Communication apparatus and automatic gain control

• US 8,553,715 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2009
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Takano, Hiroaki, Kunihiro, Takushi
• Primary Examiner(s): WILSON, ROBERT W
• Application Number:
  US13/203,476
• Publication Number:
  US 20110310883A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,380 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/465
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/088 using beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/00 Synchronisation arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams

Abstract

Provided is a communication apparatus including a first communication unit for performing communication using a carrier having a first frequency, a second communication unit having a plurality of antennas, for performing communication using a carrier having a second frequency, a first communication processing unit for processing a signal received by the first communication unit and causing to transmit a signal, and a second communication processing unit for processing a signal received by the second communication unit and causing to transmit a signal. The second communication processing unit includes a synchronization unit for specifying a start position of a second transmission request in which a plurality of transmission beam patterns are set in one packet based on information indicating reception initiation, and an automatic gain control unit for performing automatic gain control based on a first automatic gain control setting value.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus comprising:

a first communication unit which sends and receives wireless communication using a first carrier frequency (f1) via an antenna;

a second communication unit which sends and receives wireless communication using a second carrier frequency (f2) via a plurality of antennas wherein the second carrier frequency is more directive and suffers from higher propagation loss than the first carrier frequency (f1);

a second signal processing unit comprising a synchronization unit and an automatic gain control unit; and

a first signal processing unit configured to determine when a first request to send via first carrier frequency (f1) has been received by the first communication unit, configured to output a first indicator to the synchronization unit in response to the first request, configured to determine when a first data has been received via the first carrier frequency (f1) via the first communication unit, and configured to output a second indicator to the synchronization unit,

wherein the synchronization unit is configured upon receipt of the first indicator to determine whether a second request has been received by the second communication unit in order to determine packet position information,

wherein the synchronization unit is configured to determine upon receipt of the second indicator whether a second data has been received by the second signal processing unit using the previously determined packet position information, and

wherein the synchronization unit is configured to output a third indicator to the automatic gain control unit comprising processing a first automatic gain control value in the second data.

2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a reception intensity derivation unit configured to derive reception intensity for each transmission beam pattern based on the third indicator output from the automatic gain control unit; and

a requested beam pattern determining unit configured to determine a requested beam pattern to be transmitted to an external apparatus from among the plurality of transmission beam patterns set in the second request and based on a derivation result from the reception intensity derivation unit.

3. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a setting value storage unit configured to store a second automatic gain control value corresponding to the requested beam pattern based on the first automatic gain control value corresponding to the requested beam pattern,

wherein the automatic gain control unit is configured to perform automatic gain control based on the second automatic gain control value when the second request is not specified by the synchronization unit.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the automatic gain control unit is configured to perform the automatic gain control using the first automatic gain control value or the second automatic gain control value as a fixed value or an initial value.

5. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the setting value storage unit is configured to store the second automatic gain control value having a higher set gain than the first automatic gain control value corresponding to the requested beam pattern.

6. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the setting value storage unit is configured to store the first automatic gain control value corresponding to the requested beam pattern as the second automatic gain control value.

7. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a predetermined no signal period is set between respective transmission beam patterns among the plurality of transmission beam patterns set in the second request.

8. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a processing unit configured to cause transmission of identification information associated with the requested beam pattern indicating the requested beam pattern to an external apparatus having transmitted the second request via the first signal processing unit.

9. A communication apparatus comprising:

a first communication unit configured to send and receive wireless communication using a first carrier frequency (f1) via an antenna;

a second communication unit configured to send and receive wireless communication using a second carrier frequency (f2) via a plurality of antennas, wherein the second carrier frequency (f2) is more directive and suffers from a higher propagation loss than the first carrier frequency (f1);

a second signal processing unit comprising a synchronization unit and an automatic gain control unit;

a first signal processing unit configured to determine when a first request to send packet via the first carrier frequency (f1) has been received by the first communication unit and configured to output a first indicator to the synchronization unit in response to the first request, configured to determine when a first data packet has been received via the first carrier frequency (f1) via the first communication unit, and configured to output a second indicator to the synchronization unit,

wherein the synchronization unit is configured to determine upon receipt of the first indicator a start position information of a second request to send to the second signal processing unit, wherein the second request comprising packet information and a plurality of transmission beam pattern information,

wherein the synchronization unit is configured to determine upon receipt of the second indicator whether a second data packet has been received by the second signal processing unit using the previously determined start position information and is configured to output a third indicator to the automatic gain control unit to process automatic gain control values for the second data packet.

10. The communication apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a group selection unit configured to select one group based on the second request for each group output from the automatic gain control unit;

a reception intensity derivation unit configured to derive reception intensity for each transmission beam pattern based on the second request corresponding to the group selected by the group selection unit, wherein the second request is configured to be output from the automatic gain control unit; and

a requested beam pattern determining unit configured to determine a requested beam pattern to be transmitted to an external apparatus having transmitted the second request from among the plurality of transmission beam patterns set in the second request based on a derivation result from the reception intensity derivation unit.

11. A method of performing automatic gain control comprising:

determining a starting position of a first request to transmit at least one packet encoded in a first carrier frequency;

determining a starting position of a second request to transmit at least one packet in a second carrier frequency, wherein the second carrier frequency is more directive and suffers from a higher propagation loss than the first carrier frequency;

decoding a plurality of transmission beam pattern values encoded in the second request when the starting position of the first request and the starting position of the second request match;

determining the starting position of a first data packet encoded in the first carrier frequency;

determining the starting position of a second data packet encoded in the second carrier frequency;

using the starting position of the second request to transmit a packet to determine the location of gain control values for each beam pattern of the plurality of beam patterns;

adjusting automatic gain control for each beam pattern of the plurality of beam patterns based on respective automatic gain control values for corresponding to each beam of the plurality of beams based upon the gain control values decoded in the second data packet.