APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CALCULATING RECEIVE PARAMETERS FOR AN MIMO SYSTEM

• US 20120020422A1
• Filed: 07/19/2011
• Published: 01/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Guthy, Christian, Utschick, Wolfgang, Dietl, Guido, Dotzler, Andreas
• Granted Patent: US 8,724,743 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2025/03802 Signalling on the reverse channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0204 of multiple channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0242 using matrix methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/03343 Arrangements at the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0073 Allocation arrangements that take into account other cell interferences for intercell interference mitigation or co-ordination in orthogonal multiplex systems H04J11/005

Abstract

An apparatus for calculating receive parameters for an MIMO system including a plurality of individual transmission sections, a transmission section having a transmit circuit adjustable by a transmit parameter, and a plurality of individual users, a user having a receive circuit being adjustable by a receive parameter, includes a calculator for calculating a receive parameter for a first selected data stream for a first user of the plurality of users using a channel information for a transmission channel between the user and a first individual transmit section, to which the user is associated, and for calculating a receive parameter for a second selected data stream for a second user of the plurality of users associated with a second different individual transmission section using channel information between the first user and the second transmission section the second user is associated with, or using the calculated receive parameter for the first user.

Claims

1. An apparatus for calculating receive parameters for an MIMO system comprising a plurality of individual transmission sections, a transmission section comprising a transmit circuit being adjustable by a transmit parameter, and a plurality of individual users, a user comprising a receive circuit being adjustable by a receive parameter, comprising:

a calculator for calculating a receive parameter for a first selected data stream for a first user of the plurality of users using a channel information for a transmission channel between the user and a first individual transmission section, to which the user is associated, and for calculating a receive parameter for a second selected data stream for a second user of the plurality of users associated with a second different individual transmission section using a channel information between the first user and the second individual transmission section, to which the second user is associated with, or using the calculated receive parameter for the first user, wherein an interference caused by a transmission of an individual transmission section at a user in a different transmission section is reduced or eliminated.

2. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, in which the calculator is configured for performing a successive processing, so that the receive parameter for the first user is calculated and, subsequently, the receive parameter for the second user is calculated using the receive parameter for the first user.

3. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, in which the calculator is configured for calculating a projector matrix depending on a channel information between the first user and the second individual transmission section, or the receive parameter for the first user, and for using the projector matrix together with the channel information between each user and its associated individual transmission section, for calculating the receive parameter for the second user.

4. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, in which the calculator is configured for calculating the projector matrix based on the following equation:

5. The apparatus in accordance with claim 3,

wherein the calculator is configured for calculating a characteristic value for each user based on the channel information for the channel between the user and its associated individual transmission section, and based on the projector matrix for the individual transmission section, and for selecting the user, who comprises a characteristic value satisfying a predetermined criterion.

6. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the calculator is configured for using an information on a number of users already having calculated receive parameters in a respective individual transmission section, so that users associated with an individual transmission section, which already comprises less associated users than a different individual transmission section are advantageous in a user selection.

7. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, in which the calculator is configured for additionally calculating a transmit parameter subsequent to a calculation of the receive parameter for the second user so that an interference at a third user caused by a transmission of a data stream for the second user is reduced or eliminated.

8. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, in which a calculation of a transmit parameter for the second user is performed so that an interference below an interference threshold is allowed, wherein the interference threshold is based on a gain of an interfering channel.

9. The apparatus in accordance with claim 3, in which the calculator is configured for only performing a projector matrix update, when a threshold determined by a newly allocated data stream for a user is exceeded, and for not performing a projector matrix update, when the threshold is not exceeded.

10. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, in which an individual transmission section is a sector defined by a sector antenna array connected to a base station in a cellular network.

11. The apparatus in accordance with claim 10, in which the base station comprises a plurality of attached individual transmission section antenna arrays.

12. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a transmission section assignor for assigning a user of the plurality of users to a certain individual transmission section, the section assignor being configured for communicating an assignment for a user to the individual transmission section to which the user is associated.

13. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a communication interface for communicating the receive parameters for the first and the second users to the first and the second user circuits and for transmitting corresponding transmit parameters to the corresponding transmit circuits or for receiving a channel information between each of the plurality of users and each individual transmission section irrespective of the fact whether the corresponding user is associated to the individual transmission section or not.

14. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, in which the calculator is configured to select a user from the first user, the second user and the third user, so that this user comprises a higher data rate with its associated transmission section than the other two users with their associated transmission sections,

to calculate, for each transmission section, an influence of the selection of the user on the transmission section,

to successively select a further user from the first, the second or the third users so that the further user comprises a higher data rate with its associated transmission section than another user, wherein the influence of the selection is used together with the channel information between the user and its associated transmission section.

15. The apparatus in accordance with claim 1, in which the calculator is configured to calculate the receive parameter for the one user based on the channel information between the one user and its associated transmission section,

to calculate the receive parameter for the second user based on the channel information between the second user and its associated transmission section and the calculated influence of a preceding selection,

to calculate a first transmission parameter for the transmission section associated with the first user and a second transmission parameter for the transmission section associated with the second user subsequent to a termination of a successive allocation of all users for a group of transmission sections,

wherein the first transmission parameter and the second transmission parameter are calculated such that an interference of the other users by the transmission to the previously allocated users is reduced or eliminated.

16. A method of calculating receive parameters for an MIMO system comprising a plurality of individual transmission sections, a transmission section comprising a transmit circuit being adjustable by a transmit parameter, and a plurality of individual users, a user comprising a receive circuit being adjustable by a receive parameter, comprising:

calculating a receive parameter for a first selected data stream for a first user of the plurality of users using a channel information for a transmission channel between the user and a first individual transmission section, to which the user is associated; and

calculating a receive parameter for a second selected data stream for a second user of the plurality of users associated with a second different individual transmission section,

wherein a channel information between the first user and the second transmission section, to which the second user is associated with, or the calculated receive parameter for the first user is used in calculating the receive parameter for the second selected data stream for the second user, where an interference caused by a transmission of an individual transmission section at a user in a different transmission section is reduced or eliminated.

17. A computer program for performing, when being executed on a processor, a method of calculating receive parameters for an MIMO system comprising a plurality of individual transmission sections, a transmission section comprising a transmit circuit being adjustable by a transmit parameter, and a plurality of individual users, a user comprising a receive circuit being adjustable by a receive parameter, the method comprising:

calculating a receive parameter for a first selected data stream for a first user of the plurality of users using a channel information for a transmission channel between the user and a first individual transmission section, to which the user is associated; and

calculating a receive parameter for a second selected data stream for a second user of the plurality of users associated with a second different individual transmission section,

wherein a channel information between the first user and the second transmission section, to which the second user is not associated with, or the calculated receive parameter for the first user is used in calculating the receive parameter for the second selected data stream for the second user, where an interference caused by a transmission of an individual transmission section at a user associated with a different transmission section is reduced or eliminated.