Method and apparatus for interference measurement using beam management reference signal

1. An apparatus for a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) interface to receive beam management reference signals broadcasted by a Transmission Reception Point (TRP) in a cell, wherein the beam management reference signals are used by the TRP to perform beam management for respective other UEs in the cell; and

processing circuitry coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:

decode the beam management reference signals;

decode an indication received from the TRP that indicates a subset of the decoded beam management reference signals as an interference measurement resource (IMR) to measure interference from a respective subset of the other UEs in the cell, wherein at least one of the decoded beam management reference signals is associated with a particular UE in the subset of the other UEs;

select the subset of the decoded beam management reference signals as the IMR according to the indication from the TRP; and

measure interference from the other UEs in the subset based on the selected subset of the decoded beam management reference signals.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

generate an interference report including the measured interference from each of the respective subset of the other UEs; and

send the interference report to the TRP.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

perform a channel estimation for the UE based on abeam management reference signal specific to a respective other UE of the other UEs to get an estimated channel characteristic H of the UE subject to interference from the respective other UE; and

obtain the interference from the respective other UE as R=H* H .

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the beam management reference signals comprise periodic beam management reference signals broadcasted by the TRP to perform an initial beam acquisition for the respective other UEs in the cell.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the beam management reference signals comprise aperiodic beam management reference signals broadcasted by the TRP to perform a TRP transmission beam refinement for the respective other UEs in the cell.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

measure the interference from the other UEs in the cell based on the periodic beam management reference signals, in response to a trigger signal from the TRP for notifying the UE to perform the interference measurement; and

stop measuring the interference from the other UEs in the cell based on the periodic beam management reference signals, in response to a trigger signal from the TRP for notifying the UE to stop the interference measurement.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the beam management reference signals comprise a Zero Power Channel Status Information Reference Signal (ZP CSI-RS), a Non-zero Power Channel Status Information Reference Signal (NZP CSI-RS) or a Demodulation Reference Signal (DM-RS).

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein when the UE and the TRP operate in a dynamic Time Division Duplexing (TDD) mode, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

decode uplink beam management reference signals transmitted respectively by other UEs in a neighbor cell for uplink beam management; and

measure interference from the other UEs in the neighbor cell based on the decoded uplink beam management reference signals.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the uplink beam management reference signals comprise a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), a Physical Uplink Control Chanel (PUCCH) signal or a Physical Random Access Chanel (PRACH) signal.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein when the cell and the neighbor cell are not synchronized, the processing circuitry is further configured to:

determine a measurement gap based on a timing difference between the cell and the neighbor cell; and

measure the interference from the other UEs in the neighbor cell at a timing scheduled according to the determined measurement gap and a timing of measuring the interference from the other UEs in the cell.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

generate an interference report including both the measured interference from the other UEs in the cell and the measured interference from the other UEs in the neighbor cell; and

send the interference report to the TRP.

12. An apparatus for a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) interface to receive uplink beam management reference signals transmitted respectively by other UEs in a neighbor cell for uplink beam management; and

processing circuitry coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:

decode uplink beam management reference signals from a subset of the other UEs, wherein the subset of the other UEs is selected based at least on an indication received from a Transmission Reception Point (TRP) that indicates beam management reference signals corresponding to the subset of the other UEs as an interference measurement resource (IMR); and

measure interference from the subset of the other UEs in the neighbor cell based on the decoded uplink beam management reference signals.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the uplink beam management reference signals comprise a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), a Physical Uplink Control Chanel (PUCCH) signal or a Physical Random Access Chanel (PRACH) signal.

14. An apparatus for a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) interface; and

processing circuitry coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:

broadcast beam management reference signals to User Equipments (UEs) in a cell to perform beam management for the UEs; and

encode an indication to be transmitted to an UE in the cell for indicating a subset of the beam management reference signals as interference measurement resource (IMR) for the UE to measure interference from a respective subset of other UEs in the cell, wherein at least one of the beam management reference signals in the subset of the beam management reference signals is associated with a particular UE in the subset of the other UEs, and

wherein the RF interface is configured to transmit the encoded indication to the UE.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: receive, from the UE, an interference report including the measured interference from each of the respective subset of the other UEs in the cell.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

dynamically configure the indication via higher layer signaling or downlink control information (DCI).

17. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the beam management reference signals comprise periodic beam management reference signals broadcasted by the TRP to perform an initial beam acquisition for the UEs in the cell.

18. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the beam management reference signals comprise aperiodic beam management reference signals broadcasted by the TRP to perform a TRP transmission beam refinement for the UEs in the cell.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: encode a trigger signal to be transmitted to the UE for notifying the UE to perform the interference measurement based on the periodic beam management reference signals or stop the interference measurement based on the periodic beam management reference signals.

20. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the beam management reference signals comprise a Zero Power Channel Status Information Reference Signal (ZP CSI-RS), a Non-zero Power Channel Status Information Reference Signal (NZP CSI-RS) or a Demodulation Reference Signal (DM-RS).

21. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein when the UE and the TRP operate in a dynamic Time Division Duplexing (TDD) mode, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

receive, from the UE, an interference report including both the interference from the other UEs in the cell and interference from other UEs in a neighbor cell,

wherein the interference from the other UEs in the neighbor cell is measured by the UE based on uplink beam management reference signals transmitted respectively by the other UEs in the neighbor cell for uplink beam management.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the uplink beam management reference signals comprise a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), a Physical Uplink Control Chanel (PUCCH) signal or a Physical Random Access Chanel (PRACH) signal.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein when the cell and the neighbor cell are not synchronized, the processing circuitry is further configured to:

determine a measurement gap based on a timing difference between the cell and the neighbor cell; and

indicate the UE to measure the interference from the other UEs in the neighbor cell at a timing scheduled according to the determined measurement gap and a timing of measuring the interference from the other UEs in the cell.