Beamforming Sector Capacity Multiplexing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In densely populated urban areas, the existing physical sector capacity of wireless communications systems is insufficient, leading to frequent cell handovers and decreased transmission rates, which negatively impact user experience and system capacity.
Innovation Solution
The method involves determining the correspondence between user terminals and their respective beam areas within a physical sector, multiplexing time-frequency resources across different beams, and performing beam switching when users move between areas, allowing for increased user capacity without adding physical sectors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the number of physical sectors is increased to increase system capacity, then user capacity and cell coverage are improved, but user terminals experience frequent handovers causing call drops and transmission rate decline
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments each physical sector into multiple beam areas using beamforming technology. Instead of dividing coverage into more physical sectors with separate antennas, the system divides each sector's coverage area into multiple beam areas (e.g., 3 beam areas per sector) by dynamically adjusting antenna beam directions. This segmentation allows the system to increase user capacity within existing physical sectors without causing frequent handovers, as beam switching within a sector does not trigger handover procedures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic beamforming where antenna beams can be dynamically adjusted to point at different user terminals within each physical sector. The base station dynamically switches between different beam areas based on user terminal positions and channel conditions, allowing flexible resource allocation and capacity optimization without physical sector reconfiguration or handover operations.
2Productivity
If the number of physical sectors is increased to increase system capacity, then cell coverage is improved, but users in overlapping areas receive strong interference causing capacity drop
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing different beam areas with different local qualities (beam directions and coverage characteristics) within each physical sector. Each beam area is optimized for specific spatial regions, allowing the system to serve multiple users simultaneously in different locations within the same sector with dedicated beams, thereby reducing mutual interference while increasing overall capacity.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4
AI summary
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for increasing user capacity of a physical sector, and a base station, where the method includes: determining a correspondence between a current user terminal in a physical sector and a belonging beam area or an intersection area, where more than one beam in different directions is provided in the physical sector, the intersection area is an overlapping coverage area of adjacent beams in a same physical sector, and the belonging beam area is an area that is in a coverage area of each beam and is not in an intersection area; sending, by a beam, communication data to a user terminal located in a belonging beam area corresponding to the beam; sending, jointly by all beams that cover an intersection area, communication data to a user terminal located in the intersection area; multiplexing a same block of time-frequency resource for user terminals located in different belonging beam areas; and performing switching between beams when the user terminal switches between the belonging beam area and the intersection area. In the embodiments of the present invention, a same block of time-frequency resource can be multiplexed for user terminals located in different belonging beam areas, thereby increasing user capacity.