KR20210041473A - Method and apparatus for forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of received signals - Google Patents

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a 5G (5^th generation) or pre-5G communication system for supporting a data transmission rate that is higher than that of the 4G (4^th generation) communication system such as long-term evolution (LTE). The present disclosure relates to a radio communication system. The radio communication system comprises: multiple antennas configured to check multiple radio signals; and a receiver configured to receive the signals received by the antenna. The receiver comprises: a coupler circuit configured to couple the multiple received signals to different signal paths to generate a first coupling signal to which the multiple received signals are added and a second coupling signal corresponding to a difference between the multiple received signals; and a beam generator configured to generate multiple beamformed signals based on an in-phase signal and a quadrature-phase signal respectively corresponding to the first coupling signal and the second coupling signal.

Description

Method and apparatus for forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of received signals TECHNICAL FIELD [METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING A PLURALITY OF BEAMFORMED SIGNALS USING A PLURALITY OF RECEIVED SIGNALS}

The present disclosure generally relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for forming a plurality of beamformed signals by using a plurality of received signals in a wireless communication system.

Beamforming refers to enhancing the strength of a signal through a superposition method when transmitting and receiving a signal using a plurality of transducers. When explaining the concept of transmitting/receiving beamforming using a one-dimensional array transducer, one point at which image information is to be obtained is called a focal point, and a plurality of transducers are arranged in a straight line. There is a difference in the distance to the focal point. Therefore, the time to return after the signal is transmitted and reflected from each transducer is different, and if the received signals are overlapped, the signal is not amplified because the phases are not aligned with each other. Consequently, in performing beamforming, a process of matching the phases of signals that are out of phase with each other is required. The phase matching method is performed by delaying the transmission and reception signals, and the beamforming method is divided according to the delaying method. Beamforming can be divided into analog beamforming and digital beamforming. The analog beamforming method delays the signal using a circuit element, while the digital beamforming method digitizes the signal, stores it, and reads the data after the desired time has elapsed. Delay through.

Based on the above discussion, the present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of received signals in a wireless communication system.

In addition, the present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for forming a larger number of beams than a plurality of received signals in forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of received signals in a wireless communication system.

In addition, the present disclosure does not use a separate phase shifter in forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of received signals in a wireless communication system, and uses a phase shifter built into the I/Q demodulator to form a plurality of beams. It provides an apparatus and method for forming a formed signal.

The present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for detecting a direction of a received signal by forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of received signals in a wireless communication system.

In addition, the present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for generating a plurality of beamformed signals in a low power system in which it is difficult to mount a plurality of receivers in a wireless communication system.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, in a wireless communication system, a communication device includes a plurality of antennas for checking a plurality of wireless signals and a receiver for receiving a signal received by the antenna, and the receiver is the plurality of received signals. A coupler circuit and the first coupling signal to generate a first coupling signal to which the plurality of received signals are added and a second coupling signal corresponding to a difference between the plurality of received signals by coupling them to different signal paths And a beam generator that generates a plurality of beamformed signals based on an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal corresponding to each of the second coupling signals.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a process in which a plurality of antennas check a plurality of radio signals in a wireless communication system, a process of receiving a signal received by the antenna, and a process of coupling the plurality of received signals to different signal paths. A process of generating a first coupling signal to which the plurality of received signals are added, a process of generating a second coupling signal corresponding to a difference between the plurality of received signals, the first coupling signal and the second A process of generating an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal corresponding to each of the coupling signals, and a process of generating a plurality of beamformed signals based on the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal.

An apparatus and method according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may include forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of received signals, so that a greater number of beamformed signals than a received signal is used using a receiver smaller than the number of received signals. To be able to form.

The effects obtainable in the present disclosure are not limited to the effects mentioned above, and other effects not mentioned may be clearly understood by those of ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present disclosure belongs from the following description. will be.

1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the receiving device shown in FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the receiving device shown in FIG. 2 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
4 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the receiving device shown in FIG. 3 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
5 is a block diagram of an RF processing unit shown in FIG. 3 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
6 is a diagram illustrating a process of processing a wireless signal in the receiving device illustrated in FIG. 1 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
7 is a flowchart illustrating a method of forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of received signals in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
8 is a flowchart illustrating a method of forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of in-phase signals and quadrature signals in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
9 is a diagram illustrating an implementation example of an RF processing unit illustrated in FIG. 5 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
10 illustrates an implementation example according to another embodiment of the RF processing unit shown in FIG. 5 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
11 is a graph illustrating a return loss for each frequency band of an RF processing unit shown in FIG. 9 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
12 is a graph illustrating an isolation diagram for each frequency band of an RF processing unit shown in FIG. 9 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
13 is a graph illustrating a phase difference for each frequency band between antennas shown in FIG. 9 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
14 is a graph illustrating a change in an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal generated by the reception device shown in FIG. 1 according to an incident angle of a wireless signal in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
FIG. 15 is a graph in which the reception device shown in FIG. 1 compares direction detection performance with a monopulse type reception device according to an incident angle of a wireless signal in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Terms used in the present disclosure are only used to describe a specific embodiment, and may not be intended to limit the scope of other embodiments. Singular expressions may include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, may have the same meaning as commonly understood by a person of ordinary skill in the technical field described in the present disclosure. Among the terms used in the present disclosure, terms defined in a general dictionary may be interpreted as having the same or similar meanings as those in the context of the related technology, and unless explicitly defined in the present disclosure, an ideal or excessively formal meaning Is not interpreted as. In some cases, even terms defined in the present disclosure cannot be interpreted to exclude embodiments of the present disclosure.

In various embodiments of the present disclosure described below, a hardware approach is described as an example. However, since various embodiments of the present disclosure include technology using both hardware and software, various embodiments of the present disclosure do not exclude a software-based approach.

Various direction finding technologies exist to date, but monopulse-based direction finding technologies are widely used as a simple method. The beam of the two antennas is composed of a left beam and a right beam based on the central axis, and the sum of the two beams is the sum (∑) channel and the delta () channel of the subtraction of the two beams. To form. A channel has a maximum size in a direction perpendicular to the antenna, whereas a channel has a minimum value. As the angle deviates from the central axis, the size of the channel becomes smaller and the size of the channel increases. Therefore, by using the difference between the two beams according to the angle, the angle at which the transmitter is located can be found. ∑ The size of the channel and the channel can be easily implemented as an RF circuit using a power synthesizer and a 180 degree hybrid. However, although the monopulse-based direction detection technology has the advantage that its configuration is simple, there is a trade-off between the accuracy of the direction detection and the detection angle. That is, if the accuracy of direction detection is increased, the detection angle becomes narrower, and when the detection angle is increased, the accuracy of direction detection decreases. In addition, since the size of the Σ channel and the channel is large according to the difference in angle, it is sensitive to direction detection errors when implemented in a digital method. Therefore, in general, the monopulse direction detection method uses two adjacent two beams with a narrow beam width, so that the direction detection range is narrow.

Hereinafter, the present disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for forming a plurality of beams using a plurality of received signals in a wireless communication system. Specifically, the present disclosure describes a technique for forming multiple beams in a low power system including a small number of receivers in a wireless communication system.

In addition, in the present disclosure, in order to determine whether a specific condition is satisfied or satisfied, an expression exceeding or less than is used, but this is only a description for expressing an example, and more or less descriptions are excluded. It is not to do. Conditions described as'above' may be replaced with'greater than', conditions described as'less than', conditions described as'less than', and conditions described as'above and below' may be replaced by'more and less'.

1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 1, the communication system 10 may be configured as a set of a plurality of communication devices, and examples thereof may include a transmitter 100 and a receiver 200. The transmitting device 100 and the receiving device 200 may include a plurality of pieces.

Transmitter 100 may transmit a radio signal (S _o) has a first antenna (ANT1), for transmission of wireless signals via the first antenna (ANT1), the receiving side apparatus 200.

According to various embodiments of the disclosure, the wireless signal may be a signal (S _o) is a RF (Radio Frequency). The receiving device 200 may receive a radio signal transmitted from the transmitting device 100 through a plurality of antennas ANT2 and ANT3.

/2)에 상응하는 거리만큼 이격되어 배치될 수 있다.Half-wave of the plurality of antennas of the receiving apparatus 200 (ANT2, ANT3) is a radio signal (S _o) to be received by the receiving apparatus 200 in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure (

It can be arranged spaced apart by a distance corresponding to /2).

The plurality of antennas ANT2 and ANT3 of the reception device 200 may receive a radio signal and receive a plurality of received signals having different phase differences.

)이 달라질 수 있으며, 수신 장치(200)는 달라지는 도래각에 기초하여 복수의 빔포밍된 신호들을 생성할 수 있다.The angle of arrival (AoA) of the radio signal So received from the receiving device 200 according to the location of the transmitting device 100,

) May vary, and the reception device 200 may generate a plurality of beamformed signals based on a varying angle of arrival.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, when the reception device 200 is implemented as a direction detection device, the reception device 200 determines the direction of the transmission device 100 based on the magnitudes of the generated plurality of beamformed signals. Can be detected.

The present disclosure is not limited to the number of antennas ANT1, ANT2, and ANT3, and can be applied to a plurality of antennas, a plurality of transmitting devices 100, and a plurality of receiving devices 200.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a larger number of beamformed signals than the number of received signals and the number of receivers 200 may be generated.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the receiving device shown in FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 2, signal 1 and signal 2 are subtracted or added respectively to generate a coupling signal. That is, the first coupling signal is generated by the sum of the signal 1 and the signal 2, and the second coupling signal is generated by the difference between the signal 1 and the signal 2.

와 직교위상 신호인 Q가 생성된다.The first coupling signal (?) and the second coupling signal (A) are input to an I/Q demodulator and generate an in-phase signal (I) and a quadrature (Q) signal, respectively. That is, I _{∑ which is an} in-phase signal and Q _{∑ which} is a quadrature signal by the first coupling signal, and the in-phase signal by the second coupling signal.

And Q, which is a quadrature signal, is generated.

Each of I _Σ, Q _Σ, I _ㅿ and Q _ㅿ is input to a beamformer 240 and a plurality of beamformed signals are generated by the beamformer 240.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a signal for receiving signals and the number of beamformed signals generated are not limited to those shown in the drawings. That is, when m received signals are received according to various embodiments of the present disclosure, m/2 first coupling signals and m/2 first coupling signals are formed, respectively, as in-phase signals and quadrature signals. 2m beams can be formed by transforming (where m is a positive number greater than 1.)

3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the receiving device shown in FIG. 2 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 3, the reception device 200 includes a plurality of antennas ANT2 and ANT3, an RF processing unit 210, an I/Q demodulator 220, a beam generator 240, and a processor 350. Can include.

The plurality of antennas ANT2 and ANT3 may receive radio signals and receive a plurality of received signals having different phase differences.

Hereinafter, it is assumed that the radio signal received by each of the plurality of antennas ANT2 and ANT3 is the same as in Equation 1 below.

_o는 초기위상(0으로 가정)을 의미한다.)(In Equation 3, A is the size of the transmission signal, s _o is the symbol data, w _o is each frequency of the radio signal,

_o means the initial phase (assuming 0).)

로 표현할 수 있다.At this time, the plurality of received signals generated by the plurality of antennas ANT2 and ANT3 are r _o (t) and r _o (t)

It can be expressed as

가 된다. 여기서,

=(

/2)

,

는 안테나(ANT2, ANT3)의 중심을 기준으로 송신 장치(100)의 안테나와 이루는 각도를 말한다.Receiving signals assume far-field and approximate plane waves, respectively, r _o (t) and r _o (t)

Becomes. here,

=(

/2)

,

Denotes an angle made with the antenna of the transmitting device 100 based on the center of the antennas ANT2 and ANT3.

The RF processing unit 210 may include a coupler circuit 312 and a switch circuit 314.

The I/Q demodulator 220 may include a local oscillator 321, a phase shifter 322, a first mixer 323, and a second mixer 324.

The local oscillator signal generated by the local oscillator 321 is directly transmitted to the 1 mixer 323, and the local oscillator signal in which a phase difference of 90 degrees occurs while passing through the phase shifter 322 is transmitted to the second mixer 324. Can be.

The first mixer 223 may convert the frequency band of the first coupling signal or the second coupling signal into a baseband using the local oscillator signal transmitted from the local oscillator 321.

The second mixer 224 uses a local oscillator signal in which a phase difference of 90 degrees is generated while passing through the phase shifter 322 from the local oscillator 321 to determine the frequency band of the first coupling signal or the second coupling signal. It can be converted to baseband.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the first mixer 323 and the second mixer 324 may be implemented as a single mixer.

The first filter 325 sequentially performs filtering on each of the first baseband signal and the second baseband signal output from the first mixer 323, and the filtered first baseband signal, that is, the first baseband signal. Each of the in-phase signal I1 for the signal and the filtered second baseband signal, that is, the in-phase signal I2 for the first baseband signal, may be sequentially output.

The second filter 326 sequentially performs filtering on each of the first baseband signal and the second baseband signal output from the second mixer 324, and the filtered first baseband signal, that is, the first baseband signal. Each of the quadrature phase signal Q1 for the signal and the filtered second baseband signal, that is, the quadrature phase signal Q2 for the second baseband signal may be sequentially output.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, each of the first filter 225 and the second filter 226 may be implemented as a low pass filter (LPF).

)와 제2기저대역 신호에 대한 동위상 신호(예컨대, s_o-s_o

)For example, an in-phase signal for the first baseband signal output by the first filter 325 (eg, s _o +s _o

) And the in-phase signal for the second baseband signal (e.g., s _o -s _o

)

Can be expressed as in Equation 2 below.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the second filter 326 may sequentially generate a quadrature signal for the second baseband signal after generating a quadrature phase signal for the first baseband signal.

For example, the quadrature phase for the first baseband signal generated by the second filter 326

))와 제2기저대역 신호에 대한 직교위상 신호(예컨대, j(s_o-s_o

))는 아래의 수학식 3와 같이 나타날 수 있다.Signal (e.g. j(s _o +s _o

)) and a quadrature signal for the second baseband signal (e.g., j(s _o -s _o

)) can be expressed as in Equation 3 below.

The beam generator 240 includes in-phase signals I1 and I2 and quadrature signals for each of the first and second baseband signals output from the first filter 325 and the second filter 326, respectively. A plurality of beamformed signals Beam1 to Beam4 may be generated based on (Q1, Q2).

According to an embodiment, a plurality of beamformed signals Beam1 to Beam4 may be expressed as Equation 4 below.

, I_∑ s_o+s_o

, Qβ는 j(s_o+s_o

),Q_∑는 j(s_o-s_o

)일 수 있다.)(In Equation 4, Iβ is s _o -s _o

, I _∑ s _o +s _o

, Qβ is j(s _o + s _o

),Q _∑ is j(s _o -s _o

) Can be.)

In Equation 4, the beamformed signal (1, -1), which is the first row, is when the outputs of the two antennas ANT2 and ANT3 are added in a difference (β) state in the coupler circuit 312, that is, the two antennas ANT2, This may be the case when the phase of ANT3) is (0 degrees, 180 degrees).

In Equation 4, the beamformed signal (1, -j), which is the second row, may correspond to a case where the phases of the two antennas ANT2 and ANT3 are (0 degrees, -90 degrees).

In Equation 4, the beamformed signal (1, 1), which is the third row, is in a state in which the outputs of the two antennas ANT2 and ANT3 are added in phase (∑), and the phase of the two antennas ANT2 and ANT3 is This may be the case of (0 degrees, 0 degrees).

In Equation 4, the fourth row of beamformed signals 1 and j may correspond to a case where the phases of the two antennas ANT2 and ANT3 are (0 degrees, 90 degrees).

The processor 350 determines the incident angle of the wireless signal based on the size of each of the plurality of beamformed signals (Beam1 to Beam4) generated by the beam generator 240, and transmits based on the determined incident angle. The direction of the device 100 can be determined.

4 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the receiving device shown in FIG. 3 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

As a prior art, in order to implement a single channel direction detection system having an element antenna, an RF beamforming method using four digital phase shifters using a switch and a delay line was implemented. In this case, when the frequency is low below several GHz, the size of the phase shifter increases, making it difficult to implement. Alternatively, it is possible to design a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) using a lumped constant element, but in this case, power consumption and cost are high. In particular, the 180° phase shifter is not easy to implement due to its large size. In addition, since one beamformed signal is formed at a time, a total of four switch adjustments are required.

In order to overcome this disadvantage, various embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated in FIG. 4. Various embodiments of the present disclosure add only a single pole double throw (SPDT) switch as a 180° hybrid coupler and a switch circuit 314 as a coupler circuit without a separate phase shifter to the coupler circuit 312 of the RF processing unit 210. The 0° phase and 180° phase can be implemented, and a ±90° phase difference can be created by combining with the 90° phase shifter 323 built in the I/Q demodulator 22. Since most recent digital communication receivers use I/Q demodulators of direct conversion, 90° to generate an in-phase component of I signal (in-phase) and a Q signal (quadrature-phase) with a 90° phase difference from I signal. Since it has a built-in phase shifter, it is recycled.

5 is a block diagram of an RF processing unit shown in FIG. 3 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 5, the coupler circuit 212 includes a first coupling input terminal CI1 receiving a received signal through a second antenna ANT2 and a second receiving signal through a third antenna ANT3. It may include a coupling input terminal (CI2).

The coupler circuit 212 couples the received signal inputted through the first coupling input terminal CI1 and the received signal inputted through the second coupling input terminal CI2 through different signal paths to generate a plurality of coupling signals. Can be generated.

The coupler circuit 212 may output the generated coupling signals through the first coupling output terminal CO1 and the second coupling output terminal CO2.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the coupler circuit 212 includes a first coupling input terminal CI1 and a second coupling input terminal CI2 to which received signals input through a first signal path are added. The coupling signal is output to the first coupling output terminal CO1, and the second coupling signal corresponding to the difference between the received signals (that is, added in antiphase) through the second signal path is a second coupling. It can be output through the ring output terminal (CO2).

For example, the first signal path may be implemented so that a plurality of received signals may be combined through a path having the same distance so that a plurality of received signals may be combined in phase. For example, the second signal path may be implemented to be combined through paths of different distances so that a plurality of received signals may be combined in an anti-phase (ie, a phase difference of 180 degrees occurs).

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the output of the coupler circuit 212 may be output in the form of Equation 5 below.

)와 제2커플링 신호(예컨대, 수신신호들의 차에 해당하는 신호, r(t)-r(t)

) 각각이 출력될 수 있다.In this case, each of the first coupling output terminal CO1 and the second coupling output terminal CO2 of the coupler circuit 212 is used as the first coupling signal (e.g., a signal to which received signals are added, r (t)+r(t)

) And the second coupling signal (e.g., a signal corresponding to the difference between the received signals, r(t)-r(t))

) Each can be output.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the coupler circuit 212 may include a 180° hybrid coupler, and in this case, the 180° hybrid coupler receives at least one in the process of generating the second coupling signal. You can reverse the phase of the signal.

The switch circuit 214 may selectively output by switching the output of the coupler circuit 212.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the switch circuit 214 may switch a signal path between the first switching node SN1 and the second switching node SN2 based on the external control signal SW.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the switch circuit 214 may switch a signal path between the first switching node SN1 and the second switching node SN2 in units of symbols of a transmitted signal.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the external control signal SW may be generated by the processor 250, but is not limited thereto.

For example, when the switch of the switching circuit 214 is connected to the first switching node SN1, the switching circuit 214 is output from the first coupling output terminal CO1 of the coupler circuit 212.

One coupling signal may be output to the I/Q demodulator 220.

For example, when the switch of the switching circuit 214 is connected to the second switching node SN2, the switching circuit 214 is a second coupling signal output from the second coupling output terminal CO2 of the coupler circuit 212 May be output to the I/Q demodulator 220.

For example, when the switch of the switching circuit 214 is connected to the second switching node SN2, the switching circuit 214 is a second coupling signal output from the second coupling output terminal CO2 of the coupler circuit 212 May be output to the I/Q demodulator 220.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a signal output by the switching circuit 214 may be branched into two signal paths and transmitted to the I/Q demodulator 220.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the switching circuit 214 may be implemented as a single pole double throw (SPDT) switch.

6 is a diagram illustrating a process of processing a wireless signal in the receiving device illustrated in FIG. 1 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 6, looking at the main processing process of the radio signal in the receiving device 200, a radio signal may be received through each of the antennas ANT2 and ANT3 to receive each of a plurality of received signals having a phase difference. have.

Each of the generated plurality of received signals is coupled to a different signal path, and the first coupling signal (∑) to which the plurality of received signals are added and the second coupling signal (ㅿ) corresponding to the difference between the plurality of received signals are Can be created.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, in the process of generating the second coupling signal ㅿ, at least one reception signal may be coupled with another reception signal while the phase is inverted through 180 degree hybridization.

The first coupling signal (∑) is subjected to I/Q demodulation to generate an in-phase signal (I∑(t)) and a quadrature signal (Q _∑ (t)) corresponding to the first coupling signal (∑). I can.

The second coupling signal (ㅿ) is subjected to I/Q demodulation to generate an in-phase signal (Iㅿ(t)) and a quadrature signal (Q _ㅿ (t)) corresponding to the second coupling signal (ㅿ). I can.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a frequency conversion process may be further included before the demodulation process of the first coupling signal (Σ) and the second coupling signal (ㅿ).

_{The in-phase signal (I ∑} (t)) corresponding to the first coupling signal (∑) is used as the third beamformed signal (Beam#3), and the in-phase signal corresponding to the second coupling signal (ㅿ) The signal I _ㅿ (t) may be used as the first beamformed signal Beam#1.

_{For the in-phase signal (I ∑} (t)) corresponding to the first coupling signal (∑) _{and the in-phase signal (I ㅿ} (t)) corresponding to the second coupling signal (ㅿ) As the process of calculating the value corresponding to the difference is sequentially performed, the first output (①/ ②) can be sequentially output.

_{For the quadrature signal (Q ∑} (t)) corresponding to the first coupling signal (∑) _{and the quadrature signal (Q ㅿ} (t)) corresponding to the second coupling signal (ㅿ), As a process of calculating a value and an operation to be added to each other are sequentially performed, the second output (j②/j①) may be sequentially output.

The receiving device 200 combines the first output (① or ②) and the second output (j② or j①) to provide a second beamformed signal (Beam#2) and a fourth beamformed signal (Beam#4). Can be generated.

Depending on the embodiment, in the process of combining the first output (① or ②) and the second output (j② or j①), the sum of the first output (① or ②) and the second output (j② or j①) becomes 1/2. The process of outputting a value may be included.

The receiving device 200 may generate four beamformed signals (Beam#1 to Beam#4) as shown at the bottom of FIG. 6.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a method of forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of received signals in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 7, a method of forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of received signals in a wireless communication system is a process 701 of checking received signals from ANT2 and ANT3, and a plurality of received signals of the process 701. A process of generating a first coupling signal by adding (703), a process of generating a second coupling signal by subtracting a plurality of received signals of the process 701 (705), a first coupling signal and a second coupling signal I/Q demodulation to generate an in-phase signal (I∑, Iㅿ) and a quadrature signal (Q∑, Qㅿ) (707), a plurality of beams based on the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal in step 707 And generating the formed signals (709).

The receiving device 200 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may receive and check a plurality of received signals having a phase difference by receiving a radio signal (701 ).

That is, the reception device 200 may receive a radio signal from each of a plurality of antennas (eg, ANT2, ANT3), and each of the plurality of antennas (eg, ANT2, ANT3) is a plurality of received signals having a phase difference. Each of these can be received.

The receiving device 200 may generate a plurality of coupling signals by coupling a plurality of received signals generated in step S701 to different signal paths (703,705).

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the receiving device 200 may add a plurality of received signals to each other through a first signal path, and thus may generate and output a first coupling signal.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the receiving device 200 may generate and output a second coupling signal corresponding to a difference between a plurality of received signals through a second signal path.

The receiving device 200 may generate an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal corresponding to each of a plurality of coupling signals generated through processes 703 and 705, and may generate a plurality of beams based on the generated in-phase signal and a quadrature signal. Can be created (707).

According to an embodiment, after converting the frequency bands of each of the plurality of coupling signals, the reception device 200 may perform motion for each of the plurality of coupling signals (eg, baseband signals) whose frequency bands are converted. It is also possible to generate a phase signal and a quadrature signal.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a method of forming a plurality of beamformed signals using a plurality of in-phase signals and quadrature signals in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 8, a method of forming a plurality of beams using a plurality of in-phase signals and quadrature signals is a process of determining the in-phase signal of the first coupling signal as Beam #1 (801), the second couple. The process of determining the quadrature signal of the ring signal as Beam#3, the difference between the quadrature signal of the first coupling signal and the quadrature signal of the second coupling signal is reduced by 90° and the magnitude is reduced by half, and the first The process of determining as Beam #2 by summing the sum of the quadrature signal of the coupling signal and the quadrature signal of the second coupling signal by half (805), the in-phase signal of the first coupling signal and the second A signal with the sum of the in-phase signals of the coupling signal reduced by half and the signal with the difference between the in-phase signal of the first coupling signal and the in-phase signal of the second coupling signal by 90° and reduced by half. It includes a process (807) of determining the signal as Beam #4.

Expressing the above process by Equations 6 to 9,

를 만든 후 두 식을 빼고 2로 나누는 경우로 두 안테나의 출력에 각각 (0°,90°)의 위상이 더해진 경우가 된다. 4번째 빔포밍된 신호는 수학식 4의 첫 번째 식과 두 번째 식을 더하여 2S_o 를 만들고, 수학식 5의 두 식을 빼서 j2S_o

를 만든 후 두 식을 더하고 2로 나누는 경우로 두 안테나의 출력에 각각 (0°, 90°)의 위상이 더해진 경우가 된다. 따라서 본 개시는 심볼구간 중간에 스위치를 한 번만 조정함으로 입사각도에 따라 4개의 빔에 해당되는 크기의 변화를 가상으로 구하는 방식이다. The first beamformed signal is (1,1), which is a case in which the outputs of the two antennas are added in a difference () state, and corresponds to a case in which (0°, 180°) phase is added to each antenna. The third beamformed signal is (1,1), which is a case in which the outputs of the two antennas are summed in phase (∑), and the outputs of each antenna are added immediately. _{The second beamformed signal is 2S o} by adding the first and second equations in Equation 4 _{, and j2S o} by subtracting the two equations in Equation 5

After making, subtracting the two equations and dividing by 2 is a case where the phases of (0°, 90°) are added to the outputs of the two antennas. _{The fourth beamformed signal is 2S o} by adding the first and second equations in Equation 4 _{, and j2S o} by subtracting the two equations in Equation 5

This is a case where two equations are added and then divided by 2, and the phases of (0°, 90°) are added to the outputs of the two antennas. Accordingly, the present disclosure is a method of virtually obtaining a change in size corresponding to four beams according to the angle of incidence by adjusting the switch only once in the middle of the symbol period.

Based on this, the change in size of each beam in three cases in which the incident angle of the received signal is 0°, 30°, and 30° is shown in Table 1. When the angle of incidence is 0°, the maximum value appears in the SUM beam with the beam vector (0°, 0°), whereas the size of the (0°, 90°) and (0°, 90°) beams is reduced by half. . On the other hand, when the angle of incidence is 30°, the maximum value appears in the beam of (0°, 90°), and when the angle of incidence is 30°, the maximum value is obtained in the beam of (0°, 90°). It can be seen that using the proposed method as described above can simply generate four beamformed signals in the case of a two-element antenna without a complicated phase shifter.

Table 1. Size of each beam according to the angle of incidence Angle of incidence
[degree]

[rad]Phase difference

[rad] Beam #3
(0°, 0°) Beam #1
(0°,180°) Beam #4
(0°, 90°) Beam #2
(90°, 0°) 0 0 s _o 0 s _o /2 s _o /2 30

s _o /2 s _o /2 s _o 0 30

s _o /2 s _o /2 0 s _o

However, when the number is not limited to four, and when a plurality of receivers and a plurality of I/Q demodulators are used, a change in size of a plurality of beams greater than that of a plurality of received signals can be obtained.

9 is a diagram illustrating an implementation example of an RF processing unit illustrated in FIG. 5 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

That is, when m received signals are received according to various embodiments of the present disclosure, m/2 first coupling signals and m/2 first coupling signals are formed, respectively, as in-phase signals and quadrature signals. 2m beams can be formed by transforming (where m is a positive number greater than 1.)

10 is a diagram illustrating an implementation example of an RF beamformed signal shown in FIG. 5 according to another embodiment of a processing unit in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 9, the coupler circuit 212 and the switching circuit 214 may be implemented together with the coupler circuit 212A and the switching circuit 214A of FIG. 9 in a frequency band having a center frequency of 920 MHz.

Referring to FIG. 10 together, the coupler circuit 212 and the switching circuit 214 may be implemented together with the coupler circuit 212B and the switching circuit 214B of FIG. 9 in a frequency band having a center frequency of 2.4 GHz.

11 is a graph illustrating a return loss for each frequency band of an RF processing unit shown in FIG. 9 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

12 is a graph illustrating an isolation diagram for each frequency band of an RF processing unit shown in FIG. 9 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

13 is a graph illustrating a phase difference for each frequency band between antennas shown in FIG. 9 in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

11 to 13 are graphs showing the return loss, isolation, and phase difference of the RF processing unit 210B of FIG. 9 designed to operate in a frequency band having a center frequency of 2.4 GHz.

Referring to FIGS. 11 to 13, it can be seen that a low return loss is displayed at 2.4 GHz, and a phase difference of 180 degrees between the two antennas is observed.

14 is a graph illustrating a change in an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal generated by the reception device shown in FIG. 1 according to an incident angle of a wireless signal in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 14, various embodiments of the present disclosure may operate by being applied to a Bluetooth (eg, Bluetooth 5.1) standard.

Changes in the in-phase signal (I signal) and quadrature signal (Q signal) when the incidence angle of the wireless signal is incident at 0, 10 and 30 degrees based on the plane perpendicular to the antennas (ANT2, ANT3) is shown. Has been.

14 shows a change in the waveform of a signal during 10 usec, and the signal output and switching interval can be determined at 2 usec intervals according to the Bluetooth standard. For the first 2usec, a sum signal may be output, and a difference signal may be output in a period from 4usec to 6usec. When the radio signal is incident in the 0 degree direction, the difference signal is 0, and it can be seen that the magnitude of the difference signal increases as the incident angle increases.

FIG. 15 is a graph in which the reception device shown in FIG. 1 compares direction detection performance with a monopulse type reception device according to an incident angle of a wireless signal in a wireless communication system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The conventional monopulse direction finding system uses only the sum and difference of two antennas, so the structure is simple, but the direction finding performance is not good.

In the case of a direction detection technology using a plurality of beamformed signals, which is one of various embodiments of the present disclosure, it has been mainly used in the field of defense or radio wave monitoring, but its application has recently been expanded to 5G mobile communication, wireless LAN, etc. have. Even in low-power Internet of things (IoT) systems such as Bluetooth, direction-finding technology for location-based services is recently being introduced.

The configuration of a conventional array antenna-based direction finding system can be divided into a method of forming a beamformed signal at the digital end and a beam forming at the RF end, and both methods can generate a beamformed signal at the same time. The number is the same as the number of receivers. Therefore, when there is only one receiver for low power application, it is implemented as an RF beamforming method in which a plurality of beamformed signals are formed using an RF circuit such as a phase shifter or Butler Matrix, and then sequentially connected to the receiver using a switch. . However, since the RF beamforming circuit is a function of the wavelength, the size of the circuit increases and it is difficult to use below several GHz, and since the beam is sequentially generated over time, performance deteriorates when the target moves quickly.

Therefore, when a direction detection technology is applied to a low-power system such as Bluetooth, a study is being attempted to implement a beamforming circuit using an RF switch that is simple to implement. For example, a time modulated array (TMA) method that forms a harmonic beamformed signal by controlling the ON/OFF time of an RF switch, or an on-off analog beam forming (OABF) that selectively turns on/off an antenna Methods and the like have been proposed. However, when there are only two antennas, only two beamformed signals can be implemented, so there is a limitation in direction detection performance.

Referring to FIG. 15, as an example of the present disclosure, a method of generating four beamformed signals in a direction finding system having two antennas and one receiver is disclosed. The present disclosure is a method of organically combining a sum/difference pattern of a two-element monopulse antenna and orthogonality of an I/Q demodulator generally used in a wireless communication receiver of a direct conversion method. The present disclosure focuses on the fact that the I/Q demodulator outputs two signals (I and Q) with a 90° phase difference, and combines it with a 180° hybrid and an RF switch to provide 90°, 0°, and 90° between two antennas. And 180° to have four phase differences. The present disclosure not only can generate four beamformed signals with only one switch adjustment, but also can be applied to low-power IoT wireless communication that must implement a direction finding system at low cost because the hardware is simple.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, direction detection performance may be calculated as in Equation 10.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a direction by selecting some of the beamformed signals (eg, two) among a plurality of beamformed signals based on the size of a signal among a plurality of generated beamformed signals Can be used for detection. For example, the beams to be used for direction detection may select the upper two beamformed signals in the order of the largest signal size.

When only the monopulse method is used using the result of FIG. 15, the direction detection performance may appear as shown in the solid line in FIG. 15, and when the method according to the embodiment of the present invention is used, the direction detection performance appears as shown in the dotted line in FIG. I can.

Comparing the two cases, in the case of direction detection according to the direction detection method according to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the size of each of four beamformed signals within a range of ±2dB according to the incident angle with only one switch operation Since the change can be known, it can be confirmed that the direction detection performance is excellent.

The methods according to the embodiments described in the claims or the specification of the present disclosure may be implemented in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software.

When implemented in software, a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs (software modules) may be provided. One or more programs stored in a computer-readable storage medium are configured to be executable by one or more processors in an electronic device (device). The one or more programs include instructions for causing the electronic device to execute methods according to embodiments described in the claims or specification of the present disclosure.

These programs (software modules, software) include random access memory, non-volatile memory including flash memory, read only memory (ROM), and electrically erasable programmable ROM. (electrically erasable programmable read only memory, EEPROM), magnetic disc storage device, compact disc-ROM (CD-ROM), digital versatile discs (DVDs) or other forms of It may be stored in an optical storage device or a magnetic cassette. Alternatively, it may be stored in a memory composed of a combination of some or all of them. In addition, a plurality of configuration memories may be included.

In addition, the program is a communication network such as the Internet (Internet), Intranet (Intranet), LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network), or SAN (storage area network), or a communication network composed of a combination thereof. It may be stored in an accessible storage device. Such a storage device may access a device performing an embodiment of the present disclosure through an external port. In addition, a separate storage device on the communication network may access a device performing an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In the above-described specific embodiments of the present disclosure, components included in the disclosure are expressed in the singular or plural according to the presented specific embodiments. However, the singular or plural expression is selected appropriately for the situation presented for convenience of description, and the present disclosure is not limited to the singular or plural constituent elements, and even constituent elements expressed in plural are composed of the singular or in the singular. Even the expressed constituent elements may be composed of pluralities.

Meanwhile, although specific embodiments have been described in the detailed description of the present disclosure, various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure is limited to the described embodiments and should not be defined, and should be determined by the scope of the claims and equivalents as well as the scope of the claims to be described later.

Claims (24)

A plurality of antennas for checking a plurality of radio signals,
Including a receiver for receiving the plurality of radio signals by the plurality of antennas,
The receiver,
A coupler circuit for coupling the plurality of received signals to different signal paths to generate a first coupling signal to which the plurality of received signals are added and a second coupling signal corresponding to a difference between the plurality of received signals; And
And a beam generator for generating a plurality of beamformed signals based on an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal corresponding to the first coupling signal and the second coupling signal.
The method according to claim 1,
The beam generator,
Determining an in-phase signal of the first coupling signal as a first beamformed signal,
Determining a quadrature phase signal of the second coupling signal as a third beamformed signal,
The magnitude is halved by summing the in-phase signal of the first coupling signal and the in-phase signal of the second coupling signal, and subtracting the quadrature phase signal of the second coupling signal from the quadrature phase signal of the first coupling signal. The reduction is determined as the second beamformed signal,
The magnitude of the difference between the in-phase signal of the first coupling signal and the in-phase signal of the second coupling signal is the sum of the quadrature signal of the first coupling signal and the quadrature phase signal of the second coupling signal. Communication device that determines what is cut in half as a third beamformed signal
The method according to claim 2,
The coupler circuit,
A communication device that is a 180 degree hybrid coupler.
The method of claim 3,
The coupler circuit,
A communication device having a first signal path for generating the first coupling signal and a second signal path for generating the second coupling signal.
The method of claim 4,
The communication device,
The communication device further comprises a switch circuit for selectively outputting by switching the first coupling signal and the second coupling signal output from the coupler circuit.
The method of claim 5,
The communication device,
A plurality of mixers converting the frequency bands of the first coupling signal and the second coupling signals output from the switch circuit into a baseband, and outputting a first baseband signal and a second baseband signal Further comprising a communication device.
The method of claim 6,
The communication device,
And a plurality of filters for generating the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal for each of the first baseband signal and the second baseband signal output from the plurality of mixers.
The method of claim 7,
The beam generator,
A communication device for generating a plurality of beamformed signals based on the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal of the first baseband signal and the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal of the second baseband signal.
The method of claim 8,
The communication device,
The communication device further comprising a processor that determines a direction of a transmitting device that has transmitted the radio signal based on the magnitudes of the plurality of beamformed signals. The method of claim 9,
The communication device,
Further comprising a processor (processor) for determining a direction of a transmission device that has transmitted a radio signal by selecting some of the beamformed signals from among the plurality of beamformed signals based on the magnitudes of the plurality of beamformed signals That, the communication device.
The method of claim 10,
The selected part of the beamformed signal,
A communication device that selects beamformed signals of the top 50% or more of a large size.
The method according to claim 2 to 11,
The number of the plurality of antennas is greater than the number of receivers,
The communication device, wherein the number of the plurality of beamformed signals is greater than the number of the plurality of antennas.
A process of checking a plurality of radio signals by a plurality of antennas, and
A process of receiving a signal received by the antenna,
Coupling the plurality of received signals to different signal paths to generate a first coupling signal to which the plurality of received signals are added, and
Generating a second coupling signal corresponding to a difference between the plurality of received signals; and
Generating an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal corresponding to the first coupling signal and the second coupling signals; and
And generating a plurality of beamformed signals based on the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal.
The method of claim 13,
The process of generating the beamformed signal,
Determining an in-phase signal of the first coupling signal as a first beamformed signal,
A process of determining a quadrature phase signal of the second coupling signal as a third beamformed signal,
The magnitude is halved by summing the in-phase signal of the first coupling signal and the in-phase signal of the second coupling signal, and subtracting the quadrature phase signal of the second coupling signal from the quadrature phase signal of the first coupling signal. The process of determining the reduction as a second beamformed signal, and
The magnitude of the difference between the in-phase signal of the first coupling signal and the in-phase signal of the second coupling signal is the sum of the quadrature signal of the first coupling signal and the quadrature phase signal of the second coupling signal. And determining the cut in half as the third beamformed signal.
The method of claim 14,
The process of generating the second coupling signal,
A method of generating a second coupling signal using a 180 degree hybrid coupler.
The method of claim 15,
The process of generating the first coupling signal and the second coupling signal,
And a second signal path for generating the first coupling signal and a second signal path for generating the second coupling signal.
The method of claim 16,
The method further comprising the step of selectively outputting by switching the first coupling signal and the second coupling signal output from the coupler circuit.
The method of claim 17,
The method further comprising converting a frequency band of each of the outputted first coupling signal and the second coupling signal into a baseband, and outputting a first baseband signal and a second baseband signal, respectively.
The method of claim 18,
And generating the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal for each of the outputted first baseband signal and second baseband signal.
The method of claim 19,
A communication device for generating a plurality of beamformed signals based on the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal of the first baseband signal and the in-phase signal and the quadrature signal of the second baseband signal.
The method of claim 20,
The communication device further comprising determining a direction of a transmitting device that has transmitted the radio signal based on the magnitudes of the plurality of beamformed signals.
The method of claim 21,
The process of determining the direction of the transmitting device,
A method of determining a direction of a transmitting device that has transmitted a radio signal by selecting some of the beamformed signals from among the plurality of beamformed signals based on the magnitudes of the plurality of beamformed signals.
The method of claim 22,
The selected part of the beamformed signal,
The method of selecting the top 50% or more beams of large size.
The method of claim 13 to 23,
The number of the plurality of beamformed signals is greater than the number of the received signals.

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