JP2009055232A - Radio equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently lengthen a range of an alert signal. <P>SOLUTION: In a base station device 10, an encoding part 12 executes error correction coding processing to a signal to be reported. A subchannelization part 14 divides the signal coded by the coding part 12 into a plurality of groups. A control part 16 controls directivity patterns for every group divided by a division part. In addition, the control part 16 controls the directivity patterns so as to be nondirectional to at least one group among the plurality of groups divided in the division part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a radio communication technique, and more particularly to a radio apparatus that controls the directivity of a transmission signal.

  In general, a mobile phone system or a simplified mobile phone system is configured by connecting a terminal device to a base station device connected to a network. A terminal device communicates with other terminal devices via a base station device or a network. Prior to communication, the terminal device establishes synchronization with the base station device using an arbitrary control channel. After the synchronization is established, the terminal device continues in a standby state until a call request from another terminal device, that is, an incoming call is received. In the standby state, the terminal device receives the notification signal from the base station device, and maintains the synchronization state according to the comparison result with the predetermined threshold value.

  Since it is desirable that the broadcast signal is received with an equal probability by all terminal devices within a predetermined area centered on the base station device, the broadcast signal is also referred to as an omnidirectional directivity pattern (hereinafter referred to as “omni transmission”). ). On the other hand, for the purpose of improving communication characteristics and increasing transmission capacity, a technique related to adaptive array antenna transmission (hereinafter referred to as “AAA transmission”) that adaptively generates a directivity pattern of a transmission signal. Has been developed. In this technique, the base station apparatus estimates the direction of the terminal apparatus based on the received signal from the terminal apparatus corresponding to the transmission signal, and controls the directivity pattern so that the beam is directed in that direction.

Conventionally, the base station apparatus applies an arbitrary directivity pattern to transmit a broadcast signal by AAA, and includes a threshold corresponding to the applied directivity pattern in the broadcast signal, thereby improving reception accuracy in the terminal apparatus. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).
JP-A-2005-176160

  In general, AAA transmission has a direction in which a signal reach distance becomes longer than omni transmission, while a direction in which the signal reach distance becomes shorter than omni transmission (hereinafter referred to as “null”). Have. In general, since there is no corresponding received signal for the broadcast signal, it is difficult to generate an adaptive directivity pattern. For this reason, when AAA transmission is applied to the broadcast signal, a null may be erroneously directed in the direction in which the terminal device exists, and the reach distance of the broadcast signal may be shortened, making reception difficult at the terminal device.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a general purpose thereof is to provide a technique for efficiently increasing the reach distance of a notification signal.

  In order to solve the above problem, a radio apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes an encoding unit that performs error correction encoding processing on a signal to be notified, and a plurality of signals encoded by the encoding unit. A division unit that divides into groups, a directivity control unit that controls the directivity pattern for each group divided by the division unit, a notification unit that notifies a signal in which the directivity pattern is controlled by the directivity control unit, Is provided.

  It should be noted that any combination of the above-described constituent elements and a conversion of the expression of the present invention between a method, an apparatus, a system, a recording medium, a computer program, etc. are also effective as an aspect of the present invention.

  According to the present invention, the reach distance of the notification signal can be increased efficiently.

  Before describing embodiments of the present invention specifically, an outline will be described first. Embodiments of the present invention relate to AAA transmission technology. In AAA transmission, the directivity is controlled so that the radiation direction of the radio wave transmitted from the antenna is directed to the communication target. Therefore, compared with omni transmission, the base station apparatus can make a signal reach a farther terminal apparatus.

  The directivity control is generally performed by performing a weight operation on the transmission signal. The weight calculation process realizes the optimum AAA transmission for the downstream signal by reflecting the weight created based on the upstream signal from the terminal device on the downstream signal. However, in a situation where the optimum weight calculation cannot be performed, the null may be erroneously directed to the terminal device. In such a case, the terminal device cannot receive the downlink signal, and the communication environment is deteriorated.

  In general, the broadcast signal includes information for location registration, information on channel structure, system information, paging information, and the like, and thus needs to reach all terminal apparatuses in the cell. However, it is difficult to control the weight of a broadcast signal that is a downlink only one-way channel because there is no corresponding uplink signal. For this reason, at the time of communication by a notification signal, the problem that a communication area cannot be expanded will generate | occur | produce.

  Here, in omni transmission, in general, a signal cannot reach as far as AAA transmission, but since it does not have a null, an average signal is transmitted to terminal devices in an area centered on a base station device. Can be reached.

  Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the broadcast signal is efficiently made to reach the terminal device by using a combination of AAA transmission and omni transmission. Thereby, the synchronization maintenance performance in a terminal device can be improved.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a base station apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention. The base station apparatus 10 includes a coding unit 12, a subchannelization unit 14 (Subchannelization Unit), a control unit 16, a modulation unit 18, a first weight calculation unit 20a represented by a weight calculation unit 20, and a second weight calculation unit 20. A weight calculation unit 20b, an antenna processing unit 22, an RF unit 24 (Radio Frequency Unit), and a first antenna 26a to an Nth antenna 26c represented by an antenna 26 are included. Note that the base station apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1 describes only a part related to transmission of a broadcast signal related to the present invention, and omits description of a part related to transmission of a signal other than the broadcast signal and a part related to reception. ing.

  The control unit 16 notifies the coding unit 12 and the subchannelization unit 14 of the coding rate 1 / N in the error correction coding process executed by the coding unit 12. In the following, it is assumed that the coding rate is 1/2 for convenience of explanation.

  The encoding unit 12 performs an error correction encoding process on the input notification signal at the encoding rate ½ notified by the control unit 16. The error correction coding process performed here may be non-systematic coding such as convolutional coding processing, or may be systematic coding such as turbo coding processing.

  The subchannelization unit 14 classifies the broadcast signals encoded by the encoding unit 12 into a plurality of groups according to the coding rate 1 / N notified from the control unit 16, and (2) groups A plurality of subcarriers are allocated for each. When the coding rate is 1/2, the subchannelization unit 14 divides the coded broadcast signal into two groups, and assigns a plurality of subcarriers to each of the first group sequence 200a and the second group. The series 200b is output.

(1) Although details will be described later, a terminal device (not shown) may receive only one of the first group sequence 200a and the second group sequence 200b depending on the relative positional relationship with the base station device 10. . Even in such a case, the subchannelization unit 14 notifies the notification output from the encoding unit 12 so that the original notification signal can be restored in the decoding processing unit in the terminal device corresponding to the encoding unit 12. The signals are classified into a first group sequence 200a and a second group sequence 200b.

  For example, when systematic encoding is performed in the encoding unit 12, the output of the encoding unit 12 can be easily separated into an original signal and a parity signal. In such a case, the subchannelization unit 14 may output the original signal as the first group sequence 200a and output the parity signal as the second group sequence 200b. By classifying in this way, even when only one is received, the original broadcast signal can be restored by error correction processing on the receiving side.

  Further, when non-systematic encoding is performed in the encoding unit 12, the subchannelization unit 14 divides the bit sequences {d1, d2,..., Dk} output from the encoding unit 12 into two groups. It may be assigned alternately. Specifically, the subchannelization unit 14 sets the first group sequence 200a to {d1, d3,..., D (k-1)}, and sets the second group sequence 200b to {d2, d4,. , Dk}. By classifying in this way, even if only one of them is received on the receiving side, the signal does not drop out in a burst, so that the original broadcast signal can be restored in the error correction processing on the receiving side. It becomes.

(2) Moreover, the subchannelization part 14 allocates the signal sequence classified into two groups to the subcarrier group which has several subcarriers. The allocation to the subcarrier group may be alternately allocated to a plurality of subcarriers on the frequency axis with respect to the first group sequence 200a and the second group sequence 200b belonging to each of the two groups.

  This will be specifically described. FIGS. 2A to 2B are diagrams illustrating an example of subcarrier allocation in the subchannelization unit 14 of FIG. The horizontal axis indicates the frequency. FIG. 2A includes a first subcarrier group 400a and a second subcarrier group 400b. The first subcarrier group 400a is a subcarrier group assigned to the first group sequence 200a, and the second subcarrier group 400b is a subcarrier group assigned to the second group sequence 200b.

  The multicarrier signal 500 shown in FIG. 2B shows a mode in which the first subcarrier group 400a and the second subcarrier group 400b in FIG. In multicarrier signal 500, each subcarrier of first subcarrier group 400a to which first group sequence 200a is assigned, and each subcarrier of second subcarrier group 400b to which second group sequence 200b is assigned, Are arranged alternately. By arranging in this way, even if a continuous frequency band is damaged by frequency selective fading, the influence can be reduced.

  Returning to FIG. The modulation unit 18 performs modulation processing on the first group sequence 200a and the second group sequence 200b divided by the subchannelization unit 14, and outputs the result to the weight calculation unit 20, respectively.

  Here, the control unit 16 notifies the weight coefficient to the first weight calculation unit 20a and the second weight calculation unit 20b. The control unit 16 notifies the first weight calculation unit 20a of a predetermined weight coefficient. The weight coefficient may be calculated by a known method. Further, the same number of weight coefficients as the number of antennas 26 are notified. Similarly, the control unit 16 notifies the second weight calculation unit 20b of a weight coefficient that provides a non-directional directivity pattern. The weight coefficient notified to the first weight calculation unit 20a and the second weight calculation unit 20b is changed at a predetermined time interval.

  For example, the first weight calculation unit 20a to which AAA transmission is applied is notified of a weight coefficient that changes every predetermined time so that the beam direction rotates around the base station apparatus 10, or the omni Notify the weight coefficient that will be transmitted. Moreover, you may notify the weight coefficient which has predetermined | prescribed directivity with respect to the 2nd weight calculating part 20b to which omni transmission was applied. Thus, by switching the directivity at predetermined time intervals, nulls in AAA transmission can be eliminated in a pseudo manner, and the area of the communicable area centered on the base station device 10 can be expanded.

  For this reason, in a terminal device far away from the base station device 10, there is a case where a broadcast signal can be received although it is limited to a period in which the beam is directed. In this case, it is difficult to receive the notification signal during a period when the beam is not directed. However, by deriving the optimal time interval length for which the directivity should be changed by simulation or the like, the terminal device can receive the notification signal to the extent that there is no problem in maintaining synchronization. Alternatively, the weight coefficient may be set to change each time the notification signal is notified.

  Here, an example of directivity control will be specifically described. 3A to 3D are diagrams showing examples of directivity patterns of outputs of the weight calculation unit 20 of FIG. FIG. 3A shows a first communicable area 700 in the case of AAA transmission. FIG. 3A shows a first communication system 100 including a base station device 10, a first terminal device 50a represented by a terminal device 50, and a second terminal device 50b. The base station apparatus 10 in FIG. 3A executes AAA transmission, and performs communication with the terminal apparatus 50 existing inside the first communicable area 700 with the base station apparatus 10 as the center. . 3A, the distance between the base station apparatus 10 and the first terminal apparatus 50a is the same as the distance between the base station apparatus 10 and the second terminal apparatus 50b.

  As illustrated, since the first terminal device 50a exists in the null direction and exists outside the first communicable area 700, the radio wave from the base station device 10 does not reach the base station device 10 and Communication between the two is not possible. On the other hand, the second terminal device 50b has the beam from the base station device 10 directed toward the second terminal device 50b even though the distance from the base station device 10 is equal to that of the first weight calculation unit 20a. Therefore, radio waves from the base station apparatus 10 reach and communication with the base station apparatus 10 becomes possible.

  FIG. 3B is a diagram showing the second communicable area 710 in the case of omni transmission. FIG. 3B shows the second communication system 110 including the base station device 10, a second terminal device 50 b typified by the terminal device 50, and a third terminal device 50 c. The base station apparatus 10 in FIG. 3B performs omni transmission, and performs communication with the terminal apparatus 50 existing inside the second communicable area 710 with the base station apparatus 10 as the center. . In FIG. 3B, the distance between the base station apparatus 10 and the second terminal apparatus 50b is longer than the distance between the base station apparatus 10 and the third terminal apparatus 50c.

  As illustrated, since the second terminal device 50b exists outside the second communicable area 710, the radio wave from the base station device 10 does not reach, and communication with the base station device 10 cannot be performed. . On the other hand, since the third terminal device 50 c exists inside the second communicable area 710, radio waves from the base station device 10 reach and communication with the base station device 10 becomes possible. The omni transmission shown in FIG. 3B does not have a null like the AAA transmission shown in FIG. 3A, but the communicable distance is shorter than the communicable distance in the beam direction in AAA transmission.

  As described above, the terminal device communicates with the base station device 10 in the case of the omni transmission shown in FIG. 3B due to the positional relationship with the base station device 10 in the case of the AAA transmission shown in FIG. Each communication is limited by the distance. Therefore, in the present embodiment, AAA transmission and omni transmission are used in combination. In particular, AAA transmission and omni transmission are applied to each group classified by the subchannelization unit 14 in accordance with the encoding method in the encoding unit 12, and the beam direction in the AAA transmission is set at a predetermined time interval. By rotating at, the signal reach is effectively extended.

  FIG. 3C is a diagram showing a third communicable area 720 when AAA transmission and omni transmission are combined. The third communicable area 720 indicates an area when all subcarriers in the multicarrier signal 500 in FIG. 2B are averaged. FIG. 3C shows the third communication system 120 including the base station device 10. Since the base station apparatus 10 in FIG. 3C is implemented by combining both AAA transmission and omni transmission, a terminal that exists inside the third communicable area 720 centering on the base station apparatus 10. Communication with the device 50 is possible. As illustrated, the third communicable area 720 is an area in which the first communicable area 700 and the second communicable area 710 are overlapped, and the area of the area is increased.

  FIG.3 (d) shows the aspect of the 4th communicable area 730 at the time of rotating the 3rd communicable area 720 of FIG.3 (c). The fourth communicable area 730 indicates an area when averaged over a predetermined time length. FIG. 3D shows a fourth communication system 130 including the base station device 10, the first terminal device 50a, the second terminal device 50b, and the third terminal device 50c. The base station apparatus 10 in FIG.3 (d) is performing AAA transmission and omni transmission. Further, the base station apparatus 10 periodically changes the beam direction in AAA transmission and rotates the base station apparatus 10 as a center. Therefore, the 4th communicable area 730 becomes a mode which has a circular outer edge like the 3rd communicable area 720 rotated. In FIG. 3D, the distance between the base station device 10 and the first terminal device 50a is substantially equal to the distance between the second terminal device 50b and longer than the distance between the third terminal device 50c. And

  The area between the second communicable area 710 and the fourth communicable area 730 illustrated in FIG. 3D is an area where only a notification signal by AAA transmission can reach. Therefore, in the first terminal device 50a and the second terminal device 50b existing in this area, only half of the broadcast signal, specifically, the signal corresponding to the first group sequence 200a in FIG. The signal corresponding to the second group sequence 200b does not reach. Furthermore, even half of the notification signal does not reach all time zones. However, by using error correction decoding or the like, the first terminal device 50a and the second terminal device 50b can acquire the broadcast signal and maintain synchronization with the base station device 10. On the other hand, the second communicable area 710 is a communicable area for both AAA transmission and omni transmission. For this reason, the third terminal device 50c existing in this area can receive all of the broadcast signals corresponding to the first group sequence 200a and the second group sequence 200b, so the first terminal device 50a and the second terminal device The notification signal can be acquired with higher accuracy than 50b.

  As described above, the area incapable of receiving in the null direction, which is a feature of AAA transmission, can be quasi-erased, so that the entire communicable range is the third communicable area 720. Further, by changing the weight coefficient with time and rotating the direction of the beam, as in the fourth communicable area 730 having a larger area than the second communicable area 710 for omni transmission shown in FIG. it can. According to these aspects, while it is possible to reliably receive a notification signal for a terminal device closer to the base station device 10, with certain accuracy also for a terminal device relatively far from the base station device 10, The notification signal can be received.

  Returning to FIG. The first weight calculation unit 20 a performs weight calculation processing on the signal output from the modulation unit 18 using the weight coefficient notified from the control unit 16, and outputs the result to the antenna processing unit 22. This weight calculation process is executed by the number of antennas 26 for each subcarrier of the first subcarrier group 400a shown in FIG. Therefore, the number of signals output to the antenna processing unit 22 is a number obtained by multiplying the number of subcarriers included in the first subcarrier group 400a by the number of antennas 26. Similarly, the second weight calculation unit 20 b performs weight calculation processing on the signal output from the modulation unit 18 and outputs the result to the antenna processing unit 22.

  The antenna processing unit 22 performs an IFFT (Inverse Fast Fourier Transform) process or the like for each corresponding antenna 26 on the signals output from the first weight calculation unit 20a and the second weight calculation unit 20b. The number of signals output from the antenna processing unit 22 is the same as the number of antennas 26. The RF unit 24 performs high-frequency signal processing such as filter processing on the signal for each antenna 26 on which IFFT processing has been performed, and transmits the signal from the corresponding antenna 26.

  These configurations described above can be realized in terms of hardware by a CPU, memory, or other LSI of an arbitrary computer, and in terms of software by a program loaded in the memory. Describes functional blocks realized through collaboration. Accordingly, those skilled in the art will understand that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by hardware only, software only, or a combination thereof.

The operation in the embodiment of the present invention is generally executed in the following order.
(1) The encoded notification signals are classified into two groups according to the encoding rate 1/2 in the encoding unit 12.
(2) A weight calculation process for AAA transmission is executed for one group.
(3) A weight calculation process for omni transmission is executed for the other group.
(4) Two groups that have been subjected to weight calculation are mixed and notified.
(5) The weight coefficient used for the weight calculation in (2) is changed at predetermined time intervals. In addition, the respective groups that are the targets in (2) and (3) are replaced.

  According to the above aspect, by controlling the directivity pattern for each group classified according to the error correction coding method, even when only one group is received, the error correction processing on the receiving side The original notification signal can be restored. Also, synchronization can be easily maintained. In addition, by assigning the subcarriers alternately to the two groups, even when only one of the signals is received on the receiving side, the signal does not drop out in a burst manner. The original notification signal can be restored. Further, by switching the directivity at predetermined time intervals, nulls in AAA transmission can be pseudo-erased, and the area of the communicable area centered on the base station device 10 can be expanded.

  The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. This embodiment is an exemplification, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to the combination of each component and each processing process, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. .

  In the embodiment of the present invention, the antenna processing unit 22 in FIG. 1 has been described as performing multicarrier communication by performing IFFT computation. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and communication may be performed by a communication method such as TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) or CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). In such a case, the subchannelization unit 14 can achieve the same effect as described above by assigning each group to a predetermined time region or assigning a predetermined code.

  In the above description, the coding rate has been described as 1/2. However, the coding rate is not limited to this, and the coding rate is 1 / N (N is an arbitrary positive integer), for example, 1/3 or 1/4. The coding rate may be as follows. In this case, the subchannelization unit 14 divides the notification signal into N groups, and the weight calculation unit 20 performs weight calculation for one group for omni transmission and (N-1) groups for AAA transmission. What is necessary is just to process. By such an aspect, the ratio of the group that performs omni transmission can be reduced, and the number of groups to which AAA transmission that can be reached farther can be increased, so that the broadcast signal can be efficiently reached far and broadcast. The number of terminal devices 50 that can receive signals can be increased. In addition, the control unit 16 can set a different weight coefficient for the (N−1) groups to be transmitted by AAA, and can cover a wider area simultaneously by changing the beam direction. it can. Therefore, the predetermined time interval for switching the weight coefficient in AAA transmission can be set longer and communication stability can be improved.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the base station apparatus of embodiment of this invention. FIGS. 2A to 2B are diagrams illustrating an example of subcarrier allocation in the subchannelization unit of FIG. 3A to 3B are diagrams showing examples of directivity patterns of outputs from the weight calculation unit in FIG. FIGS. 3C to 3D are diagrams showing examples of directivity patterns of outputs from the weight calculation unit of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  10 base station devices, 12 encoding units, 14 subchannelization units, 16 control units, 18 modulation units, 20 weight calculation units, 22 antenna processing units, 24 RF units, 26 antennas, 50 terminal devices.

Claims (4)

An encoding unit that performs error correction encoding processing on a signal to be broadcast;
A dividing unit that divides the signal encoded by the encoding unit into a plurality of groups;
A directivity control unit that controls a directivity pattern for each group divided by the dividing unit;
An informing unit for informing a signal whose directivity pattern is controlled by the directivity control unit;
A wireless device comprising:   The directivity control unit controls a directivity pattern so as to be omnidirectional with respect to at least one group among a plurality of groups divided by the dividing unit. The wireless device described.   The signal notified from the notification unit is formed by a plurality of subcarriers, and is controlled so as to have different directivity patterns for each group whose directivity pattern is controlled by the directivity control unit. The radio apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: an assigning unit that assigns subcarriers so that the determined groups are adjacent to each other on the frequency axis.   The radio apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the directivity control unit switches a directivity control method in units of signals notified by the notification unit.

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