ELECTRONIC DEVICE, COMMUNICATION APPARATUS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20200136704A1
• Filed: 02/07/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: LIU, Wendong, WANG, Zhaocheng, CAO, Jianfei
• Granted Patent: US 10,790,894 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0469 taking special antenna structures, e.g. cross polarized antennas into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0478 Special codebook structures directed to feedback optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0479 for multi-dimensional arrays, e.g. horizontal or vertical pre-distortion matrix index [PMI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0626 Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0639 Using selective indices, e.g. of a codebook, e.g. pre-distortion matrix index [PMI] or for beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0224 using sounding signals

Abstract

An electronic device for a wireless communication system includes processing circuitry configured to: perform control to transmit/receive signals to/from a target communication apparatus via an offset array antenna associated with the electronic device, wherein the offset array antenna comprises multiple sets of antenna elements, each has multiple antenna elements arranged in a first direction, a spatial offset and a phase difference in the first direction exist among the multiple sets of antenna elements, and the multiple sets of antenna elements are arranged in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; and acquire a state of a channel in the first direction between the offset array antenna and the target communication apparatus, wherein the state of the channel in the first direction is determined using the signals which comprise the phase difference in the first direction.

Claims

1. An electronic device for a wireless communication system, comprising:

processing circuitry configured to

perform control to transmit/receive signals to/from a target communication apparatus via an offset array antenna associated with the electronic device, wherein the offset array antenna comprises multiple sets of antenna elements, each of the multiple sets of antenna elements has multiple antenna elements arranged in a first direction, a spatial offset in the first direction and a phase difference in the first direction exist among the multiple sets of antenna elements, and the multiple sets of antenna elements are arranged in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; and

acquire a state of a channel in the first direction between the offset array antenna and the target communication apparatus, wherein the state of the channel in the first direction is determined using the signals which comprise the phase difference in the first direction.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein

the state of the channel in the first direction is acquired using a reference set of antenna elements and at least one offset antenna element of the multiple sets of antenna elements, and the at least one offset antenna element has a spatial offset in the first direction with respect to antenna elements of the reference set of antenna elements.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein one of the following:

the state of the channel in the first direction is acquired by performing phase compensation in the second direction on the at least one offset antenna element

the processing circuitry is further configured to transmit multiple beams with different angles with respect to the first direction using the reference set of antenna elements and the at least one offset antenna element, wherein the state of the channel in the first direction is determined based on feedback information from the target communication apparatus, the feedback information comprising indication of reception states of the target communication apparatus for the multiple beams;

or

the processing circuitry is further configured to perform control to;

transmit a first reference signal via the offset array antenna;

receive, from the target communication apparatus, first channel information acquired based on the first reference signal;

transmit a beam-formed second reference signal based on the first channel information using the reference set of antenna elements and the at least one offset antenna element and

receive, from the target communication apparatus, second channel information acquired based on the second reference signal.

6. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform control to:

acquire a joint channel coefficient vector for the reference set of antenna elements and the at least one offset antenna element, the joint channel coefficient vector comprising channel coefficients for the reference set of antenna elements and a channel coefficient for the at least one offset antenna element subject to a compensation,

wherein the state of the channel in the first direction is acquired based on the joint channel coefficient vector.

7. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein the compensation is performed based on initial channel coefficients for the offset array antenna, and the initial channel coefficients are acquired by a channel state estimation method for a non-offset array antenna.

8. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to determine an offset codebook for performing beam-forming on the offset array antenna based on the phase difference in the first direction.

9. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the offset codebook is acquired by adding a phase offset to a non-offset codebook.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein one of the following:

the processing circuitry is further configured to perform control to send offset information on the offset array antenna to the target communication apparatus;

the processing circuitry is further configured to adjust the spatial offset in the first direction among the multiple sets of antenna elements;

the electronic device is implemented as a base station, and comprises the offset array antenna;

or

the first direction is a vertical direction.

4-5. -5. (canceled)

11-13. -13. (canceled)

14. A communication apparatus for a wireless communication system, comprising:

multiple sets of antenna elements, wherein each of the multiple sets of antenna elements has multiple antenna elements arranged in a first direction, and the multiple sets of antenna elements are arranged in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction,

wherein a spatial offset in the first direction and a phase difference in the first direction exist among the multiple sets of antenna elements, and the phase difference in the first direction is used to acquire a state of a channel in the first direction.

15. The communication apparatus of claim 14, wherein one of the following:

the first direction is a vertical direction;

a reference set of antenna elements and at least one offset antenna element of the multiple sets of antenna elements are used to acquire the state of the channel in the first direction, the at least one offset antenna element has a spatial offset in the first direction with respect to antenna elements of the reference set of antenna elements;

the spatial offset in the first direction among the multiple sets of antenna elements is adjustable;

or

an array antenna constituted by the multiple sets of antenna elements is an offset uniform array antenna.

16-18. -18. (canceled)

19. An electronic device for a wireless communication system, comprising:

processing circuitry configured to

receive signals from an offset array antenna associated with a target communication apparatus, wherein the offset array antenna comprises multiple sets of antenna elements, each of the multiple sets of antenna elements has multiple antenna elements arranged in a first direction, a spatial offset in the first direction and a phase difference in the first direction exist among the multiple sets of antenna elements, and the multiple sets of antenna elements are arranged in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction;

acquire a state of a channel in the first direction between the offset array antenna and an antenna associated with the electronic device, using the signals which comprise the phase difference in the first direction; and

send information comprising indication of the state of the channel in the first direction to the target communication apparatus.

20. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein the first direction is a vertical direction.

21. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein

the state of the channel in the first direction is acquired using a reference set of antenna elements and at least one offset antenna element of the multiple sets of antenna elements, the at least one offset antenna element has a spatial offset in the first direction with respect to antenna elements of the reference set of antenna elements.

22. The electronic device of claim 21, wherein one of the following:

the processing circuitry is further configured to;

perform control to receive multiple beams with different angles with respect to the first direction transmitted using the reference set of antenna elements and the at least one offset antenna element,

wherein the information sent to the target communication apparatus comprises indication of reception states of the antenna associated with the electronic device for the multiple beams;

or

the processing circuitry is further configured to perform control to;

receive a first reference signal from the offset array antenna;

send to the target communication apparatus first channel information acquired based on the first reference signal;

receive a beam-formed second reference signal transmitted using the reference set of antenna elements and the at least one offset antenna element based on the first channel information; and

send to the target communication apparatus second channel information acquired based on the second reference signal.

23. (canceled)

24. An electronic device comprising:

processing circuitry configured to

receive signals from an offset array antenna associated with a target communication apparatus, wherein the offset array antenna comprises multiple sets of antenna elements, each of the multiple sets of antenna elements has multiple antenna elements arranged in a first direction, a spatial offset in the first direction and a phase difference in the first direction exist among the multiple sets of antenna elements, and the multiple sets of antenna elements are arranged in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction;

acquire offset information on the offset array antenna;

determine an offset codebook for the offset array antenna based on the offset information and the signals.

25. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein the first direction is a vertical direction.

26. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein determining the offset codebook for the offset array antenna based on the offset information and the signals comprises:

estimate a state of a channel between the electronic device and the target communication apparatus based on the signals; and

compare estimated result of the state of the channel with codewords of the offset coded book generated based on the offset information, to determine a matched codeword,

wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to send information comprising indication of the matched codeword to the target communication apparatus.

27. The electronic device of claim 26, wherein one of the following:

the offset codebook is an offset Kronecker product DFT codebook;

or

the offset codebook is a codebook in the second direction.

28-32. -32. (canceled)