Millimeter Wave Base Station IR-UWB Ranging Offload
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Solution Overview
Problem
Millimeter wave wireless communication systems spend a significant amount of time and transmission power on ranging and localization operations, hindering their ability to maximize data throughput.
Innovation Solution
Switching from millimeter wave ranging and localization capabilities to impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) ranging and localization capabilities, offloading these functions to IR-UWB capable devices, allowing the millimeter wave portion of the base station to focus on data transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If millimeter wave communication systems perform ranging and localization operations using millimeter wave signals, then accurate positioning and beam alignment are achieved, but data transmission time and throughput are significantly reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the ranging and localization function from the millimeter wave communication function by introducing a separate low-frequency control channel. This allows ranging operations to occur independently without interfering with data transmission on the millimeter wave channel, thus resolving the contradiction between measurement accuracy and productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
A low-frequency control channel acts as an intermediary to carry ranging and localization signals. This mediator enables accurate positioning while allowing the millimeter wave communication channel to focus exclusively on high-speed data transmission, thereby maintaining both measurement precision and throughput.
2Measurement precision
If millimeter wave systems allocate significant time to ranging and localization, then positioning accuracy is improved, but data bandwidth capabilities are hindered
Solution Approach 1:
The communication spectrum is segmented into separate low-frequency control channels and millimeter wave data channels. Ranging and localization operations are confined to the low-frequency channel, preserving the full bandwidth of the millimeter wave channel for data transmission, thus resolving the contradiction between localization accuracy and data bandwidth.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from using the same frequency dimension for both ranging and data transmission to using separate frequency dimensions. Low-frequency signals handle ranging while millimeter wave signals handle data, effectively adding a frequency dimension separation that resolves the bandwidth conflict.
3Reliability
If millimeter wave communication performs frequent ranging updates to maintain beam alignment, then communication reliability is improved, but transmission power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The low-frequency control channel serves as an intermediary that carries ranging signals with much lower power requirements. This allows frequent ranging updates for beam alignment while consuming minimal transmission power, as the low-frequency signals require significantly less energy compared to millimeter wave transmissions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the frequency parameter of the ranging signals from millimeter wave frequencies to low frequencies. This parameter change reduces the transmission power required for ranging operations while maintaining the ability to perform frequent updates for beam alignment, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and energy consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
A base station includes a millimeter wave communication unit coupled to an impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) communication unit. The millimeter wave communication unit is capable of being wirelessly coupled to user-equipment using a millimeter wave communication link. Based on a determination as to whether the user-equipment is configured for IR-UWB ranging and localization, an IR-UWB communication link is established between the base station and user-equipment for IR-UWB ranging and localization. When the IR-UWB communication link is established for IR-UWB ranging and localization, the ranging and localization associated with the millimeter wave communication unit is disabled and the millimeter wave communication link is used for data communication maximizing throughput by utilizing localization and ranging information provided by the IR-UWB communication link.