U.S. patent application number 16/538219 was filed with the patent office on 2019-11-28 for interference measurements and management in directional mesh networks.
This patent application is currently assigned to IDAC Holdings, Inc.. The applicant listed for this patent is IDAC Holdings, Inc.. Invention is credited to Yugeswar Deenoo, Tao Deng, Joseph S. Levy, Philip J. Pietraski, Ravikumar V. Pragada, Arnab Roy, Onur Sahin.
Application Number | 20190364453 16/538219 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 50190750 |
Filed Date | 2019-11-28 |
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United States Patent
Application |
20190364453 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Sahin; Onur ; et
al. |
November 28, 2019 |
INTERFERENCE MEASUREMENTS AND MANAGEMENT IN DIRECTIONAL MESH
NETWORKS
Abstract
Techniques may be used for interference measurement and
management in directional mesh networks, including centralized
and/or distributed approaches. A centralized node, such as an
operations and maintenance (OAM) center, may use feedback from
nodes in the mesh network to partition the nodes in the mesh
network into clusters based on interference levels. Interference
measurement reports may be used by the centralized node to update
cluster membership. An initiating node in the mesh network may use
topographical information to generate an initial interference
cluster, and interference measurement frame (IMF) scheduling
information may be used to schedule transmissions within the
interference clusters. Techniques for opportunistic measurement
campaigns, simultaneous measurement campaigns, link failure
detection, and link re- acquisition in directional mesh networks
may also be used.
Inventors: |
Sahin; Onur; (London,
GB) ; Roy; Arnab; (Phoenixville, PA) ; Deenoo;
Yugeswar; (Chalfont, PA) ; Pragada; Ravikumar V.;
(Warrington, PA) ; Pietraski; Philip J.; (Jericho,
NY) ; Levy; Joseph S.; (Merrick, NY) ; Deng;
Tao; (Roslyn, NY) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
IDAC Holdings, Inc. |
Wilmington |
DE |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
IDAC Holdings, Inc.
Wilmington
DE
|
Family ID: |
50190750 |
Appl. No.: |
16/538219 |
Filed: |
August 12, 2019 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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14766044 |
Aug 5, 2015 |
10382992 |
|
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PCT/US2014/014898 |
Feb 5, 2014 |
|
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16538219 |
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61874739 |
Sep 6, 2013 |
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61761978 |
Feb 7, 2013 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04W 16/28 20130101;
H04W 24/02 20130101; H04W 16/10 20130101; H04W 16/30 20130101; H04B
7/0617 20130101; H04W 24/10 20130101; H04W 84/18 20130101; H04W
72/1231 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04W 24/10 20060101
H04W024/10; H04W 24/02 20060101 H04W024/02; H04W 16/30 20060101
H04W016/30; H04W 16/10 20060101 H04W016/10; H04W 72/12 20060101
H04W072/12 |
Claims
1. A first station (STA) in a mesh network configured to
communicate with other STAs in the mesh network using directional
beams, the first STA comprising: a transceiver; and a processor,
wherein the transceiver is configured to perform beamforming
training with a second STA; the transceiver is configured to
receive a first frame including measurement scheduling information
for performing interference measurements between pairs of STAs in
the mesh network; and the transceiver is configured to perform
interference measurements, using a directional receive beam, on
directional transmit beams from the second STA in time slots
indicated in the measurement scheduling information.
2. The first STA of claim 1, wherein: the transceiver is configured
to transmit, to the second STA, the measurement scheduling
information.
3. The first STA of claim 1, wherein: the processor is configured
to generate a measurement report based on the interference
measurements of the directional beams from the second STA; and the
transceiver is configured to transmit the measurement report.
4. The first STA of claim 3, wherein the measurement report
includes at least one of the following: an interference level, a
reception beam direction, an identifier of a transmitting node, a
transmit beam direction, a measurement time slot, a reception beam
identifier, or a transmit beam identifier.
5. The first STA of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of
highly directional antennas, wherein the transceiver is configured
to communicate with other STAs in the mesh network over directional
transmit and receive beams using the plurality of highly
directional antennas.
6. The first STA of claim 1, wherein the transceiver is configured
to perform interference measurements, using a plurality of
different directional receive beams, on the directional transmit
beams from the second STA in time slots indicated in the
measurement scheduling information.
7. The first STA of claim 1, wherein: the transceiver is configured
to receive interference reports from a plurality of neighboring
nodes; and the processor is configured to identify, based on the
interference reports, at least one neighboring node from the
plurality of neighboring nodes that creates interference above a
predetermined threshold; and the processor is configured to add the
at least one neighboring node to an interference neighbor list.
8. A method, performed by a first station (STA) in a mesh network,
for communicating with other STAs in the mesh network using
directional beams, the method comprising: performing beamforming
training with a second STA; receiving a first frame including
measurement scheduling information for performing interference
measurements between pairs of STAs in the mesh network; and
performing interference measurements, using a directional receive
beam, on directional transmit beams from the second STA in time
slots indicated in the measurement scheduling information.
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: transmitting, to the
second STA, the measurement scheduling information.
10. The method of claim 8, further comprising: generating a
measurement report based on the interference measurements of the
directional beams from the second STA; and transmitting the
measurement report.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the measurement report includes
at least one of the following: an interference level, a reception
beam direction, an identifier of a transmitting node, a transmit
beam direction, a measurement time slot, a reception beam
identifier, or a transmit beam identifier.
12. The method of claim 8 further comprising communicating with
other STAs in the mesh network over directional transmit and
receive beams using a plurality of highly directional antennas.
13. The method of claim 8, further comprising: performing
interference measurements, using a plurality of different
directional receive beams, on the directional transmit beams from
the second STA in time slots indicated in the measurement
scheduling information.
14. The method of claim 8, further comprising: receiving
interference reports from a plurality of neighboring nodes; and
identifying, based on the interference reports, at least one
neighboring node from the plurality of neighboring nodes that
creates interference above a predetermined threshold; and adding
the at least one neighboring node to an interference neighbor list.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 14/766,044, filed Aug. 5, 2015, which claims the benefit of
U.S. National Stage, under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 371, of International
Application No. PCT/US2014/14898, filed Feb. 5, 2014, which claims
the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/761,978, filed
Feb. 7, 2013, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/874,739,
filed Sep. 6, 2013, the contents of which are hereby incorporated
by reference herein.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Millimeter wave (mmW) frequencies may provide a large amount
of usable spectrum for communication systems and devices. For
example, the 60 Gigahertz (GHz) unlicensed spectrum may provide at
least 7 GHz of unlicensed spectrum and additional spectrum may
become available for licensed, lightly licensed, and/or unlicensed
spectrum. To close the link budget for mmW frequencies, highly
directional antennas may be used and are becoming practical and
common, for example in wireless high definition (HD) devices.
Additionally, there is a potential for greater spatial reuse at
higher frequencies including mmW frequencies than at lower (e.g.
sub-6 GHz) frequencies.
[0003] The higher gain antennas that may be used for mmW
communications have an associated benefit of greater directionality
that may reduce the interference seen by unintended receivers. At
mmW frequencies, large carrier bandwidths may be achievable with
comparatively low fractional bandwidths. This may enable single
radio solutions that are capable of addressing a large amount of
spectrum. Utilizing mmW frequencies may also lead to lower power
consumption because of highly directional antennas and the tradeoff
of bandwidth and power according to Shannon's law. The mmW
frequency carriers have near optical properties and may suffer from
high penetration losses, high reflection losses, and little
diffraction, leading to line-of-sight dominated coverage. The mmW
frequencies may also be subject to propagation challenges,
including high oxygen absorption concerns in the 60 GHz band.
SUMMARY
[0004] Techniques may be used for interference measurement and
management in directional mesh networks, including centralized
and/or distributed approaches. A centralized node, such as an
operations and maintenance (OAM) center, may use feedback from
nodes in the mesh network to partition the nodes in the mesh
network into clusters based on interference levels. Interference
measurement reports may be used by the centralized node to update
cluster membership. An initiating node in the mesh network may use
topographical information to generate an initial interference
cluster, and interference measurement frame (IMF) scheduling
information may be used to schedule transmissions within the
interference clusters. Techniques for opportunistic measurement
campaigns, simultaneous measurement campaigns, link failure
detection, and link re-acquisition in directional mesh networks may
also be used.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] A more detailed understanding may be had from the following
description, given by way of example in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0006] FIG. 1A is a system diagram of an example communications
system in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be
implemented;
[0007] FIG. 1B is a system diagram of an example wireless
transmit/receive unit (WTRU) that may be used within the
communications system illustrated in FIG. 1A;
[0008] FIG. 1C is a system diagram of a small cell backhaul in an
end-to-end mobile network infrastructure, according to an
embodiment;
[0009] FIG. 1D is a system diagram of a millimeter wave (mmW)
backhaul applied to both a Third Generation Partnership Project
(3GPP) cellular network and a non-3GPP network access
infrastructure, according to an embodiment;
[0010] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example interference
measurement frame (IMF) format with a time slotted structure;
[0011] FIG. 3 is a system diagram of an example group of mesh nodes
and their respective candidate beams during the transmission of the
IMF in FIG. 2;
[0012] FIG. 4 is a diagram of an example interference measurement
(IM), where the columns denote the interference measured and the
rows denote from which neighbor the interference is measured;
[0013] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example procedure for
determining the initial interference cluster to perform
interference measurements;
[0014] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example frame structure with
scheduled IMF and cluster-IMF (C-IMF) for an initiator node in a
refined measurement cluster using a distributed interference
measurement approach;
[0015] FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an example frame structure with
scheduled IMF and C-IMF for an initiator node in a refined
measurement cluster using a centralized interference measurement
approach;
[0016] FIG. 8 shows an example network with clustering of nodes by
a centralized node based on topology;
[0017] FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an example cluster formation
procedure at an operations and maintenance (OAM) center;
[0018] FIG. 10 is a signal diagram of an example interference
measurement procedure in a cluster during a beacon response
interval (BRI);
[0019] FIG. 11 is a signal diagram of an example interference
measurement procedure in a cluster during a BRI;
[0020] FIG. 12 is a graph showing the auto-correlation and
cross-correlation properties in terms of correlation amplitude of a
prime-length Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence over a lag;
[0021] FIG. 13 is a signaling diagram of an example link
re-acquisition scheduling procedure between nodes via a neighbor
node;
[0022] FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example frame structure for
link re-acquisition scheduling with a predefined offset;
[0023] FIG. 15 is a signaling diagram of an example of an inactive
neighbor associating procedure in the event of a link failure;
[0024] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an example frame formatted to
manage link scheduling and carry traffic;
[0025] FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of an example link failure
detection procedure;
[0026] FIG. 18 is a block diagram of an example frame structure for
distributed resource orthogonalization; and
[0027] FIG. 19 is a block diagram of an example frame structure for
distributed implicit resource orthogonalization.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0028] FIG. 1A is a diagram of an example communications system 100
in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. The
communications system 100 may be a multiple access system that
provides content, such as voice, data, video, messaging, broadcast,
etc., to multiple wireless users. The communications system 100 may
enable multiple wireless users to access such content through the
sharing of system resources, including wireless bandwidth. For
example, the communications systems 100 may employ one or more
channel access methods, such as code division multiple access
(CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division
multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single-carrier
FDMA (SC-FDMA), and the like.
[0029] As shown in FIG. 1A, the communications system 100 may
include wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c,
102d, a radio access network (RAN) 104, a core network 106, a
public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, the Internet 110, and
other networks 112, though it will be appreciated that the
disclosed embodiments contemplate any number of WTRUs, base
stations, networks, and/or network elements. Each of the WTRUs
102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may be any type of device configured to
operate and/or communicate in a wireless environment. By way of
example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may be configured to
transmit and/or receive wireless signals and may include user
equipment (UE), a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber
unit, a pager, a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant
(PDA), a smartphone, a laptop, a netbook, a personal computer, a
wireless sensor, consumer electronics, and the like.
[0030] The communications systems 100 may also include a base
station 114a and a base station 114b. Each of the base stations
114a, 114b may be any type of device configured to wirelessly
interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to
facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as
the core network 106, the Internet 110, and/or the networks 112. By
way of example, the base stations 114a, 114b may be a base
transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, an eNode B, a Home Node B, a
Home eNode B, a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless
router, and the like. While the base stations 114a, 114b are each
depicted as a single element, it will be appreciated that the base
stations 114a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base
stations and/or network elements.
[0031] The base station 114a may be part of the RAN 104, which may
also include other base stations and/or network elements (not
shown), such as a base station controller (BSC), a radio network
controller (RNC), relay nodes, etc. The base station 114a and/or
the base station 114b may be configured to transmit and/or receive
wireless signals within a particular geographic region, which may
be referred to as a cell (not shown). The cell may further be
divided into cell sectors. For example, the cell associated with
the base station 114a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, in
one embodiment, the base station 114a may include three
transceivers, i.e., one for each sector of the cell. In another
embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-input
multiple output (MIMO) technology and, therefore, may utilize
multiple transceivers for each sector of the cell.
[0032] The base stations 114a, 114b may communicate with one or
more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d over an air interface 116,
which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio
frequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible
light, etc.). The air interface 116 may be established using any
suitable radio access technology (RAT).
[0033] More specifically, as noted above, the communications system
100 may be a multiple access system and may employ one or more
channel access schemes, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA,
and the like. For example, the base station 114a in the RAN 104 and
the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio
Access (UTRA), which may establish the air interface 116 using
wideband CDMA (WCDMA). WCDMA may include communication protocols
such as High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and/or Evolved HSPA
(HSPA+). HSPA may include High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA)
and/or High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA).
[0034] In another embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs
102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Evolved
UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), which may establish the air
interface 116 using Long Term Evolution (LTE) and/or LTE-Advanced
(LTE-A).
[0035] In other embodiments, the base station 114a and the WTRUs
102a, 102b, 102c may implement radio technologies such as IEEE
802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
(VViMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Interim Standard
2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856
(IS-856), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Enhanced
Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), and the
like.
[0036] The base station 114b in FIG. 1A may be a wireless router,
Home Node B, Home eNode B, or access point, for example, and may
utilize any suitable RAT for facilitating wireless connectivity in
a localized area, such as a place of business, a home, a vehicle, a
campus, and the like. In one embodiment, the base station 114b and
the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE
802.11 to establish a wireless local area network (WLAN). In
another embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d
may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.15 to establish a
wireless personal area network (WPAN). In yet another embodiment,
the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may utilize a
cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, etc.)
to establish a picocell or femtocell. As shown in FIG. 1A, the base
station 114b may have a direct connection to the Internet 110.
Thus, the base station 114b may not be required to access the
Internet 110 via the core network 106.
[0037] The RAN 104 may be in communication with the core network
106, which may be any type of network configured to provide voice,
data, applications, and/or voice over internet protocol (VoIP)
services to one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d. For
example, the core network 106 may provide call control, billing
services, mobile location-based services, pre-paid calling,
Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., and/or perform
high-level security functions, such as user authentication.
Although not shown in FIG. 1A, it will be appreciated that the RAN
104 and/or the core network 106 may be in direct or indirect
communication with other RANs that employ the same RAT as the RAN
104 or a different RAT. For example, in addition to being connected
to the RAN 104, which may be utilizing an E-UTRA radio technology,
the core network 106 may also be in communication with another RAN
(not shown) employing a GSM radio technology.
[0038] The core network 106 may also serve as a gateway for the
WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet
110, and/or other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include
circuit-switched telephone networks that provide plain old
telephone service (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global
system of interconnected computer networks and devices that use
common communication protocols, such as the transmission control
protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP) and the internet
protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite. The networks
112 may include wired or wireless communications networks owned
and/or operated by other service providers. For example, the
networks 112 may include another core network connected to one or
more RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 or a
different RAT.
[0039] Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d in the
communications system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities,
i.e., the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may include multiple
transceivers for communicating with different wireless networks
over different wireless links. For example, the WTRU 102c shown in
FIG. 1A may be configured to communicate with the base station
114a, which may employ a cellular-based radio technology, and with
the base station 114b, which may employ an IEEE 802 radio
technology.
[0040] FIG. 1B is a system diagram of an example WTRU 102. As shown
in FIG. 1B, the WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver
120, a transmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a
keypad 126, a clisplay/touchpad 128, non-removable memory 106,
removable memory 132, a power source 134, a global positioning
system (GPS) chipset 136, and other peripherals 138. It will be
appreciated that the WTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of
the foregoing elements while remaining consistent with an
embodiment.
[0041] The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a
special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital
signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more
microprocessors in association with a DSP core, a controller, a
microcontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs),
Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs) circuits, any other type of
integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, and the like. The
processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power
control, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality
that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The
processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120, which may be
coupled to the transmit/receive element 122. While FIG. 1B depicts
the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separate components,
it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and the transceiver
120 may be integrated together in an electronic package or
chip.
[0042] The transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to
transmit signals to, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g.,
the base station 114a) over the air interface 116. For example, in
one embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be an antenna
configured to transmit and/or receive RF signals. In another
embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be an
emitter/detector configured to transmit and/or receive IR, UV, or
visible light signals, for example. In yet another embodiment, the
transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and
receive both RF and light signals. It will be appreciated that the
transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and/or
receive any combination of wireless signals.
[0043] In addition, although the transmit/receive element 122 is
depicted in FIG. 1B as a single element, the WTRU 102 may include
any number of transmit/receive elements 122. More specifically, the
WTRU 102 may employ MIMO technology. Thus, in one embodiment, the
WTRU 102 may include two or more transmit/receive elements 122
(e.g., multiple antennas) for transmitting and receiving wireless
signals over the air interface 116.
[0044] The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate the
signals that are to be transmitted by the transmit/receive element
122 and to demodulate the signals that are received by the
transmit/receive element 122. As noted above, the WTRU 102 may have
multi-mode capabilities. Thus, the transceiver 120 may include
multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU 102 to communicate via
multiple RATs, such as UTRA and IEEE 802.11, for example.
[0045] The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to, and may
receive user input data from, the speaker/microphone 124, the
keypad 126, and/or the clisplay/touchpad 128 (e.g., a liquid
crystal display (LCD) display unit or organic light-emitting diode
(OLED) display unit). The processor 118 may also output user data
to the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, and/or the
display/touchpad 128. In addition, the processor 118 may access
information from, and store data in, any type of suitable memory,
such as the non-removable memory 106 and/or the removable memory
132. The non-removable memory 106 may include random-access memory
(RAM), read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of
memory storage device. The removable memory 132 may include a
subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure
digital (SD) memory card, and the like. In other embodiments, the
processor 118 may access information from, and store data in,
memory that is not physically located on the WTRU 102, such as on a
server or a home computer (not shown).
[0046] The processor 118 may receive power from the power source
134, and may be configured to distribute and/or control the power
to the other components in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may
be any suitable device for powering the WTRU 102. For example, the
power source 134 may include one or more dry cell batteries (e.g.,
nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-zinc (NiZn), nickel metal hydride
(NiMH), lithium-ion (Li-ion), etc.), solar cells, fuel cells, and
the like.
[0047] The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset
136, which may be configured to provide location information (e.g.,
longitude and latitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU
102. In addition to, or in lieu of, the information from the GPS
chipset 136, the WTRU 102 may receive location information over the
air interface 116 from a base station (e.g., base stations 114a,
114b) and/or determine its location based on the timing of the
signals being received from two or more nearby base stations. It
will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may acquire location
information by way of any suitable location-determination method
while remaining consistent with an embodiment.
[0048] The processor 118 may further be coupled to other
peripherals 138, which may include one or more software and/or
hardware modules that provide additional features, functionality
and/or wired or wireless connectivity. For example, the peripherals
138 may include an accelerometer, an e-compass, a satellite
transceiver, a digital camera (for photographs or video), a
universal serial bus (USB) port, a vibration device, a television
transceiver, a hands free headset, a Bluetooth.RTM. module, a
frequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a digital music player, a
media player, a video game player module, an Internet browser, and
the like.
[0049] FIG. 1C is a system diagram of a small cell backhaul in an
end-to-end mobile network infrastructure, according to an
embodiment. A set of small cell (SC) nodes 152a, 152b, 152c, 152d,
and 152e and aggregation points 154a and 154b interconnected via
directional millimeter wave (mmW) wireless links may comprise a
"directional-mesh" network and provide backhaul connectivity. For
example, the WTRU 102 may connect via the radio interface 150 to
the small cell backhaul 153 via small cell 152a and aggregation
point 154a. In this example, the aggregation point 154a provides
the WTRU 102 access via the RAN backhaul 155 to a RAN connectivity
site 156a. The WTRU 102 therefore then has access to the core
network nodes 158 via the core transport 157 and to internet
service provider (ISP) 160 via the service LAN 159. The WTRU also
has access to external networks 161 including but not limited to
local content 162, the Internet 163, and application server 164. It
should be noted that for purposes of example, the number of SC
nodes 152 is five; however, any number of nodes 152 may be included
in the set of SC nodes.
[0050] A mmW directional mesh network may be an attractive
economical solution to provide backhaul connectivity to other
networks including inexpensively deployed small cells, for example.
Directional links utilizing highly directional antennas may be used
to close the link budget at mmW frequencies. The backhaul solution
may consist of set of small cell nodes and aggregation points
interconnected via directional mmW wireless links, resulting in a
directional mesh network.
[0051] FIG. 1D is a system diagram of a mmW backhaul applied to
both a 3GPP cellular network and a non-3GPP network access
infrastructure, according to an embodiment. In this example, the
non-3GPP network is IEEE 802.11 based. The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c,
102d, and 102e may have access via millimeter wave base stations
(mBs) 172a, 172b, and 172c in an 802.11 network 170 to a millimeter
wave base station aggregator (mBA) 172d. The mBA 172d may provide
access to external networks such as the Internet 192, and to the
cellular network via a trusted WLAN gateway (TWAG) 191.
[0052] Also, in this example, WTRU 102f in the 3GPP network 180 may
have access via mBs 182a and 182c to a mobility management entity
(MME) 183 and a serving gateway (SGW) 184, which may provide access
to public data network gateway (PGW) 190 and the Internet 192.
[0053] WTRUs 102f and 102g may also have access via mBs 182a and
182b via mBA 182d to SGW 184, which may provide access to public
data network gateway (PGW) 190 and the Internet 192.
[0054] WTRUs 102f and 102g may also have access via an evolved Node
B (eNB) 185 to the MME 183 and SGW 184, which may provide access to
the public data network gateway (PGW) 190 and the Internet 192.
[0055] As shown in the examples of FIG. 1C and FIG. 1D, wireless
mesh networks (WMNs) operating at mmW frequencies may be used, for
example, to serve as backhaul networks for cellular or WLAN SCs
such as those based on, for example, LTE or IEEE 802.11. An mmW
directional mesh network may be an economical solution to provide
backhaul connectivity to several cheaply deployed SCs. Directional
links using highly directional antennas may be used to close the
link budget at mmW frequencies. A directional mesh network may also
provide a flexible topology by requiring Line-Of-Sight (LOS) with
only immediate neighbors. A directional mesh network may provide
easy scalability in that new nodes may be added with minimal
network planning. A directional mesh network may provide robustness
in redundancy provided by multiple connectivity paths between
mesh-nodes. A directional-mesh network may be configured with fully
distributed scheduled, multi-hop, and time division multiple access
(TDMA) based directional mesh MAC features to ensure fast
scheduling and short queue times.
[0056] Directional mesh networks may provide a flexible topology
because LoS requirements may only be needed with immediate
neighbors as opposed to an aggregation point. Directional mesh
networks are scalable, such that new nodes may be added with
minimal network planning. Directional mesh networks may be robust
to link failures due to the redundancy provided by multiple
connectivity paths between mesh nodes. A distributed directional
mesh medium access control (MAC) may include fully distributed,
scheduled, multi-hop, and time division multiplexing (TDM) based
directional mesh MAC features for fast scheduling and short queue
times.
[0057] Procedures for distributed interference measurement and
management for mesh networks with directional transmission and
reception are disclosed herein. Distributed interference
measurement procedures may take advantage of the spatial dimension
to partition the network into non-overlapping clusters in a first
stage, and then employ refined interference measurements within
each cluster simultaneously. Centralized and periodic interference
measurements procedures may employ a centralized node to partition
the network into clusters based on feedback from the nodes and to
identify the measurement campaign per cluster iteratively, by
updating cluster sizes and the corresponding measurement schedule
based on the measurement results.
[0058] According to an embodiment, a distributed interference
measurement procedure may include a two-stage campaign composed of
long-term and short-term measurement. Similarly, a centralized
interference measurement procedure may include a two-stage campaign
with long-term and short-term measurement. A cluster interference
measurement parallelization procedure may be based on the
scheduling of bitmap information obtained from the nodes and
interference matrix. Distributed interference measurement
procedures may be based on the scheduling bitmap obtained from the
neighboring nodes as well as the interference matrix.
[0059] According to mechanisms for an opportunistic measurement
campaign, nodes may utilize the idle modes in detecting the
interference power by identifying the interfering node through the
received power profile. According to simultaneous measurement
campaign procedures, the measuring node may detect the signal power
level of potential interferers using orthogonal codes.
[0060] According to a proactive procedure, nodes may be enabled to
identify the link degradation quality in advance of link failure
through the control frame feedback during the scheduling intervals.
The nodes may classify the degradation cause, and may take steps to
combat the interference by using beam-tracking procedures and/or by
alternative beams (for example, non-LoS (NLoS) beams with larger
spatial separation than the beams in use) in cooperation with peer
mesh nodes. According to link failure detection and link
re-acquisition procedures, link re-establishment mechanisms may be
triggered utilizing beam and link configuration information
gathered from the previous link establishment parameters.
[0061] According to an embodiment, interference measurement in the
network may be carried out by a pre-determined frame that may
schedule the nodes for the measurement campaign. The frame may be
denoted as an interference measurement frame (IMF) and may be
scheduled according to example schedules described below.
[0062] The IMF may have a pre-determined schedule to carry out the
measurement campaign. The pre-determined schedule may be initiated
by a particular node, cluster head, or aggregation point, for
example. According to an example, the measurement scheduling may be
controlled by the node that initiates the interference measurement
campaign. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example IMF 200 format
with a time slotted structure. The IMF 200 may be preceded by a
timing reference signal 202. At each time slot 204.sub.1 . . .
204.sub.4 in IMF 200, a particular node pair may be scheduled for
measurement, for example: timeslot 204.sub.1:
Node301.fwdarw.Node302; timeslot 204.sub.2: Node301.fwdarw.Node302;
timeslot 204.sub.3: Node301.fwdarw.Node304; and timeslot 204.sub.4:
Node302.fwdarw.Node301 (described further in FIG. 3). By exploiting
the size of the mesh network, multiple measurements may be
performed simultaneously for the node pairs that are physically far
apart, hence decreasing the number of slots in IMF through
multiplexing.
[0063] In the mesh network, the nodes may establish links with
their neighbors and may develop refined beams for high rate
communication prior to the transmission of the IMF. FIG. 3 is a
system diagram of an example group 300 of mesh nodes 301-306 and
their respective candidate beams during the transmission of the IMF
200 in FIG. 2. In the example of FIG. 3, transmit-receive beams are
shown between the nodes, which can be determined during transmit
and receive beam refinement stages. For example, some of the
transmit beams (TBs) and receive beams (RBs) shown in FIG. 3
include: [0064] Node 301.fwdarw.Node 302={TB1,RB1}, Node 30143 Node
303={TB2,RB1}, Node 301.fwdarw.Node 304={TB3,RB1}, . . . , [0065]
Node 302.fwdarw.Node 301={TB1,RB1}, Node 302.fwdarw.Node
303={TB2,RB2}, Node 302.fwdarw.Node 304={TB3,RB2}, . . . , [0066]
Node 303.fwdarw.Node 301={TB1,RB2}, Node 303.fwdarw.Node
302={TB2,RB2}, Node 3.fwdarw.Node 4={TB3,RB3}, . . . , and so
on.
[0067] With reference to both FIGS. 2 and 3, in timeslot 204.sub.1,
node 301 may transmit to node 302 using refined beam TB1 associated
with node 302. For example, the refined beam TB1 may have been
developed during a beam-refinement procedure and selected as the
transmit beam to be used during communication with node 302. The
neighboring nodes 303, 304, 305 and 306, may measure interference
by sequentially listening with refined beams RB2 in the time slot
204.sub.1, for example, in timeslot 204.sub.1 and on refined beam
RB3 in the following time slot 204.sub.2. The receive beams may
already be associated with other nodes for the interference
measurement campaign. Due to the full-duplex operation, Node 301
may also measure the interference at its receive beams RB2, RB3.
Because RB1 is already associated with node 302 reception, there is
no need for interference measurement for that beam. Generally, in a
slot i, a similar procedure to slot 204.sub.1 may be employed
between the nodes, while node k may transmit with its associated
beam with node j, for k,j=1, . . . , N.
[0068] At the end of IMF 200, each node j may have an interference
matrix (IM). FIG. 4 is a diagram of an example interference
measurement (IM) 400, where the columns 401, 402 and 403 denote the
interference measured at node j's receive beams RB1, RB2, and RB3,
and the rows denote from which neighbor the interference is
measured. For example, row 401 for node 1 on transmit beam TB1, has
a particular destination corresponding to this transmit beam, for
example Node 2. Hence, using an IM 400, Node j may be able to
identify how much interference it receives during the
Node1.fwdarw.Node2 transmission.
[0069] According to an embodiment, a distributed interference
measurement procedure may comprise a two-level measurement
campaign: a long-term measurement campaign (IMF stage) and a
short-term measurement campaign (cluster IMF stage). A large number
of nodes may participate in the long-term measurement campaign,
which may be carried out by an IMF. Based on the interference
measurement results obtained by the long-term measurement campaign,
each node may create a cluster to perform a more detailed
interference measurement procedure as part of a short-term
measurement campaign, which may be carried out by a cluster IMF
(C-IMF). These procedures are described in more detail below.
[0070] A long-term measurement campaign may start with a large IMF
region, obtained when a node joins the network. FIG. 5 is a flow
diagram of an example procedure 500 for determining the initial
interference cluster to perform interference measurements. The
procedure 500 may be performed by an initiating node, and may
include a long-term measurement campaign procedure 502. The
initiating node, upon joining a mesh network, may obtain
topographical information of the mesh network through neighbor
nodes during an association process, 505. The initiating node may
form an initial cluster based on the topographical information
containing selected neighbor nodes within a predefined number of
hops and may notify the selected neighbor nodes of the initial
cluster formation, 510, for example through control messaging.
[0071] The initiating node may receive the IMF scheduling
information for multi-hop neighbor nodes from the existing nodes in
the cluster, 515, for example via control messaging received from
the multi-hop neighbor nodes. In other words, the selected neighbor
nodes that form the cluster may collect and inform the IMF
scheduling information of their respective neighbor nodes (which
may be different from the neighbor nodes of the initiating node) in
order to obtain IMF scheduling of the multi-hop neighbors to the
initiating node. The initiating node may identify available IMF
scheduling and may negotiate this with its neighbor nodes within
the cluster, 520, which may include single hop and/or multihop
neighbors. For example, the IMF may be scheduled in longer
intervals during device discovery timeslots.
[0072] With the completion of the long-term measurement campaign
procedure, 502, the initiating node (and each participating node,
respectively) may receive an interference report from its cluster
nodes (i.e. the neighbor nodes that are in its cluster), 525. The
initiating node may identify the neighbors that create interference
above a predetermined threshold based on the interference reports,
and may include these nodes on an interference neighbor list, 530.
The nodes on the interference neighbor list may be the set of nodes
that form the refined interference cluster with the initiating
node, 535.
[0073] Accordingly, by using procedure 500 in FIG. 5, each node in
the mesh network may obtain a refined interference neighbor list
and form its respective refined interference measurement cluster.
The mesh nodes may employ cluster IMF (C-IMF) to perform short-term
interference measurements within the cluster.
[0074] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example frame structure 600
with scheduled IMF 606 and C-IMF 610, 612, for an initiator node in
a refined measurement cluster using a distributed interference
measurement approach. A device discovery interval 602 may include
beacon transmission 604 and IMF 606. Periods of data 608
transmission and/or receptions may occur following IMF 606. The
node may be assigned C-IMF 610 and 612 in slots k and m,
respectively.
[0075] According to a C-IMF scheduling procedure within a refined
cluster, the nodes in the refined cluster may be informed regarding
the identifications (IDs) of the other nodes in the cluster. The
cluster initiator node may obtain the C-IMF scheduling of the
existing nodes in the network via the control messages transmitted
by these nodes. After obtaining the C-IMF scheduling of the
existing nodes, the initiator node of the cluster may broadcast its
C-IMF scheduling slots (for example, in slots k and m in FIG. 6) to
its one-hop neighbors via control information. The one-hop
neighbors may relay this information to their one-hop neighbors,
which are members of this cluster.
[0076] After the C-IMF phase is completed, the nodes in the cluster
may transmit the measurement reports to the initiator node. For
those nodes that are more than one hop away from the initiator
node, the measurement report may be transmitted in multi-hop
fashion. With the measurement reports, the initiator node may
identify the nodes in the cluster to which the created interference
is below the threshold. The initiator node may report back the ID
of these identified nodes and they may be removed from the
interference measurement list.
[0077] According to an example, each node in the cluster may
identify whether the received interference from the initiator node
is below the predefined threshold or not, and may inform the
initiator node that it may be removed from the cluster if the
received interference is below the predefined threshold. C-IMF and
the scheduling of C-IMF may be further updated by taking into
consideration the remaining nodes in the network.
[0078] In a cluster, cluster parallelization may occur where the
nodes in the cluster may inform the cluster initiator node
regarding their interference report and also their request to be
removed from the cluster due to low interference. For example, the
nodes may transmit this information to the nodes beyond the C-IMF
cluster. By way of example, assume that Node1 has created its C-IMF
cluster and has informed the nodes in the C-IMF cluster regarding
the C-IMF scheduling, where the cluster is composed of Node1,
Node2, Node3, Node4, Node5, and Node6.
[0079] During the interference campaign during C-IMF, Node2 and
Node3 may identify that the received interference from Node1 is
below the threshold. Via control messaging, Node2 and Node3 may
inform Node1 of their request for removal from the cluster. Node2
and Node3 may also inform the nodes beyond Node 1's cluster
regarding their removal from Node 1's cluster, as well as their
measurement scheduling information (described in FIG. 7 below).
[0080] A node outside of the Node 1's cluster, for example, Node9,
may collect the available scheduling bitmaps from the Node2 and
Node3. Node9 may identify the nodes which are also in its IMF
region and may group the nodes which have the same slots emptied
due to removal from Node 1's measurement cluster. Node9 may form a
new cluster for each such group and may inform these nodes
regarding their new cluster. Node9 may initiate a C-IMF campaign
that may be operated in parallel to Node 1's C-IMF campaign.
[0081] According to another embodiment, a centralized interference
measurement procedure may consist of two cycles: a long-term
interference measurement procedure for widespread measurements and
short-term interference measurement procedure for optimized
measurements. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an example frame
structure 700 with scheduled IMF 706, 726 and C-IMF 710, 712, 730
for an initiator node in a refined measurement cluster using a
centralized interference measurement approach.
[0082] The long-term measurement procedure using IMF 706, 726 may
determine the interference measurement clusters in the network.
According to an example, the node locations (e.g. network
geography) may be available to the OAM center. Depending on
physical parameters including, but not limited to distance, and
hop-count, the OAM center may split the overall network into
several interference zones or clusters where IMF may be
employed.
[0083] The short-term measurements using C-IMF 710, 712, 739 may
include creating an optimized schedule and parallelization. For
example, interference measurement may be performed at each cluster.
With shorter intervals, local nodes may participate in the
measurement, and the OAM may inform the clusters regarding their C
-IMF scheduling.
[0084] A centralized interference measurement procedure may include
cluster formation. For example, each OAM center may cover an area A
including N nodes and may be responsible for cluster formation
within its coverage A. Using the topology information, the OAM
center may divide the network of nodes into clusters based on the
distance between the nodes. FIG. 8 shows an example network 800
with clustering of nodes by a centralized node based on topology.
The centralized node, for example, may use geographical information
to create non-overlapping clusters of nodes (numbered 1-12) such as
clusters C1 and C3 in FIG. 8. The cluster sizes may be updated
depending on the measurement reports of the nodes and in case of a
new node joining the network. C2 is an example of an edge cluster
that includes nodes from non-overlapping clusters C1 and C3.
[0085] FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an example cluster formation
procedure 900 at an OAM center. Based on the geographical
information and distance between the nodes, non-overlapping
clusters may be created within the OAM center's coverage area, 905.
The clusters may be labeled accordingly (e.g. C1 and C3 in FIG. 8.)
The initial clusters may contain a large number of nodes to include
potential interferers within a threshold value IntTH. For example,
all nodes that could decode each other's beacon transmission may be
included in the same cluster. The OAM center may receive
notification from the nodes regarding the beacon reception
information and the potential interferer IDs, 910.
[0086] For each non-overlapping and neighbor cluster pair, an edge
cluster may be created to include the nodes in the non-overlapping
clusters that may observe above the interference threshold, 915
(eg. threshold IntTH.) The clusters may be labeled accordingly
(e.g. C2 in FIG. 8.) The OAM center may inform each node regarding
the cluster it belongs in via IMF, 920 (e.g. as shown in FIG. 2.)
The OAM center may determine the measurement scheduling of the
clusters and convey the IMF of each cluster, 925. As a result, each
node in the cluster may receive IMF corresponding to the cluster it
is associated with, the edge cluster that its associating cluster
intersects with, and the non-overlapping neighbor cluster.
[0087] The measurement may be carried out initially at the edge
clusters, while the neighboring clusters may be kept silent. The
measurement campaign may be done in parallel for the
non-overlapping clusters. With the measurement scheduling
information available, the nodes that are at the edge of each
non-overlapping cluster may identify the inter-cluster interference
due to the corresponding nodes in the neighbor cluster, and
subtract the corresponding interference power from their own
cluster measurement results.
[0088] According to a cluster update request procedure, a node may
inform the OAM center regarding the cluster update request which
may be triggered when a new neighbor node joins the network and
associates with the node, or after the measurement campaign, where
the node identifies neighbor nodes in the cluster that create
interference below the accepted interference threshold level,
IntTH. The Node IDs may be conveyed to the OAM center and the OAM
center may update the cluster size by removing these nodes from the
existing cluster. Based on the results, the OAM center may split
the initial cluster into multiple smaller clusters.
[0089] According to an embodiment, the nodes in the cluster may
participate in a periodic interference measurement campaign to
refresh the interference profile of the cluster. The periodic
measurement may be performed during a beacon response interval
(BRI) period of beacon transmission. The periodicity of the
measurements may be determined by the operator via the OAM center
and/or may be implementation-specific. For example, a default
periodicity value of every K beacon intervals may be assumed for
illustrative purposes.
[0090] With a given BRI period, the interference measurement per
cluster may be carried out in multiple consecutive beacon
intervals. FIG. 10 is a signal diagram of an example interference
measurement procedure 1000 in a cluster during a BRI 1004. In the
example of FIG. 10, it may be assumed that Node 1 may transmit
sequentially using its transmit beams associated with its
neighbors. For example, Node 1 may transmit beams 1005.sub.1,
1005.sub.4, 1005.sub.9, and Node 3 and Node 4 may receive the
transmit beams 1005.sub.1, 1005.sub.4, 1005.sub.9 using their
receive beams associated with their neighbors, for example receive
beams 1006.sub.1, 1006.sub.3, and 1006.sub.7 for Node 3 and
1008.sub.2, 1008.sub.5, and 1008.sub.M, for Node 4.
[0091] Other nodes in the network not shown, for example Nodes 2,
3, 4, 5, and 6, may measure signals from Node 1 simultaneously
including transmit beams 1005.sub.1, 1005.sub.4, 1005.sub.9. After
Node 1 completes its transmission of transmit beams 1005.sub.1,
1005.sub.4, 1005.sub.9, the interference measurement campaign may
be continued by a next node denoted in the IMF frame. In the
example shown in FIG. 10, Node 2 may transmit beam set 1010.sub.2,
1010a.sub.K, and 1010.sub.M such that the other nodes including
Node 3 and Node 4 may measure Node 2's signals 1010.sub.2,
1010.sub.K, and 1010.sub.M. The remaining duration in the IMF may
be carried out during a subsequent beacon interval. 1002 and 1012
show the beacon transmission interval at Node 4 and Node 3,
respectively. During the interval, Nodes 3 and 4 may transmit M
different beacons 1002 and 1012, respectively, in a sequential
manner with each beacon corresponding to one of the M slots.
[0092] According to an embodiment, measurements may be event
triggered. The periodic measurement campaign may provide an
interference profile to the nodes in every beacon interval. In case
of topology changes, for example as a result of a new node powering
up and associating with an existing node in the network, the
measurement campaign may take into account the interference created
by this new node to the existing nodes as well as from the existing
nodes to the new node. The beam selection procedure of the new node
with the node it associates with may take into account the
resultant interference, in which case a signal-to-interference and
noise ratio (SINR) based beam selection procedure may be used,
which may include updates in the cluster size and the measurement
campaign as well as the corresponding IMF formation.
[0093] A request by the new node to associate with a mesh node may
be informed to the OAM center by the mesh node itself. After
receiving the request, the OAM center may update the cluster to
which the new node is assigned. The cluster update may also
facilitate an updated IMF message transmission from the OAM center
to the members of the cluster. According to an example, the
transmit and/or receive beam training between the new node and a
mesh node may be carried out simultaneously with the interference
measurement campaign of the cluster to which the new node is
added.
[0094] FIG. 11 is a signal diagram of an example interference
measurement procedure 1200 in a cluster during a BRI 1204. In the
example of FIG. 11, measurement scheduling occurs between a new
node to the mesh network, the primary node (to which the new node
associates), and the other mesh nodes in the measurement cluster
including for example Node 4. The measurement scheduling may occur
within a BRI period 1204. The New Node may transmit sequentially
using its transmit beams associated with its neighbors. For
example, the New Node may transmit beams 1205.sub.1, 1205.sub.4,
1205.sub.L, and the Primary Node and Node 4 may receive the
transmit beams 1205.sub.1, 1205.sub.4, 1205.sub.L using their
receive beams associated with their neighbors, for example receive
beams 1206.sub.1, 1206.sub.3, and 1206.sub.K for the Primary Node
and 1208.sub.2, 1208.sub.5, and 1208.sub.M, for Node 4. Node 4 and
the primary node may have beacon transmission intervals (BTIs) 1202
and 1212, respectively. The new node may have beacon receive
intervals (BRIs) 1210.sub.1-1210.sub.N, which may receive transmit
beams 1212.sub.1,1212.sub.3, 1212.sub.8, . . . , 1212.sub.K from
the primary node. Each transmit beam 1212.sub.1,1212.sub.3,
1212.sub.8, . . . , 1212.sub.K may be associated with a particular
neighbor node for communication.
[0095] After the new cluster is generated along with its IMF, the
OAM center may inform each cluster member node using the IMF of the
new cluster. The nodes may identify the beam training procedure
scheduling between the mesh nodes and new node and also the
simultaneous interference measurement campaign. By utilizing
simultaneous and parallel operation of both beam training and
measurement, both the beacon transmission interval (BTI) and its
scheduling may be carried out during the BTI and BRI of the beacon
interval.
[0096] According to another embodiment, opportunistic interference
measurement may be used. As opposed to the IMF-based interference
measurement campaign described above where all the nodes in a
cluster participate in the measurement campaign, an opportunistic
procedure may opportunistically measure the interference at each
node. By way of example, consider a Node 1 that has gone through
the beamforming stage with its one-hop neighbors Node 2 and Node 3.
The receive beams at Node 1 formed for Node 2 communication and
Node 3 communication may be denoted as Beam 1 and Beam 2,
respectively.
[0097] Node 1, during its idle period (e.g. when no transmit and
receive operation occurs), may listen to the channels via its
receive beams Beam 1 and Beam 2. Initially, Node 1 may allocate an
equal amount of time between its beams Beam 1 and Beam 2 for
possible interference measurement, where the measurement time
allocated to the beams may be optimized depending on the
measurement strength. Node 1 may try to decode the MAC header of
the received signal during its interference measurement campaign.
If the node successfully decodes the header, it may recognize which
nodes communicate during the measurement time, and may be able to
determine the interference observed during the corresponding node's
communication. This information may be stored at Node 1 in an
interference matrix.
[0098] In the case where Node 1 is not able to decode the MAC
header of the interfering signal, Node 1 may measure the energy of
the received signal during a given time frame (e.g. [x,y]) and may
store the information. This measurement campaign may be carried out
during multiple time frames such that Node 1 may identify the
interference signal power profile. To identify the interfering
source pair, Node 1 may transmit the interfering signal profile,
for example the signal strength and/or the measurement time frames,
to the neighbor nodes. If any neighbor node matches its transmit
profile to Node 1's interference profile, then this neighbor node
may inform Node 1 accordingly via control messaging. Node 1 may be
able to determine the source of the measured interference and add
the information to its interference matrix. If no single node is
able to match its transmit profile to the received interference
profile, then the nodes that have been transmitting during the
measurement campaign may be added to the potential interfering node
list. Then, similar to the distributed IMF campaign described
above, Node 1 may initiate IMF scheduling including these nodes to
identify the source of the interference.
[0099] Depending on the received interference power at the beams,
Node 1 may optimize the time allocated at each node for
interference measurement. For example, Node 1 may allocate T % of
the time resource for Beam 1 and 100-T % of the time resource for
Beam 2.
[0100] According to another embodiment, simultaneous interference
measurement procedures may be used. The transmitters may
simultaneously transmit in the same time and frequency block during
the measurement period and the receiving node may try to identify
the interference due to each interferer at the same time. During
this interference measurement period, a node may detect and measure
transmissions from multiple transmitting nodes. As the multiple
measurement transmissions occur simultaneously over the same
frequency allocation, they may differentiate in the code domain by
transmitting a sequence that has an ideal or close to an ideal
auto-correlation and cross-correlation property. For example, a
Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence may be used that has an ideal cyclic
auto-correlation (i.e. delta function) when the sequence length is
a prime number. Furthermore, two ZC sequences have a constant
cross-correlation when the difference of the two sequence root
indexes is relatively prime to the sequence length. The ideal
correlation property may not be retained on any arbitrarily
selected sequence length. FIG. 12 is a graph showing the
auto-correlation and cross-correlation properties in terms of
correlation amplitude of a prime-length ZC sequence over a lag
(i.e. number of samples). The cross-correlation is shown by the
dashed line and the auto-correlation is shown by the solid line,
for values of sequence indices q1=25, q2=29 and sequence length
N=61.
[0101] The use of a sequence-based interference measurement may
take into account any combination of the following considerations.
For example, each measurement transmission may be synchronized to
maintain the orthogonality in the code domain. The measurement
transmission may apply a guard period to overcome any time
uncertainty caused by different propagation delays. Each sequence
transmission may carry a node-specific signature, which may be
embedded in the cyclic shift index of the same ZC root sequence for
the measuring node to distinguish between and identify the
interference source.
[0102] In another example, the number of cyclic shifts that can be
generated from one ZC root sequence may depend on the cyclic shift
size. The cyclic shift size may be set so that the Zero Correlation
Zone (ZCZ) of the sequence may ensure the orthogonality regardless
of the delay spread and other types of time uncertainty, including
but not limited to temperature controlled oscillator (TCXO)
inaccuracy. In another example, the minimum value of the cyclic
shift size may be the smallest integer number of sequence sample
periods that is greater than the sum of the maximum delay spread,
the estimated time uncertainty between nodes, and/or additional
guard samples, which may be provisioned for the possible spill-over
of the pulse shaping filter envelope for example.
[0103] In another example, the modulated sequence symbols may be
mapped onto subcarriers. A long sequence length may be desirable to
increase the number of cyclic shifts, but it may need to balance
against the resulting overhead and power consumption. Multiple sets
of sequences may be defined, with each set having a unique root
sequence and an equal number of cyclic shifts. Although the cyclic
shifted sequences obtained from the same root sequence may provide
ideal cross correlation, equivalent sequences from different root
sequences may have suboptimal performance.
[0104] In another example, the sequence transmission may allow
simultaneous detection, for example in the frequency domain, of
multiple transmissions using different cyclic shifted sequences
generated from the same root ZC sequence. The measuring node may
detect all simultaneous interference transmissions by observing
corresponding peaks above a detection threshold at an output of an
Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) in different intervals using
one root sequence in the correlation. A peak of the IFFT output in
interval i may corresponds to the ith cyclically shifted sequence
and its delay may be given by the position of the peak in the
interval.
[0105] In another example, distance between mBs in the range of
300-350 meters may have a minimum of 118 decibels (dBs) of free
space path loss and an internal noise level over 1 GHz bandwidth is
-84 decibels over milliwatts ratio (dBm). Accordingly, the
measurement sequence may be designed with an energy per symbol over
the noise density (Es/No) requirement to achieve a satisfactory
sequence detection performance.
[0106] By way of example, a measurement duration may be set at 400
micro seconds (.mu.s), which may be equivalent to six symbols), and
the resulting sub carrier spacing may be 1/400-10.sup.-6=2.5 kHz. A
six radio bearer (RB) allocation may result in 432 subcarriers to
accommodate as many sequence symbols. The sequence length may be
reduced to the maximum prime number smaller than 432 if using a ZC
sequence. Assuming a cyclic shift size, N.sub.cs, equal to 10, one
root sequence may generate 40 sequences and an interference
measurement may be able to measure and distinguish up to 40
transmitters at the same time. The link budget may be considered to
determine if this sequence length meets the required detection
performance in terms of, for example, the detection rate of an
interferer when it is a defined range transmitting at a defined
power level.
[0107] Procedures may be used for link failure detection and link
re-acquisition. The link between the nodes may be lost when the
control packet is not decoded. By way of example, a Node 1 may
transmit a control packet to Node 2, but Node 2 may not respond to
the packet. In this case, a link re-acquisition procedure may be
applied, such as the procedure described below.
[0108] According to an embodiment, explicit scheduling of beam
re-acquisition may be used during the data transmission period
following the control link failure, by signaling between the
affected nodes using intermediate nodes. FIG. 13 is a signaling
diagram of an example link re-acquisition scheduling procedure 1400
between nodes 1401 and 1402 via a neighbor node 1403. In the
example of FIG. 13, a failure has occurred on the 1410 between node
1401 and node 1402. The node 1401 may inform its one-hop neighbor
node 1403 regarding the link re-acquisition slot allocation for
node 1402 using beam scheduling on link 1408. If node 1403 is a
one-hop neighbor of node 1402, it may directly inform node 1402 of
node 1401's link re-acquisition scheduling request using beam
scheduling on link 1406. If not, node 1403 may pass the scheduling
information to node 1402 via a multi-hop transmission.
[0109] According to another embodiment, the nodes may wait an
offset time after each packet failure to start beamforming
training. In this case, each node may have a pre-defined timing
offset available to it and in case a control packet is lost between
a pair of nodes, the pair of nodes may schedule (time of
failure+offset) slot for the link re-acquisition procedure. FIG. 14
is a block diagram of an example frame 1500 structure for link
re-acquisition scheduling with a predefined offset 1506. The frame
1500 may include a beacon 1502, control information 1504 and data
1508. The offset time 1506 occurs after a packet failure.
[0110] FIG. 15 is a signaling diagram of an example of an inactive
neighbor associating procedure 1600 in the event of a link failure.
In case of a link failure on link 1610, node 1601 may wish to
establish a link to another neighbor node. For example, the
neighbor node may be an inactive node 1604, such that node 1601 and
node 1604 may have gone through a beam-forming procedure but a link
has not been established between them. In case of the failure of
link 1610 between node 1601 and node 1602, node 1601 may initiate a
link acquisition procedure with node 1604. For example, node 1601
may send the control message, including for example slot
information for link association, to the inactive neighbor node
1604 through other neighbors such as neighbor node 1603, over links
1606 and 1608. Alternatively, node 1601 may monitor the beacon
transmission of the inactive node 1604 during the beacon
transmission interval and the nodes 1601 and 1604 may go through
new node association procedures.
[0111] According to an embodiment, link maintenance procedures may
be based on interference or channel degradation. Mechanisms may be
used to screen the link quality at each node and actions may be
based on possible link degradation. In a conventional mesh backhaul
system, the nodes may perform beam training with their neighbors
and corresponding refined beams may be used to transmit high data
rate traffic.
[0112] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an example frame 1700
formatted to manage link scheduling and carry traffic. The control
period 1702 in a frame 1700 may contain N.sub.CS number of time
slots 1706.sub.1 . . . 1706.sub.NCS, where each slot may have a
time duration of T.sub.CS. The data period 1704 of frame 1700 may
include N.sub.ds time slots 1708.sub.1 . . . 1708.sub.Nds. The
control period 1702 may have a duration of
T.sub.CP=N.sub.CS.times.T.sub.CS. During each slot 1706.sub.1 . . .
1706.sub.NCS, node pairs in the mesh network may exchange
scheduling information, unidirectional channel quality indicator
(CQI) messages and/or a frame check sequence (FCS) to determine any
potential errors in the control slot exchange with each neighbor.
The data period 1705 may have duration of TDP.
[0113] For link screening and failure detection, each node may
check a predetermined number of control slots, Ns, to observe the
CQI change and FCS outcome per slot. Using the aggregated results,
each node may identify a link as degraded before the link is
completely lost. For example, a node may identify a link as
degraded if K CQI measurements out of the last Ns control slots are
below a predetermined threshold, CQI.sub.TH, or of L cyclic
redundancy check (CRC) results out of the last N.sub.S control
slots have error outputs. If either of these conditions is
observed, then the receiving node may identify potential link loss
of the incoming channel and may convey a channel degradation
message to the transmitting node.
[0114] As part of link maintenance, once node pairs detect link
failure, the upper layer may be immediately informed regarding the
loss of the link. A path selection mechanism, which may be for
example hop-by-hop, may not take into account the failed link. The
nodes may wish to reacquire the degraded link by either pursuing a
beam refinement procedure or initiating a new node discovery
procedure based on the availability of other potential neighbor
links. If a node has no active links to other neighbor nodes after
losing the connection, the node may move into the neighbor
discovery state as a new node joining to the network. The node may
go through the neighbor discovery procedure. To minimize the beam
refinement procedure duration, the nodes may initially search for
the beams that provided higher gains in the previous measurement
campaign.
[0115] Alternatively, if a pair of nodes experiencing a degraded or
failed link has active links to other neighbors, either of the
nodes may determine the beam refinement initiation time and
duration during the data period. The timing information may be
conveyed to the other node using the active connections to the
existing neighbor nodes via a beam refinement request message. If
the nodes do not have a common neighbor node, then the beam
refinement request message may be transmitted via multi-hop
transmission to the other node. During the beam refinement period,
the nodes may carry out a beam alignment protocol to maximize the
signal to noise ratio (SNR) value. If the link is not recovered
during the beam refinement process, then the nodes may drop each
other from the neighbor list. The neighboring nodes may be informed
regarding the measurement campaign and duration to avoid potential
interference during data transmission.
[0116] Procedures may be used to detect channel blockage and
interference. The channel degradation may be due to a drop in the
channel gain or interference observed during simultaneous
transmission of other node pairs. Using the aggregated CQI and CRC
outcomes obtained during the control period of each frame, the
nodes may predict the source of the link failure and act
accordingly. The control slot allocation of neighboring nodes in a
cluster may be designed such that interference due to simultaneous
transmission may be minimized and/or ignored. Hence, a node that
receives continuous error messages from the multiple control
packets, or CQI results below a threshold, may identify the reason
as misalignment in the beams and a drop in the effective SNR value.
In this case, the beam refinement or neighbor discovery procedures,
such as those described above, may be triggered.
[0117] Alternatively, a node may identify the presence of
interference if the control slots are received successfully,
whereas the data transmission may start to result in erroneous
reception during the data period. The particular durations in the
data period where data is not decoded correctly are marked as
interfered durations. This information may be conveyed to the OAM
center which may trigger resource orthogonalization using, for
example, the interference management procedure described in FIG.
17.
[0118] FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of an example link failure
detection procedure 1800, involving Node A, Node B and the OAM
center. Node A may send Ncs control packets to Node B during a
control period of a frame, 1802. The Node B may acknowledge the
receipt of the control packets to Node A, 1804. Node A may
determine if the channel with Node B has degraded, 1806, and send a
message to Node B, 1808. For example, Node A may verify if K
control slots have an interference that is below a threshold CQI or
an erroneous CRC. If the channel is determined to be degraded,
message 1808 will include a channel degradation message. Node B may
then determine a beam refinement initiation time and duration
during a data period, 1810. Otherwise, Node A may initiate data
transmission via message 1808, and perform data communication,
1816, with Node A including transmission, 1818, to Node A and
reception, 1820, from node A.
[0119] Node A may monitor for error during data transmission, 1822.
If an error is detected, Node A may identify the pattern and inform
the OAM center, 1826. The OAM center may provide the interfering
Node ID, if any, via a message, 1828, to Node A, and Node A may
perform interference measurement and resource orthogonalization,
1830. If an error is not detected by Node A, 1822, then Node A may
send a message, 1824, to Node B to indicate either channel
degradation or to notify Node B to continue to pursue data
transmission.
[0120] Procedures for interference management are described below.
According to an embodiment, distributed orthogonalization of
communication resources may be used. By way of example, Node 1 may
receive the scheduling information, including for example a bitmap
of the neighbor nodes for the upcoming data transmit period. The
neighbor nodes may send the relevant column and rows of the
interference matrix corresponding to Node 1's transmission.
Utilizing the received scheduling bitmap from the neighbor nodes,
Node 1 may identify available transmission slots and may schedule
its transmission for these slots.
[0121] Utilizing the received interference information from the
neighbors and/or the received neighbor node bitmaps, Node 1 may
identify the transmission slots may create interference to these
neighbor nodes below a predetermined threshold. Utilizing its own
interference matrix, Node 1 may identify whether the neighbor nodes
create interference above the predetermined threshold during the
scheduled time slots. Depending on the interference values, Node 1
may decide to schedule its transmission and similarly inform its
neighbor nodes regarding its receive availability at these
slots.
[0122] Based on the scheduling and interference matrix, Node 1 may
identify how much interference it would observe during particular
transmission slots and may determine its transmit modulation and
coding scheme (MCS) for the upcoming scheduling opportunity
accordingly. FIG. 18 is a block diagram of an example frame 1900
structure for distributed resource orthogonalization, for Node 1.
The frame 1900 may include a beacon 1902, a control period 1904,
and a data period 1906 with time slots 1908.sub.1, 1908.sub.2, . .
. 1908.sub.K, . . . . In the example of FIG. 18, Node 1 may not
schedule transmission during time slots 1908.sub.2, 1908.sub.K in
order to allow interfering neighbors to carry out
communication.
[0123] According to an embodiment, distributed implicit
orthogonalization of resources without a schedule exchange may be
achieved by identifying separate resource sub-blocks. For example,
using the interference matrix, each node may identify neighbor
nodes that create above the threshold interference. A node may
split the transmission opportunity period into orthogonal
sub-periods, where each sub-period is composed of multiple
transmission slots. The node may assign each highly interfering
neighbor node to orthogonal sub-periods. Each node may be allowed
to select its scheduling from the orthogonal sub-periods, hence
eliminating the interference among them. The node may inform its
neighbors regarding the sub-period assignment via control
messaging. FIG. 19 is a block diagram of an example frame 2000
structure for distributed implicit resource orthogonalization, for
Node 1. The frame 2000 may include a beacon 2002, a control period
2004, and a data period 2006 with time slots 2008.sub.1,
2008.sub.2, . . . 2008.sub.K. In the example of FIG. 19, Node 1 may
transmit to its neighbors during time slots 2008.sub.1,
2008.sub.K-1 only. Time slot 2008.sub.K may be assigned to
interfering nodes for transmission.
[0124] It is possible that the nodes that do not individually
create interference that is above the predetermined threshold, may
end up creating interference above the threshold by simultaneous
transmission due to additive interference. Such a node may be able
to identify the nodes with which it is creating additive
interference, referred to as simultaneous interfering nodes, and
may notify the simultaneous interfering nodes to prevent
simultaneous operation. For example, similar to the single
interfering node case, the interfered node may inform the
simultaneous interfering nodes regarding their additive
interference effect and may send a reserved message to reserve a
particular portion of the data scheduling period so that they do
not simultaneously schedule this portion. The reserved message may
identify that only simultaneous operation by these nodes creates
interference over the threshold. Hence, if the interfering nodes
have sufficient information regarding each other, for example
whether they are already assigned to orthogonal data scheduling
slots, then either of these nodes may still use the portion
reserved by the interfered node.
[0125] In a robust and centralized interference management
approach, each node may initially identify the Node ID of the
interfering nodes. This information may be broadcast to the cluster
the node resides in. Hence, the nodes in the cluster may determine
the interfering transmit/receive node pairs. Using this
information, the data scheduling period may be divided into
orthogonal portions, where each node may be assigned to a
particular portion based on the interfering list.
[0126] From interference matrix (IM) FIG. 4, each node may identify
individually interfering nodes as well as group(s) of nodes that
jointly create above the threshold interference. This interference
list may be broadcast to the cluster and each node may identify the
interfering nodes in the cluster. From this list, the cluster may
be divided into sets, where each set may contain the nodes that
interfere with each other. For example, a node in any set may
interfere with the other nodes in the same set, although the
interference may or may not be bidirectional interference. The data
scheduling interval may be partitioned to the element size of the
maximum set in the cluster. Each transmission may be placed in the
sets such that the nodes in any partition do not interfere with
each other (i.e. there is no one-to-one interference) and the nodes
with additive interference above the threshold are not
simultaneously placed into the same partition. The placement of the
nodes in each set may be determined based on the Node IDs. For
example, the smallest Node ID may be assigned to the first
orthogonal scheduling period and the node with the following Node
ID may be assigned to the next scheduling period, and so on.
[0127] According to another embodiment, interference randomization
may be achieved via scheduling. The interfering pairs of nodes may
schedule their links by performing a random transmit slot selection
procedure to minimize the effect of interference. The nodes in the
black-list may request power adjustment to minimize the effect of
interference. The power adjustment request may include a beam shape
adjustment request.
[0128] Although features and elements are described above in
particular combinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will
appreciate that each feature or element may be used alone or in any
combination with the other features and elements. In addition, the
methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program,
software, or firmware incorporated in a computer-readable medium
for execution by a computer or processor. Examples of
computer-readable media include electronic signals (transmitted
over wired or wireless connections) and computer-readable storage
media. Examples of computer-readable storage media include, but are
not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory
(RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices,
magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks,
magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks, and
digital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association with
software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for
use in a WTRU, UE, terminal, base station, RNC, or any host
computer.
* * * * *