JP2024046006A - Communication and wireless power transmission system, base station, wireless processing device, and antenna system - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To provide an antenna system for a base station capable of amplifying a dummy signal for wireless power transmission in the downlink, a communication signal, and an uplink communication signal with an individual amplifier suitable for each signal. [Solution] The antenna system includes an array antenna having a plurality of antenna elements, and a plurality of wireless signal processing units connected to each of the plurality of antenna elements, which amplify a plurality of high-frequency signals, the dummy signal for wireless power transmission in the downlink, the communication signal for the downlink, and the communication signal for the uplink, with different amplifiers, and multiplex and transmit/receive the plurality of high-frequency signals via the antenna elements. [Selected Figure] Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to a system, a base station, a wireless processing device, and an antenna system that can perform communication and wireless power transfer (WPT).

BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, a communication system is known that performs communication between a base station and a terminal device using at least part of a plurality of radio resources set in a radio frame (for example, see Patent Document 1).

International Publication No. 2017/164220

2. Description of the Related Art In conventional communication systems, as a terminal device that connects to a base station and communicates, there is a portable terminal device that mainly uses power supplied from a built-in battery. This terminal device requires a complicated task of charging the built-in battery when its remaining capacity is low. Further, terminal devices that use power supplied from a wired power line instead of a built-in battery are limited to use in locations where such a power line can be used. In this way, power supply infrastructure that can supply power to various terminal devices that connect to base stations and communicate is not yet developed.

In the fifth generation and subsequent next generation mobile communication systems, a rapid increase in terminal devices (e.g., user equipment, IoT devices, etc.) that connect to base stations and communicate is expected, and progress is being made in developing a communications infrastructure that can handle the huge amount of traffic. However, a power supply infrastructure capable of supplying power to the huge number of terminal devices that will be communicating as described above remains underdeveloped.

As a power supply infrastructure for supplying power to the above-mentioned terminal devices, a system that performs wireless power transmission (WPT) using a mobile communication base station is being considered. One of the issues with such a system is that the dummy signal and communication signal for wireless power transmission in the downlink to the terminal device and the uplink communication signal from the terminal device must be amplified by individual amplifiers suitable for each signal.

An antenna system according to one aspect of the present invention is an antenna system provided in a base station capable of communication by selectively using multiple wireless resources. This antenna system includes an array antenna having multiple antenna elements, and multiple wireless signal processing units connected to the multiple antenna elements, amplifying multiple high-frequency signals, such as a dummy signal for wireless power transmission in the downlink, a communication signal in the downlink, and an uplink communication signal, with different amplifiers, and multiplexing the multiple high-frequency signals via the antenna elements for transmission and reception.

In the antenna system, each of the plurality of wireless signal processing units includes a first phase shifter for controlling the phase of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission transmitted from the antenna element; a first amplifier that amplifies a dummy signal; a second phase shifter that controls the phase of the downlink communication signal transmitted from the antenna element; and a second amplifier that amplifies the downlink communication signal. , a third amplifier for amplifying the uplink communication signal received via the antenna element, and a third phase shifter for controlling the phase of the uplink communication signal.

In the antenna system, the first amplifier may be a bias adjustment type high efficiency amplifier or a waveform processing type high efficiency amplifier, and the second amplifier is an amplifier that improves efficiency in a linear region. Alternatively, the third amplifier may be a low noise amplifier.

In the antenna system, each of the plurality of wireless signal processing units may include a multiplexing processing unit that multiplexes the dummy signal for wireless power transmission, the downlink communication signal, and the uplink communication signal using a time division duplex (TDD) method.

In the antenna system, a frame for wireless power transmission used for the dummy signal for wireless power transmission, a frame for downlink communication used for the downlink communication signal, and a frame for uplink communication used for the uplink communication signal may be time-divided and assigned to communication frames, and the multiplexing processing unit may switch the connection between the antenna element and each of the signal processing paths for the dummy signal for wireless power transmission, the downlink communication signal, and the uplink communication signal in synchronization with the frame for wireless power transmission, the frame for downlink communication, and the frame for uplink communication.

In the antenna system, each of the plurality of wireless signal processing units multiplexes the dummy signal for wireless power transmission, the downlink communication signal, and the uplink communication signal using a frequency division duplexing (FDD) method. A multiplexing processing section may be included.

In the antenna system, the array antenna includes an array antenna for wireless power transmission used for transmitting the dummy signal for wireless power transmission, and an array antenna for transmitting the downlink communication signal and receiving the uplink communication signal. a communication array antenna used for communication, and the plurality of wireless signal processing units are connected to each of the plurality of antenna elements of the wireless power transmission array antenna, and the plurality of wireless signal processing units are connected to each of the plurality of antenna elements of the wireless power transmission array antenna. a plurality of wireless signal processing units for wireless power transmission that amplify a high frequency signal with an amplifier for wireless power transmission and transmit it via the antenna element, and are connected to each of the plurality of antenna elements of the communication array antenna. , a plurality of communication radios that amplify a plurality of high frequency signals of the downlink communication signal and the uplink communication signal with mutually different amplifiers, multiplex the plurality of high frequency signals via the antenna element, and transmit and receive the multiplexed high frequency signals. The signal processing unit may also include a signal processing unit.

A wireless processing device according to another aspect of the present invention includes any one of the antenna systems described above and an input/output signal processing unit connected to the antenna system. The input/output signal processing unit converts a downlink intermediate frequency signal including the dummy signal for wireless power transmission and the downlink communication signal into an intermediate frequency signal of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission and the downlink communication. a signal separation unit that separates the signal into an intermediate frequency signal; and a signal separation unit that mixes the intermediate frequency signal of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission and a local oscillation signal of a predetermined frequency to generate a high frequency signal of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission. a first mixer that generates a high frequency signal of the downlink communication signal; a second mixer that mixes the intermediate frequency signal of the downlink communication signal and the local oscillation signal to generate a high frequency signal of the downlink communication signal; and a third mixer that mixes the high frequency signal of the communication signal and the local oscillation signal to generate the intermediate frequency signal of the uplink communication signal.

A base station according to yet another aspect of the present invention is a base station of a mobile communication system. This base station includes the radio processing device and a communication signal processing unit that generates a downlink intermediate frequency signal including the dummy signal for wireless power transmission and the downlink communication signal, and processes an uplink intermediate frequency signal including the uplink communication signal.

The base station may include a remote radio head device having the radio processing device, and a baseband unit device having the communication signal processing unit, which is located at a position away from the remote radio head device and connected to the remote radio head device via a wired communication line.

A system according to still another aspect of the present invention is a system that performs wireless power transmission from the base station to a terminal device. The terminal device includes a wireless processing unit that receives a transmission signal including the dummy signal for wireless power transmission transmitted from the base station, and a reception signal that receives the transmission signal including the dummy signal for wireless power transmission. It has a power output unit that outputs power as received power.

According to the present invention, it is possible to amplify downlink wireless power transmission dummy signals and communication signals and uplink communication signals with individual amplifiers suitable for each signal.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a system according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a base station and a terminal device constituting the system according to the embodiment. 1A is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a symbol point arrangement in the primary modulation of a QAM system of a communication signal transmitted from a base station according to an embodiment, and FIG. 1B is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a symbol point arrangement in the modulation of a WPT dummy signal transmitted from the same base station. 5 is a graph showing an example of input/output power characteristics and efficiency characteristics of an amplifier of a base station according to the present embodiment. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an antenna system applicable to a base station according to an embodiment. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a radio signal processing unit that constitutes the antenna system of FIG. 5 . FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a frame structure of a signal transmitted and received by the antenna system of FIG. 5; FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of an antenna system applicable to the base station according to the embodiment. 9 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a radio signal processing unit that constitutes the antenna system of FIG. 8 . FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an antenna system having a separate antenna configuration that can be applied to a base station according to an embodiment. (a) and (b) are block diagrams showing an example of the configuration of a wireless signal processing unit for wireless power transmission (WPT) and a wireless signal processing unit for communication, respectively, which constitute the antenna system of FIG. 10. 11 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of a wireless signal processing unit for communication that constitutes the antenna system of FIG. 10 . FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an input/output signal processing unit of a wireless processing device in a base station according to an embodiment. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of power supply to each of a plurality of terminal devices by beamforming from a base station according to an embodiment.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
The system according to the embodiment described in this document can perform wireless power transfer (WPT) from a mobile communication base station to a terminal device to which power is supplied (for example, a mobile communication UE (mobile station) or an IoT device). This is a system that can do this. The system of the embodiment uses, for example, unused radio resources (resource blocks) that are not used for communication among a plurality of radio resources (resource blocks) set in a downlink radio frame to a terminal device such as a UE. This is a system that effectively utilizes wireless power transmission (WPT) to terminal devices. The system of the embodiment may be a wireless communication system between a base station and a terminal device having a wireless power transfer (WPT) function from the base station to the terminal device. Further, the system of the embodiment may be a wireless power transfer (WPT) system from a base station to a terminal device, which has a wireless communication function between the base station and the terminal device.

In particular, in the system of this embodiment, the downlink wireless power transmission dummy signal and communication signal transmitted from the base station and the uplink communication signal received at the base station are each transmitted through individual amplifiers suitable for each signal. can be amplified.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a system according to this embodiment. The system according to this embodiment has a cellular base station 10 that forms a communication area (cell) 10A, and a terminal device (hereinafter also referred to as "UE" (user equipment)) 20 that is a power supply target that can connect to the base station 10 and wirelessly communicate with the base station 10 when present in the communication area 10A.

UE20 may be a mobile station of a mobile communication system, or may be a combination of a communication device (e.g., a mobile communication module) and various devices. UE20 is equipped with, for example, an array antenna having multiple antenna elements. UE20 may be an IoT device (also called "IoT equipment").

In FIG. 1, a base station 10 is equipped with a plurality of array antennas 110 having a large number of antenna elements, and can perform communication using a massive MIMO (hereinafter also referred to as "mMIMO") transmission method with a plurality of UEs 20. . mMIMO is a wireless transmission technology that achieves high-capacity, high-speed communication by transmitting and receiving data using the array antenna 110. Furthermore, communication can be performed using an MU (Multi User)-MIMO transmission method that performs beamforming to form beams 10B in time division or simultaneously for each of the plurality of UEs 20. By performing MU-MIMO transmission using a multi-element array antenna, it is possible to direct and communicate an appropriate beam to each UE 20 according to the communication environment of each UE 20, thereby improving the communication quality of the entire cell. Moreover, since communication with a plurality of UEs 20 can be performed using the same radio resource (time/frequency resource), system capacity can be expanded.

In addition, in FIG. 1, a part of the communication area 10A is a wireless power transmission area (hereinafter referred to as a "WPT area") 10A' in which wireless power transmission is performed from the base station 10 to the terminal device 20. The WPT area 10A' may be an area narrower than the communication area 10A as shown in the figure, or may be an area of the same or approximately the same size and location as the communication area 10A.

In the WPT area 10A', unused radio resources (resource blocks) that are not used for communication among resource blocks that are a plurality of radio resources (time/frequency resources) constituting a downlink radio frame from the base station 10 are ) is used as a wireless power transmission block. In the downlink radio frame to the UE 20, the base station 10 transmits a dummy signal for wireless power transmission (hereinafter also referred to as "WPT dummy signal") to a wireless power transmission block (WPT block), which is a wireless resource that is not used for communication. A transmission signal is generated and transmitted to the UE 20.

In particular, in 5th generation or later generation mobile communication systems, a technology called lean carrier has been proposed in which the minimum necessary reference signals (RS) and control signals are placed only on some subcarriers of a radio frame. Therefore, it is expected that wireless power transmission to the UE 20 will be performed by effectively utilizing the unused radio resources in the radio frame.

The radio waves of the communication signals transmitted and received between the base station 10 and the UE 20 and the radio waves of the transmission signals assigned with the WPT dummy signal transmitted from the base station 10 to the UE 20 are, for example, millimeter waves or microwaves.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the main configurations of the base station 10 and the terminal device (UE) 20 that constitute the system according to the embodiment. The base station 10 includes an antenna 110, a communication signal processing unit 120, and a wireless processing device (wireless processing unit) 130.

Note that the base station 10 in FIG. 2 may include a remote radio head device (RRH) having a radio processing device 130 and a baseband unit (BBU) device having a communication signal processing section 120. The baseband unit (BBU) device is located at a remote location from the remote radio head device (RRH) and is connected to the remote radio head device via a wired communication line (for example, an optical line made of optical fiber).

The antenna 110 is, for example, an array antenna having a large number of antenna elements as shown in FIG. The antenna 110 may be singular or plural. For example, a plurality of antennas 110 may be arranged corresponding to a plurality of sector cells.

The communication signal processing unit 120 processes signals such as various user data and control information transmitted and received with the UE 20.

During downlink communication to the UE 20, the communication signal processing unit 120 generates a downlink transmission signal including a WPT dummy signal using an unused radio resource that is not used for communication among a plurality of radio resources. do. For example, the WPT dummy signal can be generated by modulating with a modulation method that has a smaller PAPR (peak power to average power ratio) (also referred to as "wave height ratio") than the communication signal. For example, the WPT dummy signal may be a modulated signal that is modulated using a Zadoff-Chu sequence code and has a constant amplitude and a phase that changes over time. The signal may be a signal modulated at a plurality of symbol points having the maximum amplitude or near the maximum amplitude. For example, the generation of the transmission signal includes primary modulation such as QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) for communication signals and modulation with small PAPR for WPT dummy signals, and secondary modulation such as OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) modulation. But that's fine.

The radio processing device 130 transmits the transmission signal generated by the communication signal processing unit 120 from the antenna 110 to the UE 20, and outputs the received signal received from the UE 20 via the antenna 110 to the communication signal processing unit 120.

The process of including a WPT dummy signal using unused radio resources in the transmission signal for downlink communication to UE 20, and the generation of a control signal (trigger signal) used for signal separation and signal synthesis, etc., described below, may be performed based on subframes that constitute the radio frame of mobile communication.

The process of including a WPT dummy signal using unused radio resources in a transmission signal for downlink communication to UE 20 may be performed autonomously by base station 10, or may be performed based on a request or instruction from UE 20 or a request or instruction from an external platform (e.g., a server, a cloud system).

In addition, in this embodiment, the radio processing device 130 controls one or more beams formed by the array antenna 110 based on the BF control signal. The radio processing device 130 also transmits a downlink transmission signal including a WPT dummy signal generated by the communication signal processing unit 120 to the UE 20 via the antenna 110.

When communicating with a UE 20 in downlink, the base station 10 may perform beamforming (BF) control to form an individual beam 10B for each UE 20 or for each UE group in a target area to which multiple UEs 20 belong, and perform wireless power transmission for each UE 20 or for each UE group. The BF control for each UE 20 or for each UE group may be performed by digital BF control in the frequency domain in the communication signal processing unit 120, or may be performed by analog BF control in the radio processing device 130.

In FIG. 2, the wireless processing device 130 includes an input/output signal processing unit 131, a wireless signal processing unit (hereinafter also referred to as an "RF signal processing unit") 132, and an antenna system 133 having an antenna 110.

In FIG. 2, UE 20 includes an antenna 210, a radio processing section 220, a communication signal processing section 230, a power output section 240, and a battery 250. Antenna 210 is, for example, a small array antenna having a plurality of antenna elements. The wireless processing unit 220 transmits transmission signals such as feedback information and user data generated by the communication signal processing unit 230 from the antenna 210 to the base station 10, and transmits received signals received from the base station 10 via the antenna 210 to communication. It is also output to the signal processing section 230.

In this embodiment, the wireless processing unit 220 receives a transmission signal including a WPT dummy signal transmitted from the base station 10. The power output unit 240 has, for example, a rectifier, and outputs the power of the received signal that receives the transmission signal including the WPT dummy signal from the base station 10 as received power for charging the battery. The battery 250 can be charged by the received power output from the power output unit 240.

FIG. 3A is an explanatory diagram showing an example of arrangement of symbol points 41 in QAM primary modulation of a communication signal transmitted from the base station 10 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3A is a diagram of a constellation showing the arrangement of a plurality of symbol points (64-value symbol points) in the case of the 64QAM method. Further, FIG. 3(b) is an explanatory diagram showing an example of arrangement of symbol points in modulation of the WPT dummy signal transmitted from the base station 10 according to the present embodiment. In FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b), the horizontal axis indicates the in-phase channel component, and the vertical axis indicates the orthogonal channel component.

In this embodiment, an OFDM modulated signal whose PAPR (peak power to average power ratio) is lower than that of the communication signal is used as the WPT dummy signal. For example, in FIG. 3A, from an OFDM modulated signal modulated only at the outermost periphery or a plurality of symbol points 41S around the outermost periphery where the amplitude is maximum among the plurality of symbol points 41 of the QAM method for communication signals. A WPT dummy signal may also be used.

Alternatively, as shown in the constellation diagram of FIG. 3(b), a WPT dummy signal may be used that is composed of an OFDM modulated signal modulated at symbol points 42 whose phase changes with the amplitude constant over time. . The OFDM modulated signal at symbol point 42 in FIG. 3(b) can be generated using, for example, a Zadoff-Chu sequence code.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing an example of characteristics of output power Pout [dBm] and amplifier efficiency PAE [%] with respect to input power Pin [dBm] of the amplifier of the base station 10 according to the present embodiment. Curve A in the figure is a simulation calculation result of input/output characteristics indicating AC output power Pout [dBm] with respect to AC input power Pin [dBm] of the amplifier. In addition, the broken line curves B, C, and D in the figure are indicators of efficiency with respect to the input power Pin [dBm] of the amplifier suitable for uplink (UL) communication signals, downlink (DL) communication signals, and WPT dummy signals, respectively. This is a simulation calculation result of PAE (power added efficiency) [%], which is one of the values. Here, the PAE [%] of the amplifier is defined as (Pout-Pin)/Pdc. Pdc is DC power input (applied) to the amplifier.

In the input/output characteristic A of Fig. 4, the region where the relationship between the input power Pin and the output power Pout is linear or nearly linear is suitable for low noise amplification of UL communication signals and power amplification of DL communication signals. In particular, the characteristics of an amplifier suitable for amplifying UL communication signals require, for example, a high PAPR (peak-to-average power ratio), high linearity, a wide dynamic range, and low noise. Also, the characteristics of a power amplifier suitable for amplifying DL communication signals require, for example, a high PAPR, high linearity, and a wide dynamic range. Examples of such power amplifiers include amplifiers that improve efficiency in the linear region, such as Doherty amplifiers, envelope tracking amplifiers, and outphasing amplifiers.
It is.

The saturation region of the input/output characteristic A in FIG. 4 is a region where the output power Pout is saturated or nearly saturated with respect to an increase in the input power Pin. The peak of the efficiency PAE of the power amplifier is located in the region near the boundary between the linear region and the saturation region, and this region is suitable for high-output and high-efficiency power amplification of the WPT dummy signal. For example, high efficiency, low PAPR, and large output power are required as characteristics of a power amplifier suitable for amplifying the WPT dummy signal. Examples of such power amplifiers include high-efficiency amplifiers of bias adjustment type such as class A amplifiers, class B amplifiers, class C amplifiers, and class AB amplifiers, and high-efficiency amplifiers of waveform processing type such as class E amplifiers, class F amplifiers, and class J amplifiers. As the WPT dummy signal, an OFDM modulated signal with a PAPR (peak-to-average power ratio) lower than that of the communication signal may be used.

In the base station 10 configured as above, there is a problem in that the WPT dummy signal, DL communication signal, and UL communication signal must each be amplified by an amplifier suitable for each signal.

Therefore, in the antenna system 133 of the base station 10 of this embodiment, multiple signal processing paths are configured corresponding to the WPT dummy signal, DL communication signal, and UL communication signal, respectively, and each of the multiple signal processing paths is provided with an individual amplifier suitable for each signal.

Figure 5 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an antenna system 133 applicable to the base station 10 according to the embodiment. In Figure 5, the antenna system 133 includes an array antenna 110 consisting of multiple (N) antenna elements 1101(1) to 1101(N), and a TDD (time division duplex) RF signal processing unit 132 connected to the array antenna 110.

The RF signal processing unit 132 includes a plurality of (N) radio signal processing units (hereinafter referred to as “RF signal 1320(1) to 1320(N). Each of the plurality of RF signal processing units 1320(1) to 1320(N) is connected to a corresponding antenna element 1101(1) to 1101(N), and processes downlink WPT dummy signals and DL communication signals as well as uplink UL. A WPT dummy RF signal, a DL communication RF signal, and a UL communication RF signal, which are high-frequency transmission signals of communication signals, are amplified by a plurality of different amplifiers and multiplexed using a TDD (time division duplex) method. In addition, the RF signal processing units 1320(1) to 1320(N) each control the phase of the WPT dummy RF signal, the DL communication RF signal, and the UL communication RF signal to a predetermined phase, thereby controlling the antenna element 1101(1). -1101(N) to transmit and receive each signal by performing beamforming control.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the RF signal processing unit 1320 that constitutes the antenna system 133 of FIG. Note that since the plurality of RF signal processing units 1320(1) to 1320(N) have similar configurations, one RF signal processing unit 1320 will be described in FIG. 6, with the identification number in parentheses omitted.

6, the RF signal processing unit 1320 includes a first phase shifter 1321W for controlling the phase of the WPT dummy RF signal transmitted from the antenna element 1101, and a first amplifier (power amplifier) 1322W for amplifying the WPT dummy RF signal. The RF signal processing unit 1320 further includes a second phase shifter 1321D for controlling the phase of the DL communication RF signal transmitted from the antenna element 1101, a second amplifier (power amplifier) 1322D for amplifying the DL communication RF signal, a third amplifier (low noise amplifier) 1322U for amplifying the UL communication RF signal received via the antenna element 1101, and a third phase shifter 1321U for controlling the phase of the UL communication RF signal.

Further, the RF signal processing unit 1320 includes a signal changeover switch 1323 as a multiplexing processing section that multiplexes the WPT dummy RF signal, the DL communication RF signal, and the UL communication RF signal using a time division duplex (TDD) method. The signal changeover switch 1323 switches the connections between the signal processing paths of the WPT dummy RF signal, the DL communication RF signal, and the UL communication RF signal and the antenna element 1101 based on a predetermined control signal. The control signal may be generated, for example, in the communication signal processing unit 120 based on predetermined baseband scheduling information.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the frame structure of the WPT dummy signal, DL communication signal, and UL communication signal transmitted and received by the antenna system 133 of FIG. 5. The periods marked “WPT”, “DL”, and “UL” in FIG. 7 are assigned to the frame 30 of wireless communication between the base station 10 and the terminal device 20, and are used to transmit a WPT dummy signal. a DL communication frame 31D for transmitting a DL communication signal, and a UL communication frame 31U for receiving a UL communication signal. Furthermore, the hatched period in FIG. 7 is a guard period in which no signal is transmitted or received.

As shown in FIG. 7, the signal changeover switch 1323 switches each of the WPT dummy RF signal, DL communication RF signal, and UL communication RF signal in synchronization with the WPT frame 32, DL communication frame 31D, and UL communication frame 31U. The connection between the antenna element 1101 and three signal processing paths via the amplifiers 1322W, 1322D, and 1322U may be switched. For example, by switching the signal processing path of the signal changeover switch 1323, the WPT dummy RF signal output from the first amplifier (power amplifier) 1322W during the WPT frame 32 is supplied to the antenna element 1101. Further, the DL communication RF signal output from the second amplifier (power amplifier) 1322D during the period of the DL communication frame 31D is supplied to the antenna element 1101, and the UL communication RF signal output from the antenna element 1101 during the period of the UL communication frame 31U. The communication RF signal is provided to a third amplifier (low noise amplifier) 1322U.

Fig. 8 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of an antenna system 133 applicable to the base station 10 according to the embodiment. In Fig. 8, the antenna system 133 includes an array antenna 110 consisting of multiple (N) antenna elements 1101(1) to 1101(N), and an RF signal processing unit 132 of the FDD (frequency division duplex) type connected to the array antenna 110.

The RF signal processing unit 132 includes a plurality of (N) radio signal processing units (RF signal processing units) that correspond one-to-one to the plurality (N) of antenna elements 1101(1) to 1101(N) of the array antenna 110. ) 1325(1) to 1325(N). Each of the plurality of RF signal processing units 1325(1) to 1325(N) is connected to a corresponding antenna element 1101(1) to 1101(N), and receives a WPT dummy RF signal, a DL communication RF signal, and a UL communication RF signal. It is amplified by a plurality of different amplifiers and multiplexed using FDD (frequency division duplexing). In addition, the RF signal processing units 1325(1) to 1325(N) each control the phase of the WPT dummy RF signal, the DL communication RF signal, and the UL communication RF signal to a predetermined phase, thereby controlling the antenna element 1101(1). -1101(N) to transmit and receive each signal by performing beamforming control.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the RF signal processing unit 1325 that constitutes the antenna system 133 of FIG. 8. Note that since the plurality of RF signal processing units 1325(1) to 1325(N) have similar configurations, one RF signal processing unit 1325 will be described in FIG. 9, with the identification number in parentheses omitted.

In FIG. 9, the RF signal processing unit 1325 includes a first phase shifter 1321W for controlling the phase of the WPT dummy RF signal transmitted from the antenna element 1101, and a first amplifier (power amplifier) for amplifying the WPT dummy RF signal. ) 1322W. Furthermore, the RF signal processing unit 1325 includes a second phase shifter 1321D for controlling the phase of the DL communication RF signal transmitted from the antenna element 1101, and a second amplifier (power amplifier) 1322D for amplifying the DL communication RF signal. , a third amplifier (low noise amplifier) 1322U that amplifies the UL communication RF signal received via the antenna element 1101, and a third phase shifter 1321U that controls the phase of the UL communication RF signal.

The RF signal processing unit 1325 also uses an antenna duplexer (DUP) as a multiplexing processing unit that multiplexes WPT dummy RF signals, DL communication RF signals, and UL communication RF signals using a frequency division duplexing (FDD) method. 1326.

The antenna duplexer 1326 includes, for example, a transmission filter 1327W connected to the output terminal of the first amplifier (power amplifier) 1322W, a transmission filter 1327D connected to the output terminal of the second amplifier (power amplifier) 1322D, and a third transmission filter 1327W connected to the output terminal of the second amplifier (power amplifier) 1322D. It has a receiving filter 1327U connected to the input end of an amplifier (low noise amplifier) 1322U. The transmission filter 1327W is a bandpass filter (BPF) whose passband is the frequency Fw of the WPT dummy RF signal and whose stopband is the frequency Fu of the UL communication RF signal. The transmission filter 1327D is a bandpass filter (BPF) whose passband is the frequency Fd of the DL communication RF signal and whose stopband is the frequency Fu of the UL communication RF signal. The reception filter 1327U is a bandpass filter (BPF) whose passband is the frequency Fu of the UL communication RF signal and whose stopband is the frequencies Fw and Fd of the WPT dummy RF signal and the DL communication RF signal. Output ends of transmission filters 1327W, 1327D and input end of reception filter 1327U of antenna duplexer 1326 are connected to antenna element 1101 via a phase shifter.

In the antenna duplexer 1326, the WPT dummy RF signal of frequency Fw output from the first amplifier (power amplifier) 1322W and the DL communication RF signal of frequency Fd output from the second amplifier (power amplifier) 1322D are combined and sent to the antenna. The signal is supplied to element 1101. Further, the UL communication RF signal of frequency Fu output from antenna element 1101 is supplied to third amplifier (low noise amplifier) 1322U.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an antenna system 133 with a separate antenna configuration applicable to the base station 10 according to the embodiment. In the configuration example of FIG. 10, the array antenna 110 described above includes an array antenna for wireless power transmission (WPT) (hereinafter also referred to as "WPT array antenna") 110W and an array antenna for communication (hereinafter also referred to as "communication array antenna"). ) 110C is separately provided. The antenna system 133 includes a WPT array antenna 110W including a plurality of (Nw) antenna elements 1101W(1) to 1101W(Nw), and an RF signal processing unit for wireless power transmission (WPT) connected to the WPT array antenna 110W. 132W, a communication array antenna 110C including a plurality of (Nc) antenna elements 1101C(1) to 1101C(Nc), and a communication RF signal processing unit 132C connected to the communication array antenna 110C.

The RF signal processing unit 132W for wireless power transmission (WPT) has a plurality of (Nw) wireless signal processing units (hereinafter also referred to as "WPT dummy RF signal processing units") 1320W(1) to 1320W(Nw) that correspond one-to-one to the plurality of (Nw) antenna elements 1101W(1) to 1101W(Nw) of the array antenna 110. The plurality of WPT dummy RF signal processing units 1320W(1) to 1320(Nw) are respectively connected to the corresponding antenna elements 1101W(1) to 1101W(Nw). In addition, the WPT dummy RF signal processing units 1320W(1) to 1320W(Nw) transmit the WPT dummy RF signal by controlling the phase of the WPT dummy RF signal to a predetermined phase and performing beamforming control via the antenna elements 1101W(1) to 1101W(Nw).

The communication RF signal processing unit 132C has a plurality (Nc) of radio signal processing units (hereinafter also referred to as "communication RF signal processing units") 1320C(1) to 1320C(Nc) that correspond one-to-one to the plurality (Nc) of antenna elements 1101C(1) to 1101C(Nc) of the communication array antenna 110C. The plurality of communication RF signal processing units 1320C(1) to 1320C(Nc) are respectively connected to the corresponding antenna elements 1101C(1) to 1101C(Nc), and amplify the downlink DL communication RF signal and the UL communication RF signal with a plurality of different amplifiers, and multiplex them using a TDD (time division duplex) system or an FDD (frequency division duplex) system. In addition, the communication RF signal processing units 1320C(1) to 1320C(Nc) each control the phase of the DL communication RF signal and the UL communication RF signal to a predetermined phase, thereby performing beamforming control via the antenna elements 1101C(1) to 1101C(Nc) to transmit and receive each signal.

11(a) and 11(b) respectively show an example of the configuration of an RF signal processing unit 1320W for wireless power transmission (WPT) and an RF signal processing unit 1320C for communication, which constitute the antenna system 133 in FIG. FIG. Note that the plurality of WPT dummy RF signal processing units 1320W and communication RF signal processing units 1320C each have a similar configuration, so in FIG. 11, the RF signal processing units 1320W and 1320C will be described with the identification numbers in parentheses omitted.

In FIG. 11(a), the WPT dummy RF signal processing unit 1320W includes a first phase shifter 1321W for controlling the phase of the WPT dummy RF signal transmitted from the antenna element 1101W of the WPT array antenna 110W, and a first amplifier (power amplifier) 1322W for amplifying the WPT dummy RF signal.

In FIG. 11(b), the communication RF signal processing unit 1320C includes a second phase shifter 1321D for controlling the phase of the DL communication RF signal transmitted from the antenna element 1101C, and a second phase shifter 1321D for amplifying the DL communication RF signal. An amplifier (power amplifier) 1322D, a third amplifier (low noise amplifier) 1322U that amplifies the UL communication RF signal received via the antenna element 1101C, and a third phase shifter for controlling the phase of the UL communication RF signal. 1321U.

The communication RF signal processing unit 1320C also includes a signal changeover switch 1328 as a multiplexing processing unit that multiplexes the DL communication RF signal and the UL communication RF signal using a time division duplex (TDD) method. The signal changeover switch 1328 switches the connection between the signal processing path for each of the DL communication RF signal and the UL communication RF signal and the antenna element 1101C based on a predetermined control signal. The control signal may be generated, for example, in the communication signal processing unit 120 based on predetermined baseband scheduling information.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing another example of the configuration of the communication RF signal processing unit 1320C that constitutes the antenna system 133 of FIG. 10. In addition, in FIG. 12, the communication RF signal processing unit 1320C will be described with the identification numbers in parentheses omitted. Further, in FIG. 12, description of parts similar to the configuration of FIG. 9 described above will be omitted.

In FIG. 12, the communication RF signal processing unit 1320C includes a second phase shifter 1321D for controlling the phase of the DL communication RF signal transmitted from the antenna element 1101C, and a second amplifier (power amplifier) 1322D, a third amplifier (low noise amplifier) 1322U for amplifying the UL communication RF signal received via the antenna element 1101C, and a third phase shifter 1321U for controlling the phase of the UL communication RF signal. Equipped with.

Furthermore, the communication RF signal processing unit 1320C includes an antenna duplexer (DUP) 1329 as a multiplexing processing unit that multiplexes the DL communication RF signal and the UL communication RF signal using a frequency division duplexing (FDD) method. In the antenna duplexer 1329, the DL communication RF signal of frequency Fd output from the second amplifier (power amplifier) 1322D is supplied to the antenna element 1101C, and the UL communication RF signal of frequency Fu output from the antenna element 1101C is supplied to the antenna element 1101C. 3 amplifier (low noise amplifier) 1322U.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the input/output signal processing unit 131 of the wireless processing device (wireless processing unit) 130 in the base station 10 according to the embodiment. In FIG. 13, the input/output signal processing section 131 includes a signal separation section 1311, a first mixer 1312, a second mixer 1313, a third mixer 1314, and a local oscillator 1315.

The signal separation unit 1311 converts the downlink intermediate frequency signal (baseband signal) output from the communication signal processing unit 120 into an intermediate frequency signal of the WPT dummy signal (WPT-IT) and an intermediate frequency signal of the DL communication signal (DL -IF). The first mixer 1312 mixes the intermediate frequency signal (WPT-IT) of the WPT dummy signal and the local oscillation signal (LO) of a predetermined frequency output from the local oscillator 1315 to generate a WPT dummy RF signal, and RF The signal is output to the signal processing section 132. The second mixer 1313 mixes the intermediate frequency signal (DL-IF) of the DL communication signal and the local oscillation signal (LO) of a predetermined frequency output from the local oscillator 1315 to generate a DL communication RF signal, and RF The signal is output to the signal processing section 132. The third mixer 1314 mixes the UL communication RF signal input from the RF signal processing unit 132 and the local oscillation signal (LO) of a predetermined frequency output from the local oscillator 1315 to generate an intermediate frequency signal (LO) of the UL communication signal. UL-IF) and outputs it to the communication signal processing section 120.

According to the system of Figs. 1 to 13 with the above configuration, in downlink communication from the base station 10 to the UE 20, wireless resources unused for communication can be effectively utilized as wireless power transmission blocks (WPT blocks) to perform wireless power transmission (WPT) from the base station 10 to the UE 20. In addition, the downlink WPT dummy signal and DL communication signal transmitted from the base station 10 and the uplink UL communication signal received by the base station 10 can be amplified by individual amplifiers suitable for each signal.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of power feeding to each UE by beamforming from the base station 10 to a plurality of UEs 20 according to the present embodiment. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9, a plurality of UEs 20(1) to 20(3) are located in a WPT area 10A' (see FIG. 1 described above) within a communication area 10A, and a beam formed by each UE is provided. Power may be supplied to each UE 20(1) to 20(3) via 10B(1) to 10B(3). The beams 10B(1) to 10B(3) may be formed, for example, by being switched in a time-division manner.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the downlink WPT dummy signal and DL communication signal transmitted from the base station 10 and the uplink UL communication signal received by the base station 10 can each be amplified by an individual amplifier suitable for each signal.

In addition, according to this embodiment, by using a WPT dummy signal that has a lower PAPR than the communication signal, the base station 10 can amplify the communication signal in a low output power range with a large margin so that spurious signals are not generated, and can achieve high output and high efficiency for the power amplifier when amplifying the WPT dummy signal.

Furthermore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to supply power to the terminal device 20 by utilizing unused wireless resources in communication between the base station 10 and the terminal device 20.

Furthermore, the present invention can provide a power supply infrastructure capable of supplying power to a large number of terminal devices 20 that can receive radio waves transmitted from the base station 10, so that Goal 9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) We can contribute to the achievement of "Let's create a foundation for industry and technological innovation."

The processing steps described in this specification and the components of the system, radio processing device, terminal device (UE, IoT device), base station, mobile station, relay device, and control device can be implemented by various means. For example, these steps and components may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof.

Regarding hardware implementation, the processing units and other means used to realize the above steps and components in an entity (e.g., various wireless communication devices, base station devices (Node B, Node G), terminal devices, hard disk drive devices, or optical disk drive devices) may be implemented in one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processors (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, electronic devices, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, computers, or combinations thereof.

Also, for firmware and/or software implementations, the means such as processing units used to realize the above components may be implemented with programs (e.g., codes such as procedures, functions, modules, instructions, etc.) that perform the functions described herein. In general, any computer/processor readable medium tangibly embodying firmware and/or software codes may be used to implement the means such as processing units used to realize the above steps and components described herein. For example, the firmware and/or software code may be stored in a memory and executed by a computer or processor, for example in a control device. The memory may be implemented inside the computer or processor or may be implemented externally to the processor. Also, the firmware and/or software code may be stored in a computer or processor readable medium, such as, for example, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), a flash memory, a floppy disk, a compact disk (CD), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a magnetic or optical data storage device, etc. The code may be executed by one or more computers or processors and may cause the computers or processors to perform certain aspects of the functionality described herein.

The medium may be a non-transitory recording medium. The program code may be in any format as long as it can be read and executed by a computer, processor, or other device or machine, and the format is not limited to a specific format. For example, the program code may be any of source code, object code, and binary code, or may be a mixture of two or more of these codes.

Moreover, the description of the embodiments disclosed herein is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present disclosure. Various modifications to the present disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

10: Base station 10A: Communication area 10A': WPT area 10B: Beam 20: Terminal device 30: Frame 31D: DL communication frame 31U: UL communication frame 32: WPT frame 110: Antenna 110: Array antenna 110C: Communication Array antenna 110W: WPT array antenna 120: Communication signal processing unit 130: Wireless processing device (wireless processing unit)
131: Input/output signal processing unit 132: RF signal processing unit 132C: RF signal processing unit for communication 132W: RF signal processing unit for wireless power transmission (WPT) 133: Antenna system 1101: Antenna element 1311: Signal separation unit 1312 : First mixer 1313 : Second mixer 1314 : Third mixer 1315 : Local oscillator 1320 : RF signal processing unit 1320C : Communication RF signal processing unit 1320W : WPT dummy RF signal processing unit 1321D : Second phase shifter 1321U : Third phase shifter 1321W : First phase shifter 1322D : Second amplifier (power amplifier)
1322U: Third amplifier (low noise amplifier)
1322W: 1st amplifier (power amplifier)
1323: Signal changeover switch 1325: RF signal processing unit 1326: Antenna duplexer 1327D: Transmission filter 1327U: Reception filter 1327W: Transmission filter 1328: Signal changeover switch 1329: Antenna duplexer

Claims (11)

An antenna system provided in a base station capable of communication by selectively using a plurality of radio resources,
an array antenna having a plurality of antenna elements;
a plurality of radio signal processing units connected to the plurality of antenna elements, respectively, amplifying a plurality of high-frequency signals, including a dummy signal for downlink wireless power transmission, a downlink communication signal, and an uplink communication signal, by different amplifiers from each other, and multiplexing and transmitting/receiving the plurality of high-frequency signals via the antenna elements;
An antenna system comprising: The antenna system of claim 1,
Each of the plurality of wireless signal processing units includes:
a first phase shifter for controlling the phase of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission transmitted from the antenna element;
a first amplifier that amplifies the dummy signal for wireless power transmission;
a second phase shifter for controlling the phase of the downlink communication signal transmitted from the antenna element;
a second amplifier that amplifies the downlink communication signal;
a third amplifier that amplifies the uplink communication signal received via the antenna element;
a third phase shifter for controlling the phase of the uplink communication signal;
An antenna system comprising: 3. The antenna system of claim 2,
The first amplifier is a bias adjustment type high efficiency amplifier or a waveform processing type high efficiency amplifier,
The second amplifier is an amplifier that improves efficiency in a linear region,
the third amplifier is a low noise amplifier;
An antenna system comprising: 2. The antenna system of claim 1,
An antenna system characterized in that each of the multiple radio signal processing units is equipped with a multiplexing processing unit that multiplexes the dummy signal for wireless power transmission, the downlink communication signal, and the uplink communication signal using a time division duplex (TDD) method. 5. The antenna system of claim 4,
a frame for wireless power transmission used for a dummy signal for wireless power transmission, a frame for downlink communication used for the downlink communication signal, and a frame for uplink communication used for the uplink communication signal are time-divided and assigned to communication frames;
the multiplexing processing unit switches connections between the antenna element and each of signal processing paths of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission, the downlink communication signal, and the uplink communication signal in synchronization with the frame for wireless power transmission, the frame for downlink communication, and the frame for uplink communication.
An antenna system comprising: 2. The antenna system of claim 1,
An antenna system characterized in that each of the multiple wireless signal processing units is equipped with a multiplexing processing unit that multiplexes the dummy signal for wireless power transmission, the downlink communication signal, and the uplink communication signal using a frequency division duplex (FDD) method. The antenna system of claim 1,
The array antenna is
an array antenna for wireless power transmission used for transmitting the dummy signal for wireless power transmission;
a communication array antenna used for transmitting the downlink communication signal and receiving the uplink communication signal,
The plurality of wireless signal processing units are:
A plurality of antenna elements connected to each of the plurality of antenna elements of the array antenna for wireless power transmission, amplifying the high frequency signal of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission with an amplifier for wireless power transmission, and transmitting the amplified signal through the antenna element. a wireless signal processing unit for wireless power transmission;
It is connected to each of the plurality of antenna elements of the communication array antenna, and a plurality of high frequency signals of the downlink communication signal and the uplink communication signal are amplified by mutually different amplifiers, and the a plurality of communication wireless signal processing units that multiplex and transmit/receive a plurality of high-frequency signals;
An antenna system characterized by: A radio processing device comprising the antenna system according to any one of claims 1 to 7 and an input/output signal processing unit connected to the antenna system,
The input/output signal processing unit includes:
a signal separator that separates a downlink intermediate frequency signal including the dummy signal for wireless power transmission and the downlink communication signal into an intermediate frequency signal of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission and an intermediate frequency signal of the downlink communication signal;
a first mixer that mixes an intermediate frequency signal of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission with a local oscillation signal of a predetermined frequency to generate a high frequency signal of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission;
a second mixer that mixes the intermediate frequency signal of the downlink communication signal with the local oscillation signal to generate a high frequency signal of the downlink communication signal;
a third mixer that mixes a high-frequency signal of the uplink communication signal with the local oscillation signal to generate an intermediate-frequency signal of the uplink communication signal;
13. A wireless processing device comprising: A base station of a mobile communication system,
7. A base station comprising: the wireless processing device of claim 6; and a communication signal processing unit that generates a downlink intermediate frequency signal including the dummy signal for wireless power transmission and the downlink communication signal, and processes an uplink intermediate frequency signal including the uplink communication signal. 10. The base station of claim 9,
a remote radio head unit having said radio processing unit;
a baseband unit device having the communication signal processing unit, the baseband unit device being disposed at a position remote from the remote radio head device and connected to the remote radio head device via a wired communication line;
Equipped with
A base station comprising: A system for wireless power transmission from a base station to a terminal device according to claim 9,
The terminal device includes a wireless processing unit that receives a transmission signal including the dummy signal for wireless power transmission transmitted from the base station, and a reception signal that receives the transmission signal including the dummy signal for wireless power transmission. a power output unit that outputs power as received power;
A system characterized by:

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