Training symbol format for adaptively power loaded MIMO

• US 7,542,515 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2004
• Issued: 06/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Lin, Xintian E., Li, Qinghua
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim; Kevin Y
• Application Number:
  US11/024,587
• Publication Number:
  US 20060140290A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,616 Days
• Field of Search: 375/260, 370/208, 370/464, 370/480
• US Class Current: 375/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/04 using two or more spaced independent antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0618 Space-time coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2613 Structure of the reference signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/346 distributing total power among users or channels

Abstract

Training symbol formats are provided for use in a MIMO based wireless communication system that uses adaptive power loading. In at least one embodiment, a training symbol format is used that is capable of enhancing training symbol signal to noise ratio (SNR).

Claims

1. A method for use in performing channel training in a MIMO based multicarrier system, comprising:

for a first training time slot within a data frame, dividing tones of a first OFDM training symbol among K spatial channels, wherein each of said tones of said first OFDM training symbol is transmitted in only one of said K spatial channels during said first training time slot; and

for a second training time slot within said data frame, dividing tones of a second OFDM training symbol among said K spatial channels, wherein each of said tones of said second OFDM training symbol is transmitted in only one of said K spatial channels during said second training time slot and tones from said first training time slot are not repeated within the same spatial channel in said second training time slot;

wherein tones transmitted within a first spatial channel of said K spatial channels during said first and second training time slots are transmitted at a power level that is proportional by a predetermined factor to a power level used to transmit user data in said first spatial channel within said data frame and tones transmitted within a second spatial channel of said K spatial channels during said first and second training time slots are transmitted at a power level that is proportional by said predetermined factor to a power level used to transmit user data in said second spatial channel within said data frame, wherein said power levels used to transmit said user data within said first and second spatial channels are set using adaptive power loading techniques.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

dividing tones of a first OFDM training symbol among K spatial channels includes interleaving said tones of said first OFDM training symbol across said K spatial channels.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

dividing tones of a second OFDM training symbol among K spatial channels includes interleaving said tones of said second OFDM training symbol across said K spatial channels.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

dividing tones of a first OFDM training symbol among K spatial channels includes distributing groups of tones across said K spatial channels, wherein each group of tones includes at least two adjacent tones.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said predetermined factor is greater than 1.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

tones of said first and second OFDM training symbols that are transmitted within said first spatial channel are transmitted at a power level that is approximately K times the power level of user data that is transmitted in said first spatial channel during said data frame.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

tones of said first and second OPDM training symbols that are transmitted within said second spatial channel are transmitted at a power level that is K times the power level of user data that is transmitted in said second spatial channel during said data frame.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said K spatial channels includes at least three spatial channels; and

said method further comprises, for a third training time slot within said data frame, dividing tones of a third OFDM training symbol among said K spatial channels, wherein each of said tones of said third OFDM training symbol are transmitted in only one of said K spatial channels during said third training time slot, wherein tones from said first and second training time slots are not repeated within the same spatial channel in said third training time slot.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein K is equal to one of the following:

2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said second training time slot occurs after said first training time slot within said transmit frame.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said second training time slot is adjacent in time to said first training time slot within said transmit frame.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a wireless transceiver to generate radio frequency transmit signals for delivery to multiple transmit antennas; and

a controller, coupled to said wireless transceiver, to cause a data frame to be transmitted from said apparatus into a MIMO channel, said data frame having a per stream training portion and a user data portion, wherein said per stream training portion includes at least a first training time slot and a second training time slot, said first training time slot to have training tones of a first OFDM training symbol divided among a plurality of spatial channels in said MIMO channel and said second training time slot to have training tones of a second OFDM training symbol divided among said plurality of spatial channels in said MIMO channel;

wherein said plurality of spatial channels includes at least a first spatial channel and a second spatial channel; and

wherein said training tones transmitted in said first spatial channel are transmitted at a power level that is proportional by a predetermined factor to a power level at which user data in said data frame is transmitted within said first spatial channel and said training tones transmitted in said second spatial channel are transmitted at a power level that is proportional by said predetermined factor to a power level at which user data in said data frame is transmitted within said second spatial channel.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein:

said power levels at which user data is transmitted within said first and second spatial channels are selected based upon an adaptive power loading scheme.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein:

said training tones transmitted in said first spatial channel are transmitted at a power level that is approximately K times said power level at which user data is transmitted within said first spatial channel and said training tones transmitted in said second spatial channel are transmitted at a power level that is approximately K times said power level at which user data is transmitted within said second spatial channel, wherein K is the number of spatial channels in said plurality of spatial channels.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein:

said training tones of said first OFDM training symbol are divided approximately equally among said plurality of spatial channels within said first training time slot and said training tones of said second OFDM training symbol are divided approximately equally among said plurality of spatial channels within said second training time slot.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein:

said training tones of said first OFDM training symbol are interleaved across said plurality of spatial channels within said first training time slot and said training tones of said second OFDM training symbol are interleaved across said plurality of spatial channels within said second training time slot.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein:

said plurality of spatial channels consists of a first spatial channel and a second spatial channel;

odd training tones of said first OFDM training symbol are transmitted within said first spatial channel and even training tones of said first OFDM training symbol are transmitted within said second spatial channel during said first training time slot; and

even training tones of said second OFDM training symbol are transmitted within said first spatial channel and odd training tones of said second OFDM training symbol are transmitted within said second spatial channel during said second training time slot.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein:

said training tones of said first OFDM training symbol are distributed in groups across said plurality of spatial channels, wherein each group includes at least two adjacent tones.

19. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein:

within said per stream training portion of said data frame, each specific training tone is transmitted only once within each spatial channel of said plurality of spatial channels.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein:

said per stream training portion of said data frame includes a third training time slot, said third training time slot to have training tones of a third OFDM training symbol divided among said plurality of spatial channels.

21. A system comprising:

a plurality of dipole antennas;

a wireless transceiver to generate radio frequency transmit signals for delivery to said plurality of dipole antennas; and

a controller, coupled to said wireless transceiver, to cause a data frame to be transmitted from said apparatus into a MIMO channel, said data frame having a per stream training portion and a user data portion, wherein said per stream training portion includes at least a first training time slot and a second training time slot, said first training time slot to have training tones of a first OFDM training symbol divided among a plurality of spatial channels in said MIMO channel and said second training time slot to have training tones of a second OFDM training symbol divided among said plurality of spatial channels in said MIMO channel;

wherein said plurality of spatial channels includes at least a first spatial channel and a second spatial channel; and

wherein said training tones transmitted in said first spatial channel are transmitted at a power level that is proportional by a predetermined factor to a power level at which user data in said data frame is transmitted within said first spatial channel and said training tones transmitted in said second spatial channel are transmitted at a power level that is proportional by a predetermined factor to a power level at which user data in said data frame is transmitted within said second spatial channel.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein:

said training tones transmitted in said first spatial channel are transmitted at a power level that is K times said power level at which user data is transmitted within said first spatial channel and said training tones transmitted in said second spatial channel are transmitted at a power level that is K times said power level at which user data is transmitted within said second spatial channel, wherein K is the number of spatial channels in said plurality of spatial channels.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein:

said training tones of said first OFDM training symbol are interleaved across said plurality of spatial channels within said first training time slot and said training tones of said second OFDM training symbol are interleaved across said plurality of spatial channels within said second training time slot.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein:

within said per stream training portion of said data frame, each specific training tone is transmitted only once within each spatial channel of said plurality of spatial channels.

25. An article comprising a computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computing platform, operate to:

for a first training time slot within a data frame, divide tones of a first OFDM training symbol among K spatial channels for transmission, wherein each of said tones of said OFDM training symbol are transmitted in only one of said K spatial channels during said first training time slot; and

for a second training time slot within said data frame, divide tones of a second OFDM training symbol among said K spatial channels, wherein each of said tones of said second OFDM training symbol are transmitted in only one of said K spatial channels during said second training time slot and tones from said first training time slot are not repeated within the same spatial channel in said second training time slot;

wherein tones transmitted within said K spatial channels during said first and second training time slots are transmitted at power levels that are proportional to power levels used to transmit user data in said K spatial channels within said data frame, wherein said power levels used to transmit said user data within said K spatial channels are set using adaptive power loading techniques.

26. The article of claim 25, wherein:

operation to divide tones of said first OFDM training symbol among K spatial channels includes operation to interleave said tones across said K spatial channels and operation to divide tones of said second OFDM training symbol among K spatial channels includes operation to interleave said tones across said K spatial channels.

27. The article of claim 25, wherein:

operation to divide tones of said first OFDM training symbol among K spatial channels includes operation to distribute groups of tones across said K spatial channels, wherein each group of tones includes at least two adjacent tones.

28. The article of claim 27, wherein:

tones of said first and second OFDM training symbols that are transmitted within a first spatial channel of said K spatial channels are transmitted at a power level that is K times the power level of user data that is transmitted in said first spatial channel during said data frame and tones of said first and second OFDM training symbols that are transmitted within a second spatial channel of said K spatial channels are transmitted at a power level that is K times the power level of user data that is transmitted in said second spatial channel during said data frame.

29. A method for use in performing channel training in a MIMO based multicarrier system, comprising:

for a first training time slot within a data frame, interleaving tones of a first OFDM training symbol across K spatial channels, wherein each of said tones of said first OFDM training symbol is transmitted in only one of said K spatial channels during said first training time slot; and

for a second training time slot within said data frame, interleaving tones of a second OFDM training symbol among said K spatial channels, wherein each of said tones of said second OFDM training symbol is transmitted in only one of said K spatial channels during said second training time slot and tones from said first training time slot are not repeated within the same spatial channel in said second training time slot, wherein a transmit power level of training tones transmitted within a first spatial channel of said K spatial channels is proportional to a transmit power level used to transmit user data within said first spatial channel during said data frame and a transmit power level of training tones transmitted within a second spatial channel of said K spatial channels is proportional to a transmit power level used to transmit user data within said second spatial channel during said data frame.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein:

said transmit power level of training tones transmitted within said first spatial channel is K times the transmit power level used to transmit user data within said first spatial channel during said data frame.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein:

said transmit power level of training tones transmitted within said second spatial channel is K times the transmit power level used to transmit user data within said second spatial channel during said data frame.

32. A method for use in performing channel training in a MIMO based multicarrier system, comprising:

transmitting a first OFDM training symbol into a MIMO channel during a first training time slot of a data frame, said MIMO channel having at least a first spatial channel and a second spatial channel;

transmitting a second OFDM training symbol into said MIMO channel during a second training time slot of said data frame;

transmitting adaptive power loading information within said data frame, said adaptive power loading information including an indication of the power loading ratio between said first and second spatial channels;

transmitting user data into said first spatial channel and said second spatial channel during a user data portion of said data frame;

wherein some training tones of said first and second OFDM training symbols are transmitted within a first spatial channel of said MIMO channel and some training tones of said first and second OFDM training symbols are transmitted within a second spatial channel of said MIMO channel, wherein training tones transmitted within said first and second spatial channels are transmitted at the same transmit power level.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein:

all of the training tones of said first OFDM training symbol are transmitted within said first spatial channel and all of the training tones of said second OFDM training symbol are transmitted within said second spatial channel.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein:

said training tones of said first OFDM training symbol are divided among the available spatial channels and said training tones of said second OFDM training symbol are divided among the available spatial channels.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein:

said training tones transmitted within said first and second spatial channels are transmitted at a maximum power level permitted by FCC limits.