System and Method for Transparent Coordinated Beam-Forming

• US 20110306381A1
• Filed: 06/15/2010
• Published: 12/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Jia, Ming, Ma, Jianglei
• Granted Patent: US 8,521,199 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/522
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0619 using feedback from receiving side feedback signaling for adaptive modulation/coding H04L1/0001
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/143 Downlink power control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/40 during macro-diversity or soft handoff

Abstract

A system and method for transparent coordinated beam-forming are provided. A method for transmitting information includes determining correlations between communications devices served by a communications controller and communications devices served by neighboring communications controllers, selecting a communications device from the communications devices served by the communications controller, adjusting a manner of transmission of a transmission containing information to the selected communications device based on a correlation for the selected communications device, and transmitting the transmission to the selected communications device.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting information, the method comprising:

determining correlations between communications devices served by a communications controller and communications devices served by neighboring communications controllers;

selecting a communications device from the communications devices served by the communications controller based on the correlations;

adjusting a manner of transmission of a transmission containing information to the selected communications device based on a correlation for the selected communications device; and

transmitting the transmission to the selected communications device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting a manner of transmission comprises adjusting a transmit power level, a beam direction, or a combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving channel information from each communications device served by the communications controller; and

adjusting the received channel information for each communications device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein adjusting the received channel information comprises transforming the received channel information for a communications device by a measure of interference provided by the communications device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a correlation comprises:

measuring a channel between communications devices in each pair of communications devices consisting of one of each communications device served by the communications controller and one of each communications device served by the neighboring communications controllers; and

computing a correlation for each pair of communications devices based on the measured channels.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein measuring a channel comprises measuring a direction of incidence.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein computing a correlation comprises computing a value based on an angle difference between each communication device in each pair of communications device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a correlation comprises:

measuring a channel between communications devices in each pair of communications devices consisting of one of each communications device served by the communications controller and one of each communications device in a subset of communications devices served by the neighboring communications controllers; and

computing a correlation for each pair of communications devices based on the measured channels.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a communications device comprises selecting the communications device with a smallest correlation.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a correlation is computed in each pair of communications devices consisting of one of each communications device served by the communications controller and one of each communications device in a subset of communications devices served by the neighboring communications controllers, and wherein selecting a communications device with a smallest correlation comprises selecting a communications device pair with the smallest correlation, wherein a communications device pair comprises a communications device served by the communications controller and a communications device from the subset of communications devices.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting a transmit power level of a transmission comprises:

adjusting the transmit power level in response to determining that a correlation for the selected communications device to a communications device served by a neighboring communications controller exceeds a threshold; and

leaving the transmit power level unchanged in response to determining that the correlation for the selected communications device does not exceed the threshold.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein adjusting the transmit power level in response to determining that a correlation for the selected communications device to a communications device served by a neighboring communications controller exceeds a threshold comprises scaling a default transmit power level by a scaling factor proportional to an angle difference between the selected communications device and the communications device served by the neighboring communications controller.

13. A method for transmitting information by a cooperating communications controller, the method comprising:

sharing communications device information with neighboring communications controllers;

determining an orthogonality value for each communications device served by the cooperating communications controller with respect to communications devices served by the neighboring communications controllers;

selecting a communications device based on the communications device orthogonality values;

adjusting a manner of transmission of a transmission to the selected communications device based on the orthogonality value of the selected communications device; and

transmitting the transmission to the selected communications device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein sharing communications device information comprises sharing a list of communications devices to protect from interference.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining an orthogonality value comprises determining an orthogonality value for each communications device served by the cooperating communications controller with respect to each communications device in the list of communications devices to protect.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein determining an orthogonality value comprises determining an orthogonality value for each communications device served by the cooperating communications controller with respect to each detectable communications device in the list of communications device to protect.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the orthogonality value for each communications device served by the cooperating communications controller with respect to communications devices served by the neighboring communications controllers comprises a correlation value for each communications device served by the cooperating communications controller with respect to communications devices served by the neighboring communications controllers, and wherein adjusting a manner of transmission of a transmission comprises:

adjusting the transmit power level in response to determining that a correlation value for the selected communications device to a communications device served by a neighboring communications controller exceeds a threshold; and

leaving the transmit power level unchanged in response to determining that the correlation value for the selected communications device to a communications device served by a neighboring communications controller does not exceed the threshold.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the orthogonality value for each communications device served by the cooperating communications controller with respect to communications devices served by the neighboring communications controllers comprises a correlation value for each communications device served by the cooperating communications controller with respect to communications devices served by the neighboring communications controllers, and wherein adjusting a manner of transmission of a transmission comprises:

adjusting a beam used to transmit the transmission in response to determining that a correlation value for the selected communications device to a communications device served by a neighboring communications controller exceeds a threshold; and

leaving the beam unchanged in response to determining that the correlation value for the selected communications device to a communications device served by a neighboring communications controller does not exceed the threshold.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein selecting a communications device comprises selecting a network resource to be allocated to the transmission, and wherein transmitting the transmission comprises transmitting the transmission over the selected network resource.

20. A communications controller comprising:

a receiver to be coupled to a receive antenna in order to receive signals detected by the receive antenna;

a transmitter to be coupled to a transmit antenna in order to transmit signals with the transmit antenna;

a memory configured to store information shared with other communications controllers, channel measurements, and orthogonality values;

a processor coupled to the receiver, to the transmitter, and to the memory, the processor configured to determine correlations between communications devices served by the communications controller and communications devices served by neighboring communications controllers, and to adjust a transmit power level of a transmission to the selected communications device or a beam used to transmit the transmission to the selected communications device based on a correlation value for the selected communications device; and

a scheduler coupled to the processor, the scheduler configured to select a communications device from the communications devices served by the communications controller.

21. The communications controller of claim 20, wherein the processor comprises:

a correlation unit configured to determine correlations between the communications devices served by the communications controller and the communications devices served by the neighboring communications controllers; and

a power control unit coupled to the correlation unit, the power control unit configured to adjust the transmit power of the transmission to the selected communications device based on the correlation value for the selected communications device.

22. The communications controller of claim 21, wherein the processor further comprises:

a channel measure unit coupled to the correlation unit, the channel measure unit configured to measure a channel between the communications controller and each communications device served by the communications controller; and

a coordination unit coupled to the correlation unit, the coordination unit configured to share information related to the communications devices served by the communications controller with the neighboring communications controllers.

23. The communications controller of claim 21, wherein the processor further comprises a beam selection unit coupled to the correlation unit, the beam selection unit configured to select the beam used to transmit the transmission to the selected communications device.