Intra-Band Carrier Aggregation Gain Control for Shared Receive Chains
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Solution Overview
Problem
Intra-band carrier aggregation in wireless communication networks faces challenges due to varying received signal strength caused by multipath effects, leading to suboptimal receive processing and potential radio link failure, especially when sharing receive chains between component carriers.
Innovation Solution
Implementing common gain control techniques that estimate and apply a unified gain based on primary and secondary component carrier quality indicators to ensure optimal signal processing and prevent radio link failure, while favoring the primary component carrier for reliable communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If separate gain control is applied to each component carrier, then signal processing quality for each carrier is optimized, but hardware complexity and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple component carriers into a single aggregated carrier and applies a single common gain control mechanism to all carriers simultaneously. This merging approach maintains signal processing quality by treating the aggregated carriers as a unified resource while reducing hardware complexity by eliminating the need for separate gain control circuits for each carrier.
Solution Approach 2:
The common gain control mechanism serves as a universal control system that manages gain for multiple component carriers simultaneously. This multi-functional approach allows a single gain control unit to perform the function that would otherwise require multiple separate units, thereby reducing hardware complexity while maintaining processing quality.
2Device complexity
If common gain control is applied to all component carriers, then hardware complexity is reduced, but signal processing becomes suboptimal due to varying received signal strength
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic gain adjustment within the common gain control framework. The system continuously monitors the quality indicators of aggregated carriers and dynamically adjusts the common gain to optimize signal processing. This dynamic approach allows the single gain control mechanism to adapt to varying received signal strengths and maintain processing quality despite the simplified hardware architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs feedback mechanisms where quality indicators from multiple component carriers are continuously monitored and fed back to the common gain control unit. Based on this feedback, the gain control unit adjusts the common gain to maintain optimal signal processing quality across all carriers, resolving the contradiction between simplified hardware and processing quality.
3Device complexity
If receive chains are shared between component carriers, then hardware complexity is reduced, but radio link failure risk increases due to multipath effects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary gain adjustment based on quality indicators before signal processing occurs. By pre-adjusting the common gain according to the aggregated carrier quality, the system proactively compensates for potential signal degradation from multipath effects, preventing radio link failure before it occurs while maintaining shared receive chain architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a cushioning mechanism where the common gain control provides a safety margin by adjusting gain levels in advance based on quality indicators. This beforehand cushioning protects against signal degradation from multipath effects, ensuring radio link stability even when using shared receive chains that are more susceptible to such effects.
Data Source
AI summary
In a wireless communication system, carrier aggregation may be used to provide desired amounts of bandwidth, where a primary carrier and one or more secondary carriers are aggregated. At the receive side of a system in which the aggregated carriers are in a single frequency band, an amplifier may be used to apply a common gain to the aggregated carriers in the single frequency band, and the common gain may be determined as a function of indications of received signal quality associated with groups of aggregated carriers containing one or more of the aggregated carriers, where one group contains the primary carrier and possible one or more secondary carriers and another group contains only secondary carriers.