Apparatus, system and method of wireless backhaul and access communication via a common antenna array

• US 9,231,681 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2013
• Issued: 01/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Maltsev, Alexander, Sadri, Ali S., Arefi, Reza, Sergeyev, Vadim, Davydov, Alexei
• Primary Examiner(s): MILLS, DONALD L
• Application Number:
  US13/869,541
• Publication Number:
  US 20140204846A1
• Time in Patent Office: 986 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/1555 Selecting relay station antenna mode, e.g. selecting omnidirectional -, directional beams, selecting polarizations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/045 between access point and backbone network device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/10 between terminal device and access point, i.e. wireless air interface

Abstract

Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, systems and/or methods of wireless backhaul and access communication via a common antenna array. For example, an apparatus may include a wireless communication unit to control an antenna array to form one or more first beams for communicating over one or more access links and to form one or more second beams for communicating over one or more backhaul links, the access links including wireless communication links between a wireless communication node and one or more mobile devices, and the backhaul links including wireless communication links between the wireless node and one or more other wireless communication nodes.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an antenna array including a plurality of antenna elements;

a Multi-Input-Multi-Output (MIMO) and beamforming processor to control the plurality of antenna elements to form a plurality of directional beams and to process communications via beamformed links over the plurality of directional beams according to a Multi User (MU) MIMO processing scheme, said beamformed links including links over a millimeter-wave (mmWave) band or a directional multi-gigabit (DMG) band, the beamformed links including one or more access links and one or more backhaul links, said one or more access links to communicate between a wireless communication node and one or more mobile devices, and said one or more backhaul links to communicate between said wireless communication node and one or more other wireless communication nodes, the MIMO and beamforming processor to control one or more first sub-arrays of said antenna array to form one or more first beams to communicate communications of said one or more backhaul links, and to control one or more second sub-arrays of said antenna array to form one or more second beams to communicate communications of said one or more access links;

a backhaul processor to process the communications of said one or more backhaul links;

a first plurality of baseband processors to perform baseband processing between said backhaul processor and said MIMO and beamforming processor;

an access processor to process the communications of said one or more access links; and

a second plurality of baseband processors to perform baseband processing between said access processor and said MIMO and beamforming processor.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said MIMO and beamforming processor is to control said antenna array to communicate over said backhaul and access links during separate time periods.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said MIMO and beamforming processor is to control said antenna array to communicate over said backhaul and access links during a common time period.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein one or more baseband processors of said first plurality of baseband processors are to decode the communications of said one or more backhaul links from said MIMO and beamforming processor, and to encode the communications of said one or more backhaul links from said backhaul processor.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said MIMO and beamforming processor is to control said antenna array to transmit communications over said backhaul and access links during a first common time period, and to receive communications over said backhaul and access links during a second common time period.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said backhaul links comprise links for communicating traffic between said mobile devices and a core network.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein one or more baseband processors of said second plurality of baseband processors are to decode the communications of said one or more access links from said MIMO and beamforming processor, and to encode the communications of said one or more access links from said access processor.

8. A wireless communication system comprising:

at least one wireless communication node to communicate with one or more mobile devices of a wireless communication cell, said wireless communication node comprising;

an antenna array including a plurality of antenna elements;

a Multi-Input-Multi-Output (MIMO) and beamforming processor to control said plurality of antenna elements to form a plurality of directional beams and to process communications via beamformed links over the plurality of directional beams according to a Multi User (MU) MIMO processing scheme, said beamformed links including links over a millimeter-wave (mmWave) band or a directional multi-gigabit (DMG) band, the beamformed links including one or more access links and one or more backhaul links, said one or more access links to communicate between said wireless communication node and said mobile devices of said wireless communication cell, and said one or more backhaul links to communicate between said wireless communication node and one or more other wireless communication nodes of one or more other wireless communication cells, the MIMO and beamforming processor to control one or more first sub-arrays of said antenna array to form one or more first beams to communicate communications of said one or more backhaul links, and to control one or more second sub-arrays of said antenna array to form one or more second beams to communicate communications of said one or more access links;

a backhaul processor to process the communications of said one or more backhaul links;

a first plurality of baseband processors to perform baseband processing between said backhaul processor and said MIMO and beamforming processor;

an access processor to process the communications of said one or more access links; and

a second plurality of baseband processors to perform baseband processing between said access processor and said MIMO and beamforming processor.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said MIMO and beamforming processor is to control said antenna array to communicate over said backhaul and access links during separate time periods.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein said MIMO and beamforming processor is to control said antenna array to communicate over said backhaul and access links during a common time period.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein one or more baseband processors of said first plurality of baseband processors are to decode the communications of said one or more backhaul links from said MIMO and beamforming processor, and to encode the communications of said one or more backhaul links from said backhaul processor.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein said MIMO and beamforming processor is to control said antenna array to transmit communications over said backhaul and access links during a first common time period, and to receive communications over said backhaul and access links during a second common time period.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein said backhaul links comprise links for communicating traffic between said mobile devices and a core network.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein one or more baseband processors of said second plurality of baseband processors are to decode the communications of said one or more access links from said MIMO and beamforming processor, and to encode the communications of said one or more access links from said access processor.

15. The system of claim 8 comprising a plurality of wireless communication nodes forming a plurality of wireless communication cells, said plurality of wireless communication nodes to communicate over a backhaul network formed by a plurality of wireless backhaul links between said plurality of wireless communication nodes.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein said wireless communication node comprises a Base Station (BS).

17. A product including a non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, result in:

controlling a plurality of antenna elements of an antenna array of a wireless communication node to form a plurality of directional beams;

processing communications via beamformed links over the plurality of directional beams according to a Multi User (MU) Multi-Input-Multi-Output (MIMO) processing scheme, said beamformed links including links over a millimeter-wave (mmWave) band or a directional multi-gigabit (DMG) band, the beamformed links including one or more wireless access links and one or more backhaul links, said one or more wireless access links to communicate between said wireless communication node and one or more mobile devices, and said one or more backhaul links to communicate between said wireless communication node and one or more other wireless communication nodes; and

controlling one or more first sub-arrays of said antenna array to form one or more first beams to communicate communications of said one or more backhaul links, and controlling one or more second sub-arrays of said antenna array to form one or more second beams to communicate communications of said one or more access links.

18. The product of claim 17, wherein said instructions result in communicating over said backhaul and access links during separate time periods.

19. The product of claim 17, wherein said instructions result in communicating over said backhaul and access links during a common time period.

20. The product of claim 17, wherein said backhaul links comprise links for communicating traffic between said mobile devices and a core network.

21. The product of claim 19, wherein said instructions result in transmitting communications over said backhaul and access links during a first common time period, and receiving communications over said backhaul and access links during a second common time period.

22. A method of wireless communication, the method comprising:

controlling a plurality of antenna elements of an antenna array of a wireless communication node to form a plurality of directional beams;

processing communications via beamformed links over the plurality of directional beams according to a Multi User (MU) Multi-Input-Multi-Output (MIMO) processing scheme, said beamformed links including links over a millimeter-wave (mmWave) band or a directional multi-gigabit (DMG) band, the beamformed links including one or more wireless access links and one or more backhaul links, said one or more wireless access links to communicate between said wireless communication node and one or more mobile devices, and said one or more backhaul links to communicate between said wireless communication node and one or more other wireless communication nodes; and

controlling one or more first sub-arrays of said antenna array to form one or more first beams to communicate communications of said one or more backhaul links, and controlling one or more second sub-arrays of said antenna array to form one or more second beams to communicate communications of said one or more access links.

23. The method of claim 22 comprising communicating over said backhaul and access links during separate time periods.

24. The method of claim 22 comprising communicating over said backhaul and access links during a common time period.