Virtual MIMO Scheduling for Single-Antenna Terminals
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Solution Overview
Problem
The high cost and complexity of equipping mobile terminals with multiple antennas to support MIMO-based communications have limited their adoption, despite the availability of MIMO-capable base stations, necessitating a solution for virtual MIMO systems that do not require multiple antennas in mobile terminals.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of random and channel-aware orthogonal scheduling techniques for identifying subsets of mobile terminals to cooperate in uplink transmissions, using either OFDM or SC-FDMA schemes, allowing virtual MIMO operation without the need for multiple antennas in mobile terminals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If mobile terminals are equipped with multiple antennas to support MIMO-based communications, then wireless transmission capacity and data transfer speed are improved, but device complexity and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a scheduling mechanism at the base station that acts as an intermediary to create virtual MIMO effects. The base station schedules multiple single-antenna mobile terminals to transmit on different orthogonal resources (time slots, frequency subcarriers, or code sequences), creating a virtual multiple-input system without requiring mobile terminals to have multiple antennas. This resolves the contradiction by achieving MIMO capacity through network-side coordination rather than terminal-side hardware complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from spatial diversity (multiple antennas at terminals) to resource diversity (multiple orthogonal dimensions including time, frequency, and code domains). By scheduling mobile terminals across these additional dimensions, the system achieves virtual MIMO capacity without requiring physical antenna arrays at mobile terminals, thus resolving the complexity-capacity tradeoff.
2Productivity
If mobile terminals are equipped with multiple antennas to support MIMO-based communications, then data transfer speed is improved, but manufacturing cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The base station scheduling mechanism serves as an intermediary that creates virtual MIMO effects through coordinated resource allocation. Multiple single-antenna terminals are scheduled to transmit simultaneously on orthogonal resources, achieving high data transfer speeds without requiring expensive multi-antenna hardware in mobile terminals, thus resolving the cost-speed contradiction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates virtual copies of antenna functions through scheduling. Instead of physically installing multiple antennas in each mobile terminal, the system uses software-based scheduling to create virtual antenna ports at the base station that process signals from multiple single-antenna terminals, achieving MIMO performance at lower manufacturing costs.
3Adaptability or versatility
If virtual MIMO systems are implemented by pairing mobile terminals, then MIMO-based communication benefits are achieved without multiple antennas in terminals, but a scheduling mechanism is required to identify paired terminals
Solution Approach 1:
The scheduling mechanism leverages existing channel state information and terminal characteristics that are already available in the system. The base station uses uplink channel estimates and terminal mobility patterns to automatically identify suitable pairing candidates, allowing the system to self-organize virtual MIMO pairs without requiring complex external coordination or additional terminal hardware, thus achieving adaptability with manageable complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for scheduling cooperative uplink transmissions in a virtual multiple input multiple output (MIMO) wireless communication environment are provided. More specifically, both random and channel aware orthogonal scheduling techniques for identifying a sub-set of N mobile terminals to provide cooperative uplink transmissions for each transmit time interval are provided.