Method and system for centralized or distributed resource management in a distributed transceiver network

• US 9,438,389 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2014
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Peltbeam Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Golba LLC
• Inventors: Moshfeghi, Mehran
• Primary Examiner(s): LEVITAN, DMITRY
• Application Number:
  US14/455,859
• Publication Number:
  US 20150031407A1
• Time in Patent Office: 760 Days
• Field of Search: 370/310, 370/315, 370/328, 370/329
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/40 Circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/401 for selecting or indicating operating mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0408 using two or more beams, i.e. beam diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/043 using best eigenmode, e.g. beam forming or beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0689 using different transmission schemes, at least one of them being a diversity transmission scheme
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0897 using beamforming per multi-path, e.g. to cope with different directions of arrival [DOA] at different multi-paths
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/12 Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0032 Distributed allocation, i.e. involving a plurality of allocating devices, each making partial allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0473 the resource being transmission power
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/54 based on quality criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A master application device comprises a plurality of distributed transceivers, a central baseband processor, and a network management engine that manages operation of the master application device and end-user application devices. The master application device communicates data streams to the end-user devices utilizing one or more distributed transceivers selected from the plurality of distributed transceivers. The selected distributed transceivers and the end-user devices are concurrently configured by the network management engine based on corresponding link quality and propagation environment. The network management engine allocates resources to the selected distributed transceivers and the end-user devices during the data communication. The network management engine continuously monitors communication environment information to configure beamforming settings and/or antenna arrangement for the selected distributed transceivers. Beam patterns are selected for the selected distributed transceivers so as to minimize power consumption and/or based on the location and orientation information of the end-user application devices.

Claims

1. A method of communication, the method comprising:

in a first device that comprises a plurality of distributed transceivers, each distributed transceiver of the first device comprising an antenna array comprising a plurality of antennas;

establishing a feedback channel between the first device and a second device to provide and negotiate configuration information;

based on the configuration information provided through the feedback channel, identifying a plurality of pairs of distributed transceivers, each pair of identified distributed transceivers comprising a transceiver from the plurality of transceivers of the first device and a transceiver from a plurality of transceivers of the second device, each distributed transceiver of the second device comprising an antenna array comprising a plurality of antennas;

for each identified pair of transceivers, identifying (i) a beam pattern for the antenna array of the distributed transceiver of the first device in the pair and (ii) a beam pattern for the antenna array of the distributed transceiver of the second device in the pair; and

based on the configuration information negotiated through the feedback channel, concurrently configuring the antenna arrays of each pair of distributed transceivers in the plurality of identified pairs of distributed transceivers to communicate a data stream between the first and second devices, each said data stream communicated between a corresponding pair of distributed transceivers utilizing the identified beam pattern for the antenna arrays of the corresponding pair of distributed transceivers.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining a location of the second device, wherein identifying the plurality of pairs of distributed transceivers further comprises identifying the plurality of pairs of distributed transceivers based on the identified location of the second device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the location of the second device comprises collecting, by the first device, communication environment information comprising the location of the second device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the location of the second device is determined by the second device using one of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), an assisted-GPS, a wireless LAN (WLAN) based positioning, and a triangulation based technique.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising correlating said beam patterns with the location of the second device utilizing a database storing data representing a mapping of physical location of a set of devices comprising the first and second devices to a list of transceivers to be active within each device and an antenna and beam configuration of each transceiver to be active.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

dynamically configuring the beam patterns of the antenna arrays for one or more of said pairs of distributed transceivers of the first and second devices; and

updating the database based on said dynamically configuring of the beam patterns.

7. The method of claim 5, the database further storing an orientation of one or more devices in the set of devices, wherein identifying the plurality of pairs of distributed transceivers further comprises utilizing an orientation of at least one of the first and second devices.

8. The method of claim 5, the database further storing a location of the distributed transceivers of one or more devices in the set of devices, wherein identifying the plurality of pairs of distributed transceivers further comprises utilizing the location of at least one distributed transceiver of the first or second devices.

9. The method of claim 5, the database further storing an orientation of the distributed transceivers of one or more devices in the set of devices, wherein identifying the plurality of pairs of distributed transceivers further comprises utilizing the orientation of at least one distributed transceiver of the first or second devices.

10. The method of claim 2 further comprising establishing (i) an uplink control link with the second device to receive the location of the second device from the second device and (ii) a downlink control link to the second device to notify the second device of required configurations to communicate said data streams between the first and second devices.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising allocating resources comprising at least one of frequency channels, time slots, and storage to the first and second devices to maintain the communication of said data streams communicated between the first and second devices.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device comprises a central baseband processor, the method further comprising performing digital signal processing by said central baseband processor for transmit and receive operations for each of said plurality of distributed transceivers of the first device during said communication.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising monitoring a set of conditions comprising a link quality and conditions of a propagation environment between the first and second devices during said communication, wherein concurrently configuring the antenna arrays of each identified pair of distributed transceivers further comprises utilizing the monitored set of conditions.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising dynamically configuring said beam patterns of the antenna arrays for one or more of said pairs of distributed transceivers of the first and second devices based on said monitoring.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising controlling transmit power levels of each transceiver in said identified pairs of transceivers based on the monitored conditions.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying beam patterns of the antenna arrays of the plurality of distributed transceivers of the first device and the antenna arrays of the plurality of the distributed transceivers of the second device is further based on a number of transceivers of the first device and a number of antennas of the antenna array of each transceiver of the first device.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying polarization, spacing, or array geometry of (i) the antenna arrays of the plurality of distributed transceivers of the first device and (ii) the antenna arrays of the plurality of the distributed transceivers of the second device,

wherein concurrently configuring the antenna arrays of the plurality of distributed transceivers of the first device and the antenna arrays of the plurality of distributed transceivers of the second device further comprises utilizing the identified polarization, spacing or array geometry of the antenna arrays of the first and second devices.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified plurality of pairs of distributed transceivers comprises first and second pairs of distributed transceivers, the method further comprising:

identifying a plurality of reflectors in a propagation environment between the first and second devices;

wherein identifying the beam pattern for antenna arrays of the transceivers in the first pair comprises identifying a beam pattern for the antenna arrays of each distributed transceiver in the first pair for a direct line of sight (LOS) to communicate a data stream between the two transceivers, and

wherein identifying the beam pattern for antenna arrays of the transceivers in the second pair comprises identifying a beam pattern for the antenna arrays of each distributed transceiver in the second pair to point to a reflector in the plurality of the identified reflectors to communicate a data stream utilizing said reflector.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising concurrently configuring the antenna arrays of each identified pair of distributed transceivers such that a maximum pattern gain of the antenna array of each transceiver points to a particular direction to communicate a data stream between the antenna array of the distributed transceiver of the first device in the pair and the antenna array of the distributed transceiver of the second device in the pair.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pairs of distributed transceivers operate in one of a spatial diversity mode, a frequency diversity mode, and a multiplexing mode.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the feedback channel is a low-throughput link between the first and second devices.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the feedback channel is implemented through one of a wireless LAN (WLAN) link, a Bluetooth link, and a 60 GHZ link.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information provided from the second device to the first device comprises at least one of a channel measurement, device capabilities, a battery life, a number of transceivers, measured cross-interference levels, an antenna spacing, an array geometry, a sequence of antenna coefficients being evaluated, device locations, a target throughput, and application quality of service (QoS) requirements.