KR100653439B1 - Apparatus and method for wireless communication using high speed sweeping of antenna's radiated beam - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system using a high speed sweeping of an antenna radiation beam that can expand the service area and improve diversity. The present invention receives an array antenna and a predetermined number of signals to receive a signal to be transmitted and have a predetermined beam width. A divider for dividing the signal into a signal, a first phase controller for adjusting a phase of the input signal so that the radiation beam is horizontally scanned by receiving the signal divided by the divider, and amplifying an output signal of the first phase controller A high power amplifier, a duplex filter for separating a transmission signal transmitted from the high power amplifier to the antenna and a reception signal received from the antenna, and a low noise amplifier for amplifying the signal received from the antenna through the duplex filter. And, the reception beam is horizontally scanned by receiving the output signal of the low noise amplifier. A second phase controller for adjusting a phase of the input signal so that the input signal is synthesized; a synthesizer for synthesizing and outputting an output signal of the second phase controller; and a phase control driver for outputting a phase control signal to the first and second phase controllers. It consists of.

Antenna, phase control, horizontal scan, beam width

Description

Wireless communication method and apparatus using high-speed sweeping of antenna radiation beam {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION USING HIGH SPEED SWEEPING OF ANTENNA'S RADIATED BEAM}             

1 is a state diagram showing a service area by a radiation beam of a conventional base station;

FIG. 2 is a state diagram when the beam width of the radiation beam is narrowed in FIG. 1;

3 is a diagram illustrating a case where a service area is enlarged using a high power amplifier in FIG. 1;

4 is a block diagram of a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a state diagram showing a beam width of a radiation beam in FIG. 4; FIG.

6 is a state diagram when the radiation beam is swept rapidly in FIG. 4;

7 is a state diagram showing a service area as a result of the high speed sweep of the radiation beam in FIG.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to a wireless communication method and apparatus using high speed sweeping of an antenna radiation beam capable of improving service area expansion and diversity.

The present invention relates to the overall wireless communication system, but for convenience of description, the mobile communication system will be described as an example.

In a mobile communication system, a base station generally transmits and receives a service area divided into three sectors for frequency reuse efficiency. 1 is a state diagram showing a service area by a radiation beam in such a conventional base station. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional base station covers the service area by dividing the service area 10 into three sectors S1, S2, and S3, and forming and radiating fixed beams that can cover each area. In FIG. 1, beam widths 11, 12, and 13 radiated by a fixed beam are shown.

The system capacity of the base station and the beam width of the radiation beam are designed to be most appropriately and efficiently designed by cell planning from the initial stage. The service area of the base station is variable by the system capacity of the base station and the beamwidth of the radiation beam. FIG. 2 is a state diagram in which the beam width of the radiation beam is narrowed in FIG. 1, and FIG. 2 shows that the beam width of the radiation beam is variable in a state in which the beam width of the radiation beam is formed as shown in FIG. 1 to cover the service area 10. An example of one case is shown. Referring to FIG. 2, when the beam width of the radiation beam is modified to a narrow beam 14 as illustrated in FIG. 2, the antenna gain is increased to increase the signal reaching distance. In the example of FIG. 2, as the signal reaching distance is increased, the service area is extended to the area 20 wider than the initially set area 10. However, the horizontal service area is reduced.

3 is a state diagram illustrating a case in which a service area is enlarged using a high power amplifier in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a high power transmission / reception method for solving the disadvantage that the service area in the horizontal direction is reduced as illustrated in FIG. 2. An example of the case where the service area of the base station is extended by using an amplifier is shown. Referring to FIG. 3, the wide area 20 is extended from the initially set area 10 without reducing the service area in the horizontal direction by radiating a wide beam 15 by using a high power transmitting / receiving amplifier.

As described above, in order to expand the service area, a high power transmission / reception amplifier must be used.

On the other hand, since the transmission signal reaches the receiver through the multipath in the wireless communication system, the transmitted signal is affected by various scatterers such as buildings, trees, and moving objects. Therefore, the radio waves received by the receiver become synthesized waves having different amplitudes and phases, and the synthesized waves have random characteristics expressed by probability distributions.

In a wireless communication system, when a radio wave having a different amplitude and phase received through a multipath is synthesized, a fading phenomenon occurs in which the strength of a signal increases or decreases significantly. This fading phenomenon is inevitable in a wireless communication environment and is a major cause of deterioration of transmission quality.

Therefore, in the mobile communication system, a diversity scheme is used to prevent the degradation of transmission quality due to fading. In particular, a space diversity or polarization diversity scheme that requires a dual or multiple reception system is widely used.

As described above, in the conventional wireless communication system, since a high power amplifier must be used to expand the service area, it is expensive and the diversity system is used to stabilize the reception environment. There was a problem that needs to be configured.

An object of the present invention is to provide a wireless communication method and apparatus that can extend the service area to the same system capacity by using a high speed sweeping of the antenna radiation beam to solve this conventional problem.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for wireless communication using high-speed sweeping of an antenna radiation beam that can improve a reception environment by maintaining a level of a synthesized signal due to fading.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a wireless communication method and apparatus using high speed sweeping of an antenna radiation beam which can perform a good reception without using a diversity scheme and can simplify a transmission / reception system.

In order to achieve the object of the present invention, a wireless communication method using a high speed sweeping of an antenna radiation beam receives a signal to be transmitted and distributes it to a predetermined number of signals, and is distributed in the first step. A second step of controlling the phase of the input signal so that the radiation beam is swept repeatedly within a predetermined period in a predetermined period and horizontally scanned, and the signal whose phase is controlled in the second step is received. A third step of radiating to the array antenna, a fourth step of low noise amplifying and outputting the signals received from the array antenna, and receiving the signals output in the fourth step, respectively, to receive the received beams within a predetermined period. A fifth step of controlling the phase of the input signal to be repeatedly swept at a period and horizontally scanning; and a phase controlled signal in the fifth step Power received is characterized in that a sixth step of synthesizing and outputting them.

The wireless communication apparatus using a high speed sweeping antenna radiation beam for achieving the object of the present invention is to receive an antenna consisting of a plurality of radiating element array, and the signal to be transmitted is divided into a predetermined number of signals to have a predetermined beam width A distributing means for outputting the first phase control means for adjusting a phase of the input signal to receive a signal distributed by the distributing means, and to horizontally scan the radiation beam, and an output signal of the first phase control means A high output amplification means for receiving and amplifying the output signal, a duplex filter for separating a transmission signal transmitted from the high output amplification means to the antenna and a reception signal received from the antenna, and the signal received from the antenna is the duplex filter. Low noise amplification means for amplifying and outputting when output through the, low noise amplification means Second phase control means for receiving the output signal and adjusting its phase so that the reception beam is horizontally scanned, synthesizing means for receiving the output signal of the second phase control means and synthesizing and outputting the output signal; And phase control driving means for outputting a phase control signal to the first and second phase control means so as to be repeatedly scanned within a predetermined section.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the same elements in the figures are represented by the same numerals wherever possible. In addition, detailed descriptions of well-known functions and configurations that may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted.

4 is a block diagram of a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 4, a wireless communication apparatus for performing wireless communication using fast switching of an antenna radiation beam according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an antenna 110, a distributor 120, and a first phase controller module ( 130, the first through fourth high power amplifiers 141, 142, 143, and 144, the first through fourth duplex filters 151, 152, 153, and 154, and the first through fourth low noise amplifiers 161, 162, 163, and 164, a second phase controller module 170, a synthesizer 180, and a phase control driving unit 190.

The antenna 110 includes first to fourth radiating element arrays 111, 112, 113, and 114 to perform data transmission / reception for wireless communication.

The divider 120 receives the signal A to be transmitted, divides it into four preset signals, and outputs the divided signals.

The phase controller module 130 includes first to fourth phase controllers 131, 132, 133, and 134, and receives a signal distributed by the distributor 120 to adjust the phase of the signal so that the beam is horizontally scanned. do.

The first to fourth high output amplifiers 141, 142, 143, and 144 output the output signals output from the first to fourth phase controllers 131, 132, 133, and 134 constituting the first phase controller module 130. Amplify and output.

The first to fourth duplex filters 151, 152, 153, and 154 are transmitted from the first to fourth high power amplifiers 141, 142, 142, and 144 to the antenna 110 and the antenna 110. Separates the received signal from.

The first to fourth low noise amplifiers 161, 162, 163, and 164 amplify the signals received from the antenna path 110 when they are output through the first to fourth duplex filters 151, 152, 153, and 154. To print.

The second phase controller module 170 receives the output signals of the first to fourth low noise amplifiers 161, 162, 163, and 164 and adjusts the phases thereof so that the beam is horizontally scanned, and the synthesizer 180 performs a second scan. The output signal of the phase controller module 170 is input and synthesized and output.

The phase control driving unit 190 outputs a phase control signal for horizontally scanning the beam through the first and second phase controller modules 130 and 170.

Referring to the operation of the wireless communication system of the present invention having such a configuration as follows.

First, when a signal A to be transmitted is input, the distributor 120 divides it into four signals. In this case, the divider 120 divides the input signal into four signals because the antenna 110 composed of four radiating element arrays 111, 112, 113, and 114 is used in the example of FIG. 4. That is, the number of signals distributed by the distributor 120 is determined by the number of radiating element arrays constituting the antenna 110. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the contents illustrated in FIG. 4.

FIG. 5 is a state diagram illustrating the beam width of the radiation beam in FIG. 4, which illustrates the beam width 110 of the radiation beam set by the distributor 120.

The four signals distributed by the divider 120 are input to the four phase controllers 131, 132, 133, and 134 in the first phase controller module 130, respectively.

Then, the first phase controller module 130 controls the phase of the input signal. Therefore, the beam radiated through the antenna 110 is radiated in a specific horizontal direction according to the phase value of the first phase controller module 130. At this time, the first phase controller module 130 controls the phase amount of the input signal according to the phase control signal of the phase control driving unit 190.

The signal whose phase is controlled by the first phase controller module 130 is amplified and output by the first to fourth high output amplifiers 141, 142, 143, and 144, respectively, and the first to fourth high output amplifiers 141, respectively. The signals amplified by the 142, 143, and 144 pass through the first to fourth duplex filters 151, 152, 153, and 154 for the purpose of separation of the transmitted and received signals, and then the first to fourth of the antenna 110. Radiating through the radiating element array (111, 112, 113, 114).

On the other hand, the operation at the time of reception is as follows.

First, the signal received from the antenna 110 is output to the first to fourth low noise amplifiers 161, 162, 163, and 164 through the first to fourth duplex filters 151, 152, 153, and 154, and the first to fourth The fourth to low noise amplifiers 161, 162, 163, and 164 amplify and output the same.

As such, the signals amplified by the first to fourth low noise amplifiers 161, 162, 163, and 164 are adjusted by a phase value by the second phase controller module 170, and are output by the synthesizer 180. And output.

In this way, the horizontal direction of the reception beam is also determined according to the controlled phase value. At this time, the second phase controller module 170 also controls the phase amount of the input signal according to the phase control signal of the phase control driving unit 190.

As described above, the first and second phase controller modules 130 and 170 control the phase amount of the input signal according to the phase control signal output from the phase control driving unit 190 to horizontally scan the transmission / reception beam. In this case, the horizontal scan should be performed continuously and repeatedly within a certain range. That is, the horizontal arrayed beam as shown in FIG. 5 is formed by the horizontally arrayed antenna 110, and then the beam is a service area using the first and second phase controller modules 130 and 140. Horizontal scanning to sweep at high speed within the range of the sector can create a situation such as emitting a myriad of beams 110, 120, 130, 140 as shown in FIG. 6.

However, since the beam emits the same beam periodically, not at the same time, in order to detect stable data, the amount of phase change, that is, one cycle required for horizontal scanning, is at least twice as large as the actual data rate. Must be set up quickly.

As described above, the service area according to the result of sweeping the beam at high speed is as shown in FIG. That is, in the same transmission and reception environment, the service area in the horizontal direction remains the same, but the entire service area is expanded because the radio wave reaching distance is increased.

Meanwhile, the phase controller module 130 may be located at the output terminal or the input terminal of the high output amplifier. For the high speed sweeping to be achieved in the present invention, the phase controller module 130 may be located at the input terminal of the high output amplifier 141, 142, 143, 144. It is advantageous. That is, when the phase controller module 130 is positioned at the input terminal of the high output amplifiers 141, 142, 143, and 144, the phase value of the small output RF signal may be easily changed according to the amount of voltage or current applied.

In addition, when the narrow beam is swept at a high speed, the signal strength of the synthesized wave, which is a combination of multipath propagation that varies according to a specific position and a specific time, can have a fairly uniform distribution than when using a fixed beam. . Therefore, it is not necessary to use the diversity scheme used in the reception system to prevent fading phenomenon in which the signal strength of the synthesized wave increases or decreases significantly. In other words, it is possible to maintain a good call quality without using the diversity method in the receiving system.

Meanwhile, when the distributor 120 and the synthesizer 180 are used as the switchable divider and the switchable synthesizer, the beam width of the radiation beam may be adjusted to a desired angle.

In the above description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be defined by the described embodiments, but should be determined by the equivalent of claims and claims.

As described above, the present invention has the advantage that the service area in the horizontal direction can be increased, but the radio service distance can be increased more than the conventional one even with the same base station capacity by sweeping the antenna radiation beam at high speed. . This also has the effect that the base station system can reduce the initial installation cost.

In addition, the level of the received signal, which is a composite wave of multipath radio waves, can be made uniform, thereby improving the reception environment. In addition, since the level of the received signal can be made uniform, the system configuration can be simplified because the conventional diversity method is not required.

Claims (14)

In the wireless communication method, Receiving a signal to be transmitted and distributing it to a predetermined number of signals; A second step of controlling the phase of the input signal so as to receive the signals distributed in the first step and repeatedly sweep the radiation beam at predetermined intervals within a predetermined period; And a third step of receiving a phase-controlled signal in the second step and radiating it to an array antenna. The method of claim 1, And receiving and amplifying the signals distributed in the first step, respectively, and amplifying them. The method of claim 1, And receiving and amplifying and outputting a signal whose phase is controlled in the second step, respectively, and outputting the amplified signal. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The horizontal scanning speed of the radiation beam is a wireless communication method using a high-speed sweeping of the antenna radiation beam, characterized in that at least twice the speed of the data transmission speed. In the wireless communication method, A first step of low noise amplifying and outputting the signals received from the array antenna; A second step of controlling the phase of the input signal to receive horizontally scanning the received beams by repeatedly inputting the signals output in the first step at predetermined intervals within a predetermined period; And a third step of receiving the phase-controlled signal in the second step, synthesizing and outputting the signal. The method of claim 5, The horizontal scanning speed of the radiation beam is a wireless communication method using a high-speed sweeping of the antenna radiation beam, characterized in that at least twice the speed of the data transmission speed. In the wireless communication method, Receiving a signal to be transmitted and distributing it to a predetermined number of signals; A second step of controlling the phase of the input signal so as to receive the signals distributed in the first step and repeatedly sweep the radiation beam at predetermined intervals within a predetermined period; A third step of receiving a signal whose phase is controlled in the second step and radiating it to an array antenna; A fourth step of low amplifying and outputting each signal received from the array antenna; A fifth step of controlling the phase of the input signal so as to receive the signals output in the fourth step and receive a horizontal scan repeatedly sweeping a predetermined period within a predetermined period; And a sixth step of receiving the phase-controlled signal in the fifth step, synthesizing and outputting the signal. The method of claim 7, wherein And receiving and amplifying and distributing the signals distributed in the first step, respectively, and outputting the amplified signals. The method of claim 7, wherein And receiving and amplifying and outputting a signal whose phase is controlled in the second step, respectively, and outputting the amplified signal. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, The horizontal scanning speed of the radiation beam is a wireless communication method using a high-speed sweeping of the antenna radiation beam, characterized in that at least twice the speed of the data transmission speed. In a wireless communication system, An antenna consisting of a plurality of radiating element arrays, Distribution means for receiving a signal to be transmitted and distributing it to a predetermined number of signals to have a predetermined beam width; First phase control means for receiving a signal distributed by the distribution means and adjusting a phase of the input signal to horizontally scan the radiation beam; High output amplifying means for receiving the output signal of the first phase control means and amplifying the output signal; A duplex filter for separating a transmission signal transmitted from the high output amplification means to the antenna and a reception signal received from the antenna; Low noise amplifying means for amplifying and outputting the signal received from the antenna through the duplex filter; Second phase control means for receiving the output signal of the low noise amplifying means and adjusting a phase thereof so that the reception beam is horizontally scanned; Synthesizing means for receiving the output signal of the second phase control means and synthesizing the output signal; And a phase control driving means for outputting a phase control signal to the first and second phase control means so that the radiation beam is repeatedly scanned within a desired predetermined section. 12. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 11, wherein the horizontal scanning speed of the radiation beam repeatedly scanned in the predetermined section is at least twice as large as the data transmission speed. The method of claim 11, wherein the dispensing means A wireless communication device using a high speed sweeping of the antenna radiation beam, characterized in that the switchable (switchable) divider. The method of claim 11, wherein the synthesizing means A wireless communication device using a high speed sweeping of the antenna radiation beam, characterized in that the switchable (switchable) synthesizer.

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