Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Peter Jakobsson

Magnus Nilsson

Torsten John Carlsson

Martin Isberg

Jan Celander

Magnus Sandgren

Lars Sundström

Kjell Berthold Gustafsson

Bjorn Martin Lindquist

Per Ingelhag

Jacob Mannerstrangle

Sten Wallin

Torbjörn Wigren

Bo Göransson

Christian Bergljung

Jonas B Karlsson

Vimar Björk

Dandan Hao

Johan Thorebäck

Jing Rao

Hans Hagberg

Henrik Jeppsson

Peter Svensson

Lars Lennartsson

Joakim Plahn

Lars Peter Kunkel

Jan Curt Gustaf Celander

Lars-Peter Kunkel

Nikolai Kajakine

Agneta Ljungbro

Victoria Slavinskaya

Örjan Renström

An Advanced Antenna System (AAS) receiver and related methods are provided. According to one aspect an AAS receiver comprises a digital processing block of a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC). The digital processing block comprises an interface for communicating with a Central Unit (CU), and a plurality of Antenna Signal Processing Blocks (ASPBs), each receiving a digitized receive signal from a respective antenna element of an antenna array. Each ASPB comprises one or more receivers, each of which receives the signal from the respective antenna element, processes the received signal, and beamforms the processed signal to produce one or more data streams to be sent to the CU. Each ASPB also includes a narrowband receiver that processes an input signal (either the signal received from the respective antenna element or that signal after processing) to create a narrowband signal that is provided to the CU directly, without beamforming.

Versatile AAS receiver

In an example embodiment, a system comprises a chain of serially coupled nodes, including a central processing node (CPN) and one or more radio communications nodes (RCNs). The CPN couples to a first RCN in the chain via a dielectric waveguide (DWG) link and any further RCNs in the chain are successively connected in serial fashion from the first RCN via further (DWG) links. The CPN generates outbound radio carrier signals that are waveguide-propagated in a downstream direction of the chain, for over-the-air (OTA) by targeted ones of the RCNs, while radio carrier signals received via OTA reception by respective ones of the RCNs are waveguide propagated as inbound radio signals in an upstream direction of the chain, for processing by the CPN. Advantages from he contemplated system include greatly simplified implementation of the RCNs, with lower cost and power consumption. Further, strategic placement of failover CPNs and DWG links provide for continued operation in the face of CPN or DWG link failures.

Method and apparatus for radio communications

A distributed wireless system comprises controlling node and two or more antenna processing nodes communicatively coupled to the controlling node but spatially separated from each other and from the controlling node. The controlling node sends commands to and exchanges data with a first subset of the antenna processing nodes, using a first twisted-pair lane of a physical layer interface having four twisted-pair lanes, and sends commands to and exchanging data with a second subset of the antenna processing nodes, using a second twisted-pair lane. In some embodiments, the controlling node also uses a third twisted-pair lane for communicating with the first subset, while using the fourth twisted-pair lane for communicating with the second subset. Corresponding antenna processing nodes terminate one or two twisted-pair lanes in a direction towards the controlling node, while terminating one or two twisted-pair lanes towards one or more antenna processing nodes further from the controlling node.

Interface in series-connected radios

A first antenna processing node receives () one or more wireless transmissions from a wireless device and obtains first symbol values from the one or more wireless transmissions. The first antenna processing node receives () second symbol values from a second antenna processing node, the second symbol values corresponding to the one or more wireless transmissions as received at the second antenna processing node, and calculates () a first weight parameter based on at least a subset of the first symbol values and a corresponding subset of the second symbol values. The first antenna processing node calculates () third symbol values by computing a weighted sum of first symbol values and corresponding ones of the second symbol values, using the first weight parameter, and sends () the third symbol values to a third antenna processing node or to a controlling node. This combining of symbol values may approximate maximum ratio combining, MRC.

Coherent summing of signals from distributed radio access points

A wireless system comprises a controlling node and two or more antenna processing nodes coupled to the controlling node but separated from each other. The controlling node sends () a command to a first one of the two or more antenna processing nodes, instructing the first one of the two or more antenna processing nodes to transmit data to a wireless device. This may be preceded by selecting () the first one of the antenna processing nodes based on an estimated signal quality metric corresponding to the wireless device for each antenna processing node. In response to a determination by the controlling node that the wireless device has not successfully decoded the data, the controlling node sends () a command to a second one of the two or more antenna processing nodes, instructing the second one of the antenna processing nodes to transmit the data to the wireless device.

Hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) with spatial diversity

An apparatus for a multi-antenna transceiver is disclosed. The multi-antenna transceiver has a plurality of antenna elements connected to respective transceiver chains. Each transceiver chain includes a frequency converter operated using a respective local oscillator signal provided by a respective phase-locked loop. The apparatus includes a controller configured to cause control of the respective phase-locked loop of one or more transceiver chain to generate the respective local oscillator signal with a respective phase offset for mitigation of local oscillator leakage through the frequency converter. In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to cause, for each transceiver chain with a non-zero respective phase offset, a corresponding phase adjustment of a signal for frequency conversion. Corresponding multi-antenna transceivers, wireless communication devices and methods are also disclosed.

Mitigation of local oscillator leakage

A wireless system comprises a controlling node and multiple antenna processing nodes coupled to the controlling node but separated from each other. The controlling node receives () first soft bit information from a first antenna processing node, the first soft bit information corresponding to reception of a wireless transmission. Responsive to determining that it cannot decode transmitted bits using the first soft bit information, the controlling node requests () and receives () second soft bit information from a second antenna processing node, the second soft bit information also corresponding to the first wireless transmission from the wireless device and having been buffered by the second antenna processing node. The controlling node decodes () bits from the first wireless transmission using both the first and second soft bit information. The controlling node may then signal the antenna processing nodes that they can discard buffered information for the wireless transmission.

Chase combining in a distributed wireless system

Methods for determining calibration parameters to correct for frequency responses of one or more dielectric waveguides coupling a control unit to a first antenna node or to a series of antenna nodes that includes the first antenna node. An example method comprises transmitting, via a first dielectric waveguide coupling the control unit to the first antenna node, a radiofrequency (RF) test signal having a signal bandwidth covering a bandwidth of interest. The method further comprises receiving, via a second dielectric waveguide coupling the control unit to the first antenna node, a looped-back version of the transmitted RF test signal, and estimating a first one-way frequency response corresponding to the first (or second) dielectric waveguide, based on the RF test signal and the received loop-back version of the transmitted RF test signal.

Dielectric waveguide signal transfer function compensation

A transmission beam change method is disclosed for a wireless communication transmitter adapted to transmit an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) signal using a transmission beam of a plurality of transmission beams available at the wireless communication transmitter. The method includes temporarily adapting an output power during a transmission beam change from one transmission beam to another transmission beam. In some embodiments, the transmission beam change is performed during a cyclic prefix (CP) of an OFDM symbol and the temporary adaptation is applied to only a part of the CP. Temporarily adapting the output power includes decreasing the output power to initiate the temporary adaptation and increasing the output power to terminate the temporary adaptation. In some embodiments, the temporary adaptation is performed during all transmission beam changes or only when an occurrence frequency of transmission beam changes is higher than a threshold value.

Power scaling of transmission signal during transmission beam change

A receiver () with an antenna array () provides interference reduction for blocking signals received by the receiver () by controlling different receiver blocks () associated with different antenna elements () of the array () differently, particularly for those antenna elements () in the corner or proximate a corner or edge of the array (), responsive to a power level of a combined signal resulting from all antenna elements (). As a result, the solution presented herein enables a receiver () to more accurately target the gain control such that the antenna elements () and associated receiver circuitry () most likely to be impacted by unwanted signals have a reduced gain, while the antenna elements () and associated receiver circuitry () less likely to be impacted by unwanted signals can operate with a higher gain.

AGC controlled tapering for an AAS radio

A receiver circuit for an antenna array system (AAS) is disclosed. The receiver circuit () comprises a set of receivers (-). Each receiver (-) comprises a first TI-ADC () in a receive path of the receiver. The first TI-ADC () comprises a plurality of sub ADCs (A-A). Each receiver (-) comprises a control circuit () configured to select which sub ADC (A-A) is to operate on what input sample based on a first selection sequence. The control circuits () in the different receivers (-) in said set of receivers (-) are configured to use different first selection sequences.

Receiver circuit for an antenna array system

A method is disclosed for controlling operations of an antenna array comprising two or more controllable sections and antenna ports connected to transceiver circuitry. The method includes determining a scenario of transmission or reception by the antenna array, and configuring the transceiver circuitry responsive to the determined scenario. The scenario is defined in terms of a requirement for a number of users intended as receivers or transmitters, respectively, of the transmission or reception and in terms of one or more of: a path loss requirement, a peak rate requirement, and a traffic capacity requirement. The configuration includes, for the transmission or reception, one or more of: allocating a number of sections of the two or more sections of the antenna array and determining a sub-division of the allocated sections, determining a number of information data layers for multiple-input multiple-output application, and allocating a bandwidth.

Antenna array operation control

A filtering arrangement for a wireless communication receiver is disclosed. The filtering arrangement comprises an input port configured to receive a digital signal, wherein the digital signal has a signal bandwidth and comprises a desired signal, dividing circuitry configured to divide the digital signal into two or more signal parts, wherein the two or more signal parts comprise two edge signal parts, and a respective processing branch associated with each of the two or more signal parts. A processing branch configured to process a respective edge signal part comprises a digital edge filter configured to filter the edge signal part, determination circuitry configured to determine whether an un-desired signal is comprised in the edge signal part, and frequency shifting circuitry configured to frequency shift the edge signal part responsive to determination by the determination circuitry. Corresponding wireless communication receiver, filtering method and computer program product are also disclosed.

Altering filtering by changing mixing frequency when interferer present

A communication circuit for communication at a carrier frequency via multiple antenna elements of a radio apparatus is disclosed. The communication circuit comprises a plurality of radio units, wherein each radio unit of said plurality of radio units is arranged to be connected to a separate antenna element. An LO signal generation unit is arranged to generate a plurality of LO signals at distinct frequencies, and supply a unique LO signal of the plurality of LO signals to each radio unit of the plurality of radio units. A corresponding radio apparatus and method are also disclosed.

Communication circuit for multi-antenna apparatus

A communication circuit () for communication via multiple antenna elements () of a communication apparatus () is disclosed. The communication circuit () comprises a plurality of communication units () configured to communicate simultaneously in the same frequency band. Each communication unit () of said plurality of communication units () is arranged to be connected to a separate antenna element () and comprises a data converter (). The data converters () of the plurality of communication units () together form a set of data converters. Furthermore, the communication circuit () comprises a clock-signal generation circuit () configured to generate a distinct sampling clock signal at a distinct sampling clock frequency (f) to each data converter () in the set of data converters.

Growing community of inventors

Lund, Sweden

Peter Jakobsson