Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • 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
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • 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
  • H04B7/0684—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 using different training sequences per antenna
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • 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
  • H04B7/08—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the receiving station
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L25/00—Baseband systems
  • H04L25/02—Details ; arrangements for supplying electrical power along data transmission lines
  • H04L25/0202—Channel estimation
  • H04L25/0204—Channel estimation of multiple channels
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L25/00—Baseband systems
  • H04L25/02—Details ; arrangements for supplying electrical power along data transmission lines
  • H04L25/0202—Channel estimation
  • H04L25/0224—Channel estimation using sounding signals
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L27/00—Modulated-carrier systems
  • H04L27/26—Systems using multi-frequency codes
  • H04L27/2601—Multicarrier modulation systems
  • H04L27/2602—Signal structure
  • H04L27/261—Details of reference signals

Definitions

• the present invention relates generally to multiple antenna wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to preamble training techniques for a multiple antenna communication system.
• Multiple transmit and receive antennas have been proposed to provide both increased robustness and capacity in next generation Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) systems.
• the increased robustness can be achieved through techniques that exploit the spatial diversity and additional gain introduced in a system with multiple antennas.
• the increased capacity can be achieved in multipath fading environments with bandwidth efficient Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) techniques.
• MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output
• a multiple antenna communication system increases the data rate in a given channel bandwidth by transmitting separate data streams on multiple transmit antennas. Each receiver receives a combination of these data streams on multiple receive antennas.
• receivers in a multiple antenna communication system must acquire the channel matrix through training. This is generally achieved by using a specific training symbol, or preamble, to perform synchronization and channel estimation. It is desirable for multiple antenna communication system to co-exist with legacy single antenna communications systems (typically referred to as Single Input Single Output (SISO) systems). Thus, a legacy (single antenna) communications system must be able to interpret the preambles that are transmitted by multiple antenna communication systems.
• Most legacy Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) systems based upon OFDM modulation comply with either the IEEE 802.11a or IEEE 802.1 Ig standards (hereinafter "IEEE 802.1 la/g").
• the preamble signal seen by the legacy device should allow for accurate synchronization and channel estimation for the part of the packet that the legacy device needs to understand.
• Previous MIMO preamble formats have reused the legacy training preamble to reduce the overhead and improve efficiency.
• the proposed MIMO preamble formats include the legacy training preamble and additional long training symbols, such that the extended MIMO preamble format includes at least one long training symbol for each transmit antenna or spatial stream.
• each transmit antenna sequentially transmits one or more long training symbols (LTS) 5 such that only one transmit antenna is active at a time.
• LTS long training symbols
• Such a per-antenna training scheme requires sufficient transmit antenna isolation in the PHY architecture for MIMO channel estimation during the long training sequence.
• the remaining transmit antennas must be "silent" for the receiver to properly obtain the channel coefficients from the received signals.
• Proper isolation of one antenna and its transmitter chain to another is critical to avoid excessive RF leakage onto the "silent" transmitters, resulting in corrupted channel estimation from the desired transmitter.
• the "silent" transmit antenna chains (typically comprising a digital signal processor, RF transceiver and power amplifier) were switched on and off. Such switching of the antenna chains, however, will cause the temperature of the corresponding power amplifier to increase and decrease, respectively. Generally, such heating and cooling of the power amplifier will lead to “breathing” effects that cause the transmitted signal to have a phase or magnitude offset, relative to the desired signal. In addition, turning off the antenna chain may also cause glitches in the voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) in the RF transceiver as well as excessive delays due to the start-up time of the power amplifiers.
• VCO voltage controlled oscillator
• a long training sequence is transmitted on each of the transmit antenna branches such that only one of the transmit antenna branches is active at a given time.
• the active transmit antenna branch is configured in a transmit mode during the given time and one or more of the inactive transmit antenna branches are configured in a receive mode during the given time.
• the transmit and receive modes are configured, for example, by applying a control signal to one or more switches.
• a digital code corresponding to a binary value of zero is optionally applied to one or more digital-to- analog converters associated with the inactive transmit antenna branches, for additional isolation.
• the long training sequences can be used for MIMO channel estimation.
• short training sequences can optionally be transmitted substantially simultaneously on each of the transmit antennas.
• FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary MIMO transmitter
• FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary MIMO receiver
• FIG. 3 illustrates a frame format in accordance with the IEEE 802. lla/g standards
• FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary 2x2 MIMO transceiver incorporating features of the present invention.
• FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary preamble format and power design for an exemplary 4x4 MIMO system incorporating features of the present invention.
• the present invention provides per-antenna techniques for preamble training for MIMO systems with improved antenna isolation.
• a MIMO "per-antenna-training" preamble algorithm is disclosed that uses an antenna transmit/receive RF Switch to provide improved isolation of the "silent" antennas from the active antenna transmitting the long training sequence.
• a MIMO "per- antenna-training" preamble algorithm is disclosed that uses variable scaling of OFDM symbols in the digital signal processor to give the digital-to-analog converters sufficient dynamic baseband signal power range for transmitting individual, higher power LTS.
• the power level of the active transmitter is increased during transmission of the LTS to compensate for the fact that the inactive transmitters are silent during this interval.
• FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a MIMO transmitter 100.
• the exemplary two antenna transmitter 100 encodes the information bits received from the medium access control (MAC) layer and maps the encoded bits to different frequency tones (subcarriers) at stage 105.
• the signal is then transformed to a time domain wave form by an IFFT (inverse fast Fourier transform) 115.
• a guard interval (GI) of 800 nanoseconds (ns) is added in the exemplary implementation before every OFDM symbol by stage 120 and a preamble of 32 ⁇ s is added by stage 125 to complete the packet.
• the digital signal is then pre- processed at stage 128 and converted to an analog signal by converter 130 before the RF stage 135 transmits the signal on a corresponding antenna 140.
• GI guard interval
• FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a MIMO receiver 200.
• the exemplary two antenna receiver 200 processes the signal received on two receive antennas 255-1 and 255-2 at corresponding RF stages 260-1, 260-2.
• the analog signals are then converted to digital signals by corresponding converters 265.
• the receiver 200 processes the preamble to detect the packet, and then extracts the frequency and timing synchronization information at synchronization stage 270 for both branches.
• the guard interval (GI) is removed at stage 275.
• the signal is then transformed back to the frequency domain by an FFT at stage 280.
• the channel estimates are obtained at stage 285 using the long training symbol.
• the channel estimates are applied to the demapper/decoder 290, and the information bits are recovered.
• FIG. 3 illustrates a frame format 300 in accordance with the IEEE 802.1 la/g standards.
• the frame format 300 comprises ten short training symbols, tl to tlO, collectively referred to as the Short Preamble.
• a Long Preamble consisting of a protective Guard Interval (GI) and two Long Training Symbols, Tl and T2.
• GI Guard Interval
• Tl and T2 Two Long Training Symbols
• a SIGNAL field is contained in the first information bearing OFDM symbol, and the information in the SIGNAL field is needed to transmit general parameters, such as packet length and data rate.
• the Short Preamble, Long Preamble and Signal field comprise a legacy header 310.
• the OFDM symbols carrying the DATA follows the SIGNAL field.
• the preamble includes two parts, the training part and the signal field.
• the training part allows the receiver 200 to perform packet detection, power measurements for automatic gain control (AGC), frequency synchronization, timing synchronization and channel estimation.
• AGC automatic gain control
• the signal field is going to be transmitted in the lowest rate and gives information, for example, on data rate and packet length. In the MIMO system, the signal field should also indicate the number of spatial streams and the number of transmit antennas 140.
• the receiver 200 uses the preamble to get all the above information in the preamble. Based on this information, when the data arrives, the receiver 200 removes the GI and transforms the data into the frequency domain using FFT, de- interleaves and decodes the data. As previously indicated, in a MIMO system, besides these functions, it is also preferred that the preamble be backwards compatible with the legacy
• the legacy device should be able to get correct information about the duration of the packet so that it can backoff correctly and does not interrupt the MIMO HT transmission.
• the long training sequence (LTS) in the preamble is used during channel estimation to obtain the m-TX by n-RX channel coefficients from each individual transmit antenna to each of n-receive antennas.
• the other transmit antennas must be silent when the active transmit antenna is transmitting the long training sequence.
• the inactive antennas can be considered to be "silent" as long as the power of the inactive antennas is reduced by 3OdB, relative to the active antenna.
• a MIMO "per-antenna- training" preamble algorithm uses an antenna transmit/receive RF Switch to provide improved isolation of the "silent" antennas from the active antenna transmitting the long training sequence.
• a MIMO "per-antenna-training" preamble algorithm uses variable scaling of the OFDM symbols in the digital signal processor to give the digital-to- analog converters sufficient dynamic baseband signal power range for transmitting individual, higher power LTS.
• the power level of the active transmitter is increased during transmission of the LTS to compensate for the fact that the inactive transmitters are silent during this interval.
• FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary 2x2 MIMO transceiver 400 incorporating features of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, the exemplary transceiver 400 comprises a baseband chip 410, an RF transceiver 450 and a power amplifier chip 480.
• the baseband chip 410 is comprised of a digital signal processor 415 and a number of digital-to-analog converters 420-1 through 420- 4 (hereinafter, collectively referred to as digital-to-analog converters 420).
• the digital signal processor 415 generates the digital values to be transmitted, in a known manner.
• the digital-to-analog converters 420 convert the digital values into analog values for transmission.
• the DSP 415 generates the digital value corresponding to the long training sequence for the active antenna and generates a 0-code to be applied to the digital-to-analog converter(s) 420 for the silent transmit antennas.
• the DSP 415 generates a control signal TXON that controls the position of a transmit/receive switch 490 associated with each antenna branch.
• the exemplary RF transceiver 450 is comprised of low pass filters
• the RF transceiver 450 operates in a conventional manner.
• the digital-to-analog converters 420 generate in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) signals that are applied to the low pass filters 460-1 through 460-4.
• the filtered signals are applied to dual band mixers (such as 2.4GHz and 5 GHz).
• the drivers associated with each antenna branch then operate in an associated band. For example, driver 475-1 can operate in a 2.4 GHz band and driver 475-2 can operate in a 5 GHz band.
• driver 475-3 can operate in a 2.4 GHz band and driver 475-4 can operate in a 5 GHz band.
• the power amplifier chip 480 is comprised of a number of power amplifiers 485-1 through 485-4 that can operate in a conventional manner.
• the output of the power amplifiers 485-1 and 485-2 are applied to a transmit/receive switch 490-1 associated with the first antenna branch and the output of the power amplifiers 485-3 and 485-4 are applied to a transmit/receive switch 490-2 associated with the second antenna branch.
• the transmit/receive switches 490 when in a transmit mode, the transmit/receive switches 490 are configured to couple the corresponding power amplifiers 485 to the corresponding antenna 495.
• the transmit/receive switches 490 are configured to couple the corresponding antenna 495 to the appropriate decode circuitry (not shown), in a known manner.
• the transmit/receive switches are configured to couple the corresponding antenna 495 to the appropriate decode circuitry (not shown), in a known
• the transmit/receive switch 490 for the active antenna transmitting the long training sequence is configured in a transmit mode, while the transmit/receive switch(es) 490 for the silent antenna(s) are configured in a receive mode.
• the antenna switch 490 for the silent transmitter(s) connects the respective antenna port to the receiver input port.
• the DSP 415 generates a control signal TXON that controls the position of the transmit/receive switches 490 associated with each antenna branch to implement this feature of the present invention.
• variable scaling of the OFDM symbols is employed in the digital signal processor to give the digital-to- analog converters sufficient dynamic baseband signal power range for transmitting an individual, higher power LTS.
• the power level of the active transmitter is increased during transmission of the LTS to compensate for the fact that the inactive transmitters are silent during this interval.
• the present invention thus recognizes that in a per-antenna training implementation, the single active MIMO transmitter is essentially acting in a Single Input Single Output (SISO) mode.
• SISO Single Input Single Output
• the single active MIMO transmitter must provide approximately the same antenna power while transmitting the LTS as the total MIMO power during the OFDM data symbol payload. For the exemplary a 2-TX x 2-RX MIMO system of FIG. 4, this requires the active transmitter to transmit the LTS with 3dB higher power.
• the active transmitter to transmit the LTS with 6dB higher power.
• the digital-to-analog converters 420 for the active chain have an output signal level for transmitting the LTS this is +6dB higher than employed for transmitting other fields.
• the antenna power is therefore 6dB higher as well.
• the DACs for the "silent" transmitter are at 0-code. The variable scaling of the LTS transmission is seen most clearly in FIG. 5, discussed hereinafter.
• the digital signal processor 415 has digital variable scaling of the average power of the OFDM symbols to give the baseband output signal of the digital-to-analog converters 420 a variable range of, for example, 10*log(m) dB, where m equals the number of MIMO transmit antennas (TX).
• TX transmit antennas
• the LTS has a lower modulated signal Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) than the MIMO OFDM data symbols.
• PAPR Peak-to-Average Power Ratio
• the overall PHY transmitter architecture of FIG. 4 has sufficient linearity to transmit the LTS with higher average power in a SISO mode for per-antenna training with less back-off from the saturated power level. This allows the average output of the digital-to-analog converters 420 to be 10*log(m) dB larger for the LTS.
• FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary preamble format and power design for an exemplary 4x4 MIMO system incorporating features of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, all four transmitters TX1-TX4 are simultaneously active for transmission of the short training sequence (STS) during an interval 505.
• STS short training sequence
• each transmitter TX1-TX4 is transmitting the STS with a typical power level of +14 dBm in the exemplary embodiment.
• the control signal, TXON, for the transmit/receive switches 490 is activated to put all transmit branches TXl -TX4 in a transmit mode.
• a 2 microsecond delay allows the power amplifiers to ramp up until the digital-to-analog converters 420 start generating the STS symbols.
• a first active transmitter TXl transmits the LTS during an interval 510, while the other transmitters TX2-TX4 are silent.
• the active transmitter TXl transmits the LTS with an increased power level of 2OdBm in accordance with the invention.
• the silent transmitters TX2-TX4 transmit with a power level of -1OdBm or less during the silent mode.
• the control signals, TXON, for each of the transmit/receive switches 490 is controlled to put the first transmit branch TXl in a transmit mode, and the remaining transmit branches TX2-TX4 in a receive mode.
• the second transmitter TX2 is active and transmits the LTS with an increased power level of 2OdBm, while the other transmitters TXl, TX3, TX4 are silent with a power level of -1OdBm or less during the silent mode.
• the third transmitter TX3 is active and transmits the LTS with an increased power level of 2OdBm, while the other transmitters TXl, TX2, TX4 are silent with a power level of -1OdBm or less during the silent mode.
• the fourth transmitter TX4 is active and transmits the LTS with an increased power level of 2OdBm, while the other transmitters TXl, TX2, TX3 are silent with a power level of -1OdBm or less during the silent mode.
• all transmitters TXl- TX4 transmit the data symbols during interval 530 with a proper backoff (i.e., using the typical power level of +14 dBm.
• the functions of the present invention can be embodied in the form of methods and apparatuses for practicing those methods.
• One or more aspects of the present invention can be embodied in the form of program code, for example, whether stored in a storage medium, loaded into and/or executed by a machine, or transmitted over some transmission medium, wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention.
• program code segments When implemented on a general-purpose processor, the program code segments combine with the processor to provide a device that operates analogously to specific logic circuits.

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• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Power Engineering (AREA)
• Radio Transmission System (AREA)
• Variable-Direction Aerials And Aerial Arrays (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

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• 2006
  • 2006-03-24 US US11/388,330 patent/US8694030B2/en active Active
  • 2006-07-31 KR KR1020087023211A patent/KR101280205B1/ko not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2006-07-31 EP EP06788875A patent/EP2002559B1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2006-07-31 DE DE602006017268T patent/DE602006017268D1/de active Active
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