ANTENNA DELAY BUFFERING IN TELECOMMUNICATION RECEIVERS

• US 20160105861A1
• Filed: 03/09/2015
• Published: 04/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP USA, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: MARTINEZ, VINCENT PIERRE
• Granted Patent: US 9,756,592 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0063 of multipath interference, e.g. Rake receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 2011/0096 Network synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/005 compensating for timing error by adjustment in the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components

Abstract

A telecommunication receiver is arranged for receiving related data originating from multiple antennas, which data have different times of arrival due to, for example, different delays. The receiver comprises an input buffer for buffering data, a transform unit for Fourier transforming the data received from the input buffer into transformed data, and an output buffer for buffering the transformed data received from the transform unit. The input buffer is arranged for passing each set of data items to the transform unit when the relevant data item has been received in the input buffer, while the transform unit is arranged for removing redundant parts of the data. In addition, the output buffer is arranged for synchronizing the transformed data. Thus the buffering for delay compensation is carried out in the output buffer.

Claims

1. A telecommunication receiver for receiving, from multiple antennas, related data having different delays, the receiver comprising:

an input buffer for buffering the data for each antenna separately as buffered input data,

a transform unit for selecting, from the buffered input data, relevant input data and Fourier transforming the relevant input data into transformed data for each antenna separately as soon as the relevant input data are available, and

an output buffer for buffering the transformed data for each antenna separately as buffered output data until a predetermined amount of transformed data from all antennas is buffered.

2. The telecommunication receiver according to claim 1, wherein the transform unit is further arranged for selecting, from the transformed data, relevant transformed data and discarding remaining transformed data.

3. The telecommunication receiver according to claim 1, wherein the input buffer is arranged for only buffering per antenna the amount of data which corresponds with twice an amount of data that can be submitted to the transform unit for selecting relevant data.

4. The telecommunication receiver according to claim 1, arranged for identifying the data received from the antennas by using a unique identification for each antenna.

5. The telecommunication receiver according to claim 4, wherein the antenna having the longest delay is identified beforehand, and wherein the output buffer is arranged for buffering the transformed data until a predetermined amount of transformed data from said antenna having the longest delay is buffered.

6. The telecommunication receiver according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined amount of transformed data is a minimum amount necessary for further processing the transformed data.

7. The telecommunication receiver according to claim 6, wherein the further processing comprises decoding.

8. The telecommunication receiver according to claim 6, wherein the further processing comprises channel equalization.

9. The telecommunication receiver according to claim 1, wherein each antenna comprises multiple sectors, and wherein the data are buffered and transformed for each antenna and for sector separately.

10. The telecommunication receiver according to claim 1 ms, arranged for use in a base station of a Long Term Evolution telecommunication network.

11. The telecommunication receiver according to claim 1, further comprising at least one decoding unit.

12. An integrated circuit comprising at least one telecommunication receiver according to claim 1.

13. A telecommunication system, comprising a plurality of antennas and at least one receiver according claim 1.

14. The telecommunication system according to claim 13, wherein the antennas and the at least one receiver are coupled by optical fibre cables.

20. A non-transitory tangible computer readable storage medium comprising data loadable in a programmable apparatus comprising a device according to claim 1, the loadable data representing instructions executable by the programmable apparatus, said instructions comprising:

one or more processor instructions for buffering data for each antenna separately as buffered input data,

one or more processor instructions for selecting, from the buffered input data, relevant input data and Fourier transforming the relevant input data into transformed data for each antenna separately as soon as the relevant input data are available, and

one or more processor instructions for buffering the transformed data for each antenna separately as buffered output data until a predetermined amount of transformed data from all antennas is buffered.

15. A method of receiving from multiple antennas related data having different delays, the method comprising:

buffering the data for each antenna separately as buffered input data,

selecting, from the buffered input data, relevant input data and Fourier transforming the relevant input data into transformed data for each antenna separately as soon as the relevant input data are available, and

buffering the transformed data for each antenna separately as buffered output data until a predetermined amount of transformed data from all antennas is buffered.

16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising selecting, from the transformed data, relevant transformed data and discarding remaining transformed data.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the predetermined amount of transformed data is a minimum amount necessary for further processing the transformed data.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein each antenna comprises multiple sectors, and wherein the data are buffered and transformed per antenna and per sector.

19. A computer program product comprising instructions for causing a processor system to perform a method of receiving data in a telecommunication receiver, the method comprising:

buffering the data for each antenna separately as buffered input data,

selecting, from the buffered input data, relevant input data and Fourier transforming the relevant input data into transformed data for each antenna separately as soon as the buffered input data are available, and

buffering the transformed data for each antenna separately as buffered output data until a predetermined amount of transformed data from all antennas is buffered.