System and method for channel bonding in multiple antenna communication systems

• US 7,391,832 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2004
• Issued: 06/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Catreux-Erces, Severine, Winters, Jack, Van Rooyen, Pieter, Roux, Pieter, Erceg, Vinko
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan; Chieh M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Perilla; Jason M.
• Application Number:
  US11/009,503
• Publication Number:
  US 20050105632A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,292 Days
• Field of Search: 375/295, 375/316, 375/260, 375/346, 375/347, 375/349
• US Class Current: 375/349
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0615 of weighted versions of same signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0842 Weighted combining
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0848 Joint weighting
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/42 in systems with time, space, frequency or polarisation diversity

Abstract

Systems and methods that provide channel bonding in multiple antenna communication systems are provided. In one embodiment, a method for signal transmission over a plurality of antennas of a transmitter may include, for example, one or more of the following: demultiplexing an input signal into a plurality of signal components; assigning each of the signal components to one of a plurality of logical channels; weighting each of the signal components with transmit baseband weight values; combining ones of the resultant weighted signal components to form a plurality of transmit weighted signals, each of the plurality of transmit weighted signals being assigned to one of the plurality of logical channels; and combining groups of the plurality of transmit weighted signals to form a plurality of output signals capable of being used to generate a plurality RF output signals.

Claims

1. A method for receiving a transmitted radio frequency (RF) signal based on an input signal, the transmitted RF signal being transmitted by a multi-antenna transmitting device and being received by a plurality of antennas of a receiver, the antennas of the receiver being adapted to produce a corresponding plurality of receive RF signals in response to the transmitted RF signal, the method comprising:

splitting each of the plurality of received RF signals into a plurality of RF signal components;

identifying which one of a plurality of logical channels is assigned to each of the plurality of RF signal components, each logical channel comprising a different frequency channel;

weighting each of the plurality of RF signal components with receive RF weight values;

combining ones of the resultant RF weighted signal components to form a plurality of RF weighted signals;

converting the plurality of RF weighted signals into receive baseband signals;

weighting each of the receive baseband signals with receive baseband weight values; and

multiplexing the receive baseband weighted signals to obtain an estimate of the input signal.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of logical channels is of a uniform type selected from at least one of a frequency bandwidth, a time slot and a code number.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein a first subset of the receive baseband weight values are multiplied with ones of signal components of the receive baseband signals assigned to a first of the plurality of logical channels, each value within the first subset of the receive baseband weight values being a function of propagation channel path gains corresponding to the first of the plurality of logical channels.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the set of receive RF weight values is computed to maximize, at the receiver, a signal-to-noise ratio characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the set of receive RF weight values is computed to maximize, at the receiver, a capacity or a throughput characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the set of receive RF weight values is computed to minimize, at the receiver, a bit error rate characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the set of receive RF weight values is computed to minimize, at the receiver, a maximum bit error rate characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

8. The method according to claim 1, comprising:

selecting a subset of antennas from the plurality of antennas of the receiver for connection to the plurality of receive RF signals, the subset of antennas being selected based upon a predefined selection criterion.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the predefined selection criterion comprises at least one of (i) maximizing, at the receiver, a capacity or a signal-to-noise ratio characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels, and (ii) minimizing, at the receiver, a bit error rate characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the predefined selection criterion comprises minimizing, at the receiver, a maximum of a bit error rate characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

11. The method according to claim 1, comprising:

filtering the plurality of receive RF signals utilizing a filter having a frequency bandwidth encompassing a set of bandwidths associated with the plurality of logical channels.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the converting comprises mixing each of the plurality of RF weighted signals in the RF domain with a signal having a frequency corresponding to a center frequency of one of the plurality of logical channels.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the converting comprises mixing each of the plurality of RF weighted signals in the RF domain with a signal having a frequency corresponding to a center frequency of one of the plurality of logical channels.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmitted RF signal comprises at least one of:

a code division multiple access signal, a single carrier signal, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed signal and an ultra-wideband signal.

15. A signal reception method for use within a receiver, the receiver comprising a plurality of antennas adapted to produce a corresponding plurality of receive radio frequency (RF) signals in response to an incidence of a transmitted RF signal, the transmitted RF signal being transmitted wirelessly by a multi-antenna transmitting device and originating from an input signal comprising a set of spatially-multiplexed signals, the method comprising:

splitting each of the plurality of receive RF signals into a plurality of RF signal components;

identifying which one of a plurality of logical channels is assigned to each of the plurality of RF signal components;

weighting each of the plurality of RF signal components with receive RF weight values;

downconverting the plurality of RF weighted signal components into receive baseband signal components;

combining and baseband weighting ones of the resultant receive baseband signal components to form a plurality of receive baseband weighted signals, each of the plurality of receive baseband weighted signals being assigned to one of the plurality of logical channels and being associated with one of the spatially-multiplexed signals;

multiplexing a group of the plurality of receive baseband weighted signals corresponding to each of the spatially-multiplexed signals to form a plurality of multiplexed received signals; and

multiplexing the plurality of multiplexed received signals to obtain an estimate of the input signal.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of logical channels is of a uniform type selected from at least one of a frequency bandwidth, a time slot and a code number.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein a first subset of the receive RF weight values is multiplied with ones of signal components assigned to a first of the plurality of logical channels, each value within the first subset of the receive RF weight values being a function only of propagation channel path gains corresponding to the first of the plurality of logical channels.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the set of receive RF weight values is computed to maximize, at the receiver, a signal-to-noise ratio characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein the set of receive RF weight values is computed to maximize, at the receiver, a capacity or a throughput characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein the set of receive RF weight values is computed to minimize, at the receiver, a bit error rate characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

21. The method according to claim 15, wherein the set of receive RF weight values is computed to minimize, at the receiver, a maximum of a bit error rate characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

22. The method according to claim 15, further comprising:

selecting a subset of antennas from the plurality of antennas for connection to the plurality of received RF signals, the subset of antennas being selected based upon a predefined selection criterion.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein the predefined selection criterion comprises at least one of (i) maximizing, at the receiver, a capacity or a signal-to-noise ratio characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels, and (ii) minimizing, at the receiver, a bit error rate characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

24. The method according to claim 22, wherein the predefined selection criterion comprises minimizing, at the receiver, a maximum of a bit error rate characterizing an aggregated channel comprising the plurality of logical channels.

25. The method according to claim 15, further comprising:

filtering the plurality of received RF signals utilizing a filter having a frequency bandwidth encompassing a set of bandwidths associated with the plurality of logical channels.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein the downconverting comprises mixing each of the weighted signal components in the RF domain with a signal having a frequency corresponding to a center frequency of one of the plurality of logical channels.

27. The method according to claim 15, wherein the downconverting comprises mixing each of the weighted signal components in the RF domain with a signal having a frequency corresponding to a center frequency of one of the plurality of logical channels.

28. The method according to claim 15, wherein the transmitted RF signal comprises at least one of a code division multiple access signal, a single carrier signal, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed signal and an ultra-wideband signal.

29. A multi-antenna receiver comprising a plurality of antennas adapted to produce a corresponding plurality of receive radio frequency (RF) signals in response to an incidence of a transmitted RF signal originating from an input signal, the input signal being demultiplexed into N substreams in which N is an integer, the transmitted RF signal being transmitted wirelessly from a multi-antenna transmitter to the receiver, the receiver comprising:

an RF processing arrangement adapted to split each of the plurality of received RF signals into a plurality of RF signal components, to weight each of the plurality of RF signal components with receive RF weight values and to identify which one of a plurality of logical channels is assigned to each of the plurality of RF signal components, the plurality of RF weighted signal components being combined into N RF signals, the RF processing arrangement being adapted to split each of the N RF signals into a plurality of baseband signal components;

a digital signal processor operatively coupled to the RF processing arrangement, the digital signal processor adapted to weight each of the plurality of baseband signal components with receive baseband weight values and to combine ones of the resultant weighted baseband signal components to form a plurality of receive weighted baseband signals, each of the plurality of receive baseband weighted signals being assigned to one of the plurality of logical channels; and

a multiplexer arrangement adapted to multiplex the plurality of receive baseband weighted signals to obtain an estimate of the input signal.

30. The receiver according to claim 29, wherein each of the plurality of logical channels is of a uniform type selected from at least one of a frequency bandwidth, a time slot and a code number.

31. The receiver according to claim 29, wherein the digital signal processor is adapted to multiply a first subset of the receive baseband weight values with ones of signal components assigned to a first of the plurality of logical channels, each value within the first subset of the receive baseband weight values being a function of propagation channel path gains corresponding to the first of the plurality of logical channels.

32. The method according to claim 29, wherein each logical channel of the plurality of logical channels comprises a different frequency channel.

33. A multi-antenna receiver comprising a plurality of antennas adapted to produce a corresponding plurality of received radio frequency (RF) signals in response to an incidence of a transmitted RF signal, the transmitted RF signal originating from an input signal comprising a set of spatially-multiplexed signals, the transmitted RF signal being transmitted wirelessly from a multi-antenna transmitting device to the receiver, the receiver comprising:

an RF processing arrangement adapted to split each of the plurality of received RF signals into a plurality of RF signal components, to weight each of the plurality of RF signal components with an RF weight, to identify which one of a plurality of logical channels is assigned to each of the plurality of RF weighted signal components and to combine the RF weighted signal components into a second plurality of RF signals, the RF processing arrangement being adapted to split each of the second plurality of RF signals into a plurality of baseband signal components;

a digital signal processor coupled to the RF processing arrangement, the digital signal processor adapted to weight each of the plurality of baseband signal components with receive baseband weight values and to combine ones of the resultant baseband weighted signal components to form a plurality of receive baseband weighted signals, each of the plurality of receive baseband weighted signals being assigned to one of the plurality of logical channels and being associated with one of the spatially-multiplexed signals;

a multiplexing arrangement coupled to the digital signal processor, the multiplexing arrangement being adapted (i) to multiplex a group of the plurality of receive baseband weighted signals corresponding to each of the spatially-multiplexed signals to form a plurality of multiplexed received signals, and (ii) to multiplex the plurality of multiplexed received signals to obtain an estimate of the input signal.