METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COORDINATED BEAM MANAGEMENT IN WIRELESS VEHICULAR COMMUNICATION

Abstract

A method for coordinated beam management in wireless vehicular communication comprises initiating an omnidirectional broadcast transmission by a transmitting vehicle towards a group of receiving vehicles, wherein the transmission is addressed to all receiving vehicles simultaneously; performing a beam steering process by each of the receiving vehicles to identify a directional communication beam pointing from the respective receiving vehicle towards the transmitting vehicle; and communicating data via the initiated omnidirectional broadcast transmission from the transmitting vehicle to the receiving vehicles over a transmission time period, wherein the receiving vehicles maintain their respective directional communication beam over the transmission time period in order to receive the transmitted data via the respective directional communication beam.

Claims

1. A method for coordinated beam management in a wireless vehicular communication, the method comprising: initiating an omnidirectional broadcast transmission by a transmitting vehicle towards a group of receiving vehicles, wherein the omnidirectional broadcast transmission is addressed to all of the receiving vehicles simultaneously; performing a beam steering process by each of the receiving vehicles to identify a directional communication beam pointing from the respective receiving vehicle towards the transmitting vehicle; and communicating data via the initiated omnidirectional broadcast transmission from the transmitting vehicle to the receiving vehicles over a transmission time period, wherein each of the receiving vehicles maintains the respective directional communication beam over the transmission time period in order to receive the transmitted data via the respective directional communication beam.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the receiving vehicles and the transmitting vehicle use Millimeter Wave V2X communication for transmission and reception.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein a communication is established between neighboring vehicles.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmission time period is a fixed and/or predefined time period.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the receiving vehicles is coordinated in advance with other vehicles, one of which is the transmitting vehicle, by using a sub-6 GHz V2X technology including IEEE 802.11p and/or LTE-V2X.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the communicated data comprise at least one of sensor data, image data, or video data.

7. A wireless vehicular communication system for a vehicle comprising a communication device configured to: perform a beam steering process to identify a directional communication beam pointing from the vehicle towards a transmitting vehicle, and maintain the directional communication beam over a transmission time period in order to receive data via the directional communication beam from the transmitting vehicle, and initiate an omnidirectional broadcast transmission towards a group of receiving vehicles, wherein the omnidirectional broadcast transmission is addressed to all of the receiving vehicles simultaneously, and communicate data via the initiated omnidirectional broadcast transmission to the receiving vehicles over a transmission time period.

8. The wireless vehicular communication system according to claim 7, wherein the communication device is configured to use Millimeter Wave V2X communication for transmission and reception.

9. The wireless vehicular communication system according to claim 7, wherein the communication device is configured to establish a communication with neighboring vehicles.

10. The wireless vehicular communication system according to claim 7, wherein the transmission time period is a fixed and/or predefined time period.

11. The wireless vehicular communication system according to claim 7, wherein the communication device is configured to coordinate with other vehicles, one of which is the transmitting vehicle, by using a sub-6 GHz V2X technology including IEEE 802.11p and/or LTE-V2X.

12. The wireless vehicular communication system according to claim 7, wherein the communicated data comprise at least one of sensor data, image data, or video data.

13. A motor vehicle having the wireless vehicular communication system according to claim 7.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0038] The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the present disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. Other embodiments of the present disclosure and many of the intended advantages of the present disclosure will be readily appreciated as they become better understood by reference to the following detailed description. The elements of the drawings are not necessarily to scale relative to each other. In the figures, like reference numerals denote like or functionally like components, unless indicated otherwise.

[0039] FIG. 1 schematically depicts an example for a wireless communication between vehicles where all vehicles adopt omnidirectional antenna configurations for transmitting and receiving.

[0040] FIG. 2 schematically depicts another example for a wireless communication between vehicles where all vehicles adopt directional antenna configurations for transmitting and receiving.

[0041] FIG. 3 schematically depicts a wireless communication between vehicles based on coordinated beam management according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0042] FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram of a corresponding method for coordinated beam management in line with FIG. 3.

[0043] FIG. 5 shows a sequence table for data exchange over time for the example of FIG. 2 for an increased number of vehicles.

[0044] FIG. 6 shows a sequence table for data exchange over time for the embodiment of FIG. 4 for an increased number of vehicles.

[0045] Although specific embodiments are illustrated and described herein, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that a variety of alternate and/or equivalent implementations may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown and described without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Generally, this application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the specific embodiments discussed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0046] FIG. 1 schematically depicts an example for a wireless communication between vehicles 10.

[0047] FIG. 1 represents an example for a very simple approach to share data between multiple vehicles 10 at once. Such a sharing of data is based on omnidirectional broadcast transmissions 2 where both of the transmitter and the receiver(s) set the antennas of their respective communication devices 1 in omnidirectional mode. At mmWave frequencies, however, the range of the communication when both of the transmitter and the receiver(s) are in omnidirectional mode would be relatively low in this example, because mmWave V2X would suffer significant path losses in omnidirectional mode. This is illustrated by the diameter of the transmission 2 circles in FIG. 1, which indicates that the range of the transmission 2 is not large enough for the vehicles 10 to communicate with each other. Thus, in this example, the receiver(s) may not be able to receive the messages transmitted by the mmWave transmitter when using mmWave V2X.

[0048] FIG. 2 schematically depicts another example for wireless communication between vehicles 10.

[0049] For the reasons explained with reference to FIG. 1, mmWave communications are commonly based on directional transmissions 3 as shown in FIG. 2 in order to compensate the high propagation losses at mmWave frequencies. In this case, the antennas of the communication devices 1 of the vehicles 10 serving as mmWave transmitter and/or receiver need to be pointing towards each other. The orientation of the transmission of the respective devices 1 is indicated in FIG. 2 by the direction of the directional communication beams 4. As can be seen in FIG. 2, the two lower right vehicles 10 have their beams aligned and can now share data between each other.

[0050] However, in order for one vehicle 10 to share its data with all other vehicles 10, the communication device 1 of the one vehicle 10 with its mmWave transmitter would need to sequentially contact all of neighboring vehicles 10 one after the other. This would improve the issue with the propagation losses at mmWave frequencies from the example of FIG. 1, but would add significant delays to the mmWave communication due to the sequential ordering of the transmissions 3.

[0051] The above problem is illustrated with reference to FIG. 5, which depicts the reception delay arising with the procedure of FIG. 2 for an increased number of vehicles. In the scenario of FIG. 5, overall seven vehicles 10 want to share their data with each other. Vehicle A starts in the uppermost row by sequentially contacting vehicles B to G one after the other (following the first row to the right). Each box represents a transmission interval required to transfer the data from one vehicle 10 to another. The time required for transferring the data is a transmission time period T. Only when vehicle A has finished transmitting its data to all other vehicles B to G, vehicle B may start as a next vehicle, processing again all other vehicles A, C to G one after the other (second row in FIG. 5). In a similar vein, vehicles C to G transmit their data to all respective other vehicles individually. The procedure is finished at the right end of the last row in FIG. 5.

[0052] Regarding FIG. 3, a wireless communication between vehicles 10 based on coordinated beam management according to an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure follows a new approach. In this case, only the mmWave transmitting vehicle 10 (lower left vehicle 10 in FIG. 3) sets the antenna of its communication device 1 in omnidirectional mode to perform the transmission for data sharing. The receiving vehicles 10 on the other hand set their antennas in directional mode pointing towards the transmitting vehicle 10. In this case, the mmWave transmitter can communicate with all the mmWave receivers with a single transmission. The antenna configuration of the mmWave receivers in directional mode provides the additional gain to compensate the propagation losses at mmWave frequencies.

[0053] More specifically, a corresponding method M for wireless mmWave V2X communication as depicted in FIG. 4 comprises, under the step M1, initiating an omnidirectional broadcast transmission 2 by a transmitting vehicle 10 towards a group of neighboring receiving vehicles 10 under line-of-sight conditions. In doing so, the transmission 2 is addressed to all receiving vehicles 10 simultaneously. The method M further comprises, under the step M2, performing a beam steering process by each of the receiving vehicles 10 to identify a directional communication beam 4 pointing from the respective receiving vehicle 10 towards the transmitting vehicle 10. The method M further comprises, under the step M3, communicating data via the initiated omnidirectional broadcast transmission 2 from the transmitting vehicle 10 to the receiving vehicles 10 over a transmission time period T. The receiving vehicles 10 maintain their respective directional communication beam 4 pointing towards the transmitting vehicle over the transmission time period T in order to receive the transmitted data via the respective directional communication beam 4. The transmission time period T may be fixed and/or predefined. Alternatively, the transmission time period T may be changed dynamically depending on the respective situation acting on the step M1.

[0054] Referring back to FIG. 3, the vehicle 10 in the lower left initiates its communication device 1 for transmitting in omnidirectional broadcast mode to all other vehicles 10 at the same time. Before the transmission can be started, the other vehicles 10 have to complete their individual beam steering procedure to find a suitable directional communication beam 4 pointing at the transmitting vehicle 10.

[0055] It is assumed in the above procedure that the vehicles 10 have agreed beforehand on which vehicle 10 is allowed to transmit its data first (in case that at least two vehicles 10 want to share their data with the other vehicles). Such a coordination can be performed, for example, using conventional data sharing technologies normally used for lower data rates (relatively speaking), e.g., IEEE 802.11p or LTE V2X or the like. In contrast, the mmWave V2X communication described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 can be used for relatively high data rates, as they may be required for advanced ADAS or CAD applications. Hence, the present system 5 may be used to transmit, for example, (raw and/or processed) sensor data, image data, video data and so on.

[0056] FIG. 6 demonstrates the advantage of the system 5 described above with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. The figure shows a sequence table for data exchange over time for the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4 in a similar vein as FIG. 5, also with an increased number of overall seven vehicles.

[0057] As was described above, in the example of FIGS. 2 and 5, the transmitting vehicle, e.g., vehicle A, needs to contact all its neighbors, i.e., vehicle B, C, D, E, F and G. Using directional unicast transmissions, the transmitting vehicle A will need to address sequentially each of the neighbors using a different beam at subsequent instants. This leads to a higher delay to complete a communication cycle to all neighbors.

[0058] In the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4, the mmWave transmitting vehicle A also needs to contact all the neighbors (B to G). However, in this case the transmitting vehicle A uses a single omnidirectional mmWave broadcast transmission, and the neighboring vehicles B to G simultaneously use their respective beams pointing towards the mmWave transmitting vehicle A to receive the shared data. This leads to a lower delay as all neighbors receive data at the same time.

[0059] In FIG. 6, the respective group of receiving vehicles 10 that receive their data simultaneously is collectively marked as X. Hence, in case of transmitting vehicle A, the group X comprises vehicles B to G. As can be seen in FIG. 6, one complete round of data sharing is already finished in this approach after seven transmission time periods T. In contrast to this, the procedure in FIG. 5 takes seven times longer, which means that some vehicles 10 may receive data from the other vehicles 10 that is already outdated. The amount of time saved in the new approach of FIGS. 3 and 4 could be used, for example, to run more frequent data updates between the vehicles 10, thereby offering benefits for cooperative ADAS and CAD applications.

[0060] In sum, the present disclosure uses a mixed antenna configuration, where the transmitting vehicle 10 transmits broadcast-like in omnidirectional mode for a limited time period and the receiving vehicles 10 use beam steering to point their antennas within directional mode to the transmitting vehicle 10 to receive the broadcast transmission during that time period. As a consequence, reception delay can be reduced compared to known pure directional concepts for mmWave V2X (i.e., transmitter and receiver in directional mode) and the system can experience less path loss compared to pure omnidirectional concepts (i.e., transmitter and receiver in omnidirectional mode).

[0061] In the foregoing detailed description, various features are grouped together in one or more examples with the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. It is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents of the different features and embodiments. Many other examples will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reviewing the above specification. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the disclosure and its practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to utilize the disclosure and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

REFERENCE LIST

[0062] 1 communication device [0063] 2 omnidirectional transmission [0064] 3 directional transmission [0065] 4 directional communication beam [0066] 5 wireless vehicular communication system [0067] 10 motor vehicle [0068] t time [0069] T transmission time period [0070] st sequence of transmitting vehicles [0071] sr sequence of receiving vehicles [0072] X group of receiving vehicles [0073] M method [0074] M1-M3 method steps