WO2022006881A1

WO2022006881A1 - Guard bandwidth detection for cellular wireless wide area network (wwan) and wireless local area network (wlan) concurrency

Info

Publication number: WO2022006881A1
Application number: PCT/CN2020/101418
Authority: WO
Inventors: Shaofeng Wang; Devdutt PATNAIK; Francis Ngai; Rongliang YANG; Rohit TRIPATHI
Original assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated
Priority date: 2020-07-10
Filing date: 2020-07-10
Publication date: 2022-01-13

Abstract

A method of wireless communication performed by a wireless device includes determining whether a 4.9 GHz band is in use by a cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN). The method also includes operating a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point on an unlicensed spectrum, e.g., (UNII) -2A and/or UNII-1, when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use by the cellular WWAN.

Description

GUARD BANDWIDTH DETECTION FOR CELLULAR WIRELESS WIDE AREA NETWORK (WWAN) AND WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK (WLAN) CONCURRENCY

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communications, and more particularly to techniques and apparatuses for guard bandwidth detection for cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) and wireless local area network (WLAN) concurrency.

BACKGROUND

Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunications services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communications systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communications with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, and/or the like) . Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency-division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems, and long term evolution (LTE) . LTE/LTE-Advanced is a set of enhancements to the universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) mobile standard promulgated by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) .

A wireless communications network may include a number of base stations (BSs) that can support communications for a number of user equipment (UEs) . A user equipment (UE) may communicate with a base station (BS) via the downlink and uplink. The downlink (or forward link) refers to the communications link from the BS to the UE, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communications link from the UE to the BS. As will be described in more detail, a BS may be referred to as a Node B, a gNB, an access point (AP) , a radio head, a transmit and receive point (TRP) , a new radio (NR) BS, a 5G Node B, and/or the like.

The above multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunications standards to provide a common protocol that enables different user equipment to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. New radio (NR) , which may also be referred to as 5G, is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile standard promulgated by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) . NR is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) (CP-OFDM) on the downlink (DL) , using CP-OFDM and/or SC-FDM (e.g., also known as discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) ) on the uplink (UL) , as well as supporting beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method performed by a wireless device determines whether a 4.9 GHz band is in use by a cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) . The method also operates a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point on an unlicensed spectrum (UNII) -2A and/or UNII-1 when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use by the cellular WWAN.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus for wireless communications performed by a wireless device, includes a processor and memory coupled with the processor. Instructions stored in the memory are operable, when executed by the processor, to cause the apparatus to determine whether a 4.9 GHz band is in use by a cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) . The apparatus can also operate a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point on an unlicensed spectrum (UNII) -2A and/or UNII-1 when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use by the cellular WWAN.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, a wireless device includes means for determining whether a 4.9 GHz band is in use by a cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) . The wireless device also includes means for operating a wireless local area network (WLAN) on an unlicensed spectrum (UNII) -2A and/or UNII-1 when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use by the cellular WWAN.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable medium with program code recorded thereon is disclosed. The program code is executed by a wireless device and includes program code to determine whether a 4.9 GHz band is in use by a cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) . The wireless device also includes program code to operate a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point on an unlicensed spectrum (UNII) -2A and/or UNII-1 when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use by the cellular WWAN.

This has outlined, rather broadly, the features and technical advantages of the present disclosure in order that the detailed description that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the present disclosure will be described below. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that this present disclosure may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present disclosure. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the teachings of the present disclosure as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features, which are believed to be characteristic of the present disclosure, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages, will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a particular description, may be had by reference to aspects, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only certain aspects of this disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the description may admit to other equally effective aspects. The same reference numbers in different drawings may identify the same or similar elements.

FIGURE 1 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a wireless communications network, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

FIGURE 2 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a base station in communication with a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

FIGURE 3A is a block diagram illustrating an example of a single platform fixed wireless access (FWA) customer-premises equipment (CPE) solution, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIGURE 3B is a block diagram illustrating an example of a split mount FWA CPE solution.

FIGURE 4A is a block diagram illustrating examples of wireless wide area network (WWAN) and wireless local area network (WLAN) frequency bands.

FIGURE 4B is a diagram illustrating country based regulations for different portions of the unlicensed spectrum (UNII) .

FIGURE 5 is a block diagram illustrating examples of WWAN and WLAN frequency bands with a 250 MHz guard band, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIGURE 6 is a diagram illustrating an example process performed, for example, by a wireless device, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects of the disclosure are described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings. This disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to any specific structure or function presented throughout this disclosure. Rather, these aspects are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. Based on the teachings, one skilled in the art should appreciate that the scope of the disclosure is intended to cover any aspect of the disclosure, whether implemented independently of or combined with any other aspect of the disclosure. For example, an apparatus may be implemented or a method may be practiced using any number of the aspects set forth. In addition, the scope of the disclosure is intended to cover such an apparatus or method which is practiced using other structure, functionality, or structure and functionality in addition to or other than the various aspects of the disclosure set forth. It should be understood that any aspect of the disclosure disclosed may be embodied by one or more elements of a claim.

Several aspects of telecommunications systems will now be presented with reference to various apparatuses and techniques. These apparatuses and techniques will be described in the following detailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings by various blocks, modules, components, circuits, steps, processes, algorithms, and/or the like (collectively referred to as “elements” ) . These elements may be implemented using hardware, software, or combinations thereof. Whether such elements are implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system.

It should be noted that while aspects may be described using terminology commonly associated with 5G and later wireless technologies, aspects of the present disclosure can be applied in other generation-based communications systems, such as and including 3G and/or 4G technologies.

5G new radio (NR) fixed wireless access (FWA) customer-premises equipment (CPE) solutions may provide cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) access and wireless local area network (WLAN) access to a user equipment (UE) . The 5G NR FWA CPE solutions may provide a single platform solution or a split mount solution. The single platform solution provides WiFi access (e.g., WLAN Access Point) and cellular access (e.g., cellular WWAN) via a single board.

Full-concurrency between the cellular WWAN and the WLAN are specified for 5G FWA CPE solutions. In some locations, the WLAN may operate on one or more unlicensed spectrums (UNII) , such as UNII-1 (5.150 -5.250 GHz) , UNII-2A (5.250 -5.350 GHz) , UNII-2C (5.470 -5.725 GHz) , and UNII-3 (5.725 -5.850 GHz) . Use of the unlicensed spectrum may be based on local regulations.

Additionally, in some locations, an N79 band is specified for cellular WWAN communication (e.g., 5G NR WWAN) . The N79 band includes a frequency range of 4.4 -5 GHz. To reduce interference between WLAN signals and WWAN signals, a 150 MHz guard band is specified between the N79 band and the WLAN band. Thus, use of the unlicensed spectrum may be limited to UNII-2C and/or UNII-3 when the 150 MHz guard band is defined between the N79 band and the WLAN band.

Still, in some locations, the 4.9 GHz band in the N79 frequency band is reserved, such that the cellular WWAN does not use the 4.9 GHz band. When the cellular WWAN does not use the 4.9 GHz band, the guard band between the N79 frequency band and the WLAN frequency band may be 250 MHz. In such situations, the WLAN Access Point may operate on UNII-1 and/or UNII-2A, in addition to UNII-2C and/or UNII-3.

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to determining whether a 4.9 GHz band is in use by a cellular WWAN and operating a WLAN on UNII-2A and/or UNII-1 when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use by the cellular WWAN.

FIGURE 1 is a diagram illustrating a network 100 in which aspects of the present disclosure may be practiced. The network 100 may be a 5G or NR network or some other wireless network, such as an LTE network. The wireless network 100 may include a number of BSs 110 (shown as BS 110a, BS 110b, BS 110c, and BS 110d) and other network entities. A BS is an entity that communicates with user equipment (UEs) and may also be referred to as a base station, an NR BS, a Node B, a gNB, a 5G node B (NB) , an access point, a transmit and receive point (TRP) , and/or the like. Each BS may provide communications coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of a BS and/or a BS subsystem serving this coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used.

A BS may provide communications coverage for a macro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or another type of cell. A macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access by UEs having association with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a closed subscriber group (CSG) ) . A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for a femto cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In the example shown in FIGURE 1, a BS 110a may be a macro BS for a macro cell 102a, a BS 110b may be a pico BS for a pico cell 102b, and a BS 110c may be a femto BS for a femto cell 102c. A BS may support one or multiple (e.g., three) cells. The terms “eNB” , “base station” , “NR BS” , “gNB” , “TRP” , “AP” , “node B” , “5G NB” , and “cell” may be used interchangeably.

In some aspects, a cell may not necessarily be stationary, and the geographic area of the cell may move according to the location of a mobile BS. In some aspects, the BSs may be interconnected to one another and/or to one or more other BSs or network nodes (not shown) in the wireless network 100 through various types of backhaul interfaces such as a direct physical connection, a virtual network, and/or the like using any suitable transport network.

The wireless network 100 may also include relay stations. A relay station is an entity that can receive a transmission of data from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or a UE) and send a transmission of the data to a downstream station (e.g., a UE or a BS) . A relay station may also be a UE that can relay transmissions for other UEs. In the example shown in FIGURE 1, a relay station 110d may communicate with macro BS 110a and a UE 120d in order to facilitate communications between the BS 110a and UE 120d. A relay station may also be referred to as a relay BS, a relay base station, a relay, and/or the like.

The wireless network 100 may be a heterogeneous network that includes BSs of different types, e.g., macro BSs, pico BSs, femto BSs, relay BSs, and/or the like. These different types of BSs may have different transmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different impact on interference in the wireless network 100. For example, macro BSs may have a high transmit power level (e.g., 5 to 40 Watts) whereas pico BSs, femto BSs, and relay BSs may have lower transmit power levels (e.g., 0.1 to 2 Watts) .

As an example, the BSs 110 (shown as BS 110a, BS 110b, BS 110c, and BS 110d) and the core network 130 may exchange communications via backhaul links 132 (e.g., S1, etc. ) . Base stations 110 may communicate with one another over other backhaul links (e.g., X2, etc. ) either directly or indirectly (e.g., through core network 130) .

The core network 130 may be an evolved packet core (EPC) , which may include at least one mobility management entity (MME) , at least one serving gateway (S-GW) , and at least one packet data network (PDN) gateway (P-GW) . The MME may be the control node that processes the signaling between the UEs 120 and the EPC. All user IP packets may be transferred through the S-GW, which itself may be connected to the P-GW. The P-GW may provide IP address allocation as well as other functions. The P-GW may be connected to the network operator's IP services. The operator's IP services may include the Internet, the Intranet, an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) , and a packet-switched (PS) streaming service.

The core network 130 may provide user authentication, access authorization, tracking, IP connectivity, and other access, routing, or mobility functions. One or more of the base stations 110 or access node controllers (ANCs) may interface with the core network 130 through backhaul links 132 (e.g., S1, S2, etc. ) and may perform radio configuration and scheduling for communications with the UEs 120. In some configurations, various functions of each access network entity or base station 110 may be distributed across various network devices (e.g., radio heads and access network controllers) or consolidated into a single network device (e.g., a base station 110) .

UEs 120 (e.g., 120a, 120b, 120c) may be dispersed throughout the wireless network 100, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. A UE may also be referred to as an access terminal, a terminal, a mobile station, a subscriber unit, a station, and/or the like. A UE may be a cellular phone (e.g., a smart phone) , a personal digital assistant (PDA) , a wireless modem, a wireless communications device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a tablet, a camera, a gaming device, a netbook, a smartbook, an ultrabook, a medical device or equipment, biometric sensors/devices, wearable devices (smart watches, smart clothing, smart glasses, smart wrist bands, smart jewelry (e.g., smart ring, smart bracelet) ) , an entertainment device (e.g., a music or video device, or a satellite radio) , a vehicular component or sensor, smart meters/sensors, industrial manufacturing equipment, a global positioning system device, or any other suitable device that is configured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium.

One or more UEs 120 may establish a protocol data unit (PDU) session for a network slice. In some cases, the UE 120 may select a network slice based on an application or subscription service. By having different network slices serving different applications or subscriptions, the UE 120 may improve its resource utilization in the wireless communications system 100, while also satisfying performance specifications of individual applications of the UE 120. In some cases, the network slices used by UE 120 may be served by an access and mobility management function (AMF) (not shown in FIGURE 1) associated with one or both of the base station 110 or core network 130. In addition, session management of the network slices may be performed by an AMF.

Some UEs may be considered machine-type communications (MTC) or evolved or enhanced machine-type communications (eMTC) UEs. MTC and eMTC UEs include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, and/or the like, that may communicate with a base station, another device (e.g., remote device) , or some other entity. A wireless node may provide, for example, connectivity for or to a network (e.g., a wide area network such as Internet or a cellular network) via a wired or wireless communications link. Some UEs may be considered Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, and/or may be implemented as NB-IoT (narrowband internet of things) devices. Some UEs may be considered a customer premises equipment (CPE) . UE 120 may be included inside a housing that houses components of UE 120, such as processor components, memory components, and/or the like.

In general, any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a given geographic area. Each wireless network may support a particular radio access technology (RAT) and may operate on one or more frequencies. A RAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, an air interface, and/or the like. A frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, a frequency channel, and/or the like. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a given geographic area in order to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RAT networks may be deployed.

In some aspects, two or more UEs 120 (e.g., shown as UE 120a and UE 120e) may communicate directly using one or more sidelink channels (e.g., without using a base station 110 as an intermediary to communicate with one another) . For example, the UEs 120 may communicate using peer-to-peer (P2P) communications, device-to-device (D2D) communications, a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) protocol (e.g., which may include a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) protocol, a vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) protocol, and/or the like) , a mesh network, and/or the like. In this case, the UE 120 may perform scheduling operations, resource selection operations, and/or other operations described elsewhere as being performed by the base station 110. For example, the base station 110 may configure a UE 120 via downlink control information (DCI) , radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a media access control-control element (MAC-CE) or via system information (e.g., a system information block (SIB) .

As indicated above, FIGURE 1 is provided merely as an example. Other examples may differ from what is described with regard to FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 2 shows a block diagram of a design 200 of the base station 110 and UE 120, which may be one of the base stations and one of the UEs in FIGURE 1. The base station 110 may be equipped with T antennas 234a through 234t, and UE 120 may be equipped with R antennas 252a through 252r, where in general T ≥ 1 and R ≥ 1.

At the base station 110, a transmit processor 220 may receive data from a data source 212 for one or more UEs, select one or more modulation and coding schemes (MCS) for each UE based at least in part on channel quality indicators (CQIs) received from the UE, process (e.g., encode and modulate) the data for each UE based at least in part on the MCS (s) selected for the UE, and provide data symbols for all UEs. Decreasing the MCS lowers throughput but increases reliability of the transmission. The transmit processor 220 may also process system information (e.g., for semi-static resource partitioning information (SRPI) and/or the like) and control information (e.g., CQI requests, grants, upper layer signaling, and/or the like) and provide overhead symbols and control symbols. The transmit processor 220 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (e.g., the cell-specific reference signal (CRS) ) and synchronization signals (e.g., the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS) ) . A transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, the control symbols, the overhead symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide T output symbol streams to T modulators (MODs) 232a through 232t. Each modulator 232 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM and/or the like) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator 232 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. T downlink signals from modulators 232a through 232t may be transmitted via T antennas 234a through 234t, respectively. According to various aspects described in more detail below, the synchronization signals can be generated with location encoding to convey additional information.

At the UE 120, antennas 252a through 252r may receive the downlink signals from the base station 110 and/or other base stations and may provide received signals to demodulators (DEMODs) 254a through 254r, respectively. Each demodulator 254 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator 254 may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM and/or the like) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from all R demodulators 254a through 254r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. A receive processor 258 may process (e.g., demodulate and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 120 to a data sink 260, and provide decoded control information and system information to a controller/processor 280. A channel processor may determine reference signal received power (RSRP) , received signal strength indicator (RSSI) , reference signal received quality (RSRQ) , channel quality indicator (CQI) , and/or the like. In some aspects, one or more components of the UE 120 may be included in a housing.

On the uplink, at the UE 120, a transmit processor 264 may receive and process data from a data source 262 and control information (e.g., for reports comprising RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, CQI, and/or the like) from the controller/processor 280. Transmit processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for one or more reference signals. The symbols from the transmit processor 264 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 266 if applicable, further processed by modulators 254a through 254r (e.g., for DFT-s-OFDM, CP-OFDM, and/or the like) , and transmitted to the base station 110. At the base station 110, the uplink signals from the UE 120 and other UEs may be received by the antennas 234, processed by the demodulators 254, detected by a MIMO detector 236 if applicable, and further processed by a receive processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information sent by the UE 120. The receive processor 238 may provide the decoded data to a data sink 239 and the decoded control information to a controller/processor 240. The base station 110 may include communications unit 244 and communicate to the network controller 130 via the communications unit 244. The network controller 130 may include a communications unit 294, a controller/processor 290, and a memory 292.

The controller/processor 240 of the base station 110, the controller/processor 280 of the UE 120, and/or any other component (s) of FIGURE 2 may perform one or more techniques associated with guard band width detection as described in more detail elsewhere. For example, the controller/processor 240 of the base station 110, the controller/processor 280 of the UE 120, and/or any other component (s) of FIGURE 2 may perform or direct operations of, for example, the process of FIGURE 6 and/or other processes as described.

Memories

242 and 282 may store data and program codes for the base station 110 and UE 120, respectively. A scheduler 246 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and/or uplink.

As indicated above, FIGURE 2 is provided merely as an example. Other examples may differ from what is described with regard to FIGURE 2.

5G new radio (NR) fixed wireless access (FWA) customer-premises equipment (CPE) solutions may provide cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) access and wireless local area network (WLAN) access to a user equipment (UE) . The 5G NR FWA CPE solutions may be a single platform solution or a split mount solution.

FIGURE 3A is a block diagram illustrating an example of a single platform FWA CPE solution 300, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The single platform FWA CPE solution 300 is an indoor unit that integrates a home router. As shown in FIGURE 3A, the single platform FWA CPE solution 300 provides WiFi access (e.g., WLAN access) via a WLAN radio. In the example of FIGURE 3A, WiFi access is provided according to the IEEE 802.11ax standard. WiFi access is not limited to the IEEE 802.11ax standard; other WiFi standards are considered. The single platform FWA CPE solution 300 also provides cellular access (e.g., cellular WWAN access) via a cellular radio. The cellular WWAN may be a 5G wireless access network. Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication may also be provided via the single platform FWA CPE solution 300. The cellular radio and the WLAN radio may communicate via a high-speed bus, such as a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) -generation 3 (g3) bus.

In some aspects, the base station 110, UE 120, and/or FWA CPE may include means for determining whether a 4.9 GHz band is in use by a cellular WWAN, such as the 5G wireless access network. The base station 110, UE 120, and/or FWA CPE may also include means for operating a WLAN on an unlicensed spectrum (UNII) -2A and/or UNII-1 when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use by the cellular WWAN. Such means may include one or more components of the base station 110 and/or the UE 120 described in connection with FIGURE 2, and/or one or more components of the single platform FWA CPE solution 300 described in connection with FIGURE 3A.

FIGURE 3B is a block diagram illustrating an example of a split mount FWA CPE solution 350. In the example of FIGURE 3B, the split mount FWA CPE solution 350 includes an outdoor unit (ODU) for providing cellular access (e.g., cellular WWAN access) via a cellular radio. The cellular WWAN may be a 5G wireless access network. The split mount FWA CPE solution 350 also includes an indoor unit (IDU) for providing WiFi access (e.g., WLAN access) via a WLAN radio. In the example of FIGURE 3B, WiFi access is provided according to the IEEE 802.11ax standard. The IDU and ODU may communicate via Ethernet (Eth) . The ODU may include a network interface card (NIC) for interfacing with the Ethernet connection. The NIC and the cellular radio communicate via a high-speed bus, such as PCIe-g3 bus. Additionally, the ODU may receive power from the IDU via Power over Ethernet (PoE) .

As described, full concurrency between the cellular WWAN (e.g., 5G NR WWAN) and the WLAN (e.g., 5 GHz WLAN) is specified for an FWA CPE solution, such as the single platform FWA CPE solution 300 described in FIGURE 3A. Time division multiplexing is not a viable radio frequency (RF) coexistence solution because the loss of WLAN signals in the time domain degrades the FWA CPE’s capacity.

Full-concurrency may also be specified to prevent adding channel/frequency selection limitations to limitations specified in WLAN regulatory standards. Full- concurrency may also be specified to preserve WLAN frequency planning flexibility for enterprise/large-scale access point deployment scenarios. Full-concurrency may further be specified to preserve a WLAN single-band simultaneous (SBS) feature for providing two independent WLAN connections without RF coexistence issues. The SBS feature may allocate half of the receiver/transmitter chains to one connection, and remaining receiver/transmitter chains to another connection.

FIGURE 4A is a block diagram illustrating examples of WWAN and WLAN frequency bands. In the example of FIGURE 4A, the WWAN may operate on the N77 band (3.3 –4.2 GHz) , the N78 band (3.3 –3.8 GHz) , and the N79 band (4.4 –5 GHz) . The frequency band allocation may be based on local regulations (e.g., country specific regulations) . Additionally, as shown in FIGURE 4A, a range of the WLAN band may be 5.150 –5.835 GHz. As described above, to mitigate interference between signals transmitted or received in the N79 band and WLAN band, a 150 MHz guard band is specified between the N79 band and the WLAN band.

The range of the WLAN band may differ based on local regulations. FIGURE 4B is a diagram illustrating country based regulations for different portions of the unlicensed spectrum (UNII) . Specifically, FIGURE 4B shows the regulations specified by China and Japan for UNII-1 (5.150 -5.250 GHz) , UNII-2A (5.250 -5.350 GHz) , UNII-2C (5.470 -5.725 GHz) , and UNII-3 (5.725 -5.850 GHz) .

As described above, when the wireless WWAN operates on the N79 band, the WLAN band may be limited to the UNII-2C band and/or the UNII-3 band to reduce interference.

In some cases, RF filters may enable concurrency between the N79 band and the WLAN band. Still, in some cases, such as cases with small suboptimalities or poor RF filters, a software based channel avoidance function may be used. Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to determining a width of the guard band between the N79 band and WLAN band to improve performance of a 5G FWA CPE device.

In some countries, the cellular WWAN may operate in the 4.9 GHz band of the N79 band. In other countries, the 4.9 GHz band is reserved. That is, the cellular devices may not operate in the 4.9 GHz band.

Additionally, some wireless devices, such as WLAN devices, may be configured to operate in the 4.9 GHz band. In these devices, use of the 4.9 GHz band may be limited to situations where cellular WWAN communication in the 4.9 GHz band is reserved (e.g., not allowed) .

In one implementation, a WLAN radio scans the 4.9 GHz band to determine whether the 4.9 GHz band is in use by the cellular WWAN. The scanning may be a channel scan (e.g., a software based auto channel scan or continuous/periodic scan) . The channel scan may be automatically or dynamically performed. In one example, packets are transmitted in various bands. Based on the transmitted packets, the WLAN radio may determine that a band is in use if interference is detected.

If the 4.9 GHz band is not in use, the width of the guard band may be 250 MHz, in contrast to the default width of 150 MHz. Based on the larger guard band, the WLAN may operate in the UNII-2A band and/or UNII-1 band. That is, the WLAN may operate in the UNII-2A band and/or UNII-1 band, in addition to the UNII-2C band and/or the UNII-3 band. Use of the additional bands (e.g., UNII-2A band and/or UNII-1 band) may improve WLAN performance.

FIGURE 5 is a block diagram illustrating examples of WWAN and WLAN frequency bands with a 250 MHz guard band, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. As shown in FIGURE 5, the 250 MHz guard band is defined between the N79 band and the WLAN band. The 250 MHz guard band may be defined when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use.

As indicated above, FIGURES 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, and 5 are provided as examples. Other examples may differ from what is described with respect to FIGURES 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, and 5.

FIGURE 6 is a diagram illustrating an example process 600 performed, for example, by a wireless device, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless device may be a single platform FWA CPE, such as the single platform FWA CPE solution 300 described in FIGURE 3A. The example process 600 is an example of guard bandwidth detection for cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) and wireless local area network (WLAN) concurrency.

As shown in FIGURE 6, in some aspects, the process 600 may include determining whether a 4.9 GHZ band is in use by a cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) (block 602) . For example, the user equipment (UE) (e.g., using the antenna 252, DEMOD/MOD 254, MIMO detector 256, TX MIMO processor 266, receive processor 258, transmit processor 264, controller/processor 280, and/or memory 282) can determine whether a 4.9 GHZ band is in use by a cellular WWAN. In some aspects, the process 600 may include operating a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point on an unlicensed spectrum (UNII) -2A and/or UNII-1 when the 4.9 GHZ band is not in use by the cellular WWAN (block 604) . For example, the user equipment (UE) (e.g., using the antenna 252, DEMOD/MOD 254, MIMO detector 256, TX MIMO processor 266, receive processor 258, transmit processor 264, controller/processor 280, and/or memory 282) can operate the WLAN access point.

The foregoing disclosure provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the aspects to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations may be made in light of the above disclosure or may be acquired from practice of the aspects.

As used, the term “component” is intended to be broadly construed as hardware, firmware, and/or a combination of hardware and software. As used, a processor is implemented in hardware, firmware, and/or a combination of hardware and software.

Some aspects are described in connection with thresholds. As used, satisfying a threshold may, depending on the context, refer to a value being greater than the threshold, greater than or equal to the threshold, less than the threshold, less than or equal to the threshold, equal to the threshold, not equal to the threshold, and/or the like.

It will be apparent that systems and/or methods described may be implemented in different forms of hardware, firmware, and/or a combination of hardware and software. The actual specialized control hardware or software code used to implement these systems and/or methods is not limiting of the aspects. Thus, the operation and behavior of the systems and/or methods were described without reference to specific software code-it being understood that software and hardware can be designed to implement the systems and/or methods based, at least in part, on the description.

Even though particular combinations of features are recited in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification, these combinations are not intended to limit the disclosure of various aspects. In fact, many of these features may be combined in ways not specifically recited in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification. Although each dependent claim listed below may directly depend on only one claim, the disclosure of various aspects includes each dependent claim in combination with every other claim in the claim set. A phrase referring to “at least one of” a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including single members. As an example, “at least one of: a, b, or c” is intended to cover a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, and a-b-c, as well as any combination with multiples of the same element (e.g., a-a, a-a-a, a-a-b, a-a-c, a-b-b, a-c-c, b-b, b-b-b, b-b-c, c-c, and c-c-c or any other ordering of a, b, and c) .

No element, act, or instruction used should be construed as critical or essential unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used, the articles “a” and “an” are intended to include one or more items, and may be used interchangeably with “one or more. ” Furthermore, as used, the terms “set” and “group” are intended to include one or more items (e.g., related items, unrelated items, a combination of related and unrelated items, and/or the like) , and may be used interchangeably with “one or more. ” Where only one item is intended, the phrase “only one” or similar language is used. Also, as used, the terms “has, ” “have, ” “having, ” and/or the like are intended to be open-ended terms. Further, the phrase “based on” is intended to mean “based, at least in part, on” unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Claims

A method performed by wireless device, comprising:

determining whether a 4.9 GHz band is in use by a cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) ; and

operating a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point on an unlicensed spectrum (UNII) -2A and/or UNII-1 when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use by the cellular WWAN.
The method of claim 1, in which the wireless device comprises a single platform fixed wireless access (FWA) customer precise equipment (CPE) or a split mount FWA CPE.
The method of claim 2, in which the single platform FWA CPE comprises one or more WLAN and cellular WWAN radios on a same board.
The method of claim 1, further comprising scanning the 4.9 GHz band to determine whether it is in use by the cellular WWAN.
The method of claim 4, further comprising scanning the 4.9 GHz based on a channel scan.
The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a guard band width is 250 MHz when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use.
The method of claim 1, in which the cellular WWAN is a fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) WWAN and the WLAN is a 5 GHz WLAN.
The method of claim 1, further comprising operating the WLAN access point on UNII-2C and/or UNII-3 regardless of whether the 4.9 GHz band is in use.
An apparatus for wireless communications performed by a wireless device, comprising:

a processor;

memory coupled with the processor; and

instructions stored in the memory and operable, when executed by the processor, to cause the apparatus:

to determine whether a 4.9 GHz band is in use by a cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) ; and

to operate a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point on an unlicensed spectrum (UNII) -2A and/or UNII-1 when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use by the cellular WWAN.
The apparatus of claim 9, in which the wireless device comprises a single platform fixed wireless access (FWA) customer precise equipment (CPE) or a split mount FWA CPE.
The apparatus of claim 10, in which the single platform FWA CPE comprises one or more WLAN and cellular WWAN radios on a same board.
The apparatus of claim 9, in which the processor causes the apparatus to scan the 4.9 GHz band to determine whether it is in use by the cellular WWAN.
The apparatus of claim 12, in which the processor causes the apparatus to scan the 4.9 GHz based on a channel scan.
The apparatus of claim 9, in which the processor causes the apparatus to determine a guard band width is 250 MHz when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use.
The apparatus of claim 9, in which the cellular WWAN is a fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) WWAN and the WLAN is a 5 GHz WLAN.
The apparatus of claim 9, in which the processor causes the apparatus to operate the WLAN access point on UNII-2C and/or UNII-3 regardless of whether the 4.9 GHz band is in use.
A wireless device, comprising:

means for determining whether a 4.9 GHz band is in use by a cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) ; and

means for operating a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point on an unlicensed spectrum (UNII) -2A and/or UNII-1 when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use by the cellular WWAN.
The wireless device of claim 17, in which the wireless device comprises a single platform fixed wireless access (FWA) customer precise equipment (CPE) or a split mount FWA CPE.
The wireless device of claim 18, in which the single platform FWA CPE comprises one or more WLAN and cellular WWAN radios on a same board.
The wireless device of claim 17, further comprising means for scanning the 4.9 GHz band to determine whether it is in use by the cellular WWAN.
The wireless device of claim 20, further comprising means for scanning the 4.9 GHz based on a channel scan.
The wireless device of claim 17, further comprising means for determining a guard band width is 250 MHz when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use.
The wireless device of claim 17, in which the cellular WWAN is a fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) WWAN and the WLAN is a 5 GHz WLAN.
The wireless device of claim 17, further comprising means for operating the WLAN access point on UNII-2C and/or UNII-3 regardless of whether the 4.9 GHz band is in use.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon, the program code executed by a wireless device and comprising:

program code to determine whether a 4.9 GHz band is in use by a cellular wireless wide area network (WWAN) ; and

program code to operate a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point on an unlicensed spectrum (UNII) -2A and/or UNII-1 when the 4.9 GHz band is not in use by the cellular WWAN.