RRH Beamforming Reduces Fronthaul IQ Data Volume
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Solution Overview
Problem
In separated base station configurations where the Base Band Unit (BBU) is cloud-based and the Remote Radio Head (RRH) includes antennas and RF circuits, the data transfer between RRH and BBU becomes inefficient as the number of antennas increases, leading to high data processing burdens and costs.
Innovation Solution
A wireless communication apparatus and method utilizing two-dimensionally-arrayed antenna elements, with a compression unit to compress IQ data and a beam forming unit to perform beam forming processing before compression, reducing data transmission between RRH and BBU by arranging IQ data in a two-dimensional structure and applying compression algorithms considering correlation between antenna elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the number of antennas is increased to improve wireless communication capacity, then communication throughput is improved, but data transmission amount between RRH and BBU increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing beam forming processing at the RRH before transmitting IQ data to the BBU. This pre-processing consolidates signals from multiple antenna elements into focused beams, reducing the dimensionality and amount of data that needs to be transmitted over the front-haul link while preserving the essential spatial information needed for high-capacity communication.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and processes only the essential spatial signal components through beam forming at the RRH. By forming beams in specific directions and extracting the dominant signal components, the system transmits only the necessary processed data to the BBU, leaving out redundant information that would otherwise require substantial bandwidth.
2Ease of manufacture
If cloud-based BBU architecture is adopted to reduce base station deployment costs, then deployment flexibility is improved, but data processing burden on network infrastructure increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the base station functions by separating beam forming processing (performed at the RRH) from base band processing (performed at the cloud-based BBU). This segmentation allows the RRH to handle spatial signal processing locally, reducing the data processing burden on the cloud infrastructure while maintaining the flexibility and cost benefits of cloud-based deployment.
3Device complexity
If simple RRH configuration with antenna, RF circuit, and AD/DA converter is used to reduce complexity, then device simplicity is improved, but data transmission efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds beam forming capability to the RRH as a preliminary processing step before data transmission. This allows the RRH to perform spatial signal consolidation and dimensionality reduction locally, improving data transmission efficiency to the BBU while maintaining relatively simple RRH hardware configuration that still includes antenna, RF circuit, and AD/DA converter components.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a wireless communication apparatus (100) including two-dimensionally-arrayed antenna elements (110), and an arrangement unit (140) configured to arrange IQ data of signals output from the antenna elements, for each time in a state in which an array of the antenna elements is maintained.