US20160192207A1 - Cellular array with steerable spotlight beams - Google Patents
Cellular array with steerable spotlight beams Download PDFInfo
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- US20160192207A1 US20160192207A1 US14/584,201 US201414584201A US2016192207A1 US 20160192207 A1 US20160192207 A1 US 20160192207A1 US 201414584201 A US201414584201 A US 201414584201A US 2016192207 A1 US2016192207 A1 US 2016192207A1
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- 230000001413 cellular effect Effects 0.000 title claims abstract description 43
- 230000010287 polarization Effects 0.000 claims description 7
- 238000013459 approach Methods 0.000 abstract description 6
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- 238000009826 distribution Methods 0.000 abstract description 2
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 description 10
- 230000005855 radiation Effects 0.000 description 7
- 230000009977 dual effect Effects 0.000 description 6
- 238000003491 array Methods 0.000 description 4
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 3
- 230000006870 function Effects 0.000 description 2
- 239000011159 matrix material Substances 0.000 description 2
- 230000015654 memory Effects 0.000 description 2
- 238000012545 processing Methods 0.000 description 2
- 230000005540 biological transmission Effects 0.000 description 1
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q1/00—Details of, or arrangements associated with, antennas
- H01Q1/12—Supports; Mounting means
- H01Q1/22—Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles
- H01Q1/24—Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles with receiving set
- H01Q1/241—Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles with receiving set used in mobile communications, e.g. GSM
- H01Q1/246—Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles with receiving set used in mobile communications, e.g. GSM specially adapted for base stations
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q21/00—Antenna arrays or systems
- H01Q21/06—Arrays of individually energised antenna units similarly polarised and spaced apart
- H01Q21/061—Two dimensional planar arrays
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q25/00—Antennas or antenna systems providing at least two radiating patterns
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q3/00—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system
- H01Q3/24—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the orientation by switching energy from one active radiating element to another, e.g. for beam switching
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q3/00—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system
- H01Q3/26—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture
- H01Q3/30—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture varying the relative phase between the radiating elements of an array
- H01Q3/34—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture varying the relative phase between the radiating elements of an array by electrical means
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q3/00—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system
- H01Q3/26—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture
- H01Q3/30—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture varying the relative phase between the radiating elements of an array
- H01Q3/34—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture varying the relative phase between the radiating elements of an array by electrical means
- H01Q3/36—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture varying the relative phase between the radiating elements of an array by electrical means with variable phase-shifters
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- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
- H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
- H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
- H04B7/0408—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas using two or more beams, i.e. beam diversity
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- H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
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- H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
- H04B7/0413—MIMO systems
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- H04B—TRANSMISSION
- H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
- H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
- H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
- H04B7/06—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station
- H04B7/0613—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission
- H04B7/0615—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission of weighted versions of same signal
- H04B7/0617—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using simultaneous transmission of weighted versions of same signal for beam forming
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- H04W16/00—Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures
- H04W16/24—Cell structures
- H04W16/28—Cell structures using beam steering
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- H—ELECTRICITY
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- H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
- H01Q21/00—Antenna arrays or systems
- H01Q21/06—Arrays of individually energised antenna units similarly polarised and spaced apart
- H01Q21/061—Two dimensional planar arrays
- H01Q21/062—Two dimensional planar arrays using dipole aerials
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- H—ELECTRICITY
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- H01Q21/06—Arrays of individually energised antenna units similarly polarised and spaced apart
- H01Q21/20—Arrays of individually energised antenna units similarly polarised and spaced apart the units being spaced along or adjacent to a curvilinear path
- H01Q21/205—Arrays of individually energised antenna units similarly polarised and spaced apart the units being spaced along or adjacent to a curvilinear path providing an omnidirectional coverage
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- H04W84/02—Hierarchically pre-organised networks, e.g. paging networks, cellular networks, WLAN [Wireless Local Area Network] or WLL [Wireless Local Loop]
- H04W84/04—Large scale networks; Deep hierarchical networks
- H04W84/042—Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
Definitions
- the present invention generally relates to the field of antenna arrays. More specifically, the present invention is related cellular array implementations with multiple steerable spotlight beams irradiated from a common aperture.
- An antenna array architecture is disclosed herein, including multiple rows of discreet radiators. Multiple discreet radiators at the interior of the rows are fed in pair to a first set of hybrid couplers. A first output of the first set of hybrid couplers is fed to a first azimuth phase shifter, and a second output of the first set of hybrid couplers is fed to a second azimuth phase shifter.
- Radiators at the ends of said rows fed in pair to a second set of hybrid couplers where a first output of the second set of hybrid couplers at one end of the rows is fed to a first elevation phase shifter to produce a first beam, a first output of the second set of hybrid couplers at another end of the rows is fed to a second elevation phase shifter to produce a second beam, a second output of the second set of hybrid couplers is fed to a third set of hybrid couplers, a first output of the third set of hybrid couplers is fed to the first azimuth phase shifter, and a second output of the third set of hybrid couplers is fed to the second azimuth phase shifter.
- a third elevation phase shifter is configured to receive the output of the first azimuth phase shifter to produce a third beam
- a fourth elevation phase is configured to receive the output of the second azimuth phase shifter to produce a fourth beam, where the first beam and the second beams are coverage beams for providing service to a large area and the third and fourth beams are spotlight beams for providing high capacity service to a targeted area.
- FIG. 1 is an exemplary array architecture of the cellular MIMO array with spotlight beams according to embodiments of the present disclosure.
- FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary feed structure and beam forming configuration of a three-sector cellular MIMO array configuration with spotlight beams according to embodiments of the present disclosure.
- FIG. 3 is a diagram of radiation patterns of an exemplary three-sector cellular MIMO array with spotlight beams according to embodiments of the present disclosure.
- FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary orthogonal dual spotlight beam forming scheme according to embodiments of the present disclosure.
- FIG. 5 is a graph illustrating an exemplary azimuth radiation pattern of a steerable spotlight beam according to embodiments of the present disclosure.
- FIG. 6 is a graph illustrating exemplary azimuth radiation patterns of a 65° coverage beam according to embodiments of the present disclosure.
- Cellular array implementations with multiple steerable spotlight beams irradiated from a common aperture are disclosed herein. Such an approach can easily be adapted to suit various geographical population densities and distributions.
- the array is capable of producing multiple 65-degree cellular coverage beams, which may be used for regular cellular coverage with diversity gain or in MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) mode.
- the array may also produce multiple relatively narrow steerable beams, or “spotlight” beams.
- the spotlight beams may be relatively narrow and may be steered (e.g., moved, aimed, or rotated) electronically both in azimuth and elevation directions. By steering the beams in this way, the array is able to provide higher capacity service with greater reliability at high-demand “hotspot” regions where high capacity service is required.
- the spotlight beams may also be used to fill voids or deficiencies caused by regular coverage beams, for example.
- the cellular arrays of the various embodiments disclosed herein may significantly improve network capacity with MIMO capability for regular cellular services, and the arrays are complemented with multiple steerable beams.
- the steerable beams may be high-gain and relatively narrow spotlight beam.
- the antenna beams disclosed in the embodiments herein may be irradiated simultaneously and independently from a common aperture.
- the various implementation of these array concepts utilizes an orthogonal dual beam former, which allows simultaneous beam forming of multiple coverage beams and spotlight beams using a common aperture.
- the orthogonal dual beam former allows relatively low-loss integration of regular cellular beams with multiple spotlight beams using simple radio frequency (RF) circuits, resulting in a higher overall aperture efficiency.
- RF radio frequency
- the array architecture disclosed herein may be used in a typical three-sector cellular network.
- the relatively narrow spotlight beams are electronically steerable both in azimuth and elevation directions, independent of the coverage beams.
- the array contains a plurality of driven radiating elements distributed on a planar aperture.
- An orthogonal dual beam former is used to allow the radiating elements to be fed simultaneously so that multiple cellular coverage beams and multiple electronically steerable spotlight beams may be produced at the same time from a common aperture.
- the array has 9 columns and 10 rows of discrete radiators.
- the radiators may be broadband radiators such as broadband patches or dipoles. Every two rows of radiators (e.g., pairs of rows) may be offset in the azimuth direction by a certain distance (e.g., half of the radiator length) to produce optimal azimuth beam patterns.
- the first row 101 and second row 102 may be offset from the third row 103 and fourth row 104 in the azimuth direction by half the spacing between elements.
- the interior or middle columns are primarily used for forming the two spotlight beams, and the outer or edge columns are shared elements for forming both the 65-degree coverage beams and the spotlight beams.
- the array may produce 2 65-degree coverage beams and 8 spotlight beams for each polarization. According to other embodiments, the array may produce 4 65-degree coverage beams and 16 spotlight beams for two linear polarizations.
- radiators are fed in pair to 90-degree hybrid couplers (e.g., hybrid coupler 205 ) at each interior column.
- 90-degree hybrid couplers e.g., hybrid coupler 205
- Outputs of the 90-degree hybrid couplers are summed at two separate azimuth phase shifters 201 and 200 to form spotlight beams, and radiators at the edge columns are used as shared elements for generating both spotlight beams and coverage beams.
- Azimuth phase shifter 200 is connected to elevation phase shifter 204
- azimuth phase shifter 201 is connected to elevation phase shifter 203 .
- the radiators at the interior of the rows e.g., radiator 212
- the coverage beams formed are 65-degree coverage beams.
- the hybrid outputs of the edge column radiators are split between the spotlight beams and the coverage beams.
- one of the hybrid outputs of the right-most column e.g., hybrid coupler 211
- the other hybrid output of the right-most column feeds an azimuth phase shifter (e.g., azimuth phase shifter 200 ) in conjunction with an additional radiator (e.g., radiator 214 ) and hybrid coupler (e.g., hybrid coupler 208 ).
- the hybrid output of the left-most column e.g., hybrid coupler 212
- this array architecture may produce two independent spotlight beams and two independent 65-degree coverage beams within the same aperture for different polarizations.
- FIG. 3 illustrates 65-degree coverage beam patterns and associated spotlight beam patterns for an exemplary broadband 3-sector MIMO array according to embodiments of the present invention.
- a narrow beam e.g., 10° to 14°
- a total of 8 spotlight beams are separated into two groups, with each group consisting of 4 alternating beams as shown in the figures.
- spotlight # 1 can be A 1 , A 2 , A 3 , or A 4
- Spotlight# 2 can be B 1 , B 2 , B 3 , or B 4 .
- the frequency of operation typically include both the UMTS and LTE bands ranging from 1710 MHz to 2690 MHz.
- the beams are dual polarized with +/ ⁇ 45° linear slant polarization and can be used for 4T4R MIMO (>3 ⁇ spacing) or gain diversity.
- FIG. 4 an exemplary orthogonal dual beam forming configuration for producing spotlight beams (e.g., spotlight beam 401 ) and coverage beams (e.g., coverage beam 402 ) is illustrated according to embodiments of the present invention.
- a single column e.g., column 403
- rows of beam forming elements are paired together, and pairs of radiators (e.g., radiators 404 and 405 ) are connected by a 90-degree hybrid coupler (e.g., hybrid 406 ).
- Each 0-degree output of the hybrid couplers are fed to a phase shifter (e.g., spotlight phase shifter 408 ), while each 90-degree output of the hybrids are fed to a coverage phase shifter (e.g., coverage phase shifter 407 ).
- a phase shifter e.g., spotlight phase shifter 408
- a coverage phase shifter e.g., coverage phase shifter 407
- two orthogonal beams may be formed simultaneously.
- azimuth radiation patterns of exemplary steerable spotlight beams are illustrated according to embodiments of the present invention.
- the spotlight beams are orthogonal to each other, and the beamwidth of the beams depends on the azimuth size and number of columns in the array.
- the spotlight beam may be steered to approximately ⁇ 45° with relatively low azimuth sidelobes (e.g., below ⁇ 18 dB).
- the patterns have relatively low sidelobes due to flexible amplitude taper.
- azimuth radiation patterns of an exemplary 65-degree coverage beam produced by edge columns for a three-sector MIMO array is illustrated according to embodiments of the present invention.
Abstract
Description
- The present invention generally relates to the field of antenna arrays. More specifically, the present invention is related cellular array implementations with multiple steerable spotlight beams irradiated from a common aperture.
- As wireless devices have exploded in popularity, the ability to provide sufficient coverage to more and more users over large areas is more crucial than ever. Current cellular antenna array techniques have reached limiting factors in meeting these demands. As such, there is a growing need to provide wireless coverage with higher capacity in certain regions.
- Current standard cellular arrays produce a single azimuth beam with 65-degree or 90-degree beam-width for sectorized cellular coverage. In an urban area, there can exist several densely populated areas, or hot spots, where particularly high capacity of communications are required. In such cases, additional steerable beams with narrow azimuth beam-width can be used to improve capacity in these areas.
- One conventional approach for producing several narrow azimuth beams involves use of a Butler matrix with a uniform weight function. However, this approach produces radiation patterns with relatively high sidelobes that waste energy and may cause interference with neighbouring beams. Other approaches use an additional antenna with a relatively large aperture on top of a typical cellular array to produce the narrow beams in a cellular network. This method is undesirable due to limited and expensive real estate on a cellular tower. Furthermore, the narrow beam produced in this manner is often not electronically steerable making this approach only useful in a scenario with fixed geographical density.
- An antenna array architecture is disclosed herein, including multiple rows of discreet radiators. Multiple discreet radiators at the interior of the rows are fed in pair to a first set of hybrid couplers. A first output of the first set of hybrid couplers is fed to a first azimuth phase shifter, and a second output of the first set of hybrid couplers is fed to a second azimuth phase shifter. Radiators at the ends of said rows fed in pair to a second set of hybrid couplers, where a first output of the second set of hybrid couplers at one end of the rows is fed to a first elevation phase shifter to produce a first beam, a first output of the second set of hybrid couplers at another end of the rows is fed to a second elevation phase shifter to produce a second beam, a second output of the second set of hybrid couplers is fed to a third set of hybrid couplers, a first output of the third set of hybrid couplers is fed to the first azimuth phase shifter, and a second output of the third set of hybrid couplers is fed to the second azimuth phase shifter. A third elevation phase shifter is configured to receive the output of the first azimuth phase shifter to produce a third beam, and a fourth elevation phase is configured to receive the output of the second azimuth phase shifter to produce a fourth beam, where the first beam and the second beams are coverage beams for providing service to a large area and the third and fourth beams are spotlight beams for providing high capacity service to a targeted area.
- The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention:
-
FIG. 1 is an exemplary array architecture of the cellular MIMO array with spotlight beams according to embodiments of the present disclosure. -
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary feed structure and beam forming configuration of a three-sector cellular MIMO array configuration with spotlight beams according to embodiments of the present disclosure. -
FIG. 3 is a diagram of radiation patterns of an exemplary three-sector cellular MIMO array with spotlight beams according to embodiments of the present disclosure. -
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary orthogonal dual spotlight beam forming scheme according to embodiments of the present disclosure. -
FIG. 5 is a graph illustrating an exemplary azimuth radiation pattern of a steerable spotlight beam according to embodiments of the present disclosure. -
FIG. 6 is a graph illustrating exemplary azimuth radiation patterns of a 65° coverage beam according to embodiments of the present disclosure. - Reference will now be made in detail to several embodiments. While the subject matter will be described in conjunction with the alternative embodiments, it will be understood that they are not intended to limit the claimed subject matter to these embodiments. On the contrary, the claimed subject matter is intended to cover alternative, modifications, and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the claimed subject matter as defined by the appended claims.
- Furthermore, in the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the claimed subject matter. However, it will be recognized by one skilled in the art that embodiments may be practiced without these specific details or with equivalents thereof. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects and features of the subject matter.
- Portions of the detailed description that follows are presented and discussed in terms of a method. Embodiments are well suited to performing various other steps or variations of the steps recited in the flowchart of the figures herein, and in a sequence other than that depicted and described herein.
- Some portions of the detailed description are presented in terms of procedures, steps, logic blocks, processing, and other symbolic representations of operations on data bits that can be performed on computer memory. These descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. A procedure, computer-executed step, logic block, process, etc., is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps or instructions leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated in a cellular antenna array. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
- It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout, discussions utilizing terms such as “accessing,” “writing,” “including,” “storing,” “transmitting,” “traversing,” “associating,” “identifying” or the like, refer to the action and processes of an antenna array or other electronic computing device that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
- Cellular array implementations with multiple steerable spotlight beams irradiated from a common aperture are disclosed herein. Such an approach can easily be adapted to suit various geographical population densities and distributions.
- According to some embodiments, the array is capable of producing multiple 65-degree cellular coverage beams, which may be used for regular cellular coverage with diversity gain or in MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) mode. The array may also produce multiple relatively narrow steerable beams, or “spotlight” beams. The spotlight beams may be relatively narrow and may be steered (e.g., moved, aimed, or rotated) electronically both in azimuth and elevation directions. By steering the beams in this way, the array is able to provide higher capacity service with greater reliability at high-demand “hotspot” regions where high capacity service is required. The spotlight beams may also be used to fill voids or deficiencies caused by regular coverage beams, for example.
- In this way, the cellular arrays of the various embodiments disclosed herein may significantly improve network capacity with MIMO capability for regular cellular services, and the arrays are complemented with multiple steerable beams. The steerable beams may be high-gain and relatively narrow spotlight beam. The antenna beams disclosed in the embodiments herein may be irradiated simultaneously and independently from a common aperture.
- It should be noted that the combination of regular cellular beams and spotlight beams result in higher overall aperture efficiency. The various implementation of these array concepts utilizes an orthogonal dual beam former, which allows simultaneous beam forming of multiple coverage beams and spotlight beams using a common aperture. The orthogonal dual beam former allows relatively low-loss integration of regular cellular beams with multiple spotlight beams using simple radio frequency (RF) circuits, resulting in a higher overall aperture efficiency.
- The array architecture disclosed herein may be used in a typical three-sector cellular network. The relatively narrow spotlight beams are electronically steerable both in azimuth and elevation directions, independent of the coverage beams. The array contains a plurality of driven radiating elements distributed on a planar aperture. An orthogonal dual beam former is used to allow the radiating elements to be fed simultaneously so that multiple cellular coverage beams and multiple electronically steerable spotlight beams may be produced at the same time from a common aperture.
- With regard to
FIG. 1 , an exemplarymulti-beam array architecture 100 is illustrated according to embodiments of the present invention. According to some embodiments, the array has 9 columns and 10 rows of discrete radiators. The radiators may be broadband radiators such as broadband patches or dipoles. Every two rows of radiators (e.g., pairs of rows) may be offset in the azimuth direction by a certain distance (e.g., half of the radiator length) to produce optimal azimuth beam patterns. For example, thefirst row 101 andsecond row 102 may be offset from thethird row 103 andfourth row 104 in the azimuth direction by half the spacing between elements. - The interior or middle columns are primarily used for forming the two spotlight beams, and the outer or edge columns are shared elements for forming both the 65-degree coverage beams and the spotlight beams. According to some embodiments, the array may produce 2 65-degree coverage beams and 8 spotlight beams for each polarization. According to other embodiments, the array may produce 4 65-degree coverage beams and 16 spotlight beams for two linear polarizations.
- With regard now to
FIG. 2 , an exemplary feed and beam forming structure of a three-sector MIMO configuration with two simultaneous spotlight beams is depicted according to embodiments of the present invention. The general arrangement and interconnections of the radiators is illustrated, where radiators are fed in pair to 90-degree hybrid couplers (e.g., hybrid coupler 205) at each interior column. - Outputs of the 90-degree hybrid couplers are summed at two separate
azimuth phase shifters Azimuth phase shifter 200 is connected toelevation phase shifter 204, andazimuth phase shifter 201 is connected toelevation phase shifter 203. The radiators at the interior of the rows (e.g., radiator 212) are fed in pair to hybrid couplers which feed one output to azimuthphase shifter 201 and another output toazimuth phase shifter 200. According to some embodiments, the coverage beams formed are 65-degree coverage beams. - The hybrid outputs of the edge column radiators (e.g.,
radiators 209 and 210) are split between the spotlight beams and the coverage beams. For example, one of the hybrid outputs of the right-most column (e.g., hybrid coupler 211) feedselevation phase shifter 213 to produce a first 65-degree coverage beam, and the other hybrid output of the right-most column feeds an azimuth phase shifter (e.g., azimuth phase shifter 200) in conjunction with an additional radiator (e.g., radiator 214) and hybrid coupler (e.g., hybrid coupler 208). Similarly, the hybrid output of the left-most column (e.g., hybrid coupler 212) feeds the second spotlight beam and the second coverage beam. Consequently, this array architecture may produce two independent spotlight beams and two independent 65-degree coverage beams within the same aperture for different polarizations. -
FIG. 3 illustrates 65-degree coverage beam patterns and associated spotlight beam patterns for an exemplary broadband 3-sector MIMO array according to embodiments of the present invention. According to some embodiments, for each polarization, a narrow beam (e.g., 10° to 14°) is formed for each spotlight beam. In this case, a total of 8 spotlight beams are separated into two groups, with each group consisting of 4 alternating beams as shown in the figures. For example, at any given time,spotlight # 1 can be A1, A2, A3, or A4 andSpotlight# 2 can be B1, B2, B3, or B4. The frequency of operation typically include both the UMTS and LTE bands ranging from 1710 MHz to 2690 MHz. The beams are dual polarized with +/−45° linear slant polarization and can be used for 4T4R MIMO (>3λ spacing) or gain diversity. - With regard now to
FIG. 4 , an exemplary orthogonal dual beam forming configuration for producing spotlight beams (e.g., spotlight beam 401) and coverage beams (e.g., coverage beam 402) is illustrated according to embodiments of the present invention. A single column (e.g., column 403) is illustrated, according to some embodiments. As described earlier, rows of beam forming elements are paired together, and pairs of radiators (e.g.,radiators 404 and 405) are connected by a 90-degree hybrid coupler (e.g., hybrid 406). Each 0-degree output of the hybrid couplers are fed to a phase shifter (e.g., spotlight phase shifter 408), while each 90-degree output of the hybrids are fed to a coverage phase shifter (e.g., coverage phase shifter 407). As such, two orthogonal beams may be formed simultaneously. - With regard now to
FIG. 5 , azimuth radiation patterns of exemplary steerable spotlight beams are illustrated according to embodiments of the present invention. The spotlight beams are orthogonal to each other, and the beamwidth of the beams depends on the azimuth size and number of columns in the array. In one planar configuration, the spotlight beam may be steered to approximately ±45° with relatively low azimuth sidelobes (e.g., below −18 dB). Unlike the radiation patterns produced by prior techniques, such as a Butler matrix with uniform weight function, the patterns have relatively low sidelobes due to flexible amplitude taper. - With regard to
FIG. 6 , azimuth radiation patterns of an exemplary 65-degree coverage beam produced by edge columns for a three-sector MIMO array is illustrated according to embodiments of the present invention.
Claims (18)
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US14/584,201 US9398468B1 (en) | 2014-12-29 | 2014-12-29 | Cellular array with steerable spotlight beams |
CN201580070630.9A CN107112640B (en) | 2014-12-29 | 2015-12-01 | Cellular array with controllable spotlight beam |
KR1020177020426A KR101918138B1 (en) | 2014-12-29 | 2015-12-01 | Cellular array with adjustable spotlight beam |
EP15875043.0A EP3227965B1 (en) | 2014-12-29 | 2015-12-01 | Cellular array with steerable spotlight beams |
JP2017552205A JP6498782B2 (en) | 2014-12-29 | 2015-12-01 | Cellular array with steerable spotlight beam |
PCT/CN2015/096164 WO2016107365A1 (en) | 2014-12-29 | 2015-12-01 | Cellular array with steerable spotlight beams |
US15/171,639 US9544029B2 (en) | 2014-12-29 | 2016-06-02 | Method for antenna array with steerable spotlight beams |
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US20160277077A1 (en) | 2016-09-22 |
US9398468B1 (en) | 2016-07-19 |
EP3227965A1 (en) | 2017-10-11 |
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CN107112640B (en) | 2020-02-14 |
EP3227965A4 (en) | 2018-01-17 |
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US9544029B2 (en) | 2017-01-10 |
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WO2016107365A1 (en) | 2016-07-07 |
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