Radio with spatially-offset directional antenna sub-arrays

• US 9,712,216 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2017
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: COMS IP Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: CBF Networks, Inc. (COMSovereign Holding Corp.)
• Inventors: Lea, David Andrew G., Negus, Kevin J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Foud, Hicham
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sharma, Gautam
• Application Number:
  US15/408,364
• Publication Number:
  US 20170126291A1
• Time in Patent Office: 182 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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

An intelligent backhaul radio that has 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. A radio comprising:

one or more demodulator cores, wherein each demodulator core is configured to demodulate at least one receive symbol stream;

a plurality of receive radio frequency (RF) chains, wherein each receive RF chain is configured to convert from a receive RF signal to a receive chain output signal;

one or more modulator cores, wherein each modulator core is configured to produce at least one transmit symbol stream;

a plurality of transmit radio frequency (RF) chains, wherein each transmit RF chain is configured to convert from a transmit chain input signal to a transmit RF signal;

a first directional antenna array comprising a plurality of first directional antenna sub-arrays, wherein each first directional antenna sub-array comprises a plurality of first directional antenna elements, and wherein each first directional antenna sub-array is coupled or couplable to at least one of the plurality of receive RF chains; and

a second directional antenna array comprising a plurality of second directional antenna sub-arrays, wherein each second directional antenna sub-array comprises a plurality of second directional antenna elements, and wherein each second directional antenna sub-array is coupled or couplable to at least one of the plurality of transmit RF chains;

wherein at least one first directional antenna sub-array is spatially offset relative to at least one other first directional antenna sub-array in a first arrangement; and

wherein said at least one first directional antenna sub-array is also spatially offset relative to at least one second directional antenna sub-array in a second arrangement.

2. The radio of claim 1, wherein the first arrangement is horizontal and the second arrangement is vertical.

3. The radio of claim 1, wherein the first arrangement is vertical and the second arrangement is horizontal.

4. The radio of claim 1, wherein the first arrangement is diagonal in a first direction and the second arrangement is diagonal in a second direction.

5. The radio of claim 1, wherein the radio is configured to transmit and receive coincident in time for at least a period of time.

6. The radio of claim 1, further comprising:

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

a transmit path channel multiplexer, interposed between the one or more modulator cores and at least the plurality of transmit RF chains, wherein the transmit path channel multiplexer is configured to generate a plurality of transmit chain input signals from at least one or more transmit symbol streams.

7. The radio of claim 1, wherein each one of the one or more demodulator cores comprises at least a decoder and a soft decision symbol demapper;

and wherein each one of the plurality of receive RF chains comprises at least a vector demodulator and two analog to digital converters that are configured to produce the receive chain output signal as comprised of digital baseband quadrature signals.

8. The radio of claim 7, wherein each one of the one or more modulator cores comprises at least an encoder and a symbol mapper;

and wherein each one of the plurality of transmit RF chains comprises at least a vector modulator and two digital to analog converters that are configured to produce the transmit RF signal from the transmit chain input signals as comprised of digital baseband quadrature signals.

9. The radio of claim 8, wherein each one of the one or more demodulator cores comprises at least one of a descrambler or a deinterleaver;

and wherein each one of the one or more modulator cores comprises at least one of a scrambler or an interleaver.

10. The radio of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of power amplifiers, wherein each power amplifier is configured to amplify at least one transmit RF signal, and wherein each power amplifier is couplable or coupled to at least one transmit RF chain and to at least one second directional antenna sub-array; and

a plurality of low noise amplifiers, wherein each low noise amplifier is configured to amplify at least one receive RF signal, and wherein each low noise amplifier is couplable or coupled to at least one receive RF chain and to at least one first directional antenna sub-array.

11. The radio of claim 1, wherein the radio is configured to operate within a frequency range of between 2 GHz and 6 GHz.

12. The radio of claim 1, wherein the radio is configured to operate within a frequency range of above 10 GHz.

13. The radio of claim 1, wherein the radio is configured to use at least a Single-Carrier Frequency Domain Equalization (SC-FDE) modulation format.

14. The radio of claim 1, wherein the radio is configured to use at least an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation format.

15. The radio of claim 1, wherein a total number of first directional antenna sub-arrays exceeds a number of receive symbol streams.

16. The radio of claim 1, wherein a total number of first directional antenna sub-arrays exceeds a number of receive chain output signals.

17. The radio of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of first directional antenna elements and each of the plurality of second directional antenna elements comprises one of a patch antenna element, a slot antenna element, or a printed dipole antenna element.

18. The radio of claim 1, wherein the first directional antenna array comprises at least a first one of the plurality of first directional antenna sub-arrays, said first one comprising a first number of first directional antenna elements, and at least a second one of the plurality of first directional antenna sub-arrays, said second one comprising a second number of first directional antenna elements, and wherein the first number is different than the second number.

19. The radio of claim 1, wherein at least two transmit RF chains have respective transmit chain input signals derived from a single transmit symbol stream.

20. The radio of claim 1, wherein at least two receive RF chains have respective receive chain output signals used to derive a single receive symbol stream.