Patent Description:
For achieving higher data bandwidth, the spectrum used for communication on radio channels is expected to move to higher frequencies, e.g., to frequencies beyond <NUM> or <NUM>. This is for example provided for under the specifications of so called <NUM> systems within the <NUM>rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), and specifically New Radio (NR). Initially, it may be noted that in such a system a wireless terminal is generally referred to as a User Equipment (UE), whereas a base station of such a cellular system is referred to as a gNB.

Both the base stations and wireless terminals configured to operate in a wireless communication system at these frequencies may be equipped with antenna arrays, making spatial filtering or beam forming in different directions possible. This is due to the well-defined spatial transmission characteristics of electromagnetic waves in this frequency spectrum. At such high frequencies, numerous new types of services are expected to evolve.

Many NR features currently discussed in 3GPP involve the need of a wireless terminal to request resources from the base station, and for at least some of those services the subsequent transmission or communication carried out by the wireless terminal does necessarily involve the base station as such. This may relate to device to device (D2D) communication, radar probing etc. At the same time, the number of wireless terminals in operation is expected to continue to grow. The increasing number of services and wireless terminals will increase the amount of signaling in the system.

There is consequently a need for solutions for managing control of radio transmission from wireless terminals, and for managing system signaling overhead.

<CIT> discloses systems and methods for beamforming and uplink control and data transmission techniques. Such techniques enable a UE to maintain at least one beam process for operation with multiple beams and/or points. A beam process may be indicated for transmission or reception over a downlink or uplink physical channel. Power, timing, and channel state information may be specific to a beam process. A beam process may be established as part of a random access procedure in which resources may be provisioned in random access response messages.

<CIT> discloses a method for transmit in an uplink, including receiving from an access node, information associated with a scheduling grant for an uplink transmission, the information comprising position information of a network resource allocated for the uplink transmission and first beam information of a receive beam used by the access node to receive the uplink transmission, selecting a transmit beam used by a user equipment to transmit the uplink transmission, wherein the transmit beam is selected in accordance with the first beam information of the receive beam, and transmitting using the transmit beam, the uplink transmission in accordance with the position information.

Various solutions targeting these objectives are provided herein. Specifically, methods and devices as set out in the independent claims are provided. These solutions involve, inter alia, that a wireless terminal will obtain a transmission grant from a wireless network, which grant gives the wireless terminal permission to transmit a radio signal, wherein said transmission grant is indicative of a spatial limitation associated with the permission to transmit.

By means of such solutions, a wireless terminal capable of selectively transmitting radio signals with a certain spatial characteristic may be controlled to operate dependent on the spatial limitation. The wireless network may thereby control wireless terminals to transmit so as to optimize use of the air interface, by allowing traffic under certain restrictions in circumstances that no traffic would normally be allowed due to e.g. resulting interference.

Various embodiments are set out in the dependent claims.

In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, details are set forth herein related to various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details. In some instances, detailed descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention with unnecessary detail. The functions of the various elements including functional blocks, including but not limited to those labeled or described as "computer", "processor" or "controller", may be provided through the use of hardware such as circuit hardware and/or hardware capable of executing software in the form of coded instructions stored on computer readable medium. Thus, such functions and illustrated functional blocks are to be understood as being either hardware-implemented and/or computer-implemented and are thus machine-implemented. In terms of hardware implementation, the functional blocks may include or encompass, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, reduced instruction set processor, hardware (e.g., digital or analog) circuitry including but not limited to application specific integrated circuit(s) [ASIC], and (where appropriate) state machines capable of performing such functions. In terms of computer implementation, a computer is generally understood to comprise one or more processors or one or more controllers, and the terms computer and processor and controller may be employed interchangeably herein. When provided by a computer or processor or controller, the functions may be provided by a single dedicated computer or processor or controller, by a single shared computer or processor or controller, or by a plurality of individual computers or processors or controllers, some of which may be shared or distributed. Moreover, use of the term "processor" or "controller" shall also be construed to refer to other hardware capable of performing such functions and/or executing software, such as the example hardware recited above.

Hereinafter, techniques for are described for managing radio transmission from a wireless terminal under spatial limitations. These techniques may be set out in a wireless terminal configured to selectively transmit radio signals with different spatial characteristics, or in a wireless network configured to control such a wireless terminal, and further involves methods employing signaling between the wireless terminal and the wireless network. The ability of a wireless terminal to transmit with different spatial characteristics may be realized by means of an antenna array of the wireless terminal. In various embodiments, radio transmission is carried out in a mm wave frequency band, e.g. above <NUM>.

<FIG> schematically illustrates a scenario in a wireless communication system in which the presented solutions may be set out. A wireless network <NUM> may comprise a core network <NUM>, which may be connected to other networks, e.g. through the Internet <NUM>. The wireless network <NUM> further comprises one or more base stations, of which one base station <NUM> is illustrated. The base station <NUM> is configured for wireless communication <NUM> with various wireless terminals. The base station may comprise a transmission point (TRP) <NUM>, comprising an antenna system, and control logic <NUM> configured to communicate with the core network <NUM>. The control logic <NUM> may be arranged in conjunction with the TRP <NUM> and logic for controlling the antenna system of the TRP. Alternatively, the control logic <NUM> may be remotely arranged with respect to the TRP <NUM>. Functionally, the TRP <NUM> and the control logic are nevertheless collectively referred to herein as the base station <NUM>.

A first wireless terminal <NUM> is shown, also referred to as terminal for short herein, operative to communicate <NUM> wirelessly with the wireless network <NUM>. The terminal <NUM> may be selected from the group comprising at least handheld device; mobile device; robotic device; smartphone; laptop; drone; tablet computer; wearable devices, IoT (Internet of Things) devices, smart meters, communication modems/access points, navigation devices (GPS units), cameras, CAM recorder etc..

In at least legacy behavior of wireless communications, the terminal <NUM> may be allocated a resource by the wireless network <NUM>, such as by the base <NUM>, which resource is subsequently used by the terminal <NUM> for transmitting and/or receiving data or a signal. In various wireless communication systems, such as NR, a resource is typically thought of as a portion of time-frequency space.

There are several tasks situations where a UE would need to request resources from the gNB, or be provided with resources on the network's initiative, in order to carry out a certain task that involves radio transmission towards another recipient than the base station <NUM>. Such a task may for example relate to radar probing. During such radar probing, the terminal <NUM> may be configured to execute radio transmission <NUM> towards an object <NUM>, from which object <NUM> echoes are subsequently detected, in the terminal <NUM> or in another receiving device, for the purpose of determining e.g. position, speed, shape or other characteristics of the object <NUM>. Another example of such a task may be transmission <NUM> for D2D communication with or signaling to a recipient device <NUM>, such as another wireless terminal.

In this disclosure, various embodiments are presented in which a request for resources forms a request for a certain spatial direction, in which the wireless terminal <NUM> obtains a transmission grant from the wireless network <NUM> to transmit at will in time-frequency space, or within a certain frame of time and a certain frequency band.

<FIG> schematically illustrates a wireless terminal <NUM> for use in a wireless network <NUM> as presented herein, and for carrying out the method steps as outlined. The terminal <NUM> may comprise a wireless transceiver <NUM>, such as a chipset, for communicating with other entities of the radio communication network <NUM>, such as the base station <NUM>. The wireless transceiver <NUM> may thus include a radio transmitter <NUM> and a radio receiver <NUM> for communicating through at least an air interface on a radio channel <NUM>.

The terminal <NUM> further comprises logic <NUM> configured to communicate data via the radio transceiver on the radio channel <NUM>, to the wireless communication network <NUM> and possibly directly with other terminals <NUM> by Device-to Device (D2D) communication, such as in sidelink communication. In various embodiments, the logic <NUM> forms part of the transceiver <NUM>.

The logic <NUM> may include a processing device <NUM>, including one or multiple processors, microprocessors, data processors, co-processors, and/or some other type of component that interprets and/or executes instructions and/or data. Processing device <NUM> may be implemented as hardware (e.g., a microprocessor, etc.) or a combination of hardware and software (e.g., a system-on-chip (SoC), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc.). The processing device <NUM> may be configured to perform one or multiple operations based on an operating system and/or various applications or programs.

The logic <NUM> may further include memory storage <NUM>, which may include one or multiple memories and/or one or multiple other types of storage mediums. For example, memory storage <NUM> may include a random access memory (RAM), a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a cache, a read only memory (ROM), a programmable read only memory (PROM), flash memory, and/or some other type of memory. Memory storage <NUM> may include a hard disk (e.g., a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magnetooptic disk, a solid state disk, etc.).

The memory storage <NUM> is configured for holding computer program code, which may be executed by the processing device <NUM>, wherein the logic <NUM> is configured to control the terminal <NUM> to carry out any of the method steps as provided herein. Software defined by said computer program code may include an application or a program that provides a function and/or a process. The software may include device firmware, an operating system (OS), or a variety of applications that may execute in the logic <NUM>.

The terminal <NUM> may further comprise an antenna <NUM>, such as an antenna array <NUM>. The logic <NUM> may further be configured to control the radio transceiver to employ an anisotropic sensitivity profile of the antenna array <NUM> to transmit radio signals in a particular transmit direction. The terminal <NUM> may further comprise other elements or features than those shown in the drawing or described herein, such as a positioning unit, a power supply, a casing, a user interface etc..

<FIG> schematically illustrates a base station <NUM>, also called access node, of the wireless <NUM>, adapted to wirelessly communicate with wireless terminals such as the terminal <NUM>, and configured for carrying out the associated method steps as outlined. This embodiment is consistent with the scenario of <FIG>.

The base station <NUM> may comprise a wireless transceiver <NUM> for communicating with other entities of the wireless network <NUM>, such as the terminal <NUM>, through at least an air interface on a radio channel <NUM>. The base station <NUM> may further comprise an interface <NUM> for communicating with the core network <NUM>.

The base station <NUM> further comprises logic <NUM> configured to control at least the wireless transceiver <NUM> to communicate data on the radio channel <NUM> to terminals including terminal <NUM>.

The memory storage <NUM> is configured for holding computer program code, which may be executed by the processing device <NUM>, wherein the logic <NUM> is configured to control the base station <NUM> to carry out any of the method steps as provided herein. Software defined by said computer program code may include an application or a program that provides a function and/or a process. The software may include device firmware, an operating system (OS), or a variety of applications that may execute in the logic <NUM>.

The base station <NUM> may further comprise or be connected to an antenna <NUM>, such as an antenna array <NUM>. The logic <NUM> may further be configured to control the wireless transceiver <NUM> to employ an anisotropic sensitivity profile of the antenna array <NUM> to transmit radio signals in a particular transmit direction.

In various embodiments, the wireless terminal <NUM> and the base station <NUM> are configured to operate at a mm wave Frequency Range (FR), such as FR2 as provided for in NR.

<FIG> schematically illustrates a signaling diagram representing various embodiments as outlined herein. The diagram shows the terminal <NUM> to the left and the base station <NUM> to the right. Signaling paths are indicated, as well as data or indicative information being conveyed by signaling between the two parties <NUM>, <NUM>.

In a first general aspect, a method is provided for controlling radio transmission, carried out in the wireless terminal <NUM>. In other words, the terminal <NUM> is configured to carry out these method steps for controlling its radio transmission.

The method comprises obtaining <NUM>, from the wireless network <NUM>, such as through the base station <NUM>, a transmission grant <NUM> which gives the wireless terminal <NUM> permission to transmit a radio signal. Moreover, the transmission grant <NUM> is indicative of a spatial limitation associated with the permission to transmit. Subsequently, the terminal <NUM> transmits <NUM> the radio signal in accordance with said spatial limitation.

This first general aspect thus also relates to a wireless terminal <NUM> configured to communicate with a wireless network <NUM>, comprising.

In a second general aspect, a method is also provided for configuring a wireless terminal <NUM> for radio transmission, carried out in the wireless network <NUM>. This method comprises transmitting <NUM>, to the wireless terminal <NUM>, a transmission grant <NUM>, wherein said transmission grant is indicative of a spatial limitation associated with a permission for the wireless terminal to transmit a radio signal.

This second general aspect thus also relates to a base station <NUM> of a wireless network <NUM>, comprising
logic <NUM> configured to control an associated transmission point <NUM> to
transmit <NUM>, to a wireless terminal <NUM>, a transmission grant <NUM> indicative of a spatial limitation associated with a permission for the wireless terminal to transmit a radio signal.

These methods and devices provide the technical effect of the wireless network <NUM> providing the terminal <NUM> a grant to transmit, e.g. corresponding to an uplink grant, but with an associated spatial limitation. The transmission grant may e.g. be provided in RRC signaling. This way, the terminal <NUM> may be controlled or allowed to transmit in a manner that the wireless network <NUM> may ascertain is not interfering or being disruptive with respect to other wireless communication controlled by the base station <NUM>, such as within its cell region.

In the various solutions provided herein, spatial limitation identifies a spatial constrain in the permission to transmit, as opposed to free permission to transmit without spatial consideration. The spatial limitation defines that the permission for the wireless terminal to transmit a radio signal has an attached spatial definition related to direction and/or range of transmission.

In some embodiments, the spatial limitation defines one or more directions in which transmission is allowed from a certain position, as opposed to free permission to transmit from that position. This may be identified by means of the wireless terminal identifying an intended direction of transmission, and a position of transmission, and subsequently obtaining permission based on the identied intended direction. Alternatively, the transmission grant may indicate the directions in which transmission grant is permitted, related to a position of transmission, which position may be obtained from the wireless terminal or determined by the wireless network.

In some embodiments, the spatial limitation defines one or more directions in which transmission is not allowed, such as an angle, space angle, sector or the like. This may be associated with a position of transmission, i.e. of the wireless terminal. Alternatively, the one or more directions in which transmission is not allowed may be identified by definition of a position or area towards which transmission from the wireless terminal is disallowed. That position or area may e.g. be a location of a TRP, such as the TRP from which the transmission grant is obtained, or a direction in which side link communication is used by other wireless terminals. The terminal may, subsequently determine the one or more directions in which transmission is not allowed, based on its own position and information of the position or area towards which transmission from the wireless terminal is disallowed, which may be indicated explicitly or implicitly in the transmission grant.

In various embodiments, the spatial limitation may be defined by one or more spatial properties such as position data, transmission direction data such as an angle of transmission in <NUM> or <NUM> dimensions, absolute polarization data, an opening angle, i.e. width, of a transmission cone associated with the transmission direction data in <NUM> or <NUM> dimensions, distance of intended transmission, etc. The transmission grant may thus in various embodiments indicate the spatial limitation by including, or referring to, geographic position data and/or vector data, and may possibly indicate or refer to tolerance data identifying an angle or cone angle width, which defines a sector or cone within which the permission to transmit is restricted, or alternatively disallowed. Examples related to these parameters will be provided below. Responsive to obtaining such a transmission grant with an associated spatial limitation, the wireless terminal shall be obliged and controlled to transmit radio signals in accordance with the identified spatial limitation. This may be obtained by means of the logic <NUM> being configured to control the radio transceiver to employ an anisotropic sensitivity profile of the antenna array <NUM> to transmit radio signals only in allowed directions, such as by beamforming.

The transmission grant <NUM> may as such be obtained in a handshake procedure between the terminal <NUM> and the base station <NUM>, and information obtained <NUM> in that transmission grant <NUM> may be received in the wireless terminal <NUM> in one or more different messages from the base station <NUM>.

In some embodiments, obtaining the transmission grant includes receiving <NUM>, from the wireless network, information <NUM> indicative of radio resources to be used for the transmitting, wherein said radio signal is transmitted <NUM> using the radio resources. In such an embodiment, the transmission grant <NUM> thus includes an indication of which radio resources the terminal <NUM> may or shall use, and the spatial limitation associated with transmission using those radio resources. This provides for a convenient way of conveying information on the spatial limitation, where a limitation is dependent on the resources used.

In other embodiments, the transmission grant <NUM> is a grant to transmit under the associated spatial limitation, without further specifying radio resources. Rather, the transmission grant <NUM> provides, to the terminal <NUM>, an "at will" grant to transmit <NUM>, provided the spatial limitation is respected by the terminal <NUM>. In some embodiments, such a grant <NUM> may be associated with a time frame within which the terminal <NUM> may transmit at will within the associated spatial limitation, or alternatively a further message may be signaled from the wireless network <NUM> to the terminal <NUM>, terminating the transmission grant. Such embodiments have the benefit of providing the terminal <NUM> with a higher degree of freedom to use the radio interface, as long as the obtained spatial limitation is respected.

In some embodiments, the transmission grant <NUM> is obtained responsive to the wireless terminal <NUM> transmitting <NUM>, to the wireless network <NUM>, information <NUM> defining spatial properties of an intended radio signal transmission from the wireless terminal. The information <NUM> defining spatial properties may be transmitted in a resource request message <NUM>, transmitted from the terminal <NUM> for receipt <NUM> in the wireless network <NUM>. In other embodiments, the information <NUM> defining spatial properties may be transmitted after resources, e.g. time/frequency/code resources, have already been obtained in the terminal <NUM>. In such embodiments, the terminal <NUM>, wanting to make use of a certain type of service or application, such as D2D communication or radar probing, may thus conveniently request a grant from the wireless network <NUM> while informing the wireless network of spatial properties of at least its intended transmission during use of that service or application.

The wireless network <NUM>, receiving <NUM> the information <NUM> defining spatial properties of an intended radio signal transmission, may subsequently determine <NUM> the spatial limitation based on the request. The wireless network <NUM> may in this instance base the determination of the spatial limitation on parameters such as position of other known terminals or base stations, and overall radio traffic.

In some embodiments, wherein the terminal <NUM> informs <NUM> the network <NUM> of intended spatial information, and the network <NUM> grants the terminal <NUM> the right to execute that transmission based on said spatial properties, the spatial limitation may be conveyed to the terminal <NUM> as a downlink ACK of the spatial information <NUM>, i.e. without further defining any spatial information to the terminal <NUM>. Alternatively, the spatial limitation determined <NUM> by the network <NUM> may prescribe different spatial properties than the spatial properties of the intended radio signal transmission sent by the terminal <NUM> in the uplink. For example, the spatial limitation may be conveyed as a spatial information <NUM>, signaled in the downlink, where said spatial information <NUM> may be a subset or modification of the intended spatial information <NUM>.

In some embodiments, obtaining the transmission grant thus includes receiving <NUM>, from the wireless network <NUM>, spatial properties <NUM> of the permission to transmit a radio signal. The network <NUM> thus provides an identification of determined <NUM> spatial limitation. Transmission <NUM> of the spatial properties <NUM> of the permission to transmit a radio signal may be triggered by a network <NUM> entity, e.g. an application server connected to the network <NUM>, or be based on a terminal <NUM> resource request <NUM>.

In some embodiments, the spatial properties <NUM>, <NUM> may define a wireless terminal position, such as a geographic position, or a relative position with respect to another object or position, such as the base station <NUM>. Moreover, the spatial properties <NUM>, <NUM> may identify a current position, or a projected position at a certain point in time, or a position and a speed and direction of movement, etc..

In some embodiments, the spatial properties <NUM>, <NUM> may define a direction associated with intended transmission from the terminal <NUM>. The direction may identify a fix angle or angle range, or cone angle, of either direction from intended transmission position or relative to an angle to base station <NUM>. Alternatively, the spatial properties may define a direction associated with intended transmission by identification of a position of an intended receiving unit <NUM>, <NUM>.

In some embodiments, the spatial properties <NUM>, <NUM> define a transmission power limit. This forms a spatial limitation by providing a distance limitation of transmission from the terminal <NUM>.

In some embodiments, obtaining the transmission grant includes the terminal <NUM> transmitting <NUM>, to the wireless network <NUM>, an indication of intended reciprocal communication by the wireless terminal. This may e.g. relate to an intended D2D communication with another device <NUM>, including transmission and reception of data. The determination <NUM> of the spatial limitation may thus also take into consideration that radio transmission is expected also in the opposite direction.

In some embodiments, the spatial properties define a disallowed spatial range of transmission from the wireless terminal. This may involve a keep-out angle range, with respect to a certain position, and possibly also a power limit. Said certain position may be identified as the position of the terminal <NUM>, or as a vector range with respect to a certain geographical position and direction from that position. Such spatial properties may be provided as spatial information <NUM> in the DL to the terminal <NUM>, with or without any preceding resource request <NUM> from the terminal <NUM>. In some embodiments, the transmission grant <NUM> is received from the base station transmission point <NUM>, wherein the disallowed spatial range defines transmission towards said base station transmission point <NUM>.

Embodiments providing a spatial limitation in the form of a keep-out angle range may involve the base station <NUM> providing a transmission grant <NUM> to the terminal <NUM> which identifies a right to transmit radio signals from the terminal <NUM>, provided that no transmission is made in the keep-out angle range, i.e. a conditional transmission grant <NUM>.

Examples of scenarios falling within the scope of different outlined embodiments will now be described. A terminal <NUM>, or a user of the terminal <NUM>, may be interested in radiating signals that are not a part of the conventional data transmission to/from the network <NUM>, such as the base station <NUM>. Examples include radar sweeps, side-communications with other terminals <NUM> or TRPs, or that a terminal <NUM> would function as a pico-cell for other terminals. In those cases, resources may have to be acquired for the transmissions.

In accordance with the various embodiments described above, various scenarios may entail the following:.

A technical effect of the proposed solution, and as exemplified, is that if the terminal <NUM> intends to transmit in a direction other than towards the base station <NUM>, such as e.g. perpendicular to the direction to the base station <NUM>, and does not interfere with any other terminal <NUM> served by the base station <NUM>, then there is improved spectrum usage since the operations of the terminal <NUM> would be transparent to the network.

Two use cases are outlined below with reference to the drawings of <FIG>.

<FIG> shows an urban environment comprising a base station <NUM>, such as a gNB. Moreover, two user devices are shown, one labeled UE and the other one labeled "Car". As illustrated, the UE has severe blockage to the base station <NUM>, while the Car is in a LoS condition. However, the link between the car and the UE is of high quality, and they are therefore able to setup a side-link. The conventional side-link feature of NR consists of a request from the Car of resources in time and frequency. However, in accordance with the solutions proposed herein, a request is transmitted with identified spatial properties or information, identifying a spatial direction to the UE, for the purpose of releasing those time and frequency resources for other purposes. Conveniently, the base station may e.g. allocate the same resources for communication with another terminal. The Car signals, to the base station <NUM>, its position (x,y,z), if not known or determined by the base station <NUM>, as well as the intended spatial direction (φ, ψ) of transmission towards the UE. The base station <NUM> confirms whether or not the car can transmit a signal along said direction.

It may be in fact be in the interest of the base station <NUM> that the Car establishes a link to the UE since this may be the only way for the base station <NUM> to reach the UE. In that case there may be need for a compensation scheme between the car and the base station <NUM>. If the base station <NUM> is unaware of the UE, then it may be beneficial to establish a compensation scheme between the Car and the UE, such as an agreed discount or exchange or points or a virtual currency.

Claim 1:
Method for controlling radio transmission, carried out in a wireless terminal (<NUM>), comprising:
transmitting (<NUM>), to a base station of the wireless network, information (<NUM>) defining spatial properties of an intended radio signal transmission from the wireless terminal, wherein said spatial properties are indicative of a position of, or direction towards, another recipient than said base station;
obtaining (<NUM>), from the base station, a transmission grant (<NUM>) which gives the wireless terminal permission to transmit a radio signal, wherein said transmission grant is indicative of a spatial limitation (<NUM>) associated with the permission to transmit, wherein the transmission grant defines the spatial limitation based on said spatial properties; and
transmitting (<NUM>) the radio signal in accordance with said spatial limitation.