The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for channel coding/decoding in wireless network, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for spatial temporal Turbo channel coding/decoding.
With the increasing popularization of mobile communication, the mobile communication service with only voice service can not satisfy the demands for information collection any more, and the mobile data communication service has exhibited its huge and promising prospect with its more convenient and more abundant information contents e.g. business and entertainment. Therefore, the high speed packet access service that supports high speed data transmission, especially the high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) from a base station to a user terminal, has become one of key targets of future wireless communication systems.
However, with the growing development of wireless communication, the available limited resources of frequency band, time slot and spreading codes are nearly consumed up and if the data transmission rate needs further enhancement, one solution is to appropriately utilize the resource of spatial field. Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) that was proposed recently is exactly the technique that utilizes multiple transmit and receive antennas to construct multiple parallel wireless channels in spatial field, so as to fully exploit the spatial resource to improve the data transmission speed. Among existing MIMO technologies, Bell Lab Layered Space Time (BLAST) technique is a typical one with the capability to dramatically improve data transmission speed.
BLAST technique has multiple architectures, wherein the BLAST architecture without any channel coding can achieve the maximum utilization of spatial channels to transmit data thanks to no redundancy information in transmitted signal. However, it is pitiful that the quality of transmitted signal based on this BLAST architecture is not satisfactory. In order to improve QoS (Quality of Signal), channel coding and BLAST technique may be combined to realize multiple parallel transmissions and meanwhile guarantee the QoS to some extent. Nevertheless, the BLAST architecture depends on the utilization of non-correlation among spatial channels to demodulate multiple data, therefore the number of receive antennas in the receiver must be larger or equal to that of transmit antennas, only by which can the substream data based on the spatial characteristics of MIMO channel be separated. However, for user terminals in the receiving side, the number of the receive antenna is limited by weight, size and battery consumption requirement in the terminal, therefore normally cannot meet the requirements of BLAST technique. In many cases, there is only one receiver antenna provided. So, even though the BLAST technique can considerably improve the data transmission speed, it is not suitable to be used to provide HSDPA due to its excessive requirements for multiple antennas and multiple RF (Radio Frequency) units in the receiver.
Except BLAST, other MIMO techniques for 3GPP system are also proposed recently, e.g., Per Antenna Rate Control (PARC), Rate Control Multipath Diversity (RC MPD) and Double Space Time Transmit Diversity Sub-Group Rate Control (DSTTD-SGRC), etc. However, similarly, all above MIMO techniques also require multiple receive antennas during terminal processing. In view of terminal implementation and cost, they are not suitable for downlink high speed transmission either.
Based on the above analysis, although the above MIMO techniques can realize high-speed data transmission, their application fields are limited by the requirement of the number of receive antennas in user terminal.
In order to solve the above problem, a solution is disclosed in the china patent application named “method and apparatus for spatial channel coding/decoding in parallel transmission” and filed by KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N.V. on Aug. 9, 2004, Application Serial No. 200410056552.0, and incorporated herein by reference. According to the Spatial Channel Code (SCC) method proposed in the patent application, channel coding and multipath parallel architecture are combined to correlate multipath parallel signals and demodulate the multipath parallel signals in user terminal of the receiving side by inserting some redundancy information between the multipath parallel signals, so as to realize high speed data transmission under the condition of only one receiver antenna or the limited number of receiver antennas.
When mainly applied to voice transmission, SCC can acquire better performance compared with other MIMO technologies. However, since SCC is still limited to the usage of convolutional coding, although its structure is relatively simple, its BER (Bit Error Rate) is nevertheless relatively high when carrying huge-bulk of high speed data traffic, and therefore QoS is considerably affected.
Therefore, it is necessary to propose a better MIMO solution to ensure high transmission data rate and satisfactory QoS under the condition of only one receive antenna or the limited number of receive antennas.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for spatial temporal Turbo channel coding/decoding in wireless network, which enables a user terminal employing the method and apparatus to realize both high speed transmission and satisfactory QoS simultaneously under the condition of only one receive antenna or the limited number of receive antennas.
According to a channel coder of the present invention, the channel coding method executed by the channel coder, comprising the steps of: a). Converting serial signals to be encoded to multiple parallel signals; (b). Interleaving the multiple parallel signals; (c). Encoding the multiple parallel signals and the interleaved multiple parallel signals respectively according to a predefined coding rule, to acquire encoded multiple parallel signals; and (d). Transmitting the encoded multiple parallel signals and the multiple parallel signals circularly and alternately via multiple transmit antennas.
According to a channel decoder of the present invention, the channel decoding method executed by the channel decoder comprising the steps of: a). Demultiplexing encoded multiple parallel signals received via at least one receive antenna; b). Performing channel estimation on multiple wireless channels on which the encoded multiple parallel signals are transmitted; and (c). Performing recursive decoding on the demultiplexed encoded multiple parallel signals by using the channel estimation result and according to a predefined decoding rule.
The method and apparatus for channel coding/decoding in the present invention can achieve better decoding performance due to the combination of Turbo encoding scheme.
Other objects and attainments together with a fuller understanding of the invention will become apparent and appreciated by referring to the following description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Detailed descriptions will be given below to the present invention in conjunction with specific embodiments and accompanying drawings, in which:
Throughout the drawing Figures, like reference numerals will be understood to refer to like parts and components.
In 3GPP HSPDA system, Turbo encoding technology is widely regarded as a channel encoding scheme. Combination of Turbo encoding and MIMO such as PARC or MPD has witnessed broad applications in the HSPDA system.
The present invention proposes a Spatial Temporal Turbo Channel Coding (STTCC) method for 3GPP HSPDA system, which can effectively combine Turbo encoding and MIMO together.
The case where the receiver in receiving side has only one receive antenna in 3GPP FDD system will be taken as an example below to detailedly describe the STTCC method proposed by the present invention and its applications in the system.
The above multiple parallel RF signals reach the receiver 600 at user terminal via wireless channels. In the embodiment, the receiver 600 has only one receive antenna. The signals received by the receiver 600 are the superposition of all the multiple signals transmitted via multiple parallel spatial channels. The RF signals received by the antenna are converted into baseband signals in a RF unit 208 and sent to a root raised cosine (RRC) filter and oversampling unit 206 for converting analog signals into discrete signals. The obtained discrete signals will then sequentially pass through a de-spreading and de-scrambling unit 204 for de-spreading and de-scrambling and a de-interleaver 202 for de-interleaving before sent to a STTCC decoder 610. The channel estimation unit 220 performs estimation on channel characteristics of the multiple parallel spatial channels according to pilot signals received. Subsequently, the STTCC encoder 610 utilizes the channel characteristics of the multiple channels estimated by the channel estimation unit 220 to perform corresponding decoding on the summed signals that are de-interleaved, so that the summed multiple parallel signals are decoded respectively and simultaneously the multiple parallel signals are converted into a serial data stream, namely the data required by user. The detailed structure and processing of the STTCC decoder 610 will be described below in conjunction with
In the first path, the information bit vector B is directly sent into a modulation mapping unit 41. Through modulation mapping, Φ[B]=[s1, . . . , sU] can be utilized to acquire corresponding systematic bits, where Φ[•] is a function of mapping binary integer values into the transmitted symbols. For instance, when quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation is used, U=L/2. Systematic bits can be used to enable decoder to achieve better performance.
In the second path, the information bit vector B is firstly coded by an recursive encoder 21 and then D=[d1, . . . , dM] is outputted. Subsequently if the rate matching is required, D will be converted to C=[c1, . . . , cp] by a rate matching unit 31. Wherein, the rate matching may be a puncturing processing at higher data rate, or a padding processing at lower data rate. According to the system requirement for data transmission rate, the puncturing/padding processing on the outputs of the recursive encoders 21, 22 carried out by the rate matching units 31, 32 includes deleting/adding bit symbols at some specified locations for rate matching purpose. Of course, if the requirement for data transmission rate is relatively low/high, the outputs of the recursive encoders 21, 22 are sent directly to subsequent units for processing without being carried out the puncturing/padding process. Finally, after modulation mapping, Φ[C]=[su+1, . . . , sN] is utilized to obtain the encoded parity bits symbol, where N denotes the number of transmit antennas.
In the third path, the information bit vector B is firstly interleaved by an interleaving unit 10, and then similar to the processing of the second path, sequentially passes through the recursive encoder 22, the rate matching unit 32 and the modulation mapping unit 43 before the encoded parity bits symbol [s′u+1, . . . , s′N] is obtained eventually.
The encoded symbols outputted from the second path and the third path are selectively outputted by a multiplexer 50 according to different times. For instance, at time t1, [su+1, . . . , sN] is outputted by the multiplexer 50, while at next time t2, [s′u+1, . . . , s′N] is outputted by the multiplexer 50.
Finally, [s1, . . . , sN] is transmitted alternately through a cycle switch 60 via different transmit antennas.
The above recursive encoders 21, 22 have the same generation matrix. The interleaving unit 10 carries out odd-even symbol interleaving process, which maps even symbols to even symbol positions, and odd ones to odd ones. Here, one symbol means L bits in vector B.
In order to obtain different structures of decoder, a de-interleaving unit may be added to the STTCC encoder at transmitter. As shown in
Specifically, as shown in the
As shown in
The case where the transmitter 500 has multiple transmit antennas while the receiver 600 has only one receive antenna is described above in conjunction with
In order to enable the transmission data rate to adapt flexibly the dynamic channel environment by the feedback information at receiving side, so as to achieve higher data transmission throughput, the rate control is applied widely to the MIMO solution in 3GPP HSDPA system. In the present invention, the rate control of the systems adopting STTCC can be implemented by the following schemes.
In the first scheme, the data transmission rate is control by using the rate matching of the STTCC encoder. In practical applications, the structure of STTCC may be designed based on the requirements of data transmission rate and the number of real transmit (Tx) antennas and receive (Rx) antennas. Table 1 lists the maximum code rate and spectrum efficiency of STTCC under different antenna configurations and modulation modes. From the table, it is noticed that the appropriate selection of the STTCC structure based on the requirements of Tx antenna, data transmission rate and modulation mode in practical systems, can achieve higher rate data transmission under the limited conditions of user terminals.
In the second scheme, the Per Antenna Group Rate Control technique is adopted. As shown in
In the first case, when the receiver has only one receive antenna, each transmit antenna group uses a different spreading code so as to distinguish the different transmit antenna groups. Under this condition, the transmit antennas may be grouped freely according to practical requirements.
In the second case, when the receiver has multiple receive antennas, each transmit antenna group use the same spreading code and descrambling code, and the multiple receiver antennas distinguish different transmit antennas groups based on the spatial channel characteristics of MIMO. Under this condition, the number of transmit antenna groups should be less than or equal to the number of receive antennas. Besides, theoretically speaking, in a case where there are multiple receive antennas, the different transmit antenna groups may also be distinguished by the combination of different spreading codes or descrambling codes, under this condition, the number of transmit antenna groups is not limited to the number of receive antennas.
According to the above detailed description of the embodiment of the present invention in conjunction with the Figures, it is concluded that compared with the SCC technology, the STTCC technology proposed by the present invention can achieve better decoding performance in the receiver side due to the combination of Turbo encoding structure.
In existing technologies like PARC for the 3GPP HSPDA system, since the transmit path of each transmit antenna in PARC uses an independent Turbo encoder, it is impossible to utilize transmission diversity in the system. However, in the STTCC technology proposed by the present invention, each information bit will be transmitted via the transmit path of each transmit antenna, therefore the better performance may be achieved under the same frequency efficiency.
In order to verify the advantage of the STTCC technology proposed by the present invention over PARC, the scheme adopting STTCC and the one adopting PARC are simulated by the parameters shown in table 2, and the simulation results are shown in
Moreover, the rate control may be realized flexibly to facilitate the practical applications according to the STTCC method and system proposed by the present invention.
It is to be understood by those skilled in the art that the spatial temporal channel coding method and apparatus disclosed in present invention may be made of various modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
200510079117.4 | Jun 2005 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/IB2006/052000 | 6/21/2006 | WO | 00 | 12/19/2007 |