Sectorized Base Station MIMO Coordination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless communications systems face challenges in managing interference at sector boundaries in sectorized base stations, leading to inefficient use of air link resources.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method where base stations with synchronized sector antennas allocate tones and use multiple antenna faces for communication, determining the state of wireless terminals as being in a sector or sector pair state based on path loss information, and adjusting antenna usage accordingly to minimize interference.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If sectors are treated as independent entities in sectorized base stations, then each sector can operate autonomously with simplified control, but interference occurs at sector boundaries where receivers receive both sectors at comparable power
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges adjacent sectors into sector pairs that operate cooperatively rather than independently. Base station antenna faces are grouped into sector pairs where multiple antenna faces transmit coordinated signals to wireless terminals at sector boundaries, transforming the harmful interference into useful macro-diversity reception
2Object-affected harmful factors
If multiple antenna faces are used for communication at sector boundaries, then interference is reduced and communication quality improves, but system complexity increases due to tone allocation and state determination
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic sector pair state determination where the base station continuously assesses path loss information and determines whether wireless terminals are in sector state or sector pair state. This dynamic adaptation allows the system to use multiple antenna faces only when needed at sector boundaries, reducing complexity for terminals that don't require macro-diversity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the frequency spectrum into different tones allocated to different sectors and sector pairs. This tone allocation segmentation allows independent resource management for each sector pair, simplifying the control of multiple antenna faces by dividing the communication resources into manageable segments
3Productivity
If synchronized sector antennas are used with coordinated tone allocation, then air link resource utilization improves, but interference management becomes more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where wireless terminals measure and report path loss information for different antenna faces, and base stations use this feedback to determine optimal sector pair states and tone allocations. This feedback loop enables automatic interference management while maintaining high resource utilization through coordinated multi-antenna transmission
Data Source
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AI summary
Methods and apparatus for improved utilization of air link resources are discussed in wireless communications systems employing multi-sector base stations and wireless terminals with multiple antennas. Timing synchronization is maintained across the base station sectors, and the same set of tones are used in adjacent sectors. In a sector boundary region, which is typically a high interference region, a wireless terminal is set to a sector pair state and operated in a MIMO mode of operation, communicating with two adjacent base station antenna faces of the same base station concurrently, the two different adjacent base station antenna faces corresponding to different adjacent sectors. Thus, typically high interference sector boundary regions, are converted into high capacity regions by having the sectors coordinated and utilizing MIMO techniques.