Add beam section to RFSimulator README.md

2025-12-23 10:05:14 +01:00
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@@ -209,3 +209,54 @@ to reduce the amount of transported samples:
 A possible, unimplemented optimization would be to compress samples.

 You can further [tune your machine](../../doc/tuning_and_security.md)
+
+# Beam simulation
+
+RFsimulator supports beam domain simulation.
+
+## Configuration
+
+Several new CLI parameters were added
+
+* `--rfsimulator.enable_beams` : enable beam domain simulation. Should match on server and all clients.
+* `--rfsimulator.beam_gains <comma separated list>` : define a matrix of additional pathloss values (in dB)
+to simulate the effect of different beam combinations in the RF simulator. You provide a comma-separated
+list of numbers, which forms the first row of a square matrix. The rest of the matrix is filled by projecting
+these values onto the diagonals, making it symmetric.
+
+ Example list: `0,-2,-3`
+ Resulting matrix:
+ ```
+ [[0,-2,-3],
+  [-2,0,-2],
+  [-3,-2,0]]
+ ```
+
+ The beam gain matrix will be used during beam combining. RX beam selects the row and TX beam selects column.
+ Using the example above, if gNB is receiving in beam 1 and the UE is transmitting in beam 1, an additional
+ 2 dB pathloss will be applied on top of the pathloss from the channel model (if present).
+
+* `--rfsimulator.beam_map <beam_map>` : where `<beam_map>` is a `uint64_t` value where each bit is an enabled TX/RX beam.
+   For gNB: Initial beam_map, i.e. which beams gNB transmits/receives before calling beam APIs.
+   For UE: Beam position in beam space in the simulation. The UE is not expected to use the beam APIs for now.
+
+## Runtime commands
+
+### Moving the UE in beam space
+
+Use telnet command `rfsimu setbeams <beam_map>`. It works similar to the CLI command `--rfsimulator.beam_map <beam_map>`.
+Suggest to only use single bits here
+
+### Modifying the gNB beam
+
+It is possible to test the beam domain simulation without implementing the beam APIs. The same telnet command can be used
+to modify the tx/rx beam of the gNB. The gNB does not need to be beam-aware and use the new APIs. 
+
+## Programming guide
+
+RFsimulator is attempting to simulate hardware device operation, but there are differences. Like with real hardware,
+it is expected that you provide the configured beams in `set_beams` function ahead of sample reception. This is due
+to the fact that a hardware device will buffer received samples before the driver requests them.
+
+For rfsimulator, as long as the call to `set_beams` with timestamp `n` is done before `trx_read` which is expected
+to return sample `n` the beam switch command will apply to the received samples.