Summary of the invention
In order to address the above problem, the present invention has designed a kind of method and system that is used for many antennas measuring bandwidth channel.
According to a first aspect of the invention, a kind of method that is used for many antennas measuring bandwidth channel is provided, has comprised:, produced the wide-band width measurement signal at transmitter; The wide-band width measurement signal is carried out up-conversion to produce radiofrequency signal; Radiofrequency signal is carried out power amplification to be used for transmission; An array element or a plurality of bay through in the transmit antenna array send to receiver with time-multiplexed mode with radiofrequency signal; At receiver, an array element or a plurality of bay in the selective reception aerial array receive signal with time-multiplexed mode; Signal to receiving carries out down-conversion, converts baseband signal into; And baseband signal is carried out correlation reception handle, to obtain channel response; It is characterized in that said method also comprises:, control the frequency, transmitted power of type, the radiofrequency signal of wide-band width measurement signal and to the selection of transmitting antenna array element through main control unit at transmitter; And, control the selection that receives bay, receive the frequency range of signal and carry out correlation reception and handle required associated code through main control unit at receiver.
The embodiment of first aspect present invention, wherein, said method be used to measure mimo systems, singly go into multi-output system, go into singly to go out system more, singly go into singly to go out system.
The embodiment of first aspect present invention, said method also comprises: before measuring, receiver and transmitter are calibrated.Wherein, can just recalibrate at set intervals, to reduce phase noise receiving the influence of data to transmitter and receiver.
The embodiment of first aspect present invention, said method also comprises: receiver or transmitter or the two are positioned.
The embodiment of first aspect present invention wherein, measures for mobile alignment, and receiver is fixed, and transmitter moves.
The embodiment of first aspect present invention, said method also comprises: the channel response data that storage is obtained, wherein, to measure for mobile alignment, transmitter adopts intermittent mode to send the wide-band width measurement signal.
The embodiment of first aspect present invention, wherein, the activationary time of signal is greater than the maximum multipath time delay in the scene of surveying on each subchannel, and measuring period is less than the coherence time of channel in the communication environments.
The embodiment of first aspect present invention, wherein, filtering is carried out in the intrinsic response to wide-band width measurement signal and measuring equipment in carrying out the correlation reception processed steps, to obtain channel response.
According to a second aspect of the invention, a kind of system that is used for many antennas measuring bandwidth channel is provided, has comprised transmitter and receiver, transmitter comprises: the broadband signal generator is used to produce the wide-band width measurement signal; Upconverter is used for the wide-band width measurement signal is carried out up-conversion to produce radiofrequency signal; Power amplifier is used for radiofrequency signal is carried out power amplification to be used for transmission; With the first switching controls module, be used for radiofrequency signal being sent to receiver through one or more bays that switch module is controlled via transmit antenna array; And receiver comprises: the second switching controls module, and the one or more bays that are used for the selective reception aerial array receive signal; Down conversion module is used for the signal that receives is carried out down-conversion; And correlator, be used for that baseband signal is carried out correlation reception and handle, to obtain channel response; It is characterized in that said system also comprises: first main control unit is used to control the frequency, transmitted power of type and bandwidth, the radiofrequency signal of wide-band width measurement signal and to the selection of transmitting antenna array element; And second main control unit, be used to control to the selection that receives bay, receive the frequency range of signal and carry out correlation reception and handle required associated code.
The embodiment of second aspect present invention, wherein, the said system that is used for many antennas measuring bandwidth channel be used to measure mimo systems, singly go into multi-output system, go into singly to go out system more, singly go into singly to go out system.
The embodiment of second aspect present invention wherein, before measuring, calibrates receiver and transmitter.Wherein, can just recalibrate at set intervals, to reduce phase noise receiving the influence of data to transmitter and receiver.
The embodiment of second aspect present invention, said system also comprises: locating module is used for receiver or transmitter or the two are positioned.
The embodiment of second aspect present invention wherein, measures for mobile alignment, and receiver is fixed, and transmitter moves.
The embodiment of second aspect present invention, said system also comprises: data memory module, be used to store the channel response data that obtained, wherein, to measure for mobile alignment, transmitter adopts intermittent mode to send the wide-band width measurement signal.
The embodiment of second aspect present invention, wherein, the activationary time of signal is greater than the maximum multipath time delay in the scene of surveying on each subchannel, and measuring period is less than the coherence time of channel in the communication environments.
The embodiment of second aspect present invention, wherein, said correlator carries out filtering to the intrinsic response of wide-band width measurement signal and measuring equipment, to obtain channel response.
Through using method of the present invention, can be so that flexible more, convenient to the measurement of channel.Method of measurement according to the present invention is applicable to different scenes, frequency range, measurement target with system, and can directly obtain channel impulse response according to method of measurement of the present invention and system.Wherein, At transmitter the switching controls switch is set; Thereby can select to carry out the duration of antenna transmission array element and emission neatly, and the switching controls switch is set, can select the bay that receives neatly and receive the time that continues at receiver.In addition, can control each configuration of components in transmitter and the receiver neatly according to main control unit of the present invention.In addition, in the present invention, can adopt the mode of intermittently sending,, carry out storage at receiver, and can not cause buffer memory to overflow so that under the situation of traverse measurement.According to the present invention, can also channel response measurement data and locator data be combined.According to the present invention, can just recalibrate at set intervals, to reduce phase noise to receiving the influence of data.
Advantage of the present invention is not limited to top described several aspects, it will be understood by those of skill in the art that the present invention can also have other advantage.
Embodiment
For the sake of simplicity with clear for the purpose of, the unit in the accompanying drawing needn't proportionally be drawn, and in different accompanying drawings, same reference numbers is represented identical unit.In addition, concisely and not can aspect unnecessary, make the present invention fuzzy for what describe, and omit description and details about known steps and unit.
Those of ordinary skill in the art should be understood that general description and the following detailed of front give an example to invention and explain, rather than in order to limit the invention.
Hereinafter, with the multiaerial system of multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) principle of the present invention is described as an example.Those of ordinary skill in the art should be appreciated that said mimo systems only is exemplary, and the invention is not restricted to said mimo systems.For example, the present invention can also be applied to singly to go into to have more (SIMO) system, goes into singly (MISO) system more, singly go into singly (SISO) system etc.In addition, the present invention can be applied to any communication system with a plurality of subchannels, comprises wired communication system, wireless communication system etc.For example, can in having a plurality of wavelet long channel fibre systems, use the present invention.
Method and system according to many antennas measuring bandwidth channel of the present invention is suitable for being directed against different frequency range and under different communication environments, wireless channel being measured.In an example, according to the present invention, in transmitter and receiver, dispose diverter switch, and adopt the mode of Time Division Multiplexing to come all multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) subchannel is measured.According to the present invention; Propagation characteristic and the scattering signatures of measuring the place to different frequency range; Transmitter can adopt has good autocorrelation performance and various wide-band width measurement signals reasonable in design; Thereby gain that can the regulatory work rate amplifier is provided with the transmitting power of feed antenna, and can control its switch select different element number of array and array element distance.According to the present invention, receiver is suitable for receiving the wide-band width measurement signal that transmitter is launched, and wherein, receiver can carry out relevant treatment to the baseband digital signal that from the measuring-signal of broadband, obtains, thereby obtains broadband (for example, MIMO) channel impulse response.In measuring process, can at first use cable and attenuator to come measuring equipment is calibrated.Can be further used for multidimensional channel parameter estimation, channel capacity analysis and modeling through measuring resulting channel impulse response, and detailed channel characteristics and simulation model is provided for the research of wireless communication system, exploitation and assessment.
Can realize measurement according to the propagation characteristic and the measurement requirement of different frequency range according to many antennas measuring bandwidth channel method and system of the present invention to broad-band channel.
Fig. 1 is the block diagram according to many antennas measuring bandwidth channel of the present invention system.Show respectively among Fig. 1 at sender side with in the configuration of receiver side.
As shown in Figure 1, transmitter comprises: control desk 1, locating module 2, high precision clock source 3, Clock Managing Unit 4, configurable module 5, switch module 11 and aerial array 12.
Control desk 1 is used to the user operation interface is provided, and the parameter of transmitter is set, and the operation locating module etc.
Locating module 2 is used for following the tracks of measuring route.Through locating module 2 (for example, carrying out the GPS location) mobile alignment is measured, thus the route of register-sender actual motion.Like this, when follow-up data is handled, can route that write down and channel measurement data be mapped.Through being recorded in the pairing position of the channel data of measuring in each measuring period (perhaps position range), can confirm to measure the geographical environment that is directed against.Corresponding through measurement data will be measured route, on the one hand, can confirm the distance between transmitter and the receiver, for use in the analysis path loss; On the other hand, can also utilize the Ray-Tracing model to carry out the actual propagation path that measuring-signal is confirmed in path trace, for use in analysis transmission delay and angle information, or the like.
High precision clock source 3 is used to transmitter timing base is provided.High precision clock source 3 is high accuracy clock sources, for example can be rubidium clock.High precision clock source 3 has very high stability aspect time, the temperature.In through a very long time after the calibration, the frequency drift in high precision clock source 3 is very little.
Clock Managing Unit 4 is used for required clock to other modules of receiver being provided.Clock Managing Unit 4 obtains clock signal from high precision clock source 3, and the clock signal of being obtained is handled, thereby suitable clock is provided for the various piece in the receiver.
Configurable unit 5 is used to realize the control to transmission.Configurable unit 5 for example also comprises: main control unit 6, broadband signal generator 7, up-conversion module 8, power amplifier 9 and switching controls module 10.
In configurable unit 5, main control unit 6 is used for broadband signal generator 7, up-conversion module 8, power amplifier 9 and switching controls module 10 are unified control and management.Broadband signal generator 7 is used for configuration according to main control unit 1 and produces and send required wideband baseband signal.Up-conversion module 8 is used for baseband signal is modulated to radiofrequency signal.Power amplifier 9 is used for confirming the transmitted power of feed antenna.Switching controls module 10 is used for selecting the bay that sends through the control switch module, thus the time span that control antenna array element is sent.
Switch module 11 is used for selecting a plurality of bays of aerial array to send signal with time-multiplexed mode.
As shown in Figure 1, receiver comprises: control desk 13, locating module 14, high precision clock source 15, Clock Managing Unit 16, configurable unit 17, switch module 23 and receiving antenna array 24.
In receiver, control desk 13 is used to the user operation interface is provided, and the parameter of receiver is set, the validity of judgment data, operation locating module and storage data etc.
Locating module 14, high precision clock source 15 and Clock Managing Unit 16 are similar with locating module 2, high precision clock source 3 and Clock Managing Unit 4 in the transmitter, therefore, repeat no more here.Need to prove,, all show locating module 1 and 14 at transmitter and receiver although in Fig. 1,, this only is in order to describe.Said locating module 1 and 14 is optional.For example, in one embodiment, can only perhaps only locating module 1 or 14 be set at receiver side at sender side.For example, can move according in receiver and the transmitter which, and confirm locating module is arranged on transmitter or receiver.In one embodiment, also locating module can be set.
Configurable unit 17 comprises: main control unit 18, switching controls module 19, down conversion module 20, correlator 21 and data storage device 22.
In configurable unit 17, main control unit 18 is used for control and management switching controls module 19, down conversion module 20, correlator 21 and data storage device 22.Switching controls module 19 is used for selecting the bay that receives through control switch module 23, thus the time span that control antenna array element receives.Down conversion module 20 is used for converting the radiofrequency signal that receives into baseband signal.The baseband signal that correlator 21 is used to receive is carried out relevant treatment (for example, correlation reception), thereby by drawing channel impulse response in the channel data that receives.Storage is used for the file storage rule (for example, binary file) according to prior setting, the channel impulse response that real-time storage obtained.
Switch module 23 is used for selecting a plurality of bays of aerial array to receive signal with time-multiplexed mode.
With reference to Fig. 1, processing procedure according to the method for the invention is described below.
As shown in Figure 1, control transmitter by control desk 1.The user can be provided with measurement parameter through the user interface in the control desk.For example, the user can select to measure employed wide-band width measurement signal, the frequency that transmits, the antenna that transmits etc.Also can accomplish the configuration of parameter automatically according to the requirement of measuring scene and frequency range, the number of the array element of for example comprise the wide-band width measurement signal of appropriate design, launching through up-conversion afterwards in the transmitted power, aerial array of feed antenna and spacing etc. by control desk 1.
Alternatively; In one embodiment, when transmitter is in mobile status, can adopt locating module 2 for example to confirm that through GPS the residing position of transmitter is with record measurement route; And positional information is passed to control desk preserve, so that carry out corresponding with measurement data.
Adopt high precision clock source 3 that timing base is provided.Clock Managing Unit 4 is 3 receive clock signals from the high precision clock source, and it is handled, and meet the clock signal of the various piece needs of transmitter with generation.Then, Clock Managing Unit 4 output clocks each module in the transmitter.
Configurable unit 5 according to the present invention is used to realize the flexible configuration to transmitter.Wherein, main control unit 6 receives configuration parameter from control desk, and disposes broadband signal generator 7, up-conversion module 8, power amplifier 9 and switching controls module 10 according to configuration parameter.
For example, said configuration parameter can come to be provided with flexibly according to the requirement of measuring scene, frequency spectrum and bandwidth.Wherein, term " scene " refers to indoor, city Microcell or macrocell, suburb, rural area etc.The scene characteristic of being considered can comprise the coverage condition, road of structure, dense degree, the vegetation of topography and geomorphology, building, the antenna height that sets up etc.When the parameter of measuring system is set, need maximum delay, coherence time in the pre-estimation scene etc., so that the number of the duration of Design of Broadband measuring-signal, dual-mode antenna array element, the translational speed that can support etc. eclectically.According to the difference of " scene ", the empirical value of these parameters of being estimated will be different.Therefore, when measuring, it may be noted that specific scene.
Main control unit 6 can be controlled broadband signal generator 7 and produce suitable wide-band width measurement signal.The sequence of the wide-band width measurement signal that is produced should have good autocorrelation performance, so that minimum through the error that correlator obtains introducing in the channel impulse response by receiver.In addition, the length of the sequence of said wide-band width measurement signal should satisfy the restriction of the maximum multipath time delay and the correlated time of channel.In transmitter, can design the bandwidth of sending signal according to measurement target.The form of the signal that is adopted can be a burst pulse, also can be the pseudo random sequence spread-spectrum signal.
Then, the wide-band width measurement signal (base band) that is produced by broadband signal generator 7 is sent to up-conversion module 8.Up-conversion module 8 is modulated to said wide-band width measurement signal on the suitable transmission frequency.For example, can by main control unit 6 control up-conversion module 8 with said wide-band width measurement conversion of signals to desired frequency range.
Afterwards, the signal through up-conversion is passed in the power amplifier 9.Power amplifier 9 is provided with variable gain according to the configuration of main control unit 6, thereby regulates the transmitted power of feed antenna.Because different frequency ranges has different loss characteristics, therefore, need to change the gain of signal power through the biasing of regulatory work rate amplifier, thus the power of adjustment feed antenna.
Switching controls module 10 is controlled the bay that sends according to the configuration of main control unit 1 through switch module 11.Switching controls module 10 can use time-multiplexed mode indicator cock module controls from a plurality of bays, to send radiofrequency signal successively.Because switching controls module 10 can control antenna array element be (for example neatly through switch module 11; The time span that the spacing of the bay that sends and bay send etc.); Therefore this method of measurement is not only applicable to mimo system, is applicable to singly to go into to have more (SIMO) system, go into singly (MISO) system more, singly go into singly (SISO) system etc. yet.
As shown in Figure 1, at receiver side, come configuring receiver by control desk 13.The user can be provided with parameter through the user interface in the control desk 13.For example; The associated code that the user can carry out correlation reception according to the type setting of employed wide-band width measurement signal; The frequency range that receives (measurement), the antenna that receives signal and the time span that each bay receives can be set, the storage of control data etc.Also can said parameter be set automatically by control desk 13.
Alternatively; In one embodiment, when receiver is in the mobile status, can adopt locating module 14 for example to confirm that through GPS the residing position of receiver is with record measurement route; And positional information is passed to control desk 13 preserve, so that carry out corresponding with measurement data.
Adopt high precision clock source 15 that timing base is provided.Clock Managing Unit 16 is 15 receive clock signals from the high precision clock source, and it is handled, and meet the clock signal of the various piece needs of receiver with generation.Then, Clock Managing Unit 16 output clocks each module in the receiver.
Configurable unit 17 according to the present invention be used to the to achieve a butt joint flexible configuration of receipts machine.Wherein, main control unit 18 receives configuration parameter from control desk, and comes configuration data memory module 22, correlator 21, down conversion module 20 and switching controls module 19 according to configuration parameter.
According to the configuration of main control unit 18, switching controls module 19 can the indicator cock module 23 controls received RF signal successively from a plurality of bays, for example, can receive with time-multiplexed mode.
The signal that receives converts baseband signal through down conversion module 20 to by radiofrequency signal.Can dispose down conversion module 20 through main control unit 18, down conversion module 20 is confirmed to convert the radiofrequency signal of which frequency range to baseband signal according to said configuration.
Baseband signal by down conversion module 20 outputs then is passed to correlator 21.At correlator 21,, through associated code said baseband signal is carried out correlation reception, thereby obtain channel response by the main control unit configuration according to the configuration of main control unit.In one embodiment, said correlator 21 can promptly, carry out filtering respectively to the intrinsic response of wide-band width measurement signal and equipment through the data-signal that receives is carried out twice filtering, the two is removed, thereby obtain final channel impulse response.
At data memory module 22, store the said channel response data that obtain according to the file storage rule (for example, binary file storage rule) of prior setting.Under mobile status, owing to need to store a large amount of measurement data of long time, therefore; In order to save the processing load of data memory module 22; Can adopt mode intermittently to send data, that is, and after sending limited MIMO signal measuring period; Transmitter stops to send data, and this moment, receiver carried out the storage of data.
In addition, in one embodiment, owing to have reciprocity between the uplink downlink of channel; And the place is provided with memory cell at receiver, and this makes receiver move inconvenience, therefore; When actual measurement; If an end of measure link need be fixed, then can select fixed receiver, and let transmitter be in mobile status.
According to the present invention, can monitor the state of channel to be measured in real time through control desk, thereby can in time follow the tracks of the variation of channel, guarantee the validity of the data of surveying.
Fig. 2 is the sketch map of the example T DM sequential that adopts according to many antennas measuring bandwidth channel of the present invention system.Wherein, suppose that the transmitting antenna array number is M, reception antenna array element number is N.
T
sActivationary time for single array element in the receiving antenna array.Wherein, The length of the wide-band width measurement burst that requirement is sent is greater than typical maximum multipath time delay in the communication environments; That is, the activationary time of signal is greater than the maximum multipath time delay in the scene of surveying on each subchannel, to guarantee to comprise in the data measured all possible scattering footpath in the channel.This is because when the reception data were carried out correlation reception, resulting channel impulse response should comprise all possible arrival footpath on the time-delay territory, so just can embody the whole characteristics in the scattering environments.Otherwise, if the multipath quantity that comprises in the channel impulse response less than the in esse quantity that arrives the footpath, the Partial Feature that then can lose channel, the design of so this parameter is exactly irrational.
T
gThe protection that when switching, needs for the duplexer of transmitter at interval.T
rThe activationary time and the summation of the switching time between array element of expression reception antenna array element satisfy T
r>=T
s
The time that single array element activates in the transmitting antenna array is T
t, satisfy T
t=T
g+ T
rN.The time that all launching antenna arrays and receiving antenna array activate once is T
c, be called a measuring period.Wherein, require the coherence time of measuring period, to guarantee that all MIMO sub-channel data are quasi-static less than channel in the communication environments.This be because, in the MIMO of reality communication system, a plurality of antennas are to send and receive signal simultaneously, the data of all subchannels are correlated with in the mimo channel matrix so, or quasi-static.Therefore, for channel measurement, be within the coherence time at channel, and utilize the difference of signal in different measuring periods to embody time-varying characteristics with regard to requiring the signal in a measuring period." coherence time of channel " be meant during this period of time at interval in, two arriving signals have very strong amplitude dependency.Be the statistical value in time interval of remaining unchanged of channel impulse response the coherence time of channel.It all is a parameter of describing time-varying characteristics with Doppler's expansion.In application of practical project, the general correlation function that adopts greater than 0.5, at this moment, be approximately correlation time
F wherein
mThe expression Doppler frequency shift.
Fig. 3 is the block diagram according to the configuration that is used to calibrate in many antennas measuring bandwidth channel of the present invention system.Before measuring, need calibrate transmitter and receiver, the adjustment measuring equipment reaches best operating point, accomplishes the precise synchronization of clock, and obtains the intrinsic response of measuring equipment, to be used for follow-up data analysis.Through letting channel measurement data clock precise synchronization, can obtain device responds accurately and real-time.Parts among Fig. 3 are identical with corresponding component among Fig. 1, no longer are repeated in this description its function here for said identical parts.
As shown in Figure 3, transmitter and receiver all are in stationary state, with a cable transmitter are linked to each other with receiver, and add attenuator 25 therein, in case exceed the reception signal strength range.Wide-band width measurement signal in the configuration of Fig. 3, to send parameters such as frequency range and transmitted power identical with parameter in the measuring system shown in Figure 1.
When calibrating, the width signal generator 7 in the transmitter produces baseband signal.Baseband signal is carried out up-conversion through up-conversion module 8, and ingoing power amplifier 9 amplifies then.Then, get into receiver through amplifying signal through attenuator 25.At receiver, carry out down-conversion by 20 pairs of signals that received of down conversion module, then, carry out correlation reception by 21 pairs of baseband signals of correlator and handle, thereby obtain the signal that is used to calibrate.
In one embodiment,, in the actual measurement process, whenever just equipment is calibrated at regular intervals, obtained the intrinsic response of equipment again, to be used for the follow-up data analysis in order to reduce phase noise in the measuring system to receiving the influence of data.
Can realize method and system of the present invention through variety of way.For example, can through software, hardware, firmware with and combination in any realize method and system of the present invention.The order of top method steps only adopts for illustrative purpose, unless clear and definite explanation, the step of method of the present invention is not limited to top specifically described order.In addition, in certain embodiments, the present invention can also be presented as at recording medium and attend institute's program recorded, and it comprises and is used to realize machine readable instructions according to the method for the invention.
Although specific embodiment of the present invention is described in detail above through example,, those of ordinary skill in the art should be appreciated that above-mentioned example only is illustrative and be not to be limitation of the present invention.Those of ordinary skill in the art should be understood that can make modification to the foregoing description under the situation that does not break away from the spirit and scope of the present invention.Scope of the present invention is limited appended claim.