External antenna and network equipment

Abstract

The utility model discloses an external antenna and network equipment, and relates to the technical field of communication, the internal part of the external antenna is composed of a metal assembly, a second permanent magnet material and a slot coupling feed unit are embedded in the metal assembly, and a first permanent magnet material and an antenna switching unit are arranged in one side of a shell of the network equipment; when the first permanent magnet material and the second permanent magnet material are attracted, the antenna switching unit is electrically connected with the slot coupling feed unit. The effect of automatically switching the external antenna is achieved while the installation inconvenience caused by manual screwing is avoided, and the intelligent degree of antenna switching is improved.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to an external antenna and a network device. BACKGROUND

[0002] In the field of communication, CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) as a kind of network device receives cellular signals through a built-in antenna and converts them into Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) coverage, but its compact design results in low antenna gain, weak anti-interference, and limited coverage range, making it difficult to meet the needs of complex environments. Therefore, external antennas are introduced to improve signal reception and transmission capabilities.

[0003] In the prior art, a scheme of a whip antenna combined with an SMA (SubMiniature version A) interface is generally adopted, physical connection is achieved by screwing a male head with a female head of the network device, and the external antenna mode is manually switched to the system configuration interface to activate the function, so as to enhance the reception and transmission capabilities of wireless signals through the external antenna.

[0004] However, according to the above, the access of the external antenna needs to be manually operated throughout the process, so there are defects in convenience and intelligence. CONTENT OF THE INVENTION

[0005] The main purpose of the present application is to provide an external antenna and a network device, aiming to solve the technical problem of the conventional scheme of accessing an external antenna on a network device, which has defects in convenience and intelligence.

[0006] To achieve the above purpose, the present application provides an external antenna, which is applied to a network device, and a first permanent magnetic material and an antenna switching unit are arranged inside one side of a shell of the network device;

[0007] The internal part of the external antenna is composed of a metal component, and the metal component is embedded with a second permanent magnetic material and a slot coupling feeding unit.

[0008] When the first permanent magnetic material and the second permanent magnetic material are attracted, the antenna switching unit and the slot coupling feeding unit are electrically connected.

[0009] In an embodiment, the slot coupling feeding unit includes a slot formed by opening a slot in the metal component, and the slot is located in the inside side of the metal component where the second permanent magnetic material is arranged.

[0010] In an embodiment, the slot coupling feeding unit further includes an antenna radiator, and the setting position of the antenna radiator is opposite to the opening position of the slot.

[0011] In an embodiment, a gap exists between the antenna radiator and the slot.

[0012] The application also provides a network device applied to the external antenna as above, the internal part of the external antenna is composed of a metal component, the metal component is embedded with a second permanent magnetic material on one side thereof;

[0013] The shell of the network device is provided with a first permanent magnetic material and an antenna switching unit on one side thereof.

[0014] When the first permanent magnetic material and the second permanent magnetic material are attracted, the network device establishes a connection relationship with the external antenna through the antenna switching unit.

[0015] In an embodiment, the antenna switching unit comprises a sensor, and a gap exists between the sensor and the shell.

[0016] In an embodiment, the antenna switching unit further comprises a microstrip line and a single-pole double-throw switch, the control end of the single-pole double-throw switch is in communication connection with the output end of the sensor, and the first output end of the single-pole double-throw switch is in electrical connection with the microstrip line.

[0017] A gap exists between the microstrip line and the shell.

[0018] In an embodiment, the network device is provided with a cellular module, and the antenna port of the cellular module is in electrical connection with the input end of the single-pole double-throw switch.

[0019] In an embodiment, the network device is further provided with a built-in antenna, and the built-in antenna is in electrical connection with the second output end of the single-pole double-throw switch.

[0020] In an embodiment, the shell of the network device and the shell of the metal component are both non-metal materials.

[0021] The one or more technical solutions provided by the application have at least the following technical effects:

[0022] The application provides an external antenna and a network device, the internal part of the external antenna is composed of a metal component, the metal component is embedded with a second permanent magnetic material and a slot coupling feeding unit, the shell of the network device is provided with a first permanent magnetic material and an antenna switching unit on one side thereof, and when the first permanent magnetic material and the second permanent magnetic material are attracted, the antenna switching unit is in electrical connection with the slot coupling feeding unit.

[0023] That is, in the present application, the external antenna is directly placed and fixed on the network device by the permanent magnet materials arranged in the external antenna and the network device respectively, so as to avoid the inconvenience of manual rotation and connection, and at the same time, when the second permanent magnet material in the external antenna is attracted to the first permanent magnet material in the network device by the antenna switching unit in the network device, the gap coupling feeding unit is directly established, so as to achieve the effect of automatically switching the external antenna and improve the intelligent degree of antenna switching. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0024] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and form part of the specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the present application and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the application.

[0025] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application or the prior art, the accompanying drawings needed to be used in the embodiments or prior art description will be briefly introduced. Obviously, for those skilled in the art, other drawings can also be obtained from these drawings without creative labor.

[0026] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the simple structure of the external antenna and the network device of the present application;

[0027] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the specific structure of the external antenna of the present application;

[0028] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the specific structure of the network device of the present application.

[0029] Explanation of the reference numerals:

[0030] 10, network device; 101, first permanent magnet material; 102, antenna switching unit; 1021, sensor; 1022, microstrip line; 1023, single-pole double-throw switch; 1024, cellular module; 1025, built-in antenna; A, antenna port;

[0031] 20, external antenna; 201, second permanent magnet material; 202, gap coupling feeding unit; 2021, gap; 2022, antenna radiator.

[0032] The purpose of the present application, the functional characteristics and the advantages will be further explained in conjunction with the embodiments and with reference to the accompanying drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] With reference to the drawings and the embodiments disclosed in the present application, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described clearly and completely. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments of the present application. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art without creative work fall within the scope of protection of the present application.

[0034] It should be noted that if the present application has a directionality indication (such as up, down, left, right, front, back, etc.), the directionality indication is only used to explain the relative position relationship, movement condition, etc. between components in a certain posture, and if the certain posture changes, the directionality indication also changes accordingly.

[0035] In addition, if the present application has a description of "first", "second", etc., the description of "first", "second", etc. is only for description purpose, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying the relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of indicated technical features. Therefore, the features limited by "first", "second" can explicitly or implicitly include at least one of the features. In addition, "and / or" or "and / or" appears throughout the text, which means that the three parallel schemes include A scheme, or B scheme, or A and B schemes are satisfied at the same time. In addition, the technical solutions of each embodiment can be combined with each other, but it must be based on the realization of a person of ordinary skill in the art, and when the combination of technical solutions appears contradictory or unachievable, it should be considered that the combination of technical solutions does not exist, nor within the scope of protection claimed by the present application.

[0036] Based on this, the present application provides an external antenna 20, referring to Figure 1 , Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the simple structure of the external antenna 20 and the network device 10 of the present application.

[0037] Referring to Figure 1 , a first permanent magnetic material 101 and an antenna switching unit 102 are arranged in one side of the shell of the network device 10; the inside of the external antenna 20 is composed of a metal component, and the metal component is embedded with a second permanent magnetic material 201 and a slot coupling feeding unit 202.

[0038] According to Figure 1It can be known that, by arranging the permanent magnetic materials in the network device 10 and the external antenna 20 respectively, the external antenna 20 can be stably fixed on the network device 10 without the need of the screwing operation based on the interaction between the permanent magnetic materials. The arrangement can not only avoid the operation complexity and inconvenience of manual fixing by the operator, but also avoid the interface wear, poor contact and thread slippage caused by frequent plugging and unplugging through the SMA interface, so as to avoid the high complexity and high cost of later maintenance.

[0039] When the first permanent magnetic material 101 and the second permanent magnetic material 201 are attracted, the antenna switching unit 102 and the slot coupling feeding unit 202 are electrically connected. The antenna switching unit 102 in the embodiment can sense the attraction state between the permanent magnetic materials. When the first permanent magnetic material 101 and the second permanent magnetic material 201 are attracted, the antenna switching unit 102 establishes the electrical connection relationship with the slot coupling feeding unit 202, so that the network device 10 can automatically identify the access of the external antenna 20 without the need of manual switching setting by the operator, avoid the operation process complexity and misconfiguration risk, and realize the intelligent adaptation of the external antenna 20.

[0040] It should be noted that the side provided with the first permanent magnetic material 101 is generally the base of the external antenna in actual application, but the specific arrangement can be changed according to the needs.

[0041] In a feasible embodiment, the specific structure of the external antenna 20 can refer to the structure shown in FIG. 2. Figure 2

[0042] The slot coupling feeding unit 202 includes a slot 2021 formed by opening a slot in a metal assembly, and the slot 2021 is located in the inner side of the metal assembly provided with the second permanent magnetic material 201. The slot coupling feeding unit 202 further includes an antenna radiator 2022.

[0043] ​It should be noted that the external antenna 20 in this embodiment adopts a slot 2021 coupling type feed. Therefore, the slot 2021 will be formed by slitting the metal components inside the external antenna 20, and in order to enable effective coupling, the slot 2021 needs to be close to the network device 10 when the external antenna 20 is fixed on the network device 10, so that it can effectively receive the radio frequency signals transmitted by the network device 10. Therefore, the slot 2021 needs to be slitted on the side provided with the second permanent magnetic material 201, so as to couple the radio frequency signals transmitted by the network device 10 to the antenna radiator 2022. Specifically, the radio frequency signals transmitted by the network device 10 excite an alternating electric field and a circular magnetic field at the slot 2021, and after forming a near-field electromagnetic energy distribution, the near-field electromagnetic energy interacts with the surface current of the antenna radiator 2022, and the energy is transferred to the antenna radiator 2022 through radiation coupling, so that the antenna radiator 2022 can form a resonant current on its surface based on the energy, radiate electromagnetic waves to the outside space, or receive external electromagnetic waves and convert them into electrical signals.

[0044] In order to precisely control the electromagnetic field coupling path, optimize the energy transmission efficiency and achieve specific radiation characteristics, the setting position of the antenna radiator 2022 and the slitting position of the slot 2021 need to be strictly corresponding, because the slot 2021 acts as a window for energy transmission, and its position determines the electromagnetic field coupling path between the feed line and the antenna radiator 2022. When the positions of the antenna radiator 2022 and the slot 2021 correspond, the electric field and the magnetic field excited by the radio frequency signals transmitted by the feed line at the slot 2021 will penetrate the metal components in a specific direction, directly acting on the surface current sensitive area of the antenna radiator 2022. If the positions do not correspond, the electromagnetic field may be coupled on other areas, causing the current distribution to be disordered.

[0045] It should be noted that there is a gap between the antenna radiator 2022 and the slot 2021, which is used to balance the coupling efficiency. If the gap is not set, the radio frequency signals will be excessively coupled to the surface of the antenna radiator, causing the antenna resonant frequency to deviate from the design target, for example, the 5G judgment originally designed at 3.5GHz may deviate to 3.3GHz, causing communication band misalignment and other abnormal communication conditions.

[0046] The specific structure of the network device 10 can be referred to as shown in Figure 3

[0047] It can be seen that the antenna switching unit 102 includes a sensor 1021, a microstrip line 1022 and a single-pole double-throw switch 1023. The control end of the single-pole double-throw switch 1023 is in communication connection with the output end of the sensor 1021, and the first output end of the single-pole double-throw switch 1023 is in electrical connection with the microstrip line 1022.

[0048] ​Specifically, the sensor 1021 is arranged on the network device 10 to sense the attraction state of the external antenna 20 and the network device 10. The sensor 1021 is a capacitive sensor 1021. When the external antenna 20 is close to the network device 10 and is attracted to the network device 10, the capacitance of the sensor 1021 changes. The capacitance change is set as the attraction of the external antenna 20 and the network device 10. When the capacitance change exists, the sensor 1021 generates a high-level signal to the single-pole double-throw switch 1023, and the single-pole double-throw switch 1023 is switched to the feed line feed, that is, switched to the microstrip line 1022 feed, to establish the connection between the network device 10 and the microstrip line 1022, and to realize the automatic recognition and access of the external antenna 20.

[0049] It should be noted that there is a gap between the sensor 1021 and the shell. If the sensor 1021 is close to the shell, the sensitive element in the sensor 1021 may be squeezed due to temperature deformation or mechanical stress caused by vibration. Therefore, the gap can provide physical buffering and ensure the sensing accuracy.

[0050] A gap is also needed between the microstrip line 1022 and the shell. Since the microstrip line 1022 is a transmission channel of the radio frequency signal, if it is directly in contact with the shell, the equivalent capacitance between the microstrip line 1022 and the reference ground may change, which may cause the characteristic impedance to deviate and cause signal reflection. Therefore, the gap is needed to reduce the contact with the shell and maintain impedance matching.

[0051] In addition, the network device 10 is provided with a cellular module 1024 and a built-in antenna 1025. The antenna port A of the cellular module 1024 is electrically connected to the input end of the single-pole double-throw switch 1023, and the built-in antenna 1025 is electrically connected to the second output end of the single-pole double-throw switch 1023.

[0052] The radio frequency signal coupled into the external antenna 20 is output by the antenna port A on the cellular module 1024. The built-in antenna 1025 is an antenna provided by the network device itself. If the external antenna 20 is not attracted to the network device 10 at present, the sensor 1021 has no capacitance change. At this time, the sensor 1021 outputs a low-level control signal (see the dashed part in FIG. 6) to the control end of the single-pole double-throw switch 1023, so that the path between the input end and the second output end of the single-pole double-throw switch 1023 is conducted. At this time, the antenna port A is connected to the built-in antenna 1025, and the network device 10 accesses and outputs the communication signal through the built-in antenna 1025. Figure 3 If the external antenna 20 is attracted to the network device 10 at present, the sensor 1021 has a capacitance change. At this time, the sensor 1021 outputs a high-level control signal (see the dashed part in FIG. 6) to the control end of the single-pole double-throw switch 1023, so that the path between the input end and the second output end of the single-pole double-throw switch 1023 is not conducted. At this time, the antenna port A is not connected to the built-in antenna 1025, and the network device 10 accesses and outputs the communication signal through the external antenna 20. Figure 3The dashed line part in the figure) so that the path between the input end and the first output end of the single-pole double-throw switch 1023 is turned on, at this time the antenna port A is connected with the external antenna 20, and the network device 10 accesses and outputs the communication signal through the external antenna 20. In this way, automatic identification switching between the external antenna 20 and the built-in antenna 1025 is realized, and the convenience and intelligence of the antenna switching are improved.

[0053] It should be noted that the shell of the network device 10 and the shell of the wrapped metal component are both non-metal materials, so as to eliminate the interference of metal materials on the radio frequency signal, because the built-in antenna 1025 and the external antenna 20 both need electromagnetic waves to freely penetrate the shell, and metal materials will reflect or absorb signals, resulting in a decrease in radiation efficiency, but non-metal materials can ensure efficient penetration of electromagnetic waves, so the shell of non-metal material is adopted to avoid the problems of signal attenuation, interference and low transmission reliability.

[0054] In the embodiment, two permanent magnetic materials are respectively arranged in the network device 10 and the external antenna 20, and the arrangement position and the arrangement number of the permanent magnetic materials can be dynamically changed according to actual needs.

[0055] The above only describes some embodiments of the present application, and does not limit the patent scope of the present application, and any equivalent structural transformation made by using the content of the present application specification and drawings, or direct / indirect application in other related technical fields is included in the patent protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. An external antenna, characterized by The external antenna is applied to a network device, and a first permanent magnetic material and an antenna switching unit are arranged in one side of a shell of the network device. The internal part of the external antenna is composed of a metal component, and the metal component is embedded with a second permanent magnetic material and a slot coupling feeding unit. When the first permanent magnetic material and the second permanent magnetic material are attracted, the antenna switching unit and the slot coupling feeding unit are connected.

2. The external antenna of claim 1, wherein, The slot coupling feeding unit comprises a slot formed by cutting the metal component, and the slot is located in the internal side of the metal component where the second permanent magnetic material is arranged.

3. The external antenna of claim 2, wherein, The slot coupling feeding unit further comprises an antenna radiator, and the antenna radiator is arranged opposite to the cutting position of the slot.

4. The external antenna of claim 3, wherein, There is a gap between the antenna radiator and the slot.

5. A network device, comprising: The network device is applied to the external antenna as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, and the internal part of the external antenna is composed of a metal component, and one side of the metal component is embedded with a second permanent magnetic material. A first permanent magnetic material and an antenna switching unit are arranged in one side of a shell of the network device. When the first permanent magnetic material and the second permanent magnetic material are attracted, the network device is connected with the external antenna through the antenna switching unit.

6. The network device of claim 5, wherein, The antenna switching unit comprises a sensor, and there is a gap between the sensor and the shell.

7. The network device of claim 6, wherein, The antenna switching unit further comprises a microstrip line and a single-pole double-throw switch, a control end of the single-pole double-throw switch is connected with an output end of the sensor in communication, and a first output end of the single-pole double-throw switch is electrically connected with the microstrip line. There is a gap between the microstrip line and the shell.

8. The network device of claim 7, wherein, A cellular module is arranged in the network device, and an antenna port of the cellular module is electrically connected with an input end of the single-pole double-throw switch.

9. The network device of claim 8, wherein, A built-in antenna is further arranged in the network device, and the built-in antenna is electrically connected with a second output end of the single-pole double-throw switch.

10. The network device of claim 5, wherein, The shell of the network device and the shell covering the metal component are both non-metal materials.

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