JP2010130469A - Transmission apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To maintain highly accurate and stable transmission output regardless of eccentricity in transmission symbol layout. <P>SOLUTION: A transmission apparatus includes: a transmission output determining means for determining a gain value of transmission power of a radio signal; a transmission waveform generating means for generating a transmission waveform of the radio signal; an amplitude calculating/averaging means for averaging the transmission waveform generated by the transmission waveform generating means; a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) which uses the gain value determined by the transmission output determining means to convert the transmission waveform generated by the transmission waveform generating means into a transmission waveform of a radio transmission frequency and outputting the converted transmission waveform; a coupler for branching out the transmission waveform outputted by the RFIC to an antenna and a feedback path; a detector for converting the transmission waveform outputted to the feedback path into a positive voltage waveform; an averaging means for averaging the voltage waveform converted by the detector; and a computing element for outputting a differential between the transmission waveform averaged by the amplitude calculating/averaging means and the voltage waveform averaged by the averaging means to the transmission output determining means as an offset value. The transmission output determining means determines the gain value on the basis of the offset value. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a transmission device that transmits a radio signal.

  In mobile communication that allows communication while moving, the power of the terminal itself is kept as specified by the radio base station in order to enable efficient terminal accommodation within the cell covered by the radio base station. Automatic transmission control (APC: Automatic Power Control) is important.

  In an LTE (Long Term Evolution) system, a terminal performs a transmission operation using a relatively low symbol rate of 15 kHz and multi-level modulation up to 16 QAM. The transmission band at this time is a variable band of up to 180 kHz and up to 18 MHz.

  In the LTE system, the unit of transmission control is 1 sub-frame (1 ms), and it is necessary to perform accurate output control within this unit time.

In general, for transmission output measurement for APC, a detector such as a diode and a low pass filter (LPF: Low Pass Filter) for smoothing voltage are installed by branching from the output terminal of the terminal. A voltage value that is output is averaged within a certain section, for example, one slot, and the obtained value is used as output power (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2003-318747 A

  Here, in the multi-level modulation method such as 16QAM, the amplitude of the baseband signal varies depending on the symbol to be transmitted.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a 16QAM symbol arrangement on an IQ (In Phase-Quadrature Phase) plane.

  As is apparent from FIG. 7, these symbols have eight symbol points having the same power as the average output amplitude, that is, the same power as the average output power, and four symbol points having a power greater than the average output power, It is formed from four symbol points having a power smaller than the average output power. Among these, a power difference of 9.5 dB exists between the symbol having the maximum amplitude and the symbol having the minimum amplitude.

  In a system with a fast symbol transition speed (3.84 MHz) such as WCDMA, an output power value that is close to the average power is calculated by measuring many symbols in the output power measurement time and averaging them. Is possible.

  However, in the LTE system, since the symbol rate is as low as 15 kHz, there are only 7 (in normal CP) or 6 (in extended CP) transmission symbols per carrier carrier in a 1 ms radio subframe. This is because the carrier carriers are transmitted in units of resource blocks with 12 units as one unit. For example, at the time of transmission of one resource block, which is a condition for outputting the narrowest band, the number of transmission symbols in the subframe is 84. The number (in normal CP) or 72 (in extended CP).

  For this reason, due to the uneven distribution of the transmission data, for example, by transmitting unevenly distributed data of symbols exceeding the average power, or unevenly distributed data of symbols lower than the average power, there is a high possibility that the output power to be measured has an error. There is a problem that.

  That is, particularly in narrow band transmission, depending on the measurement timing and the transmission data symbol at the time of measurement, there is a possibility that a large error may occur in the output power value calculated based on the output detection.

  An object of this invention is to provide the transmitter which solves the subject mentioned above.

The transmission device of the present invention includes:
A transmission device for transmitting a radio signal,
Transmission power determining means for determining a gain value of transmission power of the radio signal;
Transmission waveform generating means for generating a transmission waveform of the radio signal;
Amplitude calculation / averaging means for calculating the amplitude of the transmission waveform generated by the transmission waveform generation means and averaging the transmission waveform;
RFIC that uses the gain value determined by the transmission output determination means to convert the transmission waveform generated by the transmission waveform generation means into a transmission waveform of a radio transmission frequency for transmission from an antenna of the transmission apparatus and output the RFIC; ,
A coupler for branching and outputting the transmission waveform output by the RFIC to the antenna and a feedback path for returning to the transmitting device;
A detector for converting the transmission waveform output to the feedback path into a positive voltage waveform having an envelope component;
Averaging means for averaging the voltage waveform converted by the detector;
A comparator that compares the transmission waveform averaged by the amplitude calculating / averaging means and the voltage waveform averaged by the averaging means;
Based on the result of comparison by the comparator, the difference between the transmission waveform averaged by the amplitude calculating / averaging means and the voltage waveform averaged by the averaging means is output to the transmission output determining means as an offset value. An arithmetic unit,
The transmission output determining means determines the gain value based on the offset value output from the computing unit.

  As described above, in the present invention, the transmission output determining means for determining the gain value of the transmission power of the radio signal, the transmission waveform generating means for generating the transmission waveform of the radio signal, and the transmission waveform generated by the transmission waveform generating means The transmission waveform generated by the transmission waveform generation means is transmitted from the antenna using the amplitude calculation / averaging means for calculating the amplitude of the transmission waveform and the gain value determined by the transmission output determination means. An RFIC that converts and outputs a transmission waveform of a radio transmission frequency, a coupler that branches and outputs the transmission waveform output by the RFIC to an antenna and a feedback path, and an envelope component of the transmission waveform output to the feedback path A detector that converts to a positive voltage waveform, an averaging means that averages the voltage waveform converted by the detector, a transmission waveform that is averaged by the amplitude calculation and averaging means, and an averaging means that is averaged Based on the comparison result of the pressure waveform and the comparison result of the comparator, the difference between the transmission waveform averaged by the amplitude calculation and averaging means and the voltage waveform averaged by the averaging means is transmitted as an offset value. The transmission output determining means is configured to determine the gain value based on the offset value output from the calculator, so that it is highly accurate and independent of transmission symbol arrangement bias. A stable transmission output can be maintained.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a transmission apparatus according to the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the transmitting apparatus in this embodiment includes a digital baseband processing unit 101, an RFIC (Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit) 102, a receiving unit 110, a duplexer 111, an antenna 112, a power amplifier 103, and the like. , A coupler 104, a detector 105, and a low-pass filter 106 are provided.

  The digital baseband processing unit 101 performs digital baseband processing on a signal transmitted from the transmission apparatus. The digital baseband processing unit 101 further includes an A / D converter 121, a comparator 123, a calculator 124, a transmission waveform generation unit 125, a transmission output determination unit 126, and an amplitude calculation / averaging unit 127. And an averaging means 128 are provided.

  The transmission output determining means 126 determines the average transmission power based on the transmission power requested by the request 141 transmitted from the higher layer. At this point, power changes due to non-uniform sample distribution are not considered. The determined average transmission power is added to the offset value output from the calculator 124. As a result, an optimum transmission output considering the above is determined. Also, the transmission gain (gain value) of the RFIC 102 is calculated based on this transmission output. Then, the calculated transmission gain (gain value) is output to the RFIC 102 by the means 131.

  The transmission waveform generation means 125 generates an IQ amplitude waveform (baseband signal) of a digital signal or an analog signal in accordance with a request 142 from the communication upper layer. Further, the generated IQ amplitude waveform is output to the RFIC 102 using the means 132. Further, the generated IQ amplitude waveform is output to the amplitude calculation / averaging means 127.

  The amplitude calculation / averaging unit 127 calculates the amplitude of the transmission waveform based on the IQ amplitude waveform output from the transmission waveform generation unit 125, and averages it appropriately. The averaged waveform is output to the comparator 123.

  The A / D converter 121 converts the analog signal output from the low-pass filter 106 into a digital signal (voltage waveform) and outputs the digital signal to the averaging unit 128.

  The averaging means 128 removes harmonic components that cannot be dropped by the low-pass filter 106 from the voltage waveform output from the A / D converter 121 by averaging. The voltage waveform from which the high frequency component has been removed is output to the comparator 123.

  The comparator 123 compares the waveform (baseband transmission waveform) output from the amplitude calculating / averaging unit 127 with the voltage waveform (detected voltage waveform) output from the averaging unit 128. At this time, the absolute value of the amplitude component of the waveform output from the amplitude calculating / averaging means 127 and the value of the voltage waveform output from the averaging means 128 are compared in the time direction. Then, these output errors are output to the computing unit 124 as comparison results.

  The computing unit 124 averages the output error that is the comparison result output from the comparator 123, and outputs the averaged output error to the transmission output determination unit 126 as an offset value for the transmission output determination unit 126. This offset value is for the output specified value (fixed digital value) for the transmission output determining means 126.

  Also, the RFIC 102 converts the IQ amplitude waveform output from the digital baseband processing unit 101 into a transmission waveform of a radio transmission frequency using an internal up-conversion mixer. For this conversion, the transmission gain output from the transmission output determining means 126 is used. At this time, if the IQ amplitude waveform output from the digital baseband processing unit 101 is a digital waveform, prior to this, the digital waveform is converted into an analog waveform. Then, the signal converted into the transmission waveform of the radio transmission frequency is output to the power amplifier 103.

  The receiving unit 130 receives the signal output from the duplexer 111. The received signal is output to the RFIC 102.

  The duplexer 111 outputs a signal received by the antenna 112 to the receiving unit 110. Further, the signal output from the coupler 104 is output to the antenna 112.

  The antenna 112 transmits the transmission signal output from the duplexer 111 as a radio signal. Further, the wireless signal is received, and the received signal is output to the duplexer 111.

  The power amplifier 103 amplifies the transmission waveform output from the RFIC 102 with a predetermined gain. Further, the amplified transmission waveform is output to the coupler 104.

  The coupler 104 branches the transmission waveform output from the power amplifier 103 to the duplexer 111 and the detector 105 and outputs the result.

  The detector 105 receives the radio signal waveform itself (high frequency) via the coupler 104, and converts the radio signal waveform into a positive voltage waveform having an envelope component of the signal voltage using an internal diode or the like. Convert. Then, the converted voltage waveform is output to the low-pass filter 106.

  The low-pass filter 106 outputs only a waveform in a preset low frequency band among the voltage waveforms output from the detector 105 to the A / D converter 121. Here, the band of the low-pass filter 106 is set to a band in which the frequency component of the baseband signal remains (not smoothed) while removing the contribution of the carrier frequency from the signal power (smoothing). The waveform output from the low-pass filter 106 is a voltage waveform having the envelope component of the original signal. The envelope component of the original signal (envelope voltage of the transmission output) is a signal that moves at a high speed at a radio transmission frequency (0.7 to 2.6 GHz), for example, using a diode detector 105 and a low-pass filter 106. An output voltage obtained by obtaining an envelope waveform of a signal while leaving a peak component.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a temporal change in amplitude between the radio signal and the envelope detection output waveform.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the envelope detection output (the output of the envelope detector composed of the detector 105 and the low-pass filter 106) 702 is an envelope of the signal while leaving the peak component of the radio signal 701. It becomes a waveform consisting only of the low-band component from which the waveform was obtained.

  The route from the coupler 104 to the comparator 123 via the detector 105, the low-pass filter 106, the A / D converter 121, and the averaging means 128 is a feedback path.

  The delay due to the output power feedback path can be designed to be sufficiently short for low symbol rates. Therefore, by comparing at an appropriate timing, both of these signals are performed on the same transmission symbol point.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of temporal changes in amplitude between a transmission waveform and a detection output waveform in the LTE system. Here, the first to seventh symbols 501 to 507 in the transmission slot are shown.

  As shown in FIG. 3, when the transmission waveform (output of the transmission waveform generation means 125 or the output of the power amplifier 103) 511 in the LTE system is compared with the output 512 of the low-pass filter 106, it is determined that there is a difference in the symbol placement. The average output for each symbol is different. Compared to the original signal, the output of the low-pass filter 206 has a slight waveform.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of temporal change in amplitude between the output waveform of the amplitude calculating / averaging means 127 and the output waveform of the averaging means 128 shown in FIG. Here, the first to seventh symbols 601 to 607 of the transmission slot are shown.

  FIG. 4 shows the average value of the transmission output (the output 611 of the amplitude calculation / averaging means 127) and the detection output (the averaging means) in an ideal state where the detector 105 has no nonlinearity with respect to the input power. A comparison with 128 outputs 612) is shown. For each symbol in the slot, the original signal has an average power deviation based on the deviation of the symbol arrangement, but by performing averaging processing for each symbol in the transmission output and the detection output, and comparing the same symbols, Deviations due to symbol placement bias can be canceled. That is, only the output error 613 that does not depend on the symbol arrangement deviation can be obtained.

As described above, the transmission power determined by the transmission output determining means 126 is averaged for each transmission symbol or at intervals smaller than that, the output value of the amplitude calculating / averaging means 127, and the output of the detector 105 for each symbol. Or it compares with the output value of the averaging means 128 averaged at intervals less than that. Thereby, since the averaged outputs of the same symbols are compared, an output error (due to fluctuations in the entire transmission system) that does not depend on the symbol arrangement is observed.
(Second Embodiment)
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the transmission apparatus of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5, the transmission apparatus in this embodiment is provided with a band correction filter 129 instead of the averaging means 128 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1. In this way, by adding the band correction filter 129 for correcting a specific band that emphasizes the baseband band to the low-pass filter 106, a change in the baseband band can be captured more greatly. . As a result, in the comparator 123, a comparison can be made for each symbol between the amplitude of the transmission waveform and the detector output. That is, the comparison accuracy in the comparator 123 can be increased.
(Third embodiment)
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the transmission apparatus of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the transmission apparatus in the present embodiment deletes the averaging means 128 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and between the amplitude calculation / averaging means 127 and the comparator 123. A non-linear correction filter 130 is provided.

  In the first and second embodiments described above, in principle, only the output error that does not depend on the symbol arrangement remains in the error as the output of the comparator 123, but the output of the detector 105 and When the output of the A / D converter 121 has non-linearity with respect to, for example, input power (voltage), it is possible to obtain an error component of only an output error that does not depend on a pure symbol arrangement only by comparison by the comparator 123. Have difficulty.

Therefore, for example, the output of the amplitude calculating / averaging means 127 or the output of the A / D converter 121 is corrected using a precorrector such as the nonlinear correction filter 130 shown in FIG. Therefore, it is necessary to correct the difference information. As shown in FIG. 6, by installing a nonlinear correction filter 130 at the output of the amplitude calculation / averaging means 127 of the transmission waveform, the detector 105 and the A / D converter are reduced while reducing the calculation load of the arithmetic unit 124. The non-linearity of 121 is corrected, and an error that does not depend on the symbol arrangement can be output only by the comparison in the comparator 123.

  As described above, the digital baseband processing unit 101 calculates the power of the average value of the transmission power determined by the transmission output determination unit 126 and the output waveform of the A / D converter 121 obtained by detecting the output power. It is possible to know whether the difference is due to the output fluctuation of the entire transmission system or the apparent output power fluctuation due to the deviation of the transmission symbol arrangement.

  Based on this result, an optimum transmission output is calculated using the arithmetic unit 124, and the transmission output determining means 126 is reset using the calculation unit 124, whereby high-accuracy and stable transmission independent of transmission symbol arrangement bias is performed. However, the output can be maintained. This transmitting apparatus is particularly effective when applied to a system in which the symbol rate is relatively low (for example, lower than a preset threshold value).

It is a figure which shows 1st Embodiment of the transmitter of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the time change of the amplitude of a radio signal and an envelope detection output waveform. It is a figure which shows an example of the time change of the amplitude of the transmission waveform in a LTE system, and a detection output waveform. It is a figure which shows an example of the time change of the amplitude of the output waveform of the amplitude calculation and averaging means shown in FIG. 1, and the output waveform of the averaging means. It is a figure which shows 2nd Embodiment of the transmitter of this invention. It is a figure which shows 3rd Embodiment of the transmitter of this invention. It is a figure which shows the symbol arrangement | positioning of 16QAM on IQ (In Phase-Quadrature Phase) plane.

Explanation of symbols

101 Digital baseband processing unit 102 RFIC
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 103 Power amplifier 104 Coupler 105 Detector 106 Low-pass filter 110 Reception part 111 Duplexer 112 Antenna 121 A / D converter 123 Comparator 124 Operation unit 125 Transmission waveform generation means 126 Transmission output determination means 127 Amplitude calculation and averaging means 128 Averaging means 129 Band correction filter 130 Non-linear correction filter 131,132 Means 141,142 Request 501,601 First symbol in slot 502,602 Second symbol in slot 503,603 Third symbol in slot 504,604 4th symbol in slot 505, 605 5th symbol in slot 506, 606 6th symbol in slot 507, 607 7th symbol in slot 511 Transmission output waveform 512 After passing through low-pass filter Detector output waveform 611 amplitude calculation, not based on the output 613 symbols arranged deviation of the output 612 averaging means the averaging means outputs error 701 wireless signal 702 envelope detection output

Claims (5)

A transmission device for transmitting a radio signal,
Transmission power determining means for determining a gain value of transmission power of the radio signal;
Transmission waveform generating means for generating a transmission waveform of the radio signal;
Amplitude calculation / averaging means for calculating the amplitude of the transmission waveform generated by the transmission waveform generation means and averaging the transmission waveform;
RFIC that uses the gain value determined by the transmission output determination means to convert the transmission waveform generated by the transmission waveform generation means into a transmission waveform of a radio transmission frequency for transmission from an antenna of the transmission apparatus and output the RFIC; ,
A coupler for branching and outputting the transmission waveform output by the RFIC to the antenna and a feedback path for returning to the transmitting device;
A detector for converting the transmission waveform output to the feedback path into a positive voltage waveform having an envelope component;
Averaging means for averaging the voltage waveform converted by the detector;
A comparator that compares the transmission waveform averaged by the amplitude calculating / averaging means and the voltage waveform averaged by the averaging means;
Based on the result of comparison by the comparator, the difference between the transmission waveform averaged by the amplitude calculating / averaging means and the voltage waveform averaged by the averaging means is output to the transmission output determining means as an offset value. An arithmetic unit,
The transmission output determining means determines the gain value based on an offset value output from the computing unit. The transmission apparatus according to claim 1,
A low pass filter for smoothing the voltage waveform converted by the detector;
An A / D converter that performs analog-digital conversion on the voltage waveform smoothed by the low-pass filter;
The transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the averaging means averages the voltage waveform analog-digital converted by the A / D converter. The transmission apparatus according to claim 1 or 2,
A transmission apparatus comprising a band correction filter for correcting a specific band that emphasizes a baseband band, instead of the averaging means. The transmission device according to claim 2,
A non-linear correction filter for correcting non-linearity of the transmission waveform averaged by the amplitude calculation / averaging means;
The comparator compares the transmission waveform corrected by the nonlinear correction filter with the voltage waveform analog-digital converted by the A / D converter. The transmission device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A transmission apparatus used in an LTE (Long Term Evolution) system.

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