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US-20260126513-A1 - DUAL FUNCTION EDGE DEVICE AND METHOD FOR ACCELERATING UE-SPECIFIC BEAMFORMING

US20260126513A1US 20260126513 A1US20260126513 A1US 20260126513A1US-20260126513-A1

Abstract

An edge device includes an antenna array and control circuitry. The control circuitry senses a surrounding area of the edge device by use of a first portion of the antenna array to track a user equipment (UE) in motion in a first communication range. The first communication range is greater than a second communication range of the edge device. The control circuitry performs preprocessing for beamforming of a radiation pattern based on the tracking. The preprocessing is performed before the UE enters the second communication range. The control circuitry executes the beamforming to direct a beam of RF signal to the UE in motion by use of one or more second portions of the antenna array. The beam of RF signal is directed in the radiation pattern as the UE enters the second communication range, and the beam of RF signal has a signal strength greater than a threshold.

Inventors

  • Venkat Kalkunte
  • Mehdi Hatamian

Assignees

  • PELTBEAM INC.

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20251229

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . An edge device, comprising: an antenna array; and control circuitry configured to: sense a surrounding area of the edge device by use of a first portion of the antenna array to track a user equipment (UE) in motion in a first communication range, wherein the first communication range is greater than a second communication range of the edge device; perform preprocessing for beamforming of a radiation pattern based on the track of the UE, wherein the preprocessing is performed before the UE enters the second communication range; and execute the beamforming to direct a beam of radio frequency (RF) signal to the UE in motion by use of one or more second portions of the antenna array, wherein the beam of RF signal is directed in the radiation pattern as the UE enters the second communication range, and the beam of RF signal has a signal strength greater than a threshold.
  2. 2 . The edge device according to claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to determine, based on the track of the UE in motion, one or more of: a velocity, a moving direction, a distance, an angle, and a trajectory of motion of the UE before the UE enters the second communication range.
  3. 3 . The edge device according to claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the antenna array radiates an RF wave in a first frequency for the sensing, and the one or more second portions of the antenna array radiate the beam of RF signal in a second frequency different from the first frequency.
  4. 4 . The edge device according to claim 3 , wherein the first frequency is an out-of-band mmWave frequency.
  5. 5 . The edge device according to claim 3 , wherein the second frequency is an in-band mmWave frequency owned or operated by one of a plurality of different wireless carrier networks (WCNs) for an uplink and a downlink cellular communication with the UE.
  6. 6 . The edge device according to claim 1 , wherein a count of antenna elements in the one or more second portions of the antenna array is greater than a count of antenna elements in the first portion of the antenna array.
  7. 7 . The edge device according to claim 1 , wherein the beam of RF signal relays a data stream to or from a base station to or from the UE.
  8. 8 . The edge device according to claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to execute dynamic partitioning of a plurality of antenna elements of the antenna array into a plurality of spatially separated antenna sub-arrays, and wherein a spatially separated antenna sub-array of the plurality of spatially separated antenna sub-arrays is used as the first portion for the sensing, and other spatially separated antenna sub-arrays of the plurality of spatially separated antenna sub-arrays are used as the one or more second portions for the beamforming.
  9. 9 . The edge device according to claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to direct a second beam of RF signal to a second UE concomitantly with the beam of RF signal directed to the UE.
  10. 10 . The edge device according to claim 9 , wherein the beam of RF signal is directed in different directions, angles, and radiation patterns with respect to the second beam of RF signal.
  11. 11 . The edge device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensing and the beamforming are performed without an increase in a signaling load on a cellular network.
  12. 12 . The edge device according to claim 1 , wherein the edge device is a dual-function edge device.
  13. 13 . A method for user equipment (UE)-specific beamforming, the method comprising: sensing, by an edge device, a surrounding area of the edge device by use of a first portion of an antenna array to track a UE in motion in a first communication range, wherein the first communication range is greater than a second communication range of the edge device; performing, by the edge device, preprocessing for beamforming of a radiation pattern based on the track of the UE, wherein the preprocessing is performed before the UE enters the second communication range; and executing, by the edge device, the beamforming to direct a beam of radio frequency (RF) signal to the UE in motion by use of one or more second portions of the antenna array, wherein the beam of RF signal is directed in the radiation pattern as the UE enters the second communication range, and the beam of RF signal has a signal strength greater than a threshold.
  14. 14 . The method according to claim 13 , further comprising determining, based on the track of the UE in motion, one or more of: a velocity, a moving direction, a distance, an angle, and a trajectory of motion of the UE before the UE enters the second communication range.
  15. 15 . The method according to claim 13 , wherein the first portion of the antenna array radiates an RF wave in a first frequency for the sensing, and the one or more second portions of the antenna array radiate the beam of RF signal in a second frequency different from the first frequency.
  16. 16 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the first frequency is an out-of-band mmWave frequency.
  17. 17 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the second frequency is an in-band mmWave frequency owned or operated by one of a plurality of different wireless carrier networks (WCNs) for an uplink and a downlink cellular communication with the UE.
  18. 18 . The method according to claim 13 , wherein a count of antenna elements in the one or more second portions of the antenna array is greater than a count of antenna elements in the first portion of the antenna array.
  19. 19 . The method according to claim 13 , wherein the beam of RF signal relays a data stream to or from a base station to or from the UE.
  20. 20 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon, computer-implemented instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to execute operations comprising: sensing a surrounding area of an edge device by use of a first portion of an antenna array to track a user equipment (UE) in motion in a first communication range, wherein the first communication range is greater than a second communication range of the edge device; performing preprocessing for beamforming of a radiation pattern based on the track of the UE, wherein the preprocessing is performed before the UE enters the second communication range; and executing the beamforming to direct a beam of radio frequency (RF) signal to the UE in motion by use of one or more second portions of the antenna array, wherein the beam of RF signal is directed in the radiation pattern as the UE enters the second communication range, and the beam of RF signal has a signal strength greater than a threshold.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS/INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE This Patent Application makes reference to, claims priority to, claims the benefit of, and is a Continuation Application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 19/220,147, filed on May 28, 2025, which is a Continuation Application of U.S. Pat. No. 12,352,878, issued on Jul. 8, 2025, which is a Continuation Application of U.S. Pat. No. 11,899,123, issued on Feb. 13, 2024, which is a Continuation Application of U.S. Pat. No. 11,874,389, issued on Jan. 16, 2024, which is a Continuation Application of U.S. Pat. No. 11,550,019, issued on Jan. 10, 2023, which is a Continuation Application of U.S. Pat. No. 11,366,195, issued on Jun. 21, 2022, which is a Continuation Application of U.S. Pat. No. 11,275,147 issued on Mar. 15, 2022. This application further makes reference to U.S. application Ser. No. 17/341,978, filed on Jun. 8, 2021. Each of the above referenced applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY Certain embodiments of the disclosure relate to wireless communication. More specifically, certain embodiments of the disclosure relate to a dual function edge device and a method for accelerating user equipment (UE) specific beamforming. BACKGROUND Wireless telecommunication in modern times has witnessed the advent of various signal transmission techniques and methods, such as beamforming and beam steering techniques, for enhancing the capacity of radio channels. Latency and the high volume of data processing are considered prominent issues with next-generation networks, such as 5G. Currently, the use of edge computing in the next generation networks, such as 5G and upcoming 6G, is an active area of research, and many benefits have been proposed, for example, faster communication between vehicles, pedestrians, and infrastructure and other communication devices. For example, it is proposed that proximity of conventional edge devices to user equipment (UEs) may likely reduce the response delay usually suffered by UEs while accessing the traditional cloud. However, there are many open technical challenges for successful and practical use of edge computing in modern networks, especially in 5G or the upcoming 6G environment. In a first example, one major technical challenge of the mmWave beamforming is signal attenuation, which adversely impacts low latency and high data rate requirements. For example, generally, mmWave signals may be easily blocked by rain or absorbed by oxygen, which is one reason why it only works at short ranges. Unlike traditional antennas that broadcast in every direction, so other communication devices can wirelessly connect with them, 5G-enabled antennas do not broadcast but points a beam at one object and may make an individual connection to one or more objects. This increases the complexity of antennas in user equipment (UE), base stations, and other network nodes (e.g., repeater devices, small cell, etc.) as antennas are required to be designed to handle the complexity of aiming a beam at a target object in a crowded cellular environment with plenty of obstructions. Current positioning methods used to determine a geographical location of a target device, such as a UE, are coarse (having more than 3 to 10 meters error) and add to the ever-increasing signaling load among various network nodes to estimate position. For example, in 3GPP release 16, it is planned to achieve less than 3 meters positioning accuracy for some use cases. In certain scenarios, the complexity increases manifold when the target object is in motion and its location changes rapidly. Thus, in such scenarios, faster decisions to alter the beam become necessary to ensure the best performance. Moreover, the performance of UEs varies with the location of the UEs and their proximity to a relay or service side of a conventional repeater. This is because the usual method of wide beam access, although it works in proximity to the conventional repeater device but suffers as a given UE, moves at greater distances from the conventional repeater device, especially for mmWave communication due to signal attenuation. In a second example, Quality of Experience (QoE) is another open issue, which is a measure of a user's holistic satisfaction level with a service provider (e.g., Internet access, phone call, or other carrier network-enabled services). The challenge is how to ensure seamless connectivity as well as QoE without significantly increasing infrastructure cost, which may be commercially unsustainable with present solutions. Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present disclosure as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE A dual function edge device and a method for accelerating user equipmen