Auto Detection Tab (6GR)

The Auto Detection tab of the Signal Config tab lets the demodulator determine the signal structure from the signal itself, instead of requiring you to enter it on the Carrier Definition tab. While auto detection is enabled, each measurement searches the acquired signal for the selected channel types (SS/PBCH, PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PUSCH) and reports the parameters it determined in the results tables in the lower half of the tab. You can then apply those parameters to the signal definition with Copy To Setup.

Unlike the Carrier Mapping and Carrier Definition tabs, this tab does not follow the Carrier selector. These settings apply to the measurement as a whole.

Detection Settings

All four settings are auto-coupled — see Auto and Manual Parameter Coupling. Each channel's setting takes effect only while Enabled is also selected.

Enabled - The main switch for auto detection. When cleared, no detection runs, and the results tables keep whatever the last detecting measurement reported.

Default: Auto — cleared

SS/PBCH - Detects the SS/PBCH configuration of the carrier: its pattern, Lmax, active indexes, periodicity, and frequency position. Detected values appear on the SS/PBCH results tab.

Default: Auto — cleared

Enabling SS/PBCH detection also causes the cell identity to be detected, overriding the selected Cell ID rule on the Carrier Mapping tab.

This is not the same setting as Auto Detect Active Blocks on the SS/PBCH tab. That one thresholds which indexes of an SS/PBCH configuration you have already specified are active; this one detects the whole configuration.

PDSCH - Detects the downlink shared-channel allocations in the carrier's bandwidth part: their resource-block region, symbol extent, modulation, and DMRS configuration. One allocation group is reported for each distinct combination the detector finds. Detected values appear on the PDSCH results tab.

Default: Auto — cleared

Detecting PDSCH does not by itself give the demodulator a synchronization reference. On a downlink carrier with Enabled selected, PDSCH detection selected, and SS/PBCH detection cleared, synchronization comes from whichever SS/PBCH blocks you have configured and enabled on the SS/PBCH tab. In this condition, an "Any enabled SS/PBCH is used for synchronization" message appears next to the Enabled toggle, reminding you to check that the configured SS/PBCH blocks describe the signal you are measuring.

PUSCH - The uplink equivalent of PDSCH detection. Detected values appear on the PUSCH results tab.

Default: Auto — cleared

A carrier has one link direction, so one carrier cannot detect both PDSCH and PUSCH. The carrier definition's Link Direction selects which of the two runs.

Detection Controls

Run Auto Detection - Runs a single detection pass and reports the outcome in the message area below the Signal Config toolbar, where a summary line can be expanded for the detail. The measurement is switched to single sweep and paused for the duration of the pass, then returned to the state it was in — including the state of Enabled, so you can run one pass without leaving continuous detection on. The results of the pass are kept. A progress window appears while the pass runs and can be canceled; a pass that does not complete within 60 seconds is abandoned and the measurement is restored.

Refresh Detected - Re-reads the parameters the measurement is currently detecting into that channel's results table, and reports how many were found. Each of the three channels has its own button.

While auto detection is enabled, every measurement detects and publishes fresh results, but the results tables deliberately do not follow the sweep: a live updating table could not be read, and could not be relied on by Copy To Setup. A table updates only when you press Refresh Detected, when a Run Auto Detection pass completes, or when the dialog box is reopened.

Copy To Setup - Applies that channel's detected parameters to the signal definition on the Carrier Definition tab, and reports what it did in the same message area. Expand the summary line there to see, per channel, whether the channel was created or updated and which parameters were not detected and therefore left unchanged. Each of the three channels has its own button, available only while that channel's results table holds records.

The copy applies exactly what the results table is showing. Press Refresh Detected to get the results from the latest auto-detection pass on that channel type. Parameters the detector could not determine (shown as *** in the table) are left unchanged, with their Auto flags still set. Every parameter that was detected is written with its Auto flag cleared, so it is used as written from then on. Channels are created as needed when more allocation groups were detected than the carrier definition currently configures; channels beyond the detected count are left alone.

The copy applies to the first carrier definition. SS/PBCH blocks are created up to the maximum of four; any further detected configurations are ignored.

Detected Results

The lower half of the tab holds one read-only results table per channel type. Each table lists the detected parameters down the left side, with one column per detected allocation group or SS block.

SS/PBCH — the detected SS/PBCH configurations.
PDSCH — the detected downlink shared-channel allocation groups.
PUSCH — the detected uplink shared-channel allocation groups.

Detected results are measurement output rather than settings, so they are not saved with the setup.

Requirements and Limitations

Auto detection does not run, and reports nothing, on a carrier that uses:

more than one numerology — that is, more than one resource grid, or
more than one measurement input channel — that is, a MIMO Multiple Input, Multiple Output: A physical layer (PHY) configuration in which both transmitter and receiver use multiple antennas. configuration. See Meas Channel Indexes.

An empty results table therefore means either that nothing was found in the signal or that the carrier is configured in a way auto detection does not run on.

Two further points affect how a detecting measurement behaves:

While PDSCH or PUSCH detection is running, the analysis interval is set to one complete frame, and the Result Length you configured is not used.
Detection runs on a single bandwidth part — the one you have enabled, or the first one in range.