Method for implementing a cell-less radio access network and network device

Abstract

The application provides a kind of implementation method and network equipment of cell-free wireless access network, it relates to a kind of network architecture, comprising: antenna unit, for receiving multiple uplink data streams sent by terminal, multiple uplink data streams are sent to first unit, and / or, receiving precoding data stream sent by first unit, and precoding data stream is sent to corresponding terminal;First unit, for detecting multiple uplink data streams and sending multiple uplink data streams to second unit, and / or, the multiple downlink data streams sent by second unit are precoded;Second unit, for the uplink data stream sent by first unit belonging to the same data stream is merged, and / or, multiple downlink data streams are distributed to corresponding first unit.The embodiment of the application can avoid the signal of all users served by each antenna unit detecting output or precoding input in the conventional cell-free architecture, thereby reducing the front-end transmission overhead, improving the ability of joint transmission, and thereby improving the communication performance.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a network architecture, data uplink and downlink methods, implementation method of a non-cellular wireless access network, and network equipment. Background Technology

[0002] Cellular distributed multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems are a novel networking approach to further improve the spectral efficiency of mobile communication systems and a key technology for enhancing the performance of 5G systems. In existing cellular distributed MIMO systems, multiple distributed antenna elements can cooperate to serve multiple users on the same time-frequency resources. Regarding cooperative transmission algorithms, traditional maximum ratio combining is used, with antenna elements implementing fully distributed multi-user precoding and multi-user signal separation. In this fully distributed implementation, each antenna element needs to separately detect and output the uplink signals of all users it serves. For example, each antenna element acquires the superimposed uplink air interface data from terminal 1, terminal 2, ..., terminal n, and separates and outputs the superimposed uplink air interface data. Each antenna element also needs to separately receive the downlink signals of all users, precode them, and send them to the corresponding terminals. That is, the antenna elements use distributed output during uplink and distributed input during downlink. This fully distributed input and output method results in high fronthaul overhead, and in actual deployment, the joint processing capability of traditional fully distributed implementations is poor. Summary of the Invention

[0003] This invention provides a method and network device for implementing a non-cellular wireless access network to solve the problems of high fronthaul overhead and poor joint processing capability in existing systems.

[0004] To solve the above-mentioned technical problems, the present invention is implemented as follows:

[0005] In a first aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide a network architecture, including an antenna element, a first element, and a second element.

[0006] The antenna unit is configured to receive multiple uplink data streams sent by the terminal and send the multiple uplink data streams to the first unit, and / or receive a precoded data stream sent by the first unit and send the precoded data stream to the corresponding terminal;

[0007] The first unit is configured to detect the plurality of uplink data streams and send the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, and / or pre-encode the plurality of downlink data streams sent by the second unit;

[0008] The second unit is used to merge uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, and / or to distribute multiple downlink data streams to the corresponding first units;

[0009] The data sources of the same data stream signals are the same.

[0010] Optionally, the network architecture further includes a third unit, which determines at least one of the following based on the location of the terminal or the terminal's prior channel information:

[0011] The association between the terminal and the antenna unit;

[0012] The association between the terminal and the first unit;

[0013] The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

[0014] Optionally, the network architecture includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units.

[0015] Optionally, the network architecture includes multiple second units, and the uplink data streams of the same terminal detected by multiple first units are sent to the same second unit;

[0016] And / or, the network architecture includes multiple second units, and downlink data streams from the same terminal are distributed through the same second unit.

[0017] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit through a data interface, and / or the second unit sends the plurality of downlink data streams to the first unit through a data interface.

[0018] Optionally, the multiple uplink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resource;

[0019] And / or, the plurality of downlink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

[0020] Optionally, the first unit is specifically used for:

[0021] The plurality of uplink data streams are obtained from the antenna unit;

[0022] Based on the uplink demodulation reference signal and the number of data streams supported by the network architecture, the uplink channel matrix between the antenna element and the terminal is estimated;

[0023] The multiple uplink data streams are detected based on the uplink channel matrix.

[0024] Optionally, the uplink channel matrix has a dimension of N. i ×S i , where Ni S represents the total number of antennas connected to all antenna elements in the i-th first element. i This represents the total number of data streams to be detected in the first unit.

[0025] Optionally, the plurality of uplink data streams are demodulated log-likelihood ratio information;

[0026] The second unit is specifically used for:

[0027] Based on the detection results, the log-likelihood ratio information of the same data stream signals in the data stream is merged, and the detection results are sent from the first unit to the second unit.

[0028] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit via a data interface, including:

[0029] The first unit sends a data packet to the second unit through a data interface, the data packet including the plurality of uplink data streams.

[0030] Optionally, the header information of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

[0031] Optionally, the second unit merges the uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including:

[0032] Based on the payload of the data packet, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0033] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection or soft demodulation.

[0034] Optionally, when the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit normalizes the noise of the output signal of the first unit.

[0035] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit performs unbiased processing on the plurality of uplink data streams to be detected and adds the average value of the variance of the interference plus noise of the data stream detection output to the data packet.

[0036] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a soft-demodulated and quantized digital signal, the second unit combines the soft-demodulated digital signal at the same scale.

[0037] Optionally, the second unit merges the uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including:

[0038] Average and merge or suppress interference and merge identical data stream signals from multiple uplink data streams.

[0039] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal after soft demodulation and quantization. The second unit merges the uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including averaging and merging the signals of the same data stream in the data stream.

[0040] Optionally, the second unit merges the uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including:

[0041] Obtain the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the data stream output from the first unit;

[0042] Based on the SINR, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0043] Optionally, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to corresponding first units, including:

[0044] The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams that have been modulated after layer mapping to the first unit;

[0045] Alternatively, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit after layer mapping and before modulation;

[0046] Alternatively, the second unit may distribute multiple downlink data streams prior to the layer mapping to the first unit.

[0047] Optionally, the first unit is specifically used for:

[0048] Based on the uplink detection channel of the terminal, estimate the uplink channel matrix between the antenna element and the terminal;

[0049] The calibration coefficients are obtained based on the air interface calibration between antenna elements;

[0050] Based on the uplink channel matrix and calibration coefficients, the downlink precoding matrix is ​​obtained;

[0051] The precoded data stream is obtained based on the downlink precoding matrix.

[0052] Optionally, the calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0053] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0054] The first unit sends the air interface reciprocity calibration signal to the second unit;

[0055] The first unit receives the calibration coefficient sent by the third unit;

[0056] The third unit is used to obtain the channel matrix estimate of the second unit and calculate the calibration coefficient through the channel matrix estimate. The channel matrix estimate of the second unit is calculated based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal.

[0057] or,

[0058] The calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0059] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0060] The first unit calculates the channel matrix estimate between the antenna units based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0061] The first unit sends the channel matrix estimate to the second unit;

[0062] The first unit receives the calibration coefficients sent by the second unit, which are calculated based on the channel matrix estimation.

[0063] Optionally, the second unit sends the plurality of downlink data streams to the first unit via a data interface, including:

[0064] The second unit distributes data packets to the first unit through a data interface, and the data packets include multiple downlink data streams.

[0065] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a modulated and quantized digital signal, or bit information before modulation.

[0066] Optionally, the header of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

[0067] Secondly, embodiments of the present invention provide a data uplink method applied to a network device, the network device comprising: a first unit, a second unit, and an antenna unit, the method comprising:

[0068] The antenna unit receives multiple uplink data streams;

[0069] The first unit acquires and detects the plurality of uplink data streams, and sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit based on the detection results;

[0070] The second unit merges identical data stream signals from the multiple uplink data streams; wherein the identical data stream signals have the same data source.

[0071] Optionally, the network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units.

[0072] Optionally, the network device includes multiple second units, and the uplink data streams of the same terminal detected by the multiple first units are sent to the same second unit.

[0073] Optionally, the first unit acquires and detects the plurality of uplink data streams, including:

[0074] The first unit acquires the plurality of uplink data streams from the antenna unit;

[0075] The first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix between the antenna unit and the terminal based on the uplink demodulation reference signal and the number of data streams supported by the network device;

[0076] The multiple uplink data streams are detected based on the uplink channel matrix.

[0077] Optionally, the uplink channel matrix has a dimension of N. i ×S i , where N i S represents the total number of antennas connected to all antenna elements in the i-th first element. i This represents the total number of data streams to be detected in the first unit.

[0078] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, including any one of the following:

[0079] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams prior to soft demodulation to the second unit;

[0080] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the second unit after soft demodulation and before de-layer mapping;

[0081] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the second unit after de-mapping and before decoding.

[0082] Optionally, the plurality of uplink data streams sent by the first unit to the second unit are demodulated log-likelihood ratio information;

[0083] The second unit merges the same data stream signals from the multiple uplink data streams, including:

[0084] The second unit merges the log-likelihood ratio information of the same data stream signals in the data stream based on the detection result, and the detection result is sent from the first unit to the second unit.

[0085] Optionally, the method further includes:

[0086] The merged data stream signal is decoded to obtain the decoded data stream signal;

[0087] The decoded data stream signal is then transmitted to the MAC layer of the network device.

[0088] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, including:

[0089] The first unit sends the multiple uplink data streams to the second unit through a data interface.

[0090] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit via a data interface, including:

[0091] The first unit sends a data packet to the second unit through a data interface, the data packet including the plurality of uplink data streams.

[0092] Optionally, the header information of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

[0093] Optionally, the second unit merges the same data stream signals from the plurality of uplink data streams, including:

[0094] Based on the payload of the data packet, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0095] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection or soft demodulation.

[0096] Optionally, when the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit normalizes the noise of the output signal of the first unit.

[0097] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit performs unbiased processing on the plurality of uplink data streams to be detected and adds the average value of the variance of the interference plus noise of the data stream detection output to the data packet.

[0098] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a soft-demodulated and quantized digital signal, the second unit combines the soft-demodulated digital signal at the same scale.

[0099] Optionally, the second unit merges the same data stream signals from the plurality of uplink data streams, including:

[0100] Average and merge or suppress interference and merge identical data stream signals from multiple uplink data streams.

[0101] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal after soft demodulation and quantization, and the second unit merges the same data stream signals in the multiple uplink data streams, including: averaging and merging the same data stream signals in the data streams.

[0102] Optionally, the second unit merges the same data stream signals from the plurality of uplink data streams, including:

[0103] Obtain the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the data stream output from the first unit;

[0104] Based on the SINR, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0105] Optionally, the network device further includes a third unit, and the method further includes:

[0106] The third unit determines at least one of the following based on the terminal's location or the terminal's prior channel information:

[0107] The association between the terminal and the antenna unit;

[0108] The association between the terminal and the first unit;

[0109] The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

[0110] Optionally, the multiple uplink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

[0111] Thirdly, embodiments of the present invention provide a data downlink method applied to a network device, the network device comprising: a first unit, a second unit, and an antenna unit; the method comprising:

[0112] The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit;

[0113] The first unit precodes the plurality of downlink data streams to obtain a precoded data stream, and sends the precoded data stream to the corresponding antenna unit;

[0114] The antenna unit sends downlink data streams to the corresponding terminal.

[0115] Optionally, the network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units.

[0116] Optionally, the network device includes multiple second units, and downlink data streams from the same terminal are distributed through the same second unit.

[0117] Optionally, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit, including:

[0118] The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams that have been modulated after layer mapping to the first unit;

[0119] Alternatively, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit after layer mapping and before modulation;

[0120] Alternatively, the second unit may distribute multiple downlink data streams prior to the layer mapping to the first unit.

[0121] The network device further includes a third unit, which is configured to determine at least one of the following based on the location of the terminal or the terminal's prior channel information:

[0122] The connection between the terminal and the antenna unit;

[0123] The association between the terminal and the first unit;

[0124] The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

[0125] Optionally, the first unit precodes the plurality of downlink data streams to obtain a precoded data stream, including:

[0126] The first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix between the antenna unit and the terminal based on the uplink detection channel of the terminal;

[0127] The first unit obtains the calibration coefficients based on the air interface calibration between antenna units;

[0128] The first unit obtains the downlink precoding matrix based on the uplink channel matrix and calibration coefficients;

[0129] The first unit obtains the precoded data stream based on the downlink precoding matrix.

[0130] Optionally, the calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0131] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0132] The first unit sends the air interface reciprocity calibration signal to the second unit;

[0133] The first unit receives the calibration coefficient sent by the third unit;

[0134] The third unit is used to obtain the channel matrix estimate of the second unit and calculate the calibration coefficient through the channel matrix estimate. The channel matrix estimate of the second unit is calculated based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal.

[0135] or,

[0136] The calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0137] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0138] The first unit calculates the channel matrix estimate between the antenna units based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0139] The first unit sends the channel matrix estimate to the second unit;

[0140] The first unit receives the calibration coefficients sent by the second unit, which are calculated based on the channel matrix estimation.

[0141] Optionally, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit, including:

[0142] The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit through a data interface.

[0143] Optionally, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit via a data interface, including:

[0144] The second unit distributes data packets to the first unit through a data interface, and the data packets contain multiple downlink data streams.

[0145] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a modulated and quantized digital signal, or bit information before modulation.

[0146] Optionally, the header of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

[0147] Optionally, the multiple downlink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

[0148] Optionally, the network device further includes a third unit, and the method further includes:

[0149] Fourthly, embodiments of the present invention provide a network device, including a first unit, a second unit, and an antenna unit;

[0150] The antenna unit is used to receive multiple uplink data streams;

[0151] The first unit is configured to acquire and detect the plurality of uplink data streams, and send the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit according to the detection results;

[0152] The second unit is used to merge identical data stream signals from the plurality of uplink data streams; wherein the identical data stream signals are sent by the same terminal.

[0153] Optionally, the network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units.

[0154] Optionally, the network device includes multiple second units, and the uplink data streams of the same terminal detected by the multiple first units are sent to the same second unit.

[0155] Optionally, the first unit is specifically used for:

[0156] The plurality of uplink data streams are obtained from the antenna unit;

[0157] Based on the uplink demodulation reference signal and the number of data streams supported by the network device, the uplink channel matrix between the antenna element and the terminal is estimated;

[0158] The multiple uplink data streams are detected based on the uplink channel matrix.

[0159] Optionally, the uplink channel matrix has a dimension of N. i ×S i , where N i S represents the total number of antennas connected to all antenna elements in the i-th first element. i This represents the total number of data streams to be detected in the first unit.

[0160] The first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, including any one of the following:

[0161] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams prior to soft demodulation to the second unit;

[0162] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the second unit after soft demodulation and before de-layer mapping;

[0163] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the second unit after de-mapping and before decoding.

[0164] Optionally, the plurality of uplink data streams sent by the first unit to the second unit are demodulated log-likelihood ratio information;

[0165] The second unit is specifically used for:

[0166] Based on the detection results, the log-likelihood ratio information of the same data stream signals in the data stream is merged, and the detection results are sent from the first unit to the second unit.

[0167] Optionally, the second unit is further used for:

[0168] The merged data stream signal is decoded to obtain the decoded data stream signal;

[0169] The decoded data stream signal is then transmitted to the MAC layer of the network device.

[0170] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, including:

[0171] The first unit sends the multiple uplink data streams to the second unit through a data interface.

[0172] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit via a data interface, including:

[0173] The first unit sends a data packet to the second unit through a data interface, the data packet including the plurality of uplink data streams.

[0174] Optionally, the header information of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

[0175] Optionally, the second unit is specifically used for:

[0176] Based on the payload of the data packet, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0177] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection or soft demodulation.

[0178] Optionally, when the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit normalizes the noise of the output signal of the first unit.

[0179] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit performs unbiased processing on the plurality of uplink data streams to be detected and adds the average value of the variance of the interference plus noise of the data stream detection output to the data packet.

[0180] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a soft-demodulated and quantized digital signal, the second unit combines the soft-demodulated digital signal at the same scale.

[0181] Optionally, the second unit is specifically used for:

[0182] Average and merge or suppress interference and merge identical data stream signals from multiple uplink data streams.

[0183] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal after soft demodulation and quantization. The second unit is specifically used to: average and merge the same data stream signals in the data stream.

[0184] Optionally, the second unit is specifically used for:

[0185] Obtain the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the data stream output from the first unit;

[0186] Based on the SINR, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0187] Optionally, the network device further includes a third unit, the third unit being used for:

[0188] Determine at least one of the following based on the terminal's location or the terminal's prior channel information:

[0189] The association between the terminal and the antenna unit;

[0190] The association between the terminal and the first unit;

[0191] The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

[0192] Optionally, the multiple uplink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

[0193] Fifthly, embodiments of the present invention provide a network device, including a first unit, a second unit, and an antenna unit.

[0194] The second unit is used to distribute multiple downlink data streams to the first unit;

[0195] The first unit is configured to precode the plurality of downlink data streams to obtain a precoded data stream, and send the precoded data stream to the corresponding antenna unit;

[0196] The antenna unit is used to send downlink data streams to the corresponding terminal.

[0197] Optionally, the network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units.

[0198] Optionally, the network device includes multiple second units, and downlink data streams from the same terminal are distributed through the same second unit.

[0199] Optionally, the second unit is specifically used for:

[0200] Multiple downlink data streams that have been modulated after being mapped to the first unit;

[0201] Alternatively, multiple downlink data streams are distributed to the first unit after layer mapping and before modulation;

[0202] Alternatively, multiple downlink data streams can be distributed to the first unit before the layer mapping.

[0203] Optionally, the network device further includes a third unit, the third unit being configured to determine at least one of the following based on the location of the terminal or the terminal's channel prior information:

[0204] The connection between the terminal and the antenna unit;

[0205] The association between the terminal and the first unit;

[0206] The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

[0207] Optionally, the first unit is specifically used for:

[0208] The first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix between the antenna unit and the terminal based on the uplink detection channel of the terminal;

[0209] The first unit obtains the calibration coefficients based on the air interface calibration between antenna units;

[0210] The first unit obtains the downlink precoding matrix based on the uplink channel matrix and calibration coefficients;

[0211] The first unit obtains the precoded data stream based on the downlink precoding matrix.

[0212] Optionally, the calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0213] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0214] The first unit sends the air interface reciprocity calibration signal to the second unit;

[0215] The first unit receives the calibration coefficient sent by the third unit;

[0216] The third unit is used to obtain the channel matrix estimate of the second unit and calculate the calibration coefficient through the channel matrix estimate. The channel matrix estimate of the second unit is calculated based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal.

[0217] or,

[0218] The calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0219] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0220] The first unit calculates the channel matrix estimate between the antenna units based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0221] The first unit sends the channel matrix estimate to the second unit;

[0222] The first unit receives the calibration coefficients sent by the second unit, which are calculated based on the channel matrix estimation.

[0223] Optionally, the second unit is specifically used to: distribute multiple downlink data streams to the first unit through a data interface.

[0224] Optionally, the distribution of multiple downlink data streams to the first unit via the data interface includes:

[0225] Data packets are distributed to the first unit via a data interface, and the data packets contain multiple downlink data streams.

[0226] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a modulated and quantized digital signal, or bit information before modulation.

[0227] Optionally, the header of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

[0228] Optionally, the multiple downlink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

[0229] In this embodiment of the invention, the antenna unit receives multiple uplink data streams sent by the terminal and sends these multiple uplink data streams to the first unit, and / or receives precoded data streams sent by the first unit and sends these precoded data streams to the corresponding terminal. This avoids the situation in traditional cellular architectures where each antenna unit detects and outputs signals for all users it serves, or the precoding module inputs signals for all users. Instead, each antenna unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the first unit for unified detection and separation, and / or the first unit performs unified precoding on multiple downlink data streams and sends them to the corresponding antenna unit. This allows the antenna units to output centrally during the uplink process and / or to input centrally during the downlink process, thereby reducing the system's fronthaul overhead and improving the joint transmission capability of each antenna unit. This enhances the scalability of the number of antenna units in the cellular architecture, thereby improving communication performance and enabling cellular expansion. Attached Figure Description

[0230] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments of the present invention will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0231] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of a network architecture provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0232] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of another network architecture provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0233] Figure 3 This is a functional division diagram of a wireless access network provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0234] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the data uplink function division of a network device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0235] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the data downlink function division of a network device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0236] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the data uplink function division of another network device provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0237] Figure 7 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the data downlink function division of another network device provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0238] Figure 8 This is a flowchart of a data uplink method provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0239] Figure 9 This is a flowchart of a data downlink method provided in an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0240] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some, not all, of the embodiments of the present invention. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0241] In this embodiment of the invention, a data uplink method is proposed to solve the problems of large forward overhead and poor joint processing capability in the prior art.

[0242] See Figure 1 , Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of a network architecture 100 provided in an embodiment of the present invention, including an antenna unit 101, a first unit 102, and a second unit 103. The above network architecture can be a cellular-free distributed MIMO architecture. Specifically, the network architecture can be a network device, and the network device can be a base station.

[0243] The antenna unit 101 is used to receive multiple uplink data streams sent by the terminal and send the multiple uplink data streams to the first unit, and / or to receive precoded data streams sent by the first unit and send the precoded data streams to the corresponding terminal.

[0244] The antenna unit may be a Remote Radio Unit (RRU).

[0245] Optionally, the network architecture includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units.

[0246] The network architecture includes multiple antenna elements, which are distributed and can cooperate to provide services to multiple users / terminals on the same time-frequency resources. That is, in the communication system under this architecture, multiple user terminals (UEs) can operate on the same time-frequency resources. The antenna elements can be used to perform radio frequency transmission and reception; optionally, they can also perform up-conversion, digital-to-analog (DAC), and analog-to-digital (ADC) conversion functions. During uplink data transmission, the antenna elements receive multiple uplink data streams; during downlink data transmission, the antenna elements receive the downlink data stream transmitted by the first unit.

[0247] like Figure 2 As shown, each first unit is connected to multiple antenna units, and each antenna unit can be configured with one or more antennas.

[0248] The multiple uplink data streams include multiple data streams from multiple terminals or multiple data streams from a single terminal. It is understood that a single terminal can also upload the same data stream through different antenna elements, or it can upload multiple different data streams through different antenna elements; the data streams uploaded by different terminals are different data streams.

[0249] Optionally, the plurality of uplink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources; and / or, the plurality of downlink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

[0250] Optionally, for the uplink receiving link, the multiple uplink data streams received by the antenna unit are multiple data streams superimposed in the air. The first unit obtains the superimposed multiple data streams from the antenna unit and outputs multiple user data streams or multiple data streams of a single user through a detector.

[0251] In existing technologies, each antenna element independently and in a fully distributed manner implements multi-user precoding and multi-user signal separation, with different antenna elements essentially functioning as different cells. However, in this invention, identical data stream signals from multiple uplink data streams received by different antenna elements can be merged / distributed. The terminal does not need to perform cell handover during uplink and downlink data transmission, enabling user-centric data merging and distribution. This truly breaks through the limitations of cellular systems, supports wide-area coverage, and allows for decentralized cooperative transmission using non-cellular distributed MIMO.

[0252] The first unit 102 is used to detect the plurality of uplink data streams and send the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, and / or to precode the plurality of downlink data streams sent by the second unit.

[0253] In this embodiment of the invention, the core functions of the first unit include the separation or detection of spatial data streams. Optionally, it is specifically used to perform baseband signal processing functions, including baseband signal transmission and reception. Optionally, the first unit is also used to perform functions such as channel estimation, multi-user (terminal) / multi-data stream detection, multi-user (terminal) / multi-data stream precoding, and calibration signal extraction in baseband signal processing.

[0254] Optionally, the antenna units are connected to the first unit via a high-speed link, and the first unit can perform signal aggregation (uplink process) and distribution (downlink process) functions for multiple antenna units.

[0255] During the data uplink process, the first unit acquires multiple uplink data streams from the antenna units and detects the source of these multiple uplink data streams using a detector. This can be understood as detecting multiple uplink data streams originating from different terminals and / or different data streams from the same terminal. Alternatively, it can be understood that after the first unit aggregates the signals from multiple antenna units, it completes joint multi-user detection processing and sends the detected user data streams to a designated second unit.

[0256] The second unit can be directly connected to multiple first units, or it can be connected to multiple first units through a switch.

[0257] Optionally, the first unit is specifically used for:

[0258] The plurality of uplink data streams are obtained from the antenna unit;

[0259] Based on the uplink demodulation reference signal and the number of data streams supported by the network architecture, the uplink channel matrix between the antenna element and the terminal is estimated;

[0260] The multiple uplink data streams are detected based on the uplink channel matrix.

[0261] Optionally, the uplink channel matrix has a dimension of N. i ×S i , where N i S represents the total number of antennas connected to all antenna elements in the i-th first element. i This represents the total number of data streams to be detected in the first unit.

[0262] This can be understood as follows: the first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix (matrix dimension N) between the antenna element connected to it and the user (terminal) based on the number of data streams supported by the system and the uplink demodulation reference signal. i ×S i , where N i S represents the total number of antennas connected to all antenna elements in the i-th first element. i This indicates the total number of data streams to be detected in the first unit, and then the detection of each data stream is completed. Optionally, the first unit can also be used to perform software demodulation.

[0263] In this embodiment of the invention, the core functions of the first unit during downlink data processing include precoding, and may also include precoding weight calculation. Optionally, it is specifically used to perform baseband signal processing functions, including baseband signal transmission and reception. Optionally, the first unit is also used to perform functions such as channel estimation, multi-user (terminal) / multi-data stream detection, multi-user (terminal) / multi-data stream precoding, and calibration signal extraction in baseband signal processing.

[0264] After receiving signals from multiple user data streams sent by at least one second unit, the first unit obtains the downlink channel based on the uplink channel probe obtained locally, performs air interface reciprocity calibration, completes joint multi-user precoding, and sends the resulting multi-antenna signal to each antenna unit.

[0265] The second unit 103 is used to merge uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, and / or to distribute multiple downlink data streams to the corresponding first units;

[0266] The data sources of the same data stream signals are the same.

[0267] In this embodiment of the invention, the second unit described above can be used to perform the functions of the physical layer (L1) and / or higher layers (L2, or MAC layer). The second unit performs information processing at the physical layer and higher layers, as well as the allocation of multi-user space-time-frequency resources.

[0268] Optionally, the baseband physical layer signal processing of the second unit mainly includes: merging uplink data from the first unit that belong to the same data stream, distributing multiple downlink data streams to the corresponding first units, and channel estimation required for calibration between antenna units.

[0269] During the data uplink process, the same terminal can upload the same data stream or different data streams. The first unit distinguishes different data streams by detecting the uplink data and can mark different data streams with terminal and / or data stream identifiers (tags) based on the detection results. After receiving multiple uplink data streams, the second unit merges the uplink data that belong to the same data stream, that is, merges the data streams with the same data source in the same terminal.

[0270] Optionally, the network device further includes a third unit, which determines at least one of the following based on the location of the terminal or the terminal's prior channel information:

[0271] The association between the terminal and the antenna unit;

[0272] The association between the terminal and the first unit;

[0273] The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

[0274] The third unit determines the aforementioned associations, thereby establishing the data transmission path between the first and second units. In a cellular wireless access network, the third unit determines the association between user data streams and the first and second units. Based on the user's location or prior channel information, the third unit determines the association between the user (terminal) and the antenna unit, and also the association between the user and the first unit. The third unit determines the association between the user and the second unit; each user is associated with only one second unit. A first unit can connect to multiple second units, and a second unit can also connect to multiple first units. Optionally, the basic principles of association include: balancing the load across multiple second units and minimizing access from first units to second units across switches.

[0275] The third unit is directly connected to or connected via a switch to multiple second units. The third unit is used to determine the correspondence between the data streams of the first and second units. Based on the association between the user data streams determined by the third unit and the first and second units, uplink data streams from the same terminal processed by multiple first units can only be sent to one second unit; similarly, downlink data streams from the same terminal can only be sent from that second unit to multiple first units.

[0276] The switch is an optional device. The second and third units can transmit data to each other without going through the switch, or they can transmit data to each other through the switch.

[0277] Optionally, the network architecture includes multiple second units, and the uplink data streams of the same terminal detected by multiple first units are sent to the same second unit;

[0278] And / or, the network architecture includes multiple second units, and downlink data streams from the same terminal are distributed through the same second unit.

[0279] In this context, the uplink data streams of the same terminal processed by multiple first units can only be sent to one second unit, or in other words, all data streams (one or more data streams) of the same terminal can only be sent to the same second unit; similarly, the downlink data streams of the same terminal can only be sent from the second unit to multiple first units.

[0280] like Figure 2 As shown, the switch is an optional device. Data can be transmitted between each first unit and each second unit without going through the switch, or it can be transmitted through the switch. Alternatively, some first units and second units can communicate through the switch terminal, while others can communicate without going through the switch.

[0281] The network architecture described above can be understood as a novel method for implementing a cellular-free wireless access network. This architecture can be applied to existing or future communication systems / processes such as 5G and 6G.

[0282] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit through a data interface, and / or the second unit sends the plurality of downlink data streams to the first unit through a data interface.

[0283] Optionally, the plurality of uplink data streams are demodulated log-likelihood ratio information;

[0284] The second unit is specifically used for:

[0285] Based on the detection results, the log-likelihood ratio information of the same data stream signals in the data stream is merged, and the detection results are sent from the first unit to the second unit.

[0286] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit via a data interface, including:

[0287] The first unit sends a data packet to the second unit through a data interface, the data packet including the plurality of uplink data streams.

[0288] The data interface can be an enhanced common public radio interface (eCPRI), also known as the evolved common public radio interface. It is understood that the data interface can also be other data transmission interfaces.

[0289] The data packets of the data interface of the first unit and the second unit in the non-cellular wireless access network have the following characteristics: the data interface assembles packets according to the data flow, and the packet header of the data packet of the data interface includes at least one of the following: the Ethernet physical address of the first unit and the second unit, the index number of the data flow, the user number to which the data flow belongs, and the number of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, the sub-band number, the time slot number, and the radio frame number.

[0290] Optionally, the header information of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

[0291] The first unit detects the source of the multiple uplink data streams using a detector. Based on the detection results, the data source can be recorded in the header information of the data packet in the form of a terminal and / or data stream tag. After the first unit sends the multiple uplink data streams to the second unit in the form of data packets, the second unit can merge the data stream signals with the same data source in the multiple uplink data streams.

[0292] Optionally, the second unit merges the uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including:

[0293] Based on the payload of the data packet, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0294] In the signal processing of the second unit, for uplink reception, the same data streams received from the first unit and sent to the second unit are merged according to the payload of the data packets. The header information of the data packets of the same data stream is the same except for the address of the first unit. The address of the first unit in the header information of the data packets of the same data stream may be the same or different. When each data in the same data stream is collected by the same first unit, the address of the first unit in the header information of the data packets is the same. When they are collected by different first units, the address of the first unit in the header information of the data packets is different.

[0295] During the data uplink process, optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection or soft demodulation.

[0296] Optionally, when the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit normalizes the noise of the output signal of the first unit.

[0297] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit performs unbiased processing on the plurality of uplink data streams to be detected and adds the average value of the variance of the interference plus noise of the data stream detection output to the data packet.

[0298] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a soft-demodulated and quantized digital signal, the second unit combines the soft-demodulated digital signal at the same scale.

[0299] Optionally, the second unit merges the uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including:

[0300] Average and merge or suppress interference and merge identical data stream signals from multiple uplink data streams.

[0301] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal after soft demodulation and quantization. The second unit merges the uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including averaging and merging the signals of the same data stream in the data stream.

[0302] When the payload of a data packet is a digital signal quantized after soft demodulation, the merging method can be to directly calculate the average.

[0303] Optionally, the second unit merges the uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including:

[0304] Obtain the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the data stream output from the first unit;

[0305] Based on the SINR, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0306] In existing technologies, such as Figure 3The diagram shows an open, general-purpose wireless access network interface. Option 8 typically refers to the interface between the radio frequency (RF) layer and the physical layer (PHY), where time-domain signals are exchanged. Option 7 typically refers to the interface between the low-order physical layer (Low PHY) and the high-order physical layer (High PHY), where frequency-domain signals are exchanged. Existing specifications for Option 7 typically include Option 7-2a and Option 7-2b. In Option 7-2a, the Low PHY handles cyclic prefix addition / removal, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) / Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT), random access signal extraction, and phase compensation for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). In Option 7-2b, the Low PHY, in addition to implementing the functions of 7-2a, also performs digital precoding, which is generated by the preceding High PHY.

[0307] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the data uplink function division of a network device provided by an embodiment of the present invention, which shows the main functional modules of the air interface system for receiving (data uplink).

[0308] At the receiving end, the RF signal is converted from analog to digital, then subjected to cyclic prefix removal, FFT, RE extraction, channel estimation, multi-data stream / multi-user detection, soft demodulation, de-mapping, and decoding before being sent to the MAC layer.

[0309] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the downlink data function division of a network device provided by an embodiment of the present invention, which shows the main functional modules of the air interface system for transmission (downlink data).

[0310] At the transmitting end, the information sent from the Media Access Layer (MAC) undergoes encoding, layer mapping, modulation, multi-stream / multi-user precoding, pilot insertion, resource element (RE) mapping, IFFT, and cyclic prefix addition, and is then sent to the RF via digital-to-analog conversion.

[0311] The functions of the first and second units mentioned above are separated at the data flow level.

[0312] Specifically, during the data uplink process (with the network device acting as the receiving end), the functional division between the first unit and the second unit occurs after multi-data stream / multi-user detection and before (forward error correction) decoding. This embodiment of the invention can be understood as a new Option 7 scheme, or as a new Option 6 and Option 7 scheme. See also... Figure 4To understand this, it could be that the first unit performs multi-data stream / multi-user detection, and the second unit performs soft demodulation, de-mapping, and decoding; or the first unit performs multi-data stream / multi-user detection, soft demodulation, and de-mapping, and the second unit performs de-mapping and decoding; or the first unit performs multi-data stream / multi-user detection, soft demodulation, and de-mapping, and the second unit performs decoding.

[0313] From a data flow perspective, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, including any one of the following:

[0314] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams prior to soft demodulation to the second unit;

[0315] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the second unit after soft demodulation and before de-layer mapping;

[0316] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the second unit after de-mapping and before decoding.

[0317] The soft demodulation can be a demodulation method that outputs the log-likelihood ratio.

[0318] Optionally, the plurality of uplink data streams sent by the first unit to the second unit are demodulated log-likelihood ratio information;

[0319] The second unit merges the same data stream signals from the multiple uplink data streams, including:

[0320] The second unit merges the log-likelihood ratio information of the same data stream signals in the data stream based on the detection result, and the detection result is sent from the first unit to the second unit.

[0321] Understandably, for the receiving (uplink) link, the data stream output from the first unit to the second unit can be the undemodulated signal output by the detector. Accordingly, in the second unit, the same data stream signals received from multiple first units are merged. Alternatively, the data stream output from the first unit to the second unit can be the demodulated log-likelihood ratio information. Accordingly, in the second unit, the log-likelihood ratio information of the same data stream received from multiple first units is merged.

[0322] Figure 6This is a schematic diagram illustrating the uplink function partitioning of another network device provided by an embodiment of the present invention, using the example of the first unit sending multiple uplink data streams after soft demodulation to the second unit. In the first unit, multi-user / multi-data stream detection and soft demodulation are completed. The log-likelihood ratio information output by the soft demodulation is quantized and sent to the corresponding second unit via data packet packets through the data interface. In the second unit, after extracting the log-likelihood ratio information, the second unit merges the log-likelihood ratios corresponding to the same data streams of the same user received from one or more first units, decodes the merged data, and then passes the decoded data to the MAC layer.

[0323] It is understandable that the first unit sending multiple uplink data streams to the second unit could also be multiple uplink data streams prior to soft demodulation.

[0324] The multiple downlink data streams include multiple data streams sent to multiple terminals or multiple data streams to a single terminal. It is understood that a single terminal may receive the same data stream through different antenna elements, or it may receive multiple different data streams through different antenna elements.

[0325] Optionally, for the downlink transmission link, a data stream refers to the data stream of multiple users / or a single user to be transmitted by the base station on the same time-frequency resources.

[0326] During the downlink data transmission process (with the network device acting as the transmitter), the functional separation of the first and second units occurs at the data stream level. This functional separation between the first and second units occurs after (forward error correction) encoding and before precoding. This embodiment of the invention can be understood as a new Option 7 scheme, or as a new Option 6 and Option 7 scheme. See also... Figure 5 To understand this, it could be that the first unit performs multi-data-stream / multi-user precoding, and the second unit performs encoding, layer mapping, and modulation; or the first unit performs modulation and multi-data-stream / multi-user precoding, and the second unit performs layer mapping and encoding; or the first unit performs layer mapping, modulation, and multi-data-stream / multi-user precoding, and the second unit performs encoding.

[0327] From a data flow perspective, optionally, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the corresponding first unit, including:

[0328] The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams that have been modulated after layer mapping to the first unit;

[0329] Alternatively, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit after layer mapping and before modulation;

[0330] Alternatively, the second unit may distribute multiple downlink data streams prior to the layer mapping to the first unit.

[0331] For the transmission (downlink) link, the data stream sent from the second unit to the first unit can be a modulated signal after layer mapping, or it can be bit information after layer mapping but before modulation.

[0332] Figure 7 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the downlink data function partitioning of another network device provided by an embodiment of the present invention. An example is given where the second unit sends multiple downlink data streams before modulation to the first unit. In the second unit, information from multiple users sent from the higher layer (MAC layer) is encoded and then sent to the first unit via a data interface. In the first unit, after extracting the encoded bit information, each user's information undergoes layer mapping, modulation, and multi-user precoding.

[0333] Optionally, the first unit is specifically used for:

[0334] Based on the uplink detection channel of the terminal, estimate the uplink channel matrix between the antenna element and the terminal;

[0335] The calibration coefficients are obtained based on the air interface calibration between antenna elements;

[0336] Based on the uplink channel matrix and calibration coefficients, the downlink precoding matrix is ​​obtained;

[0337] The precoded data stream is obtained based on the downlink precoding matrix.

[0338] For downlink transmission, the first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix between the antenna unit connected to the first unit and the user (terminal) based on the probe channels of one or more users during the uplink process. Then, based on the calibration coefficients obtained from the air interface calibration between the antenna units in the system, the downlink precoding matrix is ​​calculated, and the data stream is precoded.

[0339] Downlink data streams are transmitted to the corresponding terminals through precoding and distributed deployment of wireless unit antenna elements.

[0340] Because downlink precoding is performed in a separate first unit, downlink transmission is extended to different first units.

[0341] Optionally, the calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0342] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0343] The first unit sends the air interface reciprocity calibration signal to the second unit;

[0344] The first unit receives the calibration coefficient sent by the third unit;

[0345] The third unit is used to obtain the channel matrix estimate of the second unit and calculate the calibration coefficient through the channel matrix estimate. The channel matrix estimate of the second unit is calculated based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal.

[0346] or,

[0347] The calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0348] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0349] The first unit calculates the channel matrix estimate between the antenna units based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0350] The first unit sends the channel matrix estimate to the second unit;

[0351] The first unit receives the calibration coefficients sent by the second unit, which are calculated based on the channel matrix estimation.

[0352] This can be understood as the calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units, including:

[0353] Method 1: The first unit sends the extracted air interface reciprocity calibration signal to the second unit. The second unit completes the channel matrix estimation between antenna units and sends the estimation result to the third unit. The third unit calculates the calibration coefficients of all the antenna units it manages. Then, the third unit sends the air interface reciprocity calibration coefficients of the antenna unit to the first unit connected to that antenna unit. That is, the first unit, the second unit and the third unit interact with each other and all participate in the calculation of the calibration coefficients.

[0354] Method 2: The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal, estimates the channel matrix between antenna elements, and then sends the channel matrix to a second unit. The second unit calculates the calibration coefficients of each antenna element managed by the first unit and sends the calibration coefficients to each first unit; that is, the first unit and the second unit participate in the calculation of the calibration coefficients.

[0355] In the embodiments of this invention, the generation of downlink precoding depends on the reciprocity calibration of the transmit and receive channels of the antenna elements. The embodiments of this invention provide a method for implementing the calibration function. In these embodiments, antenna element-side calibration that is transparent to the terminal is employed. Calibration of the participating antenna elements can be achieved by a third unit, or air interface calibration between multiple antenna elements can be achieved by a second unit based on calibration signals transmitted from multiple first units.

[0356] Optionally, the second unit sends the plurality of downlink data streams to the first unit via a data interface, including:

[0357] The second unit distributes data packets to the first unit through a data interface, and the data packets contain multiple downlink data streams.

[0358] The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit through a data interface. The data packets of the data interface between the first and second units in the cellular wireless access network have the following characteristics: the data interface assembles packets according to data streams, and the header of the data packet includes at least one of the following: the Ethernet physical address of the first and second units, the index number of the data stream, the user number to which the data stream belongs, and the number of the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, sub-band number, time slot number, and radio frame number. The user number (identifier) ​​can be associated with the SRS.

[0359] In addition, the second unit also needs to send some interface configuration information for Layer 2 (L2 / higher layer / MAC layer) and Layer 1 (L1 / physical layer).

[0360] During the downlink data transmission process, optionally, the payload of the data packet is a modulated and quantized digital signal, or bit information before modulation.

[0361] Optionally, the header of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or data stream. The first unit can distinguish between different data streams from the same terminal or different data streams from different terminals during precoding based on the terminal and / or data stream tags in the data packet header, thereby transmitting the downlink data stream to the corresponding terminal via the antenna unit.

[0362] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a modulated and quantized digital signal, or bit information before modulation.

[0363] Optionally, the header of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

[0364] refer to Figure 2 Assume that the total number of antennas in the antenna elements connected to the i-th first unit in the system is N. iAssume that the total user data stream served by the first unit on the same time-frequency resources is Si. Taking the signal on a certain subcarrier in the frequency domain of OFDM as an example, the above uplink data transmission will be explained.

[0365] For the uplink, the received signal received by the i-th first unit can be represented as,

[0366] y i =H i x i +H \i x \i +z i (Formula 1)

[0367] Among them, y i This represents the received signal of the i-th first unit (dimension N). i ×1), x i This represents the sent signals of all users in the i-th unit of the first service (dimension S). i ×1), H i This represents the channel matrix (dimension N) from all users served by the i-th first unit to all its antenna elements. i ×S i ), x \i This represents the signal (dimension S) of other users (terminals) sharing the same time-frequency resources, excluding the user (terminal) served by the i-th unit. \i ×1), H \i This represents the channel matrix (dimension N) from the user served by the i-th first unit to all antenna elements of the i-th first unit. i ×S \i ), z i This represents additive white Gaussian noise (dimension N). i ×1).

[0368] The above calculation method considers the signals of unserved users (terminals) in the first unit in the received signal, treats them as interference, estimates the interference and noise, and can effectively suppress interference.

[0369] Suppose that the third unit informs the i-th first unit of the number of users serving on the same time-frequency resources in the system, as well as the sequence and format of the uplink probe pilots (SRS) and modulation pilots (DM-RS) for the uplink users. Then, the i-th first unit can estimate the uplink channel information of all users based on the SRS, and thereby obtain the statistical channel information of the uplink users, such as scale and time delay. Based on this statistical channel information, the first unit can estimate the channel matrix H of the users it serves based on the DM-RS. i And the channel matrix H of other interfering users \iTherefore, for the i-th unit serving its users, the estimated transmitted signal can be obtained using traditional detection methods. The following example uses Linear Minimum Mean Square Error (LMMSE) detection. It should be noted that maximum ratio combining, zero-forcing detection, maximum likelihood detection, and other detection methods are also feasible.

[0370]

[0371] in, This represents the information of each user (terminal) output after detection. The superscript H indicates the conjugate transpose of the matrix, and σ 2 Indicates the noise variance. N represents i ×N i The identity matrix. Here, it is assumed that the power of the transmitted signal is normalized. It can be seen that (Equation 2) achieves distributed detection, relying only on locally obtained channel information and locally received signals. However, this approach, utilizing only the signal from the first unit, cannot achieve the superior performance of ultra-large-scale cooperative MIMO.

[0372] To achieve better performance, detection (Formula 2) can be implemented in each first unit. Then, the user's detection signal obtained from the first unit can be sent to the second unit for merging. In this embodiment of the invention, the data stream of the same user can only be sent to one second unit.

[0373] To describe the effectiveness of the algorithm, assume that each first unit serves all users, and the total number of user data streams is K = S1 = ... = S M Then (Formula 2) simplifies to:

[0374]

[0375] Assume there are M first units in the system. Then, the combined signal can be expressed as:

[0376]

[0377] Using (Formula 1), we can obtain that

[0378]

[0379] As M approaches infinity, according to the principle of large-dimensional random matrices,

[0380]

[0381] Where Λ is a diagonal matrix, that is, in the second unit, after merging, interference suppression between users can be achieved.

[0382] refer to Figure 2Assume that the total number of antennas in the antenna elements connected to the i-th first unit in the system is N. i Assume that the total user data flow served by the first unit on the same time-frequency resources is Si. Taking the signal on a certain subcarrier in the frequency domain of OFDM as an example, the above downlink data transmission will be explained.

[0383] For the downlink, assuming the i-th first unit obtains H based on the uplink channel estimation... i After air interface reciprocity calibration, the i-th first unit can use the zero-forcing algorithm to calculate the downlink precoding matrix. The calculation formula is as follows: Where γ is the power normalization factor, the superscript T denotes matrix transpose, and the superscript * indicates taking the conjugate of each element of the matrix. When the number of users is greater than the total number of antennas in the first unit, regularized zero-forcing precoding can be used.

[0384] Similar to the uplink, when there are many first units, interference between users can be eliminated on the network device side, and user signals transmitted by multiple first units can be positively superimposed on the user side. Since downlink precoding is performed independently in each first unit, downlink transmission is also scalable.

[0385] In actual implementation, in order to reduce the throughput of the data interface, the data packets from the second unit to the first unit can be modulated and mapped in the first unit according to the number of layers allocated by the user, based on the bit information sent by the user before modulation.

[0386] It is important to note that the merging described above is implemented at the detector output (executed in the second unit). To achieve better merging results, the first unit can send the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the output data stream to the second unit, allowing the second unit to achieve better merging performance. In practice, to reduce the throughput of data interaction between the first and second units, the merging can also be performed by the second unit after demodulation.

[0387] Assume the system has N antenna elements, each with L antennas, and K data streams. For a traditional cellular-free fully distributed implementation, assuming each antenna element directly outputs K data streams to the second element, and each data stream is quantized using 8 bits, the system considers a total of Q subcarriers. Therefore, its total fronthaul overhead is 8NKQ.

[0388] For the novel network architecture provided in the embodiments of the present invention, it is assumed that there are M first units in the system, the quantization from the antenna unit to the first unit adopts 8-bit quantization, and the fronthaul overhead of the system is (8NL+8MK)Q.

[0389] Assuming a typical acellular system has N=32, L=4, K=16, and M=4, the fronthaul overhead of a traditional acellular system is 4096Q, while the fronthaul overhead of this embodiment is 1536Q, representing 37.5% of the traditional architecture. In particular, the advantage of the new architecture in fronthaul overhead becomes more pronounced if the number of antennas L per antenna element is small. For example, with N=128, L=1, K=16, and M=4, the overhead of a traditional system is 16384Q, while the fronthaul overhead of this embodiment is 1536Q, representing 9.38% of the traditional architecture.

[0390] In this embodiment of the invention, the antenna unit receives multiple uplink data streams sent by the terminal and sends these uplink data streams to the first unit, and / or receives precoded data streams sent by the first unit and sends these precoded data streams to the corresponding terminal. This avoids the situation in traditional cellular architectures where each antenna unit detects and outputs signals for all users it serves, or the precoding module inputs signals for all users. Instead, each antenna unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the first unit for unified detection and separation, and / or the first unit performs unified precoding on multiple downlink data streams and sends them to the corresponding antenna unit. This allows the antenna units to output centrally during uplink and / or input centrally during downlink, thereby reducing the fronthaul overhead of the antenna units and improving the joint transmission capability of each antenna unit. This enhances the scalability of the number of antenna units in cellular architectures, thereby improving communication performance and enabling cellular expansion.

[0391] See Figure 8 , Figure 8 This is a flowchart of a data uplink method provided in an embodiment of the present invention, applied to a network device. The network device includes a first unit, a second unit, and an antenna unit. The specific structure of the network device can be found in [reference needed]. Figure 1 and 2 The diagram illustrates a network architecture where the network device can be understood as a non-cellular distributed MIMO system. Optionally, the network device may further include a third unit. The network device may be a base station.

[0392] like Figure 8 As shown, the method includes the following steps:

[0393] Step 801: The antenna unit receives multiple uplink data streams.

[0394] The network device includes multiple antenna elements, which are distributed and can cooperate to provide services to multiple users / terminals on the same time-frequency resources. That is, in this communication system architecture, multiple user terminals (UEs) can operate on the same time-frequency resources. The antenna elements can be used to perform radio frequency transmission and reception; optionally, they can also perform up-conversion, digital-to-analog (DAC), and analog-to-digital (ADC) conversion functions. During data uplink, the antenna elements are used to receive multiple uplink data streams.

[0395] like Figure 2 As shown, each first unit is connected to multiple antenna units, and each antenna unit can be configured with one or more antennas.

[0396] The multiple uplink data streams include multiple data streams from multiple terminals or multiple data streams from a single terminal. It is understood that a single terminal can also upload the same data stream through different antenna elements, or it can upload multiple different data streams through different antenna elements; the data streams uploaded by different terminals are different data streams.

[0397] Optionally, the multiple uplink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

[0398] Optionally, for the uplink receiving link, the multiple uplink data streams received by the antenna unit are multiple data streams superimposed in the air. The first unit obtains the superimposed multiple data streams from the antenna unit and outputs multiple user data streams or multiple data streams of a single user through a detector.

[0399] Step 802: The first unit acquires and detects the multiple uplink data streams, and sends the multiple uplink data streams to the second unit according to the detection results.

[0400] In this embodiment of the invention, the core functions of the first unit include the separation or detection of spatial data streams. Optionally, it is specifically used to perform baseband signal processing functions, including baseband signal transmission and reception. Optionally, the first unit is also used to perform functions such as channel estimation, multi-user (terminal) / multi-data stream detection, multi-user (terminal) / multi-data stream precoding, and calibration signal extraction in baseband signal processing.

[0401] Optionally, the antenna units are connected to the first unit via a high-speed link, and the first unit can perform signal aggregation (uplink process) and distribution (downlink process) functions for multiple antenna units.

[0402] During the data uplink process, the first unit acquires multiple uplink data streams from the antenna units and detects the source of these multiple uplink data streams using a detector. This can be understood as detecting multiple uplink data streams originating from different terminals and / or different data streams from the same terminal. Alternatively, it can be understood that after the first unit aggregates the signals from multiple antenna units, it completes joint multi-user detection processing and sends the detected user data streams to a designated second unit.

[0403] The second unit can be directly connected to multiple first units, or it can be connected to multiple first units through a switch.

[0404] Optionally, the network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units.

[0405] Optionally, the network device includes multiple second units, and uplink data streams from the same terminal detected by multiple first units are sent to the same second unit. Uplink data streams from the same terminal processed by multiple first units can only be sent to one second unit, or in other words, all data streams (one or more data streams) from the same terminal can only be sent to the same second unit; similarly, downlink data streams from the same terminal can only be sent from that second unit to multiple first units.

[0406] like Figure 2 As shown, the switch is an optional device. Data can be transmitted between each first unit and each second unit without going through the switch, or it can be transmitted through the switch. Alternatively, some first units and second units can communicate through the switch terminal, while others can communicate without going through the switch.

[0407] Optionally, the first unit acquires and detects the plurality of uplink data streams, including:

[0408] The first unit acquires the plurality of uplink data streams from the antenna unit;

[0409] The first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix between the antenna unit and the terminal based on the uplink demodulation reference signal and the number of data streams supported by the network device;

[0410] The multiple uplink data streams are detected based on the uplink channel matrix.

[0411] Optionally, the uplink channel matrix has a dimension of N. i ×S i , where N i S represents the total number of antennas connected to all antenna elements in the i-th first element. i This represents the total number of data streams to be detected in the first unit.

[0412] This can be understood as follows: the first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix (matrix dimension N) between the antenna element connected to it and the user (terminal) based on the number of data streams supported by the system and the uplink demodulation reference signal. i ×S i , where N i S represents the total number of antennas connected to all antenna elements in the i-th first element. i This indicates the total number of data streams to be detected in the first unit, and then the detection of each data stream is completed. Optionally, the first unit can also be used to perform software demodulation.

[0413] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, including:

[0414] The first unit sends the multiple uplink data streams to the second unit through a data interface.

[0415] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit via a data interface, including:

[0416] The first unit sends a data packet to the second unit through a data interface, the data packet including the plurality of uplink data streams.

[0417] The data interface can be an enhanced common public radio interface (eCPRI), also known as the evolved common public radio interface. It is understood that the data interface can also be other data transmission interfaces.

[0418] In a non-cellular wireless access network, the data packets of the data interface of the first unit and the second unit have the following characteristics: the data interface assembles packets according to the data flow, and the data packet header of the data interface includes at least one of the following: the Ethernet physical address of the first unit and the second unit, the index number of the data flow, the user number to which the data flow belongs, and the number of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, the sub-band number, the time slot number, and the radio frame number.

[0419] Optionally, the header information of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

[0420] The first unit detects the source of the multiple uplink data streams using a detector. Based on the detection results, the data source can be recorded in the header information of the data packet in the form of a terminal and / or data stream tag. After the first unit sends the multiple uplink data streams to the second unit in the form of data packets, the second unit can merge the data stream signals with the same data source in the multiple uplink data streams.

[0421] Step 803: The second unit merges the same data stream signals in the multiple uplink data streams; wherein the data sources of the same data stream signals are the same.

[0422] In this embodiment of the invention, the second unit described above can be used to perform the functions of the physical layer (L1) and / or higher layers (L2, or MAC layer). The second unit completes the information processing of the physical layer and higher layers, as well as the allocation of multi-user space-time-frequency resources.

[0423] Optionally, the baseband physical layer signal processing of the second unit mainly includes: merging uplink data from the first unit that belong to the same data stream, distributing multiple downlink data streams to the corresponding first units, and channel estimation required for calibration between antenna units.

[0424] During the data uplink process, the same terminal can upload the same data stream or different data streams. The first unit distinguishes different data streams by detecting the uplink data and can mark different data streams with terminal and / or data stream identifiers (tags) based on the detection results. After receiving multiple uplink data streams, the second unit merges the uplink data that belong to the same data stream, that is, merges the data streams with the same data source in the same terminal.

[0425] Optionally, the second unit merges the same data stream signals from the plurality of uplink data streams, including:

[0426] Based on the payload of the data packet, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0427] In the signal processing of the second unit, for uplink reception, the same data streams received from the first unit and sent to the second unit are merged according to the payload of the data packets. The header information of the data packets of the same data stream is the same except for the address of the first unit. The address of the first unit in the header information of the data packets of the same data stream may be the same or different. When each data in the same data stream is collected by the same first unit, the address of the first unit in the header information of the data packets is the same. When they are collected by different first units, the address of the first unit in the header information of the data packets is different.

[0428] During the data uplink process, optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection or soft demodulation.

[0429] Optionally, when the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit normalizes the noise of the output signal of the first unit.

[0430] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit performs unbiased processing on the plurality of uplink data streams to be detected and adds the average value of the variance of the interference plus noise of the data stream detection output to the data packet.

[0431] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a soft-demodulated and quantized digital signal, the second unit combines the soft-demodulated digital signal at the same scale.

[0432] The same scale can be understood as the number of integer digits before the decimal point in a digital signal being the same.

[0433] Optionally, the second unit merges the same data stream signals from the plurality of uplink data streams, including:

[0434] Average and merge or suppress interference and merge identical data stream signals from multiple uplink data streams.

[0435] Merging methods can include direct averaging, interference suppression merging, etc.

[0436] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after soft demodulation, and the second unit merges the same data stream signals in the multiple uplink data streams, including: averaging and merging the same data stream signals in the data streams.

[0437] When the payload of a data packet is a digital signal quantized after soft demodulation, the merging method can be to directly calculate the average.

[0438] Optionally, the second unit merges the same data stream signals from the plurality of uplink data streams, including:

[0439] Obtain the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the data stream output from the first unit;

[0440] Based on the SINR, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0441] In existing technologies, such as Figure 3The diagram shows an open, general-purpose wireless access network interface. Option 8 typically refers to the interface between the radio frequency (RF) layer and the physical layer (PHY), where time-domain signals are exchanged. Option 7 typically refers to the interface between the low-order physical layer (Low PHY) and the high-order physical layer (High PHY), where frequency-domain signals are exchanged. Existing specifications for Option 7 typically include Option 7-2a and Option 7-2b. In Option 7-2a, the Low PHY handles cyclic prefix addition / removal, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) / Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT), random access signal extraction, and phase compensation for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). In Option 7-2b, the Low PHY, in addition to implementing the functions of 7-2a, also performs digital precoding, which is generated by the preceding High PHY.

[0442] The functions of the first and second units mentioned above are separated at the data flow level.

[0443] Specifically, during the data uplink process (with the network device acting as the receiving end), the functional division between the first unit and the second unit occurs after multi-data stream / multi-user detection and before (forward error correction) decoding. This embodiment of the invention can be understood as a new Option 7 scheme, or as a new Option 6 and Option 7 scheme. See also... Figure 4 To understand this, it could be that the first unit performs multi-data stream / multi-user detection, and the second unit performs soft demodulation, de-mapping, and decoding; or the first unit performs multi-data stream / multi-user detection, soft demodulation, and de-mapping, and the second unit performs de-mapping and decoding; or the first unit performs multi-data stream / multi-user detection, soft demodulation, and de-mapping, and the second unit performs decoding.

[0444] From a data flow perspective, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, including any one of the following:

[0445] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams prior to soft demodulation to the second unit;

[0446] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the second unit after soft demodulation and before de-layer mapping;

[0447] The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the second unit after de-mapping and before decoding.

[0448] The soft demodulation can be a demodulation method that outputs the log-likelihood ratio.

[0449] Optionally, the plurality of uplink data streams sent by the first unit to the second unit are demodulated log-likelihood ratio information;

[0450] The second unit merges the same data stream signals from the multiple uplink data streams, including:

[0451] The second unit merges the log-likelihood ratio information of the same data stream signals in the data stream based on the detection result, and the detection result is sent from the first unit to the second unit.

[0452] Understandably, for the receiving (uplink) link, the data stream output from the first unit to the second unit can be the undemodulated signal output by the detector. Accordingly, in the second unit, the same data stream signals received from multiple first units are merged. Alternatively, the data stream output from the first unit to the second unit can be the demodulated log-likelihood ratio information. Accordingly, in the second unit, the log-likelihood ratio information of the same data stream received from multiple first units is merged.

[0453] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the uplink function partitioning of another network device provided by an embodiment of the present invention, using the example of the first unit sending multiple uplink data streams after soft demodulation to the second unit. In the first unit, multi-user / multi-data stream detection and soft demodulation are completed. The log-likelihood ratio information output by the soft demodulation is quantized and sent to the corresponding second unit via data packet packets through the data interface. In the second unit, after extracting the log-likelihood ratio information, the second unit merges the log-likelihood ratios corresponding to the same data streams of the same user received from one or more first units, decodes the merged data, and then passes the decoded data to the MAC layer.

[0454] It is understandable that the first unit sending multiple uplink data streams to the second unit could also be multiple uplink data streams prior to soft demodulation.

[0455] Optionally, the method further includes:

[0456] The merged data stream signal is decoded to obtain the decoded data stream signal;

[0457] The decoded data stream signal is then transmitted to the MAC layer of the network device.

[0458] Optionally, the network device further includes a third unit, and the method further includes:

[0459] The third unit determines at least one of the following based on the terminal's location or the terminal's prior channel information:

[0460] The association between the terminal and the antenna unit;

[0461] The association between the terminal and the first unit;

[0462] The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

[0463] The third unit determines the aforementioned associations, thereby establishing the data transmission path between the first and second units. In a cellular wireless access network, the third unit determines the association between user data streams and the first and second units. Based on the user's location or prior channel information, the third unit determines the association between the user (terminal) and the antenna unit, and also the association between the user and the first unit. The third unit determines the association between the user and the second unit; each user is associated with only one second unit. A first unit can connect to multiple second units, and a second unit can also connect to multiple first units. Optionally, the basic principles of association include: balancing the load across multiple second units and minimizing access from first units to second units across switches.

[0464] The third unit is directly connected to or connected via a switch to multiple second units. The third unit is used to determine the correspondence between the data streams of the first and second units. Based on the association between the user data streams determined by the third unit and the first and second units, uplink data streams from the same terminal processed by multiple first units can only be sent to one second unit; similarly, downlink data streams from the same terminal can only be sent from that second unit to multiple first units.

[0465] The switch is an optional device. The second and third units can transmit data to each other without going through the switch, or they can transmit data to each other through the switch.

[0466] In existing technologies, each antenna element independently and in a fully distributed manner implements multi-user precoding and multi-user signal separation, with different antenna elements essentially acting as different cells. However, in this invention, identical data stream signals from multiple uplink data streams received by different antenna elements can be merged. The terminal does not need to perform cell handover during data uplink and downlink processes, enabling user-centric data merging and distribution. This truly breaks through the limitations of cellular systems, supports wide-area coverage, and allows for decentralized cooperative transmission using non-cellular distributed MIMO.

[0467] The aforementioned data uplink method involves related processes and units, which can be understood as a novel implementation method for non-cellular wireless access networks. This method can be applied to existing or future communication systems / processes such as 5G and 6G.

[0468] refer to Figure 2 Assume that the total number of antennas in the antenna elements connected to the i-th first unit in the system is N.i Assume that the total user data stream served by the first unit on the same time-frequency resources is Si. Taking the signal on a certain subcarrier in the frequency domain of OFDM as an example, the above uplink data transmission will be explained.

[0469] For the uplink, the received signal received by the i-th first unit can be represented as,

[0470] y i =H i x i +H \i x \i +z i (Formula 1)

[0471] Among them, y i This represents the received signal of the i-th first unit (dimension N). i ×1), x i This represents the sent signals of all users in the i-th unit of the first service (dimension S). i ×1), H i This represents the channel matrix (dimension N) from all users served by the i-th first unit to all its antenna elements. i ×S i ), x \i This represents the signal (dimension S) of other users (terminals) sharing the same time-frequency resources, excluding the user (terminal) served by the i-th unit. \i ×1), H \i This represents the channel matrix (dimension N) from the user served by the i-th first unit to all antenna elements of the i-th first unit. i ×S \i ), z i This represents additive white Gaussian noise (dimension N). i ×1).

[0472] The above calculation method considers the signals of unserved users (terminals) in the first unit in the received signal, treats them as interference, estimates the interference and noise, and can effectively suppress interference.

[0473] Suppose that the third unit informs the i-th first unit of the number of users serving on the same time-frequency resources in the system, as well as the sequence and format of the uplink probe pilots (SRS) and modulation pilots (DM-RS) for the uplink users. Then, the i-th first unit can estimate the uplink channel information of all users based on the SRS, and thereby obtain the statistical channel information of the uplink users, such as scale and time delay. Based on this statistical channel information, the first unit can estimate the channel matrix H of the users it serves based on the DM-RS. i And the channel matrix H of other interfering users\i Therefore, for the i-th unit serving its users, the estimated transmitted signal can be obtained using traditional detection methods. The following example uses Linear Minimum Mean Square Error (LMMSE) detection. It should be noted that maximum ratio combining, zero-forcing detection, maximum likelihood detection, and other detection methods are also feasible.

[0474]

[0475] in, This represents the information of each user (terminal) output after detection. The superscript H indicates the conjugate transpose of the matrix, and σ 2 Indicates the noise variance. N represents i ×N i The identity matrix. Here, it is assumed that the power of the transmitted signal is normalized. It can be seen that (Equation 2) achieves distributed detection, relying only on locally obtained channel information and locally received signals. However, this approach, utilizing only the signal from the first unit, cannot achieve the superior performance of ultra-large-scale cooperative MIMO.

[0476] To achieve better performance, detection (Formula 2) can be implemented in each first unit. Then, the user's detection signal obtained from the first unit can be sent to the second unit for merging. In this embodiment of the invention, the data stream of the same user can only be sent to one second unit.

[0477] To describe the effectiveness of the algorithm, assume that each first unit serves all users, and the total number of user data streams is K = S1 = ... = S M Then (Formula 2) simplifies to:

[0478]

[0479] Assume there are M first units in the system. Then, the combined signal can be expressed as:

[0480]

[0481] Using (Formula 1), we can obtain that

[0482]

[0483] As M approaches infinity, according to the principle of large-dimensional random matrices,

[0484]

[0485] Where Λ is a diagonal matrix, that is, in the second unit, after merging, interference suppression between users can be achieved.

[0486] It is important to note that the merging described above is implemented at the detector output (executed in the second unit). To achieve better merging results, the first unit can send the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the output data stream to the second unit, allowing the second unit to achieve better merging performance. In practice, to reduce the throughput of data interaction between the first and second units, the merging can also be performed by the second unit after demodulation.

[0487] The data uplink method in this embodiment is applied to a network device, which includes a first unit, a second unit, and an antenna unit. The antenna unit receives multiple uplink data streams. The first unit acquires and detects the multiple uplink data streams and sends them to the second unit based on the detection results. The second unit merges identical data stream signals from the multiple uplink data streams. The first unit performs multi-user spatial data stream detection (separation), and the second unit performs user-centric data merging. Since the first and second units respectively implement distributed detection and centralized merging, a combination of distributed and centralized approaches is achieved, enabling unlimited expansion of cellular networks. This scheme can realize infinitely expandable cellular networking and user-centric cellular networking; moreover, the antenna unit can output centrally during the uplink process, thereby reducing the system's fronthaul overhead and improving the joint transmission capability of each antenna unit, thus increasing the scalability of the number of antenna units in cellular networks, thereby improving communication performance and enabling cellular expansion.

[0488] See Figure 9 , Figure 9 This is a flowchart of a data downlink method provided in an embodiment of the present invention, applied to a network device. The network device includes a first unit, a second unit, and an antenna unit, and the network device may be a base station.

[0489] like Figure 9 As shown, the method includes the following steps:

[0490] Step 901: The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit.

[0491] The multiple downlink data streams include multiple data streams sent to multiple terminals or multiple data streams to a single terminal. It is understood that a single terminal may receive the same data stream through different antenna elements, or it may receive multiple different data streams through different antenna elements.

[0492] Optionally, the network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units.

[0493] Optionally, the network device includes multiple second units, and downlink data streams from the same terminal are distributed through the same second unit.

[0494] Optionally, the multiple downlink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

[0495] Optionally, for the downlink transmission link, a data stream refers to the data stream of multiple users / or a single user to be transmitted by the base station on the same time-frequency resources.

[0496] Step 902: The first unit precodes the multiple downlink data streams to obtain a precoded data stream, and sends the precoded data stream to the corresponding antenna unit.

[0497] In this embodiment of the invention, the core functions of the first unit during downlink data processing include precoding, and may also include precoding weight calculation. Optionally, it is specifically used to perform baseband signal processing functions, including baseband signal transmission and reception. Optionally, the first unit is also used to perform functions such as channel estimation, multi-user (terminal) / multi-data stream detection, multi-user (terminal) / multi-data stream precoding, and calibration signal extraction in baseband signal processing.

[0498] After receiving signals from multiple user data streams sent by at least one second unit, the first unit obtains the downlink channel based on the uplink channel probe obtained locally, performs air interface reciprocity calibration, completes joint multi-user precoding, and sends the resulting multi-antenna signal to each antenna unit.

[0499] Optionally, the network device further includes a third unit, and the method further includes:

[0500] The third unit is used to determine at least one of the following based on the location of the terminal or the channel prior information of the terminal:

[0501] The connection between the terminal and the antenna unit;

[0502] The association between the terminal and the first unit;

[0503] The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

[0504] The third unit determines the aforementioned relationships, thereby establishing the data transmission path between the first and second units. Specifically, the third unit assigns a user to only one second unit. The basic principles of this association include: balancing the load across multiple second units and minimizing first unit access to second units across switches.

[0505] Optionally, the first unit precodes the plurality of downlink data streams to obtain a precoded data stream, including:

[0506] The first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix between the antenna unit and the terminal based on the uplink detection channel of the terminal;

[0507] The first unit obtains the calibration coefficients based on the air interface calibration between antenna units;

[0508] The first unit obtains the downlink precoding matrix based on the uplink channel matrix and calibration coefficients;

[0509] The first unit obtains the precoded data stream based on the downlink precoding matrix.

[0510] For downlink transmission, the first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix between the antenna unit connected to the first unit and the user (terminal) based on the probe channels of one or more users during the uplink process. Then, based on the calibration coefficients obtained from the air interface calibration between the antenna units in the system, the downlink precoding matrix is ​​calculated, and the data stream is precoded.

[0511] Downlink data streams are transmitted to the corresponding terminals through precoding and distributed deployment of wireless unit antenna elements.

[0512] Because downlink precoding is performed in a separate first unit, downlink transmission is extended to different first units.

[0513] Optionally, the calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0514] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0515] The first unit sends the air interface reciprocity calibration signal to the second unit;

[0516] The first unit receives the calibration coefficient sent by the third unit;

[0517] The third unit is used to obtain the channel matrix estimate of the second unit and calculate the calibration coefficient through the channel matrix estimate. The channel matrix estimate of the second unit is calculated based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal.

[0518] or,

[0519] The calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0520] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0521] The first unit calculates the channel matrix estimate between the antenna units based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0522] The first unit sends the channel matrix estimate to the second unit;

[0523] The first unit receives the calibration coefficients sent by the second unit, which are calculated based on the channel matrix estimation.

[0524] This can be understood as the calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units, including:

[0525] Method 1: The first unit sends the extracted air interface reciprocity calibration signal to the second unit. The second unit completes the channel matrix estimation between antenna units and sends the estimation result to the third unit. The third unit calculates the calibration coefficients of all the antenna units it manages. Then, the third unit sends the air interface reciprocity calibration coefficients of the antenna unit to the first unit connected to that antenna unit. That is, the first unit, the second unit and the third unit interact with each other and all participate in the calculation of the calibration coefficients.

[0526] Method 2: The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal, estimates the channel matrix between antenna elements, and then sends the channel matrix to a second unit. The second unit calculates the calibration coefficients of each antenna element managed by the first unit and sends the calibration coefficients to each first unit; that is, the first unit and the second unit participate in the calculation of the calibration coefficients.

[0527] In the embodiments of this invention, the generation of downlink precoding depends on the reciprocity calibration of the transmit and receive channels of the antenna elements. The embodiments of this invention provide a method for implementing the calibration function. In these embodiments, antenna element-side calibration that is transparent to the terminal is employed. Calibration of the participating antenna elements can be achieved by a third unit, or air interface calibration between multiple antenna elements can be achieved by a second unit based on calibration signals transmitted from multiple first units.

[0528] Optionally, the antenna units are connected to the first unit via a high-speed link, and the first unit can perform signal aggregation (uplink process) and distribution (downlink process) functions for multiple antenna units.

[0529] The second unit can be directly connected to multiple first units, or it can be connected to multiple first units through a switch.

[0530] Optionally, the network device includes multiple second units, and uplink data streams from the same terminal detected by multiple first units are sent to the same second unit. Uplink data streams from the same terminal processed by multiple first units can only be sent to one second unit, and similarly, downlink data streams from the same terminal can only be sent from that second unit to multiple first units.

[0531] like Figure 2As shown, the switch is an optional device. Data can be transmitted between each first unit and each second unit without going through the switch, or it can be transmitted through the switch. Alternatively, some first units and second units can communicate through the switch terminal, while others can communicate without going through the switch.

[0532] The functions of the first and second units mentioned above are separated at the data flow level.

[0533] During the downlink data transmission (with the network device acting as the transmitter), the functional separation between the first and second units occurs after (forward error correction) encoding and before precoding. This embodiment of the invention can be understood as a new Option 7 scheme, or as a new Option 6 and Option 7 scheme. See also... Figure 5 To understand this, it could be that the first unit performs multi-data-stream / multi-user precoding, and the second unit performs encoding, layer mapping, and modulation; or the first unit performs modulation and multi-data-stream / multi-user precoding, and the second unit performs layer mapping and encoding; or the first unit performs layer mapping, modulation, and multi-data-stream / multi-user precoding, and the second unit performs encoding.

[0534] From a data flow perspective, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data flows to the first unit, including:

[0535] The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams that have been modulated after layer mapping to the first unit;

[0536] Alternatively, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit after layer mapping and before modulation;

[0537] Alternatively, the second unit may distribute multiple downlink data streams prior to the layer mapping to the first unit.

[0538] For the transmission (downlink) link, the data stream sent from the second unit to the first unit can be a modulated signal after layer mapping, or it can be bit information after layer mapping but before modulation.

[0539] Figure 7 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the downlink data function partitioning of another network device provided by an embodiment of the present invention. An example is given where the second unit sends multiple downlink data streams before modulation to the first unit. In the second unit, information from multiple users sent from the higher layer (MAC layer) is encoded and then sent to the first unit via a data interface. In the first unit, after extracting the encoded bit information, each user's information undergoes layer mapping, modulation, and multi-user precoding.

[0540] Optionally, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit, including:

[0541] The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit through a data interface.

[0542] Optionally, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit via a data interface, including:

[0543] The second unit distributes data packets to the first unit through a data interface, and the data packets include multiple downlink data streams.

[0544] The data interface can be an enhanced common public radio interface (eCPRI), also known as the evolved common public radio interface. It is understood that the data interface can also be other data transmission interfaces.

[0545] In a cellular wireless access network, the data packets of the data interfaces of the first and second units have the following characteristics: the data interfaces assemble packets according to data flows, and the data packet header of the data interface includes at least one of the following: the Ethernet physical address of the first and second units, the index number of the data flow, the user number to which the data flow belongs, and the number of the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, sub-band number, time slot number, and radio frame number. The user number (identifier) ​​can be associated with the SRS.

[0546] In addition, the second unit also needs to send some interface configuration information for Layer 2 (L2 / higher layer / MAC layer) and Layer 1 (L1 / physical layer).

[0547] During the downlink data transmission process, optionally, the payload of the data packet is a modulated and quantized digital signal, or bit information before modulation.

[0548] Optionally, the header of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or data stream. The first unit can distinguish between different data streams from the same terminal or different data streams from different terminals during precoding based on the terminal and / or data stream tags in the data packet header, thereby transmitting the downlink data stream to the corresponding terminal via the antenna unit.

[0549] Step 903: The antenna unit sends downlink data streams to the corresponding terminal.

[0550] The network device includes multiple antenna elements, which are distributed and can cooperate to provide services to multiple users / terminals on the same time-frequency resources. That is, in this communication system architecture, multiple user terminals (UEs) can operate on the same time-frequency resources. The antenna elements can be used to perform radio frequency transmission and reception; optionally, they can also perform up-conversion, up-conversion, and digital-to-analog / analog-to-digital conversion functions. During downlink data transmission, the antenna elements are used to receive the downlink data stream transmitted by the first unit.

[0551] In this embodiment of the invention, the second unit can be the physical layer (L1) and / or a higher layer (L2 or MAC layer). The second unit performs information processing at the higher layers of the physical layer and allocates multi-user space-time-frequency resources.

[0552] Optionally, the baseband physical layer signal processing of the second unit mainly includes: merging uplink data from the first unit that belong to the same data stream, distributing multiple downlink data streams to the corresponding first units, and channel estimation required for calibration between antenna units.

[0553] The third unit is directly connected to or connected via a switch to multiple second units. The third unit is used to determine the correspondence between the data streams of the first and second units. Based on the association between the user data streams determined by the third unit and the first and second units, uplink data streams from the same terminal processed by multiple first units can only be sent to one second unit; similarly, downlink data streams from the same terminal can only be sent from that second unit to multiple first units.

[0554] The switch is an optional device. The second and third units can transmit data to each other without going through the switch, or they can transmit data to each other through the switch.

[0555] In existing technologies, each antenna element independently and in a fully distributed manner implements multi-user precoding and multi-user signal separation, with different antenna elements essentially functioning as different cells. However, in this invention, identical data stream signals from multiple uplink data streams received by different antenna elements can be merged / distributed. The terminal does not need to perform cell handover during uplink and downlink data transmission, enabling user-centric data merging and distribution. This truly breaks through the limitations of cellular systems, supports wide-area coverage, and allows for decentralized cooperative transmission using non-cellular distributed MIMO.

[0556] refer to Figure 2 Assume that the total number of antennas in the antenna elements connected to the i-th first unit in the system is N. iAssume that the total user data flow served by the first unit on the same time-frequency resources is Si. Taking the signal on a certain subcarrier in the frequency domain of OFDM as an example, the above downlink data transmission will be explained.

[0557] For the downlink, assuming the i-th first unit obtains H based on the uplink channel estimation... i After air interface reciprocity calibration, the i-th first unit can use the zero-forcing algorithm to calculate the downlink precoding matrix. The calculation formula is as follows: Where γ is the power normalization factor, the superscript T denotes matrix transpose, and the superscript * indicates taking the conjugate of each element of the matrix. When the number of users is greater than the total number of antennas in the first unit, regularized zero-forcing precoding can be used.

[0558] Similar to the uplink, when there are many first units, interference between users can be eliminated on the network device side, and user signals transmitted by multiple first units can be positively superimposed on the user side. Since downlink precoding is performed independently in each first unit, downlink transmission is also scalable.

[0559] In actual implementation, in order to reduce the throughput of the data interface, the data packets from the second unit to the first unit can be modulated and mapped in the first unit according to the number of layers allocated by the user, based on the bit information sent by the user before modulation.

[0560] The aforementioned data uplink method involves related processes and units, which can be understood as a novel implementation method for non-cellular wireless access networks. This method can be applied to existing or future communication systems / processes such as 5G and 6G.

[0561] It should be noted that this embodiment is as a comparison with... Figure 1 The implementation method of the data downlink corresponding to the illustrated embodiment can be found in the following examples. Figure 1 To avoid repetition, the relevant descriptions in the embodiments shown will not be repeated in this embodiment.

[0562] The downlink data method in this embodiment is applied to a network device, which includes a first unit, a second unit, and an antenna unit. The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit. The first unit precodes the multiple downlink data streams to obtain precoded data streams and sends the precoded data streams to the corresponding antenna units. The antenna units send downlink data streams to the corresponding terminals. The first unit implements precoding (convergence) of multi-user spatial data streams, while the second unit implements user-centric data distribution. Since the first and second units respectively implement distributed precoding and centralized distribution, a combination of distributed and centralized methods can be achieved, enabling unlimited expansion of cellular networks. This scheme can realize infinitely expandable cellular networks and user-centric cellular networks. The antenna units use centralized input during downlink, thereby reducing the system's fronthaul overhead and improving the joint transmission capability of each antenna unit, thus increasing the scalability of the number of antenna units in cellular networks, improving communication performance, and enabling cellular expansion.

[0563] An embodiment of the present invention provides a network device, which includes: a first unit, a second unit, and an antenna unit;

[0564] The antenna unit is used to receive multiple uplink data streams;

[0565] The first unit is configured to acquire and detect the plurality of uplink data streams, and send the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit according to the detection results;

[0566] The second unit is used to merge identical data stream signals from the plurality of uplink data streams; wherein the identical data stream signals are sent by the same terminal.

[0567] Optionally, the network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units.

[0568] Optionally, the network device includes multiple second units, and the uplink data streams of the same terminal detected by the multiple first units are sent to the same second unit.

[0569] Optionally, the first unit is specifically used for:

[0570] The plurality of uplink data streams are obtained from the antenna unit;

[0571] Based on the uplink demodulation reference signal and the number of data streams supported by the network device, the uplink channel matrix between the antenna element and the terminal is estimated;

[0572] The multiple uplink data streams are detected based on the uplink channel matrix.

[0573] Optionally, the uplink channel matrix has a dimension of N. i ×S i , where N i S represents the total number of antennas connected to all antenna elements in the i-th first element. i This represents the total number of data streams to be detected in the first unit.

[0574] Optionally, the plurality of uplink data streams sent by the first unit to the second unit are demodulated log-likelihood ratio information;

[0575] The second unit is specifically used for:

[0576] Based on the detection results, the log-likelihood ratio information of the same data stream signals in the data stream is merged, and the detection results are sent from the first unit to the second unit.

[0577] Optionally, the second unit is further used for:

[0578] The merged data stream signal is decoded to obtain the decoded data stream signal;

[0579] The decoded data stream signal is then transmitted to the MAC layer of the network device.

[0580] Optionally, the first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, including:

[0581] The first unit sends a data packet to the second unit through a data interface, the data packet including the plurality of uplink data streams.

[0582] The data interface can be an enhanced common public radio interface (eCPRI), also known as the evolved common public radio interface. It is understood that the data interface can also be other data transmission interfaces.

[0583] Optionally, the header information of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

[0584] Optionally, the second unit is specifically used for:

[0585] Based on the payload of the data packet, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0586] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection or soft demodulation.

[0587] Optionally, when the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit normalizes the noise of the output signal of the first unit.

[0588] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit performs unbiased processing on the plurality of uplink data streams to be detected and adds the average value of the variance of the interference plus noise of the data stream detection output to the data packet.

[0589] Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a soft-demodulated and quantized digital signal, the second unit combines the soft-demodulated digital signal at the same scale.

[0590] Optionally, the second unit is specifically used for:

[0591] Average and merge or suppress interference and merge identical data stream signals from multiple uplink data streams.

[0592] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a digital signal after soft demodulation and quantization. The second unit is specifically used to: average and merge the same data stream signals in the data stream.

[0593] Optionally, the second unit is specifically used for:

[0594] Obtain the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the data stream output from the first unit;

[0595] Based on the SINR, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

[0596] Optionally, the network device further includes a third unit, the third unit being used for:

[0597] Determine at least one of the following based on the terminal's location or the terminal's prior channel information:

[0598] The association between the terminal and the antenna unit;

[0599] The association between the terminal and the first unit;

[0600] The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

[0601] Optionally, the multiple uplink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

[0602] It should be noted that the network device provided in the embodiments of the present invention is an apparatus capable of executing the above-described data uplink method. Therefore, all implementation methods in the above-described data uplink method embodiments are applicable to the network device and can achieve the same or similar beneficial effects.

[0603] Another network device provided in this embodiment of the invention includes: a first unit, a second unit, and an antenna unit;

[0604] The second unit is used to distribute multiple downlink data streams to the first unit;

[0605] The first unit is configured to precode the plurality of downlink data streams to obtain a precoded data stream, and send the precoded data stream to the corresponding antenna unit;

[0606] The antenna unit is used to send downlink data streams to the corresponding terminal.

[0607] Optionally, the network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units.

[0608] Optionally, the network device includes multiple second units, and downlink data streams from the same terminal are distributed through the same second unit.

[0609] Optionally, the second unit is specifically used for:

[0610] Multiple downlink data streams that have been modulated after being mapped to the first unit;

[0611] Alternatively, multiple downlink data streams are distributed to the first unit after layer mapping and before modulation;

[0612] Alternatively, multiple downlink data streams can be distributed to the first unit before the layer mapping.

[0613] Optionally, the network device further includes a third unit, the third unit being configured to determine at least one of the following based on the location of the terminal or the terminal's channel prior information:

[0614] The connection between the terminal and the antenna unit;

[0615] The association between the terminal and the first unit;

[0616] The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

[0617] Optionally, the first unit is specifically used for:

[0618] The first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix between the antenna unit and the terminal based on the uplink detection channel of the terminal;

[0619] The first unit obtains the calibration coefficients based on the air interface calibration between antenna units;

[0620] The first unit obtains the downlink precoding matrix based on the uplink channel matrix and calibration coefficients;

[0621] The first unit obtains the precoded data stream based on the downlink precoding matrix.

[0622] Optionally, the calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0623] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0624] The first unit sends the air interface reciprocity calibration signal to the second unit;

[0625] The first unit receives the calibration coefficient sent by the third unit;

[0626] The third unit is used to obtain the channel matrix estimate of the second unit and calculate the calibration coefficient through the channel matrix estimate. The channel matrix estimate of the second unit is calculated based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal.

[0627] or,

[0628] The calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include:

[0629] The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0630] The first unit calculates the channel matrix estimate between the antenna units based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal;

[0631] The first unit sends the channel matrix estimate to the second unit;

[0632] The first unit receives the calibration coefficients sent by the second unit, which are calculated based on the channel matrix estimation.

[0633] Optionally, the second unit is specifically used for:

[0634] Data packets, comprising multiple downlink data streams, are distributed to the first unit via a data interface.

[0635] The data interface can be an enhanced common public radio interface (eCPRI), also known as the evolved common public radio interface. It is understood that the data interface can also be other data transmission interfaces.

[0636] Optionally, the payload of the data packet is a modulated and quantized digital signal, or bit information before modulation.

[0637] Optionally, the header of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

[0638] Optionally, the multiple downlink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

[0639] It should be noted that the network device provided in the embodiments of the present invention is an apparatus capable of executing the above-described data downlink method. Therefore, all implementation methods in the above-described data downlink method embodiments are applicable to the network device and can achieve the same or similar beneficial effects.

[0640] It should be noted that the network device provided in the embodiments of the present invention is an apparatus capable of executing the above-described data uplink method and data downlink method. Therefore, all implementation methods in the above-described data uplink method and data downlink method embodiments are applicable to the electronic device and can achieve the same or similar beneficial effects.

[0641] It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprising," "including," or any other variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not expressly listed, or elements inherent to such a process, method, article, or apparatus. Unless otherwise specified, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one..." does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes that element.

[0642] Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the methods of the above embodiments can be implemented by means of software plus necessary general-purpose hardware platforms. Of course, they can also be implemented by hardware, but in many cases the former is a better implementation method. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium (such as ROM / RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk), and includes several instructions to cause a terminal (which may be a mobile phone, computer, server, air conditioner, or network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in the various embodiments of the present invention.

[0643] The embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above. The specific embodiments described above are merely illustrative and not restrictive. Those skilled in the art can make many other forms under the guidance of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims, and all of these forms are within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A network architecture, characterized in that, Includes antenna elements, a first element, and a second element. The antenna unit is configured to receive multiple uplink data streams sent by the terminal and send the multiple uplink data streams to the first unit, and / or receive a precoded data stream sent by the first unit and send the precoded data stream to the corresponding terminal; The first unit is configured to detect the plurality of uplink data streams and send the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, and / or pre-encode the plurality of downlink data streams sent by the second unit; The second unit is used to merge uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, and / or to distribute multiple downlink data streams to the corresponding first units; The data sources of the same data stream signals are the same; The network architecture includes multiple first units, wherein each first unit is connected to multiple antenna units; The network architecture includes multiple second units, and uplink data streams from the same terminal detected by multiple first units are sent to the same second unit; and / or, the network architecture includes multiple second units, and downlink data streams from the same terminal are distributed through the same second unit.

2. The network architecture according to claim 1, characterized in that, The network architecture further includes a third unit, which determines at least one of the following based on the location of the terminal or the terminal's prior channel information: The association between the terminal and the antenna unit; The association between the terminal and the first unit; The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

3. The network architecture according to claim 1, characterized in that, The first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit through a data interface, and / or the second unit sends the plurality of downlink data streams to the first unit through a data interface.

4. The network architecture according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that, The multiple uplink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources; And / or, the plurality of downlink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

5. The network architecture according to claim 1, characterized in that, The first unit is specifically used for: The plurality of uplink data streams are obtained from the antenna unit; Based on the uplink demodulation reference signal and the number of data streams supported by the network architecture, the uplink channel matrix between the antenna element and the terminal is estimated; The multiple uplink data streams are detected based on the uplink channel matrix.

6. The network architecture according to claim 5, characterized in that, The uplink channel matrix has a dimension of N. i ×S i , where N i S represents the total number of antennas connected to all antenna elements in the i-th first element. i This represents the total number of data streams to be detected in the first unit.

7. The network architecture according to claim 1, characterized in that, The multiple uplink data streams are demodulated log-likelihood ratio information; The second unit is specifically used for: Based on the detection results, the log-likelihood ratio information of the same data stream signals in the data stream is merged, and the detection results are sent from the first unit to the second unit.

8. The network architecture according to claim 3, characterized in that, The first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit through a data interface, including: The first unit sends a data packet to the second unit through a data interface, the data packet including the plurality of uplink data streams.

9. The network architecture according to claim 8, characterized in that, The header information of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

10. The network architecture according to claim 9, characterized in that, The second unit merges the uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including: Based on the payload of the data packet, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

11. The network architecture according to claim 8, characterized in that, The payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection or soft demodulation.

12. The network architecture according to claim 11, characterized in that, When the payload of the data packet is a digital signal after detection and quantization, the first unit normalizes the noise of the output signal of the first unit. Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit performs unbiased processing on the plurality of uplink data streams to be detected and adds the average value of the variance of the interference plus noise of the data stream detection output to the data packet. Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a soft-demodulated and quantized digital signal, the second unit combines the soft-demodulated digital signal at the same scale.

13. The network architecture according to claim 8, characterized in that, The second unit merges the uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including: Average and merge or suppress interference and merge identical data stream signals from multiple uplink data streams.

14. The network architecture according to claim 13, characterized in that, The payload of the data packet is a digital signal after soft demodulation and quantization. The second unit merges the uplink data streams that belong to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including averaging and merging the same data stream signals in the data stream.

15. The network architecture according to claim 1, characterized in that, The second unit merges the uplink data streams belonging to the same data stream sent by the first unit, including: Obtain the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the data stream output from the first unit; Based on the SINR, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

16. The network architecture according to claim 1, characterized in that, The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the corresponding first units, including: The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams that have been modulated after layer mapping to the first unit; Alternatively, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit after layer mapping and before modulation; Alternatively, the second unit may distribute multiple downlink data streams prior to the layer mapping to the first unit.

17. The network architecture according to claim 2, characterized in that, The first unit is specifically used for: Based on the uplink detection channel of the terminal, estimate the uplink channel matrix between the antenna element and the terminal; The calibration coefficients are obtained based on the air interface calibration between antenna elements; Based on the uplink channel matrix and calibration coefficients, the downlink precoding matrix is ​​obtained; The precoded data stream is obtained based on the downlink precoding matrix.

18. The network architecture according to claim 17, characterized in that, The calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include: The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal; The first unit sends the air interface reciprocity calibration signal to the second unit; The first unit receives the calibration coefficient sent by the third unit; The third unit is used to obtain the channel matrix estimate of the second unit and calculate the calibration coefficient through the channel matrix estimate. The channel matrix estimate of the second unit is calculated based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal. or, The calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include: The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal; The first unit calculates the channel matrix estimate between the antenna units based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal; The first unit sends the channel matrix estimate to the second unit; The first unit receives the calibration coefficients sent by the second unit, which are calculated based on the channel matrix estimation.

19. The network architecture according to claim 3, characterized in that, The second unit sends the plurality of downlink data streams to the first unit through a data interface, including: The second unit distributes data packets to the first unit through a data interface, the data packets including the plurality of downlink data streams.

20. The network architecture according to claim 19, characterized in that, The payload of the data packet is a modulated and quantized digital signal, or bit information before modulation.

21. The network architecture according to claim 19, characterized in that, The header of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

22. A data uplink method applied to a network device, the network device comprising: The first unit, the second unit, and the antenna unit are characterized in that the method includes: The antenna unit receives multiple uplink data streams; The first unit acquires and detects the plurality of uplink data streams, and sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit based on the detection results; The second unit merges identical data stream signals from the multiple uplink data streams; wherein the identical data stream signals have the same data source; The network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units; The network device includes multiple second units, and the uplink data streams of the same terminal detected by the multiple first units are sent to the same second unit.

23. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that, The first unit acquires and detects the plurality of uplink data streams, including: The first unit acquires the plurality of uplink data streams from the antenna unit; The first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix between the antenna unit and the terminal based on the uplink demodulation reference signal and the number of data streams supported by the network device; The multiple uplink data streams are detected based on the uplink channel matrix.

24. The method according to claim 23, characterized in that, The uplink channel matrix has a dimension of N. i ×S i , where N i S represents the total number of antennas connected to all antenna elements in the i-th first element. i This represents the total number of data streams to be detected in the first unit.

25. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that, The first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, including any one of the following: The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams prior to soft demodulation to the second unit; The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the second unit after soft demodulation and before de-layer mapping; The first unit sends multiple uplink data streams to the second unit after de-mapping and before decoding.

26. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that, The multiple uplink data streams sent by the first unit to the second unit are demodulated log-likelihood ratio information; The second unit merges the same data stream signals from the multiple uplink data streams, including: The second unit merges the log-likelihood ratio information of the same data stream signals in the data stream based on the detection result, and the detection result is sent from the first unit to the second unit.

27. The method according to any one of claims 22-26, characterized in that, The method further includes: The merged data stream signal is decoded to obtain the decoded data stream signal; The decoded data stream signal is then transmitted to the MAC layer of the network device.

28. The method according to any one of claims 22-26, characterized in that, The first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit, including: The first unit sends the multiple uplink data streams to the second unit through a data interface.

29. The method according to claim 28, characterized in that, The first unit sends the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit through a data interface, including: The first unit sends a data packet to the second unit through a data interface, the data packet including the plurality of uplink data streams.

30. The method according to claim 29, characterized in that, The header information of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

31. The method according to claim 30, characterized in that, The second unit merges the same data stream signals from the multiple uplink data streams, including: Based on the payload of the data packet, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

32. The method according to claim 29, characterized in that, The payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection or soft demodulation.

33. The method according to claim 32, characterized in that, When the payload of the data packet is a digital signal after detection and quantization, the first unit normalizes the noise of the output signal of the first unit. Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after detection, the first unit performs unbiased processing on the plurality of uplink data streams to be detected and adds the average value of the variance of the interference plus noise of the data stream detection output to the data packet. Alternatively, if the payload of the data packet is a soft-demodulated and quantized digital signal, the second unit combines the soft-demodulated digital signal at the same scale.

34. The method according to claim 32, characterized in that, The second unit merges the same data stream signals from the multiple uplink data streams, including: Average and merge or suppress interference and merge identical data stream signals from multiple uplink data streams.

35. The method according to claim 34, characterized in that, The payload of the data packet is a digital signal quantized after soft demodulation. The second unit merges the same data stream signals in the multiple uplink data streams, including averaging and merging the same data stream signals in the data streams.

36. The method according to any one of claims 22-26, characterized in that, The second unit merges the same data stream signals from the multiple uplink data streams, including: Obtain the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the data stream output from the first unit; Based on the SINR, identical data stream signals in the data stream are merged.

37. The method according to any one of claims 22-26, characterized in that, The network device further includes a third unit, and the method further includes: The third unit determines at least one of the following based on the terminal's location or the terminal's prior channel information: The association between the terminal and the antenna unit; The association between the terminal and the first unit; The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

38. The method according to any one of claims 22-26, characterized in that, The multiple uplink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

39. A data downlink method applied to a network device, the network device comprising: The first unit, the second unit, and the antenna unit are characterized in that the method includes: The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit; The first unit precodes the plurality of downlink data streams to obtain a precoded data stream, and sends the precoded data stream to the corresponding antenna unit; The antenna unit sends a downlink data stream to the corresponding terminal; The network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units; The network device includes multiple second units, and downlink data streams from the same terminal are distributed through the same second unit.

40. The method according to claim 39, characterized in that, The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit, including: The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams that have been modulated after layer mapping to the first unit; Alternatively, the second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit after layer mapping and before modulation; Alternatively, the second unit may distribute multiple downlink data streams prior to the layer mapping to the first unit.

41. The method according to claim 39, characterized in that, The network device further includes a third unit, and the method further includes: The third unit is used to determine at least one of the following based on the location of the terminal or the channel prior information of the terminal: The association between the terminal and the antenna unit; The association between the terminal and the first unit; The connection between the terminal and the second unit.

42. The method according to claim 41, characterized in that, The first unit precodes the plurality of downlink data streams to obtain a precoded data stream, including: The first unit estimates the uplink channel matrix between the antenna unit and the terminal based on the uplink detection channel of the terminal; The first unit obtains the calibration coefficients based on the air interface calibration between antenna units; The first unit obtains the downlink precoding matrix based on the uplink channel matrix and calibration coefficients; The first unit obtains the precoded data stream based on the downlink precoding matrix.

43. The method according to claim 42, characterized in that, The calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include: The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal; The first unit sends the air interface reciprocity calibration signal to the second unit; The first unit receives the calibration coefficient sent by the third unit; The third unit is used to obtain the channel matrix estimate of the second unit and calculate the calibration coefficient through the channel matrix estimate. The channel matrix estimate of the second unit is calculated based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal. or, The calibration coefficients obtained by the first unit based on the air interface calibration between antenna units include: The first unit extracts the air interface reciprocity calibration signal; The first unit calculates the channel matrix estimate between the antenna units based on the air interface reciprocity calibration signal; The first unit sends the channel matrix estimate to the second unit; The first unit receives the calibration coefficients sent by the second unit, which are calculated based on the channel matrix estimation.

44. The method according to claim 39, characterized in that, The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit, including: The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit through a data interface.

45. The method according to claim 44, characterized in that, The second unit distributes multiple downlink data streams to the first unit through a data interface, including: The second unit distributes data packets to the first unit through a data interface, and the data packets include multiple downlink data streams.

46. ​​The method according to claim 45, characterized in that, The payload of the data packet is a modulated and quantized digital signal, or bit information before modulation.

47. The method according to claim 45, characterized in that, The header of the data packet includes tags for the terminal and / or the data stream.

48. The method according to any one of claims 39-47, characterized in that, The multiple downlink data streams are spatial domain data streams transmitted on the same time-frequency resources.

49. A network device, characterized in that, It includes a first unit, a second unit, and an antenna unit; The antenna unit is used to receive multiple uplink data streams; The first unit is configured to acquire and detect the plurality of uplink data streams, and send the plurality of uplink data streams to the second unit according to the detection results; The second unit is used to merge identical data stream signals from the plurality of uplink data streams; wherein the identical data stream signals are sent by the same terminal; The network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units; The network device includes multiple second units, and the uplink data streams of the same terminal detected by the multiple first units are sent to the same second unit.

50. A network device, characterized in that, It includes the first unit, the second unit, and the antenna unit. The second unit is used to distribute multiple downlink data streams to the first unit; The first unit is configured to precode the plurality of downlink data streams to obtain a precoded data stream, and send the precoded data stream to the corresponding antenna unit; The antenna unit is used to send downlink data streams to the corresponding terminal; The network device includes a plurality of first units, wherein each first unit is connected to a plurality of antenna units; The network device includes multiple second units, and downlink data streams from the same terminal are distributed through the same second unit.

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