KR0125480B1 - Cellular base station test device - Google Patents

Abstract

The base station test device for testing the base station, which has a test mobile, at least one or more transmission antennas and a first and a second reception antennas of a diversity, is comprised of: a transmission antenna combiner combined with the transmission antenna to output a traveling wave transmitted from the transmission antenna and a reflected wave reflected therefrom; a first and a second reception antenna combiners combined with the first and the second reception antenna to respectively connect a signal from the outside as the traveling wave to be transmitted to the first and the second reception antennas and the reflected wave therefor to the first and the second receiving antennas; a transmission path controller attenuating signals transmitted by wireless from the base station in response of an attenuation control signal to provide attenuated signals to the test mobile and simultaneously with this, attenuating signals output from the test mobile to distributively output the attenuated signals to at least one or more reception paths; a transmission path switching device switchingly select signals of the traveling wave and the reflected wave from the reception antenna combiner in response of a transmission switching control signal to provide it as the transmission signal to the transmission path controller; and a first and a second reception paths switch respectively switching radio signals to be distributively output from the transmission path controller in response of a first and a second reception switching control signals provide them to a traveling coupling port and a reverse coupling port of the first and the second reception antennas.

Description

Cellular Base Station Tester with Improved Radio Path

1A and 1B are schematic diagrams of omni-cell and sector-cell of a mobile communication network.

2 is a block diagram of a cellular base station testing apparatus according to the present invention.

3 is an exemplary view of the configuration of the directional coupler shown in FIG.

4 is a detailed circuit diagram of a transmission path switching unit, a first reception path switching unit, and a second reception path switching unit shown in FIG.

5 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of the attenuation portion shown in FIG.

6 is a second embodiment of the damping part shown in FIG.

The present invention relates to a test apparatus for a base station of a mobile communication network, and more particularly, to a base station test apparatus for more precisely testing the propagation path of a base station having a diversity reception method.

In general, a base station of a mobile communication network is divided into an omni-cell consisting of one transmission / reception area and a sector cell divided into a plurality of transmission / reception areas.

1A and 1B are schematic diagrams of omni-cells and sector-cells of a mobile communication network. FIG. 1A is an outline of omni-cells and FIG. 1B is a schematic of sector-cells. Referring to FIG. 1B, it can be seen that one cell is divided into regions α, β, and γ.

As shown in FIG. 1A, the base station 10 installed in the omni-cell has a high frequency transceiver to perform wireless communication with a mobile communication terminal in a cell. The high frequency transceiver in the base station 10 is connected to the antenna ANT, and radio waves propagate the signal into the cell through the antenna ANT, and receives the radio propagated signal. The base station 11 installed in the sector-cell as shown in FIG. 1B has a high frequency transceiver divided into sectors (α, β, and γ), and corresponds to each sector (α, β, and γ) in the sector-cell. Antennas ANT1, ANT2, and ANT3 are connected to each of the installed high frequency transceivers.

In this case, each of the antennas ANT, ANT1 to ANT3 shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B is separated into a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna, and the receiving antenna is configured in a diversity scheme. Accordingly, it can be seen that the antennas ANT, ANT1 to ANT3 mean at least three antennas.

To test the operation of the base station radio and the base station system in the omni-cell, sector-based base stations 10 and 11 as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B including a pepper wave transceiver and antennas ANT, ANT1 to ANT3. A base station test apparatus is installed.

The base station test apparatus is a base station equipment having a function of monitoring and diagnosing an abnormality of a base station and a failure point of a base station. In particular, when a failure occurs in the base station radio part including an external antenna, whether the failure occurred in the antenna in the base station radio part. This is useful for testing if it has occurred.

A conventional base station test apparatus for testing a wireless part of a digital cellular base station was issued by Qualcomm in the United States on June 4, 1994 and distributed by CDMA CELLULAR LAND NETWORK BASE STATION TEST UINT HARDW ARE DESINE DOCUMEMT ( The technique disclosed on page 80 to page 1214 of the prior art hereinafter) is a representative example. The base station test apparatus disclosed in the prior art is capable of testing the base station in the sector-cell shown in FIG. 1B. That is, a test apparatus capable of testing the radio portions of the base station for radio propagating signals in the sectors α, β, and γ is disclosed.

The test apparatus disclosed in the above-described prior art is connected to the transmitting and receiving first stages in the radio section of the base station through which the radio path switching circuit propagates a radio signal to each center (α, β, γ). That is, it is configured to connect only one of a coupling terminal or a reflection wave coupling terminal to the progress of the wireless front-end for transmitting and receiving a signal to each sector.

Therefore, the conventional base station test apparatus configured as described above was able to test only one of the characteristics of the traveling wave and the reflected wave of the traveling wave of the wireless ultra-short section, and simultaneously tested the traveling wave characteristics and the reflected wave characteristics of the base station radio. I could not.

In order to test the radio part of the base station, it is necessary to test both the traveling wave characteristics and the reflected wave characteristics of the radio part of the base station for monitoring and diagnosing the function of the entire radio part including the external base transceiver transceiver antenna. Alternatively, only one of the reflected wave coupling terminals could be used to test all the characteristics of the traveling wave reflected light.

In addition, the attenuation circuit of the conventional base station test apparatus described in the prior art is configured to attenuate simultaneously on one propagation path by connecting a transmission / reception radio signal as one path using a combiner, and has the following problems.

First, only one transmission path or one reception path could not be selectively attenuated. Therefore, it was not possible to vary the composition of the simulation propagation environment for base station testing.

Secondly, the gain attenuation of the reception path, which is usually configured by the diversity method, cannot be changed individually, so that a real propagation environment cannot be provided. That is, in order to test the function of the receiver of the base station, the strength of the signal received by the base station cannot be attenuated by the attenuation environment on the actual propagation path, and thus cannot be tested in the real environment.

In addition, when an abnormality occurs in some circuits or coaxial lines in the base station test apparatus, radio waves transmitted through the transmission paths are introduced into the paths of the reception radio waves, which may cause damage to circuits on the reception path side.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a base station test apparatus capable of diagnosing and monitoring a function of an entire base station radio station including an external base station transceiver antenna.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a base station test apparatus capable of testing both traveling wave characteristics and reflected wave characteristics of a wireless ultra-short end of a base station.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a base station test apparatus capable of testing a radio state of a base station in an attenuation environment on an actual propagation path by varying and attenuating signals through a transmission path and a reception path of a base station individually.

The present invention for achieving the above object,

*

It is characterized by the configuration.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a block diagram of a cellular base station test apparatus according to the present invention.

In the drawing, reference numeral 12 denotes a transmission antenna of the base station radio unit, and 18 and 24 are first and second reception antennas of the base station radio unit. Each of the antennas corresponds to a wireless first end of a base station radio unit, and the first and second reception antennas 18 and 24 are reception antennas composed of diversity.

In the drawings of the present invention, the transmitting antenna 12, the first receiving antenna 18 and the second receiving antenna 24 are each shown as one antenna, but the base station is shown in FIG. 1A or 1B as described above. It depends on which cell or sector cell is installed. That is, when the sector-cell is provided with a base station, the transmitting antenna 12, the first receiving antenna 18 and the second receiving antenna 24 are respectively divided into sectors α, β, and γ as described above in FIG. 1B. Note that it means three antennas installed correspondingly to

14, 20, and 26 are directional couplers connected to the wireless edges, respectively. These directional couplers 14, 18, and 26 are combined with respective antennas to transfer traveling and reflected waves from the antennas to respective Traveling Coupling Ports (TW) and Reverse Coupling Ports (RW). Or in the opposite direction. A coaxial line is connected to each of the traveling wave coupling terminals and the reflected wave coupling terminals of each of the directional couplers 14, 20, and 26, and the coaxial line connects a radio signal with the base station through a path switching part in the base station test apparatus. .

Reference numeral 16 denotes a transmission path switching unit which switches in response to the input of the transmission path switching control signal and selects and transmits the signal of the coupling terminal or the reflected wave coupling terminal to the inner direction. Further, reference numerals 22 and 24 refer to the first and second receiving path switching control signals for transmitting the input signal to the traveling wave coupling terminal or the reflected wave coupling terminal of each of the directional couplers 20 and 26. 1, the second receiving path switching unit. Here, the internal direction means the base station test apparatus.

Reference numeral 30 denotes a controller which controls the operation of the base station test apparatus. The control unit 30 outputs the transmission path switching control signal, the first and second reception switching control signals, the transmission / reception attenuation control signal, and the test control signal in response to a command from the terminal 100 and simultaneously inputs data to be input. Analyze and output the data of the test results to the terminal (100).

34 denotes a test terminal, which outputs a predetermined signal in response to the test control signal from the controller 30 and outputs data corresponding to the received signal to the controller 30. The test terminal 34 uses a portable radiotelephone or a car phone that is used for general purposes.

32 is connected between the output terminal of the transmission path switching section 16, the input terminal of the first and second reception path switching sections 22 and 28, and the test terminal 34, so that the transmission path switching section 16 Attenuates the gain of the signal received from the second terminal and supplies it to the test terminal 34, and attenuates the signal output from the test terminal 34 to a predetermined gain so that the first and second receiving path switching sections 22, 28 is an attenuator circuit.

3 is an exemplary view of the configuration of the directional coupler 12, 20, 26 shown in FIG. The directional couplers 12, 20, and 26 shown in FIG. 3 have a traveling wave coupling terminal TW and a reflected wave coupling terminal RW positioned in proximity to an antenna which is a wireless first end of a radio part of a base station. Each of the TW and the reflected wave coupling terminals RW connects the radio signal with the radio part of the base station through the transmission path switching part 16 or the first and second reception path switching parts 22 and 28.

4 is an exemplary view illustrating each of the transmission path switching unit 16, the first reception path switching unit 22, and the second reception path switching unit 28 shown in FIG. 2. Its configuration consists of a plurality of switchers 36 to 46 and a combiner / splitter 48.

Each of the switching units 36 to 46 is switched by a transmission switching control signal and a reception switching control signal respectively output from the control unit 30 in response to an operator's request to switch the transmission path or α of the first and second reception paths. It is switched to one of the traveling wave path and the reflected wave path for each sector of, β, and γ. The combiner / divider 48 combines the signals received from the sectors of the received α, β, and γ and outputs them to the attenuator 32 described above, or outputs the signals output from the attenuator 32. The signals are separated into the beta and gamma sectors and supplied to the first and second reception path switching sections 22 and 28.

Path switching for the selection of sectors is possible to select only one characteristic sector out of three sectors, and the combiner / divider 48 is used to enable the selection of two sectors or three sectors.

5 is a diagram illustrating a first embodiment of the attenuation unit illustrated in FIG. 2. This configuration comprises a first attenuator for attenuating and outputting the gain of the transmission signal of the base station radio section received from the transmission path switching section 16 described above in response to the transmission attenuation control signal CTL7 output from the control section 30 described above. 50, a second attenuator 54 which attenuates and outputs a gain of a radio signal received corresponding to the reception attenuation control signal CTL8 output from the control unit 30, and the first and second attenuators. A filter 52 connected between the test terminal 34 and the test terminal 34 to separate the signal of the transmission path and the signal of the reception path and transmit and receive the signal to the test terminal 52, and the second attenuator 54; And a divider 56 for separating and outputting the signal output from the output terminal of the first and second receiving path switching units 22 and 28.

Before describing the operation of the embodiment according to the present invention in detail with reference to the above-described configuration, it will be described under the assumption that the base station test apparatus shown in FIG. 2 is used in the sector-cell as shown in FIG.

Now, if the operator of the base station transmits a test command using the base station's operating terminal (not shown: connected to terminal 100) to test the operating state of the base station in the sector-cell as described above, the control unit In response to the test command, the control unit 30 transmits the transmission / reception switching control signals CTL1 to CTL6 to the transmission path switching unit 16 and the first and second reception path switching units 22 and 28 configured in the fourth degree. Print each. The control unit 30 outputs a test control signal to the test terminal 48 to generate a predetermined radio signal from the test terminal 34 and to create a propagation environment similar to the attenuation environment on the actual propagation path. The transmission attenuation control signal CTL7 and the reception attenuation control signal CTL8 are outputted to the attenuation unit 32.

Each of the switching units 36 to 46 in the transmission path switching unit 16 is a transmission switching control signal CTL1T to CTL6T output from the control unit 30, where the letter T added to each of the CTL1 to CTL6 indicates a transmission switching. On or off individually. That is, each of the switching units 36 to 46 corresponds to a traveling wave path for each sector of α, β, and γ in response to a transmission switching control signal CTL1T to CTL3T output from the control unit 30 according to an operator's request. It is switched to one of αSTW (βSTW) (γSTW) and reflected wave path (αSRW) (βSRW) (γSRW) to select traveling waves or reflected waves of each α, β, and γ sector. That is, the traveling wave output from the traveling wave coupling terminal TW or the reflected wave coupling terminal RW of the directional coupler 12 (refer to FIG. 3) respectively coupled to the antennas of the sectors α, β, and γ, or Select and output the reflected wave.

The traveling wave or the reflected wave of the sectors α, β, and γ selected by the above operation is supplied to the switchers 42 to 46, and the switchers 42 to 46 are the transmission switching control signals CTL4T of the controller 30. CTL6T) and optionally input to combiner / divider 48. Therefore, the traveling wave or the reflected wave for each sector of α, β, and γ is transferred to one or more sectors under the control of the controller 30, and the traveling wave or reflected wave of the α, β, and γ sectors of the transferred base station is selected. Configures a transmission path through the combiner / divider 48. It is understood that the path switching for selecting sectors may select only one specific sector from three sectors, and may select a traveling wave or a reflected wave for each sector. The radio signal from the wireless first end of the base station by the above operation is supplied to the first attenuator 52 in the attenuator 32.

Meanwhile, each of the first and second reception path switching units 22 and 24 having the same configuration as that of the transmission path switching unit 16 is a reception switching control signal CTL1R to CTL7R outputted from the control unit 30 ( Where R denotes reception switching), the switching operation is performed in the same manner as the transmission path switching unit 16, and only the base station receives the radio signal outputted from the attenuator 32 when the operation of the combiner / divider 48 is performed. The first and second receive antennas 18 and 24 are transmitted in the direction of the. Such switching of the transmission path and switching of the reception path are performed separately.

Accordingly, it can be seen that the traveling wave and the reflected wave of the transmitting antenna of the base station radio part can be switched and inputted by the above operation. It can be seen that it is supplied by the reflected wave. Therefore, according to the configuration of the present invention, it is possible to test the characteristics of the traveling wave and the reflected wave of the entire base station radio including the base transceiver antenna.

On the other hand, the test terminal 34 of FIG. 2 outputs a predetermined radio signal in response to the test control signal from the control unit 30, and the signal output therefrom is supplied to the attenuation unit 32 connected by the coaxial line. do. The attenuator 32 provides various simulated radio attenuation environments as described above to make the transmission and reception paths between the base station radio section and the test terminal 34 similar to the actual radio attenuation environment. same.

The filter 52 in the attenuator 32 supplies a radio signal from the test terminal 34 to the second attenuator 54 and supplies a radio signal from the first attenuator 50 to the test terminal 34. Transmitter and receiver splitter. The filter 52 uses only a filter having excellent bandpass characteristics for passing only a transmission signal in a transmission path and only a reception signal in a reception path, or a duplex filter having a single transmission / reception band filter. Can be.

At this time, the first attenuator 50 and the second attenuator 54 in the attenuator 32 correspond to the transmission attenuation control signal CTL7 and the reception attenuation control signal CTL8 output from the controller 30. The radio signal transmitted from the first end, that is, the radio signal output from the above-described transmission path switching unit 16 and the radio signal output from the test terminal 34 and received by the radio first end of the base station are respectively appropriately attenuated. Therefore, the base station test apparatus according to the present invention can be seen that the transmission path and the reception path can be separated and attenuated separately as described above, so that the environment of the transmission and reception can be arbitrarily adjusted to create a test condition of a special environment. Can be.

That is, according to the present invention, the transmission path and the reception path are separated using the filter 52 as shown in FIG. 5 to make the simulation radio wave attenuation environment diverse. By using the second attenuators 50 and 54, it can be seen that the transmission path and the reception path can be attenuated separately.

In the case of the receiving mirror of the base station radio part by the above operation, the radio signal attenuated by the second attenuator 54 according to the operator's request from the test terminal 34 to the filter 50 is reconstructed through the distributor 56. It is input to the 1st reception path switching part 22 and the 2nd reception path switching part 28. FIG. In the case of the transmission path, the transmission signal outputted from the transmission path switching unit 16 described above and attenuated by the first attenuator 52 at the request of the operator is input to the test terminal 34 through the filter 50.

As described above, according to the present invention, the attenuation amounts of the transmission path and the reception path can be individually adjusted, and thus the base station performance test can be performed while freely changing the attenuation amount for each of the transmission path and the reception path of the base station radio unit. In addition, if there is a difference in the path loss on the propagation path between the transmission path and the reception path, the simulated propagation environment can be configured by compensating the path loss difference similarly to the actual propagation environment, and artificially, the transmission path is obtained to obtain test data. Alternatively, the attenuation of only one path of the reception path can be changed specially.

The first and second attenuators 50 and 54 in the attenuator 32 are in the form of a variable attenuator or a fixed attenuator and a variable attenuator that can adjust the amount of attenuation according to the operator's request. Can be configured.

As shown in FIG. 5, the filter 50 used to separate the transmission path and the reception path has a transmission path or a reception path when a failure occurs in the base station radio unit or coaxial line in addition to the separation function of the transmission path and the reception path. It also prevents the transmitted radio signal from reflecting back into the other path due to obstacles. Therefore, by using a filter, it is possible to improve the durability and survivability of the base station test apparatus when a failure occurs.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a second embodiment of the damping part shown in FIG. 2, which is another embodiment according to the above-described modification of FIG. 5. In the configuration of FIG. 5 described above, a divider 56 is connected to an output terminal of the filter unit 52 to distribute a signal output from the attenuator 32, and a control unit is provided to the output terminal of the divider 56. Except for the configuration in which the second and third attenuators 58 which attenuate and output the signals input in response to the received signal attenuation control signals CTL8a and CTL8b respectively output from 30 are connected, they have the same configuration. .

The configuration as shown in FIG. 6 may be very suitably used to test the diversity characteristics of the base station radio using the diversity receiver.

As described above, the present invention can test the characteristics of the traveling wave and the reflected wave by switching the traveling wave and the reflected wave from the transmitting end and the receiving end of the base station radio part separately, and the gain attenuation of the transmission and reception path is almost similar to the actual environment. It can be taken in a timely manner, and thus there is an advantage that the failure diagnosis of the base station can be made more quickly and accurately.

Claims (3)

A base station test apparatus for testing a base station having a test terminal and at least one transmitting antenna and diversity first and second receiving antennas, the base station testing apparatus comprising: a transmission and reception switching control signal connected to the test terminal in response to an input of a test command; Control means for outputting first and second reception switching control signals, transmission / reception attenuation control signals, and test control signals, and analyzing data input from the test terminal to analyze data of a test result; Transmission antenna coupling means coupled to the transmission antenna and outputting traveling waves propagated from the transmission antenna and reflected waves reflected therefrom; A first wave and a second wave coupled to the first and second receive antennas, respectively, to propagate a signal from the outside to the first and second receive athena and to the first and second receive athena as reflected waves. Receiving antenna coupling means; A first attenuator for attenuating and outputting a gain of a transmission signal of a base station radio part corresponding to a transmission attenuation control signal, and connected between the first attenuator and the test terminal to separate a signal of a transmission path and a signal of a reception path; A filter for transmitting and receiving to the test terminal, a splitter for separating and outputting a signal output from the output terminal of the filter into at least one signal, and an output from the output terminals of the splitter in response to different reception attenuation control signals A propagation path control means composed of second and third attenuators for attenuating gain of the signal to be supplied to the first and second reception paths; Transmission path switching means for alternately selecting signals of traveling waves and reflected waves from the transmission antenna coupling means in response to the transmission switching control signal and supplying the signals to the first attenuator of the propagation path control means; The radio signals output from the second and third attenuators are respectively switched in response to the first and second reception switching control signals, respectively, to proceed with the first and second reception antenna coupling means, and the coupling terminal and the reflection wave coupling terminal. The base station test apparatus, characterized in that the first and second receiving path switching means for supplying each of the switching. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the filter is a bandpass filter or a duplexer filter. The base station test apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein each of the first, second and third attenuators is a combination of a variable attenuator and a fixed attenuator.