COMMUNICATION APPARATUS AND AUTOMATIC GAIN CONTROL

• US 20110310883A1
• Filed: 12/28/2009
• Published: 12/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Takano, Hiroaki, Kunihiro, Takushi
• Granted Patent: US 8,553,715 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/350
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/088 using beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/00 Synchronisation arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams

Abstract

Provided is a communication apparatus including a first communication unit for performing communication using a carrier having a first frequency, a second communication unit having a plurality of antennas, for performing communication using a carrier having a second frequency, a first communication processing unit for processing a signal received by the first communication unit and causing to transmit a signal, and a second communication processing unit for processing a signal received by the second communication unit and causing to transmit a signal. The second communication processing unit includes a synchronization unit for specifying a start position of a second transmission request in which a plurality of transmission beam patterns are set in one packet based on information indicating reception initiation, and an automatic gain control unit for performing automatic gain control based on a first automatic gain control setting value.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus comprising:

a first communication unit for performing wireless communication with an external apparatus using a carrier having a first frequency;

a second communication unit having a plurality of antennas, for performing wireless communication with an external apparatus using a carrier having a second frequency having a stronger directivity and a higher propagation loss than the carrier having the first frequency;

a first communication processing unit for processing a signal received by the first communication unit and causing the first communication unit to transmit a signal; and

a second communication processing unit for processing a signal received by the second communication unit and causing the second communication unit to transmit a signal,

wherein the second communication processing unit includes

a synchronization unit for specifying a start position of a second transmission request in which a plurality of transmission beam patterns are set in one packet, on the basis of information indicating reception initiation delivered from the first communication processing unit based on a first transmission request received by the first communication unit, the second transmission request being received by the second communication unit; and

an automatic gain control unit for performing automatic gain control on each transmission beam pattern based on a first automatic gain control setting value corresponding to each transmission beam pattern, the first automatic gain control setting value being included in the second transmission request specified by the synchronization unit.

2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a reception intensity derivation unit for deriving reception intensity for each transmission beam pattern based on the second transmission request output from the automatic gain control unit; and

a requested beam pattern determining unit for determining a requested beam pattern to be transmitted to an external apparatus having transmitted the second transmission request from among the plurality of transmission beam patterns set in the second transmission request, based on a derivation result from the reception intensity derivation unit.

3. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a setting value storage unit for storing a second automatic gain control setting value corresponding to the requested beam pattern based on a first automatic gain control setting value corresponding to the requested beam pattern,

wherein the automatic gain control unit performs automatic gain control based on the second automatic gain control value when the second transmission request is not specified by the synchronization unit.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the automatic gain control unit performs the automatic gain control using the first automatic gain control setting value or the second automatic gain control setting value as a fixed value or an initial value.

5. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the setting value storage unit stores the second automatic gain control setting value having a higher set gain than the first automatic gain control setting value corresponding to the requested beam pattern.

6. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the setting value storage unit stores the first automatic gain control setting value corresponding to the requested beam pattern as the second automatic gain control setting value.

7. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a predetermined no signal period is set between the respective transmission beam patterns among the plurality of transmission beam patterns set in the second transmission request.

8. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a processing unit for causing to transmit requested beam pattern identification information indicating the requested beam pattern to an external apparatus having transmitted the second transmission request via the first communication processing unit.

9. A communication apparatus comprising:

a first communication unit for performing wireless communication with an external apparatus using a carrier having a first frequency;

a second communication unit having a plurality of antennas divided into a plurality of groups, for performing wireless communication with an external apparatus using a carrier having a second frequency having a stronger directivity and a higher propagation loss than the carrier having the first frequency;

a first communication processing unit for processing a signal received by the first communication unit and causing the first communication unit to transmit a signal; and

a second communication processing unit for processing a signal received by the second communication unit and causing the second communication unit to transmit a signal,

wherein the second communication processing unit includes

a synchronization unit for specifying a start position of a second transmission request in which a plurality of transmission beam patterns are set in one packet, on the basis of information indicating reception initiation delivered from the first communication processing unit based on a first transmission request received by the first communication unit, the second transmission request being received by the second communication unit; and

an automatic gain control unit for performing, for each group, automatic gain control on the transmission beam pattern set in each second transmission request received for each group based on a third different automatic gain control setting value set for each group.

10. The communication apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a group selection unit for selecting one group based on the second transmission request for each group output from the automatic gain control unit;

a reception intensity derivation unit for deriving reception intensity for each transmission beam pattern based on the second transmission request corresponding to the group selected by the group selection unit, the second transmission request being output from the automatic gain control unit; and

a requested beam pattern determining unit for determining a requested beam pattern to be transmitted to an external apparatus having transmitted the second transmission request from among the plurality of transmission beam patterns set in the second transmission request based on a derivation result from the reception intensity derivation unit.

11. An automatic gain control method comprising the step of specifying a position of a predetermined packet based on a first transmission request transmitted from an external apparatus using a carrier having a first frequency;

specifying a start position of a second transmission request in which a plurality of transmission beam patterns defining beam-shaped directivity of a signal to be transmitted are set in one packet based on the specified position of the predetermined packet, the second transmission request being transmitted from the external apparatus using a carrier having a second frequency having a stronger directivity and a higher propagation loss than the carrier having the first frequency; and

performing automatic gain control for each transmission beam pattern based on an automatic gain control setting value corresponding to each transmission beam pattern, the automatic gain control setting value being included in the specified second transmission request.