Antenna system, in particular mobile communication antenna system, and associated transmission and control device

• US 8,688,033 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2009
• Issued: 04/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Kathrein-Werke KG. (Kathrein SE)
• Inventors: Seeor, Alexander, Mohr, Markus, Gabriel, Roland
• Primary Examiner(s): Cumming, William D
• Application Number:
  US12/610,063
• Publication Number:
  US 20100113097A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,614 Days
• Field of Search: 455/562.1, 455/523, 455/550.1, 455/13.3, 725/106, 330/297
• US Class Current: 455/13.3
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/288 Satellite antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/48 in circuits for connecting transmitter and receiver to a common transmission path, e.g. by energy of transmitter H04B1/46 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2041 Spot beam multiple access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components

Abstract

An antenna transmission control device has a base-station-side and an antenna-side multiplexer circuit. There is an alternating protocol transfer between these two multiplexer circuits to control components close to the antenna. The current-alarmed or protocol-alarmed signals present at the antenna-side terminals of the multiplexer provided on the antenna side can be measured or detected by the multiplexer circuits and supplied to the transmission link together with a terminal-dependent or load-dependent protocol.

Claims

1. Antenna system, in particular mobile communication antenna system, comprising:

at least two base stations,

at least two antenna devices,

at least one radio frequency feed line via which the transmission and/or reception signals are transmitted between the respective base stations and the associated antenna device, the antenna device being able to receive and/or transmit in at least one polarization plane,

at least one antenna component, which is switched between the at least one radio frequency feed line and radiators in the at least one associated antenna device, wherein;

at least one common radio frequency feed line supplying the at least two antenna devices,

a base-station multiplexer circuit being associated with the at least two base stations, the base-station multiplexing circuit having a plurality of base-station radio frequency terminals,

the multiplexer circuit having at least one radio frequency feed line terminal,

the multiplexer circuit having a scanning device configured to scan the base-station terminals, one after another or simultaneously, and supply protocol signals detected at the base-station terminals at the radio frequency feed line terminal, and

the multiplexer circuit being constructed in such a way that the protocol signals present at the at least one radio frequency feed line terminal and/or the transmission protocol present there is converted into different individual protocols for supply to the respectively associated base-station terminals,

the at least two base stations are connected via a respective connection line to a respective input of the base-station multiplexer,

the base-station multiplexer is connected via the radio frequency feed line terminal to the at least one feed line,

at least one further multiplexer circuit is provided and comprises a terminal for connection to the at least one radio frequency feed line,

the antenna multiplexer circuit comprises at least two antenna terminals, one antenna terminal being connected to one antenna device or an antenna component connected upstream from this antenna device and the at least one further terminal being connected to the further antenna device or to an antenna component connected upstream from this further antenna device,

the control of the antenna device or the antenna components upstream from the antenna devices is controlled by protocol via the at least one common radio frequency feed line.

2. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the protocols transmitted by the base stations is transferred between the base-station multiplexer circuit and the antenna multiplexer circuit simultaneously, in a time-shifted manner and/or in a time-shared manner, in particular by time division multiplexing, by frequency division multiplexing or by a proprietary modulation method, or by a combination of two or more of the above-mentioned methods.

3. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein various protocols, in particular at least one antenna interface standards group and/or at least one 3rd generation partnership project protocol and/or at least one proprietary protocol, is converted at the base stations into a different transmission protocol, which is exchanged and/or transmitted between the base-station and antenna multiplexer circuit.

4. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the respective protocols exchanged and/or transmitted between the base-station and antenna multiplexer circuit are transmitted to the corresponding antenna components of the antenna device with the correct association.

5. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the power uptakes of the antenna components are converted in the antenna multiplexer circuit into a protocol via which, at the base-station associated terminals of the base-station multiplexer circuit, power uptakes corresponding to the actual power uptakes of the antenna components is simulated.

6. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein a direct current voltage is fed from at least one of the plurality of base stations to the at least one radio frequency feed line via the at least one base-station associated multiplexer circuit.

7. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein, in the case of different direct current power and/or different direct current voltages provided by plurality of base stations, a common direct current voltage for supplying the antenna components is generated in the multiplexer circuit associated with the base station.

8. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein at least two feed lines) are provided and are each connected on the base station side to a terminal of a separate multiplexer or to a double multiplexer with two terminals on the radio frequency feed line side, and in that, on the antenna side, two antenna multiplexers or one double multiplexer with two terminals on the radio frequency feed line side is/are provided on the radio frequency feed lines, the at least one antenna device transmitting and/or receiving in two polarization planes and at least one associated base station being set up so as to transmit transmission signals and/or to receive reception signals in two polarization planes.

9. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the different current uptakes present at the antenna terminals is represented via the common radio frequency feed line on the respective correctly associated base-station terminal of the base-station multiplexer or simulated or adjusted there, the base station being connected to said multiplexer and communicating with the associated antenna device or the associated mobile communication components from which the current-alarmed or protocol-alarmed state and/or fault signal is received.

10. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the multiplexer circuit is structured to supply and/or transmit the protocols or protocol signals detected at the base-station terminals of the multiplexer circuit to the radio frequency feed line terminal simultaneously, in a time-shifted manner and/or in a time-shared manner, by time division multiplexing, by frequency division multiplexing, by another modulation method such as a proprietary modulation method, or by a combination thereof.

11. Antenna system according to claim 1 wherein the scanner device in the multiplexer circuit detects various protocols, including at least one or more antenna interface standards group and/or one or more 3rd generation partnership project protocols, and converts the various protocols into a different transmission protocol, including a High-Level Data Link Control frame network protocol signal, for supply to the radio frequency feed line terminal.

12. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the multiplexer circuit is constructed in such a way to supply, of a plurality of different direct current voltages which are present at a plurality of base-station terminals, a single direct current voltage produced from these to the terminal on the radio frequency feed line terminal.

13. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein at least one base-station terminal of the multiplexer circuit is configured to supply a direct current voltage which is connected to the radio frequency feed line terminal of the multiplexer circuit.

14. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the base-station terminals of the multiplexer circuit are high-resistance before the multiplexer operation.

15. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the multiplexer is configured to adjust and/or simulate a direct current and/or voltage state change at the at least one radio frequency feed line terminal at the correctly associated base-station terminal or the respectively correctly associated base-station terminals depending on a load connected to the at least one radio frequency feed line terminal.

16. Antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the multiplexer circuit is configured to separate and/or convert, at least one High-Level Data Link Control-frame network protocol signal present at the radio frequency feed line terminal into individual protocol signals and fed in conformance with the terminals to the various base-station terminals or to the antenna terminals.

17. Antenna system according to claim 1, further including, at least one further interface configured to receive a protocol and/or a direct current voltage to configure the multiplexer circuit.

18. Antenna system according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of further interfaces or terminals respectively being connected in parallel.