The present application relates generally to channel state information (CSI) determination and reporting for coherent joint transmission in wireless networks.
In 3GPP New Radio (NR) Release 18, a new feature, called Type-II-CJT, was specified that extends support of Type-II codebooks to multi-transmission point (multi-TRP) channel state information (CSI) reporting for coherent joint transmission (CJT) with up to 4 distributed remote radio heads (RRH) or transmission points (TRPs). This CJT differs from earlier defined non-coherent joint transmission (NCJT) in that it assumes that each multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) layer can be transmitted from antenna ports of multiple TRPs, whereas in NCJT, each MIMO layer can only be transmitted from a single TRP.
Both NCJT and CJT assume full overlap of MIMO layers in time and frequency resources, and they both require accurate time synchronization between TRPs to be within the cyclic prefix of a symbol. Additionally, CJT also assumes phase synchronisation between TRPs such that precoding of a MIMO layer can be applied across antenna ports of multiple TRPs.
From user equipment (UE) perspective, the layer reception is transparent with respect to the transmitting TRP with the distinction that in CSI feedback stage, for NCJT the precoding weights associated to a layer are applicable to a single TRP out of the configured ones for CSI feedback, while for CJT, the precoding weights are associated with all the selected TRPs.
In Type-II-CJT a UE is configured to measure Ks=NTRP CSI-RS resources, where NTRP is the maximum number of configurable TRPs/TRP groups and it selects N≤NTRP CSI-RS resources for CSI reporting. Hence, a CJT CSI calculation at the UE, which typically comprises CQI (channel quality indicator), PMI (precoder matric indicator) and RI (rank indicator), is based on the assumption that v MIMO layers, where v is the rank indicated by the RI, are transmitted from the antenna ports of the N selected CSI-RS resources. Several other assumptions are specified in Clause 5.2.2.5 of 3GPP TS 38.214 for CQI/PMI/RI calculations applicable to the slot associated with the CQI calculation, i.e. the CSI reference resource, including the assumptions on the ratio of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) energy per resource element (EPRE) to CSI-RS EPRE, henceforth also termed power control ratio or Pc ratio. This Pc ratio assumption is used by a UE to determine the transmit power of the PDSCH signals from the measured CSI-RS power, such that the CQI of the transmission hypothesis associated with the CSI calculation can be estimated.
At present, an agreement has been reached that a UE can assume that the Pc ratio follows a commonly configured powerControlOffset value for all of N selected CSI-RS resources. It was also agreed that in a CJT transmission, the combined precoder across the N selected CSI-RS resources is normalised for each layer and the PDSCH across all the N selected resources is used in CSI calculation. However, no restriction on the configuration of the Pc ratio for each of the NTRP CSI-RS resources is assumed.
This agreement has been adopted in 3GPP TS38.214 v.18.0.0 such that:
An alternative interpretation of this agreement, proposed but not adopted, was that a UE could assume that the PDSCH signals for v layers transmitted on the NP antenna ports would have the same ratio of EPRE to CSI-RS EPRE of CSI-RS resource σj, transmitted on the corresponding P antenna ports for all j=1, . . . , N, equal to the powerControlOffset of the respective CSI-RS resource.
Another alternative interpretation of this agreement, proposed but not adopted, was a UE can assume that the PDSCH signals for v layers would have the same ratio of EPRE to CSI-RS EPRE for all CSI-RS resources σj, with j=1, . . . , N, equal to the powerControlOffset of the respective CSI-RS resource.
In all three proposed interpretations, the understanding of the definition of the PDSCH over CSI-RS EPRE ratio is the same in that it is the ratio between the energy of all the PDSCH ports (i.e., layers), v, multiplexed in an RE and the energy of all the CSI-RS ports from a given CSI-RS resource multiplexed in an RE. In other words, one should consider how many PDSCH ports mapped in one RE are transmitted on the P CSI-RS ports of resource σj: all v ports. Hence the energy of all those v ports multiplexed in an RE are included in the PDSCH EPRE calculation. Then, one should consider how many ports of the P ports of CSI-RS resource σj are multiplexed in one RE and include these in the CSI-RS EPRE calculation.
In summary, the Pc ratio for a CSI-RS resource configured for CJT CSI reporting is agreed to be calculated as follows:
Various aspects of examples of the invention are set out in the claims.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, an apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: select an integer number N of channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resources out of an integer number of NTRP network configured CSI-RS resources to a resource set associated with a CSI report configuration, wherein N<NTRP; determine a scaling factor for the resource set, wherein when N0<NTRP, the scaling factor unequal to one; determine at least one CSI component comprising one or more of PMI, RI or CQI, based at least in part on an assumption that a ratio of a transmitted energy per resource element (EPRE) of a PDSCH signal and a transmitted EPRE of the nth CSI-RS resource is equal to the scaling factor times a power control offset configured for the nth CSI-RS resource of the resource set, wherein n ϵ [1, N]; and transmit a CSI report to a network comprising the determined at least one CSI component.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a method comprising: selecting an integer number N of channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resources out of an integer number of NTRP network configured CSI-RS resources to a resource set associated with a CSI report configuration, wherein N<NTRP; determining a scaling factor for the resource set, wherein when N0<NTRP, the scaling factor unequal to one; determining at least one CSI component comprising one or more of PMI, RI or CQI, based at least in part on an assumption that a ratio of a transmitted energy per resource element (EPRE) of a PDSCH signal and a transmitted EPRE of the nth CSI-RS resource is equal to the scaling factor times a power control offset configured for the nth CSI-RS resource of the resource set, wherein n ϵ [1, N]; and transmitting a CSI report to a network comprising the determined at least one CSI component.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions, or a computer program, that, when executed by a processor cause an apparatus to at least to: select an integer number N of channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resources out of an integer number of NTRP network configured CSI-RS resources to a resource set associated with a CSI report configuration, wherein N<NTRP; determine a scaling factor for the resource set, wherein when N0<NTRP, the scaling factor unequal to one; determine at least one CSI component comprising one or more of PMI, RI or CQI, based at least in part on an assumption that a ratio of a transmitted energy per resource element (EPRE) of a PDSCH signal and a transmitted EPRE of the nth CSI-RS resource is equal to the scaling factor times a power control offset configured for the nth CSI-RS resource of the resource set, wherein n ϵ [1, N]; and transmit a CSI report to a network comprising the determined at least one CSI component.
For a more complete understanding of example embodiments of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:
The agreement as previously described, does not restrict the network configuration. If different TRPs experience different path loss, for example, the Pc ratios of the corresponding CSI-RS resources may be configured with different values because the transmitted EPRE of one CSI-RS resource may be different than that of another CSI-RS resource. A UE that does not support PMI calculation with different ratios would hence have to select N CSI-RS resources configured with the same ratio.
Another present problem is that a gNB does not know the number N≤NTRP of selected TRPs by the UE at the time of configuring the Pc ratios for the NTRP CSI-RS resources for channel measurement. Say EPDSCH is the maximum EPRE that a TRP is allowed to transmit at, and ECSI-RS,σj the EPRE of the CSI-RS resource σj, assuming that a gNB operates each TRP at maximum power level, the Pc ratio for resource σj depends on the number of configured TRPs, NTRP, i.e.
However, if a UE selects N≤NTRP TRPs for CSI reporting, the assumed Pc ratio should assume CJT transmission from N instead of NTRP TRPs, i.e. it should assume:
Otherwise the reported CQI would be overestimated. For example, the CQI reported for N=2 TRPs would be 3 dB higher for a configuration with NTRP=4 compared to a configuration with NTRP=2.
The aforementioned adopted agreement should hence be modified such that a UE can assume that the PDSCH signals for v layers would have the same ratio of EPRE to CSI-RS EPRE for all CSI-RS resource σj, with j=1, . . . , N, equal to N/NTRP times the powerControlOffset of the respective CSI-RS resource.
The avantages of the preposed scaling on the CQI calculation for CJT CSI reporting is described infra. Although the detailed calculation of a CQI is up to UE implementation and no specific detailed calculation is necessary for implementing embodiments the present invention, certain UE assumptions on the mapping of PDSCH layers to CSI-RS ports and PDSCH transmission power are specified to avoid incorrect CQI determination.
In the present CJT CSI reporting, a UE can support up to rank-4 PDSCH transmission, hence a single PDSCH codeword and a single CQI is calculated per codeword. This CQI can be reported per subband or wideband across the configured reporting band. For a CJT transmission, as mentioned above, a UE assumes that the signal of each PDSCH port (i.e., layer) is transmitted on all the CSI-RS ports of the N selected CSI-RS resources with P ports each and that the power of the PMI for each layer is normalised across these N×P ports independently of the other layers.
A UE can derive the total transmit power of the PDSCH across the v layers on one subcarrier from the Pc offset definition for CSI-RS resource σj, Pc,σj:
where x(p) is the PDSCH signal of layer p, NCDM is the number of CDM groups The factor βCSI-RS,σj is the scaling factor applied to mapping of CSI-RS resource σj to REs, as defined in Clause 7.4.1.5.3 of 3GPP TS 38.211. The PDSCH transmission is specified in Clause 5.2.2.5.1b of TS 38.214 as:
As it is presently proposed to change the notation in the above cited standard specification to denote N as N0, these two notations are here used interchangeably.
The total PDSCH transmitted power depends on the number of transmitting TRPs, under the assumption of a maximum allowed transmit power per antenna. The effect of UE selection of N out of NTRP CSI-RS resources for CJT transmission is that of muting a subset of configured TRPs and their respective antennas, thereby reducing the transmit power of the PDSCH transmission hypothesis. In calculating this power reduction factor, the effect of power backoff, which is needed to ensure that the maximum per antenna power constraint is satisfied if the precoding weights applied to the antenna ports have different amplitudes, is not considered. This power backoff adjustement is typically applied at the gNB depending on actual PDSCH precoding weights, which may be different from reported PMI weights. Therefore, under the assumption of equal amplitude PDSCH precoding weights, or on average over all possible precoders, the total transmitted PDSCH power for a CJT transmission scales linearly with the number of active TRPs, i.e., the total transmitted PDSCH power assuming N transmitting TRPs is N times the total transmitted PDSCH power assuming 1 transmitting TRP, and N/NTRP times the total transmitted PDSCH power assuming NTRP transmitting TRPs, for 1≤N≤NTRP.
Because the gNB, in general, does not know in advance the number N of UE selected CSI-RS resources/TRPs, the configured Pc ratio for CSI-RS resource σj can be expressed as
A UE can obtain the total transmitted PDSCH power from the configured Pc ratio of the j-th selected CSI-RS resource σj, j=1, . . . , N, as follows:
which is equivalent to assuming a Pc ratio that is a fraction N/NTRP of the configured Pc ratio for that resource.
Applying a scaling factor N/NTRP ensures that a UE does not overestimate the transmitted power when calculating the CQI for a CJT transmission hypothesis with N<NTRP active TRPs, which could lead to a bias towards selecting fewer TRPs for transmission: if the assumed total transmitted power is independent of the number of active TRPs, whereas cross-layer interference increases with the number of active TRPs because there are more interfering transmitting antennas, the estimated CQI tends to increase as the number of active TRPs decreases.
Based at least in part on the CSI configuration, the UE selects N out of the NTRP CSI-RS resources for CSI reporting, i.e. the UE selects N out of the NTRP CSI-RS resources into a resource set associated with a CSI report configuration.
When N<NTRP, the UE may, at 230, determine a scaling factor. The scaling factor may be N/NTRP. Alternatively, the scaling factor may be proportional with N/NTRP. The UE may also determine the scaling factor when N=NTRP, but in that case the scaling factor may be 1.
At 240, the UE may determine at least one CSI component for one or more of the N selected CSI-RS resources, wherein an individual CSI-RS resource is denoted as σj, j=1 . . . N.
The determination of a CSI component may at least in part be based on an assumption that the ratio of a transmitted EPRE of a PDSCH signal and a transmitted EPRE of the corresponding CSI-RS resource σj, referred to as assumed Pc for CSI-RS resource σj, is equal to the scaling factor times a power control offset configured for the corresponding CSI-RS resource σj.
The determination of the at least one CSI components may at least in part be based on an assumption that the ratio of a transmitted EPRE of a PDSCH signal and a transmitted EPRE of the corresponding CSI-RS resource σj, referred to as assumed Pc for CSI-RS resource σj, is equal to the scaling factor times a power control offset configured for the corresponding CSI-RS resource σj, for each CSI-RS resource of the N selected resources (the resource set).
As the power control offset configured for individual CSI-RS resources may differ or be the same, the assumed Pc for individual CSI-RS resources will differ or be the same accordingly.
As part of the determination of at least one CSI component, the UE may determine the total transmitted PDSCH power corresponding to CSI-RS resource σj as:
wherein NCDM is a number of code division multiplex groups, and βCSIRS,σ
At 250, the UE may determine at least one of PMI, RI or CQI based at least in part on the CSI components, or based at least in part on the assumption that the Pc for CSI-RS resource σj is equal to the scaling factor times a power control offset configured for the corresponding CSI-RS resource σj for each CSI-RS resource of the N selected resources. The at least one of PMI, RI or CQI may be indicated in a CSI report to a network node.
At 260, the UE may indicate the scaling factor to a network node, which may be performed any time after the scaling factor is determined. The indication may be sent in the CSI report comprising the at least one of PMI, RI or CQI, or may be comprised in a different message, possibly sent earlier or later.
The indication of the scaling factor may indicate the scaling factor itself, the integer number N of selected CSI-RS, or an indication of the selected CSI-RS resources. The indication of the selected CSI-RS resources may for example comprise a bitmap indicating which of the NTRP CSI-RS resources indicated in the CSI report configuration were selected.
Embodiments of the invention may be implemented in software (executed by one or more processors), hardware (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit or field programmable gate array), or a combination of software and hardware. In an example embodiment, the software (e.g., application logic, an instruction set) is maintained on any one of various conventional non-transitory computer-readable media.
The software, hardware, or combination thereof, or the apparatus 300 or parts thereof, may provide means for performing embodiments of the invention.
Although various aspects are set out above, other aspects comprise other combinations of features from the described embodiments, and not solely the combinations described above.
The present application claims priority from, and the benefit of, U.S. Provisional Application 63/595,211, filed Nov. 1, 2023, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
63595211 | Nov 2023 | US |