RADIO WITH ANTENNA ARRAY AND MULTIPLE RF BANDS

• US 20200137757A1
• Filed: 12/12/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: COMS IP Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Skyline Partners Technology, LLC (COMSovereign Holding Corp.)
• Inventors: Negus, Kevin J.
• Granted Patent: US 11,134,491 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/246 specially adapted for base stations
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/061 Two dimensional planar arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/205 providing an omnidirectional coverage turnstile aerials H01Q21/26
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/24 Combinations of antenna units polarised in different directions for transmitting or receiving circularly and elliptically polarised waves or waves linearly polarised in any direction circularly polarised patch antennas H01Q9/0428; circularly polarised horns H01Q13/0241; cross-polarised horns H01Q13/0258; polarisation converters H01Q15/242; cross-polarised rear feeds H01Q19/136; crossed polarisation dual antenna H01Q25/001
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/29 Combinations of different interacting antenna units for giving a desired directional characteristic H01Q25/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 25/00 Antennas or antenna systems providing at least two radiating patterns arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern H01Q3/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 25/005 providing two patterns of opposite direction; back to back antennas H01Q25/004 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/24 varying the orientation by switching energy from one active radiating element to another, e.g. for beam switching
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 5/50 Feeding or matching arrangements for broad-band or multi-band operation
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/24 of transmitter output stages
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/48 in circuits for connecting transmitter and receiver to a common transmission path, e.g. by energy of transmitter H04B1/46 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/0408 with power amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/04 using two or more spaced independent antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0608 Antenna selection according to transmission parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0691 using subgroups of transmit antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0009 by adapting the channel coding H04L1/1812 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1607 Details of the supervisory signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1664 the supervisory signal being transmitted together with payload signals; piggybacking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2025/03414 Multicarrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/03019 : adaptive, i.e. capable of adjustment during data reception
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/0008 : arrangements for allowing a transmitter or receiver to use more than one type of modulation negotiating modulation type for two-way transmission paths H04L5/1453
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/01 : Equalisers baseband equalizers at the transmitter end H04L25/03343; in analogue transmission systems H04B3/04, H04B7/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2636 : with FFT or DFT modulators, e.g. standard single-carrier frequency-division multiple access [SC-FDMA] transmitter or DFT spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing [DFT-SOFDM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2678 : using cyclostationarities, e.g. cyclic prefix or postfix
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 : the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 : Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0028 : Variable division signaling therefor H04L5/0092
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 : Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 : Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 : Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/143 : for modulated signals H04L5/1469 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 : Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/52 : using AGC [Automatic Gain Control] circuits or amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 : Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 : Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A fixed wireless access radio is disclosed that is compact, light and low power for street level mounting, operates at 100 Mb/s or higher at ranges of 300 m or longer in obstructed LOS conditions with low latencies of 5 ms or less, can support PTP and PMP topologies, uses radio spectrum resources efficiently and does not require precise physical antenna alignment.

Claims

1. A fixed wireless access radio for exchanging one or more data interface streams with one or more other fixed wireless access radios, said radio comprising:

a plurality of receive radio frequency (RF) chains;

a plurality of transmit radio frequency (RF) chains; and

a plurality of antenna elements, wherein at least a first subset of the plurality of antenna elements is configured to operate over at least both of a first transmit frequency band and a first receive frequency band and each antenna element of the first subset of the plurality of antenna elements is coupled or couplable to at least one of a first subset of the plurality of receive RF chains or coupled or couplable to at least one of a first subset of the plurality of transmit RF chains, and wherein at least a second subset of the plurality of antenna elements is configured to operate over at least both of a second transmit frequency band and a second receive frequency band and each antenna element of the second subset of the plurality of antenna elements is coupled or couplable to at least one of a second subset of the plurality of receive RF chains or coupled or couplable to at least one of a second subset of the plurality of transmit RF chains;

wherein the radio is configured to provide a base throughput capability using the first receive frequency band and the first transmit frequency band.

2. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein the first transmit frequency band is coincident with the first receive frequency band.

3. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein a first frequency band comprises at least the first transmit frequency band and the first receive frequency band.

4. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 3, wherein the first frequency band is either within a frequency range of between 2 GHz and 7 GHz or within a frequency range of above 10 GHz.

5. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein the second transmit frequency band is coincident with the second receive frequency band.

6. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein a second frequency band comprises at least the second transmit frequency band and the second receive frequency band.

7. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 6, wherein the second frequency band is either within a frequency range of between 2 GHz and 7 GHz or within a frequency range of above 10 GHz.

8. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein at least one antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements is a directive gain antenna element.

9. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein at least one antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements is at least one of a patch antenna element, a dipole antenna element, or a slot antenna element.

10. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein at least one antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements is coupled or couplable to at least one receive RF chain or transmit RF chain via either at least one RF switch or at least one duplexer filter.

11. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein the fixed wireless access radio is configured to use at least a Single-Carrier Frequency Domain Equalization (SC-FDE) modulation format.

12. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein the fixed wireless access radio is configured to use at least an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation format.

13. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein the fixed wireless access radio is configured to transmit in the first transmit frequency band and receive in the first receive frequency band coincident in time for at least a period of time.

14. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein the fixed wireless access radio is configured to transmit in the second transmit frequency band and receive in the second receive frequency band coincident in time for at least a period of time.

15. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of receive RF chains comprises at least a vector demodulator and two analog to digital converters that are configured to produce a respective one of a plurality of receive chain output signals comprised of digital baseband quadrature signals.

16. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of transmit RF chains comprises at least a vector modulator and two digital to analog converters that are configured to produce a respective one of the plurality of transmit RF signals from a respective one of a plurality of transmit chain input signals comprised of digital baseband quadrature signals.

17. A fixed wireless access radio for exchanging one or more data interface streams with one or more other fixed wireless access radios, said fixed wireless access radio comprising:

a plurality of receive radio frequency (RF) chains;

a plurality of transmit radio frequency (RF) chains;

a plurality of directive gain antenna elements, wherein each of the plurality of directive gain antenna elements is configured to operate over at least both of a transmit frequency band and a receive frequency band; and

a plurality of duplexer filters, wherein each duplexer filter comprises at least a receive band-select filter configured to selectively pass RF signals within the receive frequency band and a transmit band-select filter configured to selectively pass RF signals within the transmit frequency band, wherein each duplexer filter is couplable or coupled to at least one of the plurality of directive gain antenna elements, wherein the receive band-select filter of each duplexer filter is couplable or coupled to at least one of the plurality of receive RF chains, and wherein the transmit band-select filter of each duplexer filter is couplable or coupled to at least one of the plurality of transmit RF chains;

wherein the fixed wireless access radio is configured to operate at least a first subset of the plurality of transmit RF chains at a first transmit RF carrier frequency and to operate at least a second subset of the plurality of transmit RF chains at a second transmit RF carrier frequency; and

wherein the fixed wireless access radio is further configured to select at least one of the first transmit RF carrier frequency or the second transmit RF carrier frequency in response to at least a current link condition at an at least one of the one or more other fixed wireless access radios.

18. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 17, further comprising:

one or more demodulator cores, wherein each demodulator core is configured to demodulate one or more of a plurality of receive symbol streams to produce one or more receive data interface streams; and

a frequency selective receive path channel multiplexer, interposed between the one or more demodulator cores and at least the plurality of receive RF chains, wherein the frequency selective receive path channel multiplexer is configured to generate the plurality of receive symbol streams from at least the plurality of receive chain output signals.

19. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 18, wherein each one of the one or more demodulator cores comprises at least a decoder and a soft decision symbol demapper;

and wherein each one of the plurality of receive RF chains comprises at least a vector demodulator and two analog to digital converters that are configured to produce the respective one of the plurality of receive chain output signals, each said respective one of the plurality of receive chain output signals comprised of digital baseband quadrature signals.

20. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 19, wherein each one of the plurality of transmit RF chains comprises at least a vector modulator and two digital to analog converters that are configured to produce the respective one of the plurality of transmit RF signals, each said respective one of the plurality of transmit chain input signals comprised of digital baseband quadrature signals.

21. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 18, wherein each one of the one or more demodulator cores comprises at least one of a descrambler or a deinterleaver;

and

wherein each one of the one or more modulator cores comprises at least one of a scrambler or an interleaver.

22. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 18, further comprising:

one or more selectable RF connections that are configured to selectively couple certain of the plurality of directive gain antenna elements to either or both of certain of the plurality of receive RF chains or certain of the plurality of transmit RF chains;

wherein the number of directive gain antenna elements that are configured to be selectively coupled to receive RF chains exceeds the number of receive RF chains that are configured to accept receive RF signals from the one or more selectable RF connections;

or

wherein the number of directive gain antenna elements that are configured to be selectively coupled to transmit RF chains exceeds the number of transmit RF chains that are configured to provide transmit RF signals to the one or more selectable RF connections.

23. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 22, wherein at least one of the one or more selectable RF connections comprises at least one RF switch.

24. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 22, wherein the set of receive RF chains that is configured to accept receive RF signals from the one or more selectable RF connections is divided between a first subset that is configured to accept receive RF signals from directive gain antenna elements with a first polarization and a second subset that is configured to accept receive RF signals from directive gain antenna elements with a second polarization;

or wherein the set of transmit RF chains that is configured to provide transmit RF signals to the one or more selectable RF connections is divided between a third subset that is configured to provide transmit RF signals to directive gain antenna elements with a first polarization and a fourth subset that is configured to provide transmit RF signals to directive gain antenna elements with a second polarization.

25. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 17, wherein the directive gain antenna elements are arranged on a plurality of facets with one or more directive gain antenna elements per facet, and wherein each facet is oriented at a different azimuth angle relative to at least one other facet.

26. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 17, further comprising:

a plurality of power amplifiers, wherein each power amplifier is configured to amplify at least one of the transmit RF signals, and wherein each power amplifier is couplable or coupled to at least one of the plurality of transmit RF chains and to at least one transmit band-select filter of the plurality of duplexer filters; and

a plurality of low noise amplifiers, wherein each low noise amplifier is configured to amplify at least one of the receive RF signals, and wherein each low noise amplifier is couplable or coupled to at least one of the plurality of receive RF chains and to at least one receive band-select filter of the plurality of duplexer filters.

27. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 17, wherein the first transmit frequency band is coincident with the first receive frequency band.

28. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 17, wherein first frequency band comprises at least the first transmit frequency band and the first receive frequency band.

29. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 17, wherein the first frequency band is either within a frequency range of between 2 GHz and 7 GHz or within a frequency range of above 10 GHz.

30. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 17, wherein the second transmit frequency band is coincident with the second receive frequency band.

31. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 17, wherein second frequency band comprises at least the second transmit frequency band and the second receive frequency band.

32. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 17, wherein the second frequency band is either within a frequency range of between 2 GHz and 7 GHz or within a frequency range of above 10 GHz.

33. A fixed wireless access radio for exchanging one or more data interface streams with one or more other fixed wireless access radios, said fixed wireless access radio comprising:

a plurality of receive radio frequency (RF) chains;

a plurality of transmit radio frequency (RF) chains; and

a plurality of directive gain antenna elements, wherein a first subset of the plurality of directive gain antenna elements is configured to operate over at least a transmit frequency band and is couplable or coupled to at least one the plurality of transmit RF chains and a second subset of the plurality of directive gain antenna elements is configured to operate over at least a receive frequency band and is couplable or coupled to at least one the plurality of receive RF chains;

wherein the fixed wireless access radio is configured to operate at least a first subset of the plurality of transmit RF chains at a first transmit RF carrier frequency and to operate at least a second subset of the plurality of transmit RF chains at a second transmit RF carrier frequency; and

wherein the fixed wireless access radio is further configured to select at least one of the first transmit RF carrier frequency or the second transmit RF carrier frequency in response to at least a current link condition at an at least one of the one or more other fixed wireless access radios.

34. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 33, wherein each of the plurality of directive gain antenna elements is configured to operate over at least both of the transmit frequency band and the receive frequency band.

35. The fixed wireless access radio of claim 33, wherein the transmit frequency band is coincident with the receive frequency band.