Adaptive Digital Signal Compression for Mobile Backhaul

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional distributed antenna systems face high data traffic loads on communication links between receiver stations and decoder stations, leading to potential delays and suboptimal decoding performance due to limited bandwidth, especially when signals from multiple transmitters are received by multiple antenna nodes.

Innovation Solution

The method involves each receiver station transmitting a coarse digital representation of the received signal to the decoder station initially, reducing data traffic, and allowing for faster processing, with the option to request and use a refined representation if initial decoding is unsuccessful, thereby optimizing traffic load and ensuring timely decoding.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If a fine digital representation of the received signal is transmitted from receiver stations to the decoder station, then decoding quality is improved, but data traffic load on communication links increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedecoding qualityVSAvoiddata traffic load
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The system dynamically adapts the fineness of the digital representation transmitted from receiver stations to the decoder station based on current channel conditions and decoding requirements. When channel conditions are good, a coarser representation suffices; when conditions deteriorate or decoding fails, a finer representation is transmitted, thus optimizing the trade-off between decoding quality and data traffic load in real-time

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The fineness parameter of the digital signal representation is changed adaptively based on decoding success and channel conditions. The system adjusts this parameter to transmit only the necessary amount of precision information required for successful decoding, avoiding transmission of excessive detail that would increase traffic load without providing additional benefit

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Productivity

If a coarse digital representation is transmitted initially, then data traffic load is reduced and processing speed is improved, but decoding may be unsuccessful requiring retransmission

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprocessing speedVSAvoiddecoding success rate
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary decoding using a coarse digital representation before attempting to transmit a finer representation. This preliminary action allows the system to quickly process signals under good conditions while having a ready mechanism (the stored fine representation) to fall back on when decoding fails, thus maintaining both speed and reliability

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The decoder station provides feedback to receiver stations about decoding success or failure. When decoding fails with a coarse representation, the system triggers retransmission of a finer representation, creating a feedback loop that ensures reliable decoding while minimizing unnecessary retransmissions and maintaining high processing efficiency

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

3Reliability

If multiple antenna nodes receive signals from the same transmitter, then signal quality and diversity are improved, but the data traffic load on backhaul links increases proportionally

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesignal qualityVSAvoidbackhaul capacity requirement
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The system merges the digital representations from multiple antenna nodes at the decoder station, combining the information from different receive paths. This merging allows the system to exploit signal diversity and improve decoding reliability while avoiding the need to process and forward complete high-resolution signals from all nodes, thus reducing overall backhaul capacity requirements

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

Different antenna nodes transmit digital representations at different fineness levels based on their individual channel conditions and signal quality contributions. Nodes with poor channel conditions or minimal contribution may transmit coarser representations, while nodes providing significant diversity or operating in challenging conditions transmit finer representations, optimizing the balance between signal quality and backhaul load

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP2271019B1Mobile communication system using adaptive compression
Publication Date: 2014.08.06 VODAFONE HOLDING GMBH
  • EP2271019B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2271019B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2271019B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A method for decoding a wireless transmission in a communication system, particularly for mobile communications, comprising a plurality of receiver stations communicatively coupled to a common decoder station, wherein the receiver stations transmit digital representations of received user signals to the common decoding entity. These digital representations are initially transmitted to the common decoder station in coarse granularity, and in case the decoder station cannot decode the transmitted digital representations of one or multiple user signals, the decoder requests a refined digital representation of the received signals from at least one receiver station.