Selection of beamforming directions based on learned performance

1. Apparatus of user equipment (UE) configurable for millimeter-wave (mmW) uplink transmission beamforming, the apparatus comprising:

memory; and

processing circuitry to configure the UE to:

determine a current location of the UE;

read a beam-finding map that associates each of plurality of locations with an ordered list of sectors corresponding to beam directions previously determined to be operative to direct an uplink transmission from those locations to one or more of a plurality of Node Bs device, wherein sectors higher in order on the ordered list are associated with a higher performance measurement for communicating with one of the Node Bs;

determine from the map, based on the current location of the UE, an order of sectors for performing a sector scan;

initiate the sector scan with a first sector on the ordered list based on the order of the sectors for the current location of the UE;

terminate the sector scan when a sector is identified that meets a predetermined performance measurement;

initiate the uplink transmission to be directed along a beam direction corresponding to the identified sector to establish a connection with the Node B associated with the identified sector,

wherein the beam-finding map is stored in the memory of the UE.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of locations of the beam-finding map are represented as discrete elements of a grid, and wherein the current location is quantized to the elements of the grid.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the beam-finding map includes a plurality of beam directions previously assessed to be operative for effecting uplink transmission to the recipient device, the plurality of beam directions being associated with a first location.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the beam directions of the beam-finding map are determined by operation of a machine-learning process performed by the processing circuitry of the UE.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the beam directions of the beam-finding map include beam directions selected by at least one other UE, and disseminated to other devices by the at least one other UE.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is to configure the UE to receive an update to the beam-finding map, the update containing locations and corresponding groups of beam directions.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is to configure the UE to send at least a portion of the beam-finding map to another device.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

transceiver circuitry operatively coupled to the processing circuitry.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a plurality of antenna elements operatively coupled to the transceiver circuitry.

10. Apparatus of radio access network (RAN) base station configurable for millimeter-wave (mmW) beam-formed radio communications with user equipment (UEs) within a service area, the apparatus comprising:

memory; and

processing circuitry to configure the base station to:

maintain an uplink beam-finding map that associates a plurality of locations within the service area, with corresponding beam directions previously determined to be operative for UEs in those locations to direct uplink transmissions to the base station; and

receive updates to the beam-finding map from the UEs in the service area, the updates including locations and corresponding beam directions selected by respective UE devices for uplink transmissions to the base station;

incorporate the updates into the uplink beam-finding map; and

disseminate the uplink beam-finding map to the UEs in the service area,

wherein the processing circuitry is to further configure the apparatus to:

receive indications of current locations of a plurality of UEs in the service area; and

based on the indications of the current locations, schedule multi-user multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO) communications such that timeslot and channel re-use is preferentially applied to UEs that have greater physical separation from one another than UEs having less physical separation.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising:

transceiver circuitry operatively coupled to the processing circuitry.

12. At least one non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed on processing circuitry of an apparatus of user equipment (UE) configurable for millimeter-wave (mmW) uplink transmission beamforming, cause the apparatus to:

determine a current location of the UE;

read a beam-finding map that associates each of plurality of locations with an ordered list of sectors corresponding to beam directions previously determined to be operative to direct an uplink transmission from those locations to one or more of a plurality of Node Bs device, wherein sectors higher in order on the ordered list are associated with a higher performance measurement for communicating with one of the Node Bs;

determine from the map, based on the current location of the UE, an order of sectors for performing a sector scan;

initiate the sector scan with a first sector on the ordered list based on the order of the sectors for the current location of the UE;

terminate the sector scan when a sector is identified that meets a predetermined performance measurement;

initiate the uplink transmission to be directed along the first beam direction corresponding to the identified sector to establish a connection with the Node B associated with the identified sector,

wherein the beam-finding map is stored in a memory of the UE.

13. The at least one machine-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions are to configure the UE to:

select a receive beamforming direction based on the identified sector.

14. The at least one machine-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the beam directions of the beam-finding map are determined by operation of a machine-learning process performed by the processing circuitry of the UE.

15. The at least one machine-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions are to configure the UE to receive an update to the beam-finding map, the update containing locations and corresponding groups of beam directions.

16. The at least one machine-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions are to configure the UE to send at least a portion of the beam-finding map to another device.

17. At least one no machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed on processing circuitry of an apparatus of a radio access network (RAN) base station configurable for millimeter-wave (mmW) beam-formed radio communications with user equipment (UE) devices within a service area, cause the apparatus to:

maintain an uplink beam-finding map that associates a plurality of locations within the service area, with corresponding beam directions previously determined to be operative for UEs in those locations to direct uplink transmissions to the base station; and

receive updates to the beam-finding map from the UEs in the service area, the updates including locations and corresponding beam directions selected by respective UE devices for uplink transmissions to the base station;

incorporate the updates into the uplink beam-finding map; and

disseminate the uplink beam-finding map to the UEs in the service area, receive indications of current locations of a plurality of UEs in the service area; and

based on the indications of the current locations, schedule multi-user multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO) communications such that timeslot and channel re-use is preferentially applied to UEs that have greater physical separation from one another than UEs having less physical separation.