Extensible customer front equipment with repeater function
By integrating the repeater station function into the CPE, sharing antenna modules and control circuits, the problem of expanding the coverage range of 5G millimeter wave communication is solved, and the coverage expansion and system simplification is achieved at a lower cost.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN202311729595.X
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2023-12-14
- Publication Date
- 2025-06-17
AI Technical Summary
How to expand the coverage of 5G mmWave communication at lower costs, especially in the presence of severe channel attenuation.
By integrating repeater functions into customer front equipment (CPE), sharing the antenna module and control circuit of the CPE, the expansion of communication devices is achieved, sharing the intermediate frequency and digital receiver paths to reduce costs.
The effect of expanding the coverage of base stations at a lower cost is achieved, the system design is simplified, product costs are reduced, and the system's anti-interference ability and coverage performance are improved.
Smart Images
Figure CN120165746A_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] Embodiments of the present disclosure belong to the field of communication technologies, and more particularly to communication devices, and more particularly to an expandable customer premise equipment with a repeater function. Background Art
[0002] A customer premise equipment (CPE) is a device that receives cellular signals (such as 4G, 5G, etc.) from a carrier's base station and converts them into Wi-Fi or wired signals for local devices to access the Internet. CPE is not only used to convert mobile communication signals, but also to enhance the coverage of Wi-Fi signals and has been widely used in 5G application scenarios.
[0003] 5G millimeter wave technology (mmW) is an important basic technology in 5G applications. Millimeter wave refers to a special electromagnetic wave with a wavelength of 1 millimeter to 10 millimeters and a frequency range of 30 GHz - 300 GHz. Compared with the frequency band below 6 GHz, millimeter wave has unique advantages such as large bandwidth, low air interface delay, and flexible and elastic air interface configuration. However, millimeter wave has relatively serious attenuation characteristics. Therefore, how to use CPE to expand the coverage of millimeter wave communication is a problem worthy of research. Summary of the Invention
[0004] Generally, example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a communication device, including: a donor antenna module for transmitting radio frequency signals to and receiving radio frequency signals from a base station; a service antenna module for transmitting radio frequency signals to and receiving radio frequency signals from a terminal; a system-on-chip (SoC); an intermediate frequency transceiver coupled to the system chip unit; a combiner including a combining port, a first splitting port, and a second splitting port, wherein the combining port is coupled to the donor antenna module via an intermediate frequency combining channel, the first splitting port is coupled to the intermediate frequency transceiver via a first intermediate frequency splitting channel, and the second splitting port is coupled to the service antenna module via a second intermediate frequency splitting channel. In this way, an expandable customer premise equipment with a repeater function is realized, which expands the coverage of mobile communication at a lower cost.
[0005] It should be understood that the content described in the summary of the invention section is not intended to limit the key or important features of the embodiments of the present disclosure, nor to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily understood through the following description. Brief Description of the Drawings
[0006] Figure 1 A schematic diagram showing an exemplary fixed wireless access (FWA) environment is shown.
[0007] Figure 2A schematic diagram of a communication device and its signal flow according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.
[0008] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.
[0009] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of the operation, administration, and maintenance message (OAM) management of an expandable CPE with a repeater function according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.
[0010] Figure 5A A schematic diagram of the uplink communication of a communication device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.
[0011] Figure 5B A schematic diagram of the downlink communication of a communication device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.
[0012] Figure 5C An exemplary timing diagram of a communication device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.
[0013] Figure 6 A schematic flowchart of the scheduling process of a communication device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.
[0014] In all the figures, the same or similar reference numerals denote the same or similar elements. Detailed Description of the Embodiments
[0015] The principles and spirit of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to several exemplary embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the description of these specific embodiments is only for enabling those skilled in the art to better understand and implement the present disclosure, and does not limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.
[0016] As used herein, the term "comprising" and its like terms should be understood as open inclusion, i.e., "including but not limited to". The term "based on" should be understood as "at least partially based on". The term "one embodiment" or "the embodiment" should be understood as "at least one embodiment". The terms "first", "second", etc. may refer to different or the same objects. There may also be other explicit and implicit definitions hereinafter.
[0017] As used herein, the term "determine" encompasses a variety of actions. For example, "determine" can include operations, calculations, processing, derivation, investigation, lookup (e.g., looking up in a table, database, or another data structure), ascertaining, etc. Additionally, "determine" can include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory), etc. Further, "determine" can include parsing, selecting, choosing, establishing, etc. As used herein, "at least one of: <list of two or more elements>" and "at least one of <list of two or more elements>" and similar phrases, where the list of two or more elements is joined by "and" or "or", mean at least any one of these elements, or at least any two or more of these elements, or at least all of the elements.
[0018] As used herein, the term "circuit" refers to one or more of the following: (a) only hardware circuit implementations (such as only analog and / or digital circuit implementations); and (b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (if applicable): (i) combinations of analog and / or digital hardware circuits and software / firmware, and (ii) any part of a hardware processor and software (including a digital signal processor, software, and memory that work together to enable a device such as an access point or other computing device to perform various functions); and (c) hardware circuits and / or processors, such as a microprocessor or a part of a microprocessor, which require software (e.g., firmware) to operate, but can be without software when not required to operate.
[0019] The definition of circuit applies to all usage scenarios of this term in this application (including any claims). As another example, the term "circuit" as used herein also covers implementations of only a hardware circuit or a processor (or processors), or a part of a hardware circuit or a processor, or its accompanying software or firmware. For example, if applicable to a particular claim notation, the term "circuit" also covers a baseband integrated circuit or a processor integrated circuit or a similar integrated circuit in an access point or other computing device.
[0020] CPE is widely used in the application scenarios of home broadband, especially in the case where fiber to the home (FTTH) cannot be installed. The Shannon theorem gives C = W * log2(1 + S / N), where C is the signal capacity, W is the spectral width, and S / N is the signal-to-noise ratio. Since millimeter wave (mmW) has rich spectral resources, the throughput can reach about 10 Gbps. Considering the severe channel attenuation characteristics of millimeter wave, millimeter wave CPE can be used in FWA scenarios, such as Figure 1 shown.
[0021] Analog beamforming (ABF) is a method of beamforming by controlling the amplitude and phase of each antenna element in an antenna array through radio frequency (RF) signal processing techniques. It combines the feeding signals of each antenna oscillator at the RF carrier frequency level. In the implementation of analog beamforming, first, individual signals are phase-shifted, amplified, and directed to the required transmitter through analog phase shifters and amplifiers, and then fed to each antenna oscillator in the antenna array. The amplitude / phase changes are applied to the analog signal at the receiving end, and the signals from different antennas are summed and then subjected to analog-to-digital conversion at the receiving end.
[0022] In some implementations, a common baseband is used to reduce power consumption and complexity, and beam pair training is performed in the transmit (TX) and receive (RX) directions using a predefined codebook to switch beamforming. The advantage of ABF is that a narrower beam brings higher antenna gain. Additionally, a repeater with ABF function has strong anti-interference ability.
[0023] In order to effectively amplify and forward signals from a base station (BS) using control information from the network (e.g., having a better signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the BS side), an intelligent repeater can be used to obtain the time-domain information and spatial-domain information of the air interface link to improve the millimeter-wave coverage. However, signaling this control information for each time slot may impose a heavy burden on the control signaling overhead. A more stable design requires a powerful baseband (BB) processor, which makes the system design more complex and the product cost higher than that of a typical radio frequency (RF) transparent repeater. In addition, the health status of the intelligent repeater should be monitored so that operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM) messages can be transmitted between the repeater and the network center. Therefore, the complex design will lead to a decline in the competitiveness of the intelligent repeater in improving the millimeter-wave base station coverage.
[0024] In view of this, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a communication device that integrates the repeater function into a communication device such as a customer premise equipment (CPE), or in other words, extends the repeater function on the communication device, thereby achieving the beneficial effect of expanding the base station coverage at a lower cost. It should be noted that although millimeter-wave is used as an example to illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure, the technical solutions of the present disclosure are not limited to millimeter-wave communication. On the other hand, although CPE is used as an example to extend the repeater function, the technical solutions of the present disclosure are not limited to the extended CPE, and it can be any applicable communication device.
[0025] According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the Mmw antenna module (MAM) of a CPE can be shared as the donor unit (DU) of a repeater to reduce costs. For the sake of distinction, herein, the MAM in the DU can be referred to as the master MAM (M-MAM) or the donor antenna module, while the MAM in the service unit (SU) of the repeater can be referred to as the slave MAM (S-MAM) or the service antenna module. Here, the master MAM in the donor unit is used to transmit radio frequency signals to and receive radio frequency signals from the base station, while the slave MAM in the service unit is used to transmit device signals to and receive device signals from the terminal. In this document, M-MAM, DU, and the donor antenna module can be used interchangeably, and S-MAM, SU, and the service antenna module can be used interchangeably.
[0026] In some embodiments, the control circuit (logic and software side) of the CPE can be shared with the repeater, making the implementation simpler and more efficient. In some embodiments, the intermediate frequency (IF) and digital receiver paths of the CPE can be shared for beamforming estimation of the service antenna module of the repeater to reduce costs. In some embodiments, the CPE broadband access management protocol (CWMP stack) of the CPE can also be reused for network management of the repeater. At this time, different hardware identifiers (HW IDs) can be used to distinguish the CPE and the repeater.
[0027] Traditionally, there have been separate millimeter-wave CPEs and millimeter-wave repeaters. The present disclosure provides a combined solution that includes not only the combination on the hardware side but also the combination on the control side and the software side (such as switches, beam control, OAM, etc.). The following Figures 2 to 6 details the embodiments of the present disclosure.
[0028] Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of a communication device and its signal flow according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Figure 2 The shown communication device is only exemplary, and some components or parts can be omitted without departing from the scope of the solution of the present disclosure.
[0029] As shown in the figure, the communication device can be connected to a home network by wired or wireless means, which includes components associated with the Mmw CPE and components associated with the Mmw repeater. The components associated with the Mmw CPE can include POE, a physical layer chip, an Mmw baseband processor (e.g., within a system-on-chip SoC), an Mmw intermediate frequency transceiver, a memory, RF control, etc. The components associated with the Mmw repeater include a donor antenna module, a service antenna module, a combiner, and a coupler.
[0030] In a communication device, link 1 between a home gateway and an Mmw base station includes a donor antenna module, a combiner, an Mmw intermediate frequency transceiver, an Mmw baseband processor, etc., which belongs to a typical CPE communication link. Link 2 between an Mmw terminal and an Mmw base station includes a donor antenna module, a combiner, a coupler, and a service antenna module, which is used for signal forwarding and belongs to a typical repeater communication link.
[0031] Link 1 and link 2 are combined at the combiner and have a shared donor antenna module. The combiner has a combining port, a first splitting port, and a second splitting port. The combining port is coupled to the donor antenna module via an intermediate frequency combining channel, the first splitting port is coupled to the Mmw intermediate frequency transceiver via a first intermediate frequency splitting channel, and the second splitting port is coupled to the service antenna module (via a coupler) via a second intermediate frequency splitting channel.
[0032] In some embodiments, the communication device can be configured to operate in a time-division duplex (TDD) mode. Accordingly, both the donor antenna module and the service antenna module include radio frequency switches for the TDD mode, enabling the antenna array to switch between transmission and reception. It should be noted that during the downlink of the TDD mode, the first downlink signal from the first splitting port to the intermediate frequency transceiver is the same as the second downlink signal from the second splitting port to the service antenna module, but hardware identifiers (HW IDs) can be used to distinguish the signals of the CPE and the repeater. In some embodiments, the donor antenna module can have a hardware identifier for the CPE, and the service antenna module can have a hardware identifier for the repeater.
[0033] In some implementations, the combination of the uplink transmission of the Mmw intermediate frequency transceiver of the CPE (via link 1) and the uplink transmission of the service antenna module (via link 2) can be achieved by a passive combiner. Due to the isolation of the link switch in the time-division duplex (TDD) configuration and the port isolation of the passive combiner, the uplink transmissions of the Mmw intermediate frequency transceiver of the CPE and the service antenna module do not cause significant interference with each other. For downlink reception, the signal received by the donor antenna module from the base station can be divided into two: one signal is for the downlink reception of the Mmw intermediate frequency transceiver for baseband processing, and the other signal is for the service antenna module for the repeater to forward to the Mmw terminal.
[0034] Link 3 between an Mmw terminal and an Mmw baseband processor includes an Mmw intermediate frequency transceiver, a coupler, and a service antenna module, where the coupler is used to extract a coupled signal from the uplink signal of the service antenna module for the Mmw baseband processor for beamforming estimation of the remote Mmw terminal.
[0035] Figure 3 A schematic diagram showing the structure of a communication device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.Figure 3 The structure shown is merely exemplary, and some components or parts can be omitted without departing from the scope of the solution of the present disclosure.
[0036] As shown in the figure, the main Mmw antenna module (M-MAM) includes a hardware identification (HW ID) circuit, a clock distribution circuit, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), and an antenna array. The RFIC is used to complete the frequency conversion between the intermediate frequency (IF) signal and the RF signal, and beamforming with different amplitude weights and phase weights for paths 1 to path m in each polarization direction. The RFIC can operate in the TDD mode through an RF switch to realize the switching between uplink and downlink communications. In some implementations, the HW ID circuit can be formed by pull-up resistors with different values. In the antenna array, each polarization direction includes m elements.
[0037] The transceiver module is used for frequency conversion, digital processing (digital gain, digital filtering, etc.). In some implementations, the transceiver module can be a zero intermediate frequency (Zero IF) transceiver.
[0038] The Mmw repeater link is composed of a main MAM (donor unit) and a slave MAM (serving unit). Through a passive combiner, the repeater and the CPE share the main MAM. Therefore, while signal processing exists on the CPE link, signal forwarding between the main MAM and the slave MAM can also be completed, for example, forwarding to the main MAM (i.e., to the base station) and forwarding to the slave MAM (i.e., to the Mmw terminal).
[0039] Generally speaking, due to different beam direction requirements for the main MAM and the slave MAM, the serving unit can be considered as another hardware unit outside the MmwCPE. The interface between the donor unit and the service can include an intermediate frequency interface (horizontal and vertical directions), a clock reference from the CPE, and an RF control signal.
[0040] To estimate the beam direction of the slave MAM, the IFH_S and IFV_S signals are detected through a coupler (e.g., a directional coupler). The receive (RX) path is shared by two switches. The first switch can be a double-pole double-throw switch (DPDT) implemented in hardware, arranged in the intermediate frequency transceiver module, between the IFH_S / IFH_S monitoring signal and the RX ADC. Using the first switch, the intermediate frequency transceiver can switch to the link connected to the service antenna module ( Figure 2 link 3) to receive the monitoring signal (using the coupler). In some embodiments, the service antenna module is configured to transmit a reference signal for beamforming estimation within a special time slot in the TDD mode, and receive measurement signals from the terminal within the special time slot. Through the first switch and the coupler, the service antenna module can send the measurement signals to the intermediate frequency transceiver module, and then can be sent to the system chip for beam estimation.
[0041] The second switch can be a logically implemented single-pole double-throw switch (SPDT) located within the system-on-chip for switching between the baseband processing module and the beam management module. In some implementations, the baseband processing module can be a 5G baseband processor for modulation and demodulation on the UE side and encoding and decoding of the 5G protocol stack. In some implementations, the beam management module can be a received signal strength indication / signal-to-noise ratio (RSSI / SNR) measurer for RF signal processing.
[0042] In some embodiments, the device may further include a motor for controlling the rotation of the service antenna module to provide a greater azimuth coverage.
[0043] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of OAM message management of an expandable CPE with a repeater function according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown.
[0044] Device control for the service antenna module (e.g., TDD control, beam control, gain control) can be accomplished through the radio frequency control (RFC) software of the CPE, and at the same time, the OAM information of the service antenna module can also be reported to the network by the CPE via the RFC bus (e.g., Mobile Industry Processor Interface MIPI). As Figure 4 shown, the OAM messages of the repeater can be encapsulated in the CPE Wideband Access Management Protocol (CWMP) format for better communication between the CPE / repeater and the Auto Configuration Server (ACS) / network center. Return reference Figure 3 , the system-on-chip may include an OAM management module, which can be configured to send and receive OAM messages for the CPE and the repeater. In some embodiments, with the OAM management module, the system-on-chip can be configured to encapsulate the OAM messages of the repeater in the (CWMP) format; and send the CWMP-format OAM messages to the ACS for being de-encapsulated at the ACS and sent to the network center. The OAM messages of the repeater can include radio management (e.g., frequency / beam / gain control) and fault management (e.g., faults of power amplifier PA, low noise amplifier LNA, or phase-locked loop), etc.
[0045] The signals of the CPE and the signals of the repeater are essentially different, so interference between each other should be considered. Next, refer to Figures 5A to 5C for the description of the radio frequency control of the service antenna module, where Figure 5A and Figure 5B respectively show schematic diagrams of the uplink communication and downlink communication of the communication device, Figure 5C shows an exemplary timing diagram of the communication device.
[0046] Consider the leakage from the intermediate frequency transmission (IF TX) of the transceiver module or CPE to the intermediate frequency transmission of the service antenna module (S-MAM). When the CPE operates in the uplink mode (i.e., transceiver IF TX), the donor antenna module (M-MAM) operates in uplink transmission (UL TX), and the service antenna module (S-MAM) operates in uplink reception (UL RX). Since the RF switch of the service antenna module (S-MAM) operates in the receiving state, the IF TX of the CPE does not interfere with the IF TX of the service antenna module (S-MAM), as Figure 5A and 5C shown.
[0047] Consider the leakage from the intermediate frequency reception (IF RX) of the service antenna module (S-MAM) to the intermediate frequency reception (IFRX) of the transceiver or CPE. When the CPE operates in the uplink (i.e., transceiver in intermediate frequency transmission IF TX), the donor antenna module (M-MAM) operates in uplink transmission (UL TX), and the service antenna module (S-MAM) operates in uplink reception (UL RX). Since the intermediate frequency device (IF RF) switch of the transceiver operates in transmission TX, the IF RX of the service antenna module (S-MAM) does not interfere with the IFRX of the transceiver or CPE, as Figure 5B and 5C shown. Additionally, according to Figure 5B , the CPE IF DL signal is the same as the repeater IF DL. At the same time, the CPE IF DL signal can be sent to the transceiver for downconversion and baseband processing, while the repeater IF DL signal is only forwarded to the S-MAM for enhancement.
[0048] Generally, fixed wireless access (FWA) does not need to perform runtime beamforming (BF); however, runtime beamforming can be reserved for certain special cases. For example, the orientation of the FWA terminal may have changed. Figure 5C An embodiment of the BF estimation period in the guard time slot is shown. As shown, time slots 0, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 are normal downlink time slots, time slots 3 and 8 are special time slots, and time slots 4, 9 are uplink time slots, where high level indicates enabled and low level indicates stopped.
[0049] Figure 5CShows the timing 501 of CPE RX (M-MAM RX / Transceiver RX), the timing 502 of CPE TX (M-MAM TX / Transceiver TX), the timing 503 of the serving antenna module TX (S-MAM TX), the timing 504 of the serving antenna module RX (S-MAM RX), and the timing 505 of the transceiver monitor RX. In some embodiments, within a special time slot, the transmission of the donor antenna module (i.e., CPE / M-MAM TX) occurs after the transmission of the serving antenna module (S-MAM) has ended, and the reception of the serving antenna module (i.e., S-MAM RX) occurs after the reception of the donor antenna module (i.e., M-MAM RX) has ended. According to timings 501 and 504, CPE / M-MAM RX turns off earlier than the serving antenna module RX, so the leakage of the serving antenna module (S-MAM) RX does not interfere with CPE RX. According to timings 502 and 503, S-MAM TX has turned off before CPE / M-MAM TX is turned on, so the leakage of CPE / M-MAM TX does not interfere with S-MAM TX either. Additionally, according to timings 503, 504, and 505, within the guard period (GP), S-MAM TX 503 is executed to transmit a reference signal, and then S-MAM RX 404 and monitor RX 405 (via a coupler, double-pole double-throw switch DPDT) are executed to receive measurement signals from the terminal. The measurement signals can be transmitted via a single-pole double-throw switch SPDT to a module for beam management in the system chip for beam estimation of S-MAM. Additionally, in some implementations, the automatic gain control of S-MAM and M-MAM can be similar and both are controlled by RFC signals.
[0050] According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the carrier configurations (e.g., frequency, bandwidth, output power) of both the CPE and the repeater can be controlled by the base station. Here, the system chip of the CPE can be used as a network controller to configure the frequency, bandwidth, and uplink output power of the CPE, and to configure the gain control, downlink output power, etc. of the repeater. Note that the uplink output power of the repeater should be synchronized and consistent with the uplink output power of the CPE.
[0051] Figure 6 Shows a schematic flowchart of the scheduling process of a communication device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Generally, the scheduling process includes an offline stage for beam correction, an initialization stage for beamforming estimation, and a real-time operation stage.
[0052] In the offline phase, perform offline beam calibration for the donor antenna module (M-MAM) and the serving antenna module (S-MAM), and then save the calibration results in the codebook. In the initialization phase, for M-MAM, perform optimal beam estimation according to the direction of arrival (DoA) from the base station, and for S-MAM, perform optimal beam estimation according to the direction of arrival (DoA) from the UE (e.g., Mmw terminal).
[0053] In the real-time operation phase, first extract the TDD synchronization information according to the CPE signaling, and then configure the RF switches of M-MAM and S-MAM according to the TDD. When the device is operating, determine whether the current time slot is a normal uplink time slot or a downlink time slot. If so, make the double-pole double-throw switch of the transceiver module work in the CPE mode. If not, further determine whether to perform runtime beamforming of S-MAM in the guard time slot. If so, make the double-pole double-throw switch of the transceiver module work in the monitoring mode. At this time, the transceiver can forward the monitoring signal extracted from the coupler to the system chip. As mentioned above, if the system chip includes a separate beam management module, the single-pole double-throw switch implemented by the logic of the system chip can be switched to the beam management module for beam estimation. Then, during the operation of the device, the device can report the OAM messages of the CPE and the repeater to the network center, where the CPE at least includes the system chip, the transceiver module, and M-MAM, and the repeater includes M-MAM and S-MAM.
[0054] The above reference Figures 1 to 6 illustrates the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Compared with the existing solutions, the embodiments of the present disclosure reuse the Mmw antenna module of the CPE as the donor antenna module of the repeater, reuse the intermediate-frequency receiving link of the CPE as the receiving link of the monitoring signal of the serving antenna module of the repeater, and in some embodiments, the system chip of the CPU can perform RF control on the repeater. Therefore, the technical solution proposed by the present disclosure has a lower cost compared with the existing solutions. On the other hand, the control mechanism of the technical solution proposed by the present disclosure has higher efficiency because the 3GPP protocol stack can be used to analyze the link of the CPE, thereby enabling easy analysis and control of the link of the repeater. Moreover, as a home gateway device, the CPE has rich OAM capabilities, which can be shared with the repeater to implement a repeater with higher performance and more intelligence. The feasibility analysis and discussion of the technical solution of the present disclosure are provided below.
[0055] First is the deployment feasibility analysis. CPE is a user device but at the operator level and needs to be managed by the network center or ACS; a repeater is a network node and also needs to be managed by the network center. Operator-level CPE and repeaters as network nodes can be uniformly deployed by FWA operators. Therefore, the technical solution proposed in this disclosure has deployment feasibility.
[0056] Next is the feasibility of product performance / certification. Considering the compatibility of CPE and repeaters, as shown in Table 1, among them, the repeater has three parameters that are more stringent than those of CPE: transition period length, frequency error, and adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR).
[0057] Table 1 Comparison of performance requirements between CPE and repeaters
[0058]
[0059]
[0060] Transition period length: For the repeater, the part different from CPE is the service antenna module (while CPE is the system chip or baseband processing). Since the transition period length of the service antenna module (S-MAM) is mainly determined by the RF switch (the current industry level is less than 1 μs), 3 μs is acceptable.
[0061] Frequency error: ±0.01 PPM is not "frequency error" but "frequency deviation". The requirement can be met by the same clock reference between the donor antenna module (M-MAM) and the service antenna module (S-MAM), as Figure 3 shown.
[0062] ACLR: Since the bandwidth of the millimeter-wave front-end is much larger, there is no digital pre-distortion (DPD) in CPE, repeaters, or base stations. ACLR is mainly determined by the linearity of the front-end amplifier. This requirement for the repeater can be met by the first priority of the devices of M-MAM / S-MAM.
[0063] Next is the interface feasibility between the donor antenna module (M-MAM) and the service antenna module (S-MAM). The interface can include an intermediate frequency (IF) interface and other possible interfaces.
[0064] IF Interface: The interface between the donor antenna module and the serving antenna module is an IF cable and an RFC cable (the RFC signal can be combined with the IF signal for simple transmission). The intermediate frequency operating frequency is approximately 4 GHz. At this time, if the cable length is less than 10 m, the cable insertion loss can be less than 5 dB. The insertion loss value can be placed in the graphical user interface (GUI) of the CPE so that the loss can be compensated by the AGC of the S-MAM. The RFC signal usually operates below 1 GHz (such as the MIPI interface). Therefore, the cable loss of the RFC between the donor antenna module and the serving antenna module is not a problem.
[0065] Other possible interfaces: If a digital RF (Serdes protocol) interface is selected to connect the M-MAM and the S-MAM, the SERDES speed can be higher than 10 Gbps and the number of channels can exceed 5; high-speed passive multiplexers / demultiplexers should also be carefully considered; the path loss and signal integrity between the M-MAM and the S-MAM may be unacceptable, so a high-speed digital repeater may be required.
[0066] At the same time, the IF interface also has the following advantages: The path loss at the IF frequency is small, and the through loss can be compensated by the AGC of the M-MAM / S-MAM; the number of channels is only 2 (horizontal H and vertical V). Therefore, the IF interface is the preferred solution for connecting the donor antenna module and the serving antenna module.
[0067] The full names and translations of the English abbreviations used in this article are listed below to help with understanding. ABF: Analog Beamforming, analog beamforming
[0068] ADC: Analog to Digital Converter, analog-to-digital converter
[0069] AGC: Auto Gain Control, automatic gain control
[0070] ACS: Auto Configuration Server, automatic configuration server
[0071] BB: Baseband, baseband
[0072] BF: Beamforming, beamforming
[0073] BS: Base Station, base station
[0074] CPE: Customer Premise Equipment, customer premise equipment
[0075] CWMP: CPE WAN (Wide Access Network) Management Protocol, CPE broadband access management protocol
[0076] DL: Downlink, downlink
[0077] DoA: Direction of Arrival, direction of arrival
[0078] DPD: Digital Pre-Distortion, digital pre-distortion
[0079] DPDT: Double Pole Double Throw, double pole double throw
[0080] DU: Donor Unit, donor unit
[0081] FTTH: Fiber to the Home, fiber to the home
[0082] FWA: Fixed Wireless Access, fixed wireless access
[0083] GP: Guard Period, guard period
[0084] GUI: Graphical User Interface, graphical user interface
[0085] IF: Intermediate Frequency, intermediate frequency
[0086] MIPI: Mobile Industry Processor Interface, mobile industry processor interface
[0087] M-MAM: Master Mmw Antenna Module, main millimeter-wave antenna module
[0088] OAM: Operation, Administration, and Maintenance, operation, administration, and maintenance
[0089] RF: Radio Frequency, radio frequency
[0090] RFC: Radio Frequency Control, radio frequency control
[0091] RFIC: Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit, radio frequency integrated circuit
[0092] POE: Power on Ethernet, Power over Ethernet
[0093] RSSI: Receive Signal Strength Indicate, Received Signal Strength Indicator
[0094] RX: Receiver
[0095] SCS: Sub-carrier Space
[0096] SINR: Signal Interference Noise Ratio
[0097] SNR: Signal Noise Ratio
[0098] S-MAM: Slave Mmw Antenna Module
[0099] SPDT: Single Pole Double Throw
[0100] SU: Service Unit
[0101] TDD: Time Division Duplex
[0102] TRX: Transceiver
[0103] TX: Transmitter
[0104] UE: User Equipment
[0105] UL: Uplink.
Claims
1. A communication device, comprising: A donor antenna module for transmitting radio frequency signals to and receiving radio frequency signals from a base station; A service antenna module for transmitting radio frequency signals to and receiving radio frequency signals from a terminal; A system-on-chip (SoC); An intermediate frequency transceiver coupled to the system chip unit; A combiner including a combining port, a first splitting port, and a second splitting port, wherein the combining port is coupled to the donor antenna module via an intermediate frequency combining channel, the first splitting port is coupled to the intermediate frequency transceiver via a first intermediate frequency splitting channel, and the second splitting port is coupled to the service antenna module via a second intermediate frequency splitting channel.
2. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein, A first link through the donor antenna module, the combiner, the intermediate frequency transceiver, and the system chip forms a link for a customer premises equipment (CPE), and a second link through the donor antenna module, the combiner, and the service antenna module forms a link for a repeater.
3. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein the donor antenna module has a hardware identifier for the CPE, and the serving antenna module has a hardware identifier for the repeater.
4. The communication device according to claim 1, the communication device being configured to operate in a time division duplex (TDD) mode, and both the donor antenna module and the serving antenna module include radio frequency switches for the TDD mode.
5. The communication device according to claim 4, wherein, During the downlink of the TDD mode, a first downlink signal from the first splitting port to the intermediate frequency transceiver is the same as a second downlink signal from the second splitting port to the service antenna module.
6. The communication device according to claim 4, wherein, The switching of the donor antenna module from receiving to transmitting and the switching of the service antenna module from transmitting to receiving occur within a special time slot of the TDD mode, the special time slot being after the downlink time slot and before the uplink time slot.
7. The method according to claim 6, wherein, Within the special time slot, the transmission of the donor antenna module occurs after the transmission of the service antenna module has ended, and the reception of the service antenna module occurs after the reception of the donor antenna module has ended.
8. The communication device according to claim 1, the system chip includes a radio frequency control module, the radio frequency control module being configured to control the donor antenna module and the serving antenna module using radio frequency control signals.
9. The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising: A directional coupler located in the second intermediate frequency splitting channel, and an output port of the directional coupler is coupled to the intermediate frequency transceiver via a third link.
10. The communication device according to claim 9, wherein, The service antenna module is configured to provide the monitoring signal to the intermediate frequency transceiver via the directional coupler, the monitoring signal including a measurement signal from the terminal for beamforming estimation.
11. The communication device according to claim 10, wherein, The service antenna module is configured to transmit a reference signal for beamforming estimation within a special time slot of the TDD mode and receive the measurement signal from the terminal within the special time slot.
12. The communication device according to claim 9, wherein the intermediate frequency transceiver includes a switch for switching to the third link to receive the monitoring signal.
13. The communication device according to claim 9, wherein the system chip further includes: A baseband processing module, a beam management module for the service antenna module, and a switch for switching between the baseband processing module and the beam management module.
14. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the system chip includes an OAM management module, the OAM management module being configured to send and receive operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM) messages for the CPE and the repeater.
15. The communication device according to claim 14, wherein the system-on-chip is configured to: encapsulate the OAM message of the repeater using the CPE broadband access management protocol (CWMP) format; and send the OAM message in CWMP format to an auto-configuration server (ACS) for being unpacked at the ACS and sent to a network center.
16. The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising a motor for controlling the rotation of the service antenna module.