Method and apparatus for forwarding multi-beam steering information of a satellite-based base station

Abstract

The application relates to a multi-beam wave control information forwarding method and device of a satellite-based station. The method comprises the following steps: receiving and storing wave control information; reading the wave control information, writing a beam ID, a time slot and a symbol symb as time index information into a CAM, and writing a pitch angle and an azimuth angle as wave control angle information into a RAM; searching the time index information in the CAM, reading corresponding wave control angle information from the RAM through address indexing; and packing and forwarding the read wave control angle information. The process effectively shortens the time from receiving the wave control information to completing the wave control information forwarding.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the field of beam control information forwarding processing of spaceborne phased array antenna, and particularly relates to a multi-beam wave control information forwarding method and device of spaceborne base station. BACKGROUND

[0002] In a low-orbit Internet constellation system, the multi-beam agility of a spaceborne phased array antenna is required to meet wide-range wave position scanning coverage and a wave-beam hopping technology. In order to fully exert the rapid electrical scanning capability of the phased array antenna, the process of obtaining wave control information, completing wave control calculation and performing beam shaping actions of the phased array antenna is required to be multi-beam concurrent and microsecond-level low latency, which puts strict requirements on the timing control of the entire process. Currently, the wave control code calculation and beam shaping processing are generally used to reduce the latency, but this cannot meet the timing control requirements in some cases. SUMMARY

[0003] The embodiments of the present application provide a multi-beam wave control information forwarding method and device of spaceborne base station, which effectively shortens the time of wave control information forwarding processing.

[0004] The multi-beam wave control information forwarding method of spaceborne base station provided by the embodiments of the present application comprises:

[0005] receiving and storing wave control information, wherein the wave control information comprises a beam ID, a time slot, a symbol, a pitch angle and an azimuth angle;

[0006] reading the stored wave control information, writing the beam ID, the time slot and the symbol in the wave control information as time index information into a CAM, and writing the pitch angle and the azimuth angle in the wave control information as wave control angle information into a RAM, wherein for each wave control information, the time index information in the CAM and the wave control angle information in the RAM are one-to-one corresponding through address indexing;

[0007] performing a lookup on the time index information in the CAM according to a first instruction containing first time index information, and when the CAM contains the first time index information, reading the wave control angle information corresponding to the first time index information from the RAM through the address indexing; and

[0008] packing and forwarding the read wave control angle information.

[0009] Further, in the step of receiving and storing wave control information, the method further comprises: parsing the wave control information and discarding invalid and late wave control information.

[0010] Further, the discarding of invalid and late beam control information comprises: discarding beam control information which is late by more than 10 time slots at a 30KHz subcarrier spacing; and discarding beam control information which is late by more than 40 time slots at a 120KHz subcarrier spacing.

[0011] Further, the CAM is divided into at least a first region and a second region to respectively store different beam control information.

[0012] Further, the method further comprises: writing time index information of current beam control information into the first region, and searching for time index information of written beam control information in the second region.

[0013] Further, the searching for the time index information in the CAM according to the first instruction containing the first time index information comprises: taking a local Slot or Symb count generated by a timing synchronization module as a beam control information reading pointer state machine reference to search for the time index information in the CAM.

[0014] Further, the packing and forwarding of the read beam control angle information comprises: time serialization of the beam ID of the beam control information according to the time index information of the beam control information.

[0015] Further, the time serialization of the beam ID of the beam control information according to the time index information of the beam control information comprises: time serialization of the beam ID according to the order of the time slots or the symbols in the beam control information.

[0016] Further, the packing and forwarding of the read beam control angle information comprises: matching the read beam control information and beam data.

[0017] Embodiments of the present application also provide a multi-beam beam control information forwarding device of a satellite-based base station, comprising a memory and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to execute the method as described above based on instructions stored in the memory.

[0018] According to the beam control information forwarding method and device, the storage of beam control information is defined by the combination of CAM and RAM, which effectively shortens the time from receiving beam control information to completing beam control information distribution. In addition, the matching of beam control information and beam data is completed by combining timing synchronization signals, which simplifies the preprocessing process of the subordinate beamforming, thereby improving the multi-beam pointing accuracy of the phased array antenna system of the satellite-based base station, and effectively improving the beam scheduling efficiency of the satellite-based base station system. Attached Figure Description

[0019] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application or the prior art, the drawings used in the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of this application. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0020] Figure 1 This diagram illustrates the connection between the baseband assembly and phased array antenna under the Option8 architecture of a spaceborne base station via the CPRI interface.

[0021] Figure 2 This diagram illustrates the connection between the baseband assembly and phased array antenna in the Option7-2 architecture of a spaceborne base station via the eCPRI interface.

[0022] Figure 3 This is a flowchart of a multi-beam beam control information forwarding method for a spaceborne base station according to an embodiment of this application.

[0023] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the reception, storage, and forwarding of wave control information according to one embodiment of this application.

[0024] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the beam control information to be forwarded according to an embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0025] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of this application clearer, the spirit of the content disclosed in this application will be clearly explained below with reference to the accompanying drawings and detailed description. After understanding the embodiments of this application, any person skilled in the art can make changes and modifications based on the technology taught in this application without departing from the spirit and scope of this application.

[0026] The illustrative embodiments and descriptions provided in this application are for explaining the application, but are not intended to limit the application. Furthermore, elements / components using the same or similar reference numerals in the drawings and embodiments are used to represent the same or similar parts.

[0027] The terms “first,” “second,” etc., used in this document are not intended to specifically refer to order or sequence, nor are they used to limit this application; they are merely used to distinguish elements or operations described using the same technical terms.

[0028] The terms “include,” “including,” “have,” “contain,” etc., used in this article are all open-ended terms, meaning that they include but are not limited to.

[0029] As used herein in the specification and claims,“or” is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so that when used, for example, in the phrase“A or B” A or B, A and B can be present at the same time.

[0030] As used herein in the specification and claims,“a plurality” includes“two or more”. As used herein in the specification and claims,“a plurality of” includes“two or more”.

[0031] Certain terminology can be used in the description herein for the purpose of reference only, which will be discussed at various places in the specification and / or claims. Meaning of term“one embodiment” does not necessarily mean the same embodiment.

[0032] Under the current satellite base station architecture, the path of beam control information transmission to reception is long, which has become an important link affecting the efficiency of beam scheduling on satellite. Embodiments of the present application provide a multi-beam beam control information forwarding method and device of a satellite base station, which effectively shortens the time of beam control information forwarding processing.

[0033] The following first introduces an embodiment of the application application scenario.

[0034] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of baseband combination and phased array antenna connection through CPRI interface under satellite base station Option8 architecture is shown. Under the satellite base station Option8 architecture, the baseband combination and the phased array antenna are connected in communication through the CPRI interface, the beam control information forwarding device of the embodiment of the present application is set in the FPGA, which receives the beam control information in the form of Ethernet package from the baseband DU module, and then combines the beam control angle information in the beam control information and the service data in the form of bit stream to send to the antenna through the CPRI interface.

[0035] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of baseband combination and phased array antenna connection through eCPRI interface under satellite base station Option7-2 architecture is shown. The beam control information forwarding device of the embodiment of the present application is set in the FPGA, which extracts the beam control information in the form of Ethernet package from the eCPRI interface, and sends the beam control angle information in the beam control information and the service data after OFDM conversion to the next module after symbol level matching.

[0036] Figure 3 A flowchart of a multi-beam beam control information forwarding method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. As shown in the figure, Figure 3As shown, the beam control information forwarding method includes: S31, receiving and storing beam control information; S32, reading the stored beam control information, writing the beam ID, slot, and symbol from the beam control information as time index information into the CAM, and writing the pitch and azimuth from the beam control information as beam control angle information into the RAM; S33, searching for the time index information in the CAM according to a first instruction containing the first time index information, and when the CAM contains the first time index information, reading the beam control angle information corresponding to the first time index information from the RAM through the address index; and S34, packaging and forwarding the read beam control angle information.

[0037] The following reference Figure 4 The above process will be explained in detail.

[0038] like Figure 4 As shown, firstly, after the beam control information forwarding device receives beam control information in the form of Ethernet packets, it parses and identifies the beam control information and stores it in the first-level cache. Here, the first-level cache is designed to absorb the delay jitter caused by the software calculation and distribution of multi-beam beam control information. The receiving process also includes discarding invalid or late beam control data.

[0039] Specifically, the baseband software typically sends beam control information according to the designed timing, such as four time slots in advance. However, processing delays are introduced during the encapsulation of beam control information and the formation of network packets for transmission. These processing delays include two main components: service software processing and network interface processing. The jitter of these processing delays can generally be maintained at the microsecond level. Therefore, in this embodiment, the FPGA's first-level buffer for receiving beam control information is designed to be at least half the duration of the System Frame Number (SFN). For example, 10 slots of data at 30kHz SCS, or 40 slots at 120kHz SCS. Beam control information packets exceeding this time window are discarded to ensure robust timing.

[0040] Afterwards, the beam steering information is read from the level one cache and written into the content addressable memory (CAM) and random access memory (RAM). The beam steering information can be read in the order of storage in the level one cache and the subsequent beam steering information can be written. The beam steering information includes beam ID, slot, symbol, pitch and azimuth. In the embodiment of the present application, the beam steering information is written by the combination of the CAM and the RAM. Specifically, the beam ID, slot and symbol in the beam steering information are written as time index information in the CAM, and the pitch and azimuth in the beam steering information are written as beam steering angle information in the RAM. For each beam steering information, the time index information in the CAM and the beam steering angle information in the RAM are one-to-one corresponding through address index. The writing process is controlled by a write pointer state machine.

[0041] In one embodiment, the CAM and the RAM can be respectively divided into at least two regions according to the time index information, for example, one region is used to store the beam steering information corresponding to slot N, and another region is used to store the beam steering information corresponding to slot N+1. Further, for example, one region is used to store the beam steering information corresponding to symbol N, and another region is used to store the beam steering information corresponding to symbol N+1.

[0042] In another embodiment, the CAM and the RAM can be respectively divided into four regions according to the time index information, to respectively store the beam steering information corresponding to, for example, four slots. Specifically, the CAM and the RAM store the beam steering information of several slots, which needs to be determined according to the capacity of the CAM. For example, in the present embodiment, only the beam steering information of slot N to slot N+4 is stored to match the capacity of the CAM.

[0043] Afterwards, the beam steering information forwarding device can receive the local slot and symbol count generated by the timing synchronization module as a reference of the beam steering information read pointer state machine to accurately match the time index information in the CAM. If there is no hit, it means that there is no first instruction of beam steering direction adjustment at the moment. If there is a hit, the beam steering angle information corresponding to the hit time index information is read from the RAM through address index.

[0044] In the above writing and searching process, since the CAM and RAM are partitioned, the writing and searching can be performed in parallel. For example, when writing the wave control information corresponding to slot N+1, the wave control information corresponding to slot N previously stored can be searched and extracted synchronously; and at the next moment, when writing the wave control information corresponding to slot N+2, the wave control information corresponding to slot N+1 previously stored can be searched and extracted synchronously. In this way, the writing and searching of the CAM and RAM are cyclically performed synchronously, on the one hand, the time of writing and searching is effectively shortened through concurrent processing and accurate timing control, on the other hand, the previous wave control information is read only when the next wave control information is written, and information loss caused by incomplete writing is also avoided. In addition, since the searching can be performed in advance before the CAM is completely stored, preparation time is also left for subsequent wave control forwarding.

[0045] After the wave control angle information is extracted from the RAM, the beam IDs of the read wave control information can be serialized in time according to the time index information of the wave control information. For example, the beam IDs can be sorted according to the time index information Slot or Symb in the wave control information. Then, each wave control information is packaged into a standard format and forwarded. When packaging, the beams can be searched in parallel. For example, multiple beam IDs can be searched simultaneously in one period to improve the forwarding efficiency. In addition, before forwarding, the wave control information forwarding device can also complete the matching of the wave control information to be forwarded and the beam data according to the defined timing. In this way, the preprocessing process of the lower beam shaping is simplified, the multi-beam pointing accuracy of the spaceborne phased array antenna system is improved, and the beam scheduling efficiency of the spaceborne base station system is effectively improved.

[0046] In addition, the wave control information packet to be forwarded is also processed in a universal manner. Figure 5 A schematic diagram of the format of the wave control information packet to be forwarded according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The information packet includes the pitch angle Pitch and the azimuth angle Azimuth of the wave control information, as well as the time slot slot and the symbol symb, and also includes the beam data beam ID matched with the wave control information. In addition, the information packet can also include the task ID and the error correction code. In this way, through the parameterized design of the control variables, the universality of the forwarding device can be increased and the public module can be widely used in the FPGA-based spaceborne phased array antenna wave control system.

[0047] The embodiment of the present application also provides a wave control information forwarding device, including a memory and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to execute the multi-beam wave control information forwarding method as described above based on instructions stored in the memory.

[0048] It should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments or examples of the present application can be combined with each other, and have corresponding technical effects.

[0049] The above only is the preferred embodiment of the present application, and does not limit the present application, any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present application shall be included in the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for forwarding multi-beam steering information of a satellite-based station, characterized in that, The method comprises: receiving and storing beam steering information, the beam steering information comprising a beam ID, a slot, a symbol, a pitch angle, and an azimuth angle; reading the stored beam steering information, writing the beam ID, the slot, and the symbol in the beam steering information as time index information into a CAM, and writing the pitch angle and the azimuth angle in the beam steering information as beam steering angle information into a RAM, wherein for each beam steering information, the time index information in the CAM and the beam steering angle information in the RAM are one-to-one corresponding through an address index; according to a first instruction containing a first time index information, searching the time index information in the CAM, when the CAM contains the first time index information, reading the beam steering angle information corresponding to the first time index information from the RAM through the address index; and packaging and forwarding the read beam steering angle information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, In the step of receiving and storing beam steering information, the method further comprises: parsing the beam steering information and discarding invalid and late beam steering information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, The step of discarding invalid and late beam steering information comprises: discarding beam steering information that is late by more than 10 slots at a subcarrier spacing of 30 KHz; and discarding beam steering information that is late by more than 40 slots at a subcarrier spacing of 120 KHz.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein, The CAM is divided into at least a first area and a second area to respectively store different beam steering information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein, The method further comprises: writing time index information of current beam steering information into the first area, while searching time index information of already written beam steering information in the second area.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein, The step of searching the time index information in the CAM according to a first instruction containing a first time index information comprises: searching the time index information in the CAM according to a local slot or symbol count generated by a timing synchronization module as a beam steering information reading pointer state machine reference.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein, The step of packaging and forwarding the read beam steering angle information comprises: temporally serializing the beam ID of the beam steering information according to the time index information of the beam steering information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein, The step of temporally serializing the beam ID of the beam steering information according to the time index information of the beam steering information comprises: temporally serializing the beam ID according to the order of the slot or the symbol in the beam steering information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein, The step of packaging and forwarding the read beam steering angle information comprises: matching the read beam steering information and beam data. 10.A device for forwarding multi-beam steering information of a satellite-based station, characterized in that, A device comprises a memory and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1-9 based on instructions stored in the memory.

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