This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to an application entitled “Apparatus and Method for Simultaneously Receiving Two Adjacent Frequency Allocations in Cellular Environments” filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Aug. 1, 2005 and assigned Serial No. 2005-70125, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for receiving data signals of two adjacent frequency allocations (FAs) in cellular environments, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for supporting a frame structure that enables a mobile station (MS) to simultaneously receive data signals from two base stations (BSs) with adjacent FAs in a cellular environment with a frequency reuse factor of N.
2. Description of the Related Art Cellular communication systems have been proposed to overcome the restrictions of a service area and a subscriber capacity. In the cellular communication system, the service area is divided into a plurality of sub-areas (i.e., cells). Two cells spaced apart from each other by a sufficient distance use the same FA such that frequency resources can be spatially reused. Accordingly, the cellular communication system can accommodate a sufficient number of subscribers by increasing the number of spatially-distributed channels.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
The preamble field is used to provide time/frequency synchronization to subscribers and to acquire cell information. The control information field includes a frame control header (FCH), a downlink medium access protocol (DL-MAP), and an uplink MAP (UL-MAP). The FCH contains information for decoding the DL-MAP. A DL-Burst contains information data to be transmitted to a base station. The DL-MAP contains information about locations of DL-Bursts in a frame and information about which user DL-Burst data belongs to. The UL-MAP contains information which section in a frame a user's data can be loaded.
The data field is classified into a DL-Burst and an UL-Burst. The data field is a field where actual data are located. The data field includes at least one subchannel and at least one symbol.
The maximum allowable number of channels per unit area in the above cellular communication system can be increased by reducing a cell radius or by reducing a frequency reuse factor. The frequency reuse factor is parameter that indicates a frequency efficiency rating. That is, the frequency reuse factor indicates how many cells the entire frequency band is distributed to. When the frequency reuse factor decreases, the maximum allowable frequency band per cell increases but a signal-to-interference ratio (SNR) in a cell boundary region increases. On the contrary, when the frequency reuse factor increases, an SNR in a cell boundary region decreases but the maximum allowable frequency band per cell decreases. Accordingly, the frequency reuse factor is determined considering the maximum SNR required by a mobile station.
As described above, the number of channels per unit area can be increased using the frequency reuse factor. However, because two base stations adjacent to each other use different frequency bands, a mobile station cannot simultaneously receive data from the adjacent base stations.
An object of the present invention is to substantially solve at least the above problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages below. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for simultaneously receiving data signals from BSs with adjacent FAs in a cellular environment.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for supporting a frame structure capable of simultaneously receiving data signals from BSs with adjacent FAs in a cellular environment.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for simultaneously receiving data signals from BSs with adjacent FAs in a cellular environment, thereby realizing a diversity gain.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a base station apparatus for a broadband wireless communication system with a frequency reuse factor of N includes a subcarrier mapper and an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) processor. When there is another base station using an FA adjacent to an FA of the base station, the subcarrier mapper maps control information to subcarriers of predetermined sections such that a mobile station simultaneously receives data signals of the adjacent FAs. The IFFT processor IFFT-processes data mapped to the subcarriers.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a mobile station apparatus simultaneously receives data signals of two adjacent FAs in a broadband wireless communication system that has a frequency reuse factor of N. When signals are simultaneously received from two base stations using two adjacent FAs, a frequency controller selects a carrier for simultaneously receiving data signals of the two adjacent FAs. A local oscillator generates the carrier selected by the frequency controller. A multiplier multiplies the generated carrier from the local oscillator by a received signal to generate a baseband signal. An analog-to-digital (AID) converter converts the baseband signal from the multiplier into a digital signal. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) processor FFT-processes the digital signal from the AID converter. A subcarrier demapper receives an output signal from the FFT processor and extracts actual data from the output signal from the FFT processor by using control information mapped to a subcarrier of a predetermined section where the two FAs are adjacent to each other.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for transmitting data from a base station in a broadband wireless communication system with a frequency reuse factor of N. In the method, it is determined whether there is another base station using an FA adjacent to an FA of the base station. When there is the another base station, a frame is created by locating control information such that a mobile station can simultaneously receive data of the two adjacent FAs. The created frame is transmitted to the mobile station.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for receiving data of two adjacent FAs at a mobile station in a broadband wireless communication system that has a frequency reuse factor of N. When signals are simultaneously received from two base stations, it is determined whether FAs of the two base stations are adjacent to each other. When the FAs of the two base stations are adjacent to each other, the mobile station shifts its FA to simultaneously communicate with the two base stations.
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described herein below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail because they would obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail.
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for simultaneously receiving data signals from two BSs with two adjacent FAs in a cellular environment with a frequency reuse factor of N. In the following description, the bandwidth that an MS transmitting a maximum amount of information occupies in the cellular environment is referred to as “FA bandwidth”. Also, the MS and the BSs will be assumed to have the same bandwidth.
Referring to
A demonstration will now be given to show that the MS 305 can selectively receive a desired signal using only the portions of the adjacent FAs 311 and 313. In the following description, an OFDM communication system is taken as an example.
Equation (1) below represents transmission (TX) signals x1(t) and X2(t) that are transmitted from the BSs 301 and 303 to the MS 305.
where N is the size of the fast Fourier transform (FFT), Ts is sampling time, fc1 an fc2 are carrier frequencies of the TX signals x1(t) and X2(t), and X1[k] and X2[k] are TX data transmitted from the BSs 301 and 303.
The TX signals x1(t) and x2(t) are received at a receiver of the MS 305 on a channel h. The received signals are down-converted into a baseband signal y(t) of Equation (2):
where L is the number of multipaths generated during the transmission of the TX signals x1(t) and x2(t), τ1 is a delay of the lth path,fcm is a carrier frequency of the MS 305, and h1 and h2 are channels on which the TX signals x1(t) and X2(t) are received.
When the carrier frequency fcm is assumed to be the average of carrier frequencies of the BSs 301 and 303, the baseband signal y(t) of Equation (2) can be simplified into a time-domain signal y[n] of Equation (3) below by low-pass filtering and sampling at every sampling time TS.
where N is the size of the FFT, L is the number of multipaths generated during the transmission of the TX signals x1(t) and x2(t), and h1 and h2 are channels on which the TX signals x,(t) and x2(t) are received.
When data to be transmitted from the BSs 301 and 303 to the MS 305 are represented by X[k], the time-domain signal y[n] of Equation (3) can be expressed as a time-domain signal y[n] of Equation (4):
where N is the size of the FFT, L is the number of multipaths generated during the transmission of the TX signals x1(t) and X2(t), and h1 and h2 are channels on which the TX signals x1(t) and X2(t) are received.
Thereafter, when an FFT operation is performed on Equation (4), the time-domain signal y[n] of Equation (4) can be expressed as a frequency-domain signal Y[t] of Equation (5):
As can be seem from Equation (5), even though the MS 305 uses only the portions of the FAs 311 and 313 of the BSs 301 and 303, it can normally receive the data signals from the BSs 301 and 303.
However, in order to successfully communicate with the BSs 301 and 303, the MS 305 must be able to accurately detect a preamble and control information using the portions of the FAs 311 and 313. That is, the MS 305 must be able to perform functions such as cell identification (ID), synchronization, channel estimation, and frequency offset estimation using the preamble contained in the portions of the FAs 311 and 313. At this point, the preamble is generated by combining a pseudo noise (PN) sequence corresponding to a predetermined FA bandwidth with a scrambling code for discriminating between BSs.
Also, the location of data corresponding to the MS 305 must be accurately detected using the control information contained in the portions of the FAs 311 and 313.
What is therefore required is a frame structure for accurately receiving the preamble and the control information using only the portions of the FAs 311 and 313.
Referring to
In particular, because each of the second FA 403, the second FA 503, and the third FA 505 have adjacent FAs at both sides, the control information is located at the both sides of each of the FAs 403, 503, and 505. At this point, the control information located at both sides of each of the FAs 403, 503 and 505 may be different in the both sides because different MSs may be located at both sides of each of the FAs 403, 503 and 505.
As illustrated in
Assuming that the bandwidth of the FA is B, a band shift amount B_s for allowing the MS to simultaneously use the adjacent FAs is at least the FA bandwidth B and up to (B-B_m).
Referring to
The coder 601 performs channel-coding on input information data from a medium access control (MAC) layer at a predetermined coding rate to output the resulting data to the modulator 603. The modulator 603 modulates the data from the coder 601 by a predetermined modulation scheme to output the resulting data to the subcarrier mapper 605. Examples of the predetermined modulation scheme are the binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation scheme, the quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation scheme, the 16-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) scheme, and the 64-QAM scheme.
The subcarrier mapper 605 performs a subcarrier-mapping operation on the data from the modulator 603 under the control of the subcarrier mapping controller 607 to output the resulting data (i.e., frequency-domain data) to the IFFT processor 609. At this point, when there is another BS using an FA adjacent to an FA used by the BS, the subcarrier mapping controller 607 generates a control signal for mapping control information into a section where the FAs are adjacent to each other as illustrated in
The IFFT processor 609 IFFT-processes the frequency-domain data from the subcarrier mapper 605 to output time-sampled data (i.e., parallel data) to the P/S converter 611. The P/S converter 611 converts the parallel data from the IFFT processor 609 into serial data to output the resulting data (i.e., a digital signal) to the D/A converter 613. The D/A converter 613 converts the digital signal from the P/S converter into an analog signal to output an analog baseband signal to the multiplier 615. The multiplier 615 multiplies the analog baseband signal from the D/A converter 613 by an oscillating signal from the local oscillator 617 to generate a radio-frequency (RF) signal. The multiplier 615 and the local oscillator 617 constitute an RF processor. The RF signal is transmitted through an antenna.
Referring to
In step 705, the BS maps control information into a section where the FA of the BS and the FA of the adjacent BS are adjacent to each other, as illustrated in
In step 707, the BS transmits the created frame to the MS. Thereafter, the BS ends the procedure.
Referring to
The frequency controller 801 generates a control signal for selecting an FA to be used by the MS. That is, because the MS uses a predetermined bandwidth, the frequency controller 801 generates a control signal for selecting a carrier that is a center frequency of the MS. Also, when simultaneously receiving signals from two BSs using two adjacent FAs, the frequency controller 801 generates a control signal for selecting a carrier for simultaneously receiving data from the two adjacent BSs. The local oscillator 803 generates the carrier (i.e., the center frequency of the BS) under the control of the frequency controller 801. At this point, the carrier is selected such that it includes a preamble of the minimum bandwidth for discriminating between the BSs and control information of each of the two adjacent FAs.
The multiplier 805 multiplies a signal received through an antenna by a carrier received from the local oscillator 803, thereby creating an FA for simultaneously receiving signals from the two base stations. The A/D converter 807 converts an output signal from the multiplier 805 into a digital signal. The digital signal is time-sampled data (i.e., serial data).
The S/P converter 809 coverts the serial data from the A/D converter 807 into parallel data. The FFT processor 811 FFT-processes the parallel data from the S/P converter 809 to output frequency-domain data.
The subcarrier demapper 813 extracts subcarrier values loaded with actual data from the output signal (i.e., subcarrier values) of the FFT processor 811. According to the present invention, the actual data of each FA is extracted using control information that is loaded into a subcarrier of a predetermined section where the two FAs are adjacent to each other.
The demodulator 815 demodulates the actual data from the subcarrier demapper 813 by a predetermined demodulation scheme. The decoder 817 performs a channel-decoding operation on the decoded data from the demodulator 815 at a predetermined coding rate, thereby restoring information data.
Referring to
In step 907, the MS shifts an FA to simultaneously receive the data from the two BSs, as illustrated in
As described above, the present invention provides a frame structure that makes it possible for an MS to receive both of data signals of two adjacent FAs in a cellular environment with a frequency reuse factor of N. The MS can simultaneously communicate with BSs that use the adjacent FAs. Because two different BSs transmit the same data through independent paths, the MS can obtain a macro diversity gain. In a case where a first BS is short in capacity while a second BS adjacent to the first BS is abundant in capacity, the MS simultaneously communicates with the first and second BSs such that the first BS transmits a small amount of data while the second BS transmits a large amount of data, thereby making it possible to balance the loads of the two BSs.
While the present invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2005-0070125 | Aug 2005 | KR | national |