Patent Grant
10027402
This application is a U.S. National Stage application of PCT Application Serial No. PCT/IB2015/057941, filed 15 Oct. 2015 and titled “REPEATER SYSTEM FOR USE ON A MOVABLE OBJECT,” which claims priority to European Patent Application number EP15161405.4, titled “Repeater system for use on a movable object” and filed Mar. 27, 2015, the entirety of all of which is incorporated by reference.
The present disclosure relates generally to telecommunications systems. More specifically, but not by way of limitation, this disclosure relates to a repeater system for use on a movable object and to a method for controlling a repeater system.
Repeater systems can serve a wide frequency band, for example a complete 3GPP band. A frequency band typically contains multiple carriers carrying information according to different communication technologies and standards such as GSM, UMTS, LTE or the like.
A repeater system of this kind may for example be used on a train to provide network coverage within the train.
High-speed train applications in this regard can present challenging RF environments. The complexities of different terrain combined with rapidly changing outdoor signal levels of the various networks can make it difficult for operators to provide the coverage and service their customers demand while travelling from city to city or to another country. To improve the reliability of wireless signals on trains, repeater systems in the shape of so-called distributed antenna systems (DAS) have proven to be cost-effective. A DAS may for example be installed within a train and serve to amplify a signal to compensate an attenuation caused by the train (due to, for example, metalized windows on high-speed trains reducing signal penetration into the train carriages, which may result in spotty coverage and dropped calls).
A DAS generally may be installed within a train and amplify, during operation, a signal between a pick-up antenna at the outside of the train and an antenna network within the carriages of the train. On the one hand, the DAS compensates the attenuation of the signals caused by the train. On the other hand, however, the signals of all users are combined and communicated via a single (or a few) common pick-up antenna mounted on the outside of the train. In case the train enters a communication cell of another base station, this can inherently cause a simultaneous handover (HO) of multiple users located inside the train and communicating via the repeater system. Thus, a large number of handovers of the multiple users located within the train may occur in a very short timeslot, which may, depending on the train speed and the overlapping area of the base stations taking part in the handover, increase the so-called handover outage probability.
One solution to alleviate this problem is to use several independent repeater systems with several pick-up antennas. For example, each carriage may be equipped with an individual repeater system. Thereby, the handover scenario of the users located on the train is split by carriage and hence into several portions as the carriages enter a handover region with overlapping cells of adjacent base stations one after the other in a time-offset manner.
For example, if a distance of 50 m is assumed between the pick-up antennas of repeater systems of adjacent carriages, the handover of users of adjacent carriages can be triggered with a time offset of 0.51 seconds, assuming the train is travelling at 350 km/h. This time difference generally may be sufficient when considering that an expected average handover time is less than 300 ms (as specified for example for a 3GPP network).
This multi-antenna concept can perform well, but has the drawback that each carriage is equipped with a separate pick-up antenna (respectively a separate DAS), which generally is costly. In addition, the delay between the handovers of the individual carriages is determined by the distance of pick-up antennas of successive carriages and the train speed. Thus, in case the handover of users in one carriage fails, there possibly is an increased interference during the handover procedures of the next carriage in that the mobile devices (UE) may try to re-connect to the (former) base station. This may increase the probability of handover outage for the following carriages.
In one example, a repeater system includes a first master unit, a second master unit, and remote units. The first master unit is positionable at a first location on a movable object. The second master unit is positionable at a second location on the movable object. The first master unit and the second master unit are configured to communicatively couple to antennas for receiving, in a downlink direction, a downlink RF signal from at least one base station external to the movable object and for transmitting, in an uplink direction, an uplink RF signal towards the at least one base station. The remote units are configured to couple through a transport medium to the first master unit by a first connection and to the second master unit by a second connection. The remote units are positionable on the movable object and associated with different coverage areas within the movable object. The remote units are configured to couple to antenna systems for transmitting, in the downlink direction, the downlink RF signal into associated coverage areas of the movable object and for receiving, in the uplink direction, the uplink RF signal from the coverage areas. For at least a subgroup of the remote units, a first gain for the first connection and a second gain for the second connection are controllable by a control unit.
In another example, a method is provided that includes:
receiving, by a first master unit at a first location on a movable object and a second master unit located at a second location on the movable object, a downlink RF signal in a downlink direction from at least one base station that is located outside of the movable object;
transmitting, by remote units associated with different coverage areas within the movable object and connected to the first master unit and the second master unit via a transport medium, the downlink RF signal in the downlink direction into an associated coverage area of the movable object;
receiving, by the remote units, an uplink RF signal in an uplink direction from a coverage area;
transmitting, by the first master unit and the second master unit, the uplink RF signal in the uplink direction towards the at least one base station; and
controlling, for at least a subgroup of the remote units by a control unit, a first gain for a connection with the first master unit and a second gain for the connection with the second master unit.
Certain aspects and features relate to a repeater system that can influence the timing of handovers of mobile devices communicating via the repeater system.
In some aspects, a repeater system for use on a movable object, for example a train, includes a first master unit to be located at a first location on the movable object and a second master unit to be located at a second location on the movable object. The first master unit and the second master unit are each connected to an antenna for receiving, in a downlink direction, a downlink RF signal from at least one base station outside of the movable object and for transmitting, in an uplink direction, an uplink RF signal towards the at least one base station.
Multiple remote units can be associated with different coverage areas within the movable object and can be connected to the first master unit and the second master unit via a transport medium. The remote units can each be connected to an antenna system for transmitting, in the downlink direction, the downlink RF signal into the associated coverage area of the movable object and for receiving, in the uplink direction, the uplink RF signal from the coverage area.
A control unit is configured to control, for at least a subgroup of the remote units, a first gain for the connection with the first master unit and a second gain for the connection with the second master unit.
The repeater system may be used on a train. For example, the first master unit may be located at the front of the train, such as on a front carriage of the train. The second master unit may be installed on the rear of the train, such as on a rear carriage of the train (referring to the direction of travel of the train).
In some examples, the first master unit and the second master unit are provided on the movable object—the train in this example. The master units can provide a connection with one or more outside base stations and for receiving RF signals from the outside base stations and transmitting RF signal towards the outside base stations. On the movable object, for example in carriages of a train, multiple remote units are installed. Each remote unit can be communicatively coupled to both the first master unit and the second master unit via a transport medium, for example an air interface, an optical fiber connection, one or more coaxial cables, or the like. The coupling may be a bus connection, for example a ring bus connection or the like.
Coupling of each remote unit with the two master units can be controlled by a control unit. The control unit can be configured to control a gain of the coupling with the first master unit and the second master unit. Each remote unit can receive signals from the two master units in a weighted fashion, with the gain setting constituting weighting factors.
By gain setting of the couplings with the first master unit and with the second master unit, the control unit may prioritize whether a mobile device in the range of a particular remote unit communicates with an outside base station via the first master unit, via the second master unit, or via both master units.
This set-up may be useful to control handovers of mobile devices (generally denoted as user equipment or “UE”) located within the different coverage areas of the movable object, for example located in different carriages of a train. By setting the gain, a mobile device in the range of the remote unit can communicate with an outside base station via the first master unit, the second master unit or both, and the mobile device may trigger a handover in certain circumstances. For example, a handover may be triggered when the first master unit enters into a handover region in between two base stations (if the mobile device communicates via the first master unit). A handover may be triggered when the second master unit enters into a handover region between two base stations (if the mobile device communicates via the second master unit). A handover may be triggered if the first master unit is in the range of a first base station and the second master unit is in the range of a second base station and if a handover criteria is fulfilled—for example if a signal received from the first base station drops below a certain level and a signal received from the second base station rises above a certain level (in this case the mobile device communicates via both master units, where the connections with the master units are weighted by the gain setting of each connection and the timing of the handover may be influenced by the gain setting).
By controlling the gain setting of the connections of the remote units with the master units, a handover criteria can be fulfilled at different times or mobile devices communicating with different remote units within the movable object, for example within a train, such that the mobile devices can enter into a handover procedure in a time-offset manner. Mobile devices on a movable object may not all at the same time start a handover procedure, but the mobile devices can initiate a handover in a time-offset manner, thus reducing the handover outage probability.
This can be achieved with limited equipment, at least compared to a setup in which a separate repeater system is used on each carriage. Namely, only two master units need to be installed on a movable object, where the two master units are installed at displaced locations, for example at the very front and at the very rear of a train. Each master unit can be connected to all remote units, where the gain of the connections can be set by the control unit.
The control unit may be configured to increase or decrease the first gain for the connection with the first master unit or the second gain for the connection with the second master unit. The control unit may be configured to dynamically change the gain settings for the different connections with the different remote units, depending for example on changing environmental conditions.
In some examples, the control unit may be configured to increase the first gain upon decreasing the second gain and to decrease the first gain upon increasing the second gain. The adjustment of the first gain of the connection of a remote unit with the first master unit and of the second gain of the connection of a remote unit with the second master unit can occur in a concerted fashion such that the first gain is increased when the second gain is decreased and vice versa. By adjusting the gains in this way, the connections can be prioritized such that a mobile device connected with a remote unit, according to its gain settings, predominantly exchanges signals via the first master unit or the second master unit.
The first gain and the second gain may be individually adjustable for each remote unit. For each remote unit a different gain setting for the two connections (with the first master unit on the one hand and the second master unit on the other hand) may apply.
To control a handover of mobile devices in coverage areas of different remote units, the gain settings of the different remote units can be dynamically adjusted in a concerted fashion. Namely, the first gain and the second gain of remote units associated with neighbouring coverage areas, for example of neighbouring carriages of a train, can be adjusted consecutively, i.e., one after the other, such that one remote unit after the other may be switched from one master unit to the other master unit to force a handover of mobile devices connected with the remote units.
The control unit may be configured to control the first gain and the second gain of a remote unit to force a handover of a mobile device connected with the remote unit (e.g., operating in the coverage area associated with the particular remote unit). The mobile device may be forced to handover from a first base station spanning a first communication cell to a second base station spanning a second communication cell, where at least one of the first master unit and the second master unit is located in the range of each communication cell. For example, if the first master unit is located in the cell of the second base station and the second master unit is located in the cell of the first base station (as the train moves), by adjusting the gain of the connections of the remote unit such that the mobile device connected with the remote unit is forced to communicate via the first master unit, the mobile device is forced to handover from the first base station to the second base station in order to keep up the connection. Although the actual handover procedure can be fully carried out between the mobile device and the base stations that the mobile device is communicating with (via the repeater system), the timing of the handover can be forced by the settings of the repeater system.
Controlling of the repeater system may occur in different ways and based on different criteria. For example, the control unit may be configured to control the first gain and the second gain depending on a signal strength measurement of a signal received from a base station. By measuring the received signal strength of a reference signal obtained from base stations outside of the movable object, it can be determined if the first master unit or the second master unit are in the range of one or multiple base stations and whether a handover may be indicated for mobile devices within the movable object. Alternatively, controlling may also occur based on location information received from a positioning system, such as a GPS system, making use of a prior knowledge where cells of base stations are located. If the location information indicates that a (known) cell of a base station has been entered, controlling the gains of the connections of the remote units may be adjusted accordingly in order to force a handover of mobile devices connected with the remote units.
The remote units 11 are connected to the master unit 10 via a transport medium 12, for example a network of optical fibers, and can be in communication connection with the master unit 10. Each remote unit 11 includes an antenna 110 by which the remote unit 11 can connect to a mobile device 5 of a user in a carriage 40 of the train 4.
In a downlink direction D, an RF input signal RFIN can be received via the antenna 100 at the master unit 10, processed within the master unit 10 for transporting it via the transport medium 12 to the different remote units 11 and, after further processing, transmitted via the antennas 110 as an RF output signal RFOUT. The RF output signal RFOUT may be received by a mobile device 5 in a carriage 40 of the train 4.
Vice versa, in an uplink direction U an RF signal received at the antenna 110 of a remote unit 11 can be provided via the transport medium 12 to the master unit 10 and retransmitted via the antenna 100 towards an antenna 30 of a base station 3A of an outside communication network.
The repeater system 1 may perform digital processing of the RF signal, as functionally shown in
In the embodiment of
Alternatively, the RF signal may instead be downconverted into a baseband IQ signal (Zero IF).
The digital signal IFIN is fed to a digital signal processing unit (DSP, FPGA, ASIC or the like) 205 and is digitally processed in the digital signal processing unit 205.
After digital signal processing, the processed signal is, via the transport medium 12, transported to a digital signal processing unit 206 of a transmitting section 21 of a remote unit 11, in which the signal is further processed such that a digital signal IFOUT in the intermediate frequency range is obtained. This digital signal IFOUT is converted to an analog RF signal by a digital-to-analog converter 207, upconverted by an upconverter 208, power-amplified by a power amplifier 209, filtered by an RF filter 210 in the shape of a bandpass filter, and transmitted as an RF output signal RFOUT via the antenna 110 of the remote unit 11.
Instead of a single digital-to-analog converter, alternatively two digital-to-analog converters for the I/Q signal paths and an upconversion using a modulator may be used.
In the uplink direction U, essentially the same processing occurs, where an RF input signal is received and processed by a receiving section 20 of a remote unit 11 and is further processed and transmitted via a transmitting section 21 of the master unit 10.
Digital filtering can occur within the digital signal processing units 205, 206. Within the digital signal processing units 205, 206, subbands contained in the frequency band processed by the repeater system 1 may be isolated from each other and may be processed separately by digital filters. Each digital filter can include a passband associated with a carrier of a communication channel of a communication network, where the digital filters may be programmable in bandwidth, center frequency, and passband characteristics.
As indicated in
Although a handover scenario is illustrated in
As in the setup of
Each of the remote units 111-11X is connected to both master units 101, 102 via a transport medium 12, for example a ring bus connection or the like. In addition, each of the remote units 111-11X is connected to an antenna system 1101-110X for transmitting RF signals into the associated carriage 40 and to receive RF signals out of the carriage 40. The antenna system 1101-110X may be a leaky feeder or another suitable antenna for providing coverage within a carriage 40.
A mobile device 5 within a carriage 40 can communicate via the remote unit 111-11X of the associated carriage 40 and one or both master units 101, 102 with an outside base station 3A. The connection with the first master unit 101 may have a first gain and the connection with the second master unit 102 may have a second gain. The gain settings can be controlled via a control unit 13 that may be a separate unit located somewhere on the train 4 or that may be integrated into one of the master units 101, 102.
By the gain settings it can be prioritized via which master unit 101, 102 a mobile device 5 within a particular carriage 40 communicates with an outside base station 3A, 3B. This may in particular be used to control a handover of mobile devices 5 within the different carriages 40 of the train 4.
For example, when looking at the second remote unit 112, by suitably adjusting the gain setting of the connection of the remote unit 112 with the first master unit 101 and the gain setting of the connection with the second master unit 102, a mobile device 5 within the carriage 40 associated with the second remote unit 112 can be forced to handover from the former base station 3A to the new base station 3B. By increasing the gain of the connection between the remote unit 112 and the first master unit 101 and by at the same time decreasing the gain of the connection between the remote unit 112 and the second master unit 102, the signals adopted by the antenna 1001 of the first master unit 101 can be prioritized. Because the antenna 1001 of the first master unit 101 is already in the handover area HO and in the range of the new base station 3B, the mobile devices 5 within the coverage area of the remote unit 112 can be forced to handover to the new base station 3B.
The same may occur for the next, consecutive remote unit 113 with an appropriate time offset, such that the mobile devices 5 in the coverage area of the next remote unit 113 perform their handover in a time-offset manner with respect to the mobile devices 5 in a carriage 40 associated with the previous remote unit 112.
By applying the individual gain adjustment in a consecutive manner, the whole handover scenario of the train 4 can be controlled such that the handovers of the mobile devices 5 within the train 4 do not occur at the same time, but in a time offset manner. By dynamically adjusting the gain settings of the connections of the remote units 111-11X, the handover scenarios can be flexibly influenced to force the mobile devices 5 to perform their handovers at suitable times in a staggered manner.
Controlling the gain setting by the control unit 13 may depend on a reference signal power level measured at the first master unit 101 and the second master unit 102. Alternatively, location information, for example obtained via a GPS system, may be used, making use of the knowledge that at a certain location the cell of a certain base station 3A, 3B is entered or left.
A flow chart of an example of a process for controlling the gain settings of the connections of the remote units 111-11X is illustrated in
If it is found that a handover area HO is approached in block S1, for example by measuring a reference signal power level at the master units 101, 102, in block S3 the gain between the first master unit 101 and the remote units 111-11X may be reduced to avoid a premature handover of the mobile devices 5 on the train 4.
In block S4 it is checked whether a handover condition is fulfilled at the first master unit 101. If this is the case, it is moved to block S5. If this is not the case, block S4 is repeated.
If the handover condition is fulfilled at the master unit 101, first the gain of the connection between the first master unit 101 and the first remote unit 111 can be increased and, at the same time, the gain between the second master unit 102 and the first remote unit 111 can be decreased. It can be checked whether for the mobile devices 5 connected to the first remote unit 111 the handover procedures have been successful. If not, it is waited for a guard period and then checked again in block S7. If the handover procedures have been successful, the gain between the first master unit 101 and the second remote unit 112 is increased and at the same time the gain between the second master unit 102 and the second remote unit 112 is decreased to force the mobile devices 5 associated with the second remote unit 112 into a handover. It then is checked whether the handovers for the mobile devices 5 associated with the second remote unit 112 have been successful in block S9.
The blocks can be repeated for further remote units 113-11X until the handovers for the mobile devices 5 associated with the remote units 111-11X occur, in blocks S11, S12, S13.
In some examples, it can be possible to split the number of mobile devices starting a handover scenario into several smaller handovers (e.g., decrease the handover outage probability). The handover cycle of the individual carriages can be artificially stretched in case of a handover outage of one of the other carriages. A handover area can be shifted (e.g., by moving the handover area to regions with low driving speed to increase the handover success probability). The handover process of the whole train can be linked to GPS data available in the DAS (e.g., once the trains front antenna enters a specific GPS location, the handover scenario will be started). The handover process can be triggered by measuring the reference signal power level at the first master unit and the second master unit. In other examples, additional features can be realized by the end user.
In some examples, assuming the train is moving in an area where no handover is to be performed, the two roof antennas may be used for 2×2 MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) transmissions. For example, the antenna network inside the train can be doubled. Once a handover is expected, the MIMO operation can be switched to common SISO (Single Input Single Output) operation to control the handover in the same way as discussed above.
The foregoing description of certain examples, including illustrated examples, has been presented only for the purpose of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Numerous modifications, adaptations, and uses thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15161405 | Mar 2015 | EP | regional |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2015/057941 | 10/15/2015 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2016/156949 | 10/6/2016 | WO | A |
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| 2533433 | Mar 2014 | EP |
| 2013166640 | Nov 2013 | WO |
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| International Searching Authority, “International Search Report and Written Opinion from PCT Application No. PCT/IB2015/057941 dated Dec. 18, 2015”, “from PCT Application No. PCT/IB2015/057941”, Dec. 18, 2015, pp. 1-13, Published in: WO. |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20180102830 A1 | Apr 2018 | US |
