of International PCT Application No. PCT/CN2021/080754 by LY et al. entitled “SUPPLEMENTAL RECONFIGURABLE INTELLIGENT SURFACES FOR DOWNLINK COMMUNICATION,” filed Mar. 15, 2021, which is assigned to the assignee hereof, and which is expressly incorporated by reference in its entirety herein. TECHNICAL FIELD The following relates to wireless communication, including supplemental reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) for downlink communication. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED TECHNOLOGY 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 (for example, time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access communications 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 FDMA (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 equipments (UEs). In some cases, the wireless communications system may include active antenna units (AAUs) to increase cell coverage in the wireless communication system. For example, an AAU may act as a relay between a base station and a UE. However, the AAU may be associated with relatively high power consumption. In some cases, the wireless communications system may include one or more reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) that can facilitate wireless communications (for example, downlink transmissions or uplink transmissions) between a base station and a UE with negligible power consumption. In some cases, however, RIS locations in the wireless communication system may impact a spectral efficiency of the wireless communication system. It may be desirable to provide improvements to using RISs in wireless communication systems. SUMMARY Various aspects generally relate to a communication device supporting a use of a secondary reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) in addition to a primary RIS to enable higher throughput and extended coverage in a wireless communication system. For example, a communication device may be configured to support a primary RIS and a secondary RIS (which also be referred to as a supplemental RIS). The primary RIS may be configured in some examples to facilitate both uplink communications (for example, uplink transmission and uplink reception) and downlink communications (for example, downlink transmission and downlink reception), while the secondary RIS may be configured, in some examples, to facilitate downlink communications. By using the secondary RIS for downlink communications, the communication device may experience power saving, higher throughput in the downlink direction, extended downlink coverage in the wireless communication system, and may promote higher reliability and lower latency downlink communications, among other benefits. One innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a method for wireless communication at a UE. The method includes receiving, from a base station, an indication of a configuration of a set of RISs, the set of RISs including a first RIS and a second RIS, selecting the first RIS for bidirectional wireless communication with the base station based on the configuration, the bidirectional wireless communication including uplink wireless communication and downlink wireless communication, selecting the second RIS for unidirectional wireless communication with the base station based on the configuration, the unidirectional wireless communication including downlink wireless communication, and communicating with the base station via the first RIS and the second RIS. Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in an apparatus for wireless communications at a UE. The apparatus may include a processor, memory coupled with the processor, and instructions stored in the memory. The instructions may be executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to receive, from a base station, an indication of a configuration of a set of RISs, the set of RISs including a first RIS and a second RIS, select the first RIS for bidirectional wireless communication with the base station based on the configura