JP2009010662A - Radio communication system, transmission device, reception device, and symbol synchronizing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve synchronization accuracy by speedily and securely establishing synchronism between transmission and reception devices. <P>SOLUTION: The transmission device of a radio communication system 100 according to the present invention includes: a synchronous signal generation unit 330 which generates a synchronous signal arranged repeatedly synchronous symbols of effective symbol length across a plurality of OFDM symbols and also windowed before and after the repeatedly arranged synchronous symbols; and a signal transmission unit 332. The reception device includes: a signal reception unit; a Fourier transformation unit 522 which samples and Fourier-transforms data of effective symbol length from arbitrary timing of the synchronous signal; a timing detection unit 524 which transitions the sampling timing in a time direction, and detects timing of peaking; and a difference transmission unit 526. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a radio communication system, a transmission apparatus, a reception apparatus, and a symbol synchronization method for transmitting and receiving an OFDM signal modulated using an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) scheme.

  In recent years, wireless terminals typified by mobile phones and PHS (Personal Handy phone System) have become widespread, making it possible to make calls and obtain information regardless of location or time. Especially in recent years, the amount of available information has been increasing, and high-speed and high-quality wireless communication systems have been introduced to download large amounts of data.

As one of such high-speed digital wireless communication systems, there are OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) systems represented by IEEE 802.16 and WiMAX (for example, Non-Patent Document 1). Such OFDM is classified as one of the multiplexing schemes, and uses a large number of carriers on the unit time axis, and a part of the carrier band is used so that the phase of the signal wave to be modulated is orthogonal between adjacent carriers. This is a method of effectively using the frequency band by superimposing. Also, while OFDM assigns subchannels for each individual user in a time division manner, a plurality of users share all subchannels, and OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency) assigns a subchannel with the highest transmission efficiency for each user. Division Multiplexing Access (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) is also provided.
"Mobile WiMAX? Part I: A Technical Overview and Performance Evaluation" Prepared on Behalf of the WiMAX Forum, February 21, 2006, http://www.intel.com/netcomms/technologies/wimax/WiMAX_Overview_v2.pdf

  In high-speed digital wireless communication using a multiplexing method, it is necessary for the transmission device and the reception device to synchronize on the time axis with respect to signal transmission and reception. In particular, in the above-described OFDM, unless it is a specially prepared symbol, there is no signal serving as a reference for synchronization as in other modulation schemes, for example, a signal having a specific waveform on the time axis. It is difficult to accurately detect the starting point of a symbol. Moreover, OFDM is different from ordinary single carrier digital modulation signals, and there are many parameters to be extracted.

  Therefore, at the start of reception, the reception device accurately detects the position of the synchronization symbol from the synchronization signal received from the transmission device, and returns the difference from its own timing to the transmission device to determine the transmission timing of the transmission device. Calibration must be done. The position of the synchronization symbol is determined by sampling the valid symbol data arbitrarily, and performing a Fourier transform (DFT: Discrete Fourier Transform, FFT: Fast Fourier Transform, etc.) to determine whether the sampled period is valid. Can be recognized. Therefore, detection for synchronization is repeated until a valid synchronization symbol position is sampled.

  Therefore, a technique is known in which redundancy (guard interval) is provided in an effective symbol of an OFDM symbol so that a synchronization symbol can be easily detected. However, even if redundancy is provided, the extension region due to the guard interval is less than one period of the synchronization symbol, so depending on the sampling timing, it may straddle adjacent OFDM symbols, and discontinuities between OFDM symbols may be detected. Fourier transform. Such discontinuity breaks orthogonality between OFDM subcarriers, and out-of-band radiation and ICI (Inter-Carrier Interference) occur in Fourier transform.

  In addition, since the mutual signals cannot be grasped until the synchronization between transmission and reception is performed, the processing does not proceed. Further, since the timing is shifted from the effective symbols of other carrier waves, The signal can become noise of other carrier waves.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of signal synchronization in conventional OFDM, and an object of the present invention is to quickly and reliably transmit and receive between the transmitting and receiving apparatuses by performing synchronous detection using an improved synchronization signal. It is possible to provide a radio communication system, a transmission device, a reception device, and a symbol synchronization method that can establish synchronization and improve synchronization accuracy.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, according to an aspect of the present invention, a transmitter that transmits an OFDM signal modulated using an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) method, and an OFDM signal from the transmitter are received. A wireless communication system including a receiving device, wherein a transmitting device repeatedly arranges synchronization symbols having an effective symbol length across a plurality of OFDM symbols, and performs windowing before and after the repeatedly arranged synchronization symbols. A synchronization signal generation unit that generates a synchronization signal; and a signal transmission unit that transmits the synchronization signal to the reception device. The reception device receives the synchronization signal and an effective symbol from any timing of the synchronization signal The Fourier transform unit that samples long data and performs Fourier transform, and the timing at which the sampling timing changes in the time direction and peaks A timing detection unit that detects a transmission error, and a difference transmission unit that transmits a difference between the detected timing and the reception timing of the reception device itself to the transmission device and establishes synchronization with the transmission device. A wireless communication system is provided.

  The present invention is characterized in that (1) synchronization symbols having an effective symbol length are repeatedly arranged as a synchronization signal across a plurality of OFDM symbols, and (2) windowing is performed before and after the synchronization signal.

  (1) Since a plurality of synchronization symbols are repeatedly connected, the synchronization symbol continuity is maintained for a long period of time, and a synchronization symbol having an effective symbol length (one period) can be easily obtained at any position. It is easy to sample (cut out). Therefore, rapid and reliable synchronous detection is possible, and synchronization accuracy can be improved.

  (2) Further, by applying windowing (also referred to as ECP (Extended Cyclic Prefix)), the signal level of the target region is suppressed, and discontinuous points with adjacent OFDM symbols are made smooth continuous points. Even if such a point is included in the object of Fourier transform, out-of-band radiation and ICI (Inter-Carrier Interference) can be mitigated.

  Furthermore, such a windowing is performed only before and after a plurality of continuous synchronization signals without being inserted between each OFDM symbol, so that the repeatability of the continuous synchronization symbols can be kept unnecessarily. Thus, the sensitivity of the data becomes uniform, and the synchronization symbol can be sampled more easily. Therefore, it is possible to establish synchronization between the transmitting and receiving devices quickly and reliably. Further, the load can be reduced as compared with the case where windowing is inserted for each OFDM symbol, and power consumption and cost can be reduced.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, according to another aspect of the present invention, a transmitting apparatus that transmits an OFDM signal modulated using an OFDM scheme to a receiving apparatus, the effective symbol straddling a plurality of OFDM symbols. A synchronization signal generating unit that repeatedly arranges long synchronization symbols and generates a synchronization signal that is windowed before and after the repeatedly arranged synchronization symbols; and a signal transmission unit that transmits the synchronization signal to a receiving device; A transmission device is provided, comprising:

  In order to solve the above-described problem, according to another aspect of the present invention, a receiving apparatus that receives an OFDM signal modulated using an OFDM scheme from a transmitting apparatus, the effective symbol straddling a plurality of OFDM symbols. A sync signal generator that repeatedly arranges long sync symbols and generates a sync signal that is windowed before and after the repeatedly arranged sync symbols, and samples the data of effective symbol length from any timing of the sync signals A Fourier transform unit that transforms and Fourier transforms, a timing detection unit that shifts the sampling timing in the time direction and detects a timing at which a peak occurs, and a difference between the detected timing and the reception timing of the reception device itself And a differential transmission unit that establishes synchronization with the transmission device. It is.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, according to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transmission apparatus that transmits an OFDM signal modulated using an OFDM scheme and a reception apparatus that receives an OFDM signal from the transmission apparatus. A symbol synchronization method for performing symbol synchronization, in which a transmission device repeatedly arranges synchronization symbols having an effective symbol length across a plurality of OFDM symbols, and performs synchronization signals obtained by performing windowing before and after the repeatedly arranged synchronization symbols. Generate and transmit the synchronization signal to the receiving device. The receiving device receives the synchronization signal, samples the data of the effective symbol length from any timing of the synchronization signal, performs Fourier transform, and sets the sampling timing in the time direction. The timing at which the peak occurs is detected, and the difference between the detected timing and the reception timing of the reception device is transmitted to the transmission device. And, transmitting apparatus, and establishes the synchronization of the receiving apparatus the transmission timing of itself remained only difference, symbol synchronization method is provided.

  The components corresponding to the technical idea in the wireless communication system and the description thereof can be applied to the transmission device, the reception device, and the symbol synchronization method.

  As described above, the wireless communication system of the present invention can quickly and reliably establish synchronization between transmitting and receiving apparatuses and improve synchronization accuracy.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In addition, in this specification and drawing, about the component which has the substantially same function structure, duplication description is abbreviate | omitted by attaching | subjecting the same code | symbol.

  In wireless terminals represented by mobile phones, PHS, and the like, a wireless communication system is established with base stations arranged at predetermined intervals, and communication can be performed using this wireless communication system. In the present embodiment, such a wireless terminal and a base station are taken as examples, and establishment of wireless communication using the OFDM modulation scheme in the wireless communication system will be described. First, in order to facilitate understanding of the present embodiment, a schematic configuration of a communication system will be described.

(Wireless communication system 100)
FIG. 1 is a system block diagram for explaining the radio communication system 100. The wireless communication system 100 includes a wireless terminal 110 owned by a user, a base station 120, a communication network 130 such as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) and the Internet, and a relay server 140.

  In the wireless communication system 100, when the user 152 attempts to make a call to another wireless terminal 150 using the wireless terminal 110, a base station in the wireless communicable area according to the operation of the wireless terminal 110 by the user 152 Wireless communication with 120 is established, and the base station 120 requests the relay server 140 to establish communication connection with another wireless terminal 150 via the communication network 130.

  Next, the relay server 140 selects the base station 120 in the wireless communicable area of the other wireless terminal 150 and sets a voice call with the other wireless terminal 150 that the communication partner 154 has.

  When the setting of the base stations 120 necessary for the voice call is completed, the base stations 120 are connected to each other via the relay server 140, and voice communication between the user 152 and the communication partner 154 becomes possible.

  When the OFDM scheme is used in such a wireless communication system 100, the wireless terminal 110 and the base station 120 communicate with each other in effective symbol units in which a plurality of carriers are superimposed. At this time, if the data of the effective symbol length generated by the wireless terminal 110 reaches the base station 120, the base station 120 should be able to recognize the data, but in actual wireless communication, it is affected by distortion and noise. . A typical cause of such distortion and noise is multipath. This is because the radio wave is reflected by an obstacle such as a large building or a mountain in the radio wave propagation path, and the base station 120 receives a reflected wave other than a signal (direct wave) coming directly from the wireless terminal 110. It is a phenomenon.

  In order for a transmission signal by OFDM to be correctly demodulated by the base station 120 as a receiving apparatus, the orthogonality between carriers must also be maintained. However, as described above, when the transmission signal having an effective symbol length is delayed, the orthogonality condition is not satisfied, and the data error rate is increased. In addition, the delayed wave causes not only interference between codes as described above but also interference between adjacent carriers.

  As a countermeasure for such multipath, there is a method of demodulating after compensating for distortion in the transmission path using an equalizer. However, here, a guard interval is added to the symbol to provide redundancy.

  FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the guard interval. In FIG. 2, a redundant area as a guard interval 212 is provided in the preceding stage of an effective symbol area 210 having an effective symbol length effective for Fourier transform, and only the Tg length portion of the latter half of the effective symbol area 210 is added to the first half of the symbol. is doing. Since periodic effective symbols are arranged in the effective symbol region 210, the waveforms of the guard interval 212 and the effective symbol region 210 are continuous, and the continuity of the waveform is still maintained in the new OFDM symbol 200 unit.

When such a guard interval 212 is added, the sampleable section is extended. Since each carrier wave can be treated as a continuous carrier wave having a single frequency in this sampleable section, both a direct wave and a delayed wave can be sampled (effective symbol length) T = 1 / f ₀ in this section. As long as it is included, the orthogonality between the carriers is maintained, and interference between the carriers does not occur even if the sampled signal is Fourier transformed. Therefore, if the multipath delay time is within the guard interval 212, orthogonality of the received signals is ensured, and multipath can be avoided.

  In this embodiment, for example, the effective symbol length is set to 26.7 μsec, and the waveform extension of 1/8 is allowed as the guard interval 212. Therefore, the guard interval length is 3.3 μsec.

  As described above, the problem due to multipath after wireless communication is established can be avoided by adding the guard interval 212. However, when establishing wireless communication, that is, when the wireless terminal 110 and the base station 120 are synchronized, more complicated processing is required. In OFDM, formation of such a synchronization state is difficult in the first place, and is very important. For example, in OFDM, unless it is a specially prepared symbol, there is no synchronization reference signal, for example, a signal having a specific waveform on the time axis, as in other modulation schemes, and the symbol start point is It cannot be detected accurately. Moreover, unlike ordinary single carrier digital modulation signals, OFDM has many parameters to be extracted.

To begin the synchronization required by the OFDM, symbol synchronization (symbol timing synchronization), there is a carrier frequency synchronization fc, sampling frequency synchronization _{f 0.} This embodiment is intended for symbol synchronization. Symbol synchronization is a method of achieving symbol synchronization using the characteristics of the signal itself used for OFDM.

  In OFDM, the symbol synchronization described above, that is, the sampling start timing is very important. If the synchronization timing is not accurately taken, it will continue to deviate from the sampling range in subsequent communications, data will be acquired at the wrong timing, and the desired data exchange will not be performed. However, since the transmitting device and the receiving device are independent from each other like the wireless terminal 110 and the base station 120 and are not based on the absolute value of time, absolute time synchronization cannot be performed. Therefore, in order to form a mutual synchronization state, for example, the base station 120 as a receiving apparatus needs to accurately extract a synchronization symbol having an effective symbol length from the received signal.

  Synchronization between the devices is performed by matching the timing of one of the wireless communication devices capable of communicating, here, the wireless terminal 110 and the base station 120 with the other. In the present embodiment, the wireless terminal 110 is assumed as a transmitting device, the base station 120 is cited as a receiving terminal, the base station 120 grasps the synchronization signal from the wireless terminal 110, and an instruction to shift the timing of the synchronization signal is issued. The synchronization state is formed by matching the transmission timing of the wireless terminal 110 with the reception timing of the base station 120. Naturally, the present embodiment is valid even if the wireless terminal 110 and the base station 120 are reversed.

  More specifically, the radio terminal 110 transmits TCCH (Timing Control Channels) including a synchronization signal to the base station 120, and the base station 1200 samples a synchronization symbol from the TCCH and The transmission timing is grasped, and the difference is returned to the wireless terminal 110 using SCCH (Synchronization Control Channels). Hereinafter, the synchronization processing of the present embodiment will be described after describing the characteristics of the OFDM signal.

  FIG. 3 is a timing chart for explaining the discontinuity of the OFDM symbol. In FIG. 3, four OFDM symbols 200 are shown as waveforms to be transmitted and received. As described above, since the OFDM symbol 200 has a waveform of 1.125 cycles of effective symbols, the waveforms of adjacent OFDM symbols 200 are not continuous, and discontinuities occur between the OFDM symbols 200. Such a discontinuous point breaks orthogonality, and if the point is included in the target region of Fourier transform, out-of-band radiation and ICI occur. In this embodiment, windowing is performed on such discontinuous points to form a continuous waveform.

  FIG. 4 is a spectrum diagram of a received signal showing a simulation of out-of-band radiation with respect to the number of samples in the windowing process. Here, the number of samples in the windowing process means the number of samples occupied by the guard interval among the number of samples in the Fourier transform. For example, when the number of samples in the Fourier transform is 512, the guard interval is 1/8, so 512/8 = 64. This is the number of samples for the windowing process. When a discontinuity as shown in FIG. 3 occurs between OFDM symbols, a high level of noise as shown by spectrum 250 in FIG. 4 is detected, and the energy of a desired frequency is relatively reduced. .

  In order not to Fourier transform such a discontinuous point, the discontinuous point may be forcibly continued. Such compulsory processing is performed by so-called windowing, which suppresses the signal level by a window function. In the present embodiment, a Hamming window is employed as the window function. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and various window functions such as a Hanning window and a Gaussian window can be used.

  FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the windowing process. The OFDM symbol shown in FIG. 5A includes an effective symbol area 210 and a guard interval 212. Here, as shown in FIG. 5B, the leading waveform 270 of the guard interval 212 and the leading waveform 272 of the effective symbol area 210 are extracted and subjected to windowing, that is, a window function. The time length for applying such a window function is, for example, 1/2 of the guard interval 212.

  Here, the window function h (n) is 0.54-0 in the range of 0 ≦ n <N−1 (n is the position of each sample of the leading waveforms 270 and 272, and N is the number of samples of the leading waveforms 270 and 272). .46 × cos (2πn / (N−1)), and 0 (zero) in other ranges. Therefore, the waveform after applying the window function h (n) to the waveform of FIG. 5B is as shown in FIG.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 5 (d), the head waveform 270 of the guard interval 212 to which the window function is applied is placed at that position, and the head waveform 272 of the effective symbol area 210 to which the window function is applied is placed at the end of the OFDM symbol 200. To do. By performing windowing in this way, discontinuous points with adjacent OFDM symbols can be made into smooth continuous points, and even if such points are subjected to Fourier transform, out-of-band radiation and ICI can be reduced. Is possible.

  When each OFDM symbol 210 generated in this manner is superimposed on another OFDM symbol, the result is as shown in FIG. In FIG. 5 (d), the OFDM symbol 210 is extended by the length of 1/2 of the guard interval 212 (leading waveform 272). However, the leading waveform 272 of the effective symbol area 210 is the same as the leading waveform 270 of the next OFDM symbol. Since they are superimposed, there is no substantial period variation. Then, the OFDM symbols subjected to windowing are juxtaposed, and the waveform is continuous at all points as shown in FIG.

  When an arbitrary period of the signal generated as shown in FIG. 5E is Fourier-transformed, even if the effective symbol length period to be sampled extends over the OFDM symbols, it is shown by the spectrum 260 in FIG. Thus, the noise level can be suppressed low, and a desired peak can be easily detected.

  The present embodiment is further characterized in that (1) synchronization symbols having effective symbol lengths are repeatedly arranged across a plurality of OFDM symbols, and (2) windowing is performed before and after the synchronization signal. Hereinafter, a specific generation process of the synchronization signal will be described using the wireless terminal 110 and the base station 120 in the wireless communication system 100.

(Wireless terminal 110)
FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating schematic functions of the wireless terminal 110. The wireless terminal 110 includes a terminal-side control unit 310, a terminal-side memory 312, a display unit 314, an operation unit 316, and a terminal-side wireless communication unit 318.

  The terminal-side control unit 310 manages and controls the entire wireless terminal 110 using a semiconductor integrated circuit including a central processing unit (CPU). The terminal-side control unit 310 performs a call function and a mail delivery function using the wireless terminal 110 using a program in the terminal-side memory 312.

The terminal-side memory 312 is composed of ROM, RAM, E ² PROM, nonvolatile RAM, flash memory, HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and the like, and stores programs, applications, and the like processed by the terminal-side control unit 310.

  The display unit 314 is configured by a color or single color display, and is stored in the terminal-side memory 212 or provided from an application server (not shown) via a communication network, or a GUI (Graphical) of an application. User Interface) can be displayed.

  The operation unit 316 includes switches such as a keyboard, a cross key, and a joystick, and accepts user operation inputs.

  The terminal-side wireless communication unit 318 performs wireless communication with the base station 120 in the mobile phone network. Further, it also functions as a synchronization signal generator 330 and a signal transmitter 332 described below.

  The synchronization signal generation unit 330 repeatedly arranges synchronization symbols having an effective symbol length across a plurality of OFDM symbols 200 including the guard interval 212 and the effective symbol region 210, and performs synchronization before and after the synchronization. Generate a signal.

  FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the synchronization signal. The synchronization signal generation unit 330 generates the synchronization signal 400 using, for example, an area of four OFDM symbols 200 minutes. The number of OFDM symbols is changed according to the distance between the wireless terminal 110 and the base station 120, and the number of connections may be increased as the distance is longer. At this time, the synchronization symbol 410 is repeatedly arranged irrespective of the division of the guard interval 212 and the effective symbol area 210 as shown in FIG. Therefore, the synchronization signal 400 is filled with consecutive synchronization symbols 410 that are not windowed.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 7B, the leading waveform 420 of the guard interval 212 and the waveform 422 of a specific period in the effective symbol area 210 are extracted and windowed. Here, the specific period 422 is a waveform that can maintain continuity even if it is arranged at the end of the synchronization signal 400. In FIG. 7B, the period of 1/16 period from the time of 3/8 period of the synchronization signal 400 is shown. The length is extracted. Such a specific period 422 varies according to the number of OFDM symbols 200 to be concatenated. In addition, the windowing time length is set to 1/2 of the guard interval 212, for example.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 7C, the top waveform 420 of the windowed guard interval 212 is placed as it is, and the specific period 422 of the effective symbol area 210 is placed at the end of the OFDM symbol 200. By performing windowing in this way, discontinuous points with the OFDM symbol adjacent to the synchronization signal 400 can be made into smooth continuous points as in the case of one OFDM symbol 200. Even if such windowed points are subject to Fourier transform, it is possible to mitigate out-of-band radiation and ICI, and the noise level can be suppressed low as shown by spectrum 260 in FIG. The desired peak can be easily detected.

  The signal transmission unit 332 transmits the synchronization signal 400 generated by the synchronization signal generation unit 330 to the base station 120 as a receiving device.

(Base station 120)
FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic function of the base station 120. The base station 120 includes a base station side control unit 510, a base station side memory 512, a communication network connection unit 514, and a base station side wireless communication unit 516.

  The base station side control unit 510 manages and controls the entire base station 120 by a semiconductor integrated circuit including a central processing unit. The base station side control unit 510 uses the program in the base station side memory 512 to support a call or communication between wireless terminals.

The base station side memory 512 is composed of ROM, RAM, E ² PROM, non-volatile RAM, flash memory, HDD, etc., and is transmitted / received between programs processed by the base station side control unit 510 and wireless terminals. Store the data.

  The communication network connection unit 514 transmits and receives setting signals to and from the relay server 140 through the communication network 130.

  The base station side wireless communication unit 516 performs wireless communication with the wireless terminal 110 in the wireless communication system 100. The base station side wireless communication unit 516 also functions as a signal reception unit 520, a signal reception unit 520, a Fourier transform unit 522, a timing detection unit 524, and a difference transmission unit 526 as described below.

  The signal receiving unit 520 receives the synchronization signal 400 transmitted from the wireless terminal 110.

  The Fourier transform unit 522 samples the data of the effective symbol length from an arbitrary time point of the synchronization signal and performs Fourier transform.

  The timing detector 524 shifts (sweeps) the sampling timing in the time direction, and detects the timing at which the result of Fourier transform is the best, that is, the peak occurs. The timing of the synchronization signal 400 received by the signal receiving unit 520 is unknown. Therefore, the sampling timing is shifted until the peak is reached, and the time when the peak is reached, that is, the turn-back time when the peak is changed to the worse tendency is the synchronization timing.

  The difference transmission unit 526 transmits a difference for adjusting the detected timing to its own reception timing to the wireless terminal 110 and establishes synchronization with the wireless terminal 110.

  In the wireless communication system 100 described above, both can take synchronization timing using the actual communication path between the two wireless communication apparatuses, here, the wireless terminal 110 and the base station 120.

  Next, a symbol synchronization method for performing symbol synchronization using the above-described wireless terminal 110 and base station 120 will be described.

(Symbol synchronization method)
FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing of the symbol synchronization method. Here, a process of generating a synchronization timing that is a reference for transmission / reception of an OFDM signal modulated using the OFDM method is performed.

  First, the wireless terminal 110 as a transmission apparatus repeatedly arranges synchronization symbols 410 having an effective symbol length across a plurality of OFDM symbols 200 each composed of a guard interval 212 and an effective symbol area 210 (S600).

  In this way, the continuity of the synchronization symbol 410 is maintained over a long period by repeatedly connecting a plurality of synchronization symbols 410, and the base station 120 as a receiving apparatus has an effective symbol length (for one cycle) at any position. Therefore, the synchronization symbol 410 can be easily sampled (cut out). Therefore, rapid and reliable synchronous detection is possible, and synchronization accuracy can be improved.

  Then, windowing is performed before and after a plurality of consecutive OFDM symbols to generate a synchronization signal 400 (S602), and the generated synchronization signal 400 is transmitted to the base station 120 (S604).

  In this way, by performing windowing, a discontinuous point with the adjacent OFDM symbol 200 can be made a smooth continuous point, and even if such a point is included in the object of Fourier transform, out-of-band radiation and ICI are reduced. Can be relaxed.

  Further, such a windowing is performed only before and after a plurality of continuous synchronization signals without being inserted between the OFDM symbols 200, so that the repeatability of the continuous synchronization symbols can be kept unnecessary. The sensitivity of data is uniform over the entire 400 range, and synchronization symbols can be sampled more easily. Therefore, it is possible to establish synchronization between the transmitting and receiving devices quickly and reliably. In the first place, the guard interval 212 has a function of avoiding signal delay due to multipath or the like, but if windowing is performed for each OFDM symbol, the original function of the guard interval cannot be exhibited. Further, the load can be reduced as compared with the case where windowing is inserted for each OFDM symbol, and power consumption and cost can be reduced.

  The base station 120 receives the synchronization signal 400 (S610), samples effective symbol length data from an arbitrary timing of the synchronization signal 400, performs Fourier transform (S612), and determines whether a peak has occurred (S614). . The peak calculation is performed as follows. That is, since the synchronization signal is a known signal, the inverse Fourier transform is performed by taking the product of the reception signal of the corresponding subcarrier and the complex conjugate of the known signal. Since the result is a complex number, the square of the absolute value is taken to determine the amplitude of each sample, and this is calculated for n samples to determine the maximum peak. If no peak is set, the timing is shifted in the time direction (S616), and the Fourier transform is repeated. If there is a peak, the difference between the detected timing and its own reception timing is returned to the wireless terminal 110 (S618).

  When the wireless terminal 110 acquires information about the difference from the base station 120, the wireless terminal 110 changes its transmission timing by the difference and establishes synchronization with the base station 120 (S620).

  Also in the symbol synchronization method described above, it is possible to quickly and surely establish synchronization between transmission / reception devices and improve synchronization accuracy by performing synchronous detection using an improved synchronization signal.

  As mentioned above, although preferred embodiment of this invention was described referring an accompanying drawing, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is not limited to the example which concerns. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made within the scope of the claims, and these are naturally within the technical scope of the present invention. Understood.

  Note that the steps in the wireless communication method of the present specification do not necessarily have to be processed in chronological order according to the order described in the flowchart, but are executed in parallel or individually (for example, parallel processing or object-based processing). Processing).

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used for a radio communication system, a transmission apparatus, a reception apparatus, and a symbol synchronization method that perform transmission / reception of an OFDM signal modulated using the OFDM scheme.

It is a system block diagram for demonstrating a radio | wireless communications system. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating a guard interval. It is a timing chart for demonstrating the discontinuity of an OFDM symbol. It is the spectrum figure of the received signal which showed the simulation of the out-of-band radiation with respect to the sample number of the windowing process. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the process of windowing. It is the functional block diagram which showed the schematic function of the radio | wireless terminal. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating a synchronizing signal. It is the functional block diagram which showed the schematic function of the base station. It is the flowchart which showed the flow of the process of the symbol synchronization method.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Wireless communication system 110 ... Wireless terminal 120 ... Base station 130 ... Communication network 200 ... OFDM symbol 210 ... Effective symbol area | region 212 ... Guard interval 330 ... Synchronization signal generation part 400 ... Synchronization signal 410 ... Synchronization symbol 520 ... Signal reception part 522 ... Fourier transform unit 524 ... Timing detection unit 526 ... Difference transmission unit

Claims (4)

A wireless communication system comprising a transmitting device that transmits an OFDM signal modulated using the OFDM method, and a receiving device that receives an OFDM signal from the transmitting device,
The transmitter is
A synchronization signal generating unit that repeatedly arranges synchronization symbols having an effective symbol length across a plurality of OFDM symbols, and generates a synchronization signal that is windowed before and after the repeatedly arranged synchronization symbols;
A signal transmission unit for transmitting the synchronization signal to the receiving device;
With
The receiving device is:
A signal receiver for receiving the synchronization signal;
A Fourier transform unit that samples and Fourier transforms data of an effective symbol length from an arbitrary timing of the synchronization signal;
A timing detection unit that changes the timing of sampling in the time direction and detects a timing at which a peak occurs;
A difference transmission unit that transmits a difference between the detected timing and the reception timing of the reception device itself to the transmission device, and establishes synchronization with the transmission device;
A wireless communication system comprising: A transmitting apparatus that transmits an OFDM signal modulated using the OFDM scheme to a receiving apparatus,
A synchronization signal generating unit that repeatedly arranges synchronization symbols having an effective symbol length across a plurality of OFDM symbols, and generates a synchronization signal that is windowed before and after the repeatedly arranged synchronization symbols;
A signal transmission unit for transmitting the synchronization signal to the receiving device;
A transmission device comprising: A receiving apparatus that receives an OFDM signal modulated using an OFDM scheme from a transmitting apparatus,
A synchronization signal generating unit that repeatedly arranges synchronization symbols having an effective symbol length across a plurality of OFDM symbols, and generates a synchronization signal that is windowed before and after the repeatedly arranged synchronization symbols;
A Fourier transform unit that samples and Fourier transforms data of an effective symbol length from an arbitrary timing of the synchronization signal;
A timing detection unit that changes the timing of sampling in the time direction and detects a timing at which a peak occurs;
A difference transmission unit that transmits a difference between the detected timing and the reception timing of the reception device itself to the transmission device, and establishes synchronization with the transmission device;
A receiving apparatus comprising: A symbol synchronization method for performing symbol synchronization between a transmitter that transmits an OFDM signal modulated using the OFDM method and a receiver that receives an OFDM signal from the transmitter,
The transmitting device is
Repetitively arranging synchronization symbols having effective symbol lengths over a plurality of OFDM symbols,
Generate a synchronization signal that is windowed before and after the repeatedly arranged synchronization symbols,
Transmitting the synchronization signal to the receiving device;
The receiving device is
Receiving the synchronization signal;
Sampling the effective symbol length data from any timing of the synchronization signal and Fourier transform,
The timing of sampling is shifted in the time direction, and the timing at which a peak occurs is detected.
The difference between the detected timing and the reception timing of the reception device is transmitted to the transmission device,
The transmitting device is
A symbol synchronization method, wherein synchronization with the receiving apparatus is established by shifting its own transmission timing by the difference.