Radio Base Station Transmitter Sharing for Energy Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Radio base stations in communication networks face high static energy consumption due to always-on transmitters and receivers, even during low traffic periods, which is not effectively addressed by existing solutions that focus on dynamic energy reduction.
Innovation Solution
Implement a data communication scheduling system that shares transmitters and receivers between cells, ensuring each cell has at least one subframe for transmission and reception by scheduling operable transmitters and receivers across different subframes, allowing for efficient power management and maintaining network capacity even if some equipment is inoperable.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If transmitters and receivers are kept always on to ensure continuous communication services, then communication reliability is improved, but static energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic activation of transmitters and receivers based on scheduled subframes. Instead of continuous operation, the equipment is activated only during specific subframes when data transmission is required, and turned off during other periods. This periodic on-off operation maintains communication services while significantly reducing static energy consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic scheduling of transmitter and receiver activation. The system dynamically determines which subframes require transmission or reception based on traffic conditions, and accordingly activates or deactivates the equipment. This dynamic approach allows the system to adapt to varying traffic demands while minimizing energy consumption during low-traffic periods.
2Reliability
If multiple parallel carriers per cell are deployed to enable communication when equipment is turned off, then communication availability is improved, but device complexity and resource usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes a single transmitter serve multiple cells through time-division multiplexing. The same physical transmitter is scheduled to transmit to different cells in different subframes, making it universal rather than dedicated to one cell. This eliminates the need for multiple parallel carriers while maintaining communication availability across all cells.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple cell transmissions into a single transmitter by time-multiplexing. Instead of having separate carriers for each cell, the system merges the transmission functions and schedules them in different subframes. This consolidation reduces the number of required carriers and simplifies the overall system complexity.
3Use of energy by stationary object
If transmitters and receivers are shared between cells to reduce energy consumption, then static power consumption is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the radio frame into multiple subframes and assigns different transmission tasks to different subframes. By dividing the time domain into discrete segments, the system can systematically manage which transmitter serves which cell in which subframe. This segmentation approach organizes the complexity into manageable units rather than requiring complex simultaneous coordination.
Solution Approach 2:
The scheduling system automatically manages the sharing of transmitters and receivers between cells through predefined scheduling rules. Once the scheduling configuration is established, the system self-manages the resource allocation without requiring complex real-time negotiations or external control for each transmission event. The scheduling mechanism handles the complexity internally.
Data Source
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AI summary
A data communication scheduling system (300) of a radio base station (100) serving multiple cells (10-30) comprises multiple radio equipment, REs, (101-103) and antenna interfaces (115, 125, 135) connectable to antennas (110, 120, 130). In order to reduce the power consumption, only a subset of the RE (101) is active, while the other REs (102, 103) are turned off. A transmitter controller (155) is arranged for controlling the active RE (101) to be shared among multiple cells (10-30) during a radio frame (40) so that each cell (10-30) is guaranteed at least one sub frame (50-58) for downlink transmission. A receiver antenna system multiplexer(140) selectively interconnects the active RE (101) with the antenna interfaces (115, 125, 135) according to the operation of a receiver controller (145). Consequently, the RE (101) becomes connected to different antenna interfaces (115, 125, 135) during different sub frames (50-58) to thereby allow each cell (10- 30) at least one assigned uplink sub frame (53-55) in the radio frame (40) at a predefined sub frame distance after the at least one downlink sub frame(50-52) assigned to the same cell (10-30).