Multiplex communications – Communication over free space – Having a plurality of contiguous regions served by...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-17
2001-09-11
Olms, Douglas (Department: 2732)
Multiplex communications
Communication over free space
Having a plurality of contiguous regions served by...
C455S500000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06289005
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for directional radio communication in which signals between a first station and a second station may be transmitted only in certain directions. In particular, but not exclusively, the present invention is applicable to cellular communication networks using space division multiple access.
With currently implemented cellular communication networks, a base transceiver station (BTS) is provided which transmits signals intended for a given mobile station (MS), which may be a mobile telephone, throughout a cell or cell sector served by that base transceiver station. However, space division multiple access (SDMA) systems have now been proposed. In a space division multiple access system, the base transceiver station will not transmit signals intended for a given mobile station throughout the cell or cell sector but will only transmit the signal in the beam direction from which a signal from the mobile station is received. SDMA may also permit the base transceiver station to determine the direction from which signals from the mobile station are received.
SDMA systems may allow a number of advantages over existing systems to be achieved. In particular, as the beam which is transmitted by the BTS may only be transmitted in a particular direction and accordingly may be relatively narrow, the power of the transceiver can be concentrated into that narrow beam. It is believed that this results in a better signal to noise ratio with both the signals transmitted from the base transceiver station and the signals received by the base transceiver station. Additionally, as a result of the directionality of the base transceiver station, an improvement in the signal to interference ratio of the signal received by the base transceiver station can be achieved. Furthermore, in the transmitting direction, the directionality of the BTS allows energy to be concentrated into a narrow beam so that the signal transmitted by the BTS can reach far away located mobile stations with lower power levels than required by a conventional BTS. This may allow mobile stations to operate successfully at greater distances from the base transceiver station which in turn means that the size of each cell or cell sector of the cellular network can be increased. As a consequence of the larger cell size, the number of base stations which are required can also be reduced leading to lower network costs. SDMA systems generally require a number of antenna elements in order to achieve the required plurality of different beam directions in which signals can be transmitted and received. The provision of a plurality of antenna elements increases the sensitivity of the BTS to received signals. This means that larger cell sizes do not adversely affect the reception of signals by the BTS from mobile stations.
SDMA systems may also increase the capacity of the system, that is the number of mobile stations which can be simultaneously supported by the system is increased. This is due to the directional nature of the communication which means that the BTS will pick up less interference from mobile stations in other cells using the same frequency. The BTS will generate less interference to other mobile stations in other cells using the same frequency when communicating with a given MS in the associated cell.
Ultimately, it is believed that SDMA systems will allow the same frequency to be used simultaneously to transmit to two or even more different mobile stations which are arranged at different locations within the same cell. This can lead to a significant increase in the amount of traffic which can be carried by cellular networks.
SDMA systems can be implemented in analogue and digital cellular networks and may be incorporated in the various existing standards such as GSM, DCS 1800, TACS, AMPS and NMT. SDMA systems can also be used in conjunction with other existing multiple access techniques such as time division multiple access (TDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA) and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) techniques.
One problem with SDMA systems is that the direction in which signals should be transmitted to a mobile station needs to be determined. In certain circumstances, a relatively narrow beam will be used to send a signal from a base transceiver station to a mobile station. Therefore, the direction of that mobile station needs to be assessed reasonably accurately. If a mobile station is moving relative to the base transceiver station, it may move from the region of the cell covered by a first beam to the region of the cell covered by the adjacent beam. A decision needs to be made by the base transceiver station as to when the adjacent beam should be used instead of the first beam for transmitting signals to the mobile station. This decision is complicated by the fact that the first and the adjacent beams will in practice partially overlap.
As additional problem is that the direction in which a signal is to be transmitted by the BTS to the mobile station is determined on the basis of the uplink signals received by the BTS from the mobile station. However, the frequencies of the down link signals transmitted from the mobile station to the BTS are different from the frequencies used for the signals transmitted by the BTS to the mobile station. The difference in the frequencies used in the uplink and downlink signals means that the behaviour of the channel in the uplink direction may be different from the behaviour of the channel in the downlink direction. Thus the optimum direction determined for the uplink signals will not always be the optimum direction for the downlink signals.
It is an aim of certain embodiments of the present invention to address these difficulties.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of directional radio communication in a mobile communication network between a first station and a second mobile station, the method comprising the steps of:
identifying at said first station consecutive bursts of communication data transmitted from said second station,
determining from a plurality of adjacent beam directions respective beam directions from which sequential communication data bursts are received by the first station; and
selectively selecting one or more of said beam directions for transmitting of signals from said first station to said second station such that when it is determined that the sequential communication data bursts are received by the first station from two different beam directions, said two different beam directions are simultaneously selected for transmission of said signals from said first station to said second station, and wherein when said two different beam directions are not adjacent, the signals are transmitted from the first station to said second station in both of said different beam directions and additionally in the intervening beam directions.
Thus, with embodiments of the present invention, the ambiguity caused by the second station moving from the area covered by one beam to the area covered by another beam may be compensated for. In particular, the probability that a signal from the first station will reach the second station is increased.
Preferably, when said two different beam directions are not adjacent, the signals are transmitted from the first station to the second station in both of said different beam directions and additionally in the intervening beam directions. If the different beam directions are not adjacent, it is likely that one of those directions will correspond to an anomalous path being followed by a burst of communication data from the first station. The signal transmitted from the first station to the second station would be unlikely to follow this anomalous path. By also transmitting in all the intervening beam directions, the effects resulting from the detection of a signal following the anomalous path can be reduced.
Preferably, the first and second beam directions can be used for a predetermined plurality of consecutive signals transmitted from t
Merchant & Gould P.C.
Nokia Telecommunications Oy
Olms Douglas
Sam Phirin
LandOfFree
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