Dynamic increase of control channel modulation order conditional on beamforming to a poor-RF UE

1. A method of controlling wireless communication over an air interface between a base station and a user equipment device (UE) served by the base station, wherein the base station is configured to transmit downlink control signals over a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) defined by the air interface to the UE without the base station beamforming the PDCCH control signals to the UE and with the base station modulating the PDCCH control signals using a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS), the method comprising:

the base station determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor radio frequency (RF) conditions on the air interface, wherein the base station determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface comprises: (i) the base station receiving a channel quality indicator (CQI) from the UE and (ii) the base station determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface based on the received CQI;

responsive to the determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface, the base station reconfiguring itself to beamform PDCCH control signals to the UE; and

based on the base station being reconfigured to beamform PDCCH control signals to the UE, the base station reconfiguring itself to use a second MCS to modulate PDCCH control signals destined to the UE, wherein the second MCS is a higher-order MCS than the first MCS.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

responsive to the base station (i) reconfiguring itself to beamform PDCCH control signals to the UE and (ii) reconfiguring itself to use the second MCS to modulate PDCCH control signals destined to the UE, the base station using beamforming and the second MCS to transmit a PDCCH control signal over the air interface to the UE.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the transmitted PDCCH control signal is a downlink control information (DCI) message, and wherein the DCI message includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) masked with an identifier of the UE.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the basestation determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface further comprises:

the base station determining that the UE is located near an edge of a cell of the base station; and

the base station determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface based on the determining that the UE is located near the edge of the cell.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the base station determining that the UE is located near the edge of the cell comprises:

the base station determining that a handover of the UE to the base station was performed during a recent time period; and

responsive to the determining that the handover of the UE to the base station was performed during the recent time period, determining that the UE is located near the edge of the cell.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first MCS is a binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) MCS or a quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) MCS, and wherein the second MCS is a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) MCS.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first MCS is a first quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) MCS, and wherein the second MCS is a higher-order QAM MCS than the first QAM MCS.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the base station is an evolved Node B (eNodeB) of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network.

9. A method of controlling wireless communication over an air interface between a base station and a user equipment device (UE), the method comprising:

the base station using a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to serve the UE on a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) of the air interface without beamforming to the UE;

the base station determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor radio frequency (RF) conditions on the air interface, wherein the base station determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface comprises: (i) the base station receiving a channel quality indicator (CQI) from the UE and (ii) the base station determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface based on the received CQI;

responsive to the base station determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface, the base station starting to apply beamforming to the UE on the PDCCH; and

responsive to the base station starting to apply beamforming to the UE on the PDCCH, the base station using a second MCS to transmit a control signal to the UE on the PDCCH of the air interface, wherein the second MCS is a higher-order MCS than the first MCS.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the base station determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface further comprises:

the base station determining that the UE is located near an edge of a cell of the base station; and

the base station determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface based on the determining that the UE is located near the edge of the cell.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the base station determining that the UE is located near the edge of the cell further comprises:

the base station determining that a handover of the UE to the base station was performed during a recent time period; and

responsive to the determining that the handover of the UE to the base station was performed during the recent time period, determining that the UE is located near the edge of the cell.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the transmitted PDCCH control signal is a downlink control information (DCI) message, and wherein the DCI message includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) masked with an identifier of the UE.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first MCS is a binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) MCS or a quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) MCS, and wherein the second MCS is a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) MCS.

14. A base station configured to control wireless communication over an air interface between the base station and a user equipment device (UE) served by the base station, wherein the base station is configured to transmit downlink control signals over a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) defined by the air interface to the UE without the base station beamforming the PDCCH control signals to the UE and with the base station modulating the PDCCH control signals using a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS), the base station comprising:

an antenna structure for communicating with the UE over the air interface; and

a controller configured to carry out operations comprising (i) determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor radio frequency (RF) conditions on the air interface, wherein determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface comprises: (a) receiving a channel quality indicator (CQI) from the UE and (b) determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface based on the received CQI, (ii) responsive to the determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface, reconfiguring the base station to beamform PDCCH control signals to the UE, and (iii) based on the base station being reconfigured to beamform PDCCH control signals to the UE, reconfiguring the base station to use a second MCS to modulate PDCCH control signals destined to the UE, wherein the second MCS is a higher-order MCS than the first MCS.

15. The base station of claim 14 , the operations further comprising:

responsive to (i) reconfiguring the base station to beamform PDCCH control signals to the UE and (ii) reconfiguring the base station to use the second MCS to modulate PDCCH control signals destined to the UE, causing the base station to use beamforming and the second MCS to transmit a PDCCH control signal over the air interface to the UE.

16. The base station of claim 15 , wherein the transmitted PDCCH control signal is a downlink control information (DCI) message, and wherein the DCI message includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) masked with an identifier of the UE.

17. The base station of claim 14 , wherein determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface further comprises:

determining that the UE is located near an edge of a cell of the base station; and determining that the UE is experiencing threshold poor RF conditions on the air interface based on the determining that the UE is located near the edge of the cell.

18. The base station of claim 17 , wherein determining that the UE is located near the edge of the cell comprises:

determining that a handover of the UE to the base station was performed during a recent time period; and

responsive to the determining that the handover of the UE to the base station was performed during the recent time period, determining that the UE is located near the edge of the cell.

19. The base station of claim 14 , wherein the first MCS is a binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) MCS or a quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) MCS, and wherein the second MCS is a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) MCS.

20. The base station of claim 14 , wherein the first MCS is a first quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) MCS, and wherein the second MCS is a higher-order QAM MCS than the first QAM MCS.