Communication device for receiving and transmitting OFDM signals in a wireless communication system

Abstract

A communication device for transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) signals in a wireless communication system. The device includes a plurality of antenna elements that transmit the OFDM signals to a receiver over a plurality of transmission channels in the wireless communication system. The device also generates weight coefficients applied to each of the plurality of subcarrier signals, and controls an amplitude and/or phase of the plurality of subcarrier signals as a function of said weight coefficients.

Claims

1. A method performed by an electronic device, the method comprising: obtaining, by circuitry of the electronic device, based on a received preamble signal, a vector for adjusting a plurality of subcarrier signals; adjusting, by the circuitry, each of the plurality of subcarrier signals based on the vector to optimize reception power; transforming, by an inverse fast Fourier transformer of the electronic device, the plurality of subcarrier signals into an orthogonal frequency divisional multiplexed (OFDM) signal using inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT); and outputting the OFDM signal via a plurality of antennas of the electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the vector includes coefficients that are applied to each of the plurality of subcarriers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the vector is obtained based on a channel property in accordance with an Eigenvector of a matrix.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the vector is obtained based on a channel property in accordance with an Eigenvector of a Hermitian matrix.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving the preamble signal.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions, which when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to: obtain, based on a received preamble signal, a vector for adjusting a plurality of subcarrier signals; adjust each of the plurality of subcarrier signals based on the vector to optimize reception power; transform the plurality of subcarrier signals into an orthogonal frequency divisional multiplexed (OFDM) signal using inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT); and output the OFDM signal via a plurality of antennas of the electronic device.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the vector includes coefficients that are applied to each of the plurality of subcarriers.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the vector is obtained based on a channel property in accordance with an Eigenvector of a matrix.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the vector is obtained based on a channel property in accordance with an Eigenvector of a Hermitian matrix.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The present invention is explained in more detail in the following description in relation to the enclosed drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a schematic graph showing the magnitude of the aligned preamble OFDM subcarriers as a function of the subcarrier number,

(3) FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention,

(4) FIG. 3 schematically shows how a frequency domain channel estimation is performed within the communication device of FIG. 2, and

(5) FIG. 4a through 4c schematically show the generation of a complex weight coefficient.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(6) The communication device illustrated in FIG. 2 may be, for example, a base station or a mobile terminal of a wireless TDMA-TDD communication system employing a time division multiplex access (TDMA) and time division duplex (TDD) technique for OFDM signal communication between the various communication devices of the communication system. The communication device comprises all components necessary for processing received OFDM signals and generating OFDM signals to be transmitted. In particular, the communication device comprises a diversity antenna, e.g. an array antenna, generally designated by 10. The diversity antenna 10 is comprised of a plurality of mutually spaced antenna elements 12 only two of which are shown. An OFDM signal sent from a distant mobile terminal (not shown) or another type of communication device is received by each antenna element 12. In general, there will be a phase difference between the incoming OFDM signals at the different antenna elements 12. The received OFDM signals are individually processed by the communication device according to the present invention. Particularly, the received OFDM signals pass through down-conversion and analog-to-digital conversion means 14, Fast Fourier Transforming (FFT) means 16, demodulation means 18 and subsequent processing means (not shown in detail), such as a deinterleaver, a channel decoder and a voice codec, which allow to recover the baseband information transmitted from the remote station or terminal. At some point in the signal processing chain there will be provided combining means for combining the different received OFDM signals according to a suitably selected combining technique which is per se well-known in the art.

(7) In case the communication device wants to transmit an OFDM transmission signal to the remote station or terminal, this OFDM transmission signal is generated by transmission signal generation means 20 (which include such functions as channel coding, interleaving and modulation) and is subsequently supplied to Inverse Fast Fourier Transforming (IFFT) means 22 and up-conversion and digital-to-analog conversion means 24. The OFDM transmission signal then is transmitted from each antenna element 12 with a phase difference from one antenna element 12 to the next. The phase difference at transmission is determined based on the phase relationship between the incoming signals at the different antenna elements 12 at signal reception, so as to enhance signal power at the remote station or terminal and to reduce signal power at other places.

(8) An OFDM signal is composed of a plurality of superposed subcarrier signals having different subcarrier frequencies. Channel estimation means 26 within the communication device according to the present invention determine an attenuation value for each subcarrier signal (better: for each transmission channel associated to a respective subcarrier frequency) of the received OFDM signal individually for each antenna element 12. The attenuation value gives a measure for the attenuation that the respective subcarrier signal was subjected to during its transmission from the remote station or terminal to the respective antenna element 12 of the communication device according to the present invention. Such attenuation may be caused e.g. by fast and slow fading. To determine the attenuation values, the channel estimation means 26 compare a preamble portion of at least one of the subcarrier signals with a known reference preamble symbol prestored in a memory 28. Particularly, the channel estimation means 26 compare the magnitudes of the preamble portion of the subcarrier signal and the Fourier transformed version of the reference preamble symbol and calculate a magnitude ratio (see FIG. 3). If necessary, the channel estimation means 26 perform a phase alignment of the preamble portion of the subcarrier signal with regard to the reference preamble symbol before carrying out the magnitude comparison.

(9) Preferably, the channel estimation means 26 calculate the magnitude ratio only for a limited number of subcarrier signals out of the total number of subcarrier signals making up the OFDM reception signal at a respective one of the antenna elements 12. The channel estimation means 26 then determine the attenuation values for the remaining subcarrier signals from the calculated magnitude ratios by estimation, e.g. by interpolation or filtering. In this way, attenuation values for every transmission channel associated to a respective one of the antenna elements 12 can be obtained. However, it is to be understood that the channel estimation means 26 may be adapted to calculate the magnitude ratio for all of the subcarrier signals.

(10) The channel estimation means 26 supply the attenuation values thus determined to signal adjustment means 30 which determine for each attenuation value a corresponding amplitude adjustment factor. Thus, an amplitude adjustment factor is determined in relation to each transmission channel associated to a respective antenna element 12. Each amplitude adjustment factor is applied, at a multiplication point 30, to the respective subcarrier signal of the OFDM transmission signal to be transmitted from the respective antenna element 12. In this way, the amplitudes of the subcarrier signals of the OFDM transmission signal are individually adjusted according to the attenuation conditions of the corresponding transmission channel. Particularly, the amplitude adjustment is such that a lower attenuation value results in a higher corresponding amplitude adjustment factor and thus in a higher amplitude of the corresponding subcarrier signal at the respective antenna element 12, and vice versa. There may be chosen a linear relationship between the magnitude ratio determined in relation to a particular transmission channel and the corresponding amplitude adjustment factor. Alternatively, a non-linear relationship may be chosen for this relationship. For example, the relationship may be chosen such that, when the magnitude ratio is below a predetermined threshold, the corresponding subcarrier signal at the respective antenna element 12 is suppressed. And if the magnitude ratio is above the threshold, the corresponding subcarrier signal is given a predetermined constant amplitude. In general, the choice of a suitable relationship between the magnitude ratio (i.e. the attenuation value) and the amplitude adjustment factor will be readily available to a person skilled in the art.

(11) The above amplitude adjustment which, if necessary, is performed for each antenna element 12 individually on each subcarrier signal to be transmitted from the respective antenna element 12 allows to avoid transmission of useless energy on those transmission channels which have proved to be heavily disturbed by amplitude fading, thereby reducing power consumption of the communication device itself and liability to interference at other receiving communication devices due to transmission of meaningless energy.

(12) The channel estimation means 26 may further determine, individually for each transmission channel of each antenna element 12, a phase difference value representative of the phase shift that the corresponding received subcarrier signal was subjected to during its transmission from the remote station or terminal to the respective antenna element 12 of the communication device according to the present invention. To this end, the channel estimation means 26 may determine the relative phase difference between the preamble portion of the respective subcarrier signal and the prestored reference preamble symbol mentioned above. Again, the channel estimation means 26 may calculate the relative phase difference individually for every subcarrier signal, or only for a selected group of subcarrier signals followed by an estimation process for the remaining subcarrier signals. From the phase difference values thus determined by the channel estimation means 26 the signal adjustment means 30 then determine suitable phase adjustment factors to be applied to the subcarrier signals of the OFDM transmission signal, so as compensate for the relative phase shifts that occur to the subcarrier signals transmitted from the different antenna elements 12 on their way to the remote station or terminal.

(13) The amplitude adjustment factor and the phase adjustment factor for a particular subcarrier signal associated to a particular antenna element 12 may be represented by a complex weight coefficient which is applied to the respective transmission subcarrier signal. FIGS. 4a to 4c show three possibilities for generating the weight coefficient. In all three cases, the phase of the weight coefficient equals the phase determined by the channel estimation means 26 for the corresponding received subcarrier signal but has opposite sign. The magnitude of the weight coefficient can be equal (FIG. 4a) or proportional (FIG. 4b) to the subcarrier magnitude determined by the channel estimation means 26. Alternatively, the magnitude of the weight coefficient can be the result of a non-linear function, such as a threshold or square function, which has the subcarrier magnitude determined by the channel estimation means 26 as its input (FIG. 4c).

(14) One of the objects of the present invention is to reduce unnecessary energy consumption at the transmitter. Furthermore, as will be shown in the following on the basis of a mathematical representation, the energy at the receiving antenna can be maximized when applying the concept of the present invention.

(15) To maximize the total OFDM signal energy at the receiver, the amplitude ratio and phase at each transmitter antenna should be optimized. Now, we think about the j.sup.th subcarrier. M OFDM signals coming from M different transmitter antennas. They are already weighted by value w.sub.jk. The combined signal can be written like

(16) $\underset{k=0}{\overset{M-1}{.Math.}}{}_{\mathrm{jk}}{w}_{\mathrm{jk}}^{*}$

(17) Here, * is conjugate. a.sub.jk is complex channel expression of j.sup.th subcarrier of OFDM signal comes from k.sup.th antenna. In vector expression, combined OFDM signal can be written as
a.sub.jw.sub.j
where a.sub.j=[a.sub.j0, a.sub.j1, . . . , a.sub.jM] is channel vector and w.sub.j=[w.sub.j0, w.sub.j1, . . . , w.sub.jM] is weight vector for j.sup.th subcarrier. Here, is Hermitian transpose (conjugate transpose).

(18) Power of combined signal will be
(.sub.jw.sub.j).sup.2=(.sub.jw.sub.j)(.sub.jw.sub.j)=(w.sub.j.sub.j)(.sub.jw.sub.j)=w.sub.jA.sub.jw.sub.j

(19) The matrix A is a Hermitian matrix defined as

(20) $A_j={}_j^{}{}_j=\left[\begin{array}{c}{}_{j0}^{*}\\ {}_{jM}^{*}\end{array}\right]\left[{}_{j0}{}_{jM}\right]$

(21) To maximize combined j.sup.th subcarrier of OFDM signal, it is said that weight vector, w.sub.j, should be chosen to proportional of Eigenvector of maximum Eigenvalue of the matrix A.sub.j.

(22) In the other hand, any Hermitian matrix H can be expressed like

(23) $H=\underset{j}{.Math.}{}_j{v}_j^{}{v}_j$

(24) where is Eigenvalue and is Eigenvector. If the expression of the matrix A.sub.j is compared with this expression of Hermitian matrix H, it can be seen that the matrix A.sub.j has only one Eigenvalue which is not zero, naturally maximum Eigenvalue, and its eigenvector is a.sub.j. Eigenvalue of the matrix A.sub.j is inner product of a.sub.ja.sub.j and Eigenvector is usually normalized like a.sub.j/(a.sub.ja.sub.j).sup.1/2.

(25) Again, to maximize the combined j.sup.th subcarrier of OFDM signal, weight vector, w.sub.j, should be proportional to vector a.sub.j.

(26) For other subcarriers, set of complex channel expression of each channel (antenna), channel vector, shall be weighting vector. Complex channel expression of each antenna and subcarrier is known at channel estimation method.

(27) (Normalization of weight vector is not necessary, because ratio between antennas and subcarriers are important.)