KR101244531B1 - Method for interface control of channel card and if board in a wireless communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides an interface method between boards in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: periodically checking a state of at least one board among a plurality of boards transmitting and receiving signals, and changing the state at any one first board as a result of the check. When this occurs, checking the state information of the first board, and setting the path of the second board for transmitting and receiving a signal with the first board in accordance with the state information of the first board, And controlling an interface between the first board and the second board in response to the path information.

WiBro, Channel Card, IF Board, Interface, LVDS, FPGA, SMM, DCM

Description

METHODO FOR INTERFACE CONTROL OF CHANNEL CARD AND IF BOARD IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM}

1 is a view schematically showing an interface structure between a channel card and an IF board in a general communication system;

2 is a view schematically showing an interface structure between a channel card and an IF board in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a view schematically showing an IF board control structure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a diagram illustrating an interface control procedure based on channel card state information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a diagram illustrating a path control procedure between a channel card and an IF board according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a broadband wireless access (BWA) communication system, and more particularly, to an interface control method between boards mounted in a base station (BS) in a broadband wireless access communication system.

Commonly used technologies for providing data services to users in the current wireless communication environment include CDMA2000 Code Division Multiple Access 2000 1x Evolution Data Optimized (GPDMA), General Packet Radio Services (GPRS), and Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service (UMTS). And wireless LAN technologies such as 2.5 generation or 3 generation cellular mobile communication technology, and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 wireless local area network (hereinafter referred to as "LAN"). Divided into

In addition, various short-range wireless access technologies, such as IEEE 802.16 based wireless LAN, have appeared in parallel with the evolution of the mobile communication technologies. The short-range wireless access technologies replace wired communication networks such as cable modems or digital subscriber lines (xDSLs) in hot spot areas or home networks, such as public places or schools, As an alternative for providing high speed data service in a wireless environment.

However, when providing a high-speed data service over the wireless LAN described above, there are limitations in providing public network services to users due to extremely limited mobility and narrow service area as well as radio wave interference.

Therefore, efforts to overcome the above limitations have been made at various angles. For example, researches on portable Internet technologies that complement the advantages and disadvantages of cellular mobile communication systems and wireless LANs are being actively conducted. As a representative example of the portable Internet technology, which is currently being standardized and developed, researches on a wireless broadband Internet (WiBro) system are being actively conducted. The WiBro system can provide high-speed data services in mobile environments such as indoor / outdoor stop environment, walking speed, and medium / low speed (about 60 km / h) using various types of mobile terminals (MS).

On the other hand, in recent years, there is a need for a technology that can increase the transmission speed in order to provide a higher quality service in accordance with the rapid increase in demand for wireless communication, expansion of the Internet and rapid development of communication technology. In addition, there is a need for additional equipment of the base station due to the limitation of frequency resources, limitations in multimedia communication such as moving pictures, and increasing service radius. However, the additional equipment of such a base station is not only difficult to implement, but also incurs a large cost for the additional equipment. Therefore, there is a need for a technology for solving a problem such as the need for a plurality of base stations. As such technology, a system using multiple antennas, for example, a smart antenna system, is applied.

The principle of the smart antenna system is a method of concentrating radio waves in a direction of a desired subscriber by using spatial multiplexing, and reducing and transmitting an interference signal of another subscriber. This makes it possible to efficiently use the limited radio resources of the existing communication system. That is, when using a conventional omni-directional antenna, not only a mobile station (MS) but also a signal from an unwanted mobile terminal is transmitted and received. However, the smart antenna system can suppress the interference signal by transmitting and receiving only the signal from the desired mobile terminal.

On the other hand, the base station of the WiBro system as described above, for example, a radio access station (Radio Access Station, hereinafter referred to as "RAS") supports the performance of the system and various interfaces, and the intermediate frequency ( Intermediate Frequency (IF) is used as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board using Xilinx MGT (Multi-Gigabit Transceiver). In addition, in the WiBro RAS system, an interface structure between a channel card and an IF board is connected to a full mesh structure. Since the interface structure will be described later, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In the WiBro RAS system, signal data transmission and reception between the channel card and the IF board is typically transmitted regardless of the state of the channel card. However, if the data is transmitted as described above without the channel card mounted, a noise signal for the surrounding channel acts as an interference through the full mesh path on the IF board and the channel card. As a result, system performance may be degraded.

In addition, when the channel card is not mounted as described above, floating data is generated when data is transmitted and received between the channel card and the IF board, and the performance of the channel is degraded due to the floating data. do. This problem can occur very seriously in systems with smart antennas. Therefore, a method for solving such a problem is required.

In addition, there is a state information management function as part of solving the above problems, but in the prior art, the state information management function simply collects only state information periodically and delivers it to the operator. Difficult to solve

Therefore, the present invention was devised to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an efficient interface control method capable of eliminating interference between boards mounted in a base station in a wireless communication system.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an efficient interface method between a channel card and an IF board in a wireless communication system.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a path selection method between channel cards and IF boards by software in a broadband wireless access communication system using a smart antenna scheme.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an efficient interface method for preventing performance degradation of a peripheral channel when transmitting link data between a channel card and an IF board in a WiBro system.

Still another object of the present invention is to collect the channel card status information periodically in the WiBro system, and selectively transmit only the channel card status information during the system operation, thereby providing a method of determining whether the channel card is mounted. Is in.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method of preventing performance degradation of the system by controlling the path between the channel card and the IF board in software according to the mounting state of the channel card in the WiBro system.

Method according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above objects; In an interface method between boards in a wireless communication system, a process of periodically checking at least one board state among a plurality of boards transmitting and receiving a signal, and when a state change occurs in any one of the first boards as a result of the check Checking the state information of the first board, setting a path of a second board that transmits / receives a signal with the first board according to the state information of the first board, and sets the path information. Correspondingly, controlling the interface between the first board and the second board.

Method according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above objects; A method of controlling an interface between a channel card and an intermediate frequency (IF) board in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: periodically checking a state of a channel card in a first software module, and changing the state of the channel card in the first software module. If so, reporting the changed status information of the channel card to the second software module, the second software module is to set a path with the IF board in accordance with the status information of the channel card, and the channel And controlling the IF board in accordance with the routing information between the card and the IF board.

Method according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above objects; In the wireless communication system, the path setting method between the channel card and the intermediate frequency (IF) board by software, the status management module checks the system shape and status information, and the status management module is the channel corresponding to the alarm occurrence Checking the mounting state of the card, and when the channel card state change is recognized as a result, the state management module notifies the device control module of the change of the channel card, and the device control module sends the channel card. Checking path information of the controller; and checking, by the device control module, an on / off state of an IF board path according to the path information, and controlling a path of the IF board according to the channel card state information. It includes.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that in the following description, only parts necessary for understanding the operation according to the present invention will be described, and descriptions of other parts will be omitted so as not to distract from the gist of the present invention.

Prior to the description of the invention, the terms or words used in the specification and claims described below are not to be construed as limiting in their usual or dictionary meanings, and the inventors are contemplating their own invention in the best way. For the purpose of explanation, it should be interpreted as meaning and concept corresponding to the technical idea of the present invention based on the principle that it can be properly defined by the concept of term. Therefore, the embodiments described in the specification and the drawings shown in the drawings are only the most preferred embodiment of the present invention, and do not represent all of the technical idea of the present invention, various modifications that can be replaced at the time of the present application It should be understood that there may be equivalents and variations.

The present invention relates to a broadband wireless access (BWA) communication system. In particular, the embodiment of the present invention will be described by taking a wireless broadband Internet (WiBro) system hereinafter referred to as "WiBro" system. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and therefore, the present invention can be applied to any communication system using a multiple access method.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, an intermediate frequency (hereinafter referred to as "RAS") that is mounted in a wireless access station including a smart antenna (SA) in the WiBro system (hereinafter referred to as "RAS") is called "IF". An interface method for efficient data transmission between an HPi Intermediate Frequency board Assembly (HIFA) and a channel card (HiPA), for example, an HPi Channel Element Packet Data Board Assembly (HEPA), is provided.

That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, the corresponding path is software controlled to correspond to the state information of the channel card so as to prevent performance degradation of the peripheral channel. For example, in the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when a channel card is changed / demounted or the like, correspondingly, the MGT (Multi-Gigabit Transceiver) of the corresponding path is software-controlled correspondingly. / Off), it is possible to prevent performance degradation of peripheral sectors due to data floating on the channel card side.

As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention to prevent performance degradation of the peripheral channel due to the floating (floating) of the channel card when the link data transmission between the channel card and the IF board in the WiBro RAS smart antenna system.

In order to accomplish this, the present invention periodically collects the state information of the channel card, and selectively transmits only the state information of the channel card as an internal message during system operation, so that the state management module can check the channel card mounting state. At this time, when it is recognized that the channel card does not exist, the MGT of the corresponding path can be powered down, that is, turned off by software.

As described above, in the present invention, channel cards used in the form of a mesh are expanded in accordance with the number of antennas as in the smart antenna system, and then the interface is software-connected and controlled according to the mounting state of the channel cards. It's about making it possible. That is, an embodiment of the present invention proposes a method for efficiently selecting a path between channel card-IF boards by software in the WiBro RAS smart antenna system.

Typically, WiBro RAS systems support system performance and various interfaces, and use Xilinx's MGT as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) for IF boards, and interface between channel cards and IF boards. The structure has a structure connected by a full mesh.

However, in the entire mesh structure as described above, if data is transmitted without the channel card mounted, a full mesh path between the IF board and the channel card (Full Mesh Path) may cause deterioration of performance of peripheral channels. .

In order to prevent this, in the embodiment of the present invention, the status of the channel card is checked by software on the main board, and the channel board is connected to the IF board and the channel card according to the status of the channel card. By turning on / off the MGT, the influence of the noise signal can be prevented, and the performance of the peripheral channel can be prevented from being deteriorated.

First, according to an embodiment of the present invention described below, a procedure for checking a mounting state of a channel card using alarm state information can be largely divided into a procedure for setting a path according to the state information. The present invention periodically polls the status information of the channel card in a status management module (SMM) driven by software, and the channel from the status management module in the device control module (DCM). Receives the status information of the card, and sets the path accordingly to control the software to prevent the performance deterioration.

First, referring to channel card state information according to an embodiment of the present invention, the state management module loads and stores state information in the system through periodic polling, and the state change among the stored values is changed. The generated channel card information is transmitted to the device control module. Then, the device control module sets a path between the channel card and the IF board based on the state information received from the state management module.

Next, referring to the path setting according to an embodiment of the present invention, first, an IF board setup related function used in the device control module includes a function driven when the device control module is initialized by a main board. It also plays the role of initialization of IF board. When the path is set in the device control module, a path is initially set based on information loaded from predetermined shape information according to the system, and after the system operation, the state management module receives the state information of the channel card. According to the information, a path of a corresponding IF board is set using a predetermined path setup table.

Next, a general structure of the IF board and the channel card as described above and a structure according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

1 is a diagram schematically illustrating an interface structure between an IF board and a channel card in a general communication system. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating an interface structure between an IF board and a channel card in a communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In a general communication system, a channel card-IF board-to-board interface structure has a low voltage differential signal (LVDS) chip mounted separately outside the channel card as shown in FIG. 1. On the other hand, the IF board-channel card interface structure in a system, for example, a WiBro RAS system according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, includes a field programmable gate array (FPGA) in the channel card.

As described above, the interface structure between the channel card and the IF board in the general system has a structure in which the LVDS chip is separately mounted to the outside to perform the interface with the channel card. In the embodiment of the present invention, the MGT FPGA is embedded in the channel card and the IF board, respectively, to perform an interface.

In FIG. 1, five LVDS chips are connected to each of the channel card and the IF board, and have 18 internal pin connections per chip. Therefore, the IF board or channel card requires a total of 90 (18 * 5 = 90) connection pins on each board. This architecture places limitations on the space and pin count that each card in a WiBro RAS system can accommodate, and also places many constraints on price increases and various interface support.

Therefore, in the present invention, the FPGA is included in each board in the WiBro RAS system, and the above functions are supported in the FPGA, thereby externally using a full mesh through a backboard using 15 interfaces. Design as a structure connected by).

In addition, in the general communication system as shown in FIG. 1, 16-bit interfaces with an internal board in parallel by performing serial-to-parallel conversion in an LVDS chip. For example, in case of code division multiple access (hereinafter, referred to as 'CDMA'), three signals are simultaneously transmitted through one external physical path.

On the other hand, in the WiBro system according to the embodiment of the present invention, all the same functions are processed in the FPGA included in the channel card, and 15 paths are externally connected through the backplane (backplane) in the form of an entire mesh and 1 path. It has a structure to carry and transmit the two signals.

The WiBro system is designed to have the structure as described above due to the basic sampling rate difference from the CDMA system or the wideband CDMA (WCDMA) system. In this case, the path on / off function is not necessary in the general system, since the general system is a system using a frequency division duplex (FDD) scheme. That is, in a typical system, since downlink / uplink signals always flow with different frequencies, the paths do not need to be turned on / off because they do not affect other frequencies.

On the other hand, since the WiBro system uses a time division duplex (TDD) scheme, uplink / downlink signals are transmitted at the same frequency, and the path of the IF board is always on. Are added and amplified to affect the surrounding channels. Therefore, in the WiBro system, a method for removing the noise signal is required.

Next, a method of controlling an interface between a channel card and an IF board that can improve peripheral channel performance through noise signal removal according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

3 is a diagram schematically illustrating an IF board control structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, an apparatus for controlling an IF board according to a channel card state of the present invention includes a main board 310, a channel card 330, and an IF board. A frequency board (350), an amplifier (AMP) 370, and a predetermined antenna. In addition, the main board 310 may include a status management module (SMM) 313 and a device control module (DCM) 315. Here, the state management module 313 and the device management module 315 preferably represent software modules. Preferably, in an embodiment of the present invention, the channel card 330 may include a HEi (HPi Channel Element Packet Data Board Assembly), and the IF board may include a HIi (HPi Intermediate Frequency board Assembly).

As shown in FIG. 3, the control procedure of the IF board 350 corresponding to the state of the channel card 330 is first performed periodically by the state management module 313 in the main board 310. The state information of the channel card 330 is checked. In this case, when the mounting state of the channel card 330 is changed, for example, added or removed, the device control module 315 is notified of the mounting change history of the channel card. Then, the device control module 315 transmits a control command to turn off a corresponding path in the IF board 350 in accordance with the state information transmitted from the state management module 313. The IF board 350 receiving the control command sets the corresponding information in a predetermined register to turn off the signal of the corresponding path. Due to this, only a noise signal is amplified by the amplifier 370 to remove the influence on the adjacent normal signal.

That is, the device control module 315, which is a software module, checks the state of the channel card 330 and sets the values of the registers to the corresponding address of the register in the IF board 350 as shown in Table 1 below. Send (Command). Then, the IF board 350 receives the command, sets a value in the register, and configures the path off in the hardware FPGA. The address of the register is predetermined at the time of hardware design, through which the software sets a value in accordance with the current state of the system within the determined address. This procedure can be represented as in FIG. 5 below.

Table 1 below shows an example of a path on / off table according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Table 1, Table 1 shows a table set for path on / off according to an embodiment of the present invention, and illustrates a case of a 1FA three sector smart antenna. . That is, Table 1 shows an example of a structure of 1FA / 3 sectors that is typically processed in a WiBro system, but the present invention is not limited thereto. Therefore, the configuration shape of the WiBro smart antenna system according to an embodiment of the present invention may have a shape of Omni, 2 sectors and 3 sectors, and more cases may exist. For example, a three sector system having twelve paths, an Omni system having four paths, a two sector system having eight paths, and the like.

Referring to Table 1, first, IF boards # 0 to IF board # 4 are set according to whether a channel card is mounted. In this case, whether the channel card is mounted or not may be obtained from the state management module. Thereafter, the device control module sets a path of each IF board according to the state information of the channel card.

The table shown in Table 1 is generated based on the shape information read during initial initialization, and then the path on / off information is recorded in the corresponding position of the register to control the IF board in the device control module in the main board.

4 is a diagram illustrating an IF board control procedure corresponding to channel card state information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the state management module of the main board periodically checks the state of the channel card in step 401 and proceeds to step 403. In step 403, if the state management module recognizes a state change of the channel card, it proceeds to step 405. In step 405, the state management module checks the change history of the channel card. For example, the change history of the addition or removal of the channel card is confirmed, and the flow proceeds to step 407. In step 407, the state management module checks the change history of the channel card, reports the changed state information of the channel card to the device control module, and proceeds to step 407.

In step 407, the device control module receives the state information of the channel card transmitted from the state management module, sets a path according to the received state information of the channel card, and proceeds to step 411. For example, the device control module recognizes a channel card state such as adding or removing the channel card, and sets a corresponding path. In step 411, the device control module controls the IF board according to the path setting.

5 is a diagram illustrating a path control procedure between a channel card and an IF board according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, in step 501, a state management module is initialized, for example, a system shape and state information set in advance are checked. In this case, after initializing the state management module, if a predetermined alarm corresponding to the system setting, for example, an alarm for checking the mounting state of the channel card is detected as in step 503, the process proceeds to step 505. In step 505, the state of the detected alarm is stored, and the state management module is notified that the alarm has occurred. That is, the state management module loads and stores state information in the system through periodic polling, and transmits information of a channel card in which a state change occurs among the values to the device control module. The device control module then uses the path setting function based on the state information.

In step 507, the state management module recognizing the occurrence of the alarm checks whether the channel card information is changed among the state information checked in step 501, and proceeds to step 509. In step 509, the state change of the channel card is confirmed. If there is no change, the flow proceeds to step 503 to perform periodic polling.

In step 511, the state management module notifies the device control module of the change of the channel card. In this case, the state management module may notify the change by using IPC (Inter Process Communication). Herein, the IPC refers to communication between processes within a system, and specifically refers to communicating data or instructions from one software to another while a predetermined software, for example, a program is executed. This is made possible by dynamic data exchange.

In operation 513, the device control module notified of the change of the channel card from the state management module checks the path information of the channel card. Here, the device control module is initialized and driven when receiving the channel card state information from the state management module. In this case, the device control module checks the preset system shape information at initialization as in step 515 and sets the corresponding path by selecting a predetermined path setting table corresponding to the checked shape information in step 517. do. That is, the device control module initially sets a path based on the information read from the system shape information as described above.

Thereafter, the device control module receives channel card state information from the state management module during system operation as in step 519, and according to the state information, a predetermined path setting table, for example, a path on / off. The configuration table is used to set the path to the register of the relevant IF board. That is, the device control module sets the FPGA register path in the IF board. Subsequently, the device control module confirms a state of turning on / off the IF board path after setting the register path and controls the channel card state information accordingly.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and similarities. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined not only by the claims below, but also by the equivalents of the claims.

As described above, according to the method for controlling an interface between a channel card and an IF board in the communication system of the present invention proposed by the present invention, the interference of peripheral channels is controlled through efficient interface control by software between the channel card and the IF board in a wireless communication system. Has the advantage of being removable. It also prevents channel performance degradation due to noise signal data between the channel card and the IF board. This can also improve channel performance as well as system-wide performance.

In addition, it is possible to efficiently prevent performance deterioration of the surrounding channels by recognizing the status information in the system due to a failure or channel card detachment / mounting that may occur during system operation. It also has the advantage of optimizing the system by controlling the parts that affect the system by utilizing the board status information as well as between the channel card and the IF board.

In addition, the present invention periodically collects the status information of the channel card, and can easily check and control the status information of the channel card during the system operation, the path between the channel card and the IF board in the software corresponding to the mounting state of the channel card to the software Efficient control is possible, which prevents performance degradation of the peripheral channel between the channel card and the IF board.

Claims (18)

In the interface method between the boards in a wireless communication system, Periodically checking at least one board state among a plurality of boards transmitting and receiving signals; When the state change occurs in any one of the first boards as a result of the check, checking the state information of the first board; Setting a path of a second board that transmits / receives a signal to and from the first board according to the state information of the first board; And controlling the interface between the first board and the second board in response to the set path information. delete The method of claim 1, The setting of the path of the second board may include setting on / off of the path between the first board and the second board according to the state information of the first board. Interface method between them. The method of claim 1, And controlling the interface between the first board and the second board is controlled by a software module. 5. The method of claim 4, The process of controlling the interface between the first board and the second board, Periodically checking a state of the first board or the second board in the software module; And controlling a communication path of the first board or the second board in response to the check result of the software module. The method according to any one of claims 1 and 3 to 5, Wherein the first board is a channel card and the second board is an intermediate frequency (IF) board. In the method of controlling the interface between the channel card and the IF board in a wireless communication system, Periodically checking a state of the channel card in a first software module; Reporting, by the first software module, the state information of the channel card to the second software module when a state change of the channel card occurs; In the second software module, setting a path between the channel card and the IF board according to the state information of the channel card; And controlling, by the second software module, the IF board in response to a path setting result between the channel card and the IF board. The method of claim 7, wherein And the first software module includes a software module for checking a mounting state of the channel card by using alarm state information according to a system setting. The method of claim 7, wherein the setting of the path between the channel card and the IF board in the second software module comprises: And a process of setting on / off of the path between the channel card and the IF board in response to the state information of the channel card. The method of claim 7, wherein the reporting of the state information of the channel card to the second software module in the first software module, In the first software module, loading state information in the system through periodic polling; And transmitting the state information of the channel card in which the state change occurs among the loaded state information to the second software module. The method of claim 7, wherein In the second software module, setting the path between the channel card and the IF board in accordance with the state information of the channel card, Generating a path setting table based on the shape information according to the system setting when the system is running, Generating the route setting table according to the state information of the channel card reported from the first software module during system operation; And controlling the path by using the generated path setting table. A main board apparatus for controlling an interface between a channel card and an intermediate frequency (IF) board at a base station of a wireless communication system, Checking system shape and state information, checking the mounting state of the channel card in response to an alarm occurrence, and notifying the device control module of the state change information of the channel card when the channel card mounting state is recognized. module; And The device control checks the path information of the channel card, checks the on / off state of the IF board path according to the path information of the channel card, and controls the path of the IF board according to the channel card state information. Mainboard device containing modules. The method of claim 12, The device control module checks preset system shape information when the system is driven, and sets a path of the IF board by using a predetermined path setting table generated according to the checked system shape information. Main board device characterized by the above. The method of claim 12, The device control module receives state information of a channel card notified by the state management module during system operation, generates a route setting table according to the received state information, and uses the route setting table to generate the IF board. Main board device, characterized in that for controlling the path. The method of claim 12, And the device control module controls the IF path by controlling on / off of the path between the channel card and the IF board in response to the state information of the channel card. The method of claim 12, The state management module loads state information in the system through periodic polling, and notifies the device control module of state information of a channel card in which a state change occurs among the loaded state information. . delete delete

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