WO2009087808A1

WO2009087808A1 - Analog beam forming communication system

Info

Publication number: WO2009087808A1
Application number: PCT/JP2008/070291
Authority: WO
Inventors: Shigeru Uchida; Hiroki Iura; Toshiyuki Kuze
Original assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Priority date: 2008-01-07
Filing date: 2008-11-07
Publication date: 2009-07-16
Also published as: JPWO2009087808A1; JP4906928B2

Abstract

A base station can select an analog beam pattern suitable for each terminal device. Analog beam forming is applied to a communication system. In order for a base station (150) to select an appropriate beam for communication in accordance with a position of a mobile terminal device or a receiving signal quality, the base station (150) transmits a down-load frame including information indicative of a pattern to identify a beam pattern that the base station can transmit with a beam provided with a directionality pattern. When a mobile terminal device can receive the down-load frame, the mobile terminal device transmits an up-load frame including at least one of communication quality information and information indicating a pattern in carrying out communication by means of a beam pattern corresponding to the information indicating a pattern. The base station (150) groups mobile terminal devices based on the communication quality information or the information indicating a pattern included in the up-load frame and carries out communication by selecting a suitable beam from the beam patterns that the base station can transmit for every grouped mobile terminal device is possible to transmit by itself.

Description

Analog beamforming communication system

The present invention relates to an analog beamforming communication system.

In recent years, the shortage of radio wave resources in mobile communications has become serious. On the other hand, the demand for high-speed and large-capacity wireless broadband is increasing day by day. Under these circumstances, the use frequency has been increased and the bandwidth has been increased. In cellular communication, Reuse 1 that uses the same frequency as that of an adjacent cell is required.

・ By increasing the frequency of use and using broadband frequency, the propagation distance attenuation of radio waves becomes very large, and the cell radius becomes small. Therefore, it is considered to form a high-gain radiation pattern by beam forming using an array antenna.

Also, in order to enable repeated use of one frequency, a measure to avoid cell-sector interference is urgently required. In particular, in a beam forming system, since the radiation pattern to be formed has a high gain, if the radiation pattern is not appropriately controlled, the interference is larger than that of a normal omni pattern or sector pattern antenna. Therefore, it is necessary to control the radiation pattern to be formed from the viewpoint of avoiding interference.

Furthermore, there is a technique in which a diversity effect is obtained by a radio terminal located at a cell boundary receiving signals from a plurality of base stations. In this case, the radio terminal located at the cell boundary may have low received power, and means for solving this is required. In addition, regardless of the location of a cell, a wireless terminal is required to have not only line connectivity but also high speed.

In such a background, there is a conventional technique in which mobile stations are grouped on the basis of the azimuth angle of the mobile station viewed from the base station, and DBF (digital beam forming) antenna control is performed when interference is detected (for example, , See Patent Document 1).

Also, the IEEE 802.16e-2005 specification (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1) shows a frame configuration when performing DBF.

JP 2000-92545 A

However, the prior art has the following problems.
Beam forming by an array antenna is generally digital beam forming, and frequency conversion units and power amplification units corresponding to the number of antenna elements are required. For this reason, in order to form a beam having a high-gain directivity pattern, a large number of frequency conversion units and power amplification units are required, resulting in an increase in manufacturing cost.

Also, in the OFDM / OFDMA system, in order to avoid inter-sector interference, it is necessary to take orthogonality in the frequency direction or orthogonality in the time direction. However, such an interference avoidance method requires many radio resources, that is, many subcarriers, and has a problem that the throughput of the entire system deteriorates.

Furthermore, in wireless terminals located at the sector / cell boundary, the received signal power is low due to the long propagation distance, or because of strong interference power from surrounding sector cells, high robustness and high user There is a problem that it is difficult to achieve wireless communication with throughput.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object thereof is to obtain an analog beamforming communication system in which a base station can select an appropriate analog beam pattern for each mobile terminal.

The analog beamforming communication system according to the present invention applies analog beamforming to communication between one or more base stations and one or more mobile terminals, and depends on the position of the mobile terminal or the received signal quality of the mobile terminal. An analog beamforming communication system that performs communication by selecting an appropriate beam, and each of one or more base stations directs a download frame including information indicating a pattern for identifying a beam pattern that can be transmitted by the base station. When one or more mobile terminals can receive a download frame transmitted with a beam having a directivity pattern, a beam pattern corresponding to information indicating the pattern is used. Communication quality information at the time of executing communication and / or information indicating pattern Each of the one or more base stations transmits one or more mobiles based on information indicating communication quality information or patterns included in the respective upload frames received from one or more mobile terminals. Terminal grouping is performed, and communication is performed by selecting an appropriate beam from the beam patterns that can be transmitted by each grouped mobile terminal.

According to the present invention, the data structure of the upload frame and the download frame exchanged between the base station and the mobile terminal is specified, and the mobile terminals are grouped based on the communication quality information on the mobile terminal side that has received the download frame. By performing the beam selection, it is possible to obtain an analog beamforming communication system in which the base station can select an appropriate analog beam pattern for each mobile terminal.

It is a block diagram of the radio base station apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention. In Embodiment 1 of this invention, it is the figure which showed the frame structure in OFDM / OFDMA when introducing ABF on the basis of IEEE802.16e. In Embodiment 1 of this invention, it is another figure which showed the frame structure in OFDM / OFDMA when introducing ABF on the basis of IEEE802.16e. It is an illustration figure of matching of a terminal and a beam by the grouping part of Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is the figure which showed the frame structure which matches a terminal and a beam by the grouping part of Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is the figure which showed another frame structure which matches the terminal and beam by the grouping part of Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a block diagram in case the some radio base station apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention cooperates. It is another block diagram in case the some radio base station apparatus in Embodiment 1 of this invention cooperates. It is the figure which showed the interference avoidance technique by the cooperative control between base stations of Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is the figure which showed the frame structure in the case of performing cooperation beam control between base stations in Embodiment 1 of this invention. In Embodiment 1 of this invention, it is an illustration figure in the case of using the cooperation operation | movement between base stations as diversity or multi-stream transmission instead of interference avoidance. It is the figure which showed the frame structure in Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the coping method of the problem in the case of acquiring communication quality information always in Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is the example figure which the base station 130 in Embodiment 3 of this invention transmits different user data using the same frequency and a different beam with respect to two MS. It is a block diagram of the radio base station apparatus in Embodiment 3 of this invention. It is the figure which showed the interference avoidance technique by the cooperative beam control between base stations of Embodiment 4 of this invention. In Embodiment 5 of this invention, it is an illustration figure in the case of using the cooperation operation | movement between base stations as diversity or multi-stream transmission instead of interference avoidance.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of an analog beamforming communication system to which a time division control by ABF (Analog Beam Forming) according to the present invention and a communication method in which a plurality of base stations are coordinated are applied will be described using the drawings. To do.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
First, the configuration of a radio base station apparatus that performs time division control using ABF according to the first embodiment will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a radio base station apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. 1 includes a scheduling unit 1, a grouping unit 2, two modulation /

demodulation units

3, 4, two

frequency conversion units

5, 6, two signal

power amplification units

7, 8, It comprises an analog beam control unit 9, an analog beam generation unit 10, and base station antennas 11-15. In addition, in FIG. 1, although the number of the series of a frequency conversion part and a signal power amplification part has shown two structures, such a structure is an example to the last, and the number of systems is a base station antenna. Or less.

Although FIG. 1 illustrates an apparatus configuration when two different data are transmitted or received, the present invention can achieve a desired object with the same configuration regardless of the number of transmission data. It is. In transmission, the modem unit 3 and the modem unit 4 modulate user data based on the user data control signals 18 and 19 received from the scheduling unit 1, respectively.

These modulated signals are converted by the

frequency converters

5 and 6 to the frequency of the antenna to be transmitted. Further, these frequency-converted signals are amplified by the

signal power amplifiers

7 and 8, respectively. Further, these power amplified signals are input to the analog beam control unit 9.

Then, the analog beam control unit 9 determines a beam to be used based on the beam control signal 16 from the scheduling unit 1. A plurality of directivity patterns by ABF are prepared in advance, and the beam control signal 16 is a signal for selecting these directivity patterns prepared in advance.

The analog beam generation unit 10 includes an analog passive circuit that forms a beam selected by the analog beam control unit 9. The signal whose phase is adjusted by the analog beam generator 10 is radiated from the base station antennas 11 to 15.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a frame configuration in OFDM / OFDMA when ABF is introduced based on IEEE 802.16e in Embodiment 1 of the present invention. A case where the DL PUSC frame configuration is applied to the first embodiment will be described as an example.

One radio frame is composed of DL_Sub_Frame 20 composed of downlink data and UL_Sub_Frame 21 composed of uplink data. The preamble 22, the FCH 23, the DL-MAP 24, and the UL-MAP 25 are transmitted by an omni antenna or a sector antenna, and all terminals located in the service area of the base station can be decoded.
Similarly, the next radio frame is composed of DL_Sub_Frame 34 and UL_Sub_Frame 35. Preamble 36, FCH 37, DL-MAP 38, and UL-MAP 39 are transmitted by an omni antenna or a sector antenna and are located in the service area of the base station. All of the terminals are decipherable.

The Analog BF switching gaps 27 and 41 are time gaps necessary for securing time for switching the directivity pattern. In beam forming by ABF, the beam generation circuit consisting of a distributor and a fixed phase shifter is used to switch the beam by an analog switch, or the phase of the variable phase shifter is changed using a beam generation circuit consisting of a distributor and a variable phase shifter. It is conceivable to apply one of the methods of changing the beam by changing the beam.

Thus, in ABF, it is necessary to change the state of analog parts. In general, the state change of an analog component does not converge in a negligibly short time compared to one symbol time, so that the Analog BF switching gaps 27 and 41 are required as the time for beam change.

However, the time required for the beam change varies depending on the equipment used, and the influence of the beam change time on the system varies depending on the symbol time of the system and the system cycle. For this reason, the Analog BF switching gaps 27 and 41 are not necessarily required.

After the Analog BF switching gaps 27 and 41, a signal is transmitted by the beam instructed by the scheduling unit 1. Therefore, since Analog BF Preamble 28, Sub_DL_UL_MAP 29,

DL_Burst #

1, 30, DL_Burst # 2, and DL_Burst # 3 32 in DL_Sub_Frame20 are transmitted with a beam pattern having a certain directivity, they are transmitted by an omni antenna or a sector antenna. Compared to the case, the received signal characteristics (power, frequency selectivity, correlation between signals, Doppler fading characteristics, etc.) are significantly different depending on the location where the terminal is located.

In general, since the selected beam has a sharp directivity, it is higher than when using Analog BF Preamble28, Sub_DL_UL_MAP29,

DL_Burst #

1, 30,

DL_Burst #

2, 31 or DL_Burst # 3 32 with an omni antenna or a sector antenna. There are terminals that can obtain received power.

The above characteristics are the same in Analog BF Preamble 42, Sub_DL_UL_MAP 43, DL_Burst # 1 44, DL_Burst # 2 45, and DL_Burst # 3 46 in DL_Sub_Frame34.

FIG. 2 shows a method of selecting a beam for each subframe. On the other hand, there is also a method of performing beam selection a plurality of times within one frame. FIG. 3 is another diagram showing a frame configuration in OFDM / OFDMA when ABF is introduced based on IEEE 802.16e in Embodiment 1 of the present invention. This is a method of performing beam selection a plurality of times within one frame, and more specifically, having a plurality of

Analog BF Zones

67 and 68 within one frame.

The grouping unit 2 assigns each terminal to one or a plurality of beams based on information notified from the terminals, and associates the terminals with the beams. Below, the acquisition method of the information alert | reported from the terminal used by this grouping part 2, and the matching method of a terminal and a beam are demonstrated.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram of correspondence between terminals and beams by the grouping unit 2 according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The base station 130 has a three-sector configuration including sectors 131 to 133. Only the sector 131 will be described, but the same applies to other sectors. Consider a case where the sector area can be divided into a Beam # 1 area 134 and a Beam # 2 area 135 in the sector 131 by using two directional beams. At this time, it is assumed that each directional beam has a certain angle width, the antenna gain other than that angle is extremely low, and the beam and the terminal are associated by the strength of the received power.

That is, it is equivalent to the case where the inside of the sector is bisected in the azimuth direction with the base station 130 as the center. Beam # 1 is a beam with high gain in the direction in which MS 136, MS 137, and MS 138, which are mobile stations, are located, and Beam # 2 is a beam with high gain in the direction in which MS 139 and MS 140 are located. . Therefore, MS136, MS137, and MS138 are associated with Beam # 1, and MS139 and MS140 are associated with Beam # 2.

Next, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a frame configuration for associating terminals and beams by grouping unit 2 according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, and shows a method of associating beams and terminals using ranging channels. ing. This will be described using a specific frame configuration. Analog BF Preambles 79 and 85 have beam-specific preamble patterns, and beam pattern numbers that can be generated by the base station are assigned according to the patterns. Therefore, a terminal that can decode this preamble can know a beam pattern number that can be decoded, that is, communicated.

Also, the terminal can know the received signal characteristics of each beam pattern using this preamble. For example, the terminal associates the reception signal characteristic of each beam pattern with the beam pattern number, and informs the base station of the table of each beam pattern number and reception power using the ranging 91 and 92. Based on this information, the grouping unit 2 of the base station associates terminals with beam numbers.

The above example is an example in which the terminal uses the received power of the terminal as a reference for communication information quality, and the terminal associates the beam number with the beam number, and transmits the result to the base station side. In general, a method for evaluating communication quality of a terminal in a communication system differs depending on a transmission system. Therefore, which beam each terminal belongs to is not only the received power, but the frequency selectivity, and if the terminal has multiple antennas, the beam to which it belongs by comprehensive evaluation based on the correlation of the received signals of these antennas. Will be determined.

Further, the above example is an example in which the base station associates the terminal with the beam number based on the communication quality information received from the terminal. A method of informing the user may be considered. Further, each terminal uses an orthogonal code when transmitting ranging information in the uplink. Therefore, by associating the orthogonal code number with the beam number to which the base station belongs, the base station can know the beam number to which the terminal belongs when decoding the ranging area.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another frame configuration for associating terminals and beams by the grouping unit 2 according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, and is an example in the case of using

Beam Selection messages

120 and 121. In addition, the information transmitted by

Beam Selection messages

120 and 121 is the same as the information transmitted by Ranging 91 and 92, and only the channel used is different. The Beam Selection message may be in the form of a bitmap that can indicate a plurality of usable beam patterns.

The above-described control method and frame configuration related to ABF is a case where one base station operates independently, but a case where a plurality of base stations cooperate is also conceivable. FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram in the case where a plurality of radio base station apparatuses cooperate in Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 7 illustrates a configuration in the case where two different radio base station apparatuses 150a and 150b perform a cooperative operation.

However, the number of base stations that operate in cooperation is not limited to two, and cooperation with any number of base stations is possible. The internal configuration of each of the radio base station devices 150a and 150b is the same as that of the radio base station device 150 of FIG. 1, and the subscripts a and b are attached to the respective components.

Each

scheduling unit

1a, 1b and grouping unit 2a, 2b in each radio base station apparatus 150a, 150b generates a cooperative operation control signal based on the other party's scheduling information and user grouping information, and transmits it to the other party To do. Thereby, each

scheduling part

1a, 1b and grouping part 2a, 2b can cooperate with another base station apparatus, and the coordinated ABF scheduling is attained.

FIG. 8 is another configuration diagram when a plurality of radio base station apparatuses in Embodiment 1 of the present invention cooperate. In FIG. 7, the radio base station apparatuses 150a and 150b cooperate with each other and perform scheduling for cooperative operation in a distributed manner. On the other hand, in FIG. 8, the inter-base station cooperative control scheduling unit 163 in the inter-base station cooperative control device 162 is used to coordinate the radio base station devices 150 a and 150 b.

The

scheduling units

1a and 1b in the radio base station apparatuses 150a and 150b transmit scheduling information 164 and 166 to the inter-base station cooperative control scheduling unit 163. Further, the grouping units 2a and 2b in the radio base station apparatuses 150a and 150b transmit user grouping information 165 and 167, respectively.

The inter-base station cooperative control scheduling unit 163 performs grouping and scheduling for inter-base station cooperative control based on the sent scheduling information 164 and 166 and user grouping information 165 and 167 of the radio base station apparatuses 150a and 150b. The generated information is sent as a cooperative operation control signal to each of the radio base station apparatuses 150a and 150b. Thereby, the operation | movement which cooperated between several base stations is attained.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an interference avoidance technique by inter-base station cooperative control according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The base station 186 sets the cell 170 as a service area, and the base station 187 sets the cell 171 as a service area. At this time, the MS 181 and the MS 182 exist at the cell boundary between the cell 170 and the cell 171. Therefore, when the base station 186 and the base station 187 transmit signals using an omni antenna or a sector antenna as in the conventional case, for these MS 181 and 182, the signal from the cell to which it does not belong becomes a strong interference wave, Received signal quality deteriorates.

Therefore, interference can be avoided by performing coordinated scheduling control of the beam used in each base station (186, 187) with other base stations (187, 186). At the same time, when the base station 186 transmits to the MS 183 using the Beam 179 and the base station 187 transmits to the MS 181 using the Beam 180, the beam 179 and the Beam 180 are greatly overlapped in the radiation direction.

For this reason, Beam 179 interferes with MS 181. Beam 179 is a beam with high directivity, and therefore has stronger interference than when an omni antenna or a sector antenna is used. Therefore, when performing beam forming, it can be said that cooperative beam control with surrounding base stations is essential.

Therefore, when the base station 187 uses the Beam 180, the base station 186 uses the Beam 178 which is a beam having high orthogonality to the Beam 180. Since Beam 180 and Beam 178 have high orthogonality, the power that causes interference with each other is extremely small, and it is possible to simultaneously realize both gain increase by beam and interference avoidance by coordinated beam control between base stations.

In a conventional method using an omni antenna or a sector antenna, there is a problem that a terminal located at a cell boundary always receives strong interference. However, this interference problem can be solved by performing the inter-base station cooperative beam control of the first embodiment described above. In the first embodiment, cooperative beam control between cells has been described, but interference can be avoided between sectors by a similar method.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a frame configuration when performing inter-base station cooperative beam control in Embodiment 1 of the present invention. This is a case where the DL_Sub_Frame 189 of the base station 186 and the DL_Sub_Frame 203 of the base station 187 cooperate.

The time timing of Analog BF Zone 190 (Beam 178) is synchronized with the time timing of Analog BF Zone 204 (Beam 180), the time timing of Analog BF Zone 191 (Beam 179), and the time timing of Analog BF Zone 205 (Bone 185 Zone 5). is doing. Thus, interference can be avoided by selecting beams with high orthogonality between surrounding base stations at the same time timing.

FIG. 11 is an exemplary diagram in the case where the cooperative operation between base stations is used as diversity or multi-stream transmission instead of interference avoidance in Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The base station 224 and the base station 225 perform ABF scheduling in cooperation with each other. The MS 226 is located at the cell edge. In this terminal, the Beam 227, which is a beam formed by the base station 224, and the Beam 228, which is a beam formed by the base station 225, have the strongest received power among the beams of each base station. obtain.

At this time, cooperative transmission is performed to the MS 226 using the Beam 227 and the Beam 228. When the same signal is transmitted to the MS 226 using the Beam 227 and the Beam 228, the signal propagates through different propagation environments, so that a high diversity gain can be obtained.

In addition, when the signal sequence for the MS 226 is serial-parallel converted and different signal sequences are transmitted by the Beam 227 and Beam 228, multi-stream transmission is possible. Thereby, since signals propagate through different propagation environments, the correlation between streams is low, and the signal separation performance is improved.

Generally, when a signal is transmitted by beam forming, the arrival angle width of the radio wave on the receiving side is narrowed, and thus the correlation between the received signals is increased. On the other hand, in beam forming in the cooperative operation between base stations, signals are transmitted from different environments, so that there are few similarities in the propagation environment and the correlation between received signals is low. In the above description, the magnitude of the received power is cited as the reference for cooperative beam selection, but this is not restrictive.

Generally, there are various optimum beam selection criteria depending on the transmission method and system, and in particular, when performing multi-stream transmission, signal correlation between receiving antennas is also an important beam selection criterion. In general, when cooperative control between base stations is not used, a terminal located at a cell boundary receives strong interference waves from neighboring base stations. However, when the neighboring base station also communicates with a terminal located at the cell boundary, the interference signal so far becomes a desired signal.

Furthermore, in the case of having a highly directional radiation pattern such as ABF, in order to reach the service area of another cell as an interference wave, in order to remove interference by cooperating with the surrounding base station as described above, There is a big meaning.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, the beam frame identification information is included in the data structure of the upload frame exchanged between the base station and the mobile terminal, and the communication quality is included in the data structure of the download frame. Information is included. As a result, based on the communication quality information on the mobile terminal side that has received the download frame, the mobile terminals can be grouped and beam selected, and the base station can select an appropriate analog beam pattern for each mobile terminal. A beamforming communication system can be obtained.

Furthermore, by sharing the result of grouping and beam selection in one base station among a plurality of base stations, it becomes possible to perform grouping and beam selection in cooperation between the base stations. As a result, it is possible to realize an analog beamforming communication system that avoids interference between sectors and cells or improves the robustness and user throughput of wireless terminals located at sector cell boundaries.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
The second embodiment is a modification of the first embodiment, and will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1, 4, 12, and 13. The configuration of the radio base station apparatus that performs time division control using ABF is the same as that of FIG. 1 used in the first embodiment. In addition, an example of association between mobile terminals and beams by the grouping unit 2 in FIG. 1 is the same as that in FIG. 4 used in the first embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a frame configuration in the second embodiment of the present invention, and shows a frame configuration in the case where ABF is introduced based on IEEE 802.16e, as in the first embodiment.

The permutation method is applicable to all methods such as PUSC (Partial Usage of SubChannels), Band AMC (Adaptive Modulation and Coding).

One radio frame is composed of DL_Sub_Frame 250 composed of downlink data and UL_Sub_Frame 251 composed of uplink data. The preamble 254, the FCH 255, the DL-MAP 256, and the UL-MAP 257 are transmitted using an omni antenna or a sector antenna, and all terminals located in the service area of the base station can be decoded.

In the DL_Sub_Frame 250 in the second embodiment, an Analog BF switching gap is not prepared. As described in the first embodiment, this is an example in which the beam change time is sufficiently shorter than the symbol time of the system and does not require the Analog BF switching gap. Yes.

DL_Sub_Frame 250 includes Analog BF Zone 252 that transmits Beam # 1, which is a beam pattern having a certain directivity, and Analog BF Zone 253 that transmits Beam # 2 having a beam pattern different from Beam # 1. DL_Sub_Frame 250 in FIG. 12 exemplifies a case where two zones are included, but the number of DL_Sub_Frames 250 is not limited to two zones, and may be any number. Also, the number of ABF beams need not be limited to two, and may be any number depending on the specifications of the ABF. Furthermore, different radio frames may be transmitted with different beam patterns.

The allocation of

Analog BF Zones

252 and 253 is specified by DL-MAP256. In addition, the

Analog BF Zones

252 and 253 include user data and a pilot signal (Dedicated Pilot) in which beam forming is performed in the same manner as user data. Then, MS 136 to MS 140 analyze DL-MAP 256 to identify the allocation of

Analog BF Zones

252, 253, and acquire downlink communication quality information (CINR, etc.) for each beam Beam # 1, Beam # 2. be able to.

Using the UL-MAP 257, the base station 130 (150 in FIG. 1) can instruct the MS 136 to MS 140 to report the communication quality information for each beam in the CQICH 264 in the UL_Sub_Frame 251. The base station 130 acquires the communication quality information of all beams or all beams transmitted by DL_Sub_Frame within a certain period of time from each MS 136 to MS 140. In addition, the grouping unit 2 in the base station 130 associates each MS with one or more beams having good communication quality. In the first embodiment, the example of associating the MS and the beam by the grouping unit 2 has been described with reference to FIG. 4, but the second embodiment is the same as this.

Here, if it is assumed that communication quality information for each beam and each MS is constantly acquired, uplink radio resources are consumed significantly, and the power consumption of the MS also increases. A method for dealing with this problem will be described next. FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of a method for dealing with a problem when communication quality information is constantly acquired in Embodiment 2 of the present invention. In FIG. 13, the number of beams that can be transmitted by the base station 283 is 8 per sector.

When the MS 282 enters the cell 270 range of the base station 283, the association between the MS 282 and the beam in the base station 283 is determined by causing the MS to report the communication quality information of each beam as described above. In FIG. 13, it is assumed that the MS 282 is associated with the area 277 of Beam # 4. Thereafter, the base station 283 does not need to acquire the communication quality information of all beams from the MS 282, and only needs to acquire the communication quality information for Beam # 4.

However, when the base station 283 observes the communication quality information notified from the MS 282 and determines that the communication quality for the Beam # 4 has deteriorated, the MS 282 determines the Beam # 3 that is adjacent to the area 277 of the Beam # 4. It is determined that there is a possibility of moving to the area 276 of Beam # 5 or the area 276 of Beam # 5, and the communication quality for Beam # 3 and Beam # 5 is also periodically reported. Based on the information, the base station 283 switches the correspondence between the MS and each beam.

Note that just by observing adjacent beams, beam matching may fail, and the same processing as when the MS 282 enters the cell 270 within a long period may be performed.
The processing related to multi-base station cooperation is the same as in the first embodiment.

As described above, according to Embodiment 2, the communication quality information is included in the data structure of the upload frame exchanged between the base station and the mobile terminal. As a result, based on the communication quality information on the mobile terminal side that has received the download frame, the mobile terminals can be grouped and beam selected, and the base station can select an appropriate analog beam pattern for each mobile terminal. A beamforming communication system can be obtained.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
In the third embodiment, a case will be described in which the base station transmits different user data using the same frequency and two or more different beams in the first or second embodiment.

FIG. 14 is an exemplary diagram in which base station 130 according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention transmits different user data to two MSs using the same frequency and different beams. FIG. 15 is a configuration diagram of the radio base station apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

In the example of FIG. 14, for the sake of simplicity, the base station 130 uses the same frequency to transmit data for the MS 297 in the Beam 295 and data for the MS 298 in the Beam 296 at the same time. Even in the case, it is the same. Note that the base station 130 may perform multistream transmission or diversity transmission using Beam295 and Beam296, respectively, using a plurality of antennas.

At this time, the amount of interference between Beam 295 and Beam 296 may be very large depending on the beam pattern and the positional relationship between MS 297 and MS 298.

As a method for solving this problem, the modulation /

demodulation units

3a, 4a, 3b, and 4b in FIG. 15 perform coding for canceling mutual interference between the data for MS297 and the data for MS298. The description of the other functional units is omitted because it is the same as in the first embodiment. Specifically, the base station 130 includes four series of

frequency converters

5a, 6a, 5b, 6b and signal power amplifiers 7a, 8a, 7b, 8b, and the following equation (1) The determinant of (2) is used (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 2: IEEE C802.16m-08 / 698r1).

In the modem unit # 1 3a and the modem unit # 2 4a that process data for the MS 297, S ^[1] is used and transmitted by the Beam 295. In addition, in the modem unit # 3 3b and the modem unit # 4 4b that process data for the MS 298, S ^[2] is used and transmitted by the Beam 296.

Note that the rows of the matrix indicate the signal systems transmitted to the MS 297 and MS 298 by a series of two

frequency converters

5a, 6a, 5b, 6b and signal power amplifiers 7a, 8a, 7b, 8b. Show. Further, the columns of the matrix indicate the time direction. In the case of OFDM / OFDMA, different OFDM / OFDMA symbols are shown, and may be consecutive OFDM / OFDMA symbols, or may be OFDM / OFDMA symbols that differ greatly in time by processing such as Hybrid ARQ. .

MS297 acquires data for MS297 by, for example, the following formulas (3) and (4).

Similarly, in MS 298, for example, data for MS 298 is acquired by the following formulas (5) and (6).

Here, r _i is the i-th received symbol, h _i is the transmission path information of the i-th transmission beam, and n _i ′ is noise.
Other processes are the same as those in the first embodiment.

Note that Embodiment 3 is not limited to the above code, and any code that reduces inter-beam interference may be used. Further, in Embodiment 3, only downlink transmission is described, but uplink transmission can be considered similarly.

As described above, according to the third embodiment, by performing the encoding for canceling the mutual interference, the interference between the beams transmitted by the transmitter is significantly reduced by the reception process of the receiver. An analog beamforming communication system can be obtained.

Embodiment 4 FIG.
In this Embodiment 4, the case where the content of previous Embodiment 3 is applied to the interference avoidance by the cooperation control between base stations is demonstrated. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an interference avoidance technique by inter-base station cooperative beam control according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention. Further, the corresponding configuration will be described with reference to FIG. 7 or FIG. 8 used in the first embodiment.

The base station 130a constituting the cell 300 (150a in FIG. 7 or FIG. 8) or the base station 130b constituting the cell 302 (150b in FIG. 7 or FIG. 8) As shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 8, it is assumed that the number of series systems of the frequency conversion unit and the signal power amplification unit is two. The base station 130a communicates with the MS 310 by transmitting Beam 306 and Beam 307, and the base station 130b communicates with the MS 311 by transmitting Beam 308 and Beam 309.

At this time, S ^[1] described in the third embodiment is used as data for the MS 310 by the modulation / demodulation unit # 1 3a and modulation / demodulation unit # 2 4a of the base station 130a, and is transmitted as Beam 306 and Beam 307. On the other hand, S ^[2] described in the third embodiment is used as data for the MS 311 by the modem unit # 1 3b and the modem unit # 2 4b of the base station 130b, and is transmitted as Beam308 and Beam309.

Note that the cooperative control method for performing interference avoidance by cooperative operation between base stations is the same as that described in the first embodiment, and other processes are described in the third embodiment. It is the same as what I did.

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, an analog beamforming communication system can be obtained that further reduces interference between beams transmitted by a base station during a multi-base station cooperative interference avoidance operation by reception processing of a mobile terminal. Can do.

Embodiment 5 FIG.
In the fifth embodiment, a case will be described in which the previous third embodiment is applied to the case where diversity transmission or multi-stream transmission is performed by cooperative operation between base stations. FIG. 17 is an exemplary diagram in the case where the cooperative operation between base stations is used as diversity or multi-stream transmission instead of interference avoidance in Embodiment 5 of the present invention. Further, the corresponding configuration will be described with reference to FIG. 7 or FIG. 8 used in the first embodiment.

The base station 130a constituting the cell 320 (150a in FIG. 7 or FIG. 8) or the base station 130b constituting the cell 322 (150b in FIG. 7 or FIG. 8) corresponds to the sector 321 and the sector 323, respectively. As shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 8, it is assumed that the number of series systems of the frequency conversion unit and the signal power amplification unit is two. The base station 130a transmits Beam 326 and Beam 327, and the base station 130b transmits Beam 328 and Beam 329, thereby performing coordinated transmission to the MS 330 and MS 331 located at the cell edge.

At this time, S ^[1] described in the third embodiment is used for data for the MS 330, and the first row of S ^[1] is used in the modem unit # 1 3a of the base station 130a. The second line of S ^[1] is used by the modem unit # 13 3b of the base station 130b and transmitted as Beam 328.

On the other hand, S ^[2] described in the third embodiment is used for data for MS 331, and the first row of S ^[2] is used in modem # 2 4a of base station 130a as Beam 327. The second line of S ^[2] is used by the modem unit # 24b of the base station 130b and transmitted as Beam 329.

Note that the cooperative control method when performing diversity transmission or multi-stream transmission by cooperative operation between base stations is the same as that described in the first embodiment, and the other processes are the same as those in the previous implementation. This is the same as that described in the third embodiment.

As described above, according to the fifth embodiment, it is possible to obtain an analog beamforming communication system that significantly reduces interference between beams transmitted by a base station at the time of coordinated transmission by a plurality of base stations by reception processing of a mobile terminal. it can.

Claims

Analog beam forming is applied to communication between one or more base stations and one or more mobile terminals, and communication is performed by selecting an appropriate beam according to the position of the mobile terminal or the received signal quality of the mobile terminal. An analog beamforming communication system,
Each of the one or more base stations transmits a download frame including information indicating a pattern for identifying a beam pattern that can be transmitted by the beam having a directivity pattern,
When each of the one or more mobile terminals is able to receive the download frame transmitted with the beam having the directivity pattern, when performing communication using the beam pattern corresponding to the information indicating the pattern An upload frame including at least one of communication quality information and information indicating the pattern,
Each of the one or more base stations performs grouping of the one or more mobile terminals based on communication quality information or information indicating the pattern included in each upload frame received from the one or more mobile terminals. An analog beamforming communication system characterized in that communication is performed by selecting an appropriate beam from among beam patterns that can be transmitted for each grouped mobile terminal.
The analog beamforming communication system according to claim 1,
Each of the one or more base stations further includes a time gap necessary for ensuring a time for switching a beam pattern in the download frame.
The analog beamforming communication system according to claim 1 or 2,
Each of the one or more mobile terminals transmits using the orthogonal code when transmitting the upload frame including the communication quality information and information indicating the pattern.
The analog beamforming communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Each of the one or more base stations is configured to group the one or more mobile terminals based on communication quality information or information indicating the pattern included in each upload frame received from the one or more mobile terminals. For each grouped mobile terminal, select an appropriate beam from the beam patterns that can be transmitted by itself, and the result of grouping and beam selection between other base stations coexisting with sector cell boundaries. In order to avoid interference at the sector cell boundary with reference to the results transmitted from each other and received from the other base stations, the base stations are coordinated and finally grouped with mobile terminals. An analog beamforming communication characterized by determining an appropriate beam selection for each group and transmitting the determination result to and from the other base stations. system.
The analog beamforming communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Each of the one or more base stations is configured to group the one or more mobile terminals based on communication quality information or information indicating the pattern included in each upload frame received from the one or more mobile terminals. For each grouped mobile terminal, select an appropriate beam from the beam patterns that can be transmitted by itself, and the result of grouping and beam selection between other base stations coexisting with sector cell boundaries. The signals transmitted to the mobile terminal are transmitted from different base stations having different propagation environments to the same mobile terminal existing at the sector / cell boundary with reference to the results received from the other base stations. And determine the grouping of mobile terminals and the appropriate beam selection for each group by coordinating between base stations Analog beamforming communication system and transmits the results to each other between the other base station.
The analog beamforming communication system according to claim 4 or 5,
Based on the grouping and beam selection results received from each of the one or more base stations, cooperation between base stations coexisting with sector cell boundaries is taken, grouping of mobile terminals for each base station and for each group An analog beamforming communication system, further comprising an inter-base station cooperation control device that determines an appropriate beam selection and notifies each base station of the determination result as a cooperative operation control signal.
The analog beamforming communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
Each of the one or more base stations is capable of transmitting and receiving a plurality of beams at the same frequency, and further includes a function of performing a code process for avoiding interference between the plurality of beams.