Radio repeater and radio relay transmission method

• US 7,430,397 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2004
• Issued: 09/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Fujii, Hiromasa, Tanaka, Tetsu, Suda, Hirohito, Asai, Takahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Anderson, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Aminzay, Shaima Q
• Application Number:
  US10/989,249
• Publication Number:
  US 20050130587A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,413 Days
• Field of Search: 455/9, 455/7, 455/65, 455/11.1, 455/13.1, 455/23, 455/101, 375/211, 375/214, 375/267, 375/299, 375/349, 375/350, 370/226, 370/315, 343/756, 343/726, 343/909
• US Class Current: 455/7
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15564 Relay station antennae loop interference reduction

Abstract

A radio repeater including at least first and second relay systems, each including a reception antenna configured to receive a radio signal, a loop interference suppressor, connected to the reception antenna, configured to suppress a loop interference signal in the received radio signal from said reception antenna, an amplifier configured to amplify the loop interference-suppressed radio signal from the loop interference suppressors, and a transmission antenna having a polarization characteristic, which is orthogonal to a polarization characteristic of said reception antenna, configured to transmit the output of said amplifier.

Claims

1. A radio repeater, comprising:

at least first and second relay systems, each including

a reception antenna configured to receive a radio signal;

a loop interference suppressor, connected to the reception antenna, configured to suppress a loop interference signal in the received radio signal from said reception antenna;

an amplifier configured to amplify the loop interference-suppressed radio signal from the loop interference suppressor; and

a transmission antenna having a polarization characteristic, which is orthogonal to a polarization characteristic of said reception antenna, configured to transmit an output of said amplifier,

wherein the polarization characteristics of the reception antennas of said first and second relay systems are orthogonal to each other, the polarization characteristics of the transmission antennas of said first and second relay systems are orthogonal to each other, and the loop interference suppressor in each one of said first and second relay systems is configured to produce a suppression signal from the radio signal to be transmitted from the other one of said first and second relay systems and to suppress the loop interference signal in the received radio signal from the reception antenna of said one of the first and second relay systems.

2. A radio repeater according to claim 1, wherein the loop interference suppressor in each one of the first and second relay systems comprises:

a channel estimator configured to receive the radio signal to be transmitted from the transmission antenna of a corresponding one of the first and second relay systems as an input for estimating a first transmission path characteristic of the loop interference signal which comes from the transmission antenna of the other one of the first and second relay systems to the reception antenna of the corresponding relay system;

a finite impulse response filter (FIR) configured to convolute the estimated first transmission path characteristic with the radio signal to be transmitted by the transmission antenna of the other relay system to produce a replica as the suppression signal; and

a subtractor configured to subtract the replica from the FIR filter from the radio signal received by the reception antenna of the corresponding relay system to feed it to the amplifier of the corresponding relay system.

3. A radio repeater according to claim 2, wherein the radio signal received by the reception antenna of the other relay system is also input to the channel estimator that is configured to estimate a second transmission path characteristic of the loop interference signal which comes from the transmission antenna of the corresponding relay system to the reception antenna of the corresponding relay system,

the channel estimator comprising a variable delay means for causing the radio signal received by the reception antenna of the corresponding relay system to be delayed by an amount corresponding to a detected delay, and a second FIR filter configured to convolute the second transmission path characteristic with the received and delayed radio signal,

the subtractor configured to subtract each output signal from the second FIR filter from the radio signal received by the reception antenna of the corresponding relay system.

4. A radio repeater according to claim 1, wherein the loop interference suppressor in each of said first and second relay systems comprises:

a channel estimator configured to estimate a transmission path characteristic of the loop interference signal received by the reception antenna which is connected to the loop interference suppressor;

a channel separator configured to discriminate and to separate a first transmission path characteristic contained in the estimated transmission path characteristic from a delayed second transmission path characteristic;

a delay decision unit configured to detect the delay of the second transmission path characteristic with respect to the first transmission path characteristic;

a first finite impulse filter (FIR) configured to convolute FIR filter for convoluting the radio signal received by the reception antenna which is connected to the loop interference suppressor with the first transmission path characteristic;

a variable delay means for delaying the radio signal received by the reception antenna which is connected to the loop interference suppressor by the detected delay;

a second FIR filter configured to convolute the received and delayed radio signal with the second transmission path characteristic; and

a subtractor configured to subtract each output signal from the first FIR filter and the second FIR filter from the radio signal received by the reception antenna which is connected to the loop interference suppressor to feed the amplifier.

5. A radio repeater according to one of claims 1 to 4, wherein at least one of the reception antennas of the first and second relay systems and at least one of the transmission antennas of said first and second relay systems each comprises an array antenna including a plurality of antenna elements, further comprising:

a weight applicator configured to establish weights to each antenna element of the array antenna in order to determine a directivity which suppresses the loop interference signal.

6. A radio relay transmission method, comprising:

transmitting radio signals from a transmitter using at least one of first antennas having a first-polarization characteristic and at least one of second antennas having a second-polarization characteristic which is orthogonalized to the first-polarization characteristic;

at a radio repeater having first and second relay systems, each including a reception antenna and a transmission antenna.

receiving the transmitted radio signals by the reception antenna of the first relay system having the first polarization characteristic and by the reception antenna of the second relay system having the second-polarization characteristic;

producing suppression signals each from a radio signal to be transmitted from the transmission antenna of a corresponding one of said first and second relay systems and suppressing a loop interference signal received by the reception antenna of the other one of said first and second relay systems with the suppression signal; and

amplifying the loop-interference-suppressed received radio signal signals in said first and second relay systems and transmitting them from the transmission antennas of said first and second relay systems having the second and first polarization characteristics, respectively, for radio relaying.

7. A radio relay transmission method according to claim 6, further comprising:

receiving the radio relayed radio signals by at least one of the antennas having the first-polarization characteristic and at least one of the antennas having the second-polarization characteristic in a receiver.