Intelligent backhaul radio and antenna system

• US 8,467,363 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2012
• Issued: 06/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: COMS IP Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: CBF Networks, Inc. (COMSovereign Holding Corp.)
• Inventors: Negus, Kevin J., Proctor, James A. Jr., Lea, David Andrew G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Phillips, Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sharma, Gautam
• Application Number:
  US13/536,927
• Publication Number:
  US 20130044028A1
• Time in Patent Office: 355 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/246 specially adapted for base stations
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/48 Earthing means; Earth screens; Counterpoises
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/50 Structural association of antennas with earthing switches, lead-in devices or lightning protectors
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/062 using dipole aerials; H01Q21/067, H01Q21/068 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/064 using horn or slot aerials slotted waveguides arrays H01Q21/005
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/065 Patch antenna array
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/24 Combinations of antenna units polarised in different directions for transmitting or receiving circularly and elliptically polarised waves or waves linearly polarised in any direction circularly polarised patch antennas H01Q9/0428; circularly polarised horns H01Q13/0241; cross-polarised horns H01Q13/0258; polarisation converters H01Q15/242; cross-polarised rear feeds H01Q19/136; crossed polarisation dual antenna H01Q25/001
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/29 Combinations of different interacting antenna units for giving a desired directional characteristic H01Q25/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 25/00 Antennas or antenna systems providing at least two radiating patterns arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern H01Q3/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 25/001 Crossed polarisation dual antennas orthomode horns H01Q13/0258; cross-polarised rear feeds H01Q19/136; orthomode transducers H01P1/161
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 25/005 providing two patterns of opposite direction; back to back antennas H01Q25/004 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/401 for selecting or indicating operating mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/50 using different frequencies for the two directions of communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/25 Arrangements specific to fibre transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0408 using two or more beams, i.e. beam diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0695 using beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/088 using beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/10 Polarisation diversity; Directional diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0001 Systems modifying transmission characteristics according to link quality, e.g. power backoff adaptive data allocation for multicarrier modulation H04L5/0044; controlling transmission power for radio systems H04W52/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/004 by using forward error control H04L1/0618 takes precedence; coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or correction H03M13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/18 : Automatic repetition systems, e.g. Van Duuren systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/03828 : Arrangements for spectral shaping; Arrangements for providing signals with specified spectral properties partial response systems H04L25/497
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/01 : Equalisers baseband equalizers at the transmitter end H04L25/03343; in analogue transmission systems H04B3/04, H04B7/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2601 : Multicarrier modulation systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2636 : with FFT or DFT modulators, e.g. standard single-carrier frequency-division multiple access [SC-FDMA] transmitter or DFT spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing [DFT-SOFDM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 : the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices

Abstract

A intelligent backhaul radio have an advanced antenna system for use in PTP or PMP topologies. The antenna system provides a significant diversity benefit. Antenna configurations are disclosed that provide for increased transmitter to receiver isolation, adaptive polarization and MIMO transmission equalization. Adaptive optimization of transmission parameters based upon side information provided in the form of metric feedback from a far end receiver utilizing the antenna system is also disclosed.

Claims

1. An intelligent backhaul radio comprising:

a directional transmit antenna array, for simultaneously transmitting a plurality of transmit symbol streams to a target radio, said directional transmit antenna array comprising a plurality of transmit antenna sub-arrays, wherein each of said plurality of transmit antenna sub-arrays comprise a plurality of transmit antenna elements;

a plurality of directional receive antenna arrays, for simultaneously receiving a plurality of receive RF signals comprising a plurality of receive symbol streams from the target radio, wherein each of said plurality of directional receive antenna arrays comprise a plurality of receive antenna sub-arrays, wherein each of said plurality of receive antenna sub-arrays comprise a plurality of receive antenna elements,

wherein each of said receive antenna sub-arrays has a normalized antenna pattern similar to the normalized antenna pattern of each of the transmit antenna sub-arrays in elevation and narrower than the normalized antenna pattern of each of the transmit antenna sub-arrays in azimuth,

and wherein each of the plurality of directional receive antenna arrays are positioned physically offset from said directional transmit antenna array, and distributed in azimuthal orientation such that the aggregate normalized azimuthal antenna patterns of the plurality of receive antenna sub-arrays in composite is equal to or greater than the normalized antenna pattern of each of the transmit antenna sub-arrays in azimuth;

one or more demodulator cores, wherein each demodulator core demodulates one or more of said plurality of receive symbol streams to produce a respective receive data interface stream;

a plurality of receive RF chains to convert the plurality of receive RF signals to a plurality of respective receive chain output signals;

a frequency selective receive path channel multiplexer between the one or more demodulator cores and the plurality of receive RF chains, the frequency selective receive path channel multiplexer to generate the one or more receive symbol streams from the plurality of receive chain output signals; and

one or more selectable RF connections that selectively couple certain of the plurality of said receive antenna sub-arrays to certain of the plurality of receive RF chains, wherein the number of receive antenna sub-arrays that can be selectively coupled to receive RF chains exceeds the number of receive RF chains that can accept receive RF signals from the one or more selectable RF connections; and

a radio resource controller, wherein the radio resource controller sets or causes to be set the specific selective couplings between the certain of the plurality of receive antenna sub-arrays and the certain of the plurality of receive RF chains.

2. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of transmit sub-arrays transmit one or more of said plurality of transmit symbol streams, and further wherein at least two of said plurality of transmit sub-arrays utilize differing polarizations.

3. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 2 wherein said plurality of transmit antenna elements are printed dipole antenna elements and said plurality of receive antenna elements are patch antenna elements.

4. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 3 wherein one or more of said receive patch antenna elements are utilized by a plurality of the receive antenna sub-arrays of the directional receive antenna array, said receive patch antenna element utilizing separate antenna feed structures providing for substantially orthogonally polarized reception for each of the sub-arrays.

5. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 2, wherein at least one of said one or more of said plurality of transmit symbol streams is multiplexed into a plurality of transmit RF signals, wherein the plurality of transmit RF signals are respectively transmitted from each of said plurality of transmit antenna sub-arrays, and wherein at least two of said RF signals comprise the same transmit symbol stream.

6. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 5, wherein said same transmit symbol stream is modified in gain, phase, or delay prior to transmission by each of said plurality of transmit sub arrays to achieve a composite transmit symbol stream property.

7. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 6, wherein said composite transmit symbol stream property comprises a modified polarization.

8. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 6, wherein said composite transmit symbol stream property results in an improved receive property at a receiver of the target radio.

9. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 8, wherein said improved receive property comprises one or more of:

a received RSSI,

a received signal to noise ratio,

a signal to interference ratio,

a de-correlation between differing transmit streams,

a propagation channel property,

a delay spread, and

a signal variability.

10. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 9, wherein a metric is provided by said target radio to the intelligent backhaul radio, said metric used to adapt said gain, phase, or delay of said transmit symbol stream prior to transmission by each of said plurality of transmit sub arrays, wherein said metric is derived from the receive property at the target radio.

11. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 2, wherein at least one of said plurality of transmit symbol streams comprises a unique transmit symbol stream.

12. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 3, wherein said plurality of transmit antenna sub-arrays of said directional transmit antenna array utilize a common ground plane, and said ground plane comprising non-conducting slots at the edge of said ground plane, said slots aligned with said printed dipole antenna elements of a first of the transmit sub-arrays to effect an associated antenna pattern of that sub-array, and substantially not affect the antenna pattern of a second transmit sub-array of said plurality of transmit sub-arrays utilizing said shared ground plane, wherein said second transmit sub-array comprises antenna elements having a polarization orthogonal to the polarization of said first transmit sub-array.

13. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 1, wherein said plurality of receive antenna arrays positioned physically offset from said directional transmit antenna array are distributed linearly.

14. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 13, wherein the linear distribution of said plurality of directional receive antenna arrays is vertical.

15. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 13, wherein the linear distribution of said plurality of directional receive antenna arrays is horizontal.

16. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 3, wherein said plurality of transmit antenna sub-arrays of said directional transmit antenna array utilize a common ground plane and further wherein each of said printed dipole antenna elements of a first transmit sub-array of said plurality of transmit sub-arrays utilize a first polarization of said at least two differing polarizations, and are printed on a single printed circuit board.

17. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 16, wherein each of said printed dipole antenna elements of a second sub-array of said plurality of transmit sub-arrays utilize a second polarization of said at least two differing polarizations, and are printed on individual printed circuit boards.

18. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 17, wherein said single printed circuit board of said first sub-array includes slots for mechanically aligning, securing, or joining with complimentary slots located within said individual printed circuit boards of said second sub-array.

19. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 18, wherein each of said individual printed circuit boards, and said single printed circuit board include tabs for mating with slots in a printed circuit board of said common ground plane, for mechanically securing said printed dipole antenna elements.

20. An intelligent backhaul radio of claim 17, wherein each of said individual printed circuit boards, and said single printed circuit board include tabs for mating with slots in a printed circuit board of said common ground plane, for coupling feed networks disposed upon said printed circuit board of said common ground plane with said printed dipole antenna elements.