SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE FOR PROVIDING COMMUNICATIONS IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK

• US 20120281672A1
• Filed: 07/23/2009
• Published: 11/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Ohm, Michael, Wild, Thorsten, Schmidt, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,350,442 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/185 Space-based or airborne stations; Stations for satellite systemsH04B7/204 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile

Abstract

Method for performing communications in a wireless communication network (1), comprising: receiving mobility information about at least one moving mobile station (5) in a mobility server (8) of the wireless communications network (1); using the mobility information from the mobility server (8) for calculating antenna weights to be applied to antenna elements (3i) of an antenna array (3) for steering a beam (3a) generated by the antenna array (3) to the moving mobile station (5) preferably using space-division multiple access, SDMA. The invention also relates to a base station (2), to a mobile station (5), and to a wireless communication network (1).

Claims

1. A method for performing communications in a wireless communication network, comprising:

receiving mobility information about at least one moving mobile station in a mobility server of the wireless communications network; and

using the mobility information from the mobility server for calculating antenna weights to be applied to antenna elements of an antenna array, for steering a beam generated by the antenna array to the moving mobile station, preferably using space-division multiple access, SDMA.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

transferring the mobility information from a mobility client located at the mobile station to the mobility server.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mobility server predicts a handover event of a moving mobile station to a new target cell of a base station and triggers the steering of a beam of an antenna array of the new target cell to the moving mobile station to be handed over to the new target cell.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the mobility server uses information about the location of the base stations of the com- munications network for predicting the handover event.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising performing Doppler compensation of signals transmitted between the base station and the moving mobile station.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mobility information is selected from the group consisting of:

a position of the mobile station, a velocity of the mobile station, and a direction of movement of the mobile station.

7. Abase station for a wireless telecommunication network, comprising:

at least one antenna array, preferably for performing space-division multiple access, SOMA,

a beamforming unit adapted to receive mobility information about at least one moving mobile station from a mobility server, the beamforming unit being further adapted to calculate antenna weights to be applied to antenna elements of the antenna array for steering a beam generated by the antenna array to the moving mobile station using the mobility information, wherein preferably the mobility server is located in the base station.

8. The base station according to claim 7, wherein the beamforming unit is separable from the base station and preferably located at an interface between the at least one antenna array and a standardized baseband signal generating component for generating a baseband signal.

12. A wireless communication network comprising at least one base station according to claim 7 and at least one mobile station according to claim 9, further comprising a mobility server for storing mobility information about the at least one mobile station.

13. The wireless communication network according to claim 12, wherein the mobility server is a centralised server connected to the base station via a core network of the wireless communication network.

14. The wireless communication network according to claim 12, wherein the at least one mobile station is arranged in a high-speed vehicle, in particular in a train or in an airplane.

9. A mobile station for a wireless communication network, comprising:

a mobility client adapted to retrieve mobility information about the mobile station, the mobile station being adapted to transfer the mobility information to a base station of the wireless communication network for storing the mobility information in a mobility server.

10. The mobile station according to claim 9, further comprising a physical layer extension component, being adapted to perform Doppler compensation of signals transmitted from the mobile station to the base station and/or from the base station to the mobile station.

11. The mobile station according to claim 10, wherein the physical layer extension component is separable from the mobile station and preferably arranged at an interface between an RF transceiver of the mobile station and a standardized processing component for processing a baseband signal.

15. A method for performing communications in a wireless communication network, comprising:

transferring mobility information from a plurality of mobility clients located at respective mobile stations of the network to a mobility server arranged at a fixed location in the network,

storing the mobility information of the plurality of mobile stations in the mobility server; and

using the mobility information of the mobility server for predicting a handover event of at least one moving mobile station to a new target cell.