Polarization beamforming communication method and apparatus

• US 10,039,011 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2015
• Issued: 07/31/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Bahng, Seungjae, Noh, Gosan, Park, Youn Ok, Lee, Hoon
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhu, Alvin
• Application Number:
  US14/951,649
• Publication Number:
  US 20160302082A1
• Time in Patent Office: 979 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/10 Polarisation diversity; Directional diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering

Abstract

The polarization beamforming communication apparatus of a base station estimates an azimuth, elevation, and polarization of each of terminals using a reference signal of a terminal received through a plurality of dual polarization antennas, determines a stream to be transmitted based on the azimuth, elevation, and polarization of the terminal, and sends the stream to be transmitted to the terminal through a polarization-matched beam formed in accordance with each of the plurality of dual polarization antennas using the azimuth, elevation, and polarization of the terminal.

Claims

1. A polarization beamforming communication method of a base station comprising a planar dual polarization antenna array, the communication method comprising:

estimating an azimuth, elevation, and polarization of each of terminals using a reference signal of a respective terminal received through a plurality of dual polarization antennas of the planar dual polarization antenna array;

determining a stream to be transmitted based on the azimuth, elevation, and polarization of each of the terminals;

generating a horizontal polarization signal and a vertical polarization signal from the stream to be transmitted to the respective terminal using the azimuth, elevation, and polarization of the respective terminal;

performing beamforming on the horizontal polarization signal and the vertical polarization signal to be transmitted to the respective terminal in accordance with each of the plurality of dual polarization antennas using the azimuth and elevation of the respective terminal; and

delivering a beamformed horizontal polarization signal of the respective terminal for the dual polarization antenna and a beamformed vertical polarization signal of the respective terminal for the dual polarization antenna to a corresponding dual polarization antenna.

2. The communication method of claim 1, wherein performing beamforming comprises:

generating a steering vector for the plurality of dual polarization antennas in accordance with the stream to be transmitted to the respective terminal using the azimuth and elevation of the respective terminal; and

performing the beamforming on the horizontal polarization signal and the vertical polarization signal corresponding to the respective terminal using the steering vector corresponding to the respective terminal.

3. The communication method of claim 1, wherein generating the horizontal polarization signal and the vertical polarization signal comprises:

calculating a horizontal component weight value and a vertical component weight value of the terminal using the azimuth, elevation, and polarization of the respective terminal; and

generating a horizontal component signal and a vertical component signal to be transmitted to the terminal by respectively multiplying the horizontal component weight value and vertical component weight value by a horizontal component weight value and a vertical component weight value of a dual polarization antenna corresponding to the stream to be transmitted to the terminal.

4. The communication method of claim 1, wherein delivering comprises:

combining beamformed horizontal polarization signals of the respective terminal for each of the dual polarization antennas;

combining beamformed vertical polarization signals of the respective terminal for each of the dual polarization antennas; and

sending the combined horizontal polarization signal and the combined vertical polarization signal through a corresponding dual polarization antenna.

5. The communication method of claim 2, wherein generating the steering vector comprises:

generating a steering vector horizontal component corresponding to the azimuth to be applied to each row of the planar dual polarization antenna array using the azimuth; and

generating a steering vector vertical component corresponding to the elevation to be applied to each column of the planar dual polarization antenna array using the elevation.

6. The communication method of claim 1, wherein generating the horizontal polarization signal and the vertical polarization signal comprises:

generating a horizontal component weight value of the dual polarization antenna in the planar dual polarization antenna array using a horizontal component of the polarization; and

generating a vertical component weight value of the dual polarization antenna in the planar dual polarization antenna array using a vertical component of the polarization.

7. A polarization beamforming communication apparatus of a base station, comprising:

a planar dual polarization antenna array configured to comprise a plurality of dual polarization antennas;

an estimation unit configured to estimate an azimuth, elevation, and polarization of each of terminals from a reference signal received from a respective terminal through the planar dual polarization antenna array;

a control unit configured to determine a stream to be transmitted based on the azimuth, elevation, and polarization of each of the terminals;

a transmission polarization processing unit configured to generate a horizontal polarization signal and a vertical polarization signal from the stream to be transmitted to the respective terminal using the azimuth, elevation, and polarization of the respective terminal;

a transmission beamforming unit configured to perform beamforming on the horizontal polarization signal and the vertical polarization signal to be transmitted to the respective terminal in accordance with each of the plurality of dual polarization antennas using the azimuth and elevation of the respective terminal; and

a combination unit configured to deliver a beamformed horizontal polarization signal of the respective terminal for the dual polarization antenna and a beamformed vertical polarization signal of the respective terminal for the dual polarization antenna to a corresponding dual polarization antenna.

8. The communication apparatus of claim 7, wherein the transmission beamforming unit generates a steering vector for the plurality of dual polarization antennas in accordance with the respective terminal using the azimuth and elevation of the respective terminal, and performs beamforming on the vertical polarization signal and horizontal polarization signal to be transmitted to the respective terminal using respective corresponding steering vectors.

9. The communication apparatus of claim 7, wherein the transmission polarization processing unit calculates a horizontal component weight value and a vertical component weight value of the respective terminal using the azimuth, elevation, and polarization of the respective terminal, and generates a horizontal component signal and a vertical component signal to be transmitted to the respective terminal by respectively multiplying the stream to be transmitted to the respective terminal by the horizontal component weight value and the vertical component weight value.

10. The communication apparatus of claim 7, wherein the combination unit comprises:

a horizontal component combination unit corresponding to each of the dual polarization antennas; and

a vertical component combination unit corresponding to each of the dual polarization antennas,

wherein the horizontal component combination unit combines beamformed horizontal component signals of the respective terminal for a corresponding dual polarization antenna, and the vertical component combination unit combines beamformed vertical component signals of the respective terminal for a corresponding dual polarization antenna.

11. The communication apparatus of claim 7, wherein the transmission beamforming unit generates a steering vector horizontal component corresponding to the azimuth to be applied to each row of the planar dual polarization antenna array using the azimuth, and generates a steering vector vertical component corresponding to the elevation to be applied to each column of the planar dual polarization antenna array using the elevation.

12. The communication apparatus of claim 7, wherein the transmission polarization processing unit generates a horizontal component weight value and a vertical component weight value of the dual polarization antenna in the planar dual polarization antenna array using horizontal and vertical components of the polarization, and generates the horizontal polarization signal and the vertical polarization signal by applying the horizontal component weight value and the vertical component weight value to the stream to be transmitted to the respective terminal.