Abstract: A method comprises selecting a beam to be scheduled for a slot that is upcoming, and selecting a terminal device to be scheduled in the selected beam. Selection of the terminal device is based on the terminal device considering the selected beam as its best beam. Physical resource blocks are allocated to the terminal device, and a beam configuration to be used for the selected beam is chosen based in part on user traffic and load distribution. A switching event is triggered. The switching event comprises producing the chosen beam configuration by providing a beamforming command and using a control line controlling a switch network comprised in phase shifters to steer the beam. The phase shifters are comprised in a radio frequency front-end unit comprising a plurality of antenna columns. The phase shifters are placed in front of selected antenna sub-arrays comprised in the plurality of antenna columns.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method, an apparatus and a computer readable storage medium for generating soft-decision information for a receiver. In example embodiments, a method is provided. The method includes receiving, at a first device, a signal from a second device, the signal corresponding to a group of symbols transmitted from the second device; determining, by performing Lattice Reduction linear detection on the signal, a first group of estimated symbols for the group of symbols; determining, by performing iterative interference cancellation on the first group of estimated symbols, a second group of estimated symbols for the group of symbols; and generating, based on the second group of estimated symbols, soft-decision information about the group of symbols for use by a decoder at the first device. Embodiments of the present disclosure can improve the receiver performance with reduced complexity.

Abstract: A method includes estimating an uplink channel for a terminal device, based on an amount of antennas used by an access node for transmitting signals to the terminal device, antennas used for receiving the transmitted signals at the terminal device, and sub-bands used for transmitting the signals. Based on the estimation, a channel covariance matrix is determined for a precoder comprised in a transmitter of the access node by determining a limited number of elements of a full dimensional channel covariance matrix, which is different than the channel covariance matrix. The limited number of elements are elements corresponding to i-th row and j-th column of the channel covariance. Correlation computation is performed for the limited number of elements. Elements of the full-dimensional channel covariance matrix that are excluded from the limited number of elements are determined and set to be zero. Precoding is performed using the determined channel covariance matrix.

Abstract: An apparatus includes circuitry configured for determining which one or more user equipment of a plurality of user equipment are to be scheduled in a scheduling round. This is based on an associated quality of service and on a time domain metric associated with a respective user equipment of the plurality of user equipment.

Abstract: An apparatus including an input configured to receive at least one notification from at least one radio access network node controller, the at least one notification caused to notify the apparatus of at least one physical channel assignment policy indication; an assigner configured to implement at least one physical channel assignment based on the at least one physical channel assignment policy indication; an output configured to generate and transmit at least one assignment notification to at least one user equipment associated with the apparatus, the assignment notification caused to notify the at least one user equipment of the at least one physical channel assignment.

Abstract: Various example embodiments may relate to link adaptation. An apparatus may determine a first signal quality estimate for a signal. The apparatus may further determine a BLER estimate based on acknowledgements or decoding results for data blocks of the signal. The apparatus may further determine a second signal quality estimate for the signal based on the BLER estimate. The apparatus may further determine a signal quality offset based on a difference between the first signal quality estimate and the second signal quality estimate. The apparatus may further determine transmission parameter(s) for at least one subsequent data block based on the first signal quality estimate and the signal quality offset.

Abstract: An apparatus including: a MIMO antenna for transmitting beamformed signals on a plurality of beams using a common frequency- and time-limited physical channel resource; circuitry for computing a beamforming gain of each beam in each sub-sector in a coverage area of said plurality of beams; circuitry for determining a beam dominance region of each beam within the coverage area of said plurality of beams; circuitry for determining, within the dominance region of each beam, an average of the beamforming gain of each of the other beams at least partially co-locating within said beam dominance region; circuitry for determining inter-beam interference estimations as an average interference of each beam from each of said other beams; and circuitry for scheduling transmissions of the beams by said MIMO antenna on said common frequency- and time-limited physical channel resource based on said inter-beam interference estimations.

Abstract: According to an aspect, there is provided an apparatus for performing the following. The apparatus is configured to, first, allocate one or more of a plurality of available physical resource blocks to a plurality of terminal devices, wherein the allocating is performed so that a power spectral density for the plurality of terminal devices matches or exceeds a pre-defined limit or a plurality of respective pre-defined limits for power spectral density. In response to one or more physical resource blocks being still available following said allocating, the apparatus is configured to further allocate at least one of the one or more physical resource blocks still available to at least one of the plurality of terminal devices, wherein the further allocating is performed so that at least a pre-defined value for a modulation and coding scheme index is sustainable for said at least one of the plurality of terminal devices.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for determining open loop power control parameters. A first set of key performance indicators associated with a first set of open loop power control parameters is obtained from one or more first base stations. A statistical model is determined based at least partly on the first set of key performance indicators and the first set of open loop power control parameters. A second set of open loop power control parameters is determined based at least partly on the statistical model.

Abstract: A method comprises selecting a beam to be scheduled for a slot that is upcoming, and selecting a terminal device to be scheduled in the selected beam. Selection of the terminal device is based on the terminal device considering the selected beam as its best beam. Physical resource blocks are allocated to the terminal device, and a beam configuration to be used for the selected beam is chosen based in part on user traffic and load distribution. A switching event is triggered. The switching event comprises producing the chosen beam configuration by providing a beamforming command and using a control line controlling a switch network comprised in phase shifters to steer the beam. The phase shifters are comprised in a radio frequency front-end unit comprising a plurality of antenna columns. The phase shifters are placed in front of selected antenna sub-arrays comprised in the plurality of antenna columns.

Abstract: Beam and antenna array split configuration optimization is disclosed. A network node device generates a beam dictionary defining a set of beams. The network node device estimates a traffic density distribution for a radio channel based on obtained channel quality information. The network node device determines, for each of at least two array split configurations associated with a transceiver antenna array of the network node device, a set of optimal beams from the beam dictionary that optimizes a utility function, based on the estimated traffic density distribution. The network node device selects an array split configuration that maximizes the utility function across a coverage area of a radio cell associated with the network node device. The network node device applies the selected array split configuration to the transceiver antenna array in response to evaluating that the selected array split configuration improves downlink performance.

Abstract: According to an aspect, there is provided an apparatus for performing the following. The apparatus is configured to, first, allocate one or more of a plurality of available physical resource blocks to a plurality of terminal devices, wherein the allocating is performed so that a power spectral density for the plurality of terminal devices matches or exceeds a pre-defined limit or a plurality of respective pre-defined limits for power spectral density. In response to one or more physical resource blocks being still available following said allocating, the apparatus is configured to further allocate at least one of the one or more physical resource blocks still available to at least one of the plurality of terminal devices, wherein the further allocating is performed so that at least a pre-defined value for a modulation and coding scheme index is sustainable for said at least one of the plurality of terminal devices.

Abstract: An apparatus comprising: a MIMO antenna for transmitting beamformed signals on a plurality of beams using a common frequency- and time-limited physical channel resource; means for computing a beamforming gain of each beam in each sub-sector in a coverage area of said plurality of beams; means for determining a beam dominance region of each beam within the coverage area of said plurality of beams; means for determining, within the dominance region of each beam, an average of the beamforming gain of each of the other beams at least partially co-locating within said beam dominance region; means for determining inter-beam interference estimations as an average interference of each beam from each of said other beams; and means for scheduling transmissions of the beams by said MIMO antenna on said common frequency- and time-limited physical channel resource based on said inter-beam interference estimations.

Abstract: Various example embodiments may relate to link adaptation. An apparatus may determine a first signal quality estimate for a signal. The apparatus may further determine a BLER estimate based on acknowledgements or decoding results for data blocks of the signal. The apparatus may further determine a second signal quality estimate for the signal based on the BLER estimate. The apparatus may further determine a signal quality offset based on a difference between the first signal quality estimate and the second signal quality estimate. The apparatus may further determine transmission parameter(s) for at least one subsequent data block based on the first signal quality estimate and the signal quality offset.

Abstract: A deep transfer reinforcement learning (DTRL) method based on transfer learning within a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework is provided to accelerate the GoB optimization decisions when experiencing environment changes in the same source radio network agent or when being applied from a source radio network agent to a target radio network agent. The transferability of the knowledge embedded in a pre-trained neural network model as a Q-approximator is exploited, and a mechanism to transfer parameters from a source agent to a target agent is provided, where the transferability criterion is based on the similarity measure between the source and target domain.

Abstract: A method is described of selecting, by a multi-antenna base station of a wireless communications system, at least one transmission beam to transmit data to at least one terminal. The method can include determining a grid of N2 transmission beams intended to cover a portion of the space served by the base station and generated by using N1 antennas of the base station, where N1 and N2 designate integers such as N2>N1, and selecting one or more non-adjacent beam(s) of the grid to transmit data to at least one terminal during at least one given time interval.

Abstract: According to an aspect, there is provided a method for performing in an access node time- and frequency scheduling for a cell comprising two or more subcells. The method comprises the following steps. The access node selects a set of one or more active beams for each of at least two of subcells comprised in the two or more subcells from beams produced by an antenna array of the access node. The access node performs time-scheduling for the cell in common. Finally, the access node performs frequency-scheduling separately and in parallel for each of the at least two subcells for transmission using a corresponding set of one or more active beams.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method, an apparatus and a computer readable storage medium for generating soft-decision information for a receiver. In example embodiments, a method is provided. The method includes receiving, at a first device, a signal from a second device, the signal corresponding to a group of symbols transmitted from the second device; determining, by performing Lattice Reduction linear detection on the signal, a first group of estimated symbols for the group of symbols; determining, by performing iterative interference cancellation on the first group of estimated symbols, a second group of estimated symbols for the group of symbols; and generating, based on the second group of estimated symbols, soft-decision information about the group of symbols for use by a decoder at the first device. Embodiments of the present disclosure can improve the receiver performance with reduced complexity.

Abstract: An apparatus, method and computer program is described above: determining a coupling gain for a user device within a cell of a mobile communication system; comparing the determined coupling gain with a coupling gain threshold; setting the user device to operate in a device-specific CSI-RS mode of operation in the event that the determined coupling gain is less than the coupling gain threshold, wherein, in the device-specific CSI-RS mode of operation, the user device is configured to use device-specific reference signal transmissions for the determination of channel state information; and setting the user device to operate in a cell-specific CSI-RS mode of operation in the event that the determined coupling gain is not less than the coupling gain threshold, wherein, in the cell-specific CSI-RS mode of operation, the user device is configured to use cell-specific reference signal transmissions for the determination of channel state information.

Abstract: Systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for determining a grid-of-beams (GoB) are provided. One method may include collecting network data for training a neural network, train the neural network, using the collected data, to learn a non-discounted cumulative reward Q that evaluates a benefit of including a given beam into a grid-of-beams (GoB), iteratively applying the trained neural network to select at least one optimal beam to include in the grid-of-beams (GoB), and selecting one or more beams from the grid-of-beams (GoB) to transmit to a user equipment or to receive transmission from the user equipment.