ADJUSTING AN ANTENNA CONFIGURATION OF A TERMINAL DEVICE IN A CELLULAR COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Abstract

A method for adjusting an antenna configuration of the terminal device (30) in a cellular communication system (10). The system (10) includes a base station (20) and a terminal device (30) having a plurality of antenna elements (40-43). In the terminal device (30) a plurality of preset antenna configurations is provided. Each antenna configuration defines at least one reception parameter for the plurality of antenna elements (40-43). For each antenna configuration of the plurality of preset antenna configurations the antenna configuration is applied to the plurality of antenna elements (40-43) and a reception characteristic of a signal transmission from the base station (20) is determined. Based on the plurality of reception characteristics one antenna configuration is selected and applied to the plurality of antenna elements (40-43) for further signal transmissions.

Claims

1. A method for adjusting an antenna configuration of a terminal device in a cellular communication system, the cellular communication system comprising a base station and the terminal device, the terminal device comprising a plurality of antenna elements, the method comprising: providing, in the terminal device, a plurality of preset antenna configurations, each antenna configuration of the plurality of preset antenna configurations defining at least one reception parameter for the plurality of antenna elements, performing consecutively for each antenna configuration of the plurality of preset antenna configurations: applying the antenna configuration to the plurality of antenna elements, and determining a reception characteristic of a signal transmission sent from the base station and received at the plurality of antenna elements with the applied antenna configuration, selecting one antenna configuration of the plurality of preset antenna configurations based on the plurality of reception characteristics determined for the plurality of preset antenna configurations, and applying the selected antenna configuration to the plurality of antenna elements for further signal transmissions.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of antenna elements comprises a conformal antenna element conforming a prescribed shape of a component of the terminal device.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein each antenna configuration comprises for each antenna element a corresponding phase information and a corresponding amplitude information.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of preset antenna configurations is provided in the terminal device as predefined data which has been specifically determined for the type of the terminal device during development of the type of terminal device.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: optimizing the applied antenna configuration by an iterative algorithm.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein a transmission frequency of the signal transmission is above 30 GHz.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reception characteristic comprises a signal to noise ratio.

8. A method for adjusting an antenna configuration of a terminal device in a cellular communication system, the cellular communication system comprising a base station and the terminal device, the terminal device comprising a plurality of antenna elements, the method comprising: determining a reception characteristic of a signal transmission sent from the base station and received at the plurality of antenna elements, comparing the determined reception characteristic with a threshold value, and adjusting the antenna configuration depending on the comparison either according to the method of claim 1 or according to a channel sounding procedure.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of antenna elements comprises a conformal antenna element conforming a prescribed shape of a component of the terminal device.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the signal transmission comprises at least one of: a pilot signal transmission of the channel sounding procedure sent from the base station and received at the plurality of antenna elements, and a payload signal transmission sent from the base station and received at the plurality of antenna elements.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein the threshold value has a ratio below 1 dB, preferably a ratio of 0 dB.

12. A terminal device for a cellular communication system, the cellular communication system comprising a base station and the terminal device, the terminal device comprising: a plurality of antenna elements, a memory storing a plurality of preset antenna configurations, each antenna configuration of the plurality of preset antenna configurations defining at least one reception parameter for the plurality of antenna elements, and a processing unit configured to apply consecutively for each antenna configuration of the plurality of preset antenna configurations the antenna configuration to the plurality of antenna elements, and to determine for each antenna configuration of the plurality of preset antenna configurations a reception characteristic of a signal transmission sent from the base station and received at the plurality of antenna elements with the applied antenna configuration, to select one antenna configuration of the plurality of preset antenna configurations based on the plurality of reception characteristics determined for the plurality of preset antenna configurations, and to apply the selected antenna configuration to the plurality of antenna elements for further signal transmissions.

13. The terminal device according to claim 12, wherein the plurality of antenna elements comprises a conformal antenna element conforming a prescribed shape of a component of the terminal device.

14. The terminal device according to claim 12, wherein the plurality of antenna elements comprises four to sixteen antenna elements.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] Various embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0026] FIG. 1 shows schematically a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0027] FIG. 2 shows schematically a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0028] FIG. 3 shows schematically beamforming patterns of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0029] FIG. 4 shows a flowchart comprising method steps according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0030] In the following, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail. It is to be understood that the features of the various exemplary embodiments described herein may be combined with each other unless specifically noted otherwise. Any coupling between components or devices shown in the figures may be a direct or indirect coupling unless specifically noted otherwise.

[0031] FIG. 1 shows a communication system 10 according to an embodiment. The communication system 10 may be for example a wireless cellular communication system or a wireless local area network system. The communication system 10 comprises a base station 20, for example a base station of a cellular communication system or an access point of the wireless local area network system. The communication system comprises further terminal 30 which is arranged within a radio communication range of the base station 20. The terminal 30 may comprise for example a user equipment like a mobile telephone, a tablet computer, a wearable device or a mobile accessory. Furthermore, the terminal 30 may comprise for example a stationary or mobile station like a cash register, a credit card reader, the control device of a home or office automation system, a robotic device, a drone, or a moving cell in for example a vehicle. Although in FIG. 1 shows only one terminal 30, in the communication system 10 a plurality of terminals may be arranged and may be configured to communicate with the base station 20 as will be described in the following.

[0032] The base station 20 comprises a base station logic 21 and an antenna structure 22. The base station logic 21 may comprise for example a controller, computer or microprocessor. The antenna structure 22 may comprise a single antenna or a plurality of antennas which are indicated by circles in FIG. 1. One exemplary antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements is indicated by reference sign 23. The antenna elements 23 may be arranged in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional spatial array on a carrier. The base station 20 may comprise furthermore associated (not shown) transceivers for the antenna elements 23. The base station 20 may operate in a multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) mode. Accordingly, the base station 20 may have several tens or in excess of 100 antenna elements 23.

[0033] The terminal 30 comprises an antenna array 32 comprising a plurality of antenna elements. Thus, a radio transmission 11 between the base station 20 and the terminal 30 may be established. In particular, a signal transmission may be sent from the base station 20 to the terminal 30.

[0034] FIG. 2 shows the terminal 30 in more detail. The antenna array 32 comprises a plurality of antenna elements 40 to 43. The antenna elements 40 to 43 may comprise so-called conformal antennas which are designed to conform or follow some prescribed shape, for example a shape of a housing of the terminal 30 or a shape of a display or printed circuit board of the terminal 30. The antenna elements 40 to 43 may be arranged at different locations of the terminal 30, for example some of the antenna elements may be arranged at a top side of the terminal 30 and some may be arranged at a bottom side of the terminal 30. Thus, each of the antenna elements 40 to 43 may have different transmission characteristics with respect to directionality and sensitivity. Furthermore, due to their spatially different locations, the antenna elements 40 to 43 may have different phase characteristics. The terminal 30 may comprise furthermore associated (not shown) transceivers for the antenna elements 40 to 43. Additionally, the terminal 30 comprises a terminal logic 31, for example a controller or microprocessor, which is coupled to the transceivers of the antenna elements 40 to 43. A memory 33 is coupled to the terminal logic 31 for storing information, in particular the preset antenna configurations as will be described below in detail. The terminal 30 may comprise some more components, for example a display, a graphical user interface and a battery, but these components are not shown in FIG. 1 for clarity reasons.

[0035] In contrast to linear antenna arrays, in particular conformal antenna elements show a complex and non-uniform spatial reception sensitivity. FIG. 3 shows exemplary antenna beams 50 to 53 of the conformal antennas 40 to 43 of the terminal device 30. Thus, depending on an orientation of the terminal device 30, a reception sensitivity may vary significantly. In other words, even at the same location, the terminal device 30 may show significantly different reception sensitivities when being rotated in the directions Theta and Phi shown in FIG. 2.

[0036] When operating the terminal device 30 in the cellular MIMO system 10, the terminal device 30 will employ a plurality of antenna elements to form a kind of antenna array to compensate a path loss, in particular at millimetre wave transmissions, and increase the ranking of mobile channels. Therefore, the antenna array needs to cover most of the incoming wave angles with dual polarization, which may be accomplished with a conformal antenna array providing a sufficient coverage efficiency. It is to be noticed that the conformal antenna array is not a traditional linear array which may have limited coverage angle and single polarization. When using arbitrary conformal antenna arrays, a digital beamforming may be preferred to get best beamforming gain in wide angle range, as for such complex systems it is difficult to use traditional analogue beamforming technologies.

[0037] A wireless transmission performance, a so-called over the air (OTA) performance, may be increased with the number of antenna elements in the terminal device 30. For example, a higher rank the transmission may be enabled or an overall antenna gain may be increased under poor reception conditions by adequately combining the signals from the plurality of antenna elements. Combining the signals from the plurality of antenna elements may comprise for example phase shifting each antenna signal by a phase angle and weighting each antenna signal by a weighting factor. In this context, the weighting factor is also called amplitude. The phase angle and the weighting factor have to be configured individually for each antenna element. Such a configuration of the antenna elements is also called precoding.

[0038] Under good and rich reception conditions, when a signal-to-noise ratio is large, a pilot signal based channel sounding technology may be used to adapt the configuration of the antenna elements 40 to 43 of the antenna array 32. The pilot signal based channel sounding technology may involve a maximum ratio combining (MRC) technology for determining and optimising phase and amplitude parameters for each antenna element 40 to 43.

[0039] However, when operating close to the noise floor, the pilot signals may be below the noise floor for individual antenna elements. Thus, MRC is not feasible under these conditions. A selection of a single antenna element may also not work under these conditions as the signal received at a single antenna element may not be strong enough. Therefore, the processing unit 31 of the terminal device 32 may perform a method 60 comprising method steps 61-70 as shown in FIG. 4.

[0040] In step 61 the processing unit 31 determines a reception characteristic under current conditions. For example, a common signal-to-noise ratio based on a signal-to-noise ratio determined for each antenna element 40 to 43 maybe determined. In step 62 the determined reception characteristic, for example the common signal-to-noise ratio, is compared with a predetermined threshold. The ratio may be in a range of 0 to 1 dB. Thus, in step 62 it is determined, whether the current reception conditions are near the noise floor or not. In case the signal-to-noise ratio is above the threshold, in step 63 a channel sounding procedure may be performed and in step 64 the antenna elements 40 to 43 may be configured according to the results of the channel sounding.

[0041] In case the signal-to-noise ratio is low, the processing unit 31 continues with step 65. In step 65 a preset antenna configuration from a plurality of preset antenna configurations is retrieved from the memory 33. The plurality of preset antenna configurations provided in the memory 33 may have been determined and stored in the memory 33 during a development of the terminal device 30. The memory 33 may provide several tens or even an excess of 100 preset antenna configurations. Each of the plurality of preset antenna configurations provides parameters, for example a phase information and an amplitude information, for each antenna element 40 to 43 such that at least some, for example two or more, of the antenna elements 40 to 43 contribute to receive signal which is further processed in the processing unit 31. The preset antenna configurations are designed such that a total isotropic sensitivity (TIS) may be achieved over large spatial angles Theta and Phi. The plurality of preset antenna configurations may be called codebook and each antenna configuration may be seen as a code of the codebook.

[0042] In step 66 the retrieved preset antenna configuration is applied to the antenna array 32. While the antenna array 32 is operating with the applied preset antenna configuration, a reception characteristic of a signal transmission sent from the base station 22 the terminal device 30 is determined in step 67. The determined reception characteristic is stored associated to the preset antenna configuration in the memory 33. The steps 65-67 are repeated for each preset antenna configuration stored in the memory 33. Therefore, after in step 68 the processing unit 31 has determined that all preset antenna configurations have been tested, the method continues in step 69.

[0043] In step 69 the best reception characteristic is determined from the reception characteristics determined above in steps 65-67. For example, the best reception characteristic may be the reception characteristic having the best signal-to-noise ratio. The preset antenna configuration associated to the best reception characteristic is retrieved from the memory 33 and the antenna elements 40 to 43 are configured with this configuration for a best reception of future signal transmissions from the base station. Additionally, a search algorithm may be used to improve the performance, for example by a stepwise iterative approach.

[0044] The above-described method 60 may be repeated from time to time, for example every few seconds, for ensuring a best reception quality. Additionally, in case the reception quality degrades, the method 60 may be initiated.

[0045] To sum up, the use of conformal antenna arrays allows an easier integration and better coverage. A limited number of preset antenna configurations, so-called codes or states, are defined, where antenna signals are combined with different phase and amplitude settings which correspond to antenna gain in different directions and/or polarizations. All these settings are then examined when operating close to the noise and the best setting is selected for further transmissions.

[0046] The above-described method may in particular be advantageous at high transmission frequencies, for example at transmission frequencies above 20 GHz. In this case, the antenna aperture becomes close such that in poor reception conditions a selection of the single antenna element may not provide enough antenna gain and a pilot signal based channel sounding is not feasible.