Method and system for selecting an antenna beam of a base station of a radio system
First Claim
1. A base station of a radio system wherein frequency channels of the radio system are divided by a TDMA principle into logical channels, the base station including an antenna arrangement comprising:
- a receiving arrangement to receive signals associated with a same logical channel via at least two antenna beams;
a measuring arrangement to measure a signal level of the signals received by the antenna beams; and
a controlling unit to select at least one of the antenna beams and to supply the signals received via the at least one of the antenna beams to a receiver unit of the base station arranged at a distance from the antenna arrangement; and
the base station comprises a clock generating arrangement to generate a clock signal indicating a change of time slots and to supply the clock signal to the controlling unit, and a quality measuring arrangement to measure a quality of the signals received by the receiver unit from the antenna arrangement and to generate a quality signal responsive to a quality of the signals and to supply the quality signal to the controlling unit, the antenna arrangement comprises means for receiving said quality signal from the base station and the controlling unit includes a memory to store information included in the quality signal separately for each of the time slots, the controlling unit being responsive to the clock signal for retrieving the information stored into the memory for a specific time slot and for utilizing the retrieved information in the selection of the at least one of the antenna beams when the clock signal indicates a time for a new time slot to receive, wherein another antenna beam is selected for use if the quality signal received from the base station indicates that the quality of the signals are below a predetermined reference level.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to a base station of a radio system whose antenna means (11) include: means (6 to 8) for receiving signals associated with the same logical channel by at least two antenna beams (1 to 4), measuring means (8) for measuring the signal level of the signals received by the antenna beams, and control means (8) for selecting one or more antenna beams (1 to 4) and for supplying the signals of the selected antenna beam to a receiver unit (5) of the base station (BTS1). In order that the best possible signal would be definitely transmitted to the base station, the base station (BTS1) comprises means for measuring the quality of the signals and for generating a quality signal (BER) and for supplying it to the control means (8), and the control means (8) are arranged to select an antenna beam (1 to 4) on the basis of the signal level measured by the measuring means and the quality signal (BER) supplied to the control means.
44 Citations
6 Claims
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1. A base station of a radio system wherein frequency channels of the radio system are divided by a TDMA principle into logical channels, the base station including an antenna arrangement comprising:
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a receiving arrangement to receive signals associated with a same logical channel via at least two antenna beams;
a measuring arrangement to measure a signal level of the signals received by the antenna beams; and
a controlling unit to select at least one of the antenna beams and to supply the signals received via the at least one of the antenna beams to a receiver unit of the base station arranged at a distance from the antenna arrangement; and
the base station comprises a clock generating arrangement to generate a clock signal indicating a change of time slots and to supply the clock signal to the controlling unit, and a quality measuring arrangement to measure a quality of the signals received by the receiver unit from the antenna arrangement and to generate a quality signal responsive to a quality of the signals and to supply the quality signal to the controlling unit, the antenna arrangement comprises means for receiving said quality signal from the base station and the controlling unit includes a memory to store information included in the quality signal separately for each of the time slots, the controlling unit being responsive to the clock signal for retrieving the information stored into the memory for a specific time slot and for utilizing the retrieved information in the selection of the at least one of the antenna beams when the clock signal indicates a time for a new time slot to receive, wherein another antenna beam is selected for use if the quality signal received from the base station indicates that the quality of the signals are below a predetermined reference level. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
the controlling unit includes data processing arrangement to maintain a log for each of the antenna beams at least of frequency channels and a time when, with a specified antenna beam, the signal level measured by the measuring arrangement exceeds a specified limit and the quality signal supplied to the controlling unit indicates that the received signals fall below a specified quality level, in addition to the signal level measured by the measuring arrangement and the supplied quality signal, the controlling unit is arranged to take into account information recorded in the log in the selection of said at least one of the antenna beams in such a manner that the controlling unit selects an antenna beam having a quality level exceeding a specified reference level based on statistics at a moment in question and on a frequency channel in question.
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6. A cellular radio system comprising:
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an antenna arrangement; and
a base station arranged to receive information from an antenna arrangement arranged at a distance from the base station, the antenna arrangement being arranged to receive radio signals associated with a same logical channel by at least two antenna beams;
the antenna arrangement comprising;
a measuring arrangement to measure a signal level of the signals received by the antenna beams, and a controlling unit to select at least one of the antenna beams and to supply the signals received by the at least one of the selected antenna beams to a receiver unit of the base station;
the base station comprising;
a quality measuring arrangement to measure a quality of the signals received by the receiver unit from the antenna arrangement, to generate a quality signal responsive to the quality of the signals, and to supply the quality signal to the controlling unit, the controlling unit being arranged to select another antenna beam for use if the quality signal received from the base station indicates that the quality of the signals are below a predetermined reference level, a sending arrangement to send information representing the signal level of the received signals and the quality of the signals received by the receiver unit separately for each of the antenna beams to a network management center by using a data transmission connection; and
the network management center comprises a data processing arrangement to process data received from the base station to determine a disturbance level in an environment of the base station.
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Specification