JP2008219338A - Base station device, and cell configuration method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the communication capacity of a base station and to reduce a processing load applied to the base station. <P>SOLUTION: This base station is provided with: a plurality of antennas 11-1 and 2 installed at a place higher than the ground to have respectively different tilt angles; a plurality of radio parts 12-1 and 2 provided in accordance with the respective antennas 11-1 and 2 to transmit and receive a radio signal through a corresponding antenna; and a control part 13 for controlling which antenna is used between the plurality of antennas 11-1 and 2 to perform radio communication with a mobile station. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a base station apparatus and a cell configuration method according to a cellular mobile communication system.

  In a cellular mobile communication system, a base station forms a cell that can be wirelessly communicated with a mobile station. As a conventional cell configuration technique, for example, a technique is known in which a cell is divided into a plurality of sectors and a frequency is allocated to each sector so that interference does not occur between the sectors. For example, as shown in FIG. 12, when the cell of the base station 200 is divided into three sectors 211, 212, and 213, different frequencies F1, F2, and F3 are assigned to the sectors 211, 212, and 213, respectively. Thus, inter-sector interference is prevented.

Further, the cell configuration technique described in Patent Document 1 combines a micro cell having fixed directivity and an AAA cell whose directivity is controlled so as to track a mobile station by an adaptive array antenna (Patent Document). 1 (see FIG. 1).
JP 2001-189687 A

  However, in the conventional cell configuration technology by sector division described above, since the frequencies F1, F2, and F3 that can be used by the base station 200 are allocated to each of the sectors 211, 212, and 213, only one is required. Frequency utilization efficiency is low and communication capacity is reduced.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 13, since the electric field strength changes gently in the vicinity of the sector boundary, CIR (Carrier to Interference Ratio), CINR (Carrier to Interference and) in the cell. Noise power ratio (carrier-to-noise and interference power ratio) is small. For this reason, in the vicinity of the sector boundary, a phenomenon in which the mobile station's in-service sector frequently changes (so-called handoff ping-pong phenomenon) easily occurs, and the processing load on the base station increases.

  Further, in the cell configuration technique described in Patent Document 1, a process for controlling the directivity of an AAA cell so as to track a mobile station, or a process for determining whether to apply a micro cell or an AAA cell to a mobile station Is complicated, and the processing load on the base station is large.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and its object is to provide a base station apparatus and a cell configuration method capable of improving the communication capacity of the base station and reducing the processing load on the base station. It is to provide.

  In order to solve the above problems, a base station apparatus according to the present invention is a base station apparatus used in a mobile communication system, and a plurality of antennas installed at a place higher than the ground, and tilt angles different from each other. A tilt angle setting means for setting the mobile station, a wireless means for transmitting and receiving a radio signal via the corresponding antenna, and any one of the plurality of antennas. And a control means for controlling whether to perform wireless communication.

  In the base station apparatus according to the present invention, the antenna is an array antenna including a plurality of antenna elements, and the base station apparatus controls the directivity in the vertical plane of the antenna having a shallower tilt angle. Directivity control means is provided, and the directivity control means weights and controls the signals of the antenna elements of the antenna so as to lower the level of the side lobe on the ground side with respect to the main beam.

  In the base station apparatus according to the present invention, the antenna is an array antenna including a plurality of antenna elements, and the base station apparatus controls the directivity in the vertical plane of the antenna having a deeper tilt angle. Directivity control means is provided, and the directivity control means weights and controls the signals of the antenna elements of the antenna so as to lower the sky sidelobe level with respect to the main beam.

  In the base station apparatus according to the present invention, the antenna is an array antenna including a plurality of antenna elements, and the base station apparatus controls the directivity in the vertical plane of the antenna having a deeper tilt angle. Directivity control means is provided, and the directivity control means weights and controls the signals of the antenna elements of the antenna so as to increase the level of the side lobe on the ground side with respect to the main beam.

  In the base station apparatus according to the present invention, the antenna is omnidirectional in a horizontal plane.

  The cell configuration method according to the present invention is a cell configuration method used in a mobile communication system, and a plurality of antennas having different tilt angles installed at a place higher than the ground are used, and a sector is formed for each antenna. It is characterized by doing.

  In the cell configuration method according to the present invention, an array antenna composed of a plurality of antenna elements is used as the antenna, and the directivity in the vertical plane of the antenna with the shallower tilt angle is on the ground side with respect to the main beam. The signal of each antenna element of the antenna is weighted and controlled so as to lower the side lobe level of the antenna.

  In the cell configuration method according to the present invention, an array antenna including a plurality of antenna elements is used as the antenna, and the directivity in the vertical plane of the antenna with the deeper tilt angle is on the sky side with respect to the main beam. The signal of each antenna element of the antenna is weighted and controlled so as to lower the side lobe level of the antenna.

  In the cell configuration method according to the present invention, an array antenna composed of a plurality of antenna elements is used as the antenna, and the directivity within the vertical plane of the antenna with the deeper tilt angle is on the ground side with respect to the main beam. The signal of each antenna element of the antenna is weighted and controlled so as to increase the level of the side lobe.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the communication capacity of the base station and reduce the processing load on the base station.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a base station apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the antenna 11 according to the embodiment.
In this embodiment, a base station apparatus (hereinafter referred to as “base station”) 1 is used in a cellular mobile communication system.

  In FIG. 1, the base station 1 includes two antennas 11-1 and 11-2 and phase control units 32-1 and 32-2 provided corresponding to the antennas 11-1 and 11-2, respectively. Hereinafter, unless otherwise distinguished, they are referred to as “antenna 11” and “phase control unit 32”. The antenna 11 is an omnidirectional antenna having the same sensitivity in all directions within a horizontal plane. Further, the antenna 11 can be arbitrarily set with a tilt angle. The antenna 11 is not necessarily required to have the same sensitivity in all directions within the horizontal plane. For example, there may be some difference in sensitivity depending on the direction in the horizontal plane. Alternatively, the sensitivity may be intentionally different for each direction in the horizontal plane.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the antenna 11 includes a plurality of antenna elements 31. The plurality of antenna elements 31 form an array antenna. In the example of FIG. 2, three subarrays each including six antenna elements 31 are formed as a group. The three subarrays constitute one array antenna. The phase control unit 32 controls the amplitude and phase amount of the signal between the subarrays. By this control, the tilt angle θ of the antenna 11 can be arbitrarily formed. The tilt angle θ is an angle indicating a direction in the vertical plane of the main beam 40 of the antenna pattern of the antenna 11 and is an angle of inclination from the horizontal direction to the ground direction. The antenna 11 is installed at a place higher than the ground.

  The phase control unit 32-1 sets the tilt angle of the antenna 11-1. The phase control unit 32-2 sets the tilt angle of the antenna 11-2. One antenna (outer circle antenna) 11 of the antennas 11-1 and 11 is set to have a shallower tilt angle than the other antenna (inner circle antenna) 11. Note that the operation setting for the phase control unit 32 may be performed manually after the base station is installed, or may be performed remotely from a device outside the base station.

  In addition, the base station 1 includes radio units 12-1 and 12-2 provided corresponding to the antennas 11-1 and 11, and a control unit 13. Radio units 12-1 and 2 (hereinafter referred to as “radio unit 12” unless otherwise specified) transmit and receive radio signals via corresponding antennas 11, respectively.

  The control unit 13 performs a mobile local area sector determination process for controlling which of the antennas 11-1 and 11-2 performs wireless communication with the mobile station. In the mobile local area sector determination process, based on the signal from the mobile station received by the antennas 11-1 and 11-2, wireless communication with the mobile station is performed by any of the antennas 11-1 and 11-2. To control.

  3 and 4 are explanatory diagrams showing a cell configuration method according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 3, a cell 110 is composed of a sector 111 on the outer circle side and a sector 112 on the inner circle side of a concentric circle. As shown in FIG. 4, the cell 110 is divided into sectors by a concentric outer circle side sector 111 and an inner circle side sector 112 centered on the base station 1. The base station 1 forms a sector 111 using the outer circle antenna 11. The base station 1 forms a sector 112 using the inner circle antenna 11.

  FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a frequency allocation method when the cell according to the present embodiment is used. In FIG. 5, base stations 1-a, b, c form respective cells 110-a, b, c. The cells 110-a, b, and c include sectors 111-a, b, c on the outer circle side and sectors 112-a, b on the inner circle side of the concentric circles centered on the base stations 1-a, b, c, respectively. , C. The cells 110-a, b, and c are adjacent to each other, but only the sectors 111-a, b, and c on the outer circle side overlap. For this reason, inter-cell interference is prevented by assigning different frequencies F1, F2, and F3 to the sectors 111-a, b, and c on the outer circle side. On the other hand, since the sectors 112-a, b, and c on the inner circle side do not overlap between cells, all the usable frequencies F1, F2, and F3 are allocated.

  Next, a method for controlling the directivity in the vertical plane of the antenna 11 according to this embodiment will be described.

  6 and 7 are graphs for explaining a method for controlling the directivity in the vertical plane of the outer circle antenna 11 and the inner circle antenna 11, and FIG. FIG. 7 shows an example of directivity within the vertical plane of the inner circle antenna 11. 6 and 7, the vertical axis represents relative power (unit: dB), and the horizontal axis represents the direction in the vertical plane (unit: degree). Of the directions in the vertical plane, the horizontal direction is 0 degree, the ground direction is a direction from 0 to 90 degrees, and the sky direction is a direction from 0 to -90 degrees.

  First, the tilt angle is made shallower for the outer circle antenna 11 and deeper for the inner circle antenna 11. Each phase control unit 32 controls the amplitude and phase amount of the signal between the subarrays so as to form a tilt angle that satisfies the relationship. The tilt angles of the outer circle antenna 11 and the inner circle antenna 11 may be fixed, or may be determined by the phase control unit 32 based on input data from an external device. Good.

  6 and 7, the tilt angle of the outer circle antenna 11 is 5 degrees, and the tilt angle of the inner circle antenna 11 is 18 degrees. As illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7, the direction in the vertical plane of the main beam is the direction of the tilt angle. Therefore, the main beam from the outer circle antenna 11 having a shallow tilt angle reaches farther from the base station 1 than the main beam from the inner circle antenna 11 having a deep tilt angle. By providing a difference in the tilt angle in this way, a sector 111 (see FIG. 4) on the outer circle side of the concentric circle centering on the base station 1 is formed by the directivity in the vertical plane of the antenna 11 for the outer circle. A sector 112 (see FIG. 4) on the inner circle side of a concentric circle centering on the base station 1 is formed by the directivity in the vertical plane of the antenna 11 for use.

  Regarding the directivity in the vertical plane of the outer circle antenna 11, as illustrated in FIG. 6, each antenna element 31 of the outer circle antenna 11 is configured to lower the level of the side lobe on the ground side with respect to the main beam. It is preferable to control the weighting of these signals. With regard to the directivity in the vertical plane of the outer circle antenna 11, the antenna pattern of the outer circle antenna 11 (that is, the sector 111 on the outer circle side) and the inner circle are suppressed by suppressing the side lobe on the ground side with respect to the main beam. Interference with the antenna pattern of the antenna 11 (that is, the sector 112 on the inner circle side) can be reduced.

  Regarding the directivity in the vertical plane of the inner circle antenna 11, as illustrated in FIG. 7, each antenna element 31 of the inner circle antenna 11 is configured so as to lower the level of the side lobe on the sky side with respect to the main beam. It is preferable to control the weighting of these signals. Regarding the directivity in the vertical plane of the inner circle antenna 11, the side pattern on the sky side with respect to the main beam is suppressed, so that the antenna pattern of the inner circle antenna 11 (that is, the sector 112 on the inner circle side) and the outer circle Interference with the antenna pattern of the antenna 11 (that is, the sector 111 on the outer circle side) can be reduced.

  Regarding the directivity in the vertical plane of the inner circle antenna 11, as illustrated in FIG. 7, each antenna element 31 of the inner circle antenna 11 is set so as to increase the level of the side lobe on the ground side with respect to the main beam. It is preferable to control the weighting of these signals. With respect to the directivity in the vertical plane of the inner circle antenna 11, by improving the side lobe on the ground side with respect to the main beam, the electric field strength of the antenna pattern of the inner circle antenna 11 (that is, the sector 112 on the inner circle side) can be reduced. Can be improved.

  FIG. 8 is a graph of electric field strength and CINR due to the directivity in the vertical plane exemplified in FIGS. 6 and 7. In FIG. 8, on the vertical axis, the left scale is the electric field strength (unit is dBm), and the right scale is CINR (unit is dB). The horizontal axis is the parallel distance from the base station 1 (unit: m).

  As shown in FIG. 8, in the sector on the inner circle side (inner circle area), the electric field strength W2 of the inner circle antenna 11 is larger than the electric field strength W1 of the outer circle antenna 11. On the other hand, in the sector on the outer circle side (outer circle area), the electric field strength W1 of the outer circle antenna 11 is larger than the electric field strength W2 of the inner circle antenna 11. As a result, good CINR_W3 can be obtained both in the inner circle sector (inner circle area) and in the outer circle sector (outer circle area).

  According to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9, the electric field strength can be changed steeply in the vicinity of the sector boundary. Therefore, the CIR and CINR in the cell near the sector boundary can be greatly improved. This prevents the phenomenon where the mobile station's in-service sector frequently changes near the sector boundary, prevents a hand-off ping-pong phenomenon, provides good hand-off characteristics, and provides high communication quality. This can contribute to the reduction of the processing load on the base station.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the cell according to the present embodiment is sector-divided by two sectors 111 and 112, and thus is similar to a conventional sector-divided cell as illustrated in FIG. The mobile local area sector determination process can be applied. Therefore, the processing load on the base station is not increased.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, in the inner circle sector 112, interference between adjacent cells can be prevented, and therefore all frequencies available to the base station 1 are allocated to the inner circle sector 112. Thus, the frequency utilization efficiency of the base station 1 can be increased and the communication capacity can be increased.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, in the sector 111 on the outer circle side, different frequencies can be allocated between adjacent cells to prevent inter-cell interference. In the outer circle side sector 111, handoff occurs between adjacent cells, but since the handoff is between different frequencies, the handoff success rate can be increased and the communication quality can be kept good. .

The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes design changes and the like within a scope not departing from the gist of the present invention.
For example, the frequency allocation method when using the cell according to the above-described embodiment is not limited to the example of FIG. For example, the frequency allocation method shown in FIG. 10 may be performed. In the example of FIG. 10, for cells A, B, and C that are adjacent to each other, different frequencies are assigned to the sectors on the outer circle side, but the sectors on the inner circle side are assigned to the sectors on the outer circle side. Allocate the remaining available frequencies excluding the frequencies. Therefore, for cell A, the frequency F1 is assigned to the outer circle sector, and the frequencies F2 and F3 are assigned to the inner circle sector. For the cell B, the frequency F2 is assigned to the sector on the outer circle side, and the frequencies F1 and F3 are assigned to the sector on the inner circle side. For the cell C, the frequency F3 is assigned to the outer circle sector, and the frequencies F1 and F2 are assigned to the inner circle sector. According to the frequency allocation method of FIG. 10, the use frequency in each cell is reduced, but the use frequency is different between the sector on the inner circle side and the sector on the outer circle side in the cell, so the handoff quality is further improved. Furthermore, according to the frequency allocation method of FIG. 10, as shown in FIG. 11, it is not necessary to suppress the level of the side lobe on the ground side with respect to the main beam with respect to the directivity in the vertical plane of the outer circle antenna. Good. This simplifies antenna control.

  In the above-described embodiment, the phase control unit 32 (tilt angle setting means) that sets the tilt angle by electrically controlling the amplitude and the phase amount of the signal between the subarrays is provided. You may make it provide the tilt angle setting means which sets a tilt angle by making it incline. When the tilt angle is fixedly set, there is no particular problem even if the tilt angle is set by mechanically tilting the antenna.

  In the above-described embodiment, the antenna 11 is omnidirectional in the horizontal plane, but an antenna having directivity in the horizontal plane may be used.

  In the above-described embodiment, two antennas 11-1 and 11 are provided, and one cell is divided into two sectors. However, three or more antennas 11 are provided, and one cell is divided into three or more sectors. You may extend so that it may be divided.

  In the above-described embodiment, the cellular mobile communication system has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to the cellular system.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the base station apparatus 1 which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the antenna 11 shown in FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the cell structure method which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the cell structure which concerns on the same embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which shows the frequency allocation method when using the cell which concerns on the same embodiment. It is a graph which shows the example of the vertical in-plane directivity of the antenna 11 for outer circles which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a graph which shows the example of the vertical in-plane directivity of the antenna 11 for inner circles concerning the embodiment. It is a graph figure of the electric field strength and CINR by the perpendicular in-plane directivity concerning the embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating the state of the electric field strength in the vicinity of the sector boundary which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the other frequency allocation method when using the cell which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the other frequency allocation method when using the cell which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the cell structure of the conventional 3 sector division | segmentation. It is a figure for demonstrating the state of the electric field strength in the vicinity of the conventional sector boundary.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Base station apparatus, 11-1, 11-2 ... Antenna, 12-1, 12-2 ... Radio | wireless part, 13 ... Control part, 31 ... Antenna element, 32-1, ... Phase control part (Tilt angle setting) Means, directivity control means)

Claims (9)

In a base station apparatus used in a mobile communication system,
With multiple antennas installed higher than the ground,
Tilt angle setting means for setting different tilt angles of the antennas;
Wireless means provided corresponding to each of the antennas for transmitting and receiving wireless signals via the corresponding antenna;
Control means for controlling which of the plurality of antennas performs wireless communication with a mobile station;
A base station apparatus comprising: The antenna is an array antenna composed of a plurality of antenna elements,
The base station apparatus includes directivity control means for controlling the directivity in the vertical plane of the antenna with the smaller tilt angle,
The directivity control means weights and controls the signal of each antenna element of the antenna so as to lower the level of the side lobe on the ground side with respect to the main beam.
The base station apparatus according to claim 1. The antenna is an array antenna composed of a plurality of antenna elements,
The base station device comprises directivity control means for controlling the directivity in the vertical plane of the antenna with the deeper tilt angle,
The directivity control means weights and controls the signals of the antenna elements of the antenna so as to lower the sky sidelobe level with respect to the main beam.
The base station apparatus according to claim 1. The antenna is an array antenna composed of a plurality of antenna elements,
The base station device comprises directivity control means for controlling the directivity in the vertical plane of the antenna with the deeper tilt angle,
The directivity control means weights and controls the signal of each antenna element of the antenna so as to increase the level of the side lobe on the ground side with respect to the main beam.
The base station apparatus according to claim 1.   The base station apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the antenna is non-directional in a horizontal plane. A cell configuration method used in a mobile communication system, comprising:
A cell configuration method comprising: using a plurality of antennas each having a different tilt angle installed at a location higher than the ground, and forming a sector for each antenna. As the antenna, an array antenna composed of a plurality of antenna elements is used,
For the vertical in-plane directivity of the antenna with the smaller tilt angle, weight control is performed on the signal of each antenna element of the antenna so as to lower the level of the side lobe on the ground side with respect to the main beam.
The cell configuration method according to claim 6. As the antenna, an array antenna composed of a plurality of antenna elements is used,
For the in-plane directivity of the antenna with the deeper tilt angle, weight control is performed on the signal of each antenna element of the antenna so as to lower the level of the side lobe on the sky side with respect to the main beam.
The cell configuration method according to claim 6. As the antenna, an array antenna composed of a plurality of antenna elements is used,
For the in-plane directivity of the antenna having the deeper tilt angle, weight control is performed on the signal of each antenna element of the antenna so as to increase the level of the side lobe on the ground side with respect to the main beam.
The cell configuration method according to claim 6.

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