Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04B—TRANSMISSION
  • H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
  • H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
  • H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
  • H04B7/06—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station
  • H04B7/0613—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission
  • H04B7/0615—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission of weighted versions of same signal
  • H04B7/0619—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission of weighted versions of same signal using feedback from receiving side
  • H04B7/0621—Feedback content
  • H04B7/0634—Antenna weights or vector/matrix coefficients
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04B—TRANSMISSION
  • H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
  • H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
  • H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
  • H04B7/06—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station
  • H04B7/0613—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission
  • H04B7/0615—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission of weighted versions of same signal
  • H04B7/0619—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission of weighted versions of same signal using feedback from receiving side
  • H04B7/0636—Feedback format
  • H04B7/0645—Variable feedback
  • H04B7/065—Variable contents, e.g. long-term or short-short
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04B—TRANSMISSION
  • H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
  • H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
  • H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
  • H04B7/06—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station
  • H04B7/0613—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission
  • H04B7/0615—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission of weighted versions of same signal
  • H04B7/0617—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission of weighted versions of same signal for beam forming

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method for beam shaping in a radio communication system with a base station, the associated antenna device of which has several antenna elements, so that spatial resolution is possible during beam shaping.
• messages In radio communication systems, messages (voice, image information or other data) are transmitted via transmission channels with the aid of electromagnetic waves (radio interface).
• the transmission takes place both in the downlink from the base station to the subscriber station and in the uplink direction from the subscriber station to the base station.
• Signals that are transmitted with the electromagnetic waves are subject, among other things, to their propagation in a propagation medium.
• Interference caused by interference can include caused by noise in the input stage of the receiver.
• Diffraction and reflection cause signal components to travel through different paths.
• this has the consequence that a signal can arrive at the receiver several times, in each case from different directions, with different delays, attenuations and phase positions, and on the other hand, contributions of the received signal can coherently overlap with changing phase relationships at the receiver and there lead to cancellation effects lead to a short-term time scale (fast fading).
• a method is known from DE 198 03 188 A, wherein a spatial covariance matrix is determined for a connection from a base station to a subscriber station.
• an eigenvector is calculated from the covariance matrix and used as a beam shaping vector for the connection.
• the transmission signals for the connection are weighted with the beam shaping vector and antenna elements are supplied for radiation. Due to the use of joint detection, for example in the end devices, intracell interference is not included in the beam shaping and corruption of the received signals by intercell
• this method determines a propagation path with good transmission properties in an environment with multipath propagation and concentrates the transmission power of the base station spatially on this propagation path. However, this cannot prevent interference on this transmission path from briefly canceling the signal and thus interrupting the transmission.
• Channel impulse response h ra of the channel from the m-th antenna element to the subscriber station is estimated and weighting factors w m are calculated with which the transmission signal is to be weighted before radiation by the m-th antenna element.
• weighting factors w m are calculated with which the transmission signal is to be weighted before radiation by the m-th antenna element.
• a serious problem with this procedure is that the vector of the weighting factors estimated by the subscriber station has to be transmitted to the base station and that, according to the recommendations of the 3GPP, only a small bandwidth of one bit per time slot is available for this.
• the vectors can therefore only be roughly quantized. If the channel changes quickly and the weightings have to be updated from one time slot to another, only two different relative phase positions of the antenna elements can be set. If the channel changes more slowly and e.g. B. four time slots for transmitting the vector are available, 16 different values of the vector can be represented.
• the known concepts reach their limits if the number of antenna elements of the base station is greater than two, because the bandwidth required to transmit the vector increases with its number of components, i. H. with the number of antenna elements. This means: on the one hand, a large number of antenna elements would be desirable in order to be able to align the transmitted beam as precisely as possible, on the other hand, due to the limited available bandwidth, the weighting vector cannot be updated as often as would be necessary to adapt to the fast fading.
• the invention has for its object to provide an improved method for beam shaping, which allows a more reliable shaping of the downlink beam.
• the method according to the invention for data transmission is used in a radio communication system with a base station and subscriber stations.
• the subscriber stations are, for example, mobile stations, for example in a mobile radio network, or fixed stations, for example in so-called subscriber access networks for wireless subscriber connection.
• the base station has an antenna device (smart antenna) with several antenna elements.
• the antenna elements enable directional reception or transmission of data via the radio interface.
• the method according to the invention distinguishes between an initialization phase, which is carried out at larger time intervals corresponding to a large number of time slots of the subscriber station in question, and a work phase, the steps of which are carried out more frequently, for example up to once per time slot.
• an initialization phase which is carried out at larger time intervals corresponding to a large number of time slots of the subscriber station in question
• a work phase the steps of which are carried out more frequently, for example up to once per time slot.
• Initialization phase a plurality of so-called first weighting vectors are determined, which are used in a subsequent working phase of the radio communication system to actually one for the
• Beam shaping used to redefine current weighting vector for each cycle of the work phase.
• the processing effort associated with the determination of the weighting vectors therefore arises only relatively rarely, in the initialization phases; the determination of the current
• Weighting vector e.g. on the other hand, only requiring a selection or the formation of a linear combination of the first weighting vectors can be carried out as often as necessary to compensate for transmission interruptions caused by fast fading.
• a first preferred embodiment of the method provides that the first weighting vectors are determined on the basis of measurements of the downlink transmission. This procedure is particularly useful in radio communication systems that use different frequencies for uplink and downlink, because with such radio communication systems the fast signal fading (fast fading) on the different frequencies is not correlated.
• steps of the method according to the invention which are carried out both for the determination of the first weighting vectors in the initialization phase and for the redefinition of the current weighting vectors in the working phase must therefore only be carried out at the subscriber station. This avoids double processing costs, and also circuit components for the implementation of the Procedural steps only have to be provided once at the subscriber station.
• the first weighting vectors determined at the subscriber station are expediently transmitted to the base station in the initialization phase, and in the working phase the current weighting vector is redefined by the subscriber station selecting a dominant one from the determined first weighting vectors and a designation of the selected dominant weighting vector to the Base station transmits. Since this transmission does not have to take place in each individual time slot of the subscriber station, a separate channel can be assigned to it temporarily, or the transmission of useful data such as speech from the subscriber station to the base station can be interrupted or restricted in individual time slots in order to reduce the transmission bandwidth for the transmission of the weighting vectors to accomplish. These weighting vectors can thus be transmitted with a much higher resolution than is the case with the conventional method with the
• the weighting vectors each correspond to radiation directions of the antenna device of the base station. Fast fading can adversely affect transmission over such a directional propagation path in the short term; the directions themselves, in which the downlink signal must be emitted in order to reach the subscriber station well, change only slowly, for example on a time scale from seconds to minutes, even when the subscriber station is moving. For this reason, the weighting vectors transmitted to the base station can be used for beam shaping over a period of corresponding length, even if not all weighting ejectors transmit at all times allow good quality. If the transmission quality of a weighting vector used at a given point in time deteriorates, the base station must briefly switch to another weighting vector which allows a satisfactory or the best possible transmission.
• This weighting vector is referred to here as the dominant weighting vector. Since the individual coefficients of this weighting vector are already known at the base station, they no longer have to be transmitted individually in the working phase; it is sufficient to transmit only a designation which allows the base station to select the dominant weighting vector desired by the subscriber station from among those stored with it and to use it for transmission.
• the amount of information required to transmit such a designation is completely independent of the resolution with which the coefficients of the weighting vectors were transmitted in the initialization phase, and it is also independent of the number of coefficients of each vector, i.e. the number of Antenna elements of the antenna device of the base station. This amount of information only grows logarithmically with the number of weighting ectors transmitted to the base station. In this way, a highly precise beam shaping with a minimal bandwidth requirement for the transmission of the designation is possible in the working phase of the subscriber station.
• a first spatial covariance matrix of the received downlink signal is generated in the initialization phase, and eigenvectors of this first covariance matrix are determined, which are transmitted to the base station as weighting vectors.
• This first covariance matrix can be generated uniformly for the entire downlink signal received by the subscriber station. However, since the individual contributions to the downlink signal received by the subscriber station differ Distinguishing not only by the distance covered, but also by the runtime required for this path, it is more revealing if the first covariance matrix is generated for each tap of the downlink signal individually.
• Those eigenvectors that have the greatest eigenvalues are preferably determined from the totality of the eigenvectors of the first covariance matrix or matrices, because these correspond to the propagation paths with the least attenuation.
• each first covariance matrix is averaged over a large number of time slots of the downlink signal.
• a second spatial covariance matrix is preferably generated in order to determine the most suitable weighting vector from time to time in the work phase, and the dominant weighting vector selected from the determined eigenvectors is the one which has the greatest eigenvalue with the second covariance matrix.
• This second spatial covariance matrix can e.g. for everyone who
• Time slot allocated to the subscriber station are generated anew.
• each antenna element periodically emits a training sequence which is known to the subscriber station and is orthogonal to the training sequences of the other antenna elements, and that the weighting vectors are based on those from the subscriber station received training sequences can be determined.
• the number of weighting vectors determined can be two; in this case one bit is sufficient to designate the dominant weighting vector in the working phase, and this bit can be transmitted in any time slot allocated to the subscriber station.
• a larger number of weighting vectors can also be determined, preferably a power of two 2 n , in which case n bits are required to designate the dominating weighting vector.
• This name can be transferred to several time slots; if in each time slot a bits for transmission to
• n / a time slots are required, and the weighting vector specified by the designation is used in the n / a time slots immediately following the complete transmission of the designation.
• the first weighting vectors are determined on the basis of measurements of the uplink transmission. This procedure has the advantage that the transmission of the coefficients of the first weighting vectors from the subscriber station to the base station is not necessary. Such a method is therefore more compatible with existing mobile radio systems that do not provide such a transmission.
• Weighting vectors are each eigenvalues of a covariance matrix, because these eigenvalues each correspond to one individual propagation path of the radio signal exchanged between the base station and subscriber station in possibly several different ways at the same time. If there is a direct path of propagation (LOS, line of sight) between the subscriber station and the base station, which can be determined for the base station on the basis of the reception statistics of the uplink signal, it is sufficient for these to use the downlink signal with a single, corresponding to this transmission path Weight vector radiates weighted. In this way, the transmission power of the base station is targeted to the direct transmission path, other transmission paths of lower quality are not specifically supplied with transmission power.
• LOS local area network
• a linear combination of first weighting vectors can be used as the current weighting vector. This corresponds to a targeted division of the transmission power of the base station over a limited number of propagation paths in accordance with the number of current weighting vectors entering the linear combination. If, in such a situation, one of the transmission paths suddenly fails due to fast fading, there is a high probability that at least one other weighting vector of the linear combination corresponds to a transmission path with usable quality. This is especially true if the first
• Weighting vectors are the eigenvectors of the covariance matrix, since the probabilities of destructive interference are not statistically correlated.
• the coefficients of the linear combination can be chosen to be larger for a first weighting vector, the greater its intrinsic value. If the delay of the downlink signal on two transmission paths is identical, the subscriber station is not readily able to distinguish the parts of these two transmission paths from the signal it receives. It is therefore possible that these two contributions are in phase opposition at the location of the subscriber station and that they cancel each other out. Such mutual extinction can be reliably avoided if a plurality of downlink signals are generated at the base station from a user data sequence intended for the subscriber station, each of which has a different space-time block coding, and each of these downlink signals has a different current one Weighted vector is broadcast weighted. In this way, a characteristic space-time block coding is assigned to each propagation path, which makes the contributions of the different transmission paths distinguishable under all circumstances.
• Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a cellular network
• Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the base station
• Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the subscriber station
• FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of the method according to a second embodiment.
• FIG. 1 shows the structure of a radio communication system in which the method according to the invention can be used. It consists of a multitude of MSCs, that are networked with each other or provide access to a fixed network PSTN. Furthermore, these mobile switching centers MSC are each connected to at least one base station controller BSC. Each base station controller BSC in turn enables a connection to at least one base station BS. Such a base station BS can set up a message connection to subscriber stations MS via a radio interface. For this purpose, at least some of the base stations BS are equipped with antenna devices AE which have a plurality of antenna elements (A x - A M ).
• connection VI shows connections VI, V2, Vk for transmitting useful information and signaling information between subscriber stations MSI, MS2, MSk, MSn and a base station BS.
• An operation and maintenance center OMC implements control and maintenance functions for the cellular network or for parts of it. The functionality of this structure can be transferred to other radio communication systems in which the invention can be used, in particular for subscriber access networks with a wireless subscriber connection.
• Fig. 2 shows schematically the structure of a base station BS.
• a signal generating device SA provides for that
• a transmission / reception device TX / RX receives the transmission signal Sk (t) from the signal generation device SA.
• the transceiver TX / RX includes a
• Beam shaping network in which the transmission signal s k (t) for the subscriber station MSk is linked to transmission signals sl (t), s 2 (t), ... which are intended for other subscriber stations to which the same transmission frequency is assigned.
• the beamforming network comprises a multiplier M for each subscriber signal and each antenna element, which multiplies the transmission signal s k (t) with a component w m (k) Multiplied weighting vector (k) , which is assigned to the receiving subscriber station MSk.
• a structure analogous to the described beam shaping network, which is not specifically shown in the figure, is between the antenna elements Ai, A,. • •, A M and a digital signal processor DSP arranged to break down the received mix of uplink signals into the contributions of the individual subscriber stations and feed them separately to the DSP.
• a storage device SE contains for each subscriber station MSk a set of weighting vectors w ⁇ , 1) , w (k, 2) , ..., among which the weighting vector (k> used by multipliers M is selected.
• FIG. 3 schematically shows the structure of a subscriber station MSk for carrying out a first embodiment of the method according to the invention.
• the subscriber station MSk comprises a single antenna A which receives the downlink signal emitted by the base station BS.
• the received signal from the antenna A converted into the baseband is fed to a so-called rake searcher RS, which is used to measure transit time differences of contributions of the downlink signal which the antenna A has on different ones
• the received signal is also applied to a rake amplifier RA, which comprises a plurality of rake fingers, three of which are shown in the figure, and which each have a delay element DEL and a despreader-descrambler EE.
• a rake amplifier RA which comprises a plurality of rake fingers, three of which are shown in the figure, and which each have a delay element DEL and a despreader-descrambler EE.
• Delay elements DEL each delay the received signal by a delay value supplied by the rake searcher RS ⁇ i, ⁇ 2 , ⁇ 3 , ....
• the despreaders-descramblers EE each deliver a sequence of estimated symbols at their outputs, whereby the results of the estimation for the individual descramblers may differ due to different phase positions of the downlink signal to the descrambling and spreading code in the individual fingers of the rake amplifier.
• the symbol sequences supplied by the despreaders-descramblers EE also contain the results of the estimation of training sequences which are broadcast by the base station and which are quasi-orthogonal and characteristic of each antenna element of the base station.
• a signal processor SP is used to compare the results of the estimation of these training sequences with the symbols known to the subscriber station and actually contained in the training sequences. On the basis of this comparison, the impulse response of the transmission channel between base station BS and subscriber station MSk can be determined for each individual finger or tap.
• a maximum ratio combiner MRC is also connected to the outputs of the despreaders-descrambler EE, which combines the individual estimated symbol sequences into a combined symbol sequence with the best possible signal-to-noise ratio and delivers this to a speech signal processing unit SSV.
• the mode of operation of this unit SSV which converts the received symbol sequence into an audible signal for a user or converts received tones into a transmission symbol sequence, is well known and need not be described here.
• the signal processor SP individually determines the impulse responses of each antenna element AE X ,... AE M for each tap and combines these impulse responses into a spatial covariance matrix R xx in the manner known, for example, from the cited DE 198 03 188. These spatial covariance matrices are delivered to a computing unit RE, ⁇ ⁇ tV) ⁇ > P- h- 1
• DJ CO DJ rt H P- tr tr ⁇ P 1 d: P- ⁇ 3 lS P- P- li y- 3 ⁇ 3 co rt DJ 1- * rt ⁇ 3 co SU 1—1.
• the analysis of step 2 also includes the determination of the eigenvalues of the eigenvectors.
• the amount of the eigenvalue is a measure of the quality of each individual transmission path; a given number of e.g. 2 or 4 eigenvectors selected and saved in step 3, which have the eigenvalues with the highest amount among the eigenvectors found.
• the computing unit receives cyclic covariance matrices from the signal processor, each covariance matrix being related to a single tap of the üplink signal.
• the eigenvectors stored in the storage unit SE each correspond to a specific tap.
• the computing unit determines the current eigenvalue for each stored eigenvector when multiplied by the in
• Step 5 delivered covariance matrix corresponding to the same tap as the eigenvector.
• the eigenvalue obtained provides a measure of the transmission quality on the transmission path corresponding to the eigenvector with a temporal resolution that corresponds to the rate of generation of the
• the covariance matrices are currently generated by the signal processor for each time slot allocated to the subscriber station; the eigenvalue is therefore a measure of the transmission quality of the transmission path, taking into account the fast fading.
• a step 8 follows, in which a current weighting vector (k) is calculated by forming a linear combination of the stored eigenvectors w (k ' 1) , (k, 2) , ... , where each of the eigenvectors w (k, 1) , w (k, 2) , ... into the Linear combination multiplied with its intrinsic value obtained in step 6 or its amount.
• a standardization of the linear combination is possible.
• This weighting when forming the linear combination ensures that those transmission paths which have the best transmission properties for a short time dominate the downlink signal emitted by the base station.
• the other eigenvectors entering the current weighting vector w (> serve to ensure that even in the event that the most heavily weighted
• Subscriber station is a direct connection, this can be recognized by the base station in that the corresponding contribution to the received Üplink signal has relatively little phase fluctuation and mostly also low attenuation. If such a direct transmission path exists, the assigned eigenvector can be used directly as the current weighting vector (> , in other words all other eigenvectors are included in the formation of the linear combination with coefficients 0.
• a further developed variant of the second embodiment requires a base station with an antenna device comprising several antenna elements, which is able to transmit using space-time block codes.
• space-time block codes are e.g. B. from Tarokh et al., Space-Time Block Codes from Orthogonal Designs, IEEE Trans, on Information Theory, Vol. 45 No. 5, July 1999.
• a section of the transceiver Tx / Rx of such a base station is shown in FIG.
• a complex-value symbol sequence intended for the subscriber station MSk is divided into two strands, one of which contains a space-time block encoder STBE, which o ⁇ tv> M P> c ⁇ o c ⁇ ⁇ o t ⁇

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• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Mathematical Physics (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

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• 2000
  • 2000-05-25 DE DE10026077A patent/DE10026077B4/de not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2001
  • 2001-05-17 US US10/296,546 patent/US7096041B2/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2001-05-17 EP EP01943108A patent/EP1284052A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2001-05-17 AU AU2001265797A patent/AU2001265797A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-05-17 JP JP2001586803A patent/JP3987727B2/ja not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2001-05-17 WO PCT/DE2001/001883 patent/WO2001091323A1/de active Application Filing
• 2005
  • 2005-10-28 JP JP2005314928A patent/JP2006067623A/ja not_active Withdrawn

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