Distributed-Input Multiple-Output Wireless System Antenna Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
MIMO systems face practical limitations due to physical, noise, and cost constraints, limiting the number of antennas to fewer than 10, which restricts bandwidth improvement and signal-to-noise ratio, making it impractical to implement more than 10 antennas effectively.
Innovation Solution
A Distributed-Input Multiple-Output (DIMO) system is implemented, where a base station with multiple antennas transmits training signals to client devices, which analyze and characterize the channel, allowing precoding of data signals for efficient transmission, enabling increased bandwidth without the need for multiple antennas on each client device.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the number of MIMO antennas is increased to improve bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio, then communication performance is improved, but physical size, noise floor, cost, and power consumption increase making the system impractical
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the MIMO antenna system into two distinct parts: a base station with multiple antennas and client devices with single antennas. This segmentation allows the system to achieve MIMO bandwidth improvements through the base station's multiple antennas while keeping client devices simple and practical
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the receiving functions of multiple client device antennas into a single antenna per client device, while the base station consolidates multiple transmitting antennas. This combining approach maintains the mathematical benefits of MIMO (where N transmitting antennas and M receiving antennas provide min(N,M) independent channels) while reducing overall system complexity
2Reliability
If more MIMO antennas are used to achieve higher throughput, then signal-to-noise ratio is improved, but noise floor increases due to multiple receiver/transmitter subsystems in close proximity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the multiple receiving antennas from client devices and consolidates them into a single antenna per client device. The multiple transmitting antennas remain at the base station where they can be spatially separated. This extraction reduces the number of receiver subsystems that generate noise while maintaining the MIMO signal-to-noise ratio benefits
3Productivity
If the number of MIMO antennas is increased to improve bandwidth, then communication capacity is improved, but cost and power consumption increase linearly due to separate RF subsystems for each antenna
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the system into a base station that handles all multiple antenna transmitting functions and client devices that use single antenna receiving. This segmentation eliminates the need for multiple expensive RF subsystems in client devices while maintaining MIMO bandwidth improvements through the base station's multiple transmitting antennas
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a single antenna design for all client devices, creating a standardized, low-cost receiving unit that can be deployed widely. The complexity of multiple antennas is copied only at the base station where it serves multiple clients simultaneously, amortizing the cost and power consumption across many users
Data Source
AI summary
A method is described comprising: transmitting a training signal from each antenna of a base station to each of a plurality of client devices, each of the client devices analyzing each training signal to generate channel characterization data, and transmitting the channel characterization data back to the base station; storing the channel characterization data for each of the plurality of client devices; receiving data to be transmitted to each of the client devices; and precoding the data using the channel characterization data associated with each respective client device to generate precoded data signals for each antenna of the base station; and transmitting the precoded data signals through each antenna of the base station to each respective client device.