Patent ID: 11871368
Assignee: SONY MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS INC.
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 15:
16. A method of operating infrastructure equipment for forming part of a wireless communications network, the method comprising
transmitting a plurality of downlink beams of radio signals periodically according to a time divided structure of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network in different spatial directions and at different times, each of the plurality of downlink beams carrying a different version of a synchronisation signal,
detecting from one of a plurality of uplink beams paired with one of the plurality of downlink beams an indication that a communications device has synchronised with a first of the downlink beams and a second of the downlink beams, the uplink beam on which the indication is received being paired with one of the first downlink beams or the second downlink beams,
determining whether to transmit downlink data to the communications device using the first downlink beam or the second downlink beam, and
transmitting a response message on one of the first downlink beam or the second downlink beam depending on which of the first downlink beam or the second downlink beam is selected for communicating downlink data, wherein
the detecting from one of a plurality of uplink beams paired with one of the plurality of downlink beams an indication that a communications device has synchronised with a first of the downlink beams and a second of the downlink beams comprises
receiving a random access preamble on random access channel as part of a random access procedure on either a first uplink beam paired with the first downlink beam or a second uplink beam paired with the second downlink beam,
transmitting a random access response second message transmitted in response to the received random access preamble, and
receiving a random access third message as part of the random access procedure providing the indication of the first downlink beam and the second downlink beam.