Techniques for interference-aware beam pair selection

1. A processing device in a transmit-receive point for interference-aware beam pair selection, the processing device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory having processor-executable instructions stored thereon which is to be executed by the processor, wherein the instructions cause the processor to:

select a beam pair from a set of candidate beam pairs (i, j), for setting up a communication link from a serving transmit device to a receive device via the selected beam pair,

wherein each of the candidate beam pairs comprises a transmit beam j of the serving transmit device and a receive beam i of the receive device,

wherein the selection is based on statistics of a usage of one or more interfering transmit beams (m, k) of one or more interfering transmit devices m, wherein k represents one or more transmit beams, and i, j, m and k are positive integers,

wherein selecting the beam pair from the set of candidate beam pairs comprises:

determining for each of the candidate beam pairs (i, j) a score SCR(i, j) based on the statistics of the usage of the one or more interfering transmit beams (m, k); and

selecting, from the set of candidate beam pairs, a beam pair that has obtained a highest score.

2. The processing device of claim 1 , wherein the statistics comprise one or more beam usage probability values p mk associated one-to-one with the one or more interfering transmit beams (m, k), each of the beam usage probability values p mk representing a probability of a usage of the respective interfering transmit beam (m, k).

3. The processing device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine for each of the candidate beam pairs (i, j) the respective score SCR(i, j) based further on the following:

a signal strength descriptor of the respective candidate beam pair (i, j); and

one or more signal strength descriptors associated one-to-one with one or more interfering beam pairs (i, m, k), each of the one or more interfering beam pairs comprising the receive beam i of the respective candidate beam pair and one of the interfering transmit beams (m, k).

4. The processing device of claim 1 , wherein the score is defined as:

S

⁢

C

⁢

R

⁡

(

i

,

j

)

=

S

i

,

j

∑

m

∈

M

⁢

∑

k

=

1

N

T

,

m

⁢

p

m

,

k

⁢

I

m

,

i

,

k

+

σ

n

2

,

where S i,j denotes a signal strength of the beam pair formed of the j-th transmit beam from the serving transmit device and the i-th receive beam of the receive device, N T,m denotes the number of transmit beams at the m-th interfering transmit device, σ n 2 denotes a noise variance, M denotes a set of interfering transmit devices for the receive device, p m,k denotes a beam usage probability value representing a probability of a usage of interfering transmit beam (m, k), and I m,i,k denotes interfering signal strength.

5. The processing device of claim 1 , configured to distinguish between the interfering transmit beams of the interfering transmit devices and the transmit beams of the serving transmit device based on transmit device-specific pilot signals.

6. A transmit-receive point, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory having processor-executable instructions stored thereon which is to be executed by the processor, wherein the instructions cause the processor to:

receive statistics of a usage of one or more interfering transmit beams (m, k) of one or more interfering transmit devices m, wherein k represents one or more transmit beams, and m and k are positive integers,

wherein the processor is configured to forward the statistics to a user equipment to enable the user equipment to select a beam pair based on the statistics, and further configured to communicate with the user equipment via the selected beam pair.

7. The transmit-receive point of claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to:

communicate with the user equipment via one or more transmit beams of the transmit-receive point;

forward the statistics to the user equipment via the one or more transmit beams;

receive a transmit beam identifier from the user equipment, the transmit beam identifier indicating a selected transmit beam of the transmit-receive point; and

continue communicating with the user equipment via the selected transmit beam.

8. A method for interference-aware beam selection, applied to a processing device comprising a processor, the method comprising:

selecting, a beam pair from a set of candidate beam pairs (i, j), for setting up a communication link from a serving transmit device to a receive device via the selected beam pair,

wherein each of the candidate beam pairs comprises a transmit beam j of the serving transmit device and a receive beam i of the receive device,

wherein the selection is based on statistics of a usage of one or more interfering transmit beams (m, k) of one or more interfering transmit devices m, wherein k represents one or more transmit beams, and i, j, m and k are positive integers,

wherein selecting the beam pair from the set of candidate beam pairs comprises:

determining for each of the candidate beam pairs (i, j) a score SCR(i, j) based on the statistics of the usage of the one or more interfering transmit beams (m, k); and

selecting, from the set of candidate beam pairs, a beam pair that has obtained a highest score.

9. The transmit-receive point of claim 6 , wherein the transmit-receive point is a base station.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the statistics comprise one or more beam usage probability values p mk associated one-to-one with the one or more interfering transmit beams (m, k), each of the beam usage probability values p mk representing a probability of a usage of the respective interfering transmit beam (m, k).

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the determination for each of the candidate beam pairs (i, j) the respective score SCR(i, j) is based further on the following:

a signal strength descriptor of the respective candidate beam pair (i, j); and

one or more signal strength descriptors associated one-to-one with one or more interfering beam pairs (i, m, k), each of the one or more interfering beam pairs comprising the receive beam i of the respective candidate beam pair and one of the interfering transmit beams (m, k).

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the score is defined as:

S

⁢

C

⁢

R

⁡

(

i

,

j

)

=

S

i

,

j

∑

m

∈

M

⁢

∑

k

=

1

N

T

,

m

⁢

p

m

,

k

⁢

I

m

,

i

,

k

+

σ

n

2

,

where S i,j denotes a signal strength of the beam pair formed of the j-th transmit beam from the serving transmit device and the i-th receive beam of the receive device, N T,m denotes the number of transmit beams at the m-th interfering transmit device, σ n 2 denotes a noise variance, M denotes a set of interfering transmit devices for the receive device, p m,k denotes a beam usage probability value representing a probability of a usage of interfering transmit beam (m, k), and I m,i,k denotes interfering signal strength.

13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: distinguishing between the interfering transmit beams of the interfering transmit devices and the transmit beams of the serving transmit device based on transmit device-specific pilot signals.