Network assisted beam selection for handover in 5g or other next generation wireless communication systems

Abstract

The described technology is generally directed towards having a wireless network device assist a user equipment to facilitate narrow beam handover. A network device determines narrow beam handover candidates of neighbor cell sites based on geometric relationships between the user equipment, a serving cell site and the neighbor cell site candidates. Historical information such as previous narrow beam handovers from a serving beam to neighbor narrow beams can be used to select a lesser number of the possible candidate beams. The network device sends the candidate beams to the user equipment, which then measures and reports the measurements to the network device. If handover criteria based on the measurement is met, the network device orders a handover to a selected narrow beam, e.g., the narrow beam with the best measurement data of the candidates.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 obtaining, by network equipment comprising a processor, first distance information representative of a first distance from first equipment, which is part of a serving cell site, to a user equipment;   obtaining, by the network equipment, second distance information representative of a second distance from the first equipment to second equipment that is part of a neighbor cell site, wherein the neighbor cell site is a candidate for a handover of the user equipment;   determining, by the network equipment, a handover candidate beam corresponding to a neighbor narrow beam of the second equipment, based on a serving angle corresponding to an approximate angle of a serving narrow beam of the first equipment to the user equipment, the first distance information, and historical handover data associated with previous beams used for handover prior to determining the handover candidate beam; and   sending, by the network equipment, a handover recommendation message that identifies the handover candidate beam to the user equipment, wherein the handover candidate beam comprises a neighbor beam adjacent to the serving narrow beam.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining the handover candidate beam comprises determining, based on the serving angle, the first distance information and the second distance information, an arrival angle that maps to the handover candidate beam. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein sending the handover recommendation message that identifies the handover candidate beam to the user equipment comprises including identification information representative of the handover candidate beam in a radio resource control message. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein sending the handover recommendation message comprises including the handover candidate beam in a group of handover candidate beams identified in the handover recommendation message. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the handover candidate beam is a first handover candidate beam, and further comprising:
 selecting, by the network equipment, a group of handover candidate beams, wherein the comprises selecting the first handover candidate beam and selecting a second handover candidate beam from the second equipment based on historical handover information associated with previous neighbor handovers with respect to the neighbor cell site.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the neighbor cell site is a first neighbor cell site, and further comprising:
 selecting, by the network equipment, a group of handover candidate beams, wherein selecting the group of handover candidate beams comprises selecting a third handover candidate beam from third equipment that is part of a second neighbor cell site.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the network equipment from the user equipment, beam measurement data comprising respective beam measurements for respective handover candidate beams of a group of handover candidate beams.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 selecting, by the network equipment, a narrow beam based on beam measurement data, resulting in a selected narrow beam; and   facilitating, by the network equipment, the handover of the user equipment from the serving narrow beam to the selected narrow beam.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein obtaining the first distance information from the first equipment of the serving cell site to the user equipment comprises obtaining time alignment data associated with the user equipment. 
     
     
         10 . Network equipment, comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:   based at least in part on historical handover data, determining first handover narrow beam candidates for a user equipment with respect to first network equipment of a first neighbor cell site that is a first candidate cell site for a handover of the user equipment, comprising determining a first probable handover narrow beam candidate based on an approximate angle of a serving narrow beam of the network equipment of a serving cell site to the user equipment, and first neighbor distance information from the network equipment of a serving cell site to the first network equipment of the first neighbor cell site;   based at least in part on the historical handover data, determining second handover narrow beam candidates for the user equipment with respect to second network equipment of a second neighbor cell site that is a second candidate cell site for the handover of the user equipment, comprising determining a second probable handover narrow beam candidate based on the approximate angle of the serving narrow beam of the network equipment of the serving cell site to the user equipment, and second neighbor distance information from the serving equipment of the serving cell site to the second network equipment of the second neighbor cell site; and   sending a message to the user equipment instructing the user equipment to generate a report of beam measurements for the first handover narrow beam candidates and the second handover narrow beam candidates, wherein the first handover narrow beam candidates and the second handover narrow beam candidates are neighbor handover narrow beam candidates that are adjacent to a serving narrow beam of the network equipment.   
     
     
         11 . The network equipment of  claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 receiving a report from the user equipment comprising the beam measurements,   selecting a narrow beam for the handover of the user equipment based on the beam measurements, resulting in a selected narrow beam, and   performing the handover of the user equipment from the serving narrow beam to the selected narrow beam.   
     
     
         12 . The network equipment of  claim 10 , wherein the message comprises a radio resource control message. 
     
     
         13 . The network equipment of  claim 10 , wherein the report is received in a radio resource control reconfiguration message. 
     
     
         14 . The network equipment of  claim 10 , wherein determining the first handover narrow beam candidates comprises using historical handover information associated with the first network device of the first neighbor cell site. 
     
     
         15 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a serving network equipment of a serving cell site, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
 determining a first angle of a user equipment to first network equipment of a first neighbor cell site that is a first candidate cell site for a transfer of the user equipment;   selecting a first group of candidate narrow beams based on the first angle and historical handover data associated with a previous narrow beam handover;   determining a second angle of the user equipment to second network equipment of a second neighbor cell site that is a second candidate cell site for the transfer of the user equipment;   selecting a second group of candidate narrow beams based on the second angle and the historical handover data associated with the previous narrow beam handover; and   sending a message to the user equipment instructing the user equipment to measure beam measurements for the first group of candidate narrow beams and the second group of candidate narrow beams, wherein the first group of candidate narrow beams and the second group of candidate narrow beams are adjacent to a serving narrow beam.   
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 receiving a report from the user equipment comprising the beam measurements for the first group of candidate narrow beams and the second group of candidate narrow beams, selecting a narrow beam for the transfer of the user equipment based on the beam measurements, resulting in a selected narrow beam, and performing the transfer of the user equipment based on the selected narrow beam.   
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein determining the first angle is based on first neighbor distance information, from the serving network equipment to the first network equipment of the first neighbor cell site, serving distance information from the serving network equipment to the user equipment, and an approximate angle of the serving narrow beam from the serving network equipment to the user equipment, and wherein determining the second angle is based on second neighbor distance information, from the serving network equipment to the second network equipment of the second neighbor cell site, serving distance information from the serving network equipment to the user equipment, and the approximate angle of the serving narrow beam from the serving network equipment to the user equipment. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein selecting the first group of candidate narrow beams based on the first angle comprises selecting a first candidate narrow beam that maps to the first angle for the first group, and selecting a second candidate narrow beam based on the first candidate narrow beam for the first group. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 selecting a candidate narrow beam based on historical transfer related information associated with the first network device of the first neighbor cell site.   
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 selecting a candidate narrow beam based on a model generated from machine learning.