Symbol shutdown method, device, O-RU, electronic device and storage medium

Abstract

The embodiment of the present invention discloses a symbol shutdown method, an apparatus, an O‑RU, an electronic device and a storage medium. The symbol shutdown technical solution provided by the present invention performs empty symbol judgment on OFDM symbols through self-detection inside the ORAN radio frequency unit O‑RU itself, and then generates a symbol shutdown control signal according to the judgment result to control the power amplifier to perform symbol shutdown by itself. Therefore, the symbol shutdown of the ORAN radio frequency unit does not require the support of the ORAN interface protocol, and does not rely on the real-time control message of the O‑DU, and does not require the control and participation of the O‑DU, thereby realizing the functional decoupling of the O‑DU and the O‑RU in symbol shutdown, solving the power consumption problem of the ORAN network radio frequency unit, saving power consumption, and also enabling the O‑RU devices and O‑DU devices from different manufacturers to support the symbol shutdown function when interconnected, reflecting the openness and compatibility of the ORAN protocol.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a symbol shut-down method, device, O-RU, electronic device and storage medium. Background Art

[0002] Power saving technology is an important technology in the deployment of 4G (fourth generation mobile communication system) / 5G (fifth generation mobile communication system), especially for 5G base stations based on massive multiple-input multiple-output (Massive MIMO) systems. The huge power consumption has become an important obstacle to the wider deployment of 5G technology.

[0003] At present, power saving can be regarded as a bottleneck technology for base station radio frequency units (RRU or RU). In the prior art, power saving technologies that have been applied in base station radio frequency units include TDD (Time Duplex Division) shutdown technology and tidal base station technology. Among them, TDD shutdown technology can shut down the power amplifier (PA) and downlink signal processing unit of the base station in the uplink time slot, and can also shut down the low noise amplifier (LNA) and uplink signal processing unit of the base station in the downlink time slot; tidal base station technology can reduce the transmission power of the base station at night or other low business hours, and shut down some antenna channels in the multi-antenna system.

[0004] In addition, symbol shutdown technology is also a power saving technology used in traditional 4G / 5G base station radio frequency units and terminal devices. Symbol shutdown dynamically shuts down the processing units in the base station and terminal devices, especially the power amplifier (PA), in the time dimension with symbols as the granularity, so as to improve the power efficiency of the equipment and achieve the purpose of energy saving and environmental protection. In the traditional 4G / 5G network, the implementation of the symbol shutdown function requires close coordination between the baseband processing unit (BBU) and the base station radio frequency unit. Specifically, the baseband processing unit coordinates and schedules according to user services, determines which symbols do not need to transmit services and can be turned off, and which symbols need to turn on the power amplifier and transmit services. The symbol shutdown function in the baseband processing unit generates the corresponding symbol shutdown real-time control message according to the service scheduling results, and then the baseband processing unit initiates the instruction, notifies the base station radio frequency unit through the real-time control message and controls the shutdown of the power amplifier through the switch.

[0005] However, in traditional base stations, since the baseband processing unit and the radio frequency unit are connected via the CPRI (Common Public Radio Interface) interface, and the real-time control message about symbol shutdown in the CPRI protocol is generally a message customized by the equipment manufacturer, the symbol shutdown control message of the baseband processing unit can only be parsed by the base station radio frequency unit of the same equipment manufacturer. Figure 1This is a diagram of the implementation process of the symbol shutdown function in the traditional 4G / 5G base station radio frequency unit. Figure 1 As shown, the base station radio unit receives and parses the real-time control information from the CPRI interface to obtain specific symbol shutdown parameters, and then passes the symbol shutdown parameters to the switch controller. The switch controller then generates the corresponding power amplifier control switch according to the switch mode and the received symbol shutdown parameters to control the shutdown of the power amplifier, thereby realizing symbol shutdown. In addition, the CPRI protocol is generally used to transmit time domain data between the baseband unit and the radio unit. The radio unit based on the CPRI protocol generally does not include functions such as IFFT transformation.

[0006] However, the implementation scheme of the symbol shutdown function as described above cannot be directly applied to base stations in the ORAN network (i.e., open wireless access network, Open RAN) because the control plane messages related to symbol shutdown have not yet been defined in the ORAN protocol, and the baseband processing unit and the base station radio frequency unit cannot perform collaborative processing on symbol shutdown. Specifically, the ORAN network architecture consists of a distributed unit (ORAN Distributed Unit, O-DU) and a radio frequency unit (ORAN Radio Unit, O-RU). Among them, the ORAN fronthaul interface is used to connect the ORAN fronthaul interface. Compared with the traditional CPRI fronthaul interface protocol, the ORAN fronthaul interface protocol is more open and more standardized, and supports the interconnection of equipment from different manufacturers. It has been strongly supported by many operators and equipment manufacturers in various countries around the world, and has been rapidly developed. At the same time, unlike the CPRI protocol which contains a large number of manufacturer-defined control messages, in order to reflect openness and support the interconnection of equipment from different manufacturers, ORAN tries to use common message types in the control plane and management plane message definitions to reduce manufacturer-defined messages. The current ORAN fronthaul interface CUS protocol specification (O-RAN.WG4.CUS.0-v08.00) has not yet defined the message type for the symbol shutdown technology, which makes the power saving technology and power efficiency in the ORAN radio frequency unit lag behind the 4G / 5G network radio frequency unit defined by 3GPP. The O-RU cannot perform symbol shutdown by receiving control messages from the ORAN interface. In addition, unlike the CPRI protocol, the ORAN protocol is generally used to transmit frequency domain data between the baseband processing unit and the radio frequency unit. The radio frequency unit generally needs to include functions such as IFFT transformation, and some radio frequency units also include frequency domain signal processing functions such as beamforming.

[0007] Based on the above situation, it is urgent to propose a symbol shutdown method for the ORAN network to solve the power consumption problem of the radio frequency unit in the ORAN network, thereby saving power consumption, and solving the symbol shutdown function problem in the interconnection scenario of equipment from different manufacturers. Summary of the invention

[0008] In view of this, the embodiments of the present invention provide a symbol shutdown method, an apparatus, an O-RU, an electronic device and a storage medium. The symbol shutdown technical solution provided by the present invention performs empty symbol judgment on the OFDM symbol through self-detection inside the ORAN radio frequency unit O-RU itself, and then generates a symbol shutdown control signal according to the judgment result to control the power amplifier to perform symbol shutdown by itself, so that the symbol shutdown of the ORAN radio frequency unit does not require ORAN interface protocol support, and does not rely on the real-time control message of the O-DU, and does not require the control and participation of the O-DU, thereby realizing the functional decoupling of the O-DU and the O-RU in symbol shutdown, solving the power consumption problem of the ORAN network radio frequency unit, saving power consumption, and also enabling O-RU devices and O-DU devices from different manufacturers to support the symbol shutdown function when interconnected, reflecting the openness and compatibility of the ORAN protocol.

[0009] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a symbol shutoff method, which is applied to an ORAN radio frequency unit, wherein the ORAN radio frequency unit includes a power amplifier module, and the method includes:

[0010] Determine whether the received OFDM symbol is a null symbol and obtain a determination result;

[0011] Generate a first symbol shutdown control signal according to the frame structure parameter of the wireless frame where the OFDM symbol is located and the judgment result;

[0012] Performing delay matching on the first symbol off control signal to generate a second symbol off control signal, so that the second symbol off control signal is aligned with an input signal of the OFDM symbol input to the power amplifier module after signal processing;

[0013] The power amplifier module is controlled to be turned off based on the second-sign turn-off control signal.

[0014] Preferably, the determining whether the received OFDM symbol is a null symbol specifically includes:

[0015] Whether the OFDM symbol is a null symbol is determined according to the sum of the squares of all frequency domain data in the OFDM symbol; if the sum of the squares of all frequency domain data in the OFDM symbol is less than or equal to a preset decision threshold, the OFDM symbol is determined to be a null symbol.

[0016] Preferably, generating the first symbol shutoff control signal according to the frame structure parameter of the radio frame where the OFDM symbol is located and the judgment result specifically includes:

[0017] Generate a symbol counter and a symbol timer of the radio frame according to a frame structure parameter of the radio frame where the OFDM symbol is located;

[0018] The first symbol off control signal is generated according to the judgment result and the symbol counter and the symbol timer, wherein the state of the first symbol off control signal includes: an on state and an off state.

[0019] Preferably, performing delay matching on the first symbol shut-off control signal specifically includes:

[0020] The first symbol off control signal is delay matched through a buffer configured in advance based on a preset delay matching value.

[0021] Preferably, the controlling the power amplifier module to be turned off based on the second symbol turn-off control signal specifically includes:

[0022] When the ORAN radio frequency unit is an ORAN radio frequency unit supporting the FDD mode, the second symbol shutdown control signal is directly input into the power amplifier module so as to control the shutdown of the power amplifier module;

[0023] When the ORAN radio frequency unit is an ORAN radio frequency unit supporting TDD mode, the ORAN radio frequency unit includes a TDD switch controller, and the power amplifier switch signal output by the TDD switch controller is first logically merged with the second symbol shutdown control signal to generate a third symbol shutdown control signal, and then the third symbol shutdown control signal is input to the power amplifier module, so that the third symbol shutdown control signal controls the shutdown of the power amplifier module.

[0024] Preferably, the step of logically combining the power amplifier switch signal output by the TDD switch controller with the second symbol shutdown control signal specifically includes:

[0025] When the power amplifier switch signal output by the TDD switch controller and the second symbol shutdown control signal are both in the on state, the third symbol shutdown control signal is in the on state, otherwise it is in the off state.

[0026] Preferably, when the ORAN radio frequency unit includes a precoding function module or a beamforming function module, the OFDM symbol is an OFDM symbol processed by the precoding function module or the beamforming function module.

[0027] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a symbol shutoff device, which is arranged in an ORAN radio frequency unit, wherein the ORAN radio frequency unit includes a power amplifier module, and the device includes:

[0028] A null symbol detector is configured to determine whether a received OFDM symbol is a null symbol and obtain a determination result;

[0029] A symbol off control signal generator, configured to generate a first symbol off control signal according to a frame structure parameter of a wireless frame where the OFDM symbol is located and the judgment result;

[0030] A delay matcher, configured to perform delay matching on the first symbol off control signal to generate a second symbol off control signal, so that the second symbol off control signal is aligned with an input signal of the OFDM symbol input to the power amplifier module after signal processing;

[0031] The power amplifier shutdown control module is configured to control the shutdown of the power amplifier module based on the second symbol shutdown control signal.

[0032] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an O-RU, comprising at least: a symbol shut-down device as described in the second aspect.

[0033] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic device, comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store one or more computer program instructions, wherein the one or more computer program instructions are executed by the processor to implement the method described in the first aspect.

[0034] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a storage medium, wherein the storage medium is used to store a computer program, and the computer program is used to implement the method described in the first aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0035] The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent through the following description of the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0036] Figure 1 This is a diagram showing the implementation process of the symbol shutdown function in the radio frequency unit of a traditional 4G / 5G base station;

[0037] Figure 2 It is a block diagram of the downlink signal processing process in the ORAN radio unit supporting FDD mode;

[0038] Figure 3 It is a module diagram of the implementation process of the downlink signal processing and power amplifier switch control function in the ORAN radio unit supporting the TDD mode;

[0039] Figure 4 is a flow chart of a symbol shut-down method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0040] Figure 5 is a corresponding relationship diagram between OFDM symbols in a wireless frame and corresponding symbol shutdown control signals according to a specific exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[0041] Figure 6is a structural schematic diagram of a symbol shutoff device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0042] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the structure of an O-RU in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0043] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of the structure of another O-RU in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0044] Fig. 9 It is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of the electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0045] The present invention is described below based on embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. In the detailed description of the present invention below, some specific details are described in detail. It is possible for a person skilled in the art to fully understand the present invention without the description of these details. In order to avoid confusing the essence of the present invention, known methods, processes, flows, components and circuits are not described in detail.

[0046] In addition, persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the drawings provided herein are for illustration purposes and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

[0047] At the same time, it should be understood that in the following description, "circuit" refers to a conductive loop composed of at least one element or subcircuit through electrical connection or electromagnetic connection. When an element or circuit is said to be "connected to" another element or an element / circuit is said to be "connected between" two nodes, it can be directly coupled or connected to another element or there can be an intermediate element, and the connection between the elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof. On the contrary, when an element is said to be "directly coupled to" or "directly connected to" another element, it means that there is no intermediate element between the two.

[0048] Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, words such as “include”, “including” and the like in the specification should be interpreted as including rather than being exclusive or exhaustive; that is, as meaning “including but not limited to”.

[0049] In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the terms "first", "second", etc. are only used for descriptive purposes and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance. In addition, in the description of the present invention, unless otherwise specified, "plurality" means two or more.

[0050] Figure 2 This is a block diagram of the downlink signal processing process in the ORAN radio unit supporting FDD mode, as shown in the figure. Figure 2As shown in the figure: the implementation process of downlink signal processing includes ORAN interface, user data, phase compensation, IFFT transformation, ping-pong buffer and cyclic prefix insertion, channel filter, digital up-conversion, peak clipping and digital pre-distortion, digital-to-analog conversion and RF front-end signal processing and power amplifier, etc. For the ORAN radio unit supporting TDD mode, a TDD switch controller is added compared to the ORAN radio unit supporting FDD mode. Figure 3 As shown, it uses parameters such as the switch control mode in the management plane (M-plane) message contained in the ORAN interface to generate a radio frequency switch control signal, wherein the radio frequency switch control signal includes a switch signal for controlling the power amplifier PA. The switch signal for controlling the power amplifier PA is responsible for turning on the power amplifier in the downlink time slot and turning off the power amplifier in the uplink time slot. It is a power amplifier switch with the time slot as the time granularity.

[0051] In order to apply the symbol shutdown power saving technology in the ORAN radio frequency unit, the inventors have found that although the ORAN protocol has not yet defined the message type related to the symbol shutdown function, the interface division based on frequency domain data transmission adopted in the ORAN network makes the total signal processing delay in the O-RU greater than the time length of a symbol, which makes it possible for the O-RU to perform self-detection of the symbol data and shut down the symbol according to the detection results.

[0052] Figure 4 : is a flow chart of a symbol shutoff method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The symbol shutoff method provided by the embodiment of the present invention is applied to an ORAN radio frequency unit, wherein the ORAN radio frequency unit includes a power amplifier module, specifically as follows Figure 4 As shown, the method comprises the following steps:

[0053] Step S410: Determine whether the received OFDM symbol is a null symbol and obtain a determination result.

[0054] The "OFDM symbol" involved in the present invention refers to the OFDM symbol in the frequency domain data within the same antenna, which is sent by the O-DU to the ORAN radio frequency unit O-RU and processed by the user data module in the O-RU. When the same antenna has one carrier, the "OFDM symbol" refers to the OFDM symbol of the carrier; when the same antenna has multiple carriers, the "OFDM symbol" refers to the OFDM symbol of all carriers of the antenna. In addition, when the ORAN network radio frequency unit includes a precoding function module or a beamforming function module, the OFDM symbol is the OFDM symbol of the frequency domain data sent by the O-DU to the O-RU, which is first processed by the user data module and then by the precoding function module or the beamforming function module, so as to realize the independent provision of symbol shutdown function on each antenna channel and realize independent symbol shutdown between each power amplifier.

[0055] In this step S410, the basis for determining whether an OFDM symbol is a null symbol is to determine whether the OFDM symbol contains service data. If it contains service data, the OFDM symbol is not a null symbol. If it does not contain service data, the OFDM symbol is a null symbol.

[0056] In a specific example, whether the OFDM symbol is a null symbol is determined by detecting the power of each OFDM symbol. Specifically, whether the OFDM symbol is a null symbol is determined according to the sum of the squares of all frequency domain data in the OFDM symbol, and if the sum of the squares of all frequency domain data in the OFDM symbol is less than or equal to a preset decision threshold, the OFDM symbol is determined to be a null symbol.

[0057] The symbol power calculation formula is as follows:

[0058]

[0059] Among them, P l is the power of the lth symbol, X l (k) is the frequency domain data of the Kth RE of the lth symbol, n RE is the number of frequency domain REs in the Lth symbol.

[0060] By adding P l The value is compared with a given preset decision threshold to determine whether the OFDM symbol is a null symbol.

[0061]

[0062] Among them, P th is the preset decision threshold, P th It can be configured to any power threshold value greater than or equal to 0 according to system requirements.

[0063] It should be noted that: when judging whether an OFDM symbol is a null symbol, it is necessary to wait for the frequency domain data of all REs in the OFDM symbol to be collected before judging the null symbol.

[0064] Step S420: Generate a first symbol shutoff control signal according to the frame structure parameter of the wireless frame where the OFDM symbol is located and the judgment result.

[0065] The data received by the ORAN radio unit from the ORAN interface may be out of order, and the received data needs to be rearranged in a specific time sequence in the downlink signal processing module before being sent out. Correspondingly, for the symbol shutdown in the ORAN radio unit, after the empty symbol detection is completed for each OFDM symbol, the time point of turning on and off each control signal also needs to be determined in the same specific time sequence as the received data.

[0066] The state of the symbol shutdown control signal includes: an on state and an off state. In a specific example, the state of the symbol shutdown control signal corresponding to the empty symbol is an off state (state 0), and the state of the symbol shutdown control signal corresponding to the non-empty symbol is an on state (state 1).

[0067] Specifically, first, a symbol counter and a symbol timer of the radio frame are generated according to a frame structure parameter of the radio frame where the OFDM symbol is located.

[0068] In mobile communications, data is transmitted on wireless networks in units of radio frames, regardless of 4G or 5G. However, the radio frame structures of 4G and 5G are different. The details are as follows:

[0069] 1. For 4G, 4G includes two standards, TDD and FDD. The wireless frames of both standards are 10ms long. Each wireless frame contains 10 subframes. Each subframe consists of 2 consecutive time slots, and each time slot is 0.5ms long. At the same time, each time slot consists of a certain number of OFDM symbols including a cyclic prefix (CP). If the system is a Normal CP type, each time slot includes 7 OFDM symbols. If it is an Extended CP type, each time slot includes 6 OFDM symbols. In addition, for the Normal CP type, the CP length of the first OFDM symbol in each time slot is 160*Ts, and the length of other CPs is 144*Ts. For the Extended CP type, the length of each CP is 512*Ts. Among them, Ts is the sampling interval. In addition, in addition to uplink subframes and downlink subframes, the TDD standard also has special subframes, which are composed of DwPTS, GP and UpPTS. Within a wireless frame, which subframes or time slots are used for uplink data, which subframes or time slots are used for downlink data, and which subframes or time slots are special subframes can be configured based on the uplink and downlink ratio parameters.

[0070] 2. For 5G, the length of 5G radio frames and subframes is fixed, similar to LTE, allowing better coexistence between 4G and NR. The difference is that 5G NR defines a flexible sub-framework, and the time slot and symbol period can be flexibly defined according to the subcarrier spacing SCS, where:

[0071] ● Radio frame = 10 (ms)

[0072] Subframe = 1 (ms)

[0073] ●Time slot = 12 or 14 symbol periods (ms)

[0074] ●Symbol period = 1 / SCS + CP length (ms)

[0075] Compared with 4G LTE, 5G NR supports multiple different types of subcarrier spacing SCS. 5G uses the parameter μ to express the carrier spacing. For example, μ=0 represents the equivalent of 15kHz in LTE. Other configurations are shown in the following table:

[0076] μ <![CDATA[Δf=2 u ]]> 0 15 1 30 2 60 3 120 4 240

[0077] According to the formula: symbol period = 1 / SCS + CP length, we can know that as μ changes, the symbol period changes proportionally, and the corresponding CP also changes proportionally. That is, as the subcarrier spacing increases, the time slot will become shorter. Therefore, different numbers of time slots are set in the same subframe. In addition, there is another parameter that changes with different parameter sets, which is the number of symbols in a time slot. However, the number of symbols in a time slot does not change with the change of parameter sets. It only changes with the change of the time slot configuration type. When the configuration is 0, the number of symbols in a time slot is always 14. When the time slot configuration is 1, the number of symbols in a time slot is 12. Specifically,

[0078] When NR SCS = 15 khz, NR time slot = 14 symbols = 1 ms

[0079] When NR SCS = 30 kHz, NR time slot = 14 symbols = 0.5 ms

[0080] When NR SCS = 60 khz, NR time slot = 12 or 14 symbols (12 for extended CP, 14 for normal CP) = 0.25 ms

[0081] When NR SCS = 120 khz, NR time slot = 14 symbols = 0.125 ms

[0082] When NR SCS = 240 khz, NR time slot = 14 symbols = 0.0625 ms

[0083] In addition, there are more time slot types in 5G, namely:

[0084] Type 1: All downlink, DL-only slot, each of the 12 / 14 symbols is used for downlink.

[0085] Type 2: All uplink, UL-only slot, 12 / 14 symbols, each symbol is used for uplink.

[0086] Type 3: Fully flexible resources, Flexible-only slot, each symbol is flexible and changeable.

[0087] Type 4: At least one uplink or downlink symbol, and the rest are flexibly configured with multiple configurations.

[0088] In addition, the 5G NR system supports four levels of time slot ratio configuration schemes, and the specific configuration scheme to be adopted depends on the system requirements.

[0089] As mentioned above, different wireless interface types, whether LTE (long term evolution, i.e. 4G wireless interface) or NR (Next Radio, i.e. 5G wireless interface) and different system configurations in the same communication network (such as: whether the parameter set μ of 5G NR is 0 or other values) will determine the difference in the wireless frame structure, which in turn affects the number of OFDM symbols in a wireless frame and the start time and period of each OFDM symbol. Therefore, it is necessary to obtain the parameters of the wireless frame structure according to the specific current network configuration and then obtain the relevant parameters of the specific OFDM symbol, such as: the number of OFDM symbols, the start time and the period. Among them, the frame structure parameters of the wireless frame include but are not limited to: wireless interface type, parameter set μ, CP type, etc.

[0090] In a specific example, the symbol counter (i.e., symbol number) of the wireless frame and the symbol timer (i.e., symbol period and start or end time) of the wireless frame where the OFDM symbol to be judged is located can be obtained based on the timing synchronization mechanism in the 4G / 5G system according to the frame structure parameters of the wireless frame, that is, the symbol number of the OFDM symbol to be judged in its wireless frame and the specific start or end time point, and then, according to the judgment result of the OFDM symbol and its specific start or end time point and symbol number, the specific time point on the time axis of the symbol shutdown control signal corresponding to the OFDM symbol is generated. Then, at the time point when each symbol shutdown control signal starts, the switching of the power amplifier switch is controlled. If the OFDM symbol is a non-empty symbol (service symbol), the symbol shutdown control signal is set to the on state (state 1), and if the symbol is an empty symbol, the symbol shutdown control signal is set to the off state (state 0). Figure 5 It is a correspondence diagram between OFDM symbols and corresponding symbol shutdown control signals in a wireless frame of a specific exemplary embodiment of the present invention, wherein the dotted line represents the OFDM symbol, and the solid line represents the symbol shutdown control signal corresponding to each OFDM symbol. As shown in the figure, symbols numbered 0, 1, 3 and N are non-empty symbols, and the state corresponding to the symbol shutdown control signal is the on state, i.e., state 1; symbols with other symbol numbers are empty symbols, and the state corresponding to the symbol shutdown control signal is the off state, i.e., state 0.

[0091] It should be noted that the switching time point of each signal state in the symbol off control signal is the CP start time point of the next symbol.

[0092] Step S430: Delay matching is performed on the first symbol off control signal to generate a second symbol off control signal, so that the second symbol off control signal is aligned with the input signal of the OFDM symbol input to the power amplifier module after signal processing.

[0093] Since the symbol shutdown function of the radio frequency unit controls the shutdown of the power amplifier on a time scale with symbol granularity, there are high requirements for the delay matching accuracy of the symbol shutdown signal and the service data processing signal. After being generated, the "first symbol shutdown control signal" involved in the present invention cannot be accurately aligned in time with the input signal of the OFDM symbol input to the power amplifier module after signal processing (the "alignment" here means time alignment), so it is necessary to perform delay matching based on the time difference between the two so that the two are aligned in time.

[0094] It should be noted that the "alignment" here does not mean absolute alignment, that is, there is no difference in time. As long as the alignment error does not affect the signal quality defined by the standard, the alignment operation purpose can be achieved.

[0095] In a specific example, the present invention performs delay matching on the first symbol shutdown control signal through a buffer that is pre-configured based on a preset delay matching value. Specifically, a first-in-first-out FIFO buffer can be selected, and the FIFO buffer is a configurable delay FIFO buffer, and the delay is controlled by controlling the write and read timing of the FIFO buffer. In a specific embodiment, the FIFO depth can be configured to be 32768, the delay accuracy can be 8.138ns (a 122.88MHz clock cycle), and the delay adjustment range can be 0 to 260us. Among them, the theoretical configuration value of the preset delay matching value is the total delay of the downlink signal processing of the RF unit (such as Figure 2 The delay from the ORAN interface output to the power amplifier as shown in the figure minus the processing delay after the symbol shutdown method steps are executed. In actual system implementation, the approximate range of the preset delay matching value can be determined by simple estimation, and then the accurate preset delay matching value can be obtained by actual measurement and calibration. The calibration requirement is that the opening or closing of the symbol shutdown function does not affect the downlink signal quality, such as EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) performance.

[0096] For multi-standard and multi-bandwidth O-RUs, the service processing delay may be related to the air interface standard, NR parameter set μ, and carrier bandwidth. Therefore, the FIFO buffer should also be configured with different preset delay matching values ​​according to different scenarios.

[0097] In addition, for an ORAN radio frequency unit supporting a multi-carrier system, when the same antenna has multiple different carriers, it is necessary to first determine the symbol shutdown control signals corresponding to the OFDM symbols of each carrier, and then logically merge the symbol shutdown control signals corresponding to multiple different carriers. The logical merging operation can be performed in step S420 or in this step S430. If performed in step S420, the first symbol shutdown control signal generated according to step S420 is the symbol shutdown control signal after the symbol shutdown control signals corresponding to multiple different carriers are logically merged. Specifically, when one of the symbol shutdown control signals corresponding to multiple different carriers is in an on state, the merged symbol shutdown control signal is in an on state; when the symbol shutdown control signals corresponding to multiple different carriers are in an off state at the same time, the merged symbol shutdown control signal is in an off state. If it is performed in this step S430, the first symbol shutdown control signal refers to the symbol shutdown control signal generated according to the empty symbol judgment result of the OFDM symbol of each carrier. In this step S430, the first symbol shutdown control signal corresponding to each carrier is firstly delayed matched, and then the first symbol shutdown control signals corresponding to multiple different carriers are logically merged. The second symbol shutdown control signal generated according to this step S430 is the symbol shutdown control signal after the first symbol shutdown control signals corresponding to multiple different carriers are logically merged. Specifically, when one of the multiple first symbol shutdown control signals corresponding to multiple different carriers is in an on state, the merged symbol shutdown control signal is in an on state; when the multiple first symbol shutdown control signals corresponding to multiple different carriers are in an off state at the same time, the merged symbol shutdown control signal is in an off state. That is, as long as there is business data on one carrier, the power amplifier module cannot be turned off. It should be noted that the logical merging of symbol shutdown control signals of different carriers refers to the logical merging of symbol shutdown control signals of different carriers at the same time. For example, if an antenna has three carriers: the first carrier, the second carrier and the third carrier, if: the OFDM symbol of the first carrier at time t is an empty symbol, then its corresponding symbol shutdown control signal is in the off state, the OFDM symbol of the second carrier at time t is a non-empty symbol, then its corresponding symbol shutdown control signal is in the on state, the OFDM symbol of the third carrier at time t is an empty symbol, then its corresponding symbol shutdown control signal is in the off state, then: when the symbol shutdown control signals of the three carriers at time t are logically merged, the merged symbol shutdown control signal is in the on state, and finally the symbol shutdown control signal that controls the power amplifier of the antenna path at time t is in the on state, that is, the power amplifier is not turned off at time t.

[0098] Step S440: controlling the power amplifier module to be turned off based on the second symbol turn-off control signal.

[0099] This step has different processing methods for ORAN radio frequency units that support different modes. Specifically, when the ORAN radio frequency unit is an ORAN radio frequency unit that supports FDD mode, the second symbol shutdown control signal is directly input into the power amplifier module to control the shutdown of the power amplifier module; when the ORAN radio frequency unit is an ORAN radio frequency unit that supports TDD mode, the ORAN radio frequency unit includes a TDD switch controller, then the power amplifier switch signal output by the TDD switch controller is first logically merged with the second symbol shutdown control signal to generate a third symbol shutdown control signal, and then the third symbol shutdown control signal is input into the power amplifier module so that the third symbol shutdown control signal controls the shutdown of the power amplifier module. It should be noted that: logically merging the power amplifier switch signal output by the TDD switch controller with the second symbol shutdown control signal refers to logically merging the signals of the two at the same time.

[0100] Specifically, when the power amplifier switch signal output by the TDD switch controller is logically merged with the second symbol shutdown control signal, the merging logic is: when the power amplifier switch signal output by the TDD switch controller and the second symbol shutdown control signal are both in the on state, the third symbol shutdown control signal is in the on state, otherwise it is in the off state. Specifically, it can be explained as follows: when the symbol shutdown control signal is in the on state, that is, when the corresponding OFDM symbol contains service data, the O-RU switches normally according to the static switch control mode, that is, the power amplifier is controlled by the power amplifier switch signal generated by the TDD switch controller; when the symbol shutdown control signal is in the off state, that is, when the corresponding OFDM symbol does not contain service data, the O-RU will automatically shut down the power amplifier through the symbol shutdown control signal.

[0101] It can be seen from the above steps that the embodiment of the present invention performs empty symbol judgment on the OFDM symbol through self-detection inside the ORAN radio frequency unit O-RU itself, and then generates a symbol shutdown control signal according to the judgment result to control the power amplifier to perform symbol shutdown by itself, so that the symbol shutdown of the ORAN radio frequency unit does not require ORAN interface protocol support, and does not rely on the real-time control message of O-DU, and does not require the control and participation of O-DU, thereby realizing the functional decoupling of O-DU and O-RU in symbol shutdown, solving the power consumption problem of the ORAN network radio frequency unit, saving power consumption, and also enabling O-RU devices and O-DU devices from different manufacturers to support the symbol shutdown function when interconnected, reflecting the openness and compatibility of the ORAN protocol.

[0102] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a symbol shut-down device according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is arranged in an ORAN radio frequency unit, wherein the ORAN radio frequency unit includes a power amplifier module, such as Figure 6As shown, the symbol shutoff device 6 of the embodiment of the present invention includes: a null symbol detector 610, configured to determine whether the received OFDM symbol is a null symbol and obtain a determination result; a symbol shutoff control signal generator 620, configured to generate a first symbol shutoff control signal according to the frame structure parameters of the wireless frame where the OFDM symbol is located and the determination result; a delay matcher 630, configured to perform delay matching on the first symbol shutoff control signal and generate a second symbol shutoff control signal so that the second symbol shutoff control signal is aligned with the input signal of the OFDM symbol input to the power amplifier module after signal processing; a power amplifier shutoff control module 640, configured to control the shutoff of the power amplifier module based on the second symbol shutoff control signal.

[0103] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the structure of an O-RU in an embodiment of the present invention, such as Figure 7 As shown, the O-RU of the embodiment of the present invention is an ORAN radio frequency unit supporting the FDD mode, and at least includes: a symbol shutoff device 6 as described in the above embodiment is provided.

[0104] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of the structure of another O-RU in an embodiment of the present invention, such as Figure 8 As shown, the O-RU of the embodiment of the present invention is an ORAN radio frequency unit supporting the TDD mode, and at least includes: a symbol shutoff device 6 as described in the above embodiment is provided.

[0105] Fig. 9 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 9 As shown, the electronic device includes: a memory 910 and a processor 920, wherein the memory 910 and the processor 920 communicate with each other; exemplarily, the memory 910 and the processor 920 communicate with each other via a communication bus 930, the memory 910 is used to store a computer program, and the processor 920 executes the computer program to implement the symbol shutdown method shown in the above embodiment.

[0106] Optionally, the electronic device may further include a transmitter and / or a receiver.

[0107] Optionally, the processor may be a central processing unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), DSP (Digital Signal Processor) or ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit). A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor. The steps of the method disclosed in the present invention may be directly implemented as being executed by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor.

[0108] An embodiment of the present invention provides a storage medium, wherein the storage medium is used to store a computer program, and the computer program is used to implement the symbol shut-off method described in any of the above method embodiments.

[0109] An embodiment of the present invention provides a chip, which is used to support a receiving device (such as a terminal device, a network device, etc.) to implement the functions shown in the embodiment of the present invention. The chip is specifically used for a chip system, which can be composed of a chip, or can include a chip and other discrete devices. When the chip in the receiving device implements the above method, the chip includes a processing unit. Further, the chip can also include a communication unit. The processing unit can be, for example, a processor. When the chip includes a communication unit, the communication unit can be, for example, an input / output interface, a pin or a circuit. The processing unit performs all or part of the actions performed by each processing module in the embodiment of the present invention, and the communication unit can perform corresponding receiving or sending actions. In another specific embodiment, the processing module of the receiving device in the embodiment of the present invention can be a processing unit of the chip, and the receiving module or the sending module of the control device is a communication unit of the chip.

[0110] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments of the present application may be provided as methods, devices (equipment) or computer program products. Therefore, the present application may adopt the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware. Moreover, the present application may adopt a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-readable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program code.

[0111] The present application is described with reference to flowcharts of methods, apparatuses (devices) and computer program products according to embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that each process in the flowchart can be implemented by computer program instructions.

[0112] These computer program instructions may be stored in a computer readable memory capable of directing a computer or other programmable data processing device to operate in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer readable memory produce an article of manufacture including an instruction device that implements the process Figure 1 A function specified in a process or multiple processes.

[0113] These computer program instructions may also be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device produce the instructions for implementing the process Figure 1 A device that specifies functions in a process or multiple processes.

[0114] Another embodiment of the present invention relates to a non-volatile storage medium for storing a computer-readable program, wherein the computer-readable program is used for a computer to execute part or all of the above method embodiments.

[0115] That is, those skilled in the art can understand that all or part of the steps in the above-mentioned embodiment method can be completed by specifying relevant hardware through a program, and the program is stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for a device (which can be a single-chip microcomputer, chip, etc.) or a processor (processor) to execute all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM, Read-Only Memory), random access memory (RAM, Random Access Memory), disk or optical disk and other media that can store program codes.

[0116] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention. For those skilled in the art, the present invention may have various modifications and variations. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention shall be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A symbol shut-down method, applied to an ORAN radio frequency unit, in, The ORAN radio frequency unit includes a power amplifier module, and the method includes: Determine whether the received OFDM symbol is a null symbol, and obtain a determination result, wherein the OFDM symbol is an OFDM symbol in frequency domain data within the same antenna obtained by sending the OFDM symbol to the radio frequency unit by the O-DU and processing by the user data module in the radio frequency unit; Generate a first symbol shutdown control signal according to the frame structure parameter of the wireless frame where the OFDM symbol is located and the judgment result; Performing delay matching on the first symbol off control signal to generate a second symbol off control signal, so that the second symbol off control signal is aligned with an input signal of the OFDM symbol input to the power amplifier module after signal processing; Controlling the shutdown of the power amplifier module based on the second symbol shutdown control signal; The controlling the power amplifier module to be turned off based on the second symbol turn-off control signal specifically includes: When the ORAN radio frequency unit is an ORAN radio frequency unit supporting the FDD mode, the second symbol shutdown control signal is directly input into the power amplifier module so as to control the shutdown of the power amplifier module; When the ORAN radio frequency unit is an ORAN radio frequency unit supporting TDD mode, the ORAN radio frequency unit includes a TDD switch controller, and the power amplifier switch signal output by the TDD switch controller is first logically merged with the second symbol shutdown control signal at the same moment to generate a third symbol shutdown control signal, and then the third symbol shutdown control signal is input to the power amplifier module, so that the third symbol shutdown control signal controls the shutdown of the power amplifier module.

2. The method according to claim 1, It is characterized in that The determining whether the received OFDM symbol is a null symbol specifically includes: Whether the OFDM symbol is a null symbol is determined according to the sum of the squares of all frequency domain data in the OFDM symbol; if the sum of the squares of all frequency domain data in the OFDM symbol is less than or equal to a preset decision threshold, the OFDM symbol is determined to be a null symbol.

3. The method according to claim 1, It is characterized in that The generating a first symbol shut-down control signal according to the frame structure parameter of the radio frame where the OFDM symbol is located and the judgment result specifically includes: Generate a symbol counter and a symbol timer of the radio frame according to a frame structure parameter of the radio frame where the OFDM symbol is located; The first symbol off control signal is generated according to the judgment result and the symbol counter and the symbol timer, wherein the state of the first symbol off control signal includes: an on state and an off state.

4. The method according to claim 1, It is characterized in that The performing delay matching on the first symbol shut-off control signal specifically includes: The first symbol off control signal is delay matched through a buffer configured in advance based on a preset delay matching value.

5. The method according to claim 1, It is characterized in that in, The step of logically combining the power amplifier switch signal output by the TDD switch controller with the second symbol shutdown control signal specifically includes: When the power amplifier switch signal output by the TDD switch controller and the second symbol shutdown control signal are both in the on state, the third symbol shutdown control signal is in the on state, otherwise it is in the off state.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, It is characterized in that in, When the ORAN radio frequency unit includes a precoding function module or a beamforming function module, the OFDM symbol is an OFDM symbol processed by the precoding function module or the beamforming function module.

7. A symbol shut-off device, arranged in an ORAN radio frequency unit, in, The ORAN radio frequency unit includes a power amplifier module, characterized in that the device includes: A null symbol detector, configured to determine whether the received OFDM symbol is a null symbol, and obtain a determination result, wherein the OFDM symbol is an OFDM symbol in the frequency domain data within the same antenna obtained by being sent by the O-DU to the radio frequency unit and processed by the user data module in the radio frequency unit; A symbol off control signal generator, configured to generate a first symbol off control signal according to a frame structure parameter of a wireless frame where the OFDM symbol is located and the judgment result; A delay matcher, configured to perform delay matching on the first symbol off control signal to generate a second symbol off control signal, so that the second symbol off control signal is aligned with an input signal of the OFDM symbol input to the power amplifier module after signal processing; A power amplifier shutdown control module, configured to control the shutdown of the power amplifier module based on the second symbol shutdown control signal; Among them, the power amplifier shutdown control module is also configured to: when the ORAN radio frequency unit is an ORAN radio frequency unit supporting FDD mode, the second symbol shutdown control signal is directly input into the power amplifier module so that it controls the shutdown of the power amplifier module; when the ORAN radio frequency unit is an ORAN radio frequency unit supporting TDD mode, the ORAN radio frequency unit includes a TDD switch controller, then the power amplifier switch signal output by the TDD switch controller is first logically merged with the second symbol shutdown control signal at the same time to generate a third symbol shutdown control signal, and then the third symbol shutdown control signal is input into the power amplifier module so that the third symbol shutdown control signal controls the shutdown of the power amplifier module.

8. An O-RU, It is characterized in that At least: The symbol shut-off device as claimed in claim 7.

9. An electronic device, It is characterized in that The method comprises a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store one or more computer program instructions, wherein the one or more computer program instructions are executed by the processor to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

10. A storage medium, It is characterized in that The storage medium is used to store a computer program, and the computer program is used to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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