KR101023385B1 - Multi-band wireless terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a multi-band radio which suppresses a significant increase in circuit component cost and power consumption by having a plurality of broadband transceivers having the same configuration. The multi-band radio according to the present invention includes a first transmitter / receiver that operates in a predetermined frequency range among a plurality of transceivers, a second transmitter / receiver that is operable in the same or a part of the operable frequency range of the first transmitter / receiver, When the switch unit for switching the connection between the first transmitting and receiving unit and the second transmitting and receiving unit performs transmission and reception in a frequency range in which the first transmitting and receiving unit and the second transmitting and receiving unit can operate together, the switching unit is switched based on the received signal and the first transmitting and receiving unit And a control unit for controlling transmission and reception by sharing a frequency converter which converts the IF frequency and the RF frequency of the receiver and the second transmitter / receiver.

Description

Multiband Radios {MULTI-BAND WIRELESS TERMINAL}             

1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a multi-band radio of the present embodiment;

2 is a circuit diagram illustrating in detail a transceiver A of FIG. 1;

3 is a circuit diagram illustrating in detail the transceiver B of FIG. 1;

4 is a circuit diagram illustrating in detail the transceiver C of FIG. 1;

5 is a circuit diagram illustrating in detail the transceiver D of FIG. 1; and

6 is a circuit diagram illustrating in detail the transceiver E of FIG. 1.

 * Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

A ~ E: Transceiver 21A ~ 21E: Modem

22, 41B ~ 41E: Switch 42A ~ 42E: Antenna

100: control unit 200: upper layer processing unit

The present invention relates to a multiband radio, and more particularly, to a multiband radio in which a plurality of transceivers simultaneously operate to process independent radio channels handling a plurality of signals.

In a radio corresponding to a plurality of radio systems or a plurality of frequency bands, such as a software radio, a method of improving communication speed by using inter-system diversity, inter-system softover, or a plurality of radio systems simultaneously is generally used. .

In addition, in SDMA (Space Division Multiple Access), space-time division is performed by using a smart antenna that can change the directivity of the antenna according to the radio wave environment in order to increase communication capacity (number of receiving stations). The multiple connection is realized without increasing the bandwidth.

In these systems, a plurality of wideband transceivers are provided for processing independent radio channels that handle a plurality of signals, and these multiple transceivers operate simultaneously.

In the conventional multi-band radio, in order for the simultaneous operation of each channel to flexibly cope with the radio system, an RF (Radio Frequency) section covering a wide band on all channels is provided in each of the plurality of transceivers described above.

However, in a configuration having a plurality of broadband transceivers having the same configuration, the increase in circuit scale not only increases the production cost or increases the size of the multiband radio, but also entails a significant increase in power consumption.

An object of the present invention for solving the above problems is to provide a multi-band radio which can suppress a significant increase in circuit component cost and power consumption caused by having a plurality of broadband transceivers of the same configuration.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above object, and the invention as set forth in claim 1 is a multiband radio having a plurality of transceivers which simultaneously receive, transmit, or transmit and receive at a plurality of frequencies. The first transmitter / receiver operating in the predetermined frequency range, the second transmitter / receiver having the operable frequency range equal to all or a part of the operable frequency range of the first transmitter / receiver, the first transmitter / receiver and the second transmitter / receiver In the case of transmitting and receiving in the frequency range in which the switch unit and the first transmitter / receiver and the second transmitter / receiver operate together, the switch unit is switched based on the received signal, and the IF of the first transmitter / receiver and the second transmitter / receiver are It is characterized in that it comprises a control unit for controlling the transmission and reception by using a frequency converter for converting the frequency and the RF frequency.

In the invention described in claim 1, in the description of claim 1, the control unit is configured to perform transmission and reception by sharing a local oscillator of the first transmitter / receiver and the second transmitter / receiver when the first transmitter / receiver operates at the same channel frequency. Control the performance.

The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that, in the description of claim 1, the frequency converting unit shared on the receiving side includes frequency converting means for frequency converting a plurality of channel signals of RF frequency into a predetermined IF frequency. do.

The invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that, in the description of claim 3, a frequency converter that is not shared among the frequency converters included in the first transmitter / receiver or the second transmitter / receiver is stopped.

In the invention described in claim 1, in the description of claim 1, the frequency converter shared on the transmitting side offsets the channel frequency from the IF center frequencies of the first transmitter / receiver and the second transmitter / receiver of the modulated IF signal or baseband signal. And a signal adding means for synthesizing the plurality of IF signals frequency-converted to the IF frequency having a frequency conversion means for converting the synthesized IF signal to a predetermined RF frequency.

The invention according to claim 6 is characterized in that, in the description of claim 5, a frequency converter which is not used among the frequency converters included in the first transmitter / receiver or the second transmitter / receiver is stopped.

The invention according to claim 7 is characterized in that, in the description of claim 3 or 5, the frequency converting means switches to a bandwidth including a plurality of channel signals of RF frequencies for frequency converting the bandwidth of the IF filter.

According to claim 8, in the first aspect, the control unit controls the number of the plurality of transmission and reception units sharing a frequency converter for converting the IF frequency and the RF frequency in accordance with the transmission power of each shared transceiver. It is characterized by.

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.

First, the basic idea of this invention is demonstrated. The present invention optimizes RF hardware resources in order to suppress an increase in circuit size caused by having a plurality of wideband transceivers. That is, in a radio which simultaneously communicates at two or more different frequencies (frequency bands or channels), the frequency cover range of the transceiver unit independent for each frequency is set to a predetermined range. In addition, when a plurality of transceivers operate in the same frequency band, a part of the transceivers is shared. In addition, when a plurality of transceivers operate in the same frequency band, the local oscillator in front of the modulator is shared by the RF unit.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, one Embodiment of this invention is described with reference to drawings. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a multi-band radio of the present embodiment. The multiband radio | wireless apparatus in this embodiment consists of 5 channel transceivers A-E, antenna 42A-42E, switch 22, switch 41B-41E, modem 21A-21E, control part 100, and upper layer processing part 200. FIG.

2 to 6 show circuit diagrams of the transceivers A to E. FIG. The transceivers A and B can operate in the 800 MHz to 2.4 GHz band as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, and the transceiver C and D are operated in the 2.4 GHz band as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The 5 GHz band and the transceiver E can operate in the 5 GHz band from the 800 MHz band as shown in FIG.                     

The multi-band radio of the present embodiment uses a cellular system when used outdoors, and uses a wireless LAN in a limited area where a wireless LAN or the like is serviced indoors. In order to realize smooth handover without communication interruption, it is necessary to perform a soft handover between methods by simultaneously operating two transceivers for cellular and wireless LANs having different frequency bands. In the case of performing a handover between a plurality of systems having different channels in one frequency band, even if a plurality of transceivers are provided, if there is no overlap in each cover range, the software between different radio systems in the desired frequency band may be used. Handover cannot be performed. For this reason, in this embodiment, the transceiver E which can operate in all at least 1 frequency band (800 MHz band-5 GHz band) is provided first.

However, since it is not easy to realize an RF unit that can operate in all areas from a low frequency band to a high frequency band, it is easy to design another transceiver by dividing the required frequency band into a transceiver that operates in a lower frequency band and a transceiver that operates in a higher frequency band. Let's make it possible. That is, the above-described frequency band is divided into two frequency bands (800 MHz band to 2.4 GHz band and 2.4 GHz band to 5 GHz band), and transceivers A and B and transceivers C and D which can operate only in the respective bands are divided. All five transmitting and receiving units realize simultaneous operation at the target frequency.

In addition to the RF section as well as the IF section and the demodulation section, the channel bandwidth is not wide at low frequencies and the communication speed is slow enough to be mainly suitable for voice. The transmission is possible at a fairly high speed. Since the communication speed and the channel band are also different in this way, the effective design of the RF unit to the modem unit is facilitated by dividing the operating range of each transceiver.

As shown in Figs. 2 to 6, the circuit configuration of the transceivers A to E is mainly composed of the RF part, the IF part, and the base band part, and the configuration of the switch and the adder is separately set. First, the circuit configuration of the transmission / reception unit A will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

Transceiver A is RF amplifier 1A, mixer 2A, 7A, 11A, 16A, local oscillator 3A, 9A, IF filter 4A, 15A, IF amplifier 5A, 14A, AD converter 6A, BB (= baseband) filter 8A, 10A And an adder 12A, a DA converter 13A, and a power amplifier 17A. The receiving side converts the RF signal input from the antenna 42A into a BB signal, outputs it to the modem 21, and at the same time, the transmitting side receives the BB signal input from the modem 21. Is converted into an RF signal and output to the antenna 42A.

The other transceivers B to E are configured in the same manner as described above, and the transceiver B is newly provided with switches 30B, 31B, 32B, and adder 33B in the transceiver A, and does not have an adder corresponding to the adder 12A. It is not a configuration.

The transceiver C is a configuration in which the switches 30C, 31C, 32C, 34C, and adder 33C are newly installed in the transceiver A.

In addition, the transceiver D has a configuration in which the switches 30D, 31D, 32D, and adder 33D are newly installed in the transceiver A, and do not have an adder corresponding to the adder 12A.

The transceiver E has a configuration in which the switches 30E, 31E, and 32E are newly installed in the transceiver A and do not have an adder corresponding to the adder 12A.                     

The characteristic of the transceiver A in this embodiment is that on the receiving side, the output signal of the AD converter 6A is transmitted to the switch 31B of the transceiver B via the line A3, the switch 31C of the transceiver C via the B3, and the transceiver via C5. It is output to switch 31D of D and also to switch 31E of transceiver E through D5.

On the transmitting side, adder 12A adds the output of mixer 11A, the output of adder 33B of transceiver B (line A4), adder 33B outputs of mixer 11B, and output of adder 33C of transceiver C (line B4). Adder 33C adds the output of mixer 11C, the output of adder 33D of transceiver D (line C7), adder 33D adds the output of mixer 11D, and output of mixer 11E of transceiver D (line D7). Is that.

The characteristics of the transceiver A described above are also the same for the transceiver C. On the receiving side, the output signal of the AD converter 6C in the transceiver C is also output to the switches 31D and 31E of the transceivers D and E.

In addition, on the transmitting side, in the adder 12C, the output signals of the mixers 11D and 11E of the transceivers D and E are input and synthesized.

The control unit 100 controls the opening and closing of the above-described switch based on the signal information output from each of the transmitting and receiving units A to E. FIG. That is, the control unit 100 performs control to input the input signals from the antennas 42A to 42E to the transceivers A to E by switching the switches 41B to 41E, and at the same time, the transceivers A to E output the switches 22 to 22. Control outputting the output signal to each modem 21A ~ 21E. In addition, the controller 21A to 21E outputs signals to the transceivers A to E, and switches 41B to 41E to switch the signals A to E to the antennas 42A to 42E. Perform the control to output.

Hereinafter, the specific operation of the multi band radio in the present embodiment will be described. When the transceivers are shared, which transceivers simultaneously operate will be described in the following four cases.

(Case 1)

In case of performing voice call using cellular system by 800MHz CDMA and software download using 5GHz high speed wireless LAN, transceiver A and transceiver C are operated simultaneously. In this case, the controller 100 controls the switch 41C to connect the antenna 42C and the transceiver C. At this time, since the frequency bands handled by the transceiver A and the transceiver C are different, sharing of the circuit is not performed.

In the cellular system, when the reception diversity is performed, the control unit 100 also operates the reception unit of the transmission / reception unit B simultaneously.

(Case 2)

In case of performing a system-to-system handover between the 800MHz TDMA cellular system in the 800MHz CDMA cellular system or the 2GHz CDMA cellular system in which the communication cost or communication quality is favorable, the TDMA of 800MHz TDMA is transmitted and received. Part A is used, and transceiver B is used for CDMA at 800 MHz, and transceiver E is used for CDMA at 2 GHz. That is, after the handover is completed, voice processing is continued from the transceiver A to the transceiver B or the transceiver E. Hereinafter, circuit sharing when A and B operate simultaneously will be described.                     

On the receiving side, the transceiver A operates as a wide down converter for frequency converting RF signals of TDMA and CDMA into IF signals. That is, the TDMA and CDMARF signals input from the antenna 42A are amplified by the RF amplifier 1A and converted into the TDMA and CDMAIF signals by the local oscillator 3A and the mixer 2A. The IF signal is filtered by the IF filter 5A and then amplified again by the IF amplifier.

After the digital conversion in the AD converter 6A, it is input to the mixer 7B of the transceiver B through the mixer 7A and the line A3 and the switch 31. The mixer 7A acts as a down converter for converting a TDMAIF signal into a TDMABB signal, and the mixer 7B acts as a down converter for converting a CDMAIF signal into a CDMABB signal and is frequency-converted, respectively. The output TDMABB signal is filtered by the BB filter 8A and then outputted to the modem 21A through the switch 22. Further, the CDMABB signal is filtered by the BB filter 8B and then outputted to the modem 21B through the switch 22. The signals input to the modems 21A and 21B are demodulated and input to the upper layer processing unit 200.

On the transmission side, the transceiver A operates as a wide up converter for frequency converting IF signals of TDMA and CDMA into RF signals. That is, the TDMA BB signal input to the BB filter 10A of the transceiver A is filtered and then frequency-converted to the TDMA IF signal in the mixer 11A of the transceiver A. The CDMABB signal input to the BB filter 10B of the transceiver B is filtered and then frequency-converted into the CDMA IF signal in the mixer 11B of the transceiver B. The TDMA IF signal and the CDMA IF signal are outputted to the adder 12A through A4, the switch 32B, and the adder 33B, and synthesized. The synthesized TDMA and CDMAIF signals are converted into analog signals by the DA converter 13A and then amplified by an IF amplifier. The amplified TDMA and CDMA IF signals are filtered by the IF filter 15A and then frequency-converted into TDMA and CDMA RF signals by the local oscillator 3A and mixer 16A. The TDMA and CDMA RF signals are amplified by the power amplifier 17A and then output to the antenna 42A and transmitted.

At this time, the RF amplifiers 1B to AD converter 6B and DA converter 13B to the power amplifier 17B, which are not used at the RF front end of the transceiver B, are stopped.

When the total transmission power of the transceiver A and the transceiver B exceeds the allowable power of the power amplifier 17A of the transceiver A, the circuit power of each circuit is not shared between the transceiver A and the transceiver B in transmission. Use amplifiers 17A and 17B.

As described above, by increasing the circuits of the transceiver A and the transceiver B, the increase in power consumption can be reduced.

(Case 3)

In case 2, a case where circuit sharing of the transceivers A, B, and E is performed when the 800 MHz CDMA transmitter / receiver B is also required as a handover destination will be described. Similarly to the operation of the transmission / reception unit B in case 2, the transmission / reception unit E operates as a down converter for converting a CDMA IF signal into a CDMA BB signal at the time of reception. That is, the IF signal digitally converted by the AD converter 6A of the transceiver A is received by the mixer 7E, and frequency-converted to the CDMA BB signal. The CDMA BB signal is inputted through the switch 22 to the modem 21E, demodulated, and then outputted to the upper layer processing unit 200.

At the time of transmission, the transmission / reception unit E filters the CDMA BB signal by the BB filter 10E, and then converts the frequency into a CDMA IF signal by the mixer 11E. The CDMA IF signal frequency-converted by the transceiver E is output from the switch 32E to the adder 12A, and synthesized together with the TDMA IF signal frequency-converted by the transceiver A and the CDMA IF signal frequency-converted by the transceiver B.

At this time, the RF amplifiers 1E to AD converter 6E and the DA converter 13E to the power amplifier 17E, which are not used in the RF front end of the transceiver E, are stopped.

When the total transmit power of the transceiver A, the transceiver B, and the transceiver E exceeds the allowable power of the power amplifier 17A of the transceiver A, the circuit sharing of the transceiver A, the transceiver B, and the transceiver E in transmission is shared. Instead, the power amplifiers 17A, 17B, and 17E of each circuit are used.

As described above, even when the operating range of the transceiver A or the transceiver B is set narrower than that of the transceiver E, sufficient flexibility can be ensured with respect to the circuit use, and unnecessary long circuits are reduced, resulting in cost reduction. Can be reduced.

(Case 4)

When using a 2.4 GHz wireless LAN to speed up to 55 Mbps of 11 Mbps using a 5-channel multi-input / multi-output (MIMO) system, the transceivers A to E are operated simultaneously and the switches 41B to 41E are controlled individually. To antennas 42A-42E. At this time, by controlling the switches 30B to 30E, the output signals of the local oscillators 3A are sent to the mixers 2B to 2E, 16B to 16E, and the local signals are shared. At this time, by stopping the local oscillators 3B to 3E, the power consumption related to the local oscillators 3A to 3E can be reduced to 1/5.                     

In addition, in this embodiment, the structural example of the radio which digitizes in IF is shown, The signal division from the shared receiver and the signal addition to the shared transmitter are performed by the digital part. This allows more analog circuits to be common. At the same time, by dividing the dynamic range required for the analog unit into a plurality of parts, high performance components are not required for the separation of the received signal and the addition of the transmission signal in the analog unit, and the cost can be reduced significantly.

As described above, the invention of claim 1 is characterized in that, among the plurality of transceivers, the first transmitter / receiver operating in a predetermined frequency range and the operable frequency range are mutually different from all or part of the operable frequency range of the first transmitter / receiver. When the same second transmitter and receiver, the switch unit for switching the connection between the first transmitter and the second transmitter and receiver, and the first transmitter and receiver and the second transmitter and receiver perform transmission in the frequency range that can be operated together And a control unit for controlling transmission and reception by switching the switch unit based on a received signal, and sharing a frequency converter unit for converting the IF frequency and the RF frequency of the first transmitter / receiver and the second transmitter / receiver. By having a plurality of broadband transceivers, an effect of suppressing a significant increase in circuit component cost and power consumption can be obtained.

In the invention described in claim 1, in the invention according to claim 1, the control unit is a local oscillator of the first transmitter / receiver and the second transmitter / receiver when the first transmitter / receiver operates at the same channel frequency. Since it controls the transmission and reception by using a common, it is possible to obtain an effect that can reduce the power consumption associated with the local oscillator.

Claims (8)

In a multi-band radio having a plurality of transceivers that simultaneously receive, transmit or transmit at a plurality of frequencies, A first transmitter and receiver operating in a first frequency range of the plurality of transceivers; A second transmitting and receiving unit operating in a second frequency range different from the first frequency; A third transmitting and receiving unit operating in the first frequency and the second frequency range; A switch unit for switching connections at the first transmitting and receiving unit, the second transmitting and receiving unit, and the third transmitting and receiving unit; And A control unit for switching the switch based on the received signal, The first transmitter / receiver, the second transmitter / receiver, and the third transmitter / receiver include a frequency converter for converting IF and RF frequencies, respectively; When one of the first and second transmitters and receivers and the third transmitter and receiver simultaneously transmits and receives a frequency signal of the same range, the controller is the same as the third transmitter and receiver of the first and second transmitters and receivers. The frequency converter included in any one of the transceivers for transmitting and receiving the frequency signal in the range or the frequency converter included in the third transmitter / receiver unit may be shared to be the same as the third transmitter / receiver of the first and second transmitter / receivers. And any one of the transceiver and the third transmitter / receiver to transmit and receive the frequency signal in the same range. The method of claim 1, When one of the first and second transmitter and receiver and the third transmitter and receiver simultaneously transmits and receives a frequency signal of the same range, the control unit transmits and receives the frequency signal by sharing a local oscillator provided in the common frequency converter Multi-band radio characterized in that the control to. The method of claim 1, The frequency converting unit shared on the receiving side comprises frequency converting means for frequency converting a plurality of channel signals of RF frequency into a predetermined IF frequency. The method of claim 3, When any one of the first and second transmitter and receiver transmits and receives a frequency signal of the same range at the same time, the frequency signal of the same range as the third transmitter and receiver among the first and second transmitter and receiver are transmitted and received. And a frequency converter which is not shared among the frequency converter included in any one of the transmitter and receiver or the frequency converter included in the third transmitter and receiver stops operation. The method of claim 1, The frequency converter shared on the transmitting side is an IF frequency having a channel frequency offset from the IF center frequencies of the first transmitter / receiver, the second transmitter / receiver, and the third transmitter / receiver to modulate IF signals or baseband signals. Signal adding means for synthesizing a plurality of IF signals which are frequency-converted to And And a frequency converting means for converting the synthesized IF signal into a predetermined RF frequency. The method of claim 5, When any one of the first and second transmitter and receiver transmits and receives a frequency signal of the same range at the same time, the frequency signal of the same range as the third transmitter and receiver among the first and second transmitter and receiver are transmitted and received. And a frequency converter which is not shared among the frequency converter included in any one of the transmitter and receiver or the frequency converter included in the third transmitter and receiver stops operation. The method according to claim 3 or 5, And the frequency converting means converts the bandwidth of the IF filter into a bandwidth including a plurality of channel signals of an RF frequency for frequency converting. The method of claim 1, And the control unit controls the number of the plurality of transmission and reception units sharing the frequency converter for performing the conversion of the IF frequency and the RF frequency according to the transmission power of each shared transceiver.

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