1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to those pre-coding apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to those pre-coding apparatus on account of adaptive estimation applied to Single-Input Single-Output, SISO, and Multiple-input Multiple-output, MIMO, antenna system in order to advance the dependability and stability of the system, which also have advantage in further decreasing the complexity, power consumption and cost of the end-user host receiver, easy implementation, and high immunity from channel noise interference.
2. Descriptions of the Related Art
A situation of wireless mobile communication might be influenced by multipath interference, wireless channel fading, frequency offset, phase noise and Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) that leads to detection bit errors. To overcome the influences of wireless channel, the characters of channels should be estimated at the receiver end, and then the technology of digital signal processing should be applied to compensate the influences of wireless channel. Take orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system for example, the channel frequency response in frequency domain should be estimated, in another word, the pulse response distributed in time domain, should be estimated. Since convolution in the time domain corresponds to multiplication in the frequency domain, once the frequency response is estimated, the receive signal can be directly divided by the frequency response, and the channel effect can be suppressed, which above is the so called Zero-Forcing technology that needs a large amount of receiver computation load. As a result, the idea of pre-coding was brought up that the computation can be shifted to the receiver (base station), wherein the stability and efficiency of a system can be increased, and the complexity of the end-user host receiver can be decreased. Similar ideas were mentioned in the following prior art: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,597,745, 6,928,047, and 7,046,740.
On the other hand, for further advance the capacity and Throughput of the system, the MIMO technology was brought up. In a MIMO system, the pre-coding technology comprises the both advantages of high system capacity and high system efficiency. Similar ideas were mentioned in the following prior art: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,862,271, 6,912,195 and 7,068,628.
However, the existing domestic technologies are mostly end-user fixed channel estimating instead of pre-coding. As to foreign technologies, yet pre-coding was brought up, it usually employs the more complicated Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), which is not adaptable to the hardware implementation.
The above proves that the aforementioned prior art is still faulty in many aspects, which is not a well-found design and remains to be improved.
The above proves that the aforementioned prior art is still faulty in many aspects, which is not a well-found design and remains to be improved.
In view of the failings derived from the aforementioned prior art, the inventor of the present invention was inclined to improve it, and finally succeeded in developing the present pre-coding apparatus on account of adaptive estimation, wherein a pre-coding process and apparatus on account of adaptive prediction aimed at SISO or MIMO orthogonal frequency division multiplexing antenna system is brought up, which is a pre-coding process and apparatus of high efficiency, high stability and low complexity.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a pre-coding process and apparatus of high efficiency, high stability and low complexity that aimed at SISO or MIMO orthogonal frequency division multiplexing antenna system, being configured to make a transmitter compensate a transmitted signal in advance according to a channel state information from a end-user host receiver, to increase stability and efficiency of a system and decrease complexity of the end-user host receiver.
The pre-coding apparatus on account of adaptive estimation that can reach the aforementioned objectives is the one being configured to make a transmitter compensate a transmitted signal in advance according to a channel state information from a end-user host receiver, to increase stability and efficiency of a system and decrease complexity of the end-user host receiver. The pre-coding technology brought up in the present invention is designed on account of adaptive estimation, which compensate the channel effect in the frequency domain. The apparatus comprises:
The present invention is able to adjust the reduction sampling points based on the radio channel ambient under the control of adaptive channel estimators to achieve the best balance between the feedback information bit and the estimation accuracy of channel response, and the feedback channel state information is able to completely compensate the channel effect. First, through the training sequence or leading signal transmitted by the transmitter, the receive end can estimate the channel state information; next, channel state information estimation and data compression by the adaptive estimation technology of the present invention; and last, the transmitter can compensate channel effect ahead in use of the feedback channel state information.
The drawings disclose an illustrative embodiment of the present invention which serves to exemplify the various advantages and objects hereof, and are as follows:
Referring to
At the receive end, Nr antennas will receive the signals, wherein generally Nr is equal to Ns. After front-end process of receiving, it will process synchronization and frequency compensation. Afterwards, Nt parallel data will be processed through orthogonal frequency division multiplexing process, transducing the signals from time domain to frequency domain by Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) 105. The output of Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) 105 will access channel estimation block 108 to retrieve the channel state information, which generally relies on the a known training sequence and leading signal transmitted by the transmitter. Next, the estimated channel state information is inputted to the feedback coding block 109 for compressing and coding the feedback information. Meanwhile, in the MIMO receiver block 106, the estimated channel state information is also used for the coherent detection of Ns parallel data, and at last, decoding and detecting the original data are executed in the signal detection block, in which any possible error occurring in the process of transmission can also be corrected in this block. If Ns=Nt=Nr=1, then the MIMO system becomes SISO system.
Referring to
in which M is a reduction sampling parameter, and the greater the M is, the fewer the sampling points will be, and the less the sampling resolution will be so; N is a orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbol or the length of FFT; └X┘ represents a greatest integer no greater than X. If the wireless channel is flat fading, the variation of channel frequency response is slower, which decreases the sampling frequency to save the amount of pre-coding feedback information. Generally, in such circumstances, the reduction sampling parameter M can be greater than 16. If the wireless channel is Frequency selective fading, the variation of channel frequency response is faster, thus a higher sampling frequency is needed in order to obtain a more accurate channel frequency response estimation, wherein generally the effect of saving the amount of pre-coding feedback information is less, and the sampling parameter M is less than 4.
The channel frequency response after reduction sampling would be inputted to the adaptive estimator 203 to process estimation, coding and compression of the channel state information. Referring to
, wherein Ĥ(n) is the estimation of channel frequency response of the nth sub-carrier in the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbol, P is the order of the adaptive filter, aj(n) is the jth coefficient of the nth sub-carrier of the adaptive filter, b(n) is the information bit that fed back from the end-user host receiver to the transmitter, in other words, the channel frequency response being coded and compressed, Δ(n) is the order of the adaptive filter for compensating errors of the estimation. The coefficient aj(n) of the adaptive filter 2308 is renewed according to the Steepest Descent Algorithm, as shown in equation (3) as:
a
j(n)=α*aj(n−1)+β*(H(n−1)−Ĥ(n−1))*Ĥ(n−j) (3)
, wherein 0<α<1 and 0<β<1 are two renewed leaky factors of coefficients of the two adaptive filters. To simplifying the computation of the equation (3), the renewing computation of the coefficients of the adaptive filters only applies positive and negative sign of (H(n−1)−Ĥ(n−1)) and Ĥ(n−j). Therefore the equation (3) can be simplified as equation (4) as:
The Δ(n) of equation 2 is the order of the adaptive filter for tracking variation of the channel frequency response, and compensating errors of the estimation. The short-time step Δ(n) is generated according to the rules shown in
Δ(n)=γ*Δ(n−1)+Δ0(n) (6)
, wherein the 0<γ<1 is a constant coefficient of the adaptive filter 1305.
The feedback information bit b(n) in equation 2 is generated according to the relation between the Ĥ(n−1) and H(n−1) and shown as:
In the base station, by inversing steps, the received feedback information bit is inputted to the step estimator and processed by the following adaptive filter to retrieve the estimation of the channel frequency response as shown in
According to the present invention, the channel frequency response estimation will access the error-estimation averager 204 to estimate average value of errors. If the average value of estimated errors is greater than the pre-defined threshold, the error-estimation averager 204 will give an instruction to the reduction sampler 202 for increasing sampling points, thus the accuracy of channel frequency response estimation can be advanced by increasing sampling points. If the average value of estimated errors is still greater than the prior defined threshold, increasing sampling points should be remained until the average value of estimated errors become less than the prior defined threshold. At last, the parallel feedback information bits are transduced to serial output through the parallel/serial transducer 205 in order to be transmitted back to the transmit end through a plurality of antennas. As to the SISO antenna system, the processing of this block is unnecessary.
For an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system with SISO or MIMO antenna, the present invention provides embodiments of pre-coding method and apparatus on account of adaptive estimation with advantages of high efficiency, high stability, and low complexity as shown in
1. retrieving the channel information from a decoded signal
For an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system, the channel state information is the channel frequency response. Generally, the channel frequency response is retrieved by using a known training sequence or a leading signal transmitted from the base station. If R(n) represents the nth training sequence received by the end-user host, and S(n) represents the nth training sequence transmitted by the base station, then the R(n) in the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system is denoted as:
R(n)=H(n)*S(n)+W(n) (8)
, wherein the H(n) represents the desired estimated channel frequency response, and W(n) represents background noise. By applying Maximum likelihood, ML, algorithm or Minimum Mean Squared Error, MMSE, algorithm, the channel state information is retrieved as follows:
, wherein the Signal-to-Noise Ratio, SNR, represent the ratio of signal and noise, and σH2 represents channel gain. Therefore the channel frequency response is able to be retrieved by the equation (9) or (10) for the following adaptive estimation, data compression, and coding.
2. comparing a present orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbol with a latest feedback orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbol in difference of channel frequency response
Generally, the difference of channel frequency response of two adjacent orthogonal frequency division multiplexing bits is small, therefore it is not necessary to feed back channel frequency response of every orthogonal frequency division multiplexing bit. In the step, the difference of channel frequency response of the present bit and the latest feedback orthogonal frequency division multiplexing bit is denoted as equation (11) as:
, wherein the ε represents the mean difference of channel frequency response, N is the length of bit, and H(n) and H0(n) represent the channel frequency response of the present bit and the latest feedback orthogonal frequency division multiplexing bit respectively.
If the mean difference of the channel frequency response is larger than a predetermined value, following estimation and feedback operation are processed, otherwise feedback operation is stopped and the step of retrieving the channel frequency response is re-processed; in practical application, an interval between two feedback operations is fixed to simplified a control signal, such as the interval of 10 micro-second
3. processing reduction of sampling points
When the following estimation and feedback operation are decided to process, processing reduction of sampling points is done in advance to reduce feedback data and save feedback bandwidth. First the reduction sampling parameter is set as the maximum possible value, then setting is done according to different environments. If the sampling parameter is reduced to be 64, that means estimation and feeding back are processed after every 64 points.
4. processing estimation of channel frequency response
The estimation Ĥ(n) of channel frequency response is composed of the sum of the adaptive filter 2308 and the step Δ(n). The adaptive filter 2308 estimates the present channel frequency response by the estimated channel frequency response, and the estimation mode is as shown in equation (2). The parameters of equation (2) are generated and renewed as shown in equations (3) to (5). The higher the order of adaptive filter is, the more accurate the estimation is, as well as the complexity goes high. On the contrary, the lower the order of adaptive filter is, the less accurate the estimation is, as well as the complexity goes low. Generally, the order of the adaptive filter 2308 is properly to be 1 to 4 to accurately estimate the channel frequency response. Since the channel frequency response varies with the frequency, it's necessary to add the step Δ(n) on the output of the adaptive filter 2308. The step Δ(n) comprises two parts, one part is Δ0(n) of short-term variation of step determined by the step generator 303, and another part is the long-term variation of step determined by the adaptive filter 1305. The sum of the two parts construes the step Δ(n). The step Δ(n) has to be multiplied by the previous feedback information bit to compensate in correct direction. Finally, the subtracter 301 is configured to subtract an estimation value from the retrieved channel frequency response, and the subtracting result is inputted to the decision unit 302 for deciding the feedback information bit. The decision mode is as shown in the equation (7).
5. calculating an average value of errors of estimations
After estimating the channel frequency response, the step of calculating an average value of errors of estimations is executed, and the average value 207 is shown as:
, wherein the MSE represents the average value of errors of estimations, M represents reduction sampling parameter. By the average value of errors of estimations, it is able to know the accuracy of the estimation of channel frequency response, as well as to be a reference for determining whether reduction sampling parameter is necessary.
6. feeding back a feedback information bit of pre-coding
The step is executed to compare the average value of errors with a predetermined value, in which when the average value of errors is larger than the predetermined value, the step 3 is re-executed; otherwise the feedback information bit is fed back. If the communication is not finished, then the flow goes back to the step 1 and repeats the aforementioned steps. Otherwise, the adaptive channel estimation and the pre-coding are finished.
The aforementioned method and apparatus are able to applied in a SISO antenna system or a MIMO antenna system. For the MIMO antenna system, channel frequency response of each channel has to be processed separately. If there are Nt transmitting antennas and Nr receiving antennas, the there would be Nt×Nr channel frequency responses.
1. detecting an upstream
The step is executed to check whether there is a pre-coding information bit from the end-user host in the detected upstream, wherein the negative checking result means channels of neighboring symbols have small variation, and an used channel frequency response is applied for pre-coding. Or applying a Heterodyne method to estimate the present channel frequency response by previous channel information, and the system effect is improved.
2. retrieving the pre-coding information bit
The step is executed to retrieve the pre-coding information bit from the pre-coding information bit fed back from the end-user host when the checking result is positive in the step 1, and process following adaptive estimating decoding.
3. adaptive estimating decoding
The adaptive estimating decoding applies the same principle as the coding, except of the opposite direction of operation. Referring to
4. checking whether the reduction sampling exits
Since the reduction sampling for channel frequency response of the end-user host is necessary, checking whether the reduction sampling exits and the parameters of reduction sampling are needed to restore the original channel frequency response. When a reduction sampling parameter is one that means the sampling of the channel frequency response is not reduced, and the following pre-coding operation is processed; otherwise, when the reduction sampling parameter is larger than one, reduced sampling points are restored by an apparatus like a low-pass filter with Interpolation method. Generally, a low-level adaptive filter (N<4) is sufficient to retrieve good estimation of channel frequency response.
5. processing pre-coding operation
The step is executed by the pre-coder of the transmitter utilizing the channel frequency response fed back from the end-user host to compensate the channel in advance. Taking a Nt×Nr MIMO antenna system as an example, if the channel frequency response between the ith transmitting antenna and the jth receiving antenna is Hij(n), then the pre-coding result of the original signal Sj(n) is
, wherein the Xi(n) represents the pre-coding signal transmitted from the ith transmitting antenna, and the [H]+ represents dummy inverse matrix. If the communication is not finished, then the flow goes back to the step 1 and repeats the aforementioned steps. Otherwise, the adaptive channel estimation and the pre-coding of the base station are finished.
The present invention aims at SISO or MIMO orthogonal frequency division multiplexing antenna systems and brings up a pre-coding method and apparatus on account of adaptive estimation. The present invention is characterized as following:
1. Being able to reduce sampling points according to radio channel ambient and under control of adaptive channel estimator, to get a best balance between the feedback information bit and accuracy of estimation of channel frequency response.
2. Since the feedback channel state information is able to completely compensate the channel effect, it is able to reduce the complexity of the receiver of the end-user host, as well as increase efficiency and stability of the system to get best effect of pre-coding.
3. The present invention provides pre-coding method and apparatus with advantages of high efficiency, high stability, and low complexity
As aforementioned, the present invention is novel in technology and advantaged in many effects that the prior arts lack. The present invention conforms to the novelty and non-obviousness of patentability. Please the examiner carefully considering the application of the present invention and allowing the application.
Many changes and modifications in the above described embodiment of the invention can, of course, be carried out without departing from the scope thereof. Accordingly, to promote the progress in science and the useful arts, the invention is disclosed and is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.