JP7289006B1 - SYSTEM, BASE STATION, METHOD AND PROGRAM FOR WIRELESS POWER TRANSMISSION - Google Patents

Abstract

A system capable of reducing power consumption in a radio processing unit of a base station and increasing the output of a signal for wireless power transmission (WPT) is provided. A base station is allocated a radio resource for communication and a radio resource for wireless power transmission in mutually different periods of a plurality of radio resources, and a base station generates a communication signal using the radio resource for communication and a radio for wireless power transmission. A transmission signal including a dummy signal for wireless power transmission using resources is generated, and the communication signal and the dummy signal for wireless power transmission included in the transmission signal are individually amplified by a first power amplifier and a second power amplifier that are different from each other. and send it to the terminal device. A terminal device receives a transmission signal including a signal for wireless power transmission transmitted from a base station, and outputs the power of the received signal including the signal for wireless power transmission. [Selection drawing] Fig. 3

Description

The present invention relates to a system, base station, method and program capable of wireless power transfer (WPT).

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known a communication system in which communication is performed between a base station and a terminal device using at least part of a plurality of radio resources set in a radio frame (see Patent Document 1, for example).

WO2017/164220

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional communication system, there is a portable terminal device that mainly uses power supplied from a built-in battery as a terminal device that communicates by connecting to a base station. This terminal device requires a complicated task of charging the internal battery when the remaining amount of the internal battery is low. Moreover, a terminal device that uses power supplied from a wired power line rather than a built-in battery is limited to use where such a power line is available. A power supply infrastructure capable of supplying power to various terminal devices that perform communication by connecting to a base station has not yet been developed.

In the 5th generation and subsequent generation mobile communication systems, it is expected that the number of terminal devices (e.g., user equipment, IoT devices, etc.) that connect to base stations and communicate will increase rapidly, and communication that will handle a huge amount of traffic. Infrastructure development is underway. However, a power supply infrastructure capable of supplying power to a huge number of terminal devices that perform the above communication remains undeveloped.

A system that performs wireless power transmission (WPT) using a mobile communication base station is being studied as a power supply infrastructure for supplying power to the terminal device. One of the problems of such a system is to reduce power consumption in a radio processing unit (radio transmitting unit) of a base station and to increase the output of signals for wireless power transmission (WPT).

A system according to one aspect of the present invention is a system that includes a base station capable of communication by selectively using a plurality of radio resources, and performs wireless power transmission from the base station to a terminal device. The base station is assigned a radio resource for communication and a radio resource for wireless power transmission in mutually different periods of the plurality of radio resources. a communication signal processing unit that generates a transmission signal including a dummy signal for wireless power transmission using resources;
a wireless processing unit that amplifies the communication signal and the dummy signal for wireless power transmission included in the transmission signal separately by a first power amplifier and a second power amplifier that are different from each other, and transmits the amplified signal to the terminal device. The terminal device includes: a radio processing unit that receives a transmission signal including the dummy signal transmitted from the base station; and

In the system, the communication signal processing unit of the base station includes a communication signal using radio resources for communication among the plurality of radio resources, and a radio power transmission using communication unused radio resources not used for communication. and a transmission baseband signal processing unit that generates a transmission baseband signal including a dummy signal of and a boundary between the period of the communication signal and the period of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission on the time axis of the transmission baseband signal. a trigger signal generation unit that generates a trigger signal that can identify the transmission baseband signal generated by the transmission baseband signal processing unit based on the trigger signal; and a signal separator for separating the signal and the second transmission baseband signal composed of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission. Further, the radio processing unit of the base station includes a first transmission radio processing unit that generates a first transmission radio signal having a predetermined transmission frequency based on the first transmission baseband signal, and the second transmission baseband a second transmission radio processing unit that generates a second transmission radio signal having a predetermined transmission frequency based on the signal; a first power amplifier that amplifies the first transmission radio signal; and amplifies the second transmission radio signal. a second power amplifier; and signal synthesis for synthesizing the first transmission radio signal output from the first power amplifier and the second transmission radio signal output from the second power amplifier to output a transmission radio signal. You may have a part and a.

In the system, the first power amplifier may be a Doherty amplifier, an envelope tracking amplifier, or an outphasing amplifier, and the second power amplifier may be a class C amplifier, a class E amplifier, a class F amplifier, or a class J amplifier. There may be.

In the system, the signal synthesizing unit includes a first isolator connected to the output side of the first power amplifier, a second isolator connected to the output side of the second power amplifier, and an output from the first isolator. and an in-phase combining circuit that combines in-phase the first transmission radio signal output from the second isolator and the second transmission radio signal output from the second isolator and outputs the transmission radio signal.

In the system, the signal synthesizing unit includes a delay circuit that delays the trigger signal generated by the trigger signal generating unit by a predetermined time and outputs the trigger signal, and a trigger signal that is delayed by the delay circuit. a signal switching/combining unit that switches between the first transmission radio signal output from the first power amplifier and the second transmission radio signal output from the second power amplifier and outputs the transmission radio signal based on , may have

A base station according to another aspect of the present invention is a base station capable of communicating by selectively using a plurality of radio resources. In this base station, radio resources for communication and radio resources for wireless power transmission are allocated to different periods of the plurality of radio resources, and a communication signal using the radio resources for communication and a radio for wireless power transmission are allocated. a communication signal processing unit that generates a transmission signal including a dummy signal for wireless power transmission using resources; a first power amplifier that differs from the communication signal and the dummy signal for wireless power transmission included in the transmission signal; and a wireless processing unit that amplifies the signals individually by a second power amplifier and transmits the signals to the terminal device.

In the base station, the communication signal processing unit generates a communication signal using a radio resource for communication among the plurality of radio resources and a dummy signal for wireless power transmission using a communication unused radio resource not used for communication. and a boundary between the period of the communication signal and the period of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission on the time axis of the transmission baseband signal. a trigger signal generation unit for generating a trigger signal; and the transmission baseband signal generated by the transmission baseband signal processing unit based on the trigger signal is combined with a first transmission baseband signal made up of the communication signal and the and a signal separating unit for separating into a second transmission baseband signal composed of a dummy signal for wireless power transmission. Further, the radio processing unit includes a first transmission radio processing unit that generates a first transmission radio signal having a predetermined transmission frequency based on the first transmission baseband signal, and a first transmission radio processing unit that generates a first transmission radio signal having a predetermined transmission frequency based on the first transmission baseband signal, A second transmission radio processing unit that generates a second transmission radio signal having a predetermined transmission frequency, a first power amplifier that amplifies the first transmission radio signal, and a second power amplifier that amplifies the second transmission radio signal. and a signal combiner that combines the first transmission radio signal output from the first power amplifier and the second transmission radio signal output from the second power amplifier and outputs a transmission radio signal. may have.

In the base station, the first power amplifier may be a Doherty amplifier, an envelope tracking amplifier, or an outphasing amplifier, and the second power amplifier may be a class C amplifier, a class E amplifier, a class F amplifier, or a class J amplifier. may be

In the base station, the signal synthesizing unit includes: a first isolator connected to the output side of the first power amplifier; a second isolator connected to the output side of the second power amplifier; An in-phase combining circuit that combines the output first transmission radio signal and the second transmission radio signal output from the second isolator in-phase and outputs the transmission radio signal.

In the base station, the signal synthesizing unit includes a delay circuit for delaying the trigger signal generated by the trigger signal generating unit by a predetermined time and outputting the trigger signal, and a trigger signal delayed by the delay circuit. A signal switching combining unit that switches between the first transmission radio signal output from the first power amplifier and the second transmission radio signal output from the second power amplifier based on and outputs as the transmission radio signal and may have

In a method according to still another aspect of the present invention, the base station is allocated radio resources for communication and radio resources for radio power transmission in mutually different periods of the plurality of radio resources, and and a dummy signal for wireless power transmission using the wireless resource for wireless power transmission; A dummy signal for power transmission is individually amplified by a first power amplifier and a second power amplifier, which are different from each other, and transmitted to the terminal device; and the terminal device includes the dummy signal transmitted from the base station. receiving a transmission signal; and outputting, as received power, power of a reception signal received by the terminal device from the transmission signal including the dummy signal.

A program according to still another aspect of the present invention is a program executed by a computer or processor provided in a base station that selectively uses a plurality of radio resources to communicate with a terminal device. This program allocates a radio resource for communication and a radio resource for wireless power transmission to different periods of the plurality of radio resources, and assigns a communication signal using the radio resource for communication and a radio resource for wireless power transmission. a program code for generating a transmission signal including a dummy signal for wireless power transmission using a program code for separately amplifying by two power amplifiers and transmitting to the terminal device.

The program includes a trained model used for machine learning.

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce power consumption in a base station and increase the output of signals for wireless power transmission (WPT).

Explanatory drawing which shows an example of the whole structure of the system which concerns on embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a base station and a terminal device that configure the system according to the embodiment; (a) is an explanatory diagram showing an example of allocation of WPT blocks in radio resources (resource blocks) of transmission signals including WPT dummy signals transmitted from a base station according to the embodiment; (b) is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a spectrum on the frequency axis in OFDM secondary modulation of a transmission signal transmitted from the base station according to the embodiment; 5 is a graph showing an example of input/output power characteristics and efficiency characteristics of the power amplifier of the base station according to the present embodiment; (a) is an explanatory diagram showing an example of arrangement of symbol points in QAM primary modulation of a communication signal transmitted from a base station according to the embodiment. (b) is an explanatory diagram showing an example of arrangement of symbol points in modulation of WPT dummy signals transmitted from the same base station. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a base station apparatus of the base station according to the embodiment; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a trigger signal used for controlling separation and combination of communication signals and WPT dummy signals in the same base station apparatus; (a) to (d) are explanatory diagrams showing an example of a transmission signal before separation of a communication signal and a WPT dummy signal, a communication signal after separation, a WPT dummy signal after separation, and a transmission signal after combination, respectively. . FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a signal synthesizing section in the base station apparatus of FIG. 6; FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing another configuration example of the signal synthesizing unit in the base station apparatus of FIG. 6; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of power supply for each terminal device by beamforming from the base station according to the embodiment to a plurality of terminal devices;

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
The system according to the embodiments described in this document can perform wireless power transmission (WPT) from a mobile communication base station to a terminal device to be powered (for example, a mobile communication UE (mobile station) or an IoT device). It is a system that can In the system of the embodiment, for example, communication 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. is effectively used for wireless power transmission (WPT) to terminal devices. A system of an embodiment may be a wireless communication system between a base station and a terminal device with wireless power transfer (WPT) functionality from the base station to the terminal device. Moreover, 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 the present embodiment, a first power amplifier and a second power amplifier are separately provided for different communication signals and dummy signals for wireless power transmission included in transmission signals in the wireless processing unit of the base station, and the wireless power As the second power amplifier that amplifies the dummy signal for transmission, a power amplifier with high power efficiency and low power consumption in the saturation region (high output power region) of the input/output power characteristics can be used. It is possible to reduce the power consumption in the unit and increase the output of the signal for wireless power transmission (WPT).

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a system according to this embodiment. The system of the present embodiment includes a cellular base station 10 forming a communication area (cell) 10A, and a base station 10 capable of wirelessly communicating with the base station 10 while in the communication area 10A. a terminal device to which power is to be supplied (hereinafter also referred to as “UE” (user equipment)) 20;

The UE 20 may be a mobile station of a mobile communication system, or may be a combination of a communication device (eg mobile communication module) and various devices. The UE 20 comprises, for example, an array antenna having a plurality of antenna elements. The UE 20 may be an IoT device (also referred to as "IoT equipment").

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

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

In the WPT area 10A', communication unused radio resources (resource blocks ) is used as a wireless power transmission block. In a downlink radio frame to the UE 20, the base station 10 adds 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 not used for communication. ) is generated and transmitted to the UE 20 .

In particular, in the fifth 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 arranged only in 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 radio resource portion that is not used for communication in the radio frame.

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the main configuration of the base station 10 and terminal equipment (UE) 20 that configure the system according to the embodiment. Base station 10 includes base station apparatus 100 and antenna 110 . 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.

Base station apparatus 100 includes communication signal processing section 120 and radio processing section 130 . 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 with the UE 20, the communication signal processing unit 120 generates a downlink transmission signal including a WPT dummy signal using unused radio resources that are not used for communication among a plurality of radio resources. Generate. For example, the WPT dummy signal can be generated by modulating with a modulation scheme having a smaller PAPR (peak power to average power ratio) (also referred to as "crest ratio") than the communication signal. For example, the WPT dummy signal may be a modulation signal that is modulated using a Zadoff-Chu sequence code and has a constant amplitude and a variable phase with respect to time. It may be a signal modulated by a plurality of symbol points having the maximum amplitude or near the maximum amplitude. For example, the transmission signal is generated by primary modulation such as QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) for communication signals and low PAPR modulation for dummy signals for WPT, and secondary modulation such as OFDM (orthogonal frequency multiplexing) modulation. may contain.

The radio processing unit 130 transmits a transmission signal generated by the communication signal processing unit 120 to the UE 20 from the antenna 110 and outputs a reception 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 of downlink communication to the UE 20, and the generation of a trigger signal used for signal separation and signal synthesis, which will be described later, are performed in the radio frame of mobile communication. may be performed based on the subframes that make up the

In addition, the process of including WPT dummy signals using unused radio resources in downlink communication transmission signals for the UE 20 may be performed autonomously by the base station 10, or may be performed upon request or instruction from the UE 20. It may be performed based on a request or instruction from an external platform (eg, server, cloud system).

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

During downlink communication with the UE 20, the base station 10 performs beam forming (BF) control to form an individual beam 10B for each UE 20 or for each UE group in a target area to which a plurality of UEs 20 belongs. Alternatively, wireless power transmission may be performed for each UE group. BF control for each UE 20 or each UE group may be performed by digital BF control in the frequency domain in the communication signal processing unit 120 or by analog BF control in the radio processing unit 130 .

In FIG. 2 , UE 20 includes antenna 210 , radio processing section 220 , communication signal processing section 230 , power output section 240 and battery 250 . Antenna 210 is, for example, a small array antenna having a plurality of antenna elements. The radio 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 communicates reception signals received from the base station 10 via the antenna 210. It outputs to the signal processing unit 230 .

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

FIG. 3A is an explanatory diagram showing an example of allocation of WPT blocks in radio resources (resource blocks) of transmission signals including WPT dummy signals transmitted from the base station 10 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3(b) is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a spectrum on the frequency axis in OFDM secondary modulation of a transmission signal transmitted from the base station 10 according to this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 3A, the plurality of radio resources used in downlink communication and uplink communication in the system of the present embodiment are defined by subcarriers on the frequency axis and slots on the time axis. is a resource block 30 of . Each resource block 30 has subcarriers 33 with a predetermined bandwidth that are orthogonal to each other on the frequency axis, as shown in FIG. 3(b).

A resource block 30 forming the radio resource in FIG. 3(a) is allocated to a plurality of continuous subframes forming a radio frame for mobile communication. In the illustrated example, each subframe is composed of a predetermined number (for example, 20) of resource blocks, and includes a communication subframe (hereinafter referred to as "communication frame") F1 and a WPT subframe (hereinafter referred to as "WPT frame") F2 are alternately positioned. The communication frame F1 includes resource blocks 31 for uplink and downlink communications, and the WPT frame F2 includes WPT resource blocks 32, which are cross-hatched in the figure. Of the resource blocks 31 of the communication frame F1, a plurality of uplink resource blocks are assigned to a signal for uplink communication of user data and a signal for communication of feedback information for WPT from the UE 20. These resource blocks are allocated to downlink communication signals of user data and information. A downlink WPT signal is assigned to the resource block 32 of the WPT frame F2.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing an example of characteristics of output power Pout [dBm] and efficiency PAE [%] with respect to input power Pin [dBm] of the power amplifier of the base station 10 according to this embodiment. Curve A in the figure is the result of simulation calculation of the AC output power Pout [dBm] with respect to the AC input power Pin [dBm] of the power amplifier, and the plot points of "□" are the measurement results of the output power Pout [dBm]. is. Curve B in the figure is a simulation calculation result of PAE (power added efficiency) [%], which is one of the index values of efficiency with respect to the input power Pin [dBm] of the power amplifier. is the measurement result of efficiency PAE [%]. Here, the PAE [%] of the power amplifier is defined by (Pout-Pin)/Pdc. Pdc is the DC power input (applied) to the power amplifier. A linear region in the figure is a region in which the relationship between the input power Pin and the output power Pout is linear or substantially linear. A saturation region in the figure is a region where the output power Pout is saturated or nearly saturated with respect to an increase in the input power Pin. A peak of the efficiency PAE of the power amplifier is located near the boundary between the linear region and the saturation region.

In the base station 10, when a power amplifier amplifies a communication signal composed of a modulated signal with a high PAPR (Peak Power to Average Power Ratio), a low output power and low efficiency linear region of the power amplifier is used. For example, so that the average power of the communication signal (modulated signal) is positioned at the point (central part of the linear region) obtained by appropriately backing off the low power side from the starting point (left end) of the saturation region in FIG. An operating parameter (eg, average power operating point) of the power amplifier is set. For example, in the case of a power amplifier using FETs, the drain voltage applied to the FETs is set so as to achieve a predetermined average power operating point.

Further, in order to amplify the WPT dummy signal in the high output power region of the power amplifier in wireless power transmission (WPT), the WPT dummy signal has a lower PAPR (peak power to average power ratio) than the communication signal. A modulated signal may also be used.

FIG. 5(a) is an explanatory diagram showing an example of arrangement of symbol points 41 in the QAM primary modulation of a communication signal transmitted from the base station 10 according to this embodiment. FIG. 5(a) is a constellation diagram showing the arrangement of a plurality of symbol points (64-level symbol points) in the case of the 64QAM system. FIG. 5(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 this embodiment. In FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b), the horizontal axis indicates the in-phase channel component and the vertical axis indicates the quadrature channel component.

In this embodiment, as the WPT dummy signal, an OFDM modulated signal having a PAPR (peak power to average power ratio) lower than that of the communication signal is used. For example, in FIG. 5A, from an OFDM modulated signal modulated only by a plurality of symbol points 41S on or around the outermost circumference having the maximum amplitude among a plurality of symbol points 41 of the QAM system for communication signals, A dummy signal for WPT may be used.

Further, as shown in the constellation diagram of FIG. 5(b), a WPT dummy signal composed of an OFDM modulated signal modulated by a symbol point 42 whose phase changes under the condition that the amplitude is constant with respect to time may be used. good. The OFDM modulated signal at the symbol point 42 in FIG. 5(b) can be generated using, for example, a Zadoff-Chu sequence code.

In the base station 10 configured as described above, it is desired to increase the power of the dummy signal for WPT and reduce the power consumption in the radio processing section 130 including the power amplifier of the base station apparatus 100 .

Therefore, in this embodiment, the communication signal and the WPT dummy signal included in the transmission signal output from the communication signal processing unit 120 are individually amplified by two different first power amplifiers and second power amplifiers. That is, the first power amplifier selectively amplifies a period (frame) of a communication signal having a low output power among downlink transmission signals, and the second power amplifier performs an amplifying operation of a downlink transmission signal having a low output power. Amplification is selectively performed for a period (frame) of a high WPT dummy signal. Wide dynamic characteristics and high linearity are not required for the high output power second power amplifier that amplifies the power of the WPT dummy signal. Therefore, as the second power amplifier, a power amplifier with high power efficiency (the PAE [%] described above) in the saturation region (high output power region) of the input/output power characteristics and low power consumption can be used. And the power consumption of the base station apparatus 100 including the second power amplifier can be reduced.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the base station apparatus 100 of the base station 10 according to the embodiment. 6, communication signal processing section 120 of base station apparatus 100 includes transmission baseband signal processing section 121, trigger signal generation section 122, and signal separation switch 123 as a signal separation section.

Based on predetermined baseband scheduling information, the transmission baseband signal processing unit 121 generates a communication signal using a communication frame F1, which is a radio resource for communication among a plurality of subframes forming a radio frame, and An intermediate-frequency transmission baseband signal (see FIG. 8(a)) including a WPT dummy signal using the WPT frame F2, which is an unused radio resource for communication, is generated.

Based on the baseband scheduling information, the trigger signal generator 122 generates a communication signal period (communication frame F1) and a WPT dummy signal period (WPT frame F2) on the time axis of the transmission baseband signal. A trigger signal capable of identifying the boundary of is generated and output to the signal separation switch 123 . For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the trigger signal generator 122 is set to the low potential “0” level during the period of the communication frame F1, and is set to the high potential “1” level during the period of the WPT frame F2. It generates and outputs a rectangular trigger signal that changes as follows.

Based on the trigger signal output from the trigger signal generator 122, the signal separation switch 123 separates the intermediate-frequency transmission baseband signal generated by the transmission baseband signal processor 121 into the first transmission baseband signal composed of the communication signal. signal and a second transmission baseband signal consisting of a dummy signal for WPT.

In the example of FIG. 6, the signal separation switch 123 switches the output path of the transmission baseband signal to the communication signal path of "0" in the figure during the period of the communication frame F1 in which the trigger signal is at the "0" level. In this state, the first transmission baseband signal (see FIG. 8(b)) composed of intermediate frequency communication signals is output. Further, the signal separation switch 123 switches the output path of the transmission baseband signal to the communication signal path of "1" in FIG. A second transmission baseband signal (see FIG. 8(c)) composed of an intermediate-frequency WPT dummy signal is output.

The radio processing unit 130 includes a first transmission radio processing unit (transmission RF processing unit) 132(1), a second transmission radio processing unit (transmission RF processing unit) 132(2), and a first power amplifier 131(1). , a second power amplifier 131 ( 2 ), a signal synthesizing section 133 , and an output circuit 134 .

Based on the intermediate-frequency first transmission baseband signal output from the signal separation switch 123 and the local oscillation signal of the predetermined frequency, the first transmission radio processing unit 132(1) converts the communication signal of the predetermined transmission frequency into A first transmission radio signal is generated (see FIG. 8(a)).

The second transmission radio processing unit 132(2) generates a WPT dummy signal of a predetermined transmission frequency based on the second transmission baseband signal of the intermediate frequency output from the signal separation switch 123 and the local oscillation signal of the predetermined frequency. A second transmission radio signal composed of signals is generated (see FIG. 8(b)).

The first power amplifier 131(1) is a power amplifier with a wide dynamic range, high efficiency and excellent linearity, and amplifies a first transmission radio signal, which is a communication signal. The first power amplifier 131(1) is, for example, a Doherty amplifier, an envelope tracking amplifier, or an outphasing amplifier.

The second power amplifier 131(2) is a power amplifier with high power efficiency and low power consumption in the saturation region (high output power region) of the input/output power characteristics, and amplifies the second transmission radio signal composed of the WPT dummy signal. do. The second power amplifier 131(2) is, for example, a class C amplifier, a class E amplifier, a class F amplifier, or a class J amplifier.

The first power amplifier 131(1) and the second power amplifier 131(2) can each be configured using, for example, a high frequency FET.

The signal combiner 133 combines the first transmission radio signal (see FIG. 8B) composed of the communication signal output from the first power amplifier 131(1) with the WPT output from the second power amplifier 131(2). second transmission radio signal (see FIG. 8(c)) composed of a dummy signal for transmission, and outputs the combined transmission radio signal (see FIG. 8(d)).

The output circuit 134 includes, for example, a bandpass filter (BPF) that selectively passes a transmission radio signal of a predetermined transmission frequency, and an antenna duplexer (DUP: Duplexer).

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of signal combining section 133 in base station apparatus 100 of FIG. The signal combiner 133 of FIG. 9 includes a first isolator 1331(1) connected to the output side of the first power amplifier 131(1) and a second isolator 1331(1) connected to the output side of the second power amplifier 131(2). It has an isolator 1331 ( 2 ) and an RF in-phase combining circuit 1332 . The first isolator 1331(1) and the second isolator 1331(2) provide isolation between the paths between the first power amplifier 131(1) and the second power amplifier 131(2), and transmit radio signals. Prevent backflow. The RF in-phase synthesis circuit 1332 generates a first transmission radio signal composed of a communication signal output from the first isolator 1331(1) and a second transmission radio signal composed of a WPT dummy signal output from the second isolator 1331(2). signals in-phase, and outputs the combined signal as a transmission radio signal.

Each of the first isolator 1331(1) and the second isolator 1331(2) can be composed of, for example, a high frequency circulator and a terminating resistor. Also, the RF in-phase combining circuit 1332 can be configured by, for example, a Wilkinson divider. Note that when the isolation between paths between the first power amplifier 131(1) and the second power amplifier 131(2) on the input side of the RF in-phase combining circuit 1332 is high, the first isolator 1331(1) and the second 2 isolator 1331(2) may not be provided.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing another configuration example of signal combining section 133 in base station apparatus 100 of FIG. The signal synthesizing section 133 of FIG. 10 has a delay circuit 1333 and a synthesizing switch circuit 1334 as a signal switching synthesizing section.

The delay circuit 1333 delays the trigger signal generated by the trigger signal generator 122 of the communication signal processor 120 by a predetermined time and outputs the delayed signal. The delay time to be delayed by the delay circuit 1333 is determined by the first transmission wireless processing unit (transmission RF processing unit) 132(1), the second transmission wireless processing unit (transmission RF processing unit) 132(2), and the first power amplifier. 131(1) and the delay time required for high-frequency signal processing in the second power amplifier 131(2).

The synthesis switch circuit 1334 receives the trigger signal delayed by the delay circuit 1333, and based on the trigger signal, synchronizes the first power amplifier 131 (1) with the timing of switching between the communication frame F1 and the WPT frame F2. ) and the second transmission wireless signal (WPT signal) output from the second power amplifier 131(2), and output as the transmission wireless signal.

According to the system of FIGS. 1 to 10 having the above configuration, in downlink communication from the base station 10 to the UE 20, wireless resources not used for communication are effectively used as wireless power transmission blocks (WPT blocks), and from the base station 10 Wireless power transfer (WPT) to the UE 20 may be performed. Also, it is possible to reduce the power consumption of the base station apparatus 100 of the base station 10 that is used both for communication to the UE 20 and for wireless power transmission (WPT), and to increase the output of dummy signals for WPT.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of power supply for each UE by beamforming from the base station 10 to the plurality of UEs 20 according to this 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 the communication area 10A, and beams formed for each UE Each UE 20(1)-20(3) may be powered via 10B(1)-10B(3). The beams 10B(1) to 10B(3) may be formed by switching in a time division manner, for example.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to reduce power consumption in the base station 10 and increase the output of signals for wireless power transmission (WPT).

Further, according to the present embodiment, by using the WPT dummy signal having a lower PAPR than the communication signal, the communication signal at the base station 10 has a low output power with a high margin so as not to generate spurious signals. , and the output and efficiency of the power amplifier 131 when amplifying the WPT dummy signal can be increased.

Further, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to supply power to the terminal device 20 using radio resources that are unused for communication between the base station 10 and the terminal device 20 .

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

It should be noted that the processing steps and components of systems, terminals (UEs, IoT devices), base stations, mobile stations, relays and controllers described herein may be implemented by various means. For example, these processes and components may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or any combination thereof.

For hardware implementation, in order to realize the above steps and components in entities (for example, various wireless communication devices, base station devices (Node B, Node G), terminal devices, hard disk drives, or optical disk drives) The processing unit or other means used may be one or more of an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a digital signal processor (DSP), a digital signal processor (DSPD), a programmable logic device (PLD), a 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 may be implemented in

Also, for firmware and/or software implementations, means such as processing units used to implement the above components may be programs (e.g., procedures, functions, modules, instructions) that perform the functions described herein. , etc.). In general, any computer/processor readable medium tangibly embodying firmware and/or software code means, such as a processing unit, used to implement the above steps and components described herein. may be used to implement For example, firmware and/or software code may be stored in memory and executed by a computer or processor, such as in a controller. The memory may be implemented within the computer or processor, or external to the processor. The firmware and/or software code may also be, for example, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), programmable read only memory (PROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM). ), flash memory, floppy disk, compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD), magnetic or optical data storage devices, etc. good. 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.

Also, the medium may be a non-temporary recording medium. Also, the code of the program is not limited to a specific format as long as it can be read and executed by a computer, processor, or other device or machine. For example, the program code may be source code, object code or 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 this disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein are applicable to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of this disclosure. This disclosure, therefore, is not to be limited to the examples and designs described herein, but is to be accorded the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

10: Base station 10A: Communication area 10A': WPT area 10B: Beam 20: Terminal equipment (UE)
100: Base station apparatus 110: Antenna 120: Communication signal processing unit 121: Transmission baseband signal processing unit 122: Trigger signal generation unit 123: Signal separation switch 130: Radio processing unit 131 (1): First power amplifier 131 (2 ) : Second power amplifier 132(1) : First transmission wireless processing unit 132(2) : Second transmission wireless processing unit 133 : Signal synthesizing unit 134 : Output circuit 210 : Antenna 220 : Wireless processing unit 230 : Communication signal processing Unit 240: Power output unit 250: Battery 1331(1): First isolator 1331(2): Second isolator 1332: RF in-phase combining circuit 1333: Delay circuit 1334: Combining switch circuit

Claims (12)

A system comprising a base station capable of communication by selectively using a plurality of radio resources, and performing wireless power transmission from the base station to a terminal device,
The base station
A radio resource for communication and a radio resource for wireless power transmission are allocated in mutually different periods of the plurality of radio resources, and a communication signal using the radio resource for communication and radio power using the radio resource for wireless power transmission a communication signal processing unit that generates a transmission signal including a dummy signal for transmission;
a radio processing unit that separately amplifies the communication signal and the dummy signal for wireless power transmission included in the transmission signal by a first power amplifier and a second power amplifier that are different from each other, and transmits the amplified signal to the terminal device. ,
The terminal device
a radio processing unit that receives a transmission signal including the dummy signal transmitted from the base station;
a power output unit that outputs power of a received signal that has received a transmission signal including the dummy signal as received power;
A system characterized by: The system of claim 1, wherein
The communication signal processing unit of the base station,
A transmission base for generating a transmission baseband signal including a communication signal using radio resources for communication among the plurality of radio resources and a dummy signal for wireless power transmission using radio resources not used for communication and not used for communication. a band signal processing unit;
a trigger signal generation unit that generates a trigger signal capable of identifying a boundary between a period of the communication signal and a period of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission on the time axis of the transmission baseband signal;
Based on the trigger signal, the transmission baseband signal generated by the transmission baseband signal processing unit is converted into a first transmission baseband signal composed of the communication signal and a second transmission composed of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission. a signal separation unit for separating into a baseband signal,
The radio processing unit of the base station,
a first transmission radio processing unit that generates a first transmission radio signal having a predetermined transmission frequency based on the first transmission baseband signal;
a second transmission radio processing unit that generates a second transmission radio signal having a predetermined transmission frequency based on the second transmission baseband signal;
a first power amplifier that amplifies the first transmission radio signal;
a second power amplifier that amplifies the second transmission radio signal;
a signal combining unit that combines the first transmission radio signal output from the first power amplifier and the second transmission radio signal output from the second power amplifier and outputs a transmission radio signal;
A system characterized by: The system of claim 2, wherein
the first power amplifier is a Doherty amplifier, an envelope tracking amplifier or an outphasing amplifier;
wherein the second power amplifier is a class C amplifier, a class E amplifier, a class F amplifier or a class J amplifier;
A system characterized by: In the system of claim 2 or 3,
The signal synthesizing unit
a first isolator connected to the output side of the first power amplifier;
a second isolator connected to the output side of the second power amplifier;
an in-phase combining circuit that combines the first transmission radio signal output from the first isolator and the second transmission radio signal output from the second isolator in-phase and outputs the transmission radio signal. ,
A system characterized by: In the system of claim 2 or 3,
The signal synthesizing unit
a delay circuit for delaying the trigger signal generated by the trigger signal generator by a predetermined time and outputting the trigger signal;
A trigger signal delayed by the delay circuit is input, and based on the trigger signal, the first transmission radio signal output from the first power amplifier and the second transmission radio output from the second power amplifier and a synthesis switch circuit that switches signals and outputs them as the transmission radio signal,
A system characterized by: A base station capable of communication by selectively using a plurality of radio resources,
A radio resource for communication and a radio resource for wireless power transmission are allocated in mutually different periods of the plurality of radio resources, and a communication signal using the radio resource for communication and radio power using the radio resource for wireless power transmission a communication signal processing unit that generates a transmission signal including a dummy signal for transmission;
a radio processing unit that separately amplifies the communication signal and the dummy signal for wireless power transmission included in the transmission signal by a first power amplifier and a second power amplifier that are different from each other, and transmits the amplified signal to a terminal device;
A base station comprising: In the base station of claim 6,
The communication signal processing unit is
A transmission base for generating a transmission baseband signal including a communication signal using radio resources for communication among the plurality of radio resources and a dummy signal for wireless power transmission using radio resources not used for communication and not used for communication. a band signal processing unit;
a trigger signal generation unit that generates a trigger signal capable of identifying a boundary between a period of the communication signal and a period of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission on the time axis of the transmission baseband signal;
Based on the trigger signal, the transmission baseband signal generated by the transmission baseband signal processing unit is converted into a first transmission baseband signal composed of the communication signal and a second transmission composed of the dummy signal for wireless power transmission. a signal separation unit for separating into a baseband signal,
The wireless processing unit
a first transmission radio processing unit that generates a first transmission radio signal having a predetermined transmission frequency based on the first transmission baseband signal;
a second transmission radio processing unit that generates a second transmission radio signal having a predetermined transmission frequency based on the second transmission baseband signal;
a first power amplifier that amplifies the first transmission radio signal;
a second power amplifier that amplifies the second transmission radio signal;
a signal combining unit that combines the first transmission radio signal output from the first power amplifier and the second transmission radio signal output from the second power amplifier and outputs a transmission radio signal;
A base station characterized by: In the base station of claim 7,
the first power amplifier is a Doherty amplifier, an envelope tracking amplifier or an outphasing amplifier;
wherein the second power amplifier is a class C amplifier, a class E amplifier, a class F amplifier or a class J amplifier;
A base station characterized by: In the base station of claim 7 or 8,
The signal synthesizing unit
a first isolator connected to the output side of the first power amplifier;
a second isolator connected to the output side of the second power amplifier;
an in-phase combining circuit that combines the first transmission radio signal output from the first isolator and the second transmission radio signal output from the second isolator in-phase and outputs the transmission radio signal. ,
A base station characterized by: In the base station of claim 7 or 8,
The signal synthesizing unit receives the trigger signal generated by the trigger signal generating unit with a delay of a predetermined time, and based on the trigger signal, the first transmission radio signal output from the first power amplifier and the an in-phase combining circuit that combines in-phase with the second transmission radio signal output from the first power amplifier and outputs the result,
A base station characterized by: A method in which a base station and a terminal device selectively use a plurality of radio resources to communicate with each other,
The base station assigns a radio resource for communication and a radio resource for wireless power transmission to different periods of the plurality of radio resources, and assigns a communication signal using the radio resource for communication and a radio for wireless power transmission. generating a transmission signal including a dummy signal for wireless power transmission using resources;
The base station separately amplifies the communication signal and the dummy signal for wireless power transmission included in the transmission signal with a first power amplifier and a second power amplifier that are different from each other, and transmits the amplified signal to the terminal device;
the terminal device receiving a transmission signal including the dummy signal transmitted from the base station;
The terminal device outputs, as received power, the power of the received signal that received the transmission signal including the dummy signal;
A method characterized by comprising A program executed in a computer or processor provided in a base station that selectively uses a plurality of radio resources to communicate with a terminal device,
A radio resource for communication and a radio resource for wireless power transmission are allocated in mutually different periods of the plurality of radio resources, and a communication signal using the radio resource for communication and radio power using the radio resource for wireless power transmission program code for generating a transmit signal including a dummy signal for transmission;
a program code for separately amplifying the communication signal and the dummy signal for wireless power transmission included in the transmission signal by a first power amplifier and a second power amplifier, which are different from each other, and transmitting the amplified signal to the terminal device;
A program characterized by comprising:

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