RF Unit Redundancy via Cross-Connection Matrices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional communication systems face high costs due to the requirement of at least one extra RF unit for improving reliability, which increases hardware costs without ensuring service continuity in case of RF unit failure.
Innovation Solution
A communication system with at least two antennas and two RF units connected to a base band unit (BBU), where each antenna is connected to two RF units, and the BBU includes cross-connection matrices and forwarding units to aggregate and distribute signals across RF units, ensuring that service data for a single sector is processed independently across different RF units, thereby maintaining service reliability without additional hardware costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If at least two assembled RF units are employed for a single sector to improve reliability, then service continuity is improved, but hardware cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each RF unit is configured to receive signals from multiple antennas (at least two antennas per RF unit), enabling a single RF unit to handle service data from multiple sectors. This multi-functionality allows the system to maintain service continuity when one RF unit fails, as other RF units can take over its sector assignments, thereby improving reliability without requiring dedicated RF units for each sector
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple antenna inputs into a single RF unit by configuring each RF unit to receive and process signals from at least two antennas. The BBU aggregates service data from multiple RF units and distributes it appropriately. This merging approach reduces the total number of RF units needed while maintaining redundancy, thus lowering hardware costs while preserving service continuity
2Reliability
If at least two assembled RF units are employed for a single sector, then service reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the signal processing function by separating the BBU into multiple base band processing units, where each processing unit handles service data from specific antennas. The cross-connection matrix further segments and routes signals between RF units and base band processing units. This segmentation allows flexible configuration where each RF unit can be assigned to different antennas dynamically, simplifying the overall system architecture while maintaining reliability through redundant paths
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
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AI summary
A communication system, apparatus and method are provided according to embodiments of the present invention. The communication system includes: a base band unit (BBU), at least two antennas and at least two radio-frequency (RF) units, where the at least two RF units are connected with the BBU respectively; and each of the antennas is connected with at least two RF units respectively, so that a signal received from a same sector by an antenna is sent to the BBU via different RF units. With the embodiments of the present invention, the reliability of RF units may be improved without increasing the hardware cost of the base station.