RADIO BASE STATION AND ANTENNA WEIGHT SETTING METHOD

• US 20120190396A1
• Filed: 01/18/2012
• Published: 07/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Oyama, Teppei
• Granted Patent: US 8,886,254 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/517
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering

Abstract

A radio base station which includes an antenna and adjusts directivity of a radio wave to be transmitted and received by antenna weight of the antenna, the radio base station includes a receiver which receives a first reference signal from a first mobile terminal and a second reference signal from a second mobile terminal and a processer which produces antenna weight which is based on the first and the second reference signals, to the antenna for sending a common data to the first and the second mobile terminals.

Claims

1. A radio base station which includes an antenna and adjusts directivity of a radio wave to be transmitted and received by antenna weight of the antenna, the radio base station comprising:

a receiver which receives a first reference signal from a first mobile terminal and a second reference signal from a second mobile terminal; and

a processer which produces antenna weight which is based on the first and the second reference signals, to the antenna for sending a common data to the first and the second mobile terminals.

2. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein the processor calculates a standard power, as a reception power of each antenna obtained when a first antenna weight is cancelled, of the reference signal received from a mobile terminal, calculates an index value of a reception quality inside of an area of the radio base station by dividing a sum of the values obtained by multiplying each of the plurality of antenna weights which is obtained by the radio base station by each of the standard powers of the first mobile terminal by the sum of the values obtained by multiplying each of the plurality of antenna weights by each of the standard powers of the second mobile terminal, and specifies the antenna weight from among the plurality of antenna weights.

3. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein the processor receives the reference signal, from a terminal from among the first mobile terminals of which the distance from the radio base station is larger than a prescribed first threshold value and is smaller than a second threshold value which is larger than the first threshold value.

4. The radio base station according to claim 1, the processor excludes, from the basis of calculation of an index value of a reception quality inside of an area of the radio base station, the reference signal from the terminal from among the second mobile terminals which is positioned of which the distance from the second radio base station is larger than a third threshold value.

5. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein the processor obtains a piece of information of the terminal, from among the second mobile terminals, of which a reception power of a uplink reference signal in the second radio base station is smaller than a fourth threshold value, and have the obtained second mobile terminal as the basis of the calculation of the index value.

6. A radio base station which includes an antenna and adjusts directivity in a vertical plane and/or a horizontal plane of a radio wave transmitted and received by an antenna weight provided in the antenna, the radio base station comprising:

a receiver which receives a plularity of report of a first reception power as a reception power in a mobile terminal of a downlink reference signal from the mobile terminals coupled with the radio base station;

a processor which estimates a second reception power as the reception power of the reference signal received by the mobile terminal coupled with a second radio base station from the second radio base station which is adjacent to the radio base station by multiplying the first reception power by a coefficient according to a distance from the radio base station to each of the mobile terminals, and which produces the antenna weight which is based on the first reception power and the second reception power in each of the mobile terminals, to the antenna for sending common data to mobile terminals.

7. An antenna weight setting method used by a radio base station to set a common antenna weight for a uplink and a downlink in a mobile communication system in which the radio base station includes an antenna and adjusts a directivity of a radio wave to be transmitted and received and a mobile terminal performs a radio communication with the radio base station, wherein

a fist radio base station sets a first antenna weight to transmit the common data to a mobile terminal coupled with the first radio base station,

wherein the first mobile terminal coupled with the first radio base station and a second mobile terminal coupled with a second radio base station which is adjacent to the first radio base station transmit a reference signal to the first radio base station,

wherein the first mobile terminal calculates, with respect to each of a plurality of antenna weights to be used by the first radio base station, an index value of a reception quality inside an area of the first radio base station based on the reference signal received from the first mobile terminal and the reference signal received from the mobile terminal, and

wherein the first radio base station sets a second antenna weight, instead of the first antenna weight, according to the index value from among the plurality of antenna weights to the antenna weight used to transmit the common data to the mobile terminal coupled with the first radio base station.

8. The antenna weight setting method according to claim 7, wherein calculation for the index value performed by the first radio base station includes calculating the index value by calculating, for each of the mobile terminals, the standard power as the reception power of each of the antennas obtained when the first antenna weight is cancelled, and by dividing the sum of the values, obtained by multiplying each of the plurality of antenna weights by each of the standard powers of the first mobile terminal, by the sum of the values obtained by multiplying each of the plurality of antenna weights by each of the standard powers of the second mobile terminal.

9. The antenna weight setting method according to claim 7, wherein the reference signal from the mobile terminal, from among the first mobile terminals, of which the distance from the radio base station is larger than the prescribed first threshold value and is smaller than the second threshold value which is larger than the first threshold value is included as the basis of the calculation of the index value.

10. The antenna weight setting method according to claim 7, wherein the reference signal from the mobile terminal, from among the second terminals, of which the distance from the second radio base station is larger than a prescribed third threshold value is excluded from the basis of the calculation of the index value.

11. The antenna weight setting method according to claim 7, wherein a piece of information of the mobile terminal, from among the second mobile terminals, of which the reception power of the uplink reference signal in the second radio base station is smaller than a prescribed fourth threshold value, and wherein the obtained second mobile terminal is the basis of the calculation of the index value.

12. An antenna weight setting method used by the radio base station to set a common antenna weight for a uplink and a downlink in a mobile communication system in which the radio base station includes an antenna and adjusts a directivity in a vertical plane and/or a horizontal plane of a radio wave to be transmitted and received and a mobile terminal performs a radio communication with each of the radio base stations, wherein each of the radio base stations sets the antenna weight to transmit a piece of common data to the mobile terminal coupled with the radio base station,

wherein each of the radio base stations receives a report of a piece of first reception information which includes a reception power in the mobile terminal of a downlink reference signal of the radio base station and another adjacent radio base station,

each of the radio base stations calculates a standard power as the reception power obtained when the antenna weight of the radio base station and the other base station is cancelled and reports the standard power, and

wherein, based on the standard power for each of the mobile terminals which receives the report from each of the radio base stations, the control station specifies a combination of the antenna weights of each of the radio base stations according to the index value of an average reception quality of the mobile terminal inside the area of the plurality of radio base stations and reports the combination as a new antenna weight used to transmit the common data to the each of the radio base stations.