CA2265987A1 - Antenna system for enhancing the coverage area, range and reliability of wireless base stations - Google Patents
Antenna system for enhancing the coverage area, range and reliability of wireless base stations Download PDFInfo
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- CA2265987A1 CA2265987A1 CA002265987A CA2265987A CA2265987A1 CA 2265987 A1 CA2265987 A1 CA 2265987A1 CA 002265987 A CA002265987 A CA 002265987A CA 2265987 A CA2265987 A CA 2265987A CA 2265987 A1 CA2265987 A1 CA 2265987A1
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Classifications
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q23/00—Antennas with active circuits or circuit elements integrated within them or attached to them
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q21/00—Antenna arrays or systems
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q21/00—Antenna arrays or systems
- H01Q21/0006—Particular feeding systems
- H01Q21/0025—Modular arrays
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q21/00—Antenna arrays or systems
- H01Q21/06—Arrays of individually energised antenna units similarly polarised and spaced apart
- H01Q21/08—Arrays of individually energised antenna units similarly polarised and spaced apart the units being spaced along or adjacent to a rectilinear path
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q21/00—Antenna arrays or systems
- H01Q21/28—Combinations of substantially independent non-interacting antenna units or systems
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q21/00—Antenna arrays or systems
- H01Q21/29—Combinations of different interacting antenna units for giving a desired directional characteristic
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
-
- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02D—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES [ICT], I.E. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AIMING AT THE REDUCTION OF THEIR OWN ENERGY USE
- Y02D30/00—Reducing energy consumption in communication networks
- Y02D30/70—Reducing energy consumption in communication networks in wireless communication networks
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- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
- Signal Processing (AREA)
- Variable-Direction Aerials And Aerial Arrays (AREA)
Abstract
An active antenna system which has a plurality of antenna elements arranged in a column with each element or subarray of elements integrated with an amplifier and other beam forming components. A separate amplifier and filter are disposed immediately adjacent and connected to each of the antenna elements or a subarray of antenna elements and a separate combiner/divider is connected to each of the amplifiers. The antenna elements, amplifier and filter are disposed on a common support. A base station is connected by the feed cables and is remote from each amplifier. A first group of the antenna elements with low power amplifiers forms a transmitting antenna system and/or a second group of the active antenna elements with low noise amplifiers forms a receiving antenna system. A variable attenuator and a variable phase shift circuit can be integrated with each amplifier and can be used for beam shaping and electronic beam pointing. For diversity combining, spatially separated or polarization diverse active antennas are used. For polarization diverse active antennas, implementation involves a shared column or two colocated orthogonally polarized columns.
Description
W O 98/11626 PCTnUS97116338 ANTENNA SYSTEM FOR ENHANCING THE COVERAGE AREA, RANGE AND RELIABILITY OF WIRELESS BASE STATIONS
~'~~~UND OF TU~ TNV~ QN
FT~t-n OF TU~ TNVTN~ION
This invention relates to an antenna system and, more specifically, to an antenna system primarily for use in conjunction with base station in mobile communications systems.
~T~ n~Qr~TTON OF l~r~ ~TOR '~T
Mobile communication systems generally include a base station for recei~ing and transmittin~ electromagnetic radiations with the mobile terminal disposed within the coverage area of the base station for transmitting electromagnetic radiations to and receiving such radiations from the base station and where several such base stations are generally linked together through base station controllers (BSCs) and master station controllers (MSCs) to provide a seamless communication link between a mobile terminal and its calling party.
Mobile comm~nications are typically embodied within two bands.
Those systems between approximately 850 and 950 MHZ are referred to as cellular and those systems between approximately 1.8 and 2.0 GHz are referred as personal communication systems (PCSs). The total mobile applications which together cover both bands are often CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W O 98/11626 PCTrUS97/16338 referred t~ as personal communication networks (PCNs). This invention relates to all PCN systems, i.e. systems which operate in either or both frequency bands listed above.
The area, range and reliability of base stations are generally limited in their coverage area by the base station receive noise figure and the transmit effective isotropic radiated power ~EIRP).
The presently used PCN base station architecture utilizes a vertical column array comprising a plurality of spaced apart radiating elements for transmission and a separate such plurality of radiating elements for reception. The antenna elements are generally disposed in a vertical straight line on a support, the distance between extreme antenna elements often being quite large, often a few meters.
To improve performance, the receive antenna configuration generally comprises two widely separated columns to provide spatial diversity or a single orthogonally polarized column comprising two orthogonal polarization outputs to provide polarization diversity.
The radiating elements are generally electrically conductive members disposed on a support and are generally spaced between three fourths and one wavelength apart. The antenna elements are generally connected to a combiner via short transmission lines.
For the transmit configuration, the radiating element is fed by a ground based high power amplifier through a long cable, typically between 50 and 200 feet. The placement of the power amplifiers within the base station also requires increased power CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W O 98/11626 PCT~US97/16338 from the amplifiers to overcome the insertion loss from the feed cable as well as the combiner.
For the receive configuration, the combiner output is fed to a filter/low noise amplifier (LNA) combination through either a short transmission line (as in PCS systems for mast mounted LNAs) or through a long cable (as in cellular systems for base station integrated LNAs. Dual redundant amplifiers are typically provided when mast mounted electronics are used to improve reliability at the expense of complexity. For the receive configuration, the effective noise increase contributed by the ohmic losses in the array combiner and feed cable tdePending upon its length) are amplified by the low noise amplifier and thus contribute to the increase in the system noise figure.
There has been a constant desire to improve the range and coverage area capability for individual base stations used in wireless communication systems of the type described above. One way to solve this problem has been to place a redundant pair of LNAs on top of the tower and connect the LNAs to a passive (i.e.antenna elements with a combiner) antenna column with a short transmission line and a switch. The combiner loss and the switch loss still limits the receive system noise figure.
CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W 0 98/11626 PCT~US97/16338 ~3n~'~Y OF T ~ T~nn~N~ION
The above noted problem is minimized and there is provided an improvement in the coverage area, range and reliability of the base station by improving the transmit efficiency and receive sensitivity of the base station without sacrificing reliability.
These improvements enable extension of the comml~nication coverage area for a given base station.
Briefly, the above improvement is accomplished by substituting for the presently existing antenna designs for use in conjunction with mobile communication systems an active phased array antenna.
An active phased array antenna approach in accordance with the present invention incorporates a low power amplifier (for transmit) and/or a low noise amplifier ~for receive) as closely adjacent as p~ssible to each element of an zrray, generally spaced by a few centimeters or less from the associated element. The antenna elements are generally disposed in a column. As an alternative, a filter and amplifier can be coupled to a subgroup of the elements of the array, though this arrangement would provide less versatility as will be evident from the discussion hereinbelow.
The active antenna approach thus involves distributing a plurality of amplifiers and filters, when required, across the array aperture. The advantages of the active antenna system for transmit and receive configurations are briefly discussed below.
For receive configurations, by maintaining the low noise amplifiers close to the radiating elements, system noise is reduced by as much as 4.5 d~ over the conventional approach in which the CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W O98/11626 PCTnUS97/16338 LNA is integrated with the base station and by as much as 1.5 dB
where an LNA is integrated with the passive antenna column at the tower top or the mast of the antenna system.
Since a significant percentage of the effective noise degradation in the antenna system is a result of the loss in the feed cables and power combiners, it can be seen that, in the case of the receiving section of the active antenna system, the noise picked up by the feed cables is never amplified whereas this noise is amplified in the prior art system. Accordingly, a much smaller effective noise element arrives at the base station relative to the prior art system described above.
Similarly, for transmit configurations, the low power amplifiers, when integrated with the radiating elements, increase the EIRP by as much as 4.5 dB (for the same amplifier power output) over the conventional approach where the power amplifiers are integrated with the base station.
The distributed nature of the amplifiers also improves reliability since the system can be designed to be fully compliant even after failure of one or more of the receive or transmit amplifiers. Even when sufficient failures occur to reduce overall system performance, the performance degradation is graceful rather than catastrophic.
In the transmit configuration, using active antenna systems, noise in the feed cable amplified by the amplifiers is of no concern, since the signal power is several tens of dB higher than the noise power. The main advantage of active antenna systems for CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W O 98/11626 PCT~US97/16338 the transmit case is that, since the power amplifiers are placed between the antenna elements and the feed cable which is connected to the base station driver amplifier, there is no reduction in the amplified signal power due to the cable and combiner loss as is the case in the existing PCN base stations.
Another advantage of distributed power amplifiers is that the amplifiers operate in a reduced thermal density environment, yielding enhanced reliability. The reduced thermal density results from the fact that the heat is distributed across the full area occupied by the antenna elements in the array rather than in a concentrated small area as in the case of unitary high power amplifiers used in the existing PCN base stations.
Since the impact of lossy elements following low noise amplifiers or preceding low power amplifiers on the system noise figure or EIRP, respectively, is small, the active antenna system is capable of a great deal of versatility in that variable attenuators and/or phase shifters can be placed in the signal path of each antenna element. As is well known in the art, these variable attenuators and phase shifters can operate to provide electronic beam shaping and pointing capability.
The active antenna systems of the present invention can be used for receive systems using either spatial or polarization diversity and in fact are valid independent of the diversity approach employed. Therefore, all of the advantages claimed for active antennas apply to all diversity receive systems.
Furthermore, in a polarization diverse receive system, both W O98/11~26 PCTAUS97/16338 orthogonal polarizations are implemented with each polarization port fed to its own filter/LNA network and combiner.
~T~R n~C~TPTTON QF TU~ n~WuNas FIGURE 1 is a diagram of a prior art PCN base station architecture for an antenna system for both transmission and reception of electromagnetic radiations;
FlGURE 2 is a diagram of an active antenna system architecture in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention; and FIGURE 3 is a diagram of an active antenna system architecture in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention.
CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W O98/11626 PCTrUS97/16338 ~L ~~Tp~TON OF T~ E~ E~SBODTNCEXrrg Referring first to FIGURE 1, there is shown a system utilizing the prior art PCN base station antenna architecture. FIGURE 1 is typical of the existing state of the art for PCS antenna systems.
However, the discussion that follows applies to existing cellular systems as well. The system includes a transmit antenna system 1 and a receive antenna system 7. The transmit antenna system 1 includes a support 3 having thereon a plurality of radiating antenna elements 5 disposed in a straight line, the distance from the topmost element to the bottommost element being a few meters.
The transmit antenna system 1 has a high power amplifier (HPA) 13 and a filter 15 disposed at the base station 17 with the amplifier/filter being connected to each of the radiating antenna elements 5 via a combiner 54 and a feed cable 31 with the length of the feed cable 31 varying anywhere between 15 and 70 meters, in general. As can be seen, the long cable 31 leads to a loss of 2 to 3 dB of power transmitted by the ground based power amplifier.
The receive antenna system 7 includes a support 9 thereon a plurality of radiating antenna elements 11 disposed in a straight line with ~im~ions as in the transmit antenna system. The receive antenna system 7 has a pair of filters 19, 21, filter 19 coupled to a pair of amplifiers 23 and 25 and filter 21 coupled to a pair of amplifiers 27 and 29. Each radiating antenna element 11 is coupled to each of the filters 19 and 21 via power combiners S5 and 56 via feed cable 33 to provide vertical and horizontal outputs. Although the em~odiment is shown for a receiving system CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W098/11626 PCT~S97116338 with polarization diversity, the same discussion applies to the receiving system utilizing spatial diversity. For the purpose of illustration,, the filter/LNA combination is shown mounted on the mast, as is the common practice for PCS base stations. As can be seen, the ohmic losses in the combiners and short transmission lines between combiners and the filter/LNA combination contribute to the degradation in the system noise figure.
Referring to FIGVRE 2, there is shown an active antenna architecture in accordance with the present invention. The antenna is similar to that of FIGURE l except that all of the radiating antenna elements 5 and ll are on the same support 35 and, rather than having a single filter lS and amplifier 13 for the transmit section and the filter l9, 21 and associated amplifiers 23, 25, 27, 29 for the receive section as shown in FIGURE l, each radiating antenna element has its own filter and amplifier positioned as closely adjacent to the antenna element as possible. This is shown in FIGURE 2 wherein, for the transmit portion, each antenna e~ement 5 is connected to its own filter 37 and amplifier 39 with the feed cable 41 extending from the base station 43 to each of the amplifiers 39 through power divider 54. In the receive portion, each radiating antenna element ll has two orthogonally polarized outputs as in FIGURE l with each output have its own filter 45 and amplifier pair 47 and 49. The outputs of the amplifiers 47 and 49 are combined in the power combiners 55 and 56 and are fed to the base station via feed cables Sl and 53 respectively. The receive configuration with polarization diversity is shown here ~or the .. . ...
CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 WO 98/11626 PCT~US97/16338 purpose of illustration. However, the claim of active antenna application holds as well for the receive configuration with spatial or any other diversity as well.
For the receive configuration, it should be understood that the positions of the amplifiers and associated filters can be reversed where amplification can take place prior to filtering or filtering can take place prior to amplification. When the filter is placed ahead of the amplifier, the impact of the filter loss on the system noise figure is reduced, but the amplifier stage must be designed to have high dynamic range, so that any expected interference can be passed by the amplifier to the filter without generating any significant intermodulation products. When the amplifier is placed ahead of the filter to provide out-of-band rejection of signals prior to in-band signal amplification (as shown in FIGURE 2), the filter must have low power loss with implementation preferably performed in waveguides.
Referring now to FIGURE 3, there is shown a variation of the architecture of FIGURE 2 wherein a variable phase shifter 51 and a variable attenuator 53 are placed in series with each combination of amplifier and filter of FIGURE 2. By varying the phase and amplitude, there is provided the ability to electronically tilt the beam and shape the beam in elevation, depending upon the traffic patterns and the topography of the cell being served. The elevation beam shaping and switching can be controlled dynamically by the service provider through a remote controller.
W O 98/11626 PCTnUS97/16338 A second embodiment of the invention comprises only the receive portion of the above described structure and a third embodiment of the invention comprises only the transmit portion of the above described structure.
Though the invention has been described with respect to specific preferred embodiments thereof, many variations and modifications will immediately become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is therefore the intention that the appended claims be interpreted as broadly as possible in view of the prior art to include all such variations and modifications.
. . .
~'~~~UND OF TU~ TNV~ QN
FT~t-n OF TU~ TNVTN~ION
This invention relates to an antenna system and, more specifically, to an antenna system primarily for use in conjunction with base station in mobile communications systems.
~T~ n~Qr~TTON OF l~r~ ~TOR '~T
Mobile communication systems generally include a base station for recei~ing and transmittin~ electromagnetic radiations with the mobile terminal disposed within the coverage area of the base station for transmitting electromagnetic radiations to and receiving such radiations from the base station and where several such base stations are generally linked together through base station controllers (BSCs) and master station controllers (MSCs) to provide a seamless communication link between a mobile terminal and its calling party.
Mobile comm~nications are typically embodied within two bands.
Those systems between approximately 850 and 950 MHZ are referred to as cellular and those systems between approximately 1.8 and 2.0 GHz are referred as personal communication systems (PCSs). The total mobile applications which together cover both bands are often CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W O 98/11626 PCTrUS97/16338 referred t~ as personal communication networks (PCNs). This invention relates to all PCN systems, i.e. systems which operate in either or both frequency bands listed above.
The area, range and reliability of base stations are generally limited in their coverage area by the base station receive noise figure and the transmit effective isotropic radiated power ~EIRP).
The presently used PCN base station architecture utilizes a vertical column array comprising a plurality of spaced apart radiating elements for transmission and a separate such plurality of radiating elements for reception. The antenna elements are generally disposed in a vertical straight line on a support, the distance between extreme antenna elements often being quite large, often a few meters.
To improve performance, the receive antenna configuration generally comprises two widely separated columns to provide spatial diversity or a single orthogonally polarized column comprising two orthogonal polarization outputs to provide polarization diversity.
The radiating elements are generally electrically conductive members disposed on a support and are generally spaced between three fourths and one wavelength apart. The antenna elements are generally connected to a combiner via short transmission lines.
For the transmit configuration, the radiating element is fed by a ground based high power amplifier through a long cable, typically between 50 and 200 feet. The placement of the power amplifiers within the base station also requires increased power CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W O 98/11626 PCT~US97/16338 from the amplifiers to overcome the insertion loss from the feed cable as well as the combiner.
For the receive configuration, the combiner output is fed to a filter/low noise amplifier (LNA) combination through either a short transmission line (as in PCS systems for mast mounted LNAs) or through a long cable (as in cellular systems for base station integrated LNAs. Dual redundant amplifiers are typically provided when mast mounted electronics are used to improve reliability at the expense of complexity. For the receive configuration, the effective noise increase contributed by the ohmic losses in the array combiner and feed cable tdePending upon its length) are amplified by the low noise amplifier and thus contribute to the increase in the system noise figure.
There has been a constant desire to improve the range and coverage area capability for individual base stations used in wireless communication systems of the type described above. One way to solve this problem has been to place a redundant pair of LNAs on top of the tower and connect the LNAs to a passive (i.e.antenna elements with a combiner) antenna column with a short transmission line and a switch. The combiner loss and the switch loss still limits the receive system noise figure.
CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W 0 98/11626 PCT~US97/16338 ~3n~'~Y OF T ~ T~nn~N~ION
The above noted problem is minimized and there is provided an improvement in the coverage area, range and reliability of the base station by improving the transmit efficiency and receive sensitivity of the base station without sacrificing reliability.
These improvements enable extension of the comml~nication coverage area for a given base station.
Briefly, the above improvement is accomplished by substituting for the presently existing antenna designs for use in conjunction with mobile communication systems an active phased array antenna.
An active phased array antenna approach in accordance with the present invention incorporates a low power amplifier (for transmit) and/or a low noise amplifier ~for receive) as closely adjacent as p~ssible to each element of an zrray, generally spaced by a few centimeters or less from the associated element. The antenna elements are generally disposed in a column. As an alternative, a filter and amplifier can be coupled to a subgroup of the elements of the array, though this arrangement would provide less versatility as will be evident from the discussion hereinbelow.
The active antenna approach thus involves distributing a plurality of amplifiers and filters, when required, across the array aperture. The advantages of the active antenna system for transmit and receive configurations are briefly discussed below.
For receive configurations, by maintaining the low noise amplifiers close to the radiating elements, system noise is reduced by as much as 4.5 d~ over the conventional approach in which the CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W O98/11626 PCTnUS97/16338 LNA is integrated with the base station and by as much as 1.5 dB
where an LNA is integrated with the passive antenna column at the tower top or the mast of the antenna system.
Since a significant percentage of the effective noise degradation in the antenna system is a result of the loss in the feed cables and power combiners, it can be seen that, in the case of the receiving section of the active antenna system, the noise picked up by the feed cables is never amplified whereas this noise is amplified in the prior art system. Accordingly, a much smaller effective noise element arrives at the base station relative to the prior art system described above.
Similarly, for transmit configurations, the low power amplifiers, when integrated with the radiating elements, increase the EIRP by as much as 4.5 dB (for the same amplifier power output) over the conventional approach where the power amplifiers are integrated with the base station.
The distributed nature of the amplifiers also improves reliability since the system can be designed to be fully compliant even after failure of one or more of the receive or transmit amplifiers. Even when sufficient failures occur to reduce overall system performance, the performance degradation is graceful rather than catastrophic.
In the transmit configuration, using active antenna systems, noise in the feed cable amplified by the amplifiers is of no concern, since the signal power is several tens of dB higher than the noise power. The main advantage of active antenna systems for CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W O 98/11626 PCT~US97/16338 the transmit case is that, since the power amplifiers are placed between the antenna elements and the feed cable which is connected to the base station driver amplifier, there is no reduction in the amplified signal power due to the cable and combiner loss as is the case in the existing PCN base stations.
Another advantage of distributed power amplifiers is that the amplifiers operate in a reduced thermal density environment, yielding enhanced reliability. The reduced thermal density results from the fact that the heat is distributed across the full area occupied by the antenna elements in the array rather than in a concentrated small area as in the case of unitary high power amplifiers used in the existing PCN base stations.
Since the impact of lossy elements following low noise amplifiers or preceding low power amplifiers on the system noise figure or EIRP, respectively, is small, the active antenna system is capable of a great deal of versatility in that variable attenuators and/or phase shifters can be placed in the signal path of each antenna element. As is well known in the art, these variable attenuators and phase shifters can operate to provide electronic beam shaping and pointing capability.
The active antenna systems of the present invention can be used for receive systems using either spatial or polarization diversity and in fact are valid independent of the diversity approach employed. Therefore, all of the advantages claimed for active antennas apply to all diversity receive systems.
Furthermore, in a polarization diverse receive system, both W O98/11~26 PCTAUS97/16338 orthogonal polarizations are implemented with each polarization port fed to its own filter/LNA network and combiner.
~T~R n~C~TPTTON QF TU~ n~WuNas FIGURE 1 is a diagram of a prior art PCN base station architecture for an antenna system for both transmission and reception of electromagnetic radiations;
FlGURE 2 is a diagram of an active antenna system architecture in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention; and FIGURE 3 is a diagram of an active antenna system architecture in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention.
CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W O98/11626 PCTrUS97/16338 ~L ~~Tp~TON OF T~ E~ E~SBODTNCEXrrg Referring first to FIGURE 1, there is shown a system utilizing the prior art PCN base station antenna architecture. FIGURE 1 is typical of the existing state of the art for PCS antenna systems.
However, the discussion that follows applies to existing cellular systems as well. The system includes a transmit antenna system 1 and a receive antenna system 7. The transmit antenna system 1 includes a support 3 having thereon a plurality of radiating antenna elements 5 disposed in a straight line, the distance from the topmost element to the bottommost element being a few meters.
The transmit antenna system 1 has a high power amplifier (HPA) 13 and a filter 15 disposed at the base station 17 with the amplifier/filter being connected to each of the radiating antenna elements 5 via a combiner 54 and a feed cable 31 with the length of the feed cable 31 varying anywhere between 15 and 70 meters, in general. As can be seen, the long cable 31 leads to a loss of 2 to 3 dB of power transmitted by the ground based power amplifier.
The receive antenna system 7 includes a support 9 thereon a plurality of radiating antenna elements 11 disposed in a straight line with ~im~ions as in the transmit antenna system. The receive antenna system 7 has a pair of filters 19, 21, filter 19 coupled to a pair of amplifiers 23 and 25 and filter 21 coupled to a pair of amplifiers 27 and 29. Each radiating antenna element 11 is coupled to each of the filters 19 and 21 via power combiners S5 and 56 via feed cable 33 to provide vertical and horizontal outputs. Although the em~odiment is shown for a receiving system CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 W098/11626 PCT~S97116338 with polarization diversity, the same discussion applies to the receiving system utilizing spatial diversity. For the purpose of illustration,, the filter/LNA combination is shown mounted on the mast, as is the common practice for PCS base stations. As can be seen, the ohmic losses in the combiners and short transmission lines between combiners and the filter/LNA combination contribute to the degradation in the system noise figure.
Referring to FIGVRE 2, there is shown an active antenna architecture in accordance with the present invention. The antenna is similar to that of FIGURE l except that all of the radiating antenna elements 5 and ll are on the same support 35 and, rather than having a single filter lS and amplifier 13 for the transmit section and the filter l9, 21 and associated amplifiers 23, 25, 27, 29 for the receive section as shown in FIGURE l, each radiating antenna element has its own filter and amplifier positioned as closely adjacent to the antenna element as possible. This is shown in FIGURE 2 wherein, for the transmit portion, each antenna e~ement 5 is connected to its own filter 37 and amplifier 39 with the feed cable 41 extending from the base station 43 to each of the amplifiers 39 through power divider 54. In the receive portion, each radiating antenna element ll has two orthogonally polarized outputs as in FIGURE l with each output have its own filter 45 and amplifier pair 47 and 49. The outputs of the amplifiers 47 and 49 are combined in the power combiners 55 and 56 and are fed to the base station via feed cables Sl and 53 respectively. The receive configuration with polarization diversity is shown here ~or the .. . ...
CA 0226~987 1999-03-16 WO 98/11626 PCT~US97/16338 purpose of illustration. However, the claim of active antenna application holds as well for the receive configuration with spatial or any other diversity as well.
For the receive configuration, it should be understood that the positions of the amplifiers and associated filters can be reversed where amplification can take place prior to filtering or filtering can take place prior to amplification. When the filter is placed ahead of the amplifier, the impact of the filter loss on the system noise figure is reduced, but the amplifier stage must be designed to have high dynamic range, so that any expected interference can be passed by the amplifier to the filter without generating any significant intermodulation products. When the amplifier is placed ahead of the filter to provide out-of-band rejection of signals prior to in-band signal amplification (as shown in FIGURE 2), the filter must have low power loss with implementation preferably performed in waveguides.
Referring now to FIGURE 3, there is shown a variation of the architecture of FIGURE 2 wherein a variable phase shifter 51 and a variable attenuator 53 are placed in series with each combination of amplifier and filter of FIGURE 2. By varying the phase and amplitude, there is provided the ability to electronically tilt the beam and shape the beam in elevation, depending upon the traffic patterns and the topography of the cell being served. The elevation beam shaping and switching can be controlled dynamically by the service provider through a remote controller.
W O 98/11626 PCTnUS97/16338 A second embodiment of the invention comprises only the receive portion of the above described structure and a third embodiment of the invention comprises only the transmit portion of the above described structure.
Though the invention has been described with respect to specific preferred embodiments thereof, many variations and modifications will immediately become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is therefore the intention that the appended claims be interpreted as broadly as possible in view of the prior art to include all such variations and modifications.
. . .
Claims (36)
1. Canceled.
2. Canceled.
3. Canceled.
4. Canceled.
5. Canceled.
6. Canceled.
7. Canceled.
8. Canceled.
9. The antenna system of Claim 22 wherein said transmit antenna elements and said receive antenna elements display spatial diversity.
10. Canceled.
11. The antenna system of claim 22 wherein said transmit antenna elements and said receive antenna elements display polarization diversity.
12. The antenna system of claim 22 wherein said receive antenna elements display polarization diversity.
13. Canceled.
14. Canceled.
15. Canceled.
16. Canceled.
17. Canceled.
18. Canceled
19. Canceled.
20. Canceled.
21. Canceled.
22. An antenna system, comprising:
a plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a plurality of transmit amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a transmit divider having an input terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of output terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit amplifiers;
a plurality of receive antenna elements;
a plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of receive antenna elements; and a receive combiner having an output terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of receive amplifiers.
a plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a plurality of transmit amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a transmit divider having an input terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of output terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit amplifiers;
a plurality of receive antenna elements;
a plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of receive antenna elements; and a receive combiner having an output terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of receive amplifiers.
23. The antenna system as set forth in claim 22 further comprising a plurality of transmit filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit amplifiers.
24. The antenna system as set forth in claim 22 further comprising a plurality of receive filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of receive amplifiers.
25. The antenna system as set forth in claim 22 further including means for supporting in a single assembly said plurality of transmit antenna elements, said plurality of transmitter amplifiers, said transmit divider, said plurality of receive antenna elements, said plurality of receive amplifiers and said receiver combiner.
26. An antenna system, comprising:
a plurality of receive antenna elements, each receive antenna element having two diversity outputs;
a first plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to one of the outputs of said plurality of receive antenna elements;
a first receive combiner having an output for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said first plurality of receive amplifiers;
a second plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to the other terminal of said plurality of receive antenna elements; and a second receive combiner having an output terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said second plurality of receive amplifiers.
a plurality of receive antenna elements, each receive antenna element having two diversity outputs;
a first plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to one of the outputs of said plurality of receive antenna elements;
a first receive combiner having an output for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said first plurality of receive amplifiers;
a second plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to the other terminal of said plurality of receive antenna elements; and a second receive combiner having an output terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said second plurality of receive amplifiers.
27. An antenna system as set forth in claim 26, further comprising:
a plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a plurality of transmit amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit antenna elements; and a transmit divider having an input terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of output terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit amplifiers.
a plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a plurality of transmit amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit antenna elements; and a transmit divider having an input terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of output terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit amplifiers.
28. The antenna system as set forth in claim 26 wherein said receive antenna elements have two orthogonally polarized outputs.
29. The antenna system as set forth in claim 26, further comprising:
a first plurality of filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said first plurality of receive amplifiers; and a second plurality of filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said second plurality of receive amplifiers.
a first plurality of filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said first plurality of receive amplifiers; and a second plurality of filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said second plurality of receive amplifiers.
30. The antenna system as set forth in claim 27, further comprising:
a plurality of transmit filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit amplifiers.
a plurality of transmit filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit amplifiers.
31. An antenna system, comprising:
a plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a plurality of transmit amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a plurality of transmit variable attenuators individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit amplifiers;
a transmit divider having an input terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of output terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of variable attenuators and said plurality of transmit amplifiers to said plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a plurality of receive antenna elements;
a plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of receive antenna elements;
a plurality of variable attenuators individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of receive amplifiers; and a receiver combiner having an output terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of receive amplifiers and through said plurality of receive variable attenuators to said plurality of receive antenna elements.
a plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a plurality of transmit amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a plurality of transmit variable attenuators individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of transmit amplifiers;
a transmit divider having an input terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of output terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of variable attenuators and said plurality of transmit amplifiers to said plurality of transmit antenna elements;
a plurality of receive antenna elements;
a plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of receive antenna elements;
a plurality of variable attenuators individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of receive amplifiers; and a receiver combiner having an output terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of receive amplifiers and through said plurality of receive variable attenuators to said plurality of receive antenna elements.
32. The antenna system as set forth in claim 31, further comprising:
a plurality of transmit variable phase shift circuits individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of transmit amplifiers and through said plurality of transmit variable attenuators to said plurality of transmit antenna elements; and a plurality of receive variable phase shift circuits individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of receive amplifiers and through said plurality of receive variable attenuators to said plurality of receive antenna elements.
a plurality of transmit variable phase shift circuits individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of transmit amplifiers and through said plurality of transmit variable attenuators to said plurality of transmit antenna elements; and a plurality of receive variable phase shift circuits individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of receive amplifiers and through said plurality of receive variable attenuators to said plurality of receive antenna elements.
33. The antenna system as set forth in claim 31, further comprising:
a plurality of transmit filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of transmit amplifiers and said plurality of transmit variable attenuators to said plurality of transmit antenna elements;
and a plurality of receive filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of receive amplifiers and through said plurality of receive variable attenuators to said plurality of receive antenna elements.
a plurality of transmit filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of transmit amplifiers and said plurality of transmit variable attenuators to said plurality of transmit antenna elements;
and a plurality of receive filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of receive amplifiers and through said plurality of receive variable attenuators to said plurality of receive antenna elements.
34. An antenna system, comprising:
a plurality of receive antenna elements, each receive antenna element having two diversity outputs;
a first plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to one of the outputs of said plurality of receive antenna elements;
a first receive combiner having an output for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said first plurality of receive amplifiers;
a second plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to the other terminal of said plurality of receive antenna elements;
a second receive combiner having an output terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of second receive amplifiers;
a first plurality of variable receive attenuators individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said first plurality of receive amplifiers; and a second plurality of variable receive attenuators individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said second plurality of receive amplifiers.
a plurality of receive antenna elements, each receive antenna element having two diversity outputs;
a first plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to one of the outputs of said plurality of receive antenna elements;
a first receive combiner having an output for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said first plurality of receive amplifiers;
a second plurality of receive amplifiers individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to the other terminal of said plurality of receive antenna elements;
a second receive combiner having an output terminal for connection to a base station and a plurality of input terminals individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said plurality of second receive amplifiers;
a first plurality of variable receive attenuators individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said first plurality of receive amplifiers; and a second plurality of variable receive attenuators individually connected in a one-on-one configuration to said second plurality of receive amplifiers.
35. The antenna system as set forth in claim 34, further comprising:
a plurality of receive variable phase shift circuits individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of receive amplifiers and through said plurality of receive variable attenuators to said plurality of receive antenna elements.
a plurality of receive variable phase shift circuits individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of receive amplifiers and through said plurality of receive variable attenuators to said plurality of receive antenna elements.
36. The antenna system as set forth in claim 34, further comprising:
a plurality of receive filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of receive amplifiers and through said plurality of receive variable attenuators to said plurality of receive antenna elements.
a plurality of receive filters individually connected in a one-on-one configuration through said plurality of receive amplifiers and through said plurality of receive variable attenuators to said plurality of receive antenna elements.
Applications Claiming Priority (3)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
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| US2619196P | 1996-09-16 | 1996-09-16 | |
| US60/026,191 | 1996-09-16 | ||
| PCT/US1997/016338 WO1998011626A1 (en) | 1996-09-16 | 1997-09-15 | Antenna system for enhancing the coverage area, range and reliability of wireless base stations |
Publications (1)
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|---|---|
| CA2265987A1 true CA2265987A1 (en) | 1998-03-19 |
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| CA002265987A Abandoned CA2265987A1 (en) | 1996-09-16 | 1997-09-15 | Antenna system for enhancing the coverage area, range and reliability of wireless base stations |
Country Status (6)
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| EP (1) | EP0943164A1 (en) |
| JP (1) | JP2001500691A (en) |
| KR (1) | KR20000036179A (en) |
| AU (1) | AU4735797A (en) |
| CA (1) | CA2265987A1 (en) |
| WO (1) | WO1998011626A1 (en) |
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| US6362787B1 (en) | 1999-04-26 | 2002-03-26 | Andrew Corporation | Lightning protection for an active antenna using patch/microstrip elements |
| US6812905B2 (en) | 1999-04-26 | 2004-11-02 | Andrew Corporation | Integrated active antenna for multi-carrier applications |
| US6621469B2 (en) | 1999-04-26 | 2003-09-16 | Andrew Corporation | Transmit/receive distributed antenna systems |
| US6701137B1 (en) | 1999-04-26 | 2004-03-02 | Andrew Corporation | Antenna system architecture |
| US6583763B2 (en) | 1999-04-26 | 2003-06-24 | Andrew Corporation | Antenna structure and installation |
| US6731904B1 (en) | 1999-07-20 | 2004-05-04 | Andrew Corporation | Side-to-side repeater |
| WO2001052447A2 (en) | 2000-01-14 | 2001-07-19 | Andrew Corporation | Repeaters for wireless communication systems |
| US6934511B1 (en) | 1999-07-20 | 2005-08-23 | Andrew Corporation | Integrated repeater |
| US6448930B1 (en) | 1999-10-15 | 2002-09-10 | Andrew Corporation | Indoor antenna |
| US7236807B1 (en) | 1999-10-28 | 2007-06-26 | Celletra Ltd. | Cellular base station augmentation |
| EP1224748A2 (en) * | 1999-10-28 | 2002-07-24 | Celletra Ltd. | Cellular base station augmentation |
| US6987990B2 (en) | 2000-01-27 | 2006-01-17 | Celletra Ltd. | Cellular base station augmentation system and method |
| CN1484875A (en) * | 2000-11-01 | 2004-03-24 | 安德鲁公司 | Distributed antenna system |
| KR100563565B1 (en) * | 2000-11-03 | 2006-03-28 | 주식회사 케이엠더블유 | An antenna |
| US6661374B2 (en) * | 2000-12-08 | 2003-12-09 | Kmw Inc. | Base transceiver station having multibeam controllable antenna system |
| KR100545645B1 (en) * | 2002-09-12 | 2006-01-24 | 엘지전자 주식회사 | Apparatus for improving quality of service on a wireless communication terminal |
| US7466670B2 (en) | 2004-08-09 | 2008-12-16 | Cisco Technology, Inc. | Transmit system employing an antenna and balanced amplifier architecture which provides power amplifier load balancing independent of single or dual signal operation of the transmitter |
| DE102005017297B4 (en) * | 2005-04-14 | 2015-07-09 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Antenna receiving system with at least two antenna branches for diversity reception and associated method for phase matching |
| US7962174B2 (en) | 2006-07-12 | 2011-06-14 | Andrew Llc | Transceiver architecture and method for wireless base-stations |
| EP1885024A1 (en) * | 2006-08-03 | 2008-02-06 | Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems Limited | Antenna |
| EP2169762B1 (en) | 2006-10-16 | 2016-10-05 | Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) | A tilt-dependent beam-shape system |
| WO2010035922A1 (en) * | 2008-09-26 | 2010-04-01 | Kmw Inc. | Antenna for base station of mobile communication system |
| JP5735149B2 (en) * | 2009-02-09 | 2015-06-17 | ローム株式会社 | Audio signal processing circuit and tone control circuit using the same |
| US20120196545A1 (en) | 2011-01-28 | 2012-08-02 | Georg Schmidt | Antenna array and method for synthesizing antenna patterns |
| US10701534B2 (en) | 2018-07-30 | 2020-06-30 | Nxp B.V. | Message relaying in vehicle-to-vehicle communication system |
| CN110828976B (en) | 2018-08-14 | 2021-10-22 | 华为技术有限公司 | Antenna system and base station |
| CN109301506A (en) * | 2018-09-19 | 2019-02-01 | 浙江安路海联科技有限公司 | A kind of restructural circular array antenna system |
| US10714839B2 (en) * | 2018-09-21 | 2020-07-14 | Hrl Laboratories, Llc | Active wideband antenna |
| CN111740786B (en) * | 2020-06-10 | 2022-01-25 | 电子科技大学 | Integrated optical waveguide beam forming device |
| CN111865386B (en) * | 2020-07-21 | 2023-10-03 | 深圳创维－Rgb电子有限公司 | Active antenna system, control method and wireless device |
Family Cites Families (5)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP0624919B1 (en) * | 1992-12-01 | 2002-02-06 | Ntt Mobile Communications Network Inc. | Multi-beam antenna apparatus |
| GB9402942D0 (en) * | 1994-02-16 | 1994-04-06 | Northern Telecom Ltd | Base station antenna arrangement |
| US5548813A (en) * | 1994-03-24 | 1996-08-20 | Ericsson Inc. | Phased array cellular base station and associated methods for enhanced power efficiency |
| GB2290006A (en) * | 1994-05-28 | 1995-12-06 | Northern Telecom Ltd | Base station transmitter control |
| GB2301712B (en) * | 1995-06-02 | 2000-02-23 | Dsc Communications | Integrated directional antenna |
-
1997
- 1997-09-15 KR KR1019997002233A patent/KR20000036179A/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 1997-09-15 AU AU47357/97A patent/AU4735797A/en not_active Abandoned
- 1997-09-15 CA CA002265987A patent/CA2265987A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 1997-09-15 JP JP10513960A patent/JP2001500691A/en active Pending
- 1997-09-15 WO PCT/US1997/016338 patent/WO1998011626A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 1997-09-15 EP EP97909849A patent/EP0943164A1/en not_active Withdrawn
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| AU4735797A (en) | 1998-04-02 |
| EP0943164A1 (en) | 1999-09-22 |
| WO1998011626A1 (en) | 1998-03-19 |
| KR20000036179A (en) | 2000-06-26 |
| JP2001500691A (en) | 2001-01-16 |
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