US-12628190-B2 - Methods, apparatuses and system for beam alignment for NR sidelink

US12628190B2US 12628190 B2US12628190 B2US 12628190B2US-12628190-B2

Abstract

Inter-alia, a method is disclosed that includes transmitting a first set of sidelink beam management reference signals and transmitting a second set of sidelink beam management reference signals. The first set of sidelink beam management reference signals is transmitted on at least one of multiple antenna panels or antenna elements. The apparatus includes the at least one of the multiple antenna panels or the antenna elements or the at least one of the multiple antenna panels or the antenna elements is connectable to the apparatus. The second set of sidelink beam management reference signals is transmitted simultaneously on at least two of the multiple antenna panels or antenna elements. It is further disclosed an according apparatus, program and system.

Inventors

Simon Svendsen
Samantha Caporal Del Barrio
Nuno Pratas

Assignees

NOKIA TECHNOLOGIES OY

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20230512

Claims (19)

1 . An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory including program code; the at least one memory and the program code being configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: transmit, at least to a secondary user equipment, a first set of sidelink beam management reference signals; and transmit, at least to the secondary user equipment, a second set of sidelink beam management reference signals; wherein the first set of sidelink beam management reference signals is transmitted on at least one of multiple antenna panels or antenna elements comprised by or connectable to the apparatus, and wherein each of the second set of sidelink beam management reference signals is transmitted simultaneously on at least two of the multiple antenna panels.
2 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first set of sidelink beam management reference signals corresponds to a wide beam group comprising at least one wide beam, and wherein the wide beam group is indicative of at least one wide sidelink beam management reference signals beam.
3 . The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the second set of sidelink beam management reference signals corresponds to a narrow beam group comprising at least two narrow beams, wherein the narrow beam group is indicative of at least a first narrow sidelink beam management reference signals beam and a second narrow sidelink beam management reference signals beam, wherein each of the first and second narrow beams is narrower than the at least one sidelink beam management reference signals wide beam of the wide beam group, and wherein the at least one second narrow beam is transmitted subsequently to the at least one first narrow beam.
4 . The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein a respective wide beam of the wide beam group is transmitted simultaneously on the multiple antenna panels or antenna elements.
5 . The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein two respective wide beams of the wide beam group are transmitted sequentially on at least two different antenna panels or antenna elements of the multiple antenna panels or antenna elements.
6 . The apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to: obtain a beam sweep configuration indicative of at least the wide beam group and the narrow beam group, wherein a respective wide sidelink beam management reference signals beam of the wide beam group and a respective narrow sidelink beam management reference signals beam of the narrow beam group are transmitted based, at least in part, on the beam sweep configuration.
7 . The apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the beam sweep configuration is obtained via at least one of a sidelink control information, a sidelink medium access control control element, or a radio resource control, signalling.
8 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to: following the transmitting of the first and second sets of sidelink beam management reference signals, receive, at least from the secondary user equipment, a single beam report comprising beam report information indicative of a quality information about at least one beam of the first set of sidelink beam management reference signals and at least one beam of the second set of sidelink beam management reference signals, in particular indicative of at least one transmitted wide sidelink beam management reference signals beam, and further indicative of at least one transmitted narrow sidelink beam management reference signals beam, wherein the respective sidelink beam management reference signals beams of the beam report information have been determined to have a highest reference signal received power.
9 . The apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the narrow beam group comprises a number of narrow sidelink beam management reference signals beams corresponding to a number of angular directions, in which at least one of the multiple antenna panel or antenna element comprised by or connectable to the apparatus is enabled to emit a respective narrow sidelink bear n ent reference signals beam of the narrow beam group.
10 . The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to: determine, based on the beam report information, a best narrow sidelink beam management reference signals beam by overlapping a beam radiation pattern of the wide sidelink beam management reference signals beam having the highest reference signal received power of the wide beam group with a beam radiation pattern of the narrow sidelink beam management reference signals beam having the highest reference signal received power of the narrow beam group; and use the best narrow sidelink beam management reference signals beam for simultaneous beam alignment in one or more sidelink communications with a plurality secondary user equipments.
11 . An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory including program code; the at least one memory and the program code being configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: receive, from a primary user equipment, a first set of sidelink beam management reference signals corresponding to a wide beam group comprising at least one wide beam, wherein the first set of sidelink Beam management reference signals is received on at least one of an antenna panel or an antenna element comprised by or connectable to the apparatus, and wherein the wide beam group is indicative of at least one wide sidelink beam management reference signal beam; receive, from the primary user equipment, a second set of sidelink beam management reference signals corresponding to a narrow beam group comprising at least two narrow beams, wherein the narrow beam group is indicative of at least a first narrow sidelink beam management reference signal beam and at least a second narrow sidelink beam management reference signal beam, and wherein each of the first and second narrow sidelink beam management reference signal beam is narrower than the at least one wide sidelink beam management reference signal beam of the wide beam group; determine a beam report information indicative of a quality information about at least one beam of the first set of sidelink beam management reference signals and at least one beam of the second set of sidelink beam management reference signals; and provide a single beam report comprising the beam report information to the primary user equipment; wherein the first set of sidelink beam management reference signals and the second set of sidelink beam management reference signals is received on at least one of an antenna panel or an antenna element comprised by or connectable to the apparatus.
12 . A method, comprising: transmitting a first set of sidelink beam management reference signals; and transmitting a second set of sidelink beam management reference signals; wherein the first set of sidelink beam management reference signals is transmitted on at least one of multiple antenna panels or an antenna elements comprised by or connectable to the apparatus, and wherein the second set of sidelink beam management reference signals is transmitted simultaneously on at least two of the multiple antenna panels.
13 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the first set of sidelink beam management reference signals corresponds to a wide beam group comprising at least one wide beam, and wherein the wide beam group is indicative of at least one wide sidelink beam management reference signals beam.
14 . The method according to claim 13 , wherein the second set of sidelink beam management reference signals corresponds to a narrow beam group comprising at least two narrow beams, wherein the narrow beam group is indicative of at least a first narrow sidelink beam management reference signals beam and a second narrow sidelink bear management reference signals beam, wherein each of the first and second narrow beams is narrower than the at least one sidelink beam management reference signals wide beam of the wide beam group, and wherein the at least one second narrow beam is transmitted subsequently to the at least one first narrow beam.
15 . The method according to claim 13 , wherein a respective wide beam of the wide beam group is transmitted simultaneously on the multiple antenna panels or antenna elements.
16 . The method according to claim 13 , wherein two respective wide beams of the wide beam group are transmitted sequentially on at least two different antenna panels or antenna elements of the multiple antenna panels or antenna elements.
17 . The method according to claim 14 , further comprising: obtaining a beam sweep configuration indicative of at least the wide beam group and the narrow beam group, wherein a respective wide sidelink beam management reference signals beam of the wide beam group and a respective narrow sidelink beam management reference signals beam of the narrow beam group are transmitted based, at least in part, on the beam sweep configuration.
18 . The method according to claim 17 , wherein the beam sweep configuration is obtained via at least one of a sidelink control information, a sidelink medium access control control element, or a radio resource control signalling.
19 . The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the respective sidelink beam management reference signals beams of the beam report information have been determined to have a highest reference signal received power.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION This application claims priority to PCT Application No. PCT/EP2022/064255 filed May 25, 2022, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. FIELD The following disclosure relates to the field of wireless communications, or more particularly relates to systems, apparatuses, and methods comprising beam alignment for New Radio (NR) sidelink (SL) communication(s) between user equipments (UEs). BACKGROUND A conventional beam management procedure between a base station (such as gNB) and a terminal device (such as user equipment, UE) is described in third generation partnership project (3GPP) specification. Here, the UE beam management is defined in three phases Phase #1, Phase #2 and Phase #3. These phases can be described as follows: Phase #1 (P1):A respective UE uses a broad Rx beam while the gNB is performing SS bursts where Synchronization Signal/Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) blocks (SSBs) are swept and transmitted in different angular directions covering the cell. The UE measures the reference signal received power (RSRP) for all SSB beams on all UE panels and sends a preamble for random access over the physical random access channel (PRACH) on the random access channel (RACH) Occasion of the best SSB beam to connect to the network with the reciprocal transmit (Tx) beam of the best SSB beam.Phase #2 (P2):The UE uses a broad Rx beam to receive the gNB refined Downlink Channel State Information Reference Signal (DL CSI-RS) beam sweeping within the connected SSB beam. The UE measures the RSRP for all CSI-RS beams and reports the best beam ID (s) back to gNB still using the reciprocal broad Tx beam.Phase #3 (P3):The gNB transmits a repeated CSI-reference signal with the selected beam based on the UE reporting in Phase #2 and the UE sweeps refined Rx beam settings to identify its best narrow Rx beam. At the end of Phase #3, the beam alignment between the gNB Tx beam and the UE Rx beam is obtained enabling maximized directional gain. One of the steps in SL beam management (and also in Uu) is an initial beam-pairing (also referred to as Phase 1) and further alignment with a narrower Tx beam (also referred to as Phase 2). Taking as basis a Uu beam management procedure (i.e. between a gNB and a UE, as described above with P1 to P3), then the SL initial beam-pairing between a so-called primary UE, P-UE, and a secondary UE, S-UE could be with the following steps occurring between the P-UE and the S-UE: Step 0:Discovery procedure, e.g. following Prose and discovery model A or B. For the case of vehicle-to-anything (V2x) communications, the discovery occurs at the V2x layer and is enabled by the exchange of Cooperative Awareness Messages (CAMs) in the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) band at 5.9 GHz;a. The discovery procedure can occur in either FR1 or FR2. However, the benefit of doing this in FR1 is the absence of the need to perform beam-based discovery. If applied at FR2 then it will need to be performed with (e.g. only) wide beams, so discovery can be limited in coverage and take a long time for devices only capable of transmitting from a single panel at the time (current smartphone UE implementation);Step 1:The P-UE and S-UE establish a unicast link via PC5 connection establishment;a. This can either be performed at FR1 or FR2;Step 2:The P-UE or S-UE trigger initial beam alignment;a. Such a trigger can occur at either FR1 or FR2, and can indicate configuration details on the beam alignment (e.g. SL Beam Management Reference Signals (SL-BMRS) format to be used, number of expected beam sweeps, the time period where the beam sweeps are expected etc.);Step 3:The P-UE performs the Wide SL-BMRS beam sweep;a. This step may be dedicated to FR2. The slot format used to transmit these SL-BMRS for the purpose of beam sweeping can be (e.g. pre-)defined. However, it may be assumed that a respective (e.g. each) individual SL-BMRS is transmitted in a single SL slot. Therefore, if four wide beam sweeps are required, then the P-UE will have to transmit four distinct SL slots, each with a different beam applied;Step 4:The S-UE reports to the P-UE what was the best wide SL-BMRS beam (e.g. the index or slot of the SL-BMRS beam received with the higher power);a. This report can be transmitted in FR1 or FR2;b. This corresponds to the completion of P1;Step 5:The P-UE performs the Narrow SL-BMRS beam sweep;a. This step is dedicated to FR2. As in step 3, here it is assumed that this sweep will utilize a single SL slot per beam sweep;Step 6:The S-UE reports to the P-UE what was the best narrow SL-BMRS beam.a. This report can be transmitted in FR1 or FR2;b. This corresponds to the completion of P2; It is noted that in the procedure as disclosed above it is assumed that the S-UE (e.g. only) applies a wide beam for its reception and transmission. Therefore, at the end of the procedure (e.g. only) a combination of P-UE narrow beam(s) and S-UE wide beam(s) may have been identified. In case there is a need t