JP2008512921A - Wireless communication apparatus having multi-antenna and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

  The present invention proposes a wireless communication apparatus and method. The wireless communication device includes a plurality of antennas, a multi-antenna signal processing module, an RF signal processing module, and a baseband processing module. The multiple antenna signal processing module is configured to combine multiple RF signals received from multiple antennas into a single RF signal. The RF signal processing module is configured to convert the combined single RF signal into a single baseband signal. The baseband processing module is configured to perform baseband processing on a single baseband signal. This wireless communication apparatus easily realizes a multi-antenna system by inserting a multi-antenna signal processing module into a normal single antenna system. Both the RF signal processing module and the baseband processing module of the current single antenna system remain unchanged. Therefore, the redesign process is extremely simple, and the design difficulty and the realization cost are greatly reduced.

Description

  The present invention relates to a radio communication apparatus and method thereof, and more particularly, to a radio communication apparatus including a plurality of antennas and a method thereof.

  As the number of mobile phone users increases, modern mobile communication systems face the challenge of maintaining high sound quality while increasing traffic capacity. In this regard, multi-antenna technology has become a hot topic among third-generation mobile communication technologies.

  Multi-antenna technologies often include spatial diversity and adaptive antenna technologies. In the reception direction, at least two antennas are used for receiving signals. At the same time, processing methods such as diversity and beamforming are employed to combine multiple parallel signals to obtain better performance than conventional single antenna technology.

  Researchers say that the deployment of multi-antenna technology will effectively increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the signal, thereby greatly improving the sound quality of the communication. However, most existing communication systems use processing modules for single antenna systems in their mobile terminals. When multi-antenna technology is applied to existing mobile terminals, it is necessary to redesign both the hardware and software parts of the processing module. Therefore, it becomes very expensive. How to improve on existing mobile terminals based on efficient utilization of hardware and software in the processing module of single antenna system depends on the application of multi-antenna to mobile terminals. It has become an important issue.

  In the next paragraph, as an example to illustrate the configuration of a single antenna system in an existing mobile terminal and the problems encountered when deploying multiple antennas in this single antenna system, a mobile compliant with the TD-SCDMA standard List body terminals.

  FIG. 1 is a system configuration block diagram of a typical single antenna mobile phone. The system includes an antenna 100, a radio frequency (RF) module 200, an analog / digital conversion / digital / analog conversion (ADC / DAC) module 300, a baseband physical layer processing module 400, and a baseband upper layer processing module. 500. Here, the baseband physical layer processing module 400 may include a rake receiver or joint detection (JD), spreading / despreading module, modulation / demodulation module, and Viterbi / turbo coding / decoding module. The baseband upper layer processing module 500 can include a system controller and a source encoder, and can be implemented, for example, by using a digital signal processor or a microprocessor.

  The downlink signal processing is as follows. First, a radio signal received by the antenna 100 is amplified and down-converted into an intermediate frequency signal or an analog baseband signal in the RF module 200. Then, after being sampled and quantized by the ADC / DAC module 300, the intermediate frequency signal or the analog baseband signal is converted into a digital baseband signal and transmitted to the baseband physical layer processing module 400. In the baseband physical layer processing module 400, the digital baseband signal is continuously received by the rake receiver or joint detection before entering the baseband upper layer processing module 500 in response to a control signal provided by the baseband control module. (JD), despreading, demodulation, de-interleaving, Viterbi / turbo decoding, etc. In the baseband upper layer processing module 500, the signal from the baseband physical layer processing module 400 is converted into a data link layer, a network layer, or a higher layer by operations such as upper layer signaling processing, system control and source encoding / decoding. Will be processed further.

  To date, the single antenna mobile phone technology described above is very mature, and many manufacturers have developed chipset solutions of considerable maturity. In these solutions, the functionality of the baseband physical layer processing module 400 is mostly realized by a baseband modem configured with an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

  However, by introducing multi-antennas into existing mobile phone systems, a switch in the configuration of many modules of a single antenna system occurs, such as the despread function of standard design rake receivers and baseband physical layer processing modules. The hardware and associated software becomes difficult to use in new systems. In view of this, the applicant of the present invention has proposed two solutions each in two applications filed on December 27, 2002. One is a Chinese invention patent application No. 02160403.7 entitled “Multiple-antenna Mobile Terminal and Its Method”. The other is Chinese Patent Application No. 02160402.9 entitled “Smart-antenna Mobile Terminal and Its Method”. These applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. The above two solutions allow a single antenna system to be upgraded to a multiple antenna system without major changes. Existing standard baseband processing module software and hardware are available for new systems, which will significantly reduce design costs.

  However, for utilizing a single antenna mobile terminal design, these two solutions only made use of the baseband software and hardware design. Use of the RF section remains untouched. That is, to process RF signals provided by a plurality of antennas by several operations including amplification, down-conversion, and analog / digital conversion, and then the plurality of signals are combined and transmitted to the baseband unit. Requires a large number of parallel paths. Thus, a single signal processing path in the RF portion of an existing single antenna system requires modification and redesign to be made to the multiple antenna system, which increases design difficulty and implementation cost to some extent.

  In conclusion, how to change in existing mobile terminals and make more efficient use of the processing module hardware and software resources of a single antenna system will still deploy multi-antennas to the mobile terminals. It remains a problem to be solved.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a multi-antenna wireless communication apparatus and method. Such a multi-antenna wireless communication device can utilize the software and hardware design of the RF and baseband signal processing section of an existing standard single antenna system without significant changes.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a wireless communication apparatus having a plurality of antennas, a plurality of antenna signal processing modules, an RF signal processing module, and a baseband processing module. The multiple antenna signal processing module is configured to combine multiple RF signals received by multiple antennas into a single RF signal. The RF signal processing module is configured to convert the combined RF signal into a single baseband signal. The baseband processing module is configured to perform baseband processing on the single baseband signal.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a method used in a multi-antenna wireless communication apparatus, comprising: receiving a plurality of RF signals and combining them into a single RF signal; Is converted to a single baseband signal, and baseband processing is performed on the single baseband signal.

  Since the multi-antenna wireless communication apparatus and method proposed by the present invention combine a plurality of RF signals into a single RF signal before the RF signal is processed, one multi-antenna is used for the combining operation. Only modules need to be inserted into an existing standard single antenna system, and the configuration of an existing standard single antenna system can be reused by RF and baseband signal processing.

  Other objects and attainments together with a fuller understanding of the invention will become apparent by reference to the following description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a receiving apparatus of a multi-antenna mobile terminal in a TD-SCDMA system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Compared to the existing single antenna mobile terminal receiver, the receiver of FIG. 2 comprises one additional multiple antenna (MA) module 600. The delay caused by this MA module 600 is negligibly small.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the receiving apparatus includes two antennas 100 and 101, an MA module 600, an RF signal processing module including an RF module 200 and an ADC / DAC module 300, and a baseband physical layer processing module 400. And a baseband processing module having a baseband upper layer processing module 500. The two antennas 100 and 101 are configured to receive an RF signal. The MA module 600 is connected to two antennas 100 and 101 and is configured to combine or combine two received RF signals into a single channel RF signal. The operations executed by the MA module 600 include performing weight calculation for parameter information included in two channels of RF signals received by the two antennas 100 and 101, and depending on the calculation result, the two channels. And adjusting the amplitude and phase of the two RF signals to synthesize or combine the two channel signals into a single channel signal and transmit the combined or combined signal to the RF module 200. It is. Detailed operation of the MA module 600 will be described later.

  The RF module 200 is configured to perform amplitude and down-conversion on the signal synthesized by the MA module 600 and convert them into an intermediate frequency signal or an analog baseband signal. The ADC / DAC module 300 is connected to the output terminal of the RF module 200. In the process of downlink data processing, the intermediate frequency signal or the analog baseband signal from the RF module 200 is sampled and quantized, and these are digitally converted. It is configured to convert to a baseband signal. The baseband physical layer processing module 400 is configured to perform a baseband signal processing operation on the digital baseband signal output from the ADC / DAC module 300, which includes Rake receiving, Despreading, demodulation, de-interleaving, joint detection (JD), Viterbi / Turbo decoding, etc. are included. The baseband upper layer processing module 500 is configured to perform a data link layer, network layer, or higher layer processing operation on data output from the baseband physical layer processing module 400. This includes upper layer signaling processing, source encoding / decoding, and the like.

  Hereinafter, the configuration of the MA module 600 in the TD-SCDMA system and its signal processing will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the MA module 600 includes weight adjustment modules 601 and 602, a synthesis module 610, two RF modules 621 and 622, two ADC modules 631 and 632, a weight generation module 640, Two DAC modules 651 and 652 are included.

  The weight adjustment modules 601 and 602 are connected to the two antennas 100 and 101, respectively, and adjust the amplitude and phase of the RF signal. In this embodiment, the weight adjustment modules 601 and 602 can be realized by two multipliers. Combining module 610 is configured to combine the signals after amplitude and phase adjustment in multipliers 601 and 602 and transmit the combined signal to RF module 200. In this embodiment, the synthesis module 610 can be realized by an adder. The inputs of the RF modules 621 and 622 are connected to the two antennas 100 and 101, respectively, so as to amplify and downconvert the received RF signals from the side path and convert them into analog baseband signals. The ADC modules 631 and 632 have inputs connected to the two outputs of the two RF modules 621 and 622, respectively, and sample and quantize the analog baseband signals from the RF modules 621 and 622 and digitalize them. It is configured to convert to a baseband signal. The weight generation module 640 is configured to process the digital baseband signals output from the ADC modules 631 and 632 and calculate the corresponding weight coefficients of the weight adjustment modules 601 and 602 to adjust the amplitude and phase of the RF signal. ing. The calculation of the associated weighting factor can be done by conventional techniques such as the method proposed in the description of patent application No. 02160403.7. No further explanation is given here. The DAC modules 651 and 652 convert the two sets of weighting factors generated by the weight generation module 640 into analog quantities, respectively, and depending on the two sets of analog weighting factors, two multipliers 601 and 602 perform radio transmission. Amplitude and phase adjustment are performed on the frequency signals, respectively.

  When the mobile terminal is in the cell search phase, the signal combining operation executed by the MA module 600 in this embodiment can be performed by a BERC (Blind Equal-Ratio-Combining) method. Since the existing technology provides many aspects for implementing the BERC method, only a brief introduction of its operation processing will be described below.

  First, one of the signals from the two antennas 100 and 101 is selected as a reference signal. For example, when the signal from the antenna 100 is selected as the reference signal Sr, the signal from the antenna 101 becomes another signal So.

  Second, in the multiplier 601, the reference signal Sr is multiplied by a constant, for example, 1 from the DAC module 652.

  Third, the weight generation module 640 estimates the amplitude difference and phase difference of the digital baseband signals corresponding to the reference signal Sr and other signals So drawn through the side path. For example, the corresponding weighting factor can be obtained by normalizing the multiplication of the reference signal Sr by the conjugate signal of the other signal So.

  Then, the compensation of the amplitude and phase of the other signal So in response to the reference signal Sr can be realized in the multiplier 602 by multiplying the other signal So by the analog value of the weighting coefficient converted by the DAC module 651. is there.

  Finally, the output signals of the multipliers 601 and 602 are added together in an adder 610 to combine the reference signal Sr and the other signal So into a single signal in the RF band.

  The method multiplies the reference signal by a constant. Other techniques are also available, for example, multiplying the reference signal Sr and the other signal So by their respective weighting factors. These corresponding weight coefficients can be the conjugate values of the reference signal Sr and the other signals So, and will not be described in further detail here.

  When the mobile terminal is in a normal connection state, for example, when the mobile terminal is receiving a signal from a single base station that uses a normal transmission antenna that is not antenna diversity or a smart antenna, The signal combining operation in the MA module 600 can be performed by a technique of a maximum ratio combining (Maximum Ratio Combining) method such as an improved least square error (LMS). The above-mentioned patent application No. 02160403.7 presents three such processing methods and will not be described in further detail here.

  The method of BERC and maximum ratio combining can be realized by both computer software and hardware.

  The above description states that the MA module 600 is an independent module in this embodiment. A feedback signal from the baseband signal processing unit is not required. A combination of a plurality of RF signals can be realized by estimating parameters included in the received plurality of RF signals. This solution simplifies system design by adding additional antennas and an independently configured MA module 600 to a standard single antenna mobile terminal and upgrading the terminal to a multi-antenna mobile terminal To. However, this solution relies entirely on the weighting factors used to adjust the amplitude and phase by calculating a plurality of received RF signals and complicates the configuration of the weight generation module 640. It is.

  In order to simplify the design of the amplitude and phase calculation module 640 to further reduce the design cost of the MA module 600, the present invention presents another embodiment as shown in FIGS. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of another embodiment of receiving means of a multi-antenna mobile terminal in a TD-SCDMA system. FIG. 5 is an equivalent configuration diagram of the MA module 600 ′ of the receiving means in FIG.

  This embodiment is different from the previous embodiment in that the MA module 600 ′ in this embodiment realizes a synthesis operation of a plurality of RF signals according to MA control information transmitted from the baseband processing module through the control bus. Differentiated. The MA control information transmitted to the MA module 600 ′ through the control bus may include (but is not limited to) an enable signal, an algorithm selection signal, downlink pilot frequency information, and a training sequence. The function of the enable signal is to enable the MA module 600 '. The function of the algorithm selection signal is to inform the MA module 600 ′ which weighting algorithm to select. The MA control information can be transmitted to the MA module 600 'via a control bus or other interface.

  The MA module 600 ′ in the present embodiment is different from the MA module 600 of the previous case in the following points. First, the weight generation module 640 ′ obtains information such as a user-specific training sequence included in the MA control information from the baseband processing module as a reference signal, not the channel parameters of the signals (Sr, So), and the MA The corresponding weight is calculated according to the regular weighting algorithm specified by the control information. After the weights are converted through the DAC modules 651 and 652, they are transmitted to the two multipliers 602 and 601 for signal weight adjustment. Since the MA control information is supplied only once through the control bus when the MA module starts operation, a dynamic feedback signal from the baseband physical layer processing module 400 is not required.

  Compared to the MA module 600 of the previous embodiment, which is totally dependent on the weight estimation of the received RF signals, the MA module 600 ′ of this embodiment is like a training sequence so as to generate weights. Use simple and quick strategies by using known information.

  Both of the above-described two embodiments of the present invention take the form of a dual antenna receiver as an example, but the design method can also be applied to a receiver having more than two antennas. In addition, although the present invention only introduces the embodiments of the mobile phone and the multi-antenna receiving apparatus of the technology, other solutions can be applied to the design of the transmission apparatus and the method due to the symmetry between the uplink and the downlink. Is possible. For example, in a transmission apparatus having two antennas, the signal processing procedure is the reverse of that in the reception apparatus. All that needs to be done is to separate the synthesis module 610 of the MA module 600 or 600 'into a separation module (not shown) so as to separate the single RF signal into two RF signals and weight them, respectively. Just replace it with a signal splitter).

  According to the multi-antenna wireless communication apparatus and method proposed by the present invention, the introduction of multi-antennas into the wireless communication apparatus is possible without significantly changing the hardware and software design of the current mobile phone. This can be realized by simply inserting the module into a single antenna radio communication device.

  Of course, those skilled in the art will understand that the multi-antenna wireless communication apparatus and method proposed by the present invention are not limited to the mobile phone system. The present invention can also be applied to other wireless communication devices such as a wireless communication base station and a wireless LAN terminal.

  Further, those skilled in the art will not be limited to the TD-SCDMA system, but the multi-antenna wireless communication apparatus and method proposed by the present invention are not limited to GSM (Global Mobile System), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution), WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), CDMA IS95, CDMA2000 standards, and other cellular communication systems are also applicable.

  Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications can be made in the multi-antenna wireless communication apparatus and method based on the above description while remaining within the scope of the appended claims.

1 is a block diagram of an exemplary single antenna mobile phone in a TD-SCDMA system. 1 is a block diagram of a receiving apparatus for a multi-antenna mobile terminal equipped with a TD-SCDMA system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The equivalent block diagram of MA module of the receiver of FIG. The block diagram of the receiver of the multi-antenna mobile terminal comprising the TD-SCDMA system according to another embodiment of the present invention. The equivalent block diagram of MA module of the receiver of FIG.

Claims (20)

A wireless communication device,
Multiple antennas,
A plurality of antenna signal processing means for processing a plurality of RF signals received by the plurality of antennas and combining the plurality of RF signals into a single RF signal;
RF signal processing means for converting the single RF signal into a single baseband signal;
Baseband processing means for performing baseband processing on the single baseband signal;
Having a device.   2. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the baseband processing unit is configured to combine the plurality of RF signals before the plurality of antenna signal processing units are operable. A device that supplies control information for. 3. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the multiple antenna signal processing means is
A plurality of weight adjusting means for weighting a plurality of RF signals from the plurality of antennas;
Combining means for combining the weighted RF signals from the respective weight adjusting means and transmitting the combined signals to the RF signal processing means;
Weight generating means for generating a weight for adjusting each RF signal for the plurality of RF signals in accordance with the control information, and supplying the weight to the corresponding weight adjusting means;
Having a device.   4. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control information includes at least downlink pilot frequency time slot data and training sequence data. 4. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the multiple antenna signal processing means is
The apparatus further comprising: a plurality of RF means for converting a plurality of RF signals received by the plurality of antennas into a plurality of baseband signals for the weight generating means to generate corresponding weights. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, wherein the multiple antenna signal processing means is
A plurality of weight adjusting means for weighting a plurality of RF signals from the plurality of antennas according to the received weights;
Synthesizing a plurality of weighted RF signals output from the respective weight adjusting means, and transmitting the synthesized signals to the RF signal processing means;
Weight generation means for estimating a weight for adjusting each RF signal in accordance with channel parameters included in the plurality of RF signals, and supplying the weight to the corresponding weight adjustment means;
Having a device. 7. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the multiple antenna signal processing means is
The apparatus further comprising: a plurality of RF means for converting a plurality of RF signals received by the plurality of antennas into a plurality of baseband signals such that the weight generating means generates corresponding weights. A method for a wireless communication device with multiple antennas, comprising:
(A) receiving a plurality of RF signals from the plurality of antennas;
(B) combining the plurality of RF signals into a single RF signal;
(C) converting the single RF signal to a single baseband signal;
(D) performing baseband processing on the single baseband signal;
Having a method.   9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising the step of supplying control information before the step (b), wherein the step (b) performs a combining operation based on the control information. . The method of claim 9, wherein step (b) comprises:
Calculating weights for adjusting the plurality of RF signals according to the control information;
Weighting the plurality of RF signals according to the calculated weights, and combining the weighted signals;
Further comprising a method.   11. A method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the control information comprises at least downlink pilot frequency time slot data and training sequence data. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step (b) calculates weights for adjusting the plurality of RF signals in accordance with channel parameters included in the plurality of RF signals;
Weighting each of the plurality of RF signals according to the calculated weights;
Synthesizing the weighted signal;
Having a method. A wireless communication device,
Baseband processing means for outputting a single baseband signal;
RF signal processing means for converting the single baseband signal into a single RF signal;
A plurality of antenna processing means for processing the single RF signal and separating it into a plurality of RF signals;
A plurality of antennas for transmitting the plurality of RF signals;
Having a device.   14. The wireless communication device of claim 13, wherein the baseband processing means is configured to separate the single RF signal before separating the single RF signal before the multiple antenna signal processing means is enabled. An apparatus that provides control information for processing means. 15. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the multiple antenna signal processing means is
Separating means for separating the single RF signal into a plurality of RF signals;
Weight generating means for generating weights for adjusting the plurality of RF signals according to the control information;
A plurality of weight adjusting means for weighting the plurality of RF signals according to the weight generated by the weight generating means, and transmitting the weighted RF signals to the plurality of antennas;
Having a device. A method of a wireless communication device comprising a plurality of antennas, comprising:
(A) generating a single baseband signal;
(B) converting the single baseband signal to a single RF signal;
(C) separating the single RF signal into a plurality of RF signals;
(D) transmitting the plurality of RF signals by the plurality of antennas, respectively.
Having a method.   The method according to claim 16, further comprising a step of supplying control information before the step (c), wherein the step (c) performs a separation operation according to the control information. . The method of claim 17, wherein step (c) comprises:
Separating the single RF signal into the plurality of RF signals;
Generating weights for adjusting the plurality of RF signals in response to the control information;
Weighting each of the plurality of RF signals according to the generated weights;
A method further comprising: A processing device for a plurality of RF signals received by a plurality of antennas,
A plurality of weight adjusting means for weighting the plurality of RF signals received by a plurality of antennas according to the received weights;
Combining means for combining a plurality of weighted RF signals from each weight adjusting means and transmitting the combined signals to the RF signal processing means;
Weight generating means for generating a weight for adjusting each RF signal for the plurality of RF signals according to the control information, and supplying the weight to the corresponding weight adjusting means;
Having a device. A processing device for a plurality of RF signals received by a plurality of antennas,
A plurality of weight adjusting means for weighting the plurality of RF signals received by the plurality of antennas according to the received weights;
Combining means for combining a plurality of weighted RF signals output from the respective weight adjusting means and transmitting the combined signals to the RF signal processing means;
Weight generation means for estimating a weight for adjustment of each RF signal according to channel parameters included in the plurality of RF signals and supplying the weight to a corresponding weight adjustment means;
Having a device.

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