In a radio communication systems, information (for example speech, image information, video information, SMS (Short Message Service) or other data) is transmitted using electromagnetic waves over a radio interface between transmitting and receiver stations (base station or subscriber station). In such cases, the electromagnetic waves are propagated using carrier frequencies lying within the frequency band provided for the relevant system. For the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) mobile radio system which has been introduced, frequencies at 900, 1800 und 1900 MHz were used. For future mobile radio systems with CDMA or TD/CDMA procedures, such as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) or other third-generation systems, there is provision for frequencies in the frequency band of around 2000 MHz.
The access from stations to the shared transmission medium is regulated in these radio communication systems by Multiple Access (MA). With these multiple accesses, the transmission medium can be subdivided between the stations in the time area (Time Division Multiple Access, TDMA), in the frequency area (Frequency Division Multiple Access, FDMA), in the code area (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA) or in the space area (Space Division Multiple Access, SDMA). In this case, the transmission medium (with GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio), DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) for example) is frequently subdivided in the frequency and/or time channels in accordance with the radio interface. These channels are generally referred to as transmission channels or radio channels. For systems where coordination is decentralized, measurements are used to decide on the usability of these transmission channels. In accordance with the radio radiation (i.e., depending on the radio field attenuation), re-use of these transmission channels at an appropriate spacing is possible.
For radio transmission between a transmit station and at least one receiver station of a radio transmission system, interference occurrences now arise as a result of the frequency selectivity of the transmission channels, such interference being known as intersymbol interference and Multiple Access interference. The greater the transmission bandwidth of the transmission channel, the more these interferences distort the transmit signals.
Conventionally, the transmit signals are generated at the transmit station without taking account of the effective radio channels. The interference occurrences then arising are rectified in a second step, at least approximately by the appropriate matched and generally very expensive methods for detecting the transmitted data at the receiver stations.
Radio communication systems with at least one transmit station (Transmit station AP or base station) and at least two receiver stations (Receiver station MT) are known, with the transmit station (AP) and the receiver stations (MT) being connected to one another over a radio communications interface. Here, the transmit station features a transmit antenna with KB antenna elements (with KB≧1) and the receiver stations each feature a transmit antenna with KM antenna elements (with KM≧1). They communicate by MIMO (Multiple Input-Multiple Output) transmission.
Radio transmission devices with at least one transmit station having a number of transmit elements and with at least one receiver station having a number of receive elements are referred to in this document as MIMO systems. Radio transmission between at least one transmit station and at least one receiver station of a MIMO system is subject, as a result of the frequency selectivity of the transmission channels, to interference occurrences which are known as intersymbol interferences and Multiple Access interference. For the purposes of radio transmission from at least one transmit station to the receiver stations in a MIMO there are basically two requirements which need to be fulfilled:
In recent years, alternative concepts, such as Joint Transmission or Joint Predistortion have been investigated, which, by taking account of the effective transmission channels, eliminate the interference occurrences completely, to a large extent or at least partly at the point at which the transmit signals are being generated at the transmit station. See, for example:
In Joint Transmission systems with at least one transmit station having at least one transmit antenna and with at least one receiver station having at least one receive antenna, the linear receive-side signal processing, referred to below as demodulation, is described by receiver station-specific demodulator matrices [2].
In conventional Joint-Transmission systems [2], the subscriber-specific demodulation matrices are defined by fixed signatures; e.g., CDMA codes. This process is particularly determined due to the fact that no information about the space and time transmission characteristics of the mobile radio channels operating between transmit stations and receiver stations is included in the design of the subscriber-specific demodulation matrices.
Similar to the process used in the Joint Transmission (JT) method, such transmit signals also may be generated when receiver stations with a number of receive antennas are employed, by using
The present invention is, thus, directed toward a method and an improved transmit device which, for the effective transmission channels, takes account both of a minimization of the transmit power and also of further quality criteria, such as a directional characteristic of the transmit signal for example.
In accordance with present invention, transmit signals propagated from the antenna elements of the transmit station are generated in a common process and matched with regard to the transmit energy to be used for radiation, with the receive signal received by the antenna elements of the receive antennas of the receiver station being detected in a linear signal process.
Advantageously, the individual signals for the antenna elements of the transmit antenna of the transmit station can be calculated before radiation with the aid of a modulator matrix
In this case, a transmit signal vector
In a further embodiment of the present invention, demodulation is undertaken with linear receiver-side signal processing, taking account of the space and time transmission characteristics between transmit stations and receiver stations.
In particular, receive-station-specific demodulator matrices
Advantageously, each transmit station (AP) and each receiver station (MT) is connected via at least one radio channel characterized by a channel matrix
The system matrix
With the inventive radio communication system in which the transmit station features a transmit antenna with KB antenna elements (with KB≧1) and the receiver stations each feature one transmit antenna with KM antenna elements (with KM≧1), parts are provided for generating the transmit signals propagated from the antenna elements of the transmit antenna of the transmit station (AP) in a shared process and for matching with regard to the transmit energy to be used for radiation, as well as parts for detecting the receive signals received from the antenna elements of the receive antennas of the receiver stations in a linear signal process.
The radio communication system in accordance with the present invention is particularly suitable for executing a method in accordance with the present invention.
In a Multi-User MIMO transmission system, the present invention combines, on the one hand:
Technical implementations of this innovative combined method allow the benefits of both methods to be profitably employed.
Information about the space and time transmission characteristics of the effective mobile radio channels between transmit stations and receiver stations can be taken into account when determining the access-point-specific demodulation.
Some of the benefits offered by the inclusion of channel characteristics are as follows:
More details can be found, for example, in
Additional features and advantages of the present invention are described in, and will be apparent from, the following Detailed Description of the Invention and the Figures.
Joint Transmission (JT) is a highly promising transmission method for the downlink [1, 2, 3] which is proposed for mobile radio systems using the hybrid multiple access method TDMA/CDMA. With JT, the transmission signals are advantageously generated jointly for all receiver stations MT. JT is based on prespecified demodulators, wherein on the basis of the characteristics of these demodulators and the channel pulse responses, the modulator in the transmit station AP is defined a posteriori so that intersymbol interference (ISI) and Multiple Access Interference (MAI) are completely eliminated. To date, investigations into JT have only taken account of multi-element antennas at the transmit station AP. Statistical investigations [3] have revealed the benefit of transmit antenna groups. The present invention relates to JT for transmission systems with a number of subscribers, where multi-element antennas are used both at the transmit station AP and at the receiver stations MT. A system model of such a MIMO JT method is presented below.
Signal Transmission Model of MIMO Systems with a Number of Subscribers
At the AP, a group of KB transmit antenna elements is used and at each MT μk k=1 . . . K) a group of KM receive antenna elements is set up. The channel impulse responses
of the dimension W characterize the mobile radio channel between the transmit antenna element kB and the receive antenna element km of MT μk. The transmit antenna-specific transmit signal of dimension S
is injected into each of the kB transmit antenna elements. The KB antenna-specific transmit signals t(k
of the dimension KBS. With the channel impulse responses h(k,k
can be formed. h(k,k
With t(k
r
(k,k
) and H(k,k
The KM signals r(k,k
of dimension KM(S+W−1) which is designated as the MT-specific receive signal at MT μk.
With the [KM(S+W−1)]×(KBS) MT-specific channel folding matrices
the MT-specific receive signal r(k) of (6) becomes
r(k)=H(k)t. (8)
The K MT-specific receive signals r(k) of (6) are combined to form the overall receive signal
r and H from (9) have the dimensions KKM(S+W−1) or [KKM(S+W−1)]×(KBS) respectively.
Data Transmission and Recognition
It is assumed that in a TDMA burst, N data symbols are to be transmitted from the AP to the MT μk k=1 . . . K). The dnk), k=1 . . . N intended for MT μk, k=1 . . . K are assigned in the data vector
the dimension N. The K data vectors dk) (k=1 . . . K) are combined to form the overall data vector
of dimension KN. To transmit data from the AP to the MT, the overall transmit signal t of (3) must be expressed by the overall data vector d of (11). If linear modulation is assumed, the modulation process can be expressed as
t=Md. (12)
The matrix M is called the modulator matrix and has the dimension (KBS)×(KN).
According to the observations made in [3], for each K MT μk k=1 . . . K) a demodulator matrix D(k) of dimension N×[KM(S+W−1)] must be defined in advance and the overall demodulator matrix of the dimension (KN)×[KKM(S+W−1)] is then specified as
D=diagonal block matrix (D(1) . . . D(k)) (13)
applies. According to the representation in [1, 2, 3] one selection option is
In this case, for a given H and D the overall transmit energy ∥t∥2/2 is minimized. A major problem in designing this type of MIMO-JT method is that of defining the demodulator matrix D in order to obtain an advantageous system performance.
To aid clarity, a MIMO system with only one subscriber is considered below.
In the investigations of JT systems conducted thus far, multiple antennas have only been taken into account at the transmit station (AP) and not at the receiver stations (MT), wherein MIMO antenna arrangements are not included in the considerations. The important point when including these types of antenna arrangements in JT systems is the definition of a suitable demodulator matrix.
Elementary JT System with One MIMO Antenna Arrangement
In this section, an elementary JT system is considered, in which the AP communicates with just one MT μk, kε(1 . . . K) from a collective of K MT μk (k=1 . . . K) and in which an individual data symbol is transmitted to this MT. This situation with just one MT and just one data symbol is indicated below by the index “0”.
The MIMO antenna arrangement considered consists of KB transmit antennas at the AP and KM receive antennas at each MT μk (k=1 . . . K). The names and dimensions of the vectors and matrices introduced in the course of this section are summarized in Tables 1 and 2.
In each of the KB transmit antennas the transmit antenna-specific transmit signal
of dimension S0 is injected. If S0 is greater than 1, the transmitted data symbol is spread spectrally. S0 is thus called the spread factor. The KB antenna-specific transmit signals t0k,k
of dimension KBS0.
The radio channel between the transmit antenna kB and the receive antenna kM of the MT μk is characterized by the channel response word
of the dimension W. With h(k,k
can be formed. H0(k,k
With t0(k) of (17) and H0(k,k
of dimension S0+W−1. H0(k,k
r
0
k) and H0k) from (21) have the dimensions KM (S0+W−1) or [KM(S0+W−1)×(KBS0).
With t0k) from (2) and r0k) from (21), the energies transmitted by the AP and received by MT μk become
One would also require that the ratio R0k)/T0k) f R0k) from (23) and T0k) from (22) is to be maximized by the correct choice of t0k) from (17). To achieve this maximization, t0k) from (17) should be selected as follows:
which corresponds to a Rayleigh quotient. With H0k) from (21) the transmit signal t0k) determined by (24) is the inherent vector u0k) of the matrix H0k)r with H0k) belonging to the largest inherent value of this matrix, meaning
t0(k)=u0(k). (25)
By substitution of t0k) from (25) in (21) the overall receive signal
r0(k)=H0(k)u0(k). (26)
is produced.
The best demodulator for this signal is a filter adapted to the signal, which with r0k) from (21), leads to the demodulator matrix
of dimension 1×[KM(S0+W−1)], where the receive antenna-specific demodulator matrices
have the dimension 1×(S0+W−1).
Multiple MT-JT System with a Number of Symbols with One MIMO Antenna Arrangement
a) Transmission Model
If we now look at the more realistic situation in which the AP communicates simultaneously with all K MT μk (k=1 . . . K) and where, instead of only one data symbol per MT, N>1 data symbols are transmitted, with each of these data symbols being spectrally spread by the factor S0 already introduced in Section 2.
t
0
k,k
)
t
0
k)
h
(k,k
,k
)
r
0
k,k
)
r
0
k)
u
0
k)
H
k)*τ
H
k)
H
0
k,k
,k
)
H
0
k,k
)
H
0
k)
D
0
k)
D
0
k,k
)
As before, the AP is equipped with KB transmit antennas and each MT μk features KM receive antennas. Below, the signal descriptions introduced in Section 2 are first adapted to this new situation. Then, on the basis of the demodulator matrices D0k) from (27) a demodulator matrix D is created. The names and dimensions of the vectors and matrices introduced in the course of Section 3 are summarized in Tables 3 or 4.
Instead of t0k,k
of the dimension
S=NS0, (31)
and instead of t0k) from (17) the overall transmit signal
of the dimension KBS is produced.
Instead of H0k,k
is produced.
H
0
k,k
,k
) from (33) has the dimension (S+W−1)×S.
Instead of r0k,k
r
k,k
) and Hk,k
With Hk,k
r
k) and Hk) from (35) have the dimensions KM(S+W−1) or [KM(S+W−1)]×KBS. As an extension of the observations in the previous section, an overall receive signal
is now introduced with the K receive signals rk) from (34) of all K MT μk (k=1 . . . K). r and H from (35) have the dimensions KKM(S+W−1) or [KKM(S+W−1)]×KBS.
b) Determining the Demodulator Matrix D
According to the observations made in [2], for each of the K MT μk (k=1 . . . K) a demodulator matrix Dk) of dimension N×[KM(S+W−1)] must be determined and then the overall demodulator matrix of the dimension (KN)×[KKM(S+W−1)] is produced as
D=diagonal block matrix (D(1) . . . D(k)) (37)
t
k
)
t
r
k,k
)
r
k)
r
H
k,k
,k
) H
H
0
k,k
)
H
k)
H
D
k)
D
B
M
The decisive point of the proposal for constructing the demodulator matrix D(k) taking into consideration the channel characteristics lies in the demodulator matrix D0k) introduced in (27). The N lines of D(k) are obtained as shifted versions of D0k) from (27) in accordance with the method
and [ ] designating the integer part. The structure of D(k) from (38) is shown in
D from (37) can be formed with the K matrices D(k) from (38). With D from (37) and H from (36) the system matrix
B=DH (40)
of the dimension KN×KBS is obtained. As shown in [2], the overall transmit signal t from (22) and the overall data vector d [2] of the dimension KN can be obtained as
with the modulator matrix M from (41) possessing the dimension (KBS)×(KN).
Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, those of skill in the art will recognize that changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as set forth in the hereafter appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102 23 564 | May 2002 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/DE03/01723 | 5/27/2003 | WO | 00 | 3/31/2005 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO03/101009 | 12/4/2003 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
6144711 | Raleigh et al. | Nov 2000 | A |
6718184 | Aiken et al. | Apr 2004 | B1 |
7248638 | Banister | Jul 2007 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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198 50 279 | May 2000 | DE |
0 801 473 | Oct 1997 | EP |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20050169396 A1 | Aug 2005 | US |