Base Station MIMO Port Merging for Mixed-Mode Energy Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for reducing energy consumption in radio base stations, such as MIMO sleep modes, often result in performance degradation or are not universally applicable across different Radio Access Technologies (RATs), limiting their effectiveness in mixed-mode carriers.
Innovation Solution
A method and device that determine sleep modes independently for each RAT and perform port merging based on these modes, allowing for reduced energy consumption while maintaining performance by selectively activating deeper sleep modes in base stations supporting multiple RATs like LTE, NR, and NB-IoT.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by stationary object
If MIMO sleep mode is implemented to reduce energy consumption, then power consumption is reduced, but performance degradation occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The base station is divided into multiple antenna ports that can be independently controlled. The patent segments the MIMO system into individual antenna ports that can be selectively activated or deactivated based on traffic conditions, allowing fine-grained control over the balance between energy consumption and communication performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic adjustment of antenna port activation based on real-time traffic conditions. The base station dynamically switches between different sleep modes (port muting, port merging, or full activation) depending on the current load, enabling adaptive optimization of the energy-performance trade-off rather than static configuration.
2Use of energy by stationary object
If deeper sleep modes are activated to reduce energy consumption, then power saving increases, but reactivation time increases causing performance impact
Solution Approach 1:
The patent keeps at least one antenna port in an active state as a standby configuration. This preliminary action ensures that the base station can quickly reactivate communication services without requiring full reinitialization of all antenna ports, thereby reducing the effective reactivation time when traffic resumes.
Solution Approach 2:
Different antenna ports are assigned different sleep depths based on their local characteristics and traffic patterns. Some ports can enter deeper sleep modes while others remain partially active, allowing the system to achieve maximum power saving where appropriate while maintaining quick reactivation capability where needed.
3Ease of manufacture
If uniform sleep mode is applied across all RATs, then implementation simplicity increases, but adaptability to different RATs decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the sleep mode configuration by RAT type, allowing different sleep mode parameters and behaviors to be applied to different Radio Access Technologies. Each RAT can have its own optimized sleep mode settings while sharing the same overall base station architecture, achieving both simplicity and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The base station is designed with a universal sleep mode management framework that can accommodate multiple RATs. The same core mechanism for determining sleep modes and managing antenna ports is applied across LTE, NR, and other RATs, with RAT-specific parameters being configured accordingly, achieving multi-functionality without sacrificing adaptability.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for reducing energy consumption for a base station providing multiple-input multiple-output, MIMO, communication on a mixed-mode carrier supporting at least two RATs is provided by determining sleep mode independently for the at least two RATs and performing port merging for at least one of the two RATs based on the determined sleep modes. An apparatus implementing the method is also disclosed.