Beam management in directional beam networks
High frequency wireless communication networks rely on directional transmit and receive beams to achieve large gains and overcome large pathlosses associated with high frequency signals. With highly directional signals, link failure may occur. Network nodes associated with the link failure, may need to identify new beam pairs and establish a new link as quickly as possible. In several aspects, beam sweep procedures are expedited, allowing for rapid link reestablishment. Disclosed techniques allow for rapid link reestablishment with and without beam correspondence.
1. A method of operating a second node, comprising:
determining that there has been a failure in a communication link between a first node and the second node;
sweeping over M possible transmit beams in a beam sweep operation by transmitting a burst on at least one of the M possible transmit beams;
receiving a single feedback bit from the first node when the second node has transmitted on a suitable beam wherein the single feedback bit from the first node is received after a transmit-receive switching time after a transmit burst;
terminating the beam sweep operation over M possible transmit beams immediately when the single feedback bit from the first node is received; and
reestablishing the communication link between the first node and the second node using the suitable beam.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the second node is a next generation Node B (gNB).
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the second node is a User Equipment (UE).
4. The method of claim 1 further comprising increasing transmit power and sweeping over at least one of the M possible directional transmit beams a second time when the single feedback bit from the first node is not received.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting information to the first node about a beam recovery procedure or receiving information from the first node about the beam recovery procedure.
6. A second node, comprising:
a transmitter configured to:
sweep over M possible transmit beams in a beam sweep operation by transmitting a burst on at least one of the M possible transmit beams; and
reestablish a communication link between a first node and the second node using a suitable beam;
a receiver configured to:
determine that there has been a failure in a communication link between the first node and the second node; and
receive a single feedback bit from the first node when the second node has transmitted on the suitable beam wherein the single feedback bit from the first node is received after a transmit-receive switching time after a transmit burst wherein the transmitter is further configured to terminate the beam sweep operation over M possible transmit beams immediately when the single feedback bit from the first node is received.
7. The second node of claim 6 wherein the second node is a next generation Node B (gNB).
8. The second node of claim 6 wherein the second node is a User Equipment (UE).
9. The second node of claim 6 wherein the transmitter is configured to increase transmit power and sweep over at least one of the M possible directional transmit beams a second time when the single feedback bit from the first node is not received.
10. The second node of claim 6 wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit information to the first node about a beam recovery procedure or the receiver is further configured to receive information from the first node about the beam recovery procedure.
11. A second node, comprising:
means for determining that there has been a failure in a communication link between a first node and the second node;
means for sweeping over M possible transmit beams in a beam sweep operation by transmitting a burst on at least one of the M possible transmit beams;
means for receiving a single feedback bit from the first node when the second node has transmitted on a suitable beam wherein a single feedback bit from the first node is received after a transmit-receive switching time after a transmit burst;
means for terminating the beam sweep operation over M possible transmit beams immediately when the single feedback bit from the first node is received; and
means for reestablishing the communication link between the first node and the second node using the suitable beam.
12. The second node of claim 11 wherein the second node is a next generation Node B (gNB).
13. The second node of claim 11 wherein the second node is a User Equipment (UE).
14. The second node of claim 11 further comprising increasing transmit power and sweeping over at least one of the M possible directional transmit beams a second time when the single feedback bit from the first node is not received.
15. The second node of claim 11 further comprising transmitting information to the first node about a beam recovery procedure or receiving information from the first node about the beam recovery procedure.
16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer executable code, comprising code to:
determine that there has been a failure in a communication link between a first node and the second node;
sweep over M possible transmit beams in a beam sweep operation by transmitting a burst on at least one of the M possible transmit beams;
receive a single feedback bit from the first node when the second node has transmitted on a suitable beam wherein the single feedback bit from the first node is received after a transmit-receive switching time after a transmit burst;
terminate the beam sweep operation over M possible transmit beams when the indication single feedback bit from the first node is received and before the beam sweep operation is complete; and
reestablish the communication link between the first node and the second node using the suitable beam.
17. The second node of claim 16 wherein the second node is a next generation Node B (gNB).
18. The second node of claim 16 wherein the second node is a User Equipment (UE).
19. The second node of claim 16 further comprising code to increase transmit power and sweep over at least one of the M possible directional transmit beams a second time when the single feedback bit from the first node is not received.
20. The second node of claim 16 further comprising code to transmit information to the first node about a beam recovery procedure or receiving information from the first node about the beam recovery procedure.