Granted Patent B2

US 12,445,860 · App. 16/978,559 · Granted Oct 14, 2025

Inventors: Haitong Sun (Irvine, CA); Wei Zeng (San Diego, CA); Dawei Zhang (Saratoga, CA); Yuchul Kim (Santa Clara, CA); Hong He (Cupertino, CA); Yuqin Chen (Shenzhen, CN); Yushu Zhang (Beijing, CN); Sohrab Emami-Neyestanak (San Francisco, CA); Michael Gordon (San Jose, CA); Mark G. Forbes (San Carlos, CA); Xiang Guan (Santa Clara, CA); Yakun Sun (San Jose, CA)

Assignee: Apple Inc.

H04W16/28H04W8/22

Abstract

Claims (54)

1. A baseband processor configured to:

provide an indication of beam steering capability of a wireless device to a cellular base station, wherein the beam steering capability indicates whether beam steering is independent for a band combination or whether it is common to bands of the band combination; and

perform communications in the band combination in accordance with the indication of beam steering capability.

2. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein beam steering being independent for a band combination is associated with a capability of the wireless device to independently configure respective beams for respective bands of the band combination, wherein beam steering being common to bands of a band combination is associated with a capability of the wireless device to commonly configure beams across bands of the band combination, and wherein the indication of beam steering capability of the wireless device comprises:

an indication of one or more band groups for which the wireless device has beam steering capability.

3. The baseband processor of claim 2 ,

wherein the indication specifies one or more bands included in each of the one or more band groups.

4. The baseband processor of claim 2 ,

wherein the indication specifies a frequency range associated with each of the one or more band groups.

5. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein the beam steering capability is associated with one or more sets of beam steering hardware used to steer one or more beams in one or more frequency ranges, wherein the indication of beam steering capability of the wireless device indicates one or more beam configurations that the wireless device is capable of supporting, and

wherein the indication specifies how many independent simultaneous beams the wireless device supports for each of one or more band groups, band combinations, or frequency ranges.

6. The baseband processor of claim 1 ,

wherein the indication of beam steering capability of the wireless device comprises a temporary capability indication, wherein the baseband processor is further configured to:

initiate a prohibit timer based at least in part on providing the temporary capability indication; and

wait at least until expiry of the prohibit timer to provide another temporary capability indication of beam steering capability of the wireless device to the cellular base station based at least in part on the prohibit timer.

7. A method, comprising:

providing an indication of beam steering capability of a wireless device to a cellular base station, wherein the beam steering capability indicates whether beam steering is independent for a band combination or whether it is common to bands of the band combination; and

performing communications in the band combination in accordance with the indication of beam steering capability.

8. The method of claim 7 ,

wherein the indication of beam steering capability of the wireless device comprises an indication that the wireless device does not support independent beam steering within at least a first band group,

wherein the communications comprise using a common beam for multiple physical channels within the first band group.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

receiving downlink control information for a first component carrier and for a second component carrier, wherein the first component carrier and the second component carrier are within the first band group, wherein the downlink control information includes beam configuration information for the first component carrier and does not include beam configuration information for the second component carrier; and

determining a beam to use for the second component carrier based at least in part on the beam configuration information received for the first component carrier.

10. The method of claim 7 ,

wherein the indication of beam steering capability of the wireless device comprises an indication that the wireless device does not support independent beam steering within at least a first band group, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving downlink control information triggering multiple aperiodic reference signal communications in different component carriers within the first band group using a same beam configuration.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein if beam configuration information is in violation of the beam steering capability of the wireless device, the method further comprises:

selecting one or more beams configured by the beam configuration information that are within the beam steering capability of the wireless device, wherein the selected one or more beams comprise fewer beams than a number of beams configured by the beam configuration information; and

attempting to communicate with the cellular base station using the selected one or more beams.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

determining that the beam configuration information is in violation of the beam steering capability of the wireless device based at least in part on the beam configuration information configuring a greater number of beams than supported by the beam steering capability of the wireless device.

13. The method of claim 12 ,

wherein the greater number of beams than supported by the beam steering capability of the wireless device comprise at least two beams configured for different types of physical layer channels, and wherein the method further comprises:

selecting a number of beams configured by the beam configuration information that are within the beam steering capability of the wireless device based at least in part on a predetermined priority order of different types of physical layer channels.

14. The method of claim 12 ,

wherein the greater number of beams than supported by the beam steering capability of the wireless device comprise at least two beams configured for a same type of physical layer channel, and wherein the method further comprises:

selecting a number of beams configured by the beam configuration information that are within the beam steering capability of the wireless device based at least in part on a predetermined priority order of one or more characteristics of the beams.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving an indication of beam steering capability of a wireless device, wherein the beam steering capability indicates whether beam steering is independent for a band combination or whether it is common to bands of the band combination; and

receiving, from the wireless device, communications in the band combination in accordance with the indication of beam steering capability.

16. The method of claim 15 ,

wherein the indication of beam steering capability of the wireless device comprises information indicating that the wireless device supports a limited number of beams for each of one or more band groups,

wherein to select beam configuration information for the wireless device, the method further comprises:

selecting a beam configuration that does not exceed a number of beams supported by the wireless device for each of the one or more band groups.

17. The method of claim 15 ,

wherein the indication of beam steering capability of the wireless device comprises an indication that the wireless device does not support independent beam steering within at least a first band group, and wherein the method further comprises:

selecting beam configuration information that configures a common beam for multiple component carriers within the first band group based at least in part on the wireless device not supporting independent beam steering within the first band group.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:

providing downlink control information for a first component carrier and for a second component carrier, wherein the first component carrier and the second component carrier are within the first band group, wherein the downlink control information includes beam configuration information for the first component carrier and does not include beam configuration information for the second component carrier.

19. The method of claim 15 ,

wherein the indication of beam steering capability of the wireless device comprises an indication that the wireless device does not support independent beam steering within at least a first band group, and wherein the method further comprises:

providing downlink control information triggering multiple aperiodic reference signal communications in different component carriers within the first band group using a same beam configuration.

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein the indication of beam steering capability of the wireless device comprises a temporary capability indication.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (59)