RADIO SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RELAYING RADIO SIGNALS WITH A POWER CALIBRATION OF TRANSMIT RADIO SIGNALS

• US 20100255774A1
• Filed: 04/01/2009
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: UBIDYNE, INC
• Inventors: Kenington, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 8,140,007 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/9
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/267 Phased-array testing or checking devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/10 of transmitters

Abstract

The present invention provides a radio system and a method for relaying radio signals, providing a power calibration of transmit radio signals. With the radio system and the method no dedicated calibration signal generator is required for providing the power calibration of the transmit radio signals. The radio system comprises at least one transmit path, a calibration unit at the least one link and a power sensor. A selected one of coupled transmit signals is forwarded to a power sensor for measuring a power level of a portion of the selected one of the coupled transmit signals, wherein the calibration unit is adapted to update a power rating of the at least one transmit path in response to the transmit power level of the selected one of the coupled transmit signals.

Claims

1. A radio system adapted for relaying radio signals and providing a power measurement of transmit radio signals, the radio system. comprising:

a calibration unit. adapted to split a payload signal, thus producing at least one of the calibrated payload signals;

at least one transmit path for relaying the at least one calibrated payload signal as a transmit signal,

at least one link adapted to forward the at least one calibrated payload signal to the at least one transmit path,

a coupler adapted to extract coupled transmit signals from the transmit signal,

a power sensor for monitoring a transmit power of a portion of a first one of the coupled transmit signals,

wherein a power output of the at least one transmit path is measurable in response to the transmit power of the portion of the first one of the coupled transmit.

2. The radio system according to claim 1, wherein the power output of the at least one transmit path is updateable in response to the transmit power of the portion of the first one of the coupled transmit signals.

3. The radio system according to claim 1, wherein the calibration unit is further adapted to measure a transmit power ratio of the transmit paths.

4. The radio system according to claim 1, wherein the calibration unit is adapted to apply phase and amplitude changes to the at least one of the calibrated payload signal.

5. The radio system according to claim 1, comprising at least one second power sensor adapted to monitor a transmit power level of a second one of the coupled transmit signals.

6. The radio system according to claim 1, further comprising a calibration update module for updating the phase and amplitude changes in response to a feedback signal in a feedback path.

7. The radio system according to claim 6, further comprising a feedback signal demodulator adapted for generating a base band feedback signal in response to receiving the feedback signal.

8. The radio system according to claim 7, wherein the updating of the phase and amplitude changes comprises using a correlation of the payload signal and the base band feedback signal.

9. The radio system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one transmit path is terminated by an antenna element.

10. The radio system according to claim 1, further comprising a feedback signal demodulator adapted to receive the feedback signal.

11. The radio system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one link introduces a link phase and amplitude deviation to the at least one calibrated payload signal.

12. The radio system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one transmit path further comprises a digital to analogue converter.

13. The radio system according to claim 12, wherein the digital to analogue converter comprises a sigma delta digital to analogue converter.

14. The radio system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one transmit path further comprises an amplifier for amplifying the transmit signal.

15. The radio system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one transmit path further comprises a filter for filtering the transmit signal.

16. The radio system according to claim 15, wherein the filter comprises a duplex filter.

17. The radio system according to claim 1, further comprising a switch for forwarding a third selected one of the coupled transmit signal as the feedback signal into the feedback path.

18. The radio system according to claim 1, further comprising a splitter adapted to extract the portion from the coupled transmit signal.

19. The radio system according to claim 18, wherein at least one of the following elements is implemented on a chip:

the calibration unit, the calibration update module, the digital to analogue converter, the feedback signal demodulator, the splitter, the power sensor and the feedback path.

20. The radio system according to claim 19, wherein the chip comprises a digital signal processor (DSP).

29. Computer program product embodied on a computer-readable medium and the computer-readable medium comprising executable instructions for the manufacture of the radio system according to claim 1.

21. A method for relaying radio signals providing a power measurement of transmit radio signals, the method comprising:

providing a payload signal,

generating a calibrated payload signal,

forwarding a transmit signal,

power measuring at least one transmit paths, wherein the power measuring is in response to a portion of selected one of coupled transmit signals.

22. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

feeding back a selected one of the coupled transmit signals as a feedback signal,

updating phase and amplitude changes in response to the feedback signal.

23. The method according to claim 21, wherein the forwarding of the transmit signal further comprises:

forwarding the calibrated payload signal along at least one link to at least one transmit path,

relaying the calibrated payload signal as a transmit signal along the at least one transmit path,

digital to analogue converting the transmit signal,

amplifying the transmit signal,

filtering the transmit signal,

extracting a coupled transmit signal from the at least one transmit.

24. The method according to claim 22, wherein the feeding back of the selected one of the coupled transmit signals as the feedback signal further comprises:

receiving the selected one of the coupled transmit signals as the feedback signal,

generating a base band feedback signal in response to the feedback signal.

25. The method according to claim 22, wherein the feeding back of the selected one of the coupled transmit signals as the feedback signal comprises:

filtering the feedback signal.

26. The method according to claim 22, wherein the updating of the phase and amplitude changes comprises:

correlating the payload and the base band feedback signal,

extracting transmit deviations,

checking whether the transmit deviations are above a threshold, and

updating the phase and amplitude changes responsive to the checking.

27. The method according to claim 21, wherein the power measuring further comprises:

extracting the portion of the selected coupled transmit signal,

measuring a transmit power level for the portion of the selected coupled transmit signal.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the power measuring further comprises:

checking a state of transmit power levels in response to the measuring of the transmit power, and updating gains for the transmit paths in response to the checking of the state, and

generating a warning in case the checking of the state is negative.

30. Computer program product embodied on a computer-readable medium and the computer-readable medium comprising executable instructions for the execution of the method for relaying radio signals according to claim 21.