Multi-level beam scheduling in a wireless communications circuit, particularly for a wireless communications system (wcs)

Abstract

Multi-level beam scheduling in a wireless communications circuit, particularly for a wireless communications system (WCS), is disclosed. The WCS includes a central unit(s) and a wireless communications circuit(s) configured to reduce beamforming overhead and improve radio frequency (RF) coverage in a wireless communications cell(s) based on a multi-level beam scheduling scheme. In a non-limiting example, the multi-level beam scheduling scheme includes a first level (L1) scheduler, a second level (L2) scheduler, and a third level (L3) scheduler configured to perform cross-cell beam scheduling, in-cell beam scheduling, and in-beam user equipment (UE) scheduling, respectively. By employing the multi-level beam scheduling scheme in the WCS, it may be possible to reduce processing overhead and improve resource usage, data throughput, and system adaptability of the wireless communications circuit(s), thus helping to optimize capacity and throughput in the wireless communications cell(s).

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A wireless communications system (WCS), comprising:
 at least one central unit comprising a plurality of electrical-to-optical (E/O) converters and a plurality of optical-to-electrical ( 0 /E) converters; and   a plurality of remote units coupled to the at least one central unit via a plurality of optical communications mediums, the plurality of remote units configured to:
 receive a plurality of downlink digital communications signals from the at least one central unit via the plurality of optical communications mediums, respectively; 
 convert the plurality of downlink digital communications signals into a plurality of downlink radio frequency (RF) communications signals, respectively; 
 distribute the plurality of downlink RF communications signals in a plurality of wireless communications cells, respectively; 
 receive a plurality of uplink RF communications signals from the plurality of wireless communications cells, respectively; 
 convert the plurality of uplink RF communications signals into a plurality of uplink digital communications signals, respectively; and 
 provide the plurality of uplink digital communications signals to the at least one central unit via the plurality of optical communications mediums, respectively; 
   wherein at least one remote unit among the plurality of remote units comprises:
 an antenna array configured to form a plurality of RF beams in a plurality of time slots to radiate an RF communications signal among the plurality of downlink RF communications signals to a plurality of user equipments (UEs) in a wireless communications cell among the plurality of wireless communications cells; 
 a beam control circuit configured to:
 determine at least one selected RF beam among the plurality of RF beams to be formed in a selected time slot among the plurality of time slots; and 
 cause the antenna array to form the at least one selected RF beam in the selected time slot; and 
 
 a signal control circuit configured to schedule one or more UEs among the plurality of UEs to communicate the RF communications signal. 
   
     
     
         2 . The WCS of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one central unit is configured to:
 generate a beam priority indication signal comprising one or more top priority weights corresponding to one or more prioritized RF beams, respectively, among the plurality RF beams; and   provide the beam priority indication signal to the beam control circuit in the at least one remote unit.   
     
     
         3 . The WCS of  claim 1 , wherein the beam control circuit is further configured to:
 generate a plurality of summed utilities corresponding to the plurality of RF beams, respectively; and   determine the at least one selected RF beam corresponding to a maximum summed utility among the plurality of summed utilities.   
     
     
         4 . The WCS of  claim 3 , wherein the signal control circuit is further configured to schedule the one or more UEs among the plurality of UEs based on a proportional fair scheduler corresponding to a proportional metric. 
     
     
         5 . The WCS of  claim 3 , wherein the beam control circuit is further configured to generate the plurality of summed utilities based on the proportional metric and the one or more top priority weights indicated by the beam priority indication signal. 
     
     
         6 . The WCS of  claim 1 , wherein the signal control circuit is further configured to schedule the one or more UEs among the plurality of UEs based on a UE scheduler selected from the group consisting of: a proportional fair scheduler, a round robin scheduler, and a quality-of-service (QoS) based scheduler.