Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
Method and apparatus for group transmissions from multiple users to a mobile telecommunications network

Abstract:

Methods and devices are proposed for enabling group transmission of data from a group of devices to a base station of a mobile telecommunications network. In order to enable beamforming for each of the group of devices, a plurality of unique antenna identifiers is assigned to each transmit antenna of the devices forming the beamforming group. The antenna identifiers are communicated to the base station. Each device of the beamforming group then transmits sounding reference signals to the base station with each transmit antenna identified with a unique identifier. The individual devices then receive respective beamforming precoding information, for each antenna identified with the unique antenna identifier, generated in response to a respective sounding reference signal from the base station. The devices then utilize the respective precoding information to transmit data to the base station as part of a joint beamforming transmission from the group of devices.