CN117676937A

CN117676937A - Base station system, antenna switching method, device and network equipment

Info

Publication number: CN117676937A
Application number: CN202211006383.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张瑞艳; 曹景阳; 孙蕾; 董佳; 张俪
Original assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Current assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Priority date: 2022-08-22
Filing date: 2022-08-22
Publication date: 2024-03-08

Abstract

The invention provides a base station system, an antenna switching method, an antenna switching device and network equipment, and relates to the technical field of communication, wherein the base station system comprises: the radio frequency unit RRU, RRU includes: m radio frequency channel groups, each radio frequency channel group comprises two radio frequency channels, one is a transmitting channel, and the other is a receiving channel; m radio frequency switch groups, each radio frequency switch group comprises two radio frequency switches, one radio frequency switch is connected with the transmitting channel, and the other radio frequency switch is connected with the receiving channel belonging to the same radio frequency channel group with the transmitting channel; each radio frequency switch is connected with the N antennas respectively; the 2M radio frequency channels are switched to be in conduction relation with the N antennas through the radio frequency switches corresponding to the 2M radio frequency channels. The invention only needs one radio frequency unit, and the radio frequency channel group included by the radio frequency unit is connected and conducted with different antennas, so that the coverage of all sectors corresponding to the antennas is realized, and the equipment investment cost of the base station system is reduced under the condition of ensuring the coverage capability of the base station system.

Description

Base station system, antenna switching method, device and network equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a base station system, an antenna switching method, an antenna switching device, and a network device.

Background

Conventional mobile communication networks employ a cellular structure, typically each base station is divided into three sectors, each sector covering 120 degrees. Thus, one base station often requires 3 radio frequency units (Remote Radio Unit, RRU) and 3 secondary base station antennas to achieve coverage; there are also cases where one RRU is connected to multiple omni-directional antennas, and the number of general omni-directional antennas is consistent with the number of channels for transmitting signals; but also in the form of a single RRU plus multiple directional antennas. Wherein the antenna gain of the omni-directional antenna is significantly lower than the antenna gain of the directional antenna.

However, the prior art solutions have the following drawbacks: the cost is high, particularly for rural areas, as fewer users are needed, the traditional coverage scheme is adopted, and the cost performance is low; the coverage is weak, for example, a form of single RRU plus multi-directional antenna is adopted, and although the cost of a single station can be greatly reduced, the form of single RRU plus multi-directional antenna can weaken the antenna gain of the directional antenna, and the coverage area of the single station is seriously contracted.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a base station system, an antenna switching method, an antenna switching device and network equipment, which are used for solving the problems of high cost and weak coverage of the existing base station system coverage scheme.

In order to solve the technical problems, the embodiment of the invention provides the following technical scheme:

the embodiment of the invention provides a base station system, which comprises:

a radio frequency unit RRU, the RRU comprising: m radio frequency channel groups, wherein each radio frequency channel group comprises two radio frequency channels, one radio frequency channel is a transmitting channel, and the other radio frequency channel is a receiving channel;

m radio frequency switch groups, each radio frequency switch group comprises two radio frequency switches, one radio frequency switch is connected with the transmitting channel, the other radio frequency switch is connected with the receiving channel belonging to the same radio frequency channel group as the transmitting channel, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1;

each radio frequency switch is connected with the N antennas respectively, and N is an integer greater than 1;

and 2M radio frequency channels are switched to be in conduction relation with the N antennas through the radio frequency switches corresponding to the radio frequency channels.

Optionally, each radio frequency switch includes at least N first ports and one second port, where the N first ports are connected with the N antennas in a one-to-one correspondence, and the second ports are connected with the corresponding radio frequency channels;

When the second port of the radio frequency switch is electrically connected and conducted with a target port of the N first ports, the radio frequency channel corresponding to the radio frequency switch is conducted with a target antenna, and the target antenna is one of the N antennas.

Optionally, N first ports of two radio frequency switches in each radio frequency switch group are formed into N first port groups by two-by-one groups, and each first port group is connected with an antenna through a combiner.

Optionally, the method further comprises: a radio frequency amplifier;

the radio frequency amplifier is arranged between the radio frequency switch and the antenna and is respectively and electrically connected with the radio frequency switch and the antenna.

The embodiment of the invention also provides an antenna switching method, which is applied to the base station system of any one of the above, and comprises the following steps:

according to a preset switching strategy, 2M radio frequency channels of the radio frequency unit RRU are controlled to switch the conduction relation with N antennas through the corresponding radio frequency switches, sectors covered by different antennas are different, M is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and N is an integer greater than 1.

Optionally, according to a preset switching policy, the controlling the 2M radio frequency channels of the radio frequency unit RRU to switch the conducting relationship with the N antennas through the radio frequency switches corresponding to the radio frequency channels includes:

And under the condition that the preset switching strategy is a switching strategy for periodically triggering antenna switching, controlling M transmitting channels or M receiving channels of the RRU, and executing switching of a conduction relation between the RRU and the antenna through the corresponding radio frequency switch every preset time length, wherein the antenna switched every time is one of N antennas.

determining a first sector with a capacity requirement greater than a preset threshold under the condition that the preset switching strategy is a switching strategy based on the capacity requirement of the sector covered by the antenna;

controlling H radio frequency channel groups to be conducted with a first antenna corresponding to the first sector through each radio frequency switch in each corresponding radio frequency switch group, wherein H is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than M;

and controlling the M-H radio frequency channel groups to switch the conduction relation among other antennas except the first antenna in the N antennas through each radio frequency switch in the corresponding radio frequency switch group.

and controlling the M-H radio frequency channel groups to switch the conduction relation with the N antennas through each radio frequency switch in the corresponding radio frequency switch group.

determining the capacity requirement of each sector under the condition that the preset switching strategy is a switching strategy based on the capacity requirement of the sector covered by the antenna;

determining the connection duration of the antenna corresponding to each sector according to the capacity requirement of each sector;

and controlling M transmitting channels or M receiving channels of the RRU, and executing switching of a conduction relation between the RRU and the antenna once through the corresponding radio frequency switch at intervals of the corresponding connection time, wherein the antenna switched each time is one of N antennas.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

when a radio frequency channel of an RRU is conducted with a target antenna, carrying out resource scheduling on a terminal in a target sector within a time corresponding to the target sector covered by the target antenna according to a sector label identification result corresponding to the terminal;

the sector label identification result corresponding to the terminal is used for indicating the position relationship between the terminal and the sector;

the target antenna is one of N antennas.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

acquiring indication information fed back by a terminal; the indication information is used for indicating the number of the synchronous signal block SSB with the strongest signal strength received by the terminal; the indication information is obtained by testing SSB transmitted by each antenna according to a preset period by the terminal;

and determining a sector label identification result corresponding to the terminal according to the indication information and the sectors covered by each antenna.

The embodiment of the invention also provides an antenna switching device, which comprises:

the control module is used for controlling 2M radio frequency channels of the radio frequency unit RRU to switch the conduction relation with N antennas through the corresponding radio frequency switches according to a preset switching strategy, sectors covered by different antennas are different, M is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and N is an integer greater than 1.

Optionally, the control module includes:

the first control unit is configured to control M transmitting channels or M receiving channels of the RRU to perform switching of a conducting relationship with the antennas through the radio frequency switches corresponding to each of the M transmitting channels or the M receiving channels every a preset duration when the preset switching strategy is a switching strategy that periodically triggers antenna switching, where each switched antenna is one of N antennas.

Optionally, the control module includes:

a first determining unit, configured to determine, in a case where the preset switching policy is a switching policy based on a capacity requirement of a sector covered by the antenna, a first sector whose capacity requirement is greater than a preset threshold;

the second control unit is used for controlling the conduction of H radio frequency channel groups with the first antenna corresponding to the first sector through each radio frequency switch in the corresponding radio frequency switch group, and H is an integer which is more than or equal to 1 and less than M;

and the third control unit is used for controlling the M-H radio frequency channel groups to switch the conduction relation with other antennas except the first antenna in the N antennas through each radio frequency switch in the corresponding radio frequency switch group.

Optionally, the control module includes:

A second determining unit, configured to determine, in a case where the preset switching policy is a switching policy based on a capacity requirement of a sector covered by the antenna, a first sector whose capacity requirement is greater than a preset threshold;

the fourth control unit is used for controlling the conduction of H radio frequency channel groups with the first antenna corresponding to the first sector through each radio frequency switch in the corresponding radio frequency switch group, and H is an integer which is more than or equal to 1 and less than M;

and the fifth control unit is used for controlling the M-H radio frequency channel groups to switch the conduction relation with the N antennas through each radio frequency switch in the corresponding radio frequency switch group.

Optionally, the control module includes:

a third determining unit, configured to determine a capacity requirement of each sector if the preset switching strategy is a switching strategy based on a capacity requirement of a sector covered by the antenna;

a fourth determining unit, configured to determine, according to a capacity requirement of each sector, a connection duration of an antenna corresponding to each sector;

and the sixth control unit is used for controlling M transmitting channels or M receiving channels of the RRU, executing a conduction relation between the RRU and the antenna once through the corresponding radio frequency switch every corresponding connection time length, and switching one antenna of N antennas each time.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises:

the processing module is used for carrying out resource scheduling on the terminal in the target sector according to the sector label identification result corresponding to the terminal when the radio frequency channel of the RRU is conducted with the target antenna and in the time corresponding to the target sector covered by the target antenna;

the target antenna is one of N antennas.

Optionally, the processing module further includes:

the acquisition unit is used for acquiring the indication information fed back by the terminal; the indication information is used for indicating the number of the synchronous signal block SSB with the strongest signal strength received by the terminal; the indication information is obtained by testing SSB transmitted by each antenna according to a preset period by the terminal;

and a fifth determining unit, configured to determine a sector tag identification result corresponding to the terminal according to the indication information and the sectors covered by each antenna.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a network device, which comprises: a processor, a memory and a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which when executed by the processor implements the steps of the antenna switching method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a readable storage medium, wherein a program is stored on the readable storage medium, and the program is executed by a processor to implement the steps in the antenna switching method according to any one of the above.

The beneficial effects of the invention are as follows:

the invention provides a base station system, which comprises a radio frequency unit RRU, wherein the RRU comprises M radio frequency channel groups, and each radio frequency channel group comprises a transmitting channel and a receiving channel; m radio frequency switch groups, each radio frequency switch group comprises a radio frequency switch connected with a transmitting channel and a radio frequency switch connected with a receiving channel belonging to the same radio frequency channel group with the transmitting channel; n antennas, each radio frequency switch is respectively connected with the N antennas, and the connection relation between the N antennas is switched through the corresponding radio frequency switches of 2M radio frequency channels (transmitting channels and receiving channels), so that the base station system only needs one radio frequency unit, and the radio frequency channel groups included by the switching radio frequency units are connected and connected with different antennas, so that the coverage of all sectors corresponding to the antennas is realized, and the equipment investment cost of the base station system is obviously reduced under the condition of ensuring the coverage capability of the base station system.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows one of schematic structural diagrams of a base station system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 shows a second schematic structural diagram of a base station system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 shows a flowchart of an antenna switching method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 shows one of sector coverage diagrams corresponding to a periodically switched antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 shows a second schematic diagram of sector coverage corresponding to a periodically switched antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 shows a third schematic diagram of sector coverage corresponding to a periodically switched antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of an antenna switching device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Reference numerals illustrate:

1-a radio frequency switch; a 2-antenna; 3-combiner.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings and the specific embodiments thereof in order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent.

Aiming at the problems of high cost and weak coverage of the existing base station system coverage scheme, the invention provides a base station system, an antenna switching method, an antenna switching device and network equipment.

As shown in fig. 1, an embodiment of the present invention provides a base station system, including:

the radio frequency unit RRU, RRU includes: m radio frequency channel groups, wherein each radio frequency channel group comprises two radio frequency channels, one radio frequency channel is a transmitting channel, and the other radio frequency channel is a receiving channel;

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The base station system comprises a radio frequency unit RRU, as shown in fig. 1, where the radio frequency unit RRU includes 4 radio frequency channel groups, each radio frequency channel group includes 2 radio frequency channels, one of which is a transmitting channel TX, and the other is a receiving channel RX, that is, the radio frequency unit includes 8 radio frequency channels, which are 4 transmitting channels and 4 receiving channels, respectively, where a transmitting channel TX1 and a receiving channel RX1 belong to the same radio frequency channel group, a transmitting channel TX2 and a receiving channel RX2 belong to the same radio frequency channel group, a transmitting channel TX3 and a receiving channel RX3 belong to the same radio frequency channel group, and a transmitting channel TX4 and a receiving channel RX4 belong to the same radio frequency channel group. The base station system also comprises 4 radio frequency switch groups, each radio frequency switch group comprises 2 radio frequency switches 1, wherein one radio frequency switch 1 is connected with a transmitting channel, and the other radio frequency switch 1 is connected with a receiving channel belonging to the same radio frequency channel group with the transmitting channel, namely, the base station system is correspondingly added with the radio frequency switches 1 in the uplink and downlink directions respectively, namely, 8 radio frequency switches 1 are added.

Specifically, referring to fig. 1, the radio frequency switch connected to the transmitting channel TX1 and the radio frequency switch connected to the receiving channel RX1 belong to the same radio frequency switch group, the radio frequency switch connected to the transmitting channel TX2 and the radio frequency switch connected to the receiving channel RX2 belong to the same radio frequency switch group, the radio frequency switch connected to the transmitting channel TX3 and the radio frequency switch connected to the receiving channel RX3 belong to the same radio frequency switch group, and the radio frequency switch connected to the transmitting channel TX4 and the radio frequency switch connected to the receiving channel RX4 belong to the same radio frequency switch group.

The base station system further comprises 3 antennas 2, each radio frequency switch 1 in the 8 radio frequency switches 1 is respectively connected with the 3 antennas 2, so that 8 radio frequency channels are switched and connected between the 3 antennas 2 through the corresponding radio frequency switches 1, the base station system can only need one radio frequency unit, and the radio frequency channel groups included by the radio frequency units are switched to be connected and conducted with different antennas, so that coverage of all sectors corresponding to the antennas is realized, and the equipment investment cost of the base station system is obviously reduced under the condition that the coverage capability of the base station system is ensured.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a switching strategy for conducting connection between the radio frequency channel group and different antennas, for example, the switching strategy is a periodic triggering antenna switching strategy, specifically, for the downlink situation, at time t1, 4 radio frequency switches connected with 4 transmission channels included in the RRU are controlled to be conducted with the first antenna, 4 radio frequency outputs (4 transmission channels) are all radiated out through the first antenna of the base station, at time t2, 4 radio frequency switches connected with 4 transmission channels included in the RRU are controlled to be conducted with the second antenna, 4 radio frequency outputs (4 transmission channels) are all radiated out through the second antenna of the base station, at time t3, 4 radio frequency switches connected with 4 transmission channels included in the RRU are controlled to be conducted with the third antenna of the base station, at time t4, 4 radio frequency switches connected with 4 transmission channels included in the RRU are controlled to be conducted with the first antenna again, and the time period between time t2 and the preset time is fixed according to the cycle duration of time period between time t2 and the preset time t2 and the time. For the uplink situation, similar to the above description, the 4 radio frequency switches connected with the 4 receiving channels included in the RRU are controlled to conduct connection with different antennas every a fixed preset duration, so that the 3 antennas receive signals in turns and can transmit the signals to the RRU. For another example, the switching policy may be to switch based on the capacity requirement of the sector covered by the antenna, specifically, for a situation that the capacity requirement of one or more sectors is higher, if a sector has a rural settlement point in the opposite direction, the users are more concentrated, and other sectors are mainly farmlands, then part of the radio frequency channels may be fixedly sent to the antenna covering the rural settlement point, and then the rest of the radio frequency channels are respectively connected and conducted with the rest of the antennas. If the capacity requirement of the sector of the first antenna of the 3 antennas is higher (greater than the preset threshold), the radio frequency switches in one radio frequency channel group can be controlled to be conducted with the first antenna, namely, the two radio frequency switches in the radio frequency channel group are fixedly connected and conducted with the first antenna, and the radio frequency switches in the remaining three radio frequency channel groups are switched and conducted with the connections among the remaining 2 antennas at intervals of fixed preset time periods.

Preferably, the radio frequency switch is a high-power low-insertion-loss radio frequency switch, that is, a radio frequency input channel of the high-power low-insertion-loss radio frequency switch is connected after the power output of each radio frequency channel.

In this embodiment, each rf switch 1 includes at least 3 first ports, that is, each rf switch 1 provides rf output switching options of not less than 3 rf channels, and the 3 first ports are respectively connected with 3 antennas 2 in a one-to-one correspondence, and each rf switch 1 includes at least 1 second port, and each second port is connected with a corresponding rf channel, that is, each rf switch is connected with a corresponding transmitting channel or receiving channel.

When the second port of one radio frequency switch 1 is electrically connected and conducted with the target port of the 3 first ports, the radio frequency channel and the target antenna connected with the target port are conducted through the radio frequency switch.

With continued reference to fig. 1, the base station system further includes 12 combiners 3.

The two radio frequency switches in each radio frequency switch group are respectively formed into 3 first port groups by two-by-two groups of 3 first ports. Illustratively, a radio frequency switch group formed by a radio frequency switch connected to the transmit channel TX1 and a radio frequency switch connected to the receive channel RX1 is described as an example, where a first port on the radio frequency switch connected to the transmit channel TX1 and a first port on the radio frequency switch connected to the receive channel RX1 form a first port group; a second first port on the radio frequency switch connected with the transmitting channel TX1 in the first radio frequency switch group and a second first port on the radio frequency switch connected with the receiving channel RX1 form a second first port group; the third first port of the first rf switch group connected to the rf switch of the transmit channel TX1 and the third first port of the rf switch of the receive channel RX1 form a third first port group.

Two first ports in each first port group are connected with a combiner, and one combiner is connected with one antenna.

Each combiner 3 comprises two third ports and a fourth port, wherein one of the two third ports is connected to one of the first ports of the first port group, the other of the two third ports is connected to the other of the first ports of the first port group, and the fourth port of the combiner 3 is connected to one of the radio frequency input ports of one of the antennas 2.

Namely, the radio frequency switch provided by the embodiment of the invention provides radio frequency output switching selection (N first ports) of not less than N channels, corresponding uplink and downlink channels (transmitting channels and receiving channels belonging to the same radio frequency channel group) are respectively combined by the combiner 3 after passing through the corresponding radio frequency switch (radio frequency switch belonging to the same radio frequency switch group), and then the N channels are respectively connected with one radio frequency input port of the N antennas. Wherein, all the radio frequency switch groups share one set of radio frequency switch control to control the channel selection of each radio frequency switch.

Optionally, the method further comprises: a radio frequency amplifier;

The base station system provided in the embodiment of the present invention may optionally further include a radio frequency amplifier (not shown in fig. 1) between the radio frequency switch 1 and the antenna 2 to increase the radio frequency power input to the antenna 2.

It should be noted that, since an amplifier device (radio frequency amplifier) may be added to each antenna 2 after the radio frequency switch 1, the radio frequency unit may be in the form of a micro base station, so that on one hand, a high-power radio frequency switch may be avoided, and the complexity and cost of the radio frequency switch may be reduced; on the other hand, compared with the radio frequency unit of the macro base station, the micro base station can further reduce the cost.

It should be further noted that, the embodiment of the present invention further provides a base station system, the structure of which is shown in fig. 2, where the base station system includes a radio frequency unit RRU, and the RRU includes M radio frequency channel groups, each radio frequency channel group includes a transmitting channel and a receiving channel, specifically, the first radio frequency channel group includes a transmitting channel TX1 and a receiving channel RX1, the second radio frequency channel group includes a transmitting channel TX2 and a receiving channel RX2, the third radio frequency channel group includes a transmitting channel TX3 and a receiving channel RX3, the fourth radio frequency channel group includes a transmitting channel TX4 and a receiving channel RX4, and one transmitting channel and one receiving channel in each radio frequency channel group are connected to a combiner 3, that is, one transmitting channel and one receiving channel have been combined in the radio frequency unit RRU, and share one radio frequency channel, and after power output of each radio frequency channel, the third radio frequency channel is connected to a radio frequency input channel of a high-power low-insertion loss radio frequency switch, and the fourth radio frequency channel includes M radio frequency switches 1. Each rf switch 1 may provide rf output switching options of not less than N channels (at least N first ports), where the N channels of the rf switch 1 are respectively connected to a certain 1 rf input port of the N antennas 2. All the radio frequency switches 1 share a set of radio frequency switch control, and a high-speed parallel switching control interface can be connected to a radio frequency unit RRU or other devices to control channel selection of the radio frequency switch 1. According to the requirements of the radio frequency unit RRU, a radio frequency amplifier (not shown in the figure) may be optionally added between the output of the radio frequency switch 1 and the input port of the antenna 2, so as to increase the radio frequency power input to the base station antenna, where M is equal to 4 and n is equal to 3. For the base station system shown in fig. 2, the linearity requirement on the radio frequency switch is higher, and the intermodulation of the downlink can generate interference on the uplink, and for the base station system shown in fig. 1, the radio frequency switch is respectively added on the uplink and the downlink, namely 2M radio frequency switches are added, so that the influence of intermodulation products generated in the radio frequency switch part of the downlink on the uplink can be eliminated, and the requirement on the open-end linear scheduling is reduced.

As shown in fig. 3, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an antenna switching method, which is applied to the base station system as described in any one of the foregoing, where the method includes:

step 301: according to a preset switching strategy, 2M radio frequency channels of the radio frequency unit RRU are controlled to switch the conduction relation with N antennas through the corresponding radio frequency switches, sectors covered by different antennas are different, M is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and N is an integer greater than 1.

In this step, the above base station system operates in the following manner: the switching strategy is preset, the preset switching strategy can be switched according to a period or based on capacity requirements of sectors covered by antennas, and then a specific process of switching 2M radio frequency channels of the radio frequency unit RRU among N antennas through corresponding radio frequency switches is as follows: for the downlink situation, after the power of the M transmitting channels of the radio frequency unit RRU is output, at time t1, the power is transferred to different input ports of the same antenna through the first port of the radio frequency switch, after a time interval, the radio frequency switch is controlled to switch to the next channel, that is, the second port of the radio frequency switch is controlled to be connected with another first port, correspondingly, the power of the M transmitting channels of the radio frequency unit RRU is output to the port of the next antenna, thereby changing the covered sector range, at time t3, the radio frequency switch is controlled to switch to the next channel, that is, the second port of the radio frequency switch is controlled to be connected with the yet another first port, accordingly, the power of the M transmitting channels of the radio frequency unit is output to the port of the yet another next antenna, thereby changing the covered sector range, or, for the uplink situation, at time t1, the first antenna receiving power is output to the first port of the radio frequency switch through the different output ports, the first port of the radio frequency switch is controlled to be connected with the second port of the radio frequency switch, the M receiving channels of the radio frequency unit RRU is controlled to be connected with the other first port of the radio frequency switch through the other output port at time t2, the radio frequency switch is controlled to be connected with the other antenna through the other output port of the yet another antenna, thereby changing the radio frequency range, under the condition that the preset switching strategy is to switch according to the period, the time interval between the time t1 and the time t2 and the time interval between the time t2 and the time t3 are equal, and the preset fixed duration is set. In the case that the preset switching strategy is based on the capacity requirement of the sector covered by the antenna, the time interval between the time t1 and the time t2 is determined according to the capacity requirement of the covered sector of the antenna conducted at the time t1, and the time interval between the time t2 and the time t3 is determined according to the capacity requirement of the covered sector of the antenna conducted at the time t 2. The network coverage of the target area can be realized by circularly switching the radio frequency switch and connecting and conducting the radio frequency switch with different N antennas.

Based on the coverage target area, the radio frequency switch may have different handoff strategies, and for a conventional cellular network, each base station is illustratively composed of three sectors, a first sector, a second sector, and a third sector, respectively, each of which is covered by a pair of directional base station antennas over an angular area of 120 degrees. In this case, N is 3. If the RRU has 4 outputs, i.e. includes 4 radio frequency channel groups, M is equal to 4, for the downlink situation (where the base station transmits a signal, and the terminal receives a signal), at time t1, the 4 radio frequency switches corresponding to the 4 transmit channels switch the state to the radio frequency channel connected to the first antenna covering the first sector (where the second port is connected to the first port connected to the first antenna), i.e. all the 4 radio frequency outputs (4 transmit channels) are radiated through the first antenna of the base station (may be amplified by the radio frequency amplifier before being output to the antenna ports) where only the first sector has signal radiation, and the second sector and the third sector have no signal. At time t2, the 4 radio frequency switches corresponding to the 4 transmitting channels switch the state to the radio frequency channel connected with the second antenna covering the second sector (the second port is connected with the first port connected with the second antenna), that is, all the 4 radio frequency outputs (the 4 transmitting channels) are radiated through the second antenna of the base station (the radio frequency outputs can be amplified by a radio frequency amplifier before being output to the antenna port so as to increase the transmitted power). Only the second sector has signal radiation and the first sector and the third sector have no signal. Similarly, at time t3, the power of the RRU will radiate through the third antenna, and the first and second sectors have no signals. At time t4, the power of the RRU will still radiate through the first antenna, and thus, repeatedly, signals will be transmitted in turns between 3 sectors. For the uplink case (terminal transmitting signal, base station receiving signal), similar to the above description, the 3 sectors receive signals in their respective sectors in turn and transmit them to the radio frequency unit RRU.

According to different preset switching strategies, the time intervals between the time t1 and the time t2, the time t2 and the time t3 and the time t4 are the same or different.

Under the condition that the preset switching strategy is the switching strategy for periodically triggering the antenna switching, for the downlink situation, controlling M transmitting channels of the RRU to execute antenna switching once through the corresponding radio frequency switch every preset time length, corresponding to the above example, under the condition that the preset switching strategy is the switching strategy for periodically triggering the antenna switching, the time intervals between the time t1 and the time t2, between the time t2 and the time t3 and between the time t3 and the time t4 are the same, and the specific time interval (preset time length) is configured as follows: according to the frame structure division scheme, frames are used as the minimum switching period, each frame corresponds to one antenna, or two frames or a plurality of continuous frames correspond to the same antenna, as shown in fig. 4, different filling patterns correspond to different antennas, the radio frequency switch only switches the conducting relation between the frame head of each frame and the antennas, and each sector switches the antennas in equal periods. For the uplink situation, controlling the M receiving channels of the RRU, and executing the switching of the conduction relation between the receiving channels and the antennas through the corresponding radio frequency switches every preset time length, wherein the specific mode is similar to the downlink situation.

and controlling the M-H radio frequency channel groups to switch the conduction relation between the M-H radio frequency channel groups and other antennas except the first antenna in the N antennas through each radio frequency switch in the corresponding radio frequency switch group.

Under the condition that the preset switching strategy is based on the capacity requirement of the sector covered by the antenna, for the situation that the capacity requirement of one or a plurality of sectors is higher, if one sector reversely has a rural settlement point, the users are more concentrated, and the other sectors are mainly farmlands, part of channels can be fixedly transmitted to the antenna covering the settlement point. Further, by way of the above example, if the capacity requirement of the sector corresponding to the first antenna is high (greater than the preset threshold), the one or more rf channel groups may be controlled to be conducted with the first antenna through the rf switches in the corresponding rf switch groups, that is, the fixed state of one or more of the rf switches is sent to the first antenna, and only the remaining rf channels are reserved to pass through the corresponding rf switches, so that the conducting relationship between the remaining rf channel groups and the second antenna and the third antenna is switched.

Under the condition that the preset switching strategy is based on the capacity requirement of the sector covered by the antenna, for the situation that the capacity requirement of one or a plurality of sectors is higher, if a certain sector reversely has a rural settlement point, the users are more concentrated, and other sectors are mainly farmlands, part of channels can be fixedly transmitted to the antenna covered by the settlement point, and the other channels are switched to be in conduction relation with all antennas through each radio frequency switch in the corresponding radio frequency switch group. Further, by way of the above example, if the capacity requirement of the sector corresponding to the first antenna is high (greater than the preset threshold), the one or more radio frequency channel groups may be controlled to be conducted with the first antenna through the radio frequency switches in the corresponding radio frequency switch groups, that is, the fixed state of one or more radio frequency switches in the radio frequency switch is sent to the first antenna, and only remaining radio frequency channels are reserved to be conducted with the first antenna, the second antenna and the third antenna through the corresponding radio frequency switches.

Under the condition that the preset switching strategy is based on the capacity requirement of the sector covered by the antenna, the MAC layer can intelligently configure the duration time (connection duration of the antenna) of each sector according to the capacity requirement (including the number of users and the traffic volume) of each sector, and the duration time of each configured sector can be different, so that the time resource is inclined towards the sector with more users and high requirements, and the time-frequency resource of the base station is more reasonably utilized. In the implementation process, different switching strategies can be implemented on a single channel, so that the time-frequency resources of the base station can be allocated more finely and reasonably. For the downlink situation, controlling M transmitting channels of the RRU, and executing switching of the conducting relationship between the M transmitting channels and the antennas through radio frequency switches corresponding to each transmitting channel at intervals of connection duration of the corresponding antennas, where, corresponding to the above example, the preset switching policy is a switching policy based on capacity requirements of sectors covered by the antennas, time intervals between t1 time and t2 time, between t2 time and t3 time, and between t3 time and t4 time are different, and the specific time interval (connection duration) is configured by the MAC layer according to the capacity requirements of each sector.

The embodiment of the invention supports the strategy of flexibly implementing the transmission or the reception of the signal power according to the user distribution condition of the antenna coverage area, and more reasonably utilizes the time-frequency resource of the base station.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

the target antenna is one of N antennas.

It should be noted that, the antenna switching is triggered periodically, i.e. the antenna switching is caused to lose user information, for example, the terminal (UE 1) is located in the sector covered by the antenna corresponding to the dotted line filling pattern as shown in fig. 4, and accesses to the service, but the service is not completed in the period that the radio frequency channel accesses to the antenna, after the antenna switching is performed to the sector covered by the antenna corresponding to the thin solid line filling pattern, the base station still sends a message to the UE1, which causes that the UE1 cannot manage information, so that the switching selection of the antenna and the resource management of the baseband are linked, and the sector position of the terminal is managed, to obtain the identification result of the sector tag corresponding to the terminal, the sector tag is marked on for the terminal, when the MAC layer performs resource scheduling, the identification link of the sector tag corresponding to the terminal is required to be added, and the UE corresponding to the sector tag is scheduled only in the duration of the corresponding sector, i.e. when the radio frequency channel of the RRU is conducted with the target antenna, the resource scheduling is performed in the target sector corresponding to the target antenna, so that the scheduling time of the UE resource in the target sector corresponding to the target antenna is not consistent with the connection time, and the failure of the UE resource scheduling time is avoided. Specifically, with continued reference to fig. 4, the terminals in the sectors covered by the antennas corresponding to the dotted line filling patterns are the terminals indicated by the dotted lines in the triangles in the figure, the terminals in the sectors covered by the antennas corresponding to the thin solid line filling patterns are the terminals indicated by the thin solid lines in the triangles in the figure, and the terminals in the sectors covered by the antennas corresponding to the thick solid line filling patterns are the terminals indicated by the thick solid lines in the triangles in the figure.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

The following specifically describes a procedure for determining the sector tag identification result corresponding to the terminal:

the location management of the sector where the terminal is located is implemented by a plurality of synchronization signal blocks (Synchronization Signal Block, SSB), and therefore, the number of configurations of the antennas in the base station system provided by the embodiment of the present invention is not higher than the maximum number of SSBs specified by the communication protocol. For the 3-day networking case, the baseband is configured with 3 SSBs, SSB0, SSB1, SSB2 respectively, and when SSB0 is transmitted, the radio frequency switch switches to connect the base station energy to the sector covered by the antenna corresponding to the thin solid line filling pattern shown in fig. 3, when SSB1 is transmitted, the radio frequency switch switches to connect the base station energy to the sector covered by the antenna corresponding to the thick solid line filling pattern shown in fig. 3, and when SSB2 is transmitted, the radio frequency switch switches to connect the base station energy to the sector covered by the antenna corresponding to the dashed line filling pattern shown in fig. 3. And the terminal tests the three SSBs in each preset period, feeds back the SSB numbers with the strongest signals to the base station, determines the sector corresponding to the SSB number with the strongest signals as the sector corresponding to the position of the terminal, and marks the sector label on the terminal to obtain the sector label identification result corresponding to the terminal. And updating the sector label identification result corresponding to the terminal once every preset period by the baseband.

Specifically, referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 shows a schematic diagram of a sector covered by an antenna when an antenna switch is triggered by taking a frame as a minimum switching period, in which each rectangular area is a sector covered by a frame period, a sector covered by a different antenna corresponding to a different filling pattern, a vertical line indicates a sector identification result corresponding to a terminal, a terminal in the sector covered by the antenna corresponding to the dotted line is indicated by a dotted line in the vertical line, a terminal in the sector covered by the antenna corresponding to the thin solid line is indicated by a thin solid line in the vertical line, a terminal in the sector covered by the antenna corresponding to the thick solid line is indicated by a thick solid line in the vertical line, that is, resource scheduling is performed on the terminal indicated by the thin solid line, a sector covered by the antenna corresponding to the dotted line, resource scheduling is performed on the terminal indicated by the dotted line, and a terminal indicated by the thick solid line is performed on the terminal indicated by the thick solid line. Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an antenna coverage sector when an antenna switch is triggered by taking two consecutive frames as a minimum switching period, in which each rectangular area of two identical filling patterns is a sector covered in two consecutive frames, a vertical line represents a sector identification result of a terminal corresponding to a different antenna coverage sector, a terminal in the antenna coverage sector corresponding to a broken line filling pattern is represented by a broken line in the vertical line, a terminal in the antenna coverage sector corresponding to a thin solid line filling pattern is represented by a thin solid line in the vertical line, a terminal in the antenna coverage sector corresponding to a thick solid line filling pattern is represented by a thick solid line in the vertical line, that is, in the antenna coverage sector corresponding to the thin solid line filling pattern, a resource scheduling is performed on the terminal represented by the broken line, in the antenna coverage sector corresponding to the thick solid line, and a resource scheduling is performed on the terminal represented by the thick solid line.

As shown in fig. 7, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an antenna switching apparatus, where the apparatus includes:

the control module 701 is configured to control, according to a preset switching policy, 2M radio frequency channels of the radio frequency unit RRU to switch, through respective corresponding radio frequency switches, a conducting relationship between the radio frequency channels and N antennas, where M is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and N is an integer greater than 1, and sectors covered by different antennas are different.

Optionally, the control module 701 includes:

And the sixth control unit is used for controlling M transmitting channels or M receiving channels of the RRU, executing antenna switching once through the corresponding radio frequency switch every corresponding connection time length, and the antenna switched every time is one of N antennas.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises:

the target antenna is one of N antennas.

Optionally, the processing module further includes:

It should be noted that, the antenna switching apparatus provided in the embodiments of the present invention is an apparatus capable of executing the antenna switching method, and all embodiments of the antenna switching method are applicable to the apparatus, and the same or similar technical effects can be achieved.

As shown in fig. 8, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a network device, including: a processor 800; and a memory 810 connected to the processor 800 through a bus interface, the memory 810 storing programs and data used by the processor 800 in performing operations, the processor 800 calling and executing the programs and data stored in the memory 810.

Wherein the network device further comprises a transceiver 820, the transceiver 820 being connected to a bus interface for receiving and transmitting data under the control of the processor 800;

specifically, the processor 800 performs the following process:

Optionally, the processor 800 is configured to:

Optionally, the processor 800 is configured to: determining a first sector with a capacity requirement greater than a preset threshold under the condition that the preset switching strategy is a switching strategy based on the capacity requirement of the sector covered by the antenna;

Optionally, the processor 800 is configured to:

and controlling the M-H radio frequency channel groups to switch the conduction relation with the N antennas through each radio frequency switch in the corresponding radio frequency switch group. Optionally, the processor 800 is configured to:

Optionally, the processor 800 is further configured to:

the target antenna is one of N antennas.

Optionally, the processor 800 is further configured to:

Wherein in fig. 8, a bus architecture may comprise any number of interconnected buses and bridges, and in particular, one or more processors represented by processor 800 and various circuits of memory represented by memory 810, linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripheral devices, voltage regulators, power management circuits, etc., which are well known in the art and, therefore, will not be described further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 820 may be a number of elements, i.e., including a transmitter and a receiver, providing a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The processor 800 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 810 may store data used by the processor 800 in performing operations.

The network device according to the embodiment of the present invention may be a base station, where the base station may include a plurality of cells for providing services for the terminal. A base station may also be called an access point or may be a device in an access network that communicates over the air-interface, through one or more sectors, with wireless terminal devices, or other names, depending on the particular application. The network device may be operable to exchange received air frames with internet protocol (Internet Protocol, IP) packets as a router between the wireless terminal device and the rest of the access network, which may include an Internet Protocol (IP) communication network. The network device may also coordinate attribute management for the air interface. For example, the network device according to the embodiments of the present application may be a network device (Base Transceiver Station, BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (Global System for Mobile communications, GSM) or code division multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA), a network device (NodeB) in a wideband code division multiple access (Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA), an evolved network device (evolutional Node B, eNB or e-NodeB) in a long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system, a 5G base station (gNB) in a 5G network architecture (next generation system), a home evolved base station (Home evolved Node B, heNB), a relay node (relay node), a home base station (femto), a pico base station (pico), and the like. In some network structures, the network device may include a Centralized Unit (CU) node and a Distributed Unit (DU) node, which may also be geographically separated.

In addition, a specific embodiment of the present invention also provides a readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program, wherein the program when executed by a processor implements the steps in the antenna switching method as described in any one of the above.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed methods and apparatus may be implemented in other ways. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may be physically included separately, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in hardware plus software functional units.

The integrated units implemented in the form of software functional units described above may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. The software functional unit is stored in a storage medium, and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform part of the steps of the transceiving method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

While the foregoing is directed to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the principles of the present invention, and such modifications and changes are intended to be within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A base station system, comprising:

2. The base station system of claim 1, wherein each of said radio frequency switches comprises at least N first ports and one second port, N first ports being connected in one-to-one correspondence with N of said antennas, said second ports being connected with corresponding ones of said radio frequency channels;

3. The base station system of claim 2, wherein the respective N first ports of the two radio frequency switch groups are formed in pairs, each of the first port groups being connected to an antenna via a combiner.

4. The base station system of claim 1, further comprising: a radio frequency amplifier;

5. An antenna switching method, applied to the base station system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, comprising:

6. The method for switching antennas according to claim 5, wherein the controlling the 2M radio frequency channels of the radio frequency unit RRU according to the preset switching strategy to switch the conducting relationship between the 2M radio frequency channels and the N antennas through the radio frequency switches respectively includes:

7. The method for switching antennas according to claim 5, wherein the controlling the 2M radio frequency channels of the radio frequency unit RRU according to the preset switching strategy to switch the conducting relationship between the 2M radio frequency channels and the N antennas through the radio frequency switches respectively includes:

8. The method for switching antennas according to claim 5, wherein the controlling the 2M radio frequency channels of the radio frequency unit RRU according to the preset switching strategy to switch the conducting relationship between the 2M radio frequency channels and the N antennas through the radio frequency switches respectively includes:

9. The method for switching antennas according to claim 5, wherein the controlling the 2M radio frequency channels of the radio frequency unit RRU according to the preset switching strategy to switch the conducting relationship between the 2M radio frequency channels and the N antennas through the radio frequency switches respectively includes:

10. The antenna switching method of claim 5, further comprising:

the target antenna is one of N antennas.

11. The antenna switching method of claim 10, further comprising:

12. An antenna switching apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

13. A network device, comprising: a processor, a memory and a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which when executed by the processor, implements the steps of the antenna switching method according to any of claims 5 to 11.

14. A readable storage medium, characterized in that it has stored thereon a program which, when executed by a processor, implements the steps in the antenna switching method according to any of claims 5 to 11.