KR20160080434A - Relay capable of blocking spurious output - Google Patents

Abstract

There is provided a digital repeater which comprises: an output control circuit portion which has a circuit configuration that maintains a digital output related to a repeating signal in a disable state when power of the repeater is turned on; and a control portion which outputs an output activation control signal to make the digital output enabled after an initialization process of an operation of a digital part in the repeater is finished as the power of the repeater is turned on.

Description

[0001] RELAY CAPABLE OF BLOCKING SPURIOUS OUTPUT [0002]

The present invention relates to a repeater capable of interrupting the output of unwanted waves, and more particularly, to a repeater capable of interrupting the output of unwanted waves from the digital output when the power is turned on.

In general, a repeater is installed in a mobile communication system to expand a service area of a base station or to resolve a shadow area. In particular, in a digital mobile communication system, rather than a method of simply amplifying the power of an RF signal by receiving an RF signal, a digital signal is extracted from the received RF signal, digital signal processing is performed on the extracted digital signal, Digital repeater is applied.

In such a digital repeater, an initialization process of digital elements (for example, an FPGA, a CPU, an ADC, a DAC, a PLL, and the like) is required upon power on. When the digital output is enabled during the initialization process of such digital elements, a spurious wave may be emitted from the digital output. If such an unwanted wave is outputted to the outside, it can give a demage to the entire system such as a PAU (Power Amplification Unit) at the subsequent stage.

Therefore, there is a need for a technique capable of blocking the output of unwanted waves from the power on digital output of the digital repeater.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a repeater capable of blocking the output of unwanted waves in the digital output when the power is turned on.

According to an aspect of the present invention, in the digital repeater,

An output control circuit portion having a circuit configuration for maintaining a digital output related to a relay signal in a disable state when the power of the repeater is turned on; And

And a controller for outputting an output activation control signal for enabling a digital output after completion of an initialization process of a digital part in the repeater performed when the power of the repeater is turned on A digital repeater is provided.

In one embodiment, the digital part comprises a digital front end output unit for constituting a starting end of a digital part based on a signal transmission path and for converting an analog relay signal into a digital signal, and a digital signal processing unit And a digital termination output section for converting the signal processed digital signal into an analog signal, constituting a final stage of the digital part based on the signal transmission path, as a digital configuration section,

Wherein the output control circuit unit controls the output of at least one of the digital front end output unit, the digital signal processing unit, and the digital termination output unit to be in a deactivated state when the relay power is turned on, To a single digital component.

In one embodiment, the control section may transmit the output activation control signal directly to the digital configuration section through the output control circuit section or in the digital output deactivation state.

In one embodiment, the output control circuit unit may further include a circuit configuration for maintaining the output of a PAU (Power Amplification Unit) disposed at the rear end of the digital part in a deactivated state according to a signal transmission path when the power of the repeater is turned on .

In one embodiment, the output control circuitry may communicate a PAU activation control signal to the PAU that activates the operation of the PAU when the output activation control signal is received from the controller.

In one embodiment, the control unit determines whether or not the digital part has been initialized based on at least one of a PLL (Phase Lock Loop) lock signal, an input relay signal, and a repeater alarm signal in the repeater, It is possible to output the output activation control signal only when it is determined as a normal state as a result of the discrimination.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the power of the digital repeater is turned on, spurious waves are radiated from the digital output and are prevented from being transmitted to the rear end along the signal transmission path, thereby preventing the system demage at the rear end such as PAU There is an effect that can be done.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a digital repeater to which the present invention is applicable. Fig.
2 is a block diagram of a repeater capable of blocking spurious output according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
3 is a flow chart of a spurious wave output blocking method according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a block diagram of a repeater capable of blocking spurious output according to a second embodiment of the present invention;
5 is a flow chart of a spurious wave output blocking method according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is capable of various modifications and various embodiments, and specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the detailed description. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the following description of the present invention, detailed description of known related arts will be omitted when it is determined that the gist of the present invention may be unnecessarily obscured. In addition, numerals (e.g., first, second, etc.) used in the description of the present invention are merely an identifier for distinguishing one component from another.

Also, in this specification, when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" with another element, the element may be directly connected or directly connected to the other element, It should be understood that, unless an opposite description is present, it may be connected or connected via another element in the middle.

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

1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating an example of a digital repeater to which the present invention is applicable.

Referring to FIG. 1, a down-converter 10, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 12, and a digital signal processor (not shown) are connected to a downlink signal transmission path A DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) 14, an up converter 16, and a PAU (Power Amplification Unit) 18 are disposed. (Low Noise Amplifier) 28, a downconverter 26, an ADC 24, a digital signal processor (not shown), and the like, along its signal propagation path on an uplink signal path (i.e., a reverse path) 30, a DAC 22, and an up-converter 20 are disposed.

The down-converter 10 on the downlink signal transmission path receives a radio frequency (RF) signal transmitted from a base station (not shown) by wire or radio, down-converts the RF signal into an IF (Intermediate Frequency) Conversion is performed. The frequency down-converted IF signal is sampled by the ADC 12 and converted into a digital signal having a specific number of bits (for example, 14 bits). The digital signal converted by the ADC 12 is subjected to signal processing by the digital signal processing unit 30 and the digital signal processed signal is input to the DAC 14 and can be converted into an analog signal again. The analog signal output from the DAC 14 is again frequency upconverted to an RF signal by the upconverter 16 and the RF upconverted RF signal is amplified by the PAU 18 and transmitted through a service antenna And may be output to terminals within the coverage.

The uplink signal propagation path may be configured to have the same function as that of the downlink signal propagation path described above, which differs from the signal propagation direction. That is, the LNA 28 on the uplink signal transmission path low-noise amplifies the RF signal input through the service antenna (not shown) and transmits the RF signal to the down converter 26. The down converter 26 converts the RF signal into an IF signal Frequency downconversion. The frequency down-converted IF signal is converted into a digital signal by the ADC 24, and the converted digital signal is subjected to digital signal processing by the digital signal processing unit 30 and then input to the DAC 22. [ The DAC 22 converts a digital signal into an analog signal, and the converted analog signal of the IF band can be frequency-up-converted to an RF signal by the up-converter 20 and transmitted to a base station (not shown).

As described above, in the digital repeater, there is a digital signal processing unit 30 for digital signal processing, and the digital signal processing unit 30 can be implemented by an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) as shown in FIG. 1, the digital signal processing section 30 may be implemented separately on the downlink and uplink, although the digital signal processing section 30 is shown as being implemented in common on the downlink and uplink signal propagation paths.

The digital signal processing section 30 applies a preprogrammed processing algorithm to the digital signal digitally converted by the ADCs 12 and 24 disposed at the front end of the digital signal transmission path to generate image rejection Digital filtering, FA (Frequency Allocation), signal processing for each sector, and multiplexing. In this way, the digital signal processed by the digital signal processing unit 30 is output to the output device at the end of the digital signal transmission path (in the case of FIG. 1, the downlink signal transmission path and the end of digital signal transmission on the uplink signal transmission path (I.e., a terminal or a base station) through each of the DACs 14 and 22 disposed at the terminating end (i.e., the terminating end).

As a result, in a digital repeater, it is necessary to prevent spurious emissions from being emitted through an output device disposed at the final stage based on a signal transmission path in a digital part. Accordingly, the present invention proposes various embodiments of methods that can prevent spurious emission in a digital termination output device.

The digital termination output in each of the embodiments to be described below may be an end device of a digital part placed on the downlink signal transmission path as described above with reference to FIG. 1, Or an end device. That is, the digital termination output unit defined below refers to a digital configuration unit that configures a digital final stage based on a signal transmission path in a digital part in a repeater. Similarly, the digital shear output in each of the embodiments refers to a digital component that constitutes the digital starting end when referencing the signal path in the digital part.

In the foregoing, a digital RF repeater has been described as a repeater capable of blocking the spurious output according to each embodiment of the present invention. However, the repeater capable of blocking the spurious output according to the embodiments of the present invention may be an MU (Main Unit) constituting a distributed antenna system (or a RU (Remote Unit) connected to the MU and a branch) have. That is, the spurious output blocking method according to each embodiment of the present invention can be applied to a forward path (a forward path or an uplink path) of an RU to a reverse path (an up path path) of an MU.

1st Example

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a repeater capable of blocking the spurious output according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a spurious emission output blocking method according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, a repeater capable of blocking the spurious output according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG.

Referring to FIG. 2, a repeater capable of blocking the spurious output according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes a power supply unit 110, a digital part 200, and an output control circuit unit 120. 2, a digital front end output unit 210, a digital signal processing unit 220, a digital termination output unit 230, and a control unit 240 may be mounted on the digital part 200. Of course, various digital elements may be mounted on the digital board 200 in addition to the components shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 shows only the constituent parts related to the implementation of the spurious wave output blocking function according to the embodiment of the present invention in order to concentrate the convenience and explanation in the drawing, and this is also the case in FIG. 4 which will be described later. The digital termination processor 230 may be a digital to analog converter (DAC), and the controller 240 may be a central processing unit (CPU) , And the digital signal processor 220 is implemented by an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) (the same applies also in FIG. 4).

The digital front end output unit 210 outputs a digital signal through analog-to-digital conversion from the RF signal received by the repeater. Of course, the analog signal input to the digital front-end output unit 210 may be a frequency down-converted signal to an IF signal, as described above with reference to FIG.

The digital signal processing unit 220 receives the digital signal converted by the digital front end output unit 210 and performs digital signal processing on the input digital signal. The function and role of the digital signal processing unit 220 have been described with reference to FIG. 1, and a duplicate description will be omitted here.

The digital termination output unit 230 is disposed at the end of the digital signal transmission based on the signal transmission path, receives the digital signal processed by the digital signal processing unit 220, and converts the digital signal into an analog signal. That is, the digital termination output section 130 is a digital section of the final stage of the digital part in which digital processing is performed in the digital repeater.

The power supply unit 110 is a component for supplying the power required for operation of each component in the repeater. The power required for operation of the digital components in the digital part 200 and the output control circuit unit 120 in the embodiment of the present invention Can be output.

The output control circuit unit 120 includes a hardware circuit configuration for controlling digital output relating to a relay signal (i.e., a downlink signal or an uplink signal) in the digital part 200. [ The control unit 240 also performs a function for controlling the digital output of the relay signal in the digital part 200. This can be clearly understood through the description of the flowchart of FIG. 3 to be described later. Here, the digital output is termed as a term collectively referred to as a signal output through the digital configuration unit, and it does not matter whether the output signal itself is an analog signal or a digital signal.

Hereinafter, with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3, a block diagram of FIG. 2 will be described with reference to a spurious emission cutoff system of the first embodiment of the present invention.

When the power of the repeater is turned on in accordance with step S110 of FIG. 3, the digital output of the digital component in the digital part 200 is kept in a disabled state (refer to step S120 of FIG. 3). Such maintenance of the inactive state of the digital output can be realized by a hardware circuit connection configuration between the output control circuit portion 120 and the digital configuration portion in one embodiment. For example, when the relay power is turned on, the circuit may be implemented such that a signal (Low or High signal) for forcing the digital output to be inactivated from the output control circuit part 120 to the output control terminal of the digital configuration part is forcibly applied. Thereby, even when the power of the repeater is turned on, the signal can not be outputted by the digital constituent unit.

At this time, the digital configuration unit in which the digital output is in an inactive state may be at least one of the digital front end output unit 210, the digital signal processing unit 220, and the digital termination output unit 230 shown in FIG. In all of the above, the circuit may be implemented such that the digital output is held in a deactivated state, and any one or two of the digital outputs may be implemented in a deactivated state. That is, assuming the signal transmission path of the downlink or uplink signal, the digital output of any digital component is kept in the inactive state to the extent that the purpose of not transmitting the spurious wave to the final output stage such as PAU at the rear end of the repeater is achieved May be an option of the designer. However, since the digital configuration unit for directly transmitting the unnecessary waves to the final output stage of the PAU is the digital termination output unit 230 in FIG. 2, a method of implementing the circuit so that the digital output of the digital termination output unit 230 is maintained in the inactivated state It may be considered first. However, in this embodiment, it is assumed that the digital outputs of the digital front end output unit 210, the digital signal processing unit 220, and the digital termination output unit 230 are all kept in the inactivated state when the repeater is powered on .

After the above-described step S120, the initialization of each digital element (constituent part) in the digital part 200 is performed (step S130 in FIG. 3). In the digital repeater, when the repeater power is turned on, the operation of initializing the operation of the digital part is automatically performed. If the digital components are activated before the end of the process, the spurious emission may be emitted as a digital output. Accordingly, in the embodiment of the present invention, the digital output by the digital configuration units is activated (see step S150 in FIG. 3) only after the operation initialization process of the digital part is completed, thereby solving the system damage problem caused by the spurious emission .

To this end, the control unit 240 of FIG. 2 controls the output of the output enable control signal (see the enable control signal of FIG. 2) for activating the digital output after the operation initialization process of the digital part executed as the power of the repeater is turned on Can be output. At this time, the output activation control signal is transmitted to the output control circuit part 120 as shown in FIG. 2, and the output control circuit part 120 receiving the signal outputs a signal (Enable 1 ~ 3) can be applied to each digital component. Of course, unlike the example shown in FIG. 2, the output activation control signal may be directly applied to or transmitted from the control unit 240 to each digital component.

Although the method of activating the digital output immediately after the operation initialization process of the digital part is completed has been described above, the timing of activating the digital output may be different from the above. For example, even after the operation initialization process of the digital part is completed, as in step S140 of FIG. 3, the phase lock loop lock signal may be generated based on at least one of a PLL (Phase Lock Loop) lock signal, It may be possible to check whether there is an abnormality and to activate the digital output only when the repeater is in a normal state. That is, step S140 of FIG. 3 may be omitted according to the implementation method (this also applies to step S240 of FIG. 5).

3, in addition to the completion of the operation initialization process of the digital part, the control unit 240 determines whether or not the PLL (Phase Lock Loop) lock signal, the input relay signal, and the repeater alarm signal It is determined whether there is an abnormality based on at least one of them, and the output activation control signal described above will be outputted only when it is determined that the abnormality is normal.

Second Example

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a repeater capable of blocking spurious output according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a spurious emission output blocking method according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, a repeater capable of blocking the spurious output according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG.

4, the repeater according to the second embodiment of the present invention includes a power unit 110, a digital board 200, an output control circuit unit 120, and a PAU 130. 4 shows a case where a digital front end output unit 210, a digital signal processing unit 220, a digital termination output unit 230, and a control unit 240 are mounted on the digital board 200. [

The repeater capable of interrupting the spurious output according to the second embodiment of the present invention employs the method of the first embodiment described above and uses the operation of the PAU 130 corresponding to the final stage of the analog output Is also used.

Hereinafter, a description overlapping with the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 will be omitted, and the contents added in the second embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. That is, steps S210, S230, and S240 of FIG. 5 are essentially the same processes as steps S110, S130, and S140 of FIG. 3, respectively.

In FIG. 5, in step S220 corresponding to step S120 in FIG. 3, when the power of the repeater is turned on, the operation of the PAU 130 is maintained in the inactive state in addition to the digital output is kept in the inactive state. To this end, the output control circuit unit 120 may include a circuit configuration for keeping the operation of the PAU 130 in the inactive state when the power of the repeater is turned on.

Thus, in step S250 of FIG. 5, after step S230 and / or step S240, the digital output is switched to the active state and the operation of the PAU 130 is also switched to the active state. 3) is received from the control unit 240, the output control circuit 120 outputs a PAU activation control signal (Fig. 3 (b)) for activating the operation of the PAU 130 To the PAU 130).

In this way, in the second embodiment of FIG. 5, in addition to the digital output, when the power of the repeater is turned on, the problem of system damage due to emission of the unnecessary wave output can be more reliably prevented by disabling the PAU operation.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims And changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

110:
120: Output control circuit
130: PAU (Power Amplification Unit)
200: Digital Part
210: digital front end output section
220: Digital signal processor
230: Digital termination output section

Claims (6)

In a digital repeater,
An output control circuit portion having a circuit configuration for maintaining a digital output related to a relay signal in a disable state when the power of the repeater is turned on; And
And a control unit for outputting an output activation control signal for enabling digital output after the initialization process of the digital part in the repeater is performed as the power of the repeater is turned on,
.
The method according to claim 1,
The digital part includes a digital front end output unit for constituting a starting end of a digital part based on a signal transmission path and converting an analogue relay signal into a digital signal and a digital signal processing unit for performing digital signal processing on the converted digital signal And a digital termination output unit for constituting a final stage of the digital part based on the signal transmission path and converting the signal processed digital signal back into an analog signal,
Wherein the output control circuit unit controls the output of at least one of the digital front end output unit, the digital signal processing unit, and the digital termination output unit to be in a deactivated state when the relay power is turned on, To a digital component.
3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the control section directly transmits the output activation control signal to the digital configuration section through the output control circuit section or the digital output inactivated state.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the output control circuit unit further comprises a circuit configuration for maintaining an operation of a PAU (Power Amplification Unit) disposed at a rear end of the digital part in accordance with a signal transmission path when the power of the repeater is turned on, .
5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the output control circuit part transmits to the PAU a PAU activation control signal for activating the operation of the PAU when the output activation control signal is received from the control part.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the control unit determines whether or not an abnormality based on at least one of a PLL (Phase Lock Loop) lock signal, an input relay signal, and a repeater alarm signal in the repeater, And outputs the output activation control signal only when it is determined as a normal state as a result of the determination.

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