Controller and method for use in radio station in radio communication system

• US 8,315,569 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2010
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Maeda, Koji, Ohya, Tomoyuki, Harada, Hiroki
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Lana N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sorowar, Golam
• Application Number:
  US12/720,229
• Publication Number:
  US 20100233963A1
• Time in Patent Office: 987 Days
• Field of Search: 455/62, 455/63.3, 455/67.11, 455/561, 370/330, 370/329, 370/252, 370/311, 375/260, 375/219, 375/295, 375/296
• US Class Current: 455/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/7154 with means for preventing interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality

Abstract

One aspect of the present invention relates to a controller for a radio station. The controller includes an information acquisition unit acquiring radio communication state information on another radio station different from the radio station via a connected backbone network, the radio communication state information including frequency information and waveform feature information, a waveform information extraction unit calculating a waveform feature based on the waveform feature information, the waveform feature indicating whether a received radio signal includes the radio signal transmitted from the other radio station, and a radio resource parameter determination unit determining whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specify a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission based on the frequency information, the waveform feature information and/or the calculated waveform feature.

Claims

1. A controller for controlling transmission availability for a radio station in a radio communication system, comprising:

an information acquisition unit configured to acquire radio communication state information on another radio station different from the radio station via a backbone network connected to the radio station and the other radio station, the radio communication state information including frequency information indicative of a frequency band used by the other radio station and waveform feature information indicative of a waveform feature of a radio signal transmitted from the other radio station, the waveform feature including cyclostationarity derived from second order periodic autocorrelations, variances of signal amplitudes or frequency correlations;

a waveform information extraction unit configured to receive a radio signal and calculate a waveform feature based on the waveform feature information, the waveform feature indicating whether the received radio signal includes the radio signal transmitted from the other radio station; and

a radio resource parameter determination unit configured to determine whether signal transmission from the radio station is available by comparing a waveform feature threshold with the waveform feature calculated by the waveform information extraction unit and specify a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission based on the frequency information, the waveform feature information and/or the calculated waveform feature.

2. The controller as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a signal demodulation unit configured to receive and demodulate a radio signal to generate a demodulated data symbol sequence; and

a reliability determination unit configured to determine reliability of the demodulated data symbol sequence,

wherein the radio resource parameter determination unit is configured to determine whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specify a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission based on the frequency information, the waveform feature information, the calculated waveform feature, the demodulated data symbol sequence and/or the reliability.

3. The controller as claimed in claim 2, wherein the radio resource parameter determination unit is configured to, if the reliability of the demodulated data symbol sequence is lower than or equal to a threshold, discard the demodulated data symbol sequence, determine whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specify a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission based on the frequency information, the waveform feature information and/or the calculated waveform feature.

4. The controller as claimed in claim 2, wherein

the radio resource parameter determination unit comprises an interference estimation unit configured to estimate an interference level influencing the other radio station based on the demodulated data symbol sequence, and

the radio resource parameter determination unit is configured to, if the reliability of the demodulated data symbol sequence is higher than or equal to a threshold, determine whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specify a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission based on the estimated interference level.

5. The controller as claimed in claim 1, wherein the radio resource parameter determination unit is configured to disable the signal transmission if the radio resource parameter determination unit determines that the other radio station uses a desired transmission frequency band based on the frequency information and the calculated waveform feature exceeds the waveform feature threshold.

6. The controller as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the radio resource parameter determination unit comprises a quality estimation table including correspondence between a peak amount of a waveform feature and signal quality of a channel between the radio station and the other radio station, and

the radio resource parameter determination unit is configured to estimate the signal quality of the channel based on the calculated waveform feature to determine whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specify a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission.

7. The controller as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a bandpass filter unit configured to pass a band component of a received radio signal and filter out another band component, the band pass filter unit being further configured to perform band-limiting on the received radio signal based on the frequency information.

8. The controller as claimed in claim 7, wherein the bandpass filter unit is configured to perform the band-limiting in accordance with the pass band corresponding to a frequency band including a transmission frequency band desired by the radio station based on the frequency information.

9. The controller as claimed in claim 8, wherein the bandpass filter unit is configured to perform the band-limiting in accordance with the pass band corresponding to the transmission frequency band desired by the radio station.

10. A method of controlling transmission availability for a radio station in a radio communication system, comprising:

acquiring radio communication state information on another radio station different from the radio station via a backbone network connected to the radio station and the other radio station, the radio communication state information including frequency information indicative of a frequency band used by the other radio station and waveform feature information indicative of a waveform feature of a radio signal transmitted from the other radio station, the waveform feature including cyclostationarity derived from second order periodic autocorrelations, variances of signal amplitudes or frequency correlations;

receiving a radio signal and calculating a waveform feature based on the waveform feature information, the waveform feature indicating whether the received radio signal includes the radio signal transmitted from the other radio station; and

determining whether signal transmission from the radio station is available by comparing a waveform feature threshold with the calculated waveform feature and specifying a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission based on the frequency information, the waveform feature information and/or the calculated waveform feature.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

receiving and demodulating a radio signal to generate a demodulated data symbol sequence; and

determining reliability of the demodulated data symbol sequence,

wherein the step of determining whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specifying a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission comprises determining whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specifying a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission based on the frequency information, the waveform feature information, the calculated waveform feature, the demodulated data symbol sequence and/or the reliability.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the step of determining whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specifying a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission comprises, if the reliability of the demodulated data symbol sequence is lower than or equal to a threshold, discarding the demodulated data symbol sequence, determining whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specifying a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission based on the frequency information, the waveform feature information and/or the calculated waveform feature.

13. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the step of determining whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specifying a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission comprises estimating an interference level influencing the other radio station based on the demodulated data symbol sequence, and

the step of determining whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specifying a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission comprises, if the reliability of the demodulated data symbol sequence is higher than or equal to a threshold, determining whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specifying a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission based on the estimated interference level.

14. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the step of determining whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specifying a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission comprises disabling the signal transmission if it is determined that the other radio station uses a desired transmission frequency band based on the frequency information and the calculated waveform feature exceeds the waveform feature threshold.

15. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the step of determining whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specifying a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission comprises using a quality estimation table including correspondence between a peak amount of a waveform feature and signal quality of a channel between the radio station and the other radio station to estimate the signal quality of the channel based on the calculated waveform feature to determine whether signal transmission from the radio station is available and specify a radio resource to be used for the signal transmission.

16. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

passing a band component of a received radio signal and filtering out another band component, the step of passing further comprising performing band-limiting on the received radio signal based on the frequency information.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the step of performing band-limiting comprises performing the band-limiting in accordance with the pass band corresponding to a frequency band including a transmission frequency band desired by the radio station based on the frequency information.

18. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the step of performing band-limiting comprises performing the band-limiting in accordance with the pass band corresponding to the transmission frequency band desired by the radio station.