Radio base station apparatus, radio communication system and radio communication method

• US 9,240,831 B2
• Filed: 11/16/2012
• Issued: 01/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Kakishima, Yuichi, Nagata, Satoshi, Taoka, Hidekazu, Kusume, Katsutoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): FILE, ERIN M
• Application Number:
  US14/362,702
• Publication Number:
  US 20140362946A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,159 Days
• Field of Search: 375/295
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0456 Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0469 taking special antenna structures, e.g. cross polarized antennas into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0615 of weighted versions of same signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/065 Variable contents, e.g. long-term or short-short
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0691 using subgroups of transmit antennas

Abstract

The present invention is designed to implement radio communication to maintain good communication quality even when the number of antennas provided in a radio base station apparatus is greater than the number of transmission layers of a downlink control channel, a broadcast channel, and cell-specific reference signals. When, from a radio base station apparatus (200) having a plurality of transmitting antennas, at least one of a downlink control channel, a broadcast channel and a cell-specific reference signal is transmitted with fewer transmission layers than the number of all transmitting antennas, a smaller number of antennas than the number of all transmitting antennas are made virtual in a precoding weight multiplication section (205), and also transmission weights that make the average transmission power of the transmitting antennas or transmission streams the same are multiplied, and the signals multiplied by the transmission weights are transmitted from the transmitting antennas on the downlink.

Claims

1. A radio base station apparatus comprising:

a plurality of transmitting antennas;

a weight multiplication section that, when at least one of a downlink control channel, a broadcast channel and a cell-specific reference signal is transmitted with fewer transmission layers than a number of all transmitting antennas, a smaller number of antennas than the number of all transmitting antennas are made virtual, and transmission signals are multiplied by transmission weights that make an average transmission power of each of the transmitting antennas or transmission streams the same; and

a transmission section that transmits signals multiplied by the transmission weights in the weight multiplication section from the transmitting antennas.

2. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weights in which matrix elements are defined such that the transmission streams are transmitted from the plurality of transmitting antenna that do not overlap between the transmission streams.

3. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weights in which matrix elements are defined such that a same signal having equal amplitude and phase are transmitted from the plurality of transmitting antennas that transmit a same transmission stream.

4. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weights in which matrix elements are defined such that signals from the plurality of transmitting antennas that transmit a same transmission stream are applied an amount of amplitude variation and/or phase shift and transmitted.

5. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weights in which matrix elements are defined such that transmission is performed by applying an amount of amplitude variation and phase shift that is fixed in time or in frequency.

6. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weights in which matrix elements are defined such that transmission is performed by switching the amount of amplitude variation and phase shift randomly or periodically in time or in frequency.

7. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weights in which matrix elements are defined such that the transmission streams are transmitted from the plurality of transmitting antenna by allowing overlaps between the transmission streams.

8. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weights in which matrix elements are defined such that signals from the transmitting antennas are orthogonal.

9. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weights in which matrix elements are defined such that transmission is performed by applying an amount of amplitude variation and phase shift that is fixed in time or in frequency.

10. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weight in which matrix elements are defined such that transmission is performed by switching an amount of amplitude variation and phase shift randomly or periodically in time or in frequency.

11. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weights in which matrix elements are defined such that an amount of amplitude variation and phase shift to support BPSK or QPSK between the radio base station apparatus and user equipment is applied to each transmission stream.

12. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weights that are defined in a first codebook for a long cycle/wide band and in a second codebook for a short cycle/narrow band, which are used for MIMO transmission of downlink shared channel data.

13. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the weight multiplication section multiplies transmission weights in which matrix elements are defined such that transmission is performed by applying different amounts of cyclic delay to a same signal between the plurality of transmitting antennas that transmit a same transmission stream.

14. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting antenna having low correlation with each other are selected as the plurality of transmitting antenna to transmit a same transmission stream.

15. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the plurality of transmitting antenna are formed with linear polarization antennas, and a plurality of antenna elements that are physically apart are selected as the plurality of transmitting antennas to transmit the same transmission stream.

16. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the plurality of transmitting antennas are formed with orthogonal polarization antennas, and one or a plurality of different polarization elements are selected as the plurality of transmitting antennas to transmit the same transmission stream.

17. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting antennas having high correlation with each other are selected as the plurality of transmitting antennas to transmit a same transmission stream.

18. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the plurality of transmitting antennas are formed with linear polarization antennas, and a plurality of antenna elements that are physically close are selected as the plurality of transmitting antennas to transmit the same transmission stream.

19. The radio base station apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the plurality of transmitting antennas are formed with orthogonal polarization antennas, and one or a plurality of same polarization elements are selected as the plurality of transmitting antennas to transmit the same transmission stream.

20. A radio communication system comprising:

a radio base station apparatus comprising;

a plurality of transmitting antennas;

a weight multiplication section that, when at least one of a downlink control channel, a broadcast channel and a cell-specific reference signal is transmitted with fewer transmission layers than a number of all transmitting antennas, a smaller number of antennas than the number of all transmitting antennas are made virtual, and transmission signals are multiplied by transmission weights that make an average transmission power of each of the transmitting antennas or transmission streams the same; and

a transmission section that transmits signals multiplied by the transmission weights in the weight multiplication section from the transmitting antennas; and

a mobile station apparatus comprising;

a receiving section that receives the signals from the radio base station apparatus; and

a downlink channel demultiplexing section that demultiplexes the received signals received in the receiving section, into the reference signal, the control channel and the broadcast channel.

21. A radio communication method comprising the steps of:

when, from a radio base station apparatus having a plurality of transmitting antennas, at least one of a downlink control channel, a broadcast channel and a cell-specific reference signal is transmitted with fewer transmission layers than a number of all transmitting antennas, making a smaller number of antennas than the number of all transmitting antennas virtual, and multiplying transmission signals by transmission weights that make an average transmission power of each of the transmitting antennas or transmission streams the same; and

transmitting signals multiplied by the transmission weights from the transmitting antennas.