CN116438717A - Base station antenna and base station equipment - Google Patents

Base station antenna and base station equipment Download PDF

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Publication number
CN116438717A
CN116438717A CN202080106495.XA CN202080106495A CN116438717A CN 116438717 A CN116438717 A CN 116438717A CN 202080106495 A CN202080106495 A CN 202080106495A CN 116438717 A CN116438717 A CN 116438717A
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China
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signal
phase
base station
shifting
transmission
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CN202080106495.XA
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肖伟宏
王琳琳
牛立栋
彭中卫
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Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
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Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
    • H01Q23/00—Antennas with active circuits or circuit elements integrated within them or attached to them

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  • Variable-Direction Aerials And Aerial Arrays (AREA)

Abstract

The base station antenna comprises a first signal feed unit, a signal processing unit and an antenna array, wherein the first signal feed unit comprises a signal transmission port, a signal receiving port, a first phase-shifting feed network and a second phase-shifting feed network, the signal transmission port is connected with the input end of the first phase-shifting feed network, the output end of the first phase-shifting feed network is connected with the input end of the signal processing unit, the signal receiving port is connected with the output end of the second phase-shifting feed network, the input end of the second phase-shifting feed network is connected with the output end of the signal processing unit, and the combining end of the signal processing unit is connected with the antenna array. By using respective phase-shifting feed networks to feed and receive signals and using the same antenna array to radiate and receive, the antenna array can independently feed and transmit signals and receive signals, and can reduce the number of the antenna arrays, thereby being beneficial to improving the uplink and downlink transmission performance of the base station antenna on the basis of saving the layout space occupied by the base station antenna.

Description

Base station antenna and base station equipment Technical Field
The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a base station antenna and a base station device.
Background
Multiple input multiple output (multiple input multiple output, MIMO) technology is the core technology of wireless communication systems. In the MIMO system, multiple antennas are adopted between the transmitting end and the receiving end of the base station apparatus, where the transmitting end and the receiving end can form corresponding channels between each antenna, and the channels corresponding to the antennas do not affect each other and do not interfere with each other. Signals may be transmitted between the transmitting and receiving ends over these channels to achieve spatial diversity and multiplexing of the channels. By using the MIMO technology, not only the transmission rate of signals and the data amount of primary transmission signals can be improved, but also the quality and accuracy of signal transmission can be improved by the channel transmission without interference.
However, current MIMO systems typically include several rf units (e.g., remote rf units) and base station antennas in one device. Since the rf unit needs to occupy a certain space, if the device space where the rf unit and the base station antenna are located is limited, the space reserved for the base station antenna by the MIMO system becomes very limited. However, the base station antennas are arranged in smaller space, which means that the antennas corresponding to the base station antennas have stronger energy coupling, and the interference between the antennas is correspondingly enhanced, so that the base station antennas cannot work in the most ideal state, and the performance of the base station antennas and even the MIMO system is affected. Therefore, how to set the base station antenna in a limited space to improve the performance of the base station antenna is a problem to be solved.
Disclosure of Invention
The application provides a base station antenna and base station equipment, which are used for setting the base station antenna in a limited space and improving the performance of the base station antenna as much as possible.
In a first aspect, the present application provides a base station antenna, including a first signal feed unit, a signal processing unit, and an antenna array. The first signal feed unit comprises a signal transmission port, a signal receiving port, a first phase-shifting feed network and a second phase-shifting feed network, wherein the signal transmission port is connected with the input end of the first phase-shifting feed network, the output end of the first phase-shifting feed network is connected with the input end of the signal processing unit, the signal receiving port is connected with the output end of the second phase-shifting feed network, the input end of the second phase-shifting feed network is connected with the output end of the signal processing unit, and the combining end of the signal processing unit is connected with the antenna array. During uplink transmission, the first phase-shifting feed network can perform phase-shifting feed on a transmission signal from the signal transmission port and then transmit the transmission signal to the signal processing unit, and the signal processing unit can transmit the transmission signal subjected to phase-shifting feed to the antenna array so that the antenna array radiates the transmission signal subjected to phase-shifting feed. In downlink transmission, the antenna array receives a received signal and sends the received signal to the signal processing unit, the signal processing unit can send the received signal from the antenna array to the second phase-shifting feed network, and the second phase-shifting feed network can send the received signal to the signal receiving port after phase-shifting feed.
In the design, the receiving and transmitting signals are respectively fed through the respective phase-shifting feed networks and radiated and received by using the same antenna array, so that the base station antenna can not only realize the functions of independently feeding the sending signals and receiving signals, but also reduce the number of the antenna arrays required by the base station antenna, thereby being beneficial to improving the uplink and downlink transmission performance of the base station antenna on the basis of saving the layout space occupied by the base station antenna. Furthermore, by decoupling the uplink and downlink transmissions, nonlinear interference between the uplink and downlink transmissions can be effectively reduced, so that the risk of passive intermodulation generated by the base station antenna can be reduced.
In an alternative design, the transmit signal and the receive signal may be carried in the same frequency band. Therefore, the base station antenna can respectively carry out phase shift feed on the transmitted signal and the received signal in the same frequency band, and the adjustment mode can be adjusted according to the frequency band and the signal type in a needed way, and is finer.
In an alternative design, the first signal feeding unit may further include a first signal receiving port and a first duplexer, the combining end of the first duplexer is connected to the first signal receiving port, the output end of the first duplexer is connected to the signal transmitting port, and the input end of the first duplexer is connected to the signal receiving port. In this case, the first duplexer may transmit the transmission signal received by the first signal transmitting-receiving port to the signal transmitting port, or transmit the reception signal phase-shifted fed to the first signal transmitting-receiving port. In this design, when the base station antenna does not include the first signal receiving and transmitting port and the first duplexer, the base station antenna may be adapted to a remote radio unit having one radio transmitting port and one radio receiving port, and when the base station antenna includes the first signal receiving and transmitting port and the first duplexer, the base station antenna may be adapted to a remote radio unit having only one radio receiving and transmitting port, thereby contributing to improvement of versatility of the base station antenna by providing different base station antennas for different forms of remote radio units.
In an alternative design, the first signal feed unit includes M signal transmitting ports, M signal receiving ports, a combiner, and a splitter, the combiner includes M inputs and one output, the splitter includes one input and M outputs, and M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2. The output end of the combiner is connected with the input end of the first phase-shifting feed network, and the combiner can combine the transmission signals from the M signal transmission ports into one path and then transmit the combined signals to the first phase-shifting feed network. Correspondingly, the M output ends of the splitter are respectively connected with the M signal receiving ports, the input end of the splitter is connected with the output end of the second phase-shifting feed network, and the splitter can divide the phase-shifting fed received signals into M paths and then respectively send the M signal receiving ports. In the design, the multi-band transmitting signals or receiving signals can share the phase-shifting feed network to carry out electric modulation, and share the antenna array to carry out radiation and reception, so that the mode can be realized without arranging a phase-shifting feed network and an antenna array special for the transmitting and receiving signals of each frequency band, thereby effectively reducing the quantity of the phase-shifting feed networks and the antenna arrays deployed in the base station antenna and being beneficial to saving the layout space of the base station antenna. And in this way, as much as possible, more frequency-band receiving and transmitting signals are integrated on the same antenna array, which is also helpful for realizing multiplexing of the antenna arrays and reducing mutual interference between the antenna arrays. Furthermore, the mode electrically adjusts the transmission signals of a plurality of frequency bands by using the same set of phase-shifting feed parameters, and electrically adjusts the receiving signals of a plurality of frequency bands by using the same set of phase-shifting feed parameters, so that the purposes of independently electrically adjusting the transmission signals and the receiving signals can be realized.
In an alternative design, the first phase-shifting feed network includes a first power divider and a first digital phase shifter, an input end of the first power divider corresponds to an input end of the first phase-shifting feed network, an output end of the first power divider is connected to an input end of the first digital phase shifter, an output end of the first digital phase shifter corresponds to an output end of the first phase-shifting feed network, the first power divider can distribute power of a transmission signal and then transmit the transmission signal to the first digital phase shifter, and the first digital phase shifter can phase-shift the power-distributed transmission signal and then transmit the phase-shifted transmission signal to the signal processing unit. In the above design, by arranging the first power divider to divide the power of the transmission signal, the transmission signal can be transmitted in parallel by dividing into a plurality of links, so as to improve the transmission efficiency of the transmission signal. By setting the first digital phase shifter to shift the phase of the transmission signal, the beam radiation direction of the antenna array for radiating the transmission signal can be changed.
In an alternative design, the second phase-shifting feed network includes a second power divider and a second digital phase shifter, an output end of the second power divider corresponds to an output end of the second phase-shifting feed network, an input end of the second power divider is connected to an output end of the second digital phase shifter, an input end of the second digital phase shifter corresponds to an input end of the second phase-shifting feed network, the second digital phase shifter can shift a phase of a received signal and send the phase-shifted received signal to the second power divider, and the second power divider can weight the phase-shifted received signal and send the phase-shifted received signal to the signal receiving port. In the above design, the beam direction of the received signal received by the antenna array can be changed by providing the second digital phase shifter to shift the phase of the received signal. By arranging the second power divider to weight the received signal, the received signal can be transmitted in parallel by dividing into a plurality of links before the received signal is transmitted into the second power divider, so that the transmission efficiency of the received signal is improved.
In an alternative design, the base station antenna includes K first signal feed units, the signal processing unit includes K inputs and K outputs, and K is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2. The output ends of the K first phase-shifting feed networks corresponding to the K first signal feed units are respectively connected with K input ends of the signal processing unit, the input ends of the K second phase-shifting feed networks corresponding to the K first signal feed units are respectively connected with K output ends of the signal processing unit, and the signal processing unit can combine the K transmission signals after phase-shifting feed sent by the K first phase-shifting feed networks into one path and then send the same to the antenna array, or can divide the received signals into K paths and then send the same to the K second phase-shifting feed networks. In the design, each transmitted signal and each received signal can independently carry out phase-shifting feed, and each signal is radiated or received through one antenna array, so that the flexibility of carrying out phase-shifting feed on the signals can be realized to the greatest extent, each uplink and downlink transmission has different wave beams, the antenna aperture is utilized to the greatest extent, and the layout space occupied by the base station antenna can be reduced as much as possible.
In an alternative design, the signal processing unit further includes a communication end, the base station antenna further includes a second signal feed unit, the second signal feed unit includes a signal receiving and transmitting port and a third phase-shifting feed network, a first end of the third phase-shifting feed network is connected to the signal receiving and transmitting port, and a second end of the third phase-shifting feed network is connected to the communication end of the signal processing unit. In this case, the third phase-shift feeding network may phase-shift-feed the transmission signal from the signal transmitting-receiving port and transmit the same to the signal processing unit, or may phase-shift-feed the reception signal received through the second terminal and transmit the same to the signal transmitting-receiving port. In the design, part of the receiving and transmitting signals can be independently electrically adjusted by using different phase-shifting feed parameters, and the other part of the receiving and transmitting signals can share the same phase-shifting feed parameters for simultaneous electric adjustment. On the one hand, the structure is characterized in that the phase-shifting feed networks corresponding to the receiving and transmitting signals needing independent electric modulation are respectively arranged, and the same phase-shifting feed network is shared by the receiving and transmitting signals not needing independent electric modulation, so that the layout space of the base station antenna can be reduced as much as possible on the basis of meeting the requirement of independent electric modulation. On the other hand, the structure can also be directly combined with the traditional antenna structure, and the traditional antenna structure does not need to be directly replaced, so that the flexibility of deploying the base station antenna is further improved.
In an alternative design, the signal processing unit includes N second diplexers, the antenna array includes N groups of radiating elements, N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2. The first phase-shifting feed network comprises N output ends, the N output ends are respectively connected with the input ends of N second diplexers, the second phase-shifting feed network comprises N input ends, the N input ends are respectively connected with the output ends of the N second diplexers, and the combining ends of the N second diplexers are respectively connected with N groups of radiation units. During downlink transmission, the first phase-shifting feed network may further process the transmission signal into N transmission sub-signals and then transmit the N transmission sub-signals to the N second duplexers, where the N second duplexers may transmit the N transmission sub-signals to the N groups of radiation units, so that the N groups of radiation units radiate the N transmission sub-signals respectively. During uplink transmission, the N groups of radiation units may further send N received signals to N second duplexers, where the N second duplexers may further send N received signals from the antenna array to a second phase-shifting feed network, and the second phase-shifting feed network may further weight the N received sub-signals. In the design, the transmission signal can be divided into N transmission sub-signals and then transmitted to the antenna array in parallel, and the receiving signal can be divided into N receiving signals and then transmitted to each signal receiving/transmitting port in parallel, so that the parallel transmission mode is beneficial to improving the transmission efficiency of the transmission signal and the receiving signal.
In an alternative design, the base station antenna includes K first signal feed units, the signal processing unit includes k×n second duplexers, and K is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, where N second duplexers are corresponding to each of the K first signal feed units. The signal processing unit further comprises N first multi-frequency signal processors, each of the N first multi-frequency signal processors comprises a combined end and K shunt ends, the combined ends of the N second duplexers corresponding to each first signal feeding unit are respectively connected with one shunt end of the N first multi-frequency signal processors, and the combined ends of the N first multi-frequency signal processors are respectively connected with N groups of radiation units. Under the condition, the first multi-frequency signal processor can synthesize the transmission sub-signals respectively received by the K branching ends into one path and then transmit the path to the connected radiation unit, and can divide the received signals received by the combining end of the first multi-frequency signal processor into K paths and transmit the K paths to the K second duplexers respectively connected with the K branching ends of the first multi-frequency signal processor. In the design, through arranging N first multi-frequency signal processors, the transmission signals of a plurality of frequency bands can be fed into the same antenna array, and the reception signals transmitted by the antenna array are divided into the reception signals of a plurality of frequency bands and are respectively transmitted to the respective signal feed units, so that the possibility that the multi-frequency band signals share the same antenna array is improved.
In an alternative design, the third phase-shifting feed network includes N second ends, the signal processing unit further includes N second multi-frequency signal processors, and each of the N second multi-frequency signal processors includes a combining end, a first splitting end, and a second splitting end. The combining ends of the N second multi-frequency signal processors are respectively connected with N groups of radiation units, the first branching ends of the N second multi-frequency signal processors are respectively connected with the combining ends of the N second diplexers, and the second branching ends of the N second multi-frequency signal processors are respectively connected with the N second ends of the third phase-shifting feed network. During downlink transmission, the third phase-shifting feed network can phase-shift and feed the transmission signals from the signal receiving and transmitting ports, then divide the transmission signals into N paths and transmit the N paths to N second multi-frequency signal processors, and any one of the N second multi-frequency signal processors can synthesize one path of transmission sub-signals received by the first and second branching ends of the second multi-frequency signal processor and transmit the synthesized transmission sub-signals to the connected radiation unit. During uplink transmission, any one of the N second multi-frequency signal processors can divide a received signal received by a combining end of the second multi-frequency signal processor into two paths and then send the two paths to a second duplexer connected with a first branching end of the second multi-frequency signal processor and a third phase-shifting feed network connected with the second branching end, and the third phase-shifting feed network can weight N received signals received by the second end and then send the weighted N received signals to a signal receiving and sending port. In the design, through arranging N second multi-frequency signal processors, the transmission signals of the first signal feeding unit and the transmission signals of the second signal feeding unit can be fed into the same antenna array at the same time, and the reception signals transmitted by the antenna array are divided into the reception signals corresponding to the first signal feeding unit and the reception signals corresponding to the second signal feeding unit and are respectively transmitted to respective phase-shifting feed networks.
In an alternative design, the base station antenna further includes a filter, a first end of the filter is connected to a combining end of the signal processing unit, a second end of the filter is connected to the antenna array, and the filter may filter a phase-shifted fed transmission signal from the signal processing unit and send the filtered transmission signal to the antenna array, or may filter a received signal from the antenna array and send the filtered signal to the signal processing unit. In the design, the filter is cascaded between the signal processing unit and the antenna array, so that impurities in the transmitted signals can be filtered before the transmitted signals are transmitted to the antenna array, the transmitted signals transmitted to the antenna array are purer, the quality of the transmitted signals radiated by the antenna array is improved, and impurities in the received signals can be filtered before the received signals are transmitted to the signal processing unit and the first signal feeding unit, so that the signal processing unit and the first signal feeding unit can be prevented from performing excessive processing operations on useless impurity signals, and the processing resources of the base station antenna are wasted.
In a second aspect, the present application provides a base station apparatus comprising a base station antenna as claimed in any one of the first aspects and one or more transceivers, wherein the one or more transceivers are connectable to the base station antenna.
In an alternative design, the transceiver is a remote radio unit.
These and other aspects of the present application will be more readily apparent from the following description of the embodiments.
Drawings
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a system architecture to which embodiments of the present application are applicable;
fig. 2 exemplarily shows an internal structure diagram of a base station antenna;
fig. 3 schematically illustrates an internal structure of another base station antenna;
fig. 4 schematically illustrates an internal architecture of a base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 5 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of a base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 6 schematically illustrates a connection between a base station antenna and a remote radio unit;
fig. 7 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 8 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 9 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 10 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 11 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application;
Fig. 12 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 14 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 15 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 16 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 18 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 19 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 20 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 21 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of yet another base station antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application;
fig. 22 schematically illustrates a structure of yet another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application.
Detailed Description
The base station antenna provided in the embodiment of the application may be applicable to various communication systems, for example: fifth generation (5th Generation,5G) communication systems or New Radio (NR) systems, 6G communication systems, long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) systems, global system for mobile communications (global system of mobile communication, GSM) systems, code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA) systems, wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA) systems, general packet radio service (general packet radio service, GPRS) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) systems, universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) communication systems, etc., although the communication systems may be other unlicensed bands, without limitation.
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that the described embodiments are merely some, but not all, of the embodiments of the present application.
Fig. 1 schematically illustrates a system architecture, as shown in fig. 1, to which an embodiment of the present application is applicable, where a radio access network device may be included in the system architecture, including, but not limited to, a base station 100 shown in fig. 1. The radio access network device may be located in a base station subsystem (base btation bubsystem, BBS), a terrestrial radio access network (UMTS terrestrial radio access network, UTRAN) or an evolved terrestrial radio access network (evolved universal terrestrial radio access, E-UTRAN) for cell coverage of radio signals to enable a connection between a terminal device and a radio frequency end of the radio network. Specifically, the base station 100 may be a base station (base transceiver station, BTS) in a GSM or CDMA system, a base station (NodeB, NB) in a WCDMA system, an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, a radio controller in a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario, or the base station 100 may be a relay station, an access point, a vehicle device, a wearable device, a base station in a future 5G network, or a base station in a future evolved PLMN network, for example, a new radio base station, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.
As shown in fig. 1, one possible structure of a base station 100 may include a base station antenna 110, a transceiver 120, and a baseband processing unit 130. The base station antenna may be a digital beam forming antenna to form an antenna system, or an analog beam forming antenna to form an antenna system, or a new generation beam forming antenna to form an antenna system, for example, a digital beam forming antenna and an analog beam forming antenna are adopted to form a hybrid beam forming (Hybrid Beamforming, HBF) antenna system. The transceiver 120 may be connected to an antenna port of the base station antenna 110 such that the base station antenna 110 may receive a transmission signal transmitted from the transceiver 120 through its antenna port and radiate it via a radiating element of the base station antenna 110 or transmit a reception signal received by the radiating element of the base station antenna 110 to the transceiver 120.
In implementation, transceiver 120 may be a remote radio frequency unit and baseband processing unit 130 may be a baseband unit. In this case, the baseband unit may be configured to process a baseband signal to be transmitted and transmit the processed baseband signal to the remote radio unit, or receive a received signal sent by the remote radio unit (i.e., a baseband signal obtained by converting a received radio signal received by the base station antenna 110 by the remote radio unit in a signal receiving process) and process the received signal. The remote rf unit may convert the baseband signal to be transmitted, which is transmitted by the baseband unit, into a transmission rf signal (including performing necessary signal processing on the baseband signal to be transmitted, such as performing signal amplification, etc.), and then may transmit the transmission rf signal to the base station antenna 110 through an antenna port of the base station antenna 110, and the base station antenna 110 radiates the transmission rf signal. Alternatively, the remote rf unit may also receive a received rf signal sent from the antenna port of the base station antenna 110, convert the received rf signal into a received baseband signal, and send the received baseband signal to the baseband unit.
It should be understood that fig. 1 illustrates only a connection relationship of one transceiver 120 and one antenna port of the base station antenna 110. In other alternative embodiments, the number of antenna ports in the base station antenna 110 may be at least two, and the number of transceivers 120 may be at least two, where each antenna port may be connected to one transceiver 120, and multiple transceivers 120 may be connected to the same baseband processing unit 130.
Fig. 1 also illustrates one possible deployment scenario for a base station antenna, which may include a pole, antenna adjustment bracket, feed line, joint seal, and ground device, as shown in fig. 1. Wherein, the end of the base station antenna 110 near the antenna port can be fixedly connected with the holding pole, and the end of the base station antenna 110 far away from the antenna port can be movably connected with the holding pole through the antenna adjusting bracket, so that the position of the base station antenna 110 can be adjusted through the antenna adjusting bracket. A feed line is drawn at the antenna port of the base station antenna 110 to the transceiver 120 and may also extend to a ground conduit to connect to ground. The joint of the antenna port and the feeder line and the joint of the feeder line and the grounding pipeline can be in sealed connection through the joint sealing piece. It should be understood that fig. 1 illustrates a deployment of a base station antenna including only one antenna, and in other scenarios, the base station antenna may also include multiple antennas mounted around the pole, where the multiple antennas may be identical or different, and where the multiple antennas may form respective different beam coverage areas.
MIMO technology typically places the base station antenna and the remote radio unit in the same device, which is referred to as an active antenna unit (active antenna unit, AAU). With the development of MIMO technology, the number of antennas in the base station antenna is increasing, but the space reserved for the base station antenna by the AAU is very limited. In this case, how to set the internal structure of the base station antenna to achieve better antenna performance with limited space becomes an important factor affecting the transmission and reception performance of the MIMO system.
The internal structure of two alternative base station antennas is first described by way of example.
Fig. 2 schematically illustrates an internal structure of a base station antenna, as shown in fig. 2, in which case only one phase-shifted feed network and one antenna array may be included in the base station antenna. Wherein a first end (Q 11 ) Antenna ports corresponding to base station antennas (e.g. first end Q of phase-shifting feed network 11 I.e. the antenna port of the base station antenna, or the first end Q of the phase-shifting feed network 11 An antenna port connected to the base station antenna by a line), a second end (Q 12 ) An antenna array is connected. The remote radio unit in this example may include a radio transmit port T X Radio frequency receiving port R X And a diplexer (A), RF transmitting port T X Is connected to the input terminal (Q of the duplexer A 21 ) Radio frequency receiving port R X Is connected to the output terminal (Q of the duplexer A 22 ) Combination of diplexer ARoad end (Q) 23 ) And an antenna port connected to the base station antenna. During downlink transmission, the radio frequency transmission port T is used for transmitting data X Can be sequentially transmitted via the input terminal Q of the duplexer A 21 Combiner Q of duplexer A 23 First end Q of antenna port and phase-shifting feed network 11 Transmitting to a phase-shifting feed network, and then phase-shifting feeding the transmitted signal by the phase-shifting feed network and passing through a second end Q 12 And transmitting the radiation to the antenna array. During uplink transmission, the antenna array receives the received signal and then passes through the second end Q of the phase-shifting feed network 12 Is sent to a phase-shifting feed network, and then the phase-shifting feed network carries out phase-shifting feed processing on the received signal and then sequentially passes through a first end Q of the phase-shifting feed network 11 Combining end Q of antenna port and duplexer A 23 And output terminal Q of duplexer A 22 Transmitted to the radio frequency receiving port R X 。
As shown in fig. 2, the base station antenna actually performs feeding processing on the receiving and transmitting signals through the shared phase-shifting feed network, and performs radiation and reception through the shared antenna array, so that the arrangement mode can save the layout space occupied by the base station antenna, and is helpful for solving the problems of narrow base station space and shortage of base station space resources. However, the same phase-shifting feed network is used for receiving and transmitting signals, so that the receiving and transmitting signals can be electrically regulated only through the same set of phase-shifting feed parameters, obviously, the mode couples uplink and downlink transmission together, so that the base station antenna cannot be suitable for occasions requiring different beams for uplink and downlink transmission, nonlinear interference between the uplink and downlink transmission is increased possibly due to the fact that the same link is used for carrying out uplink and downlink transmission, passive intermodulation (passive intermodulation, PIM) of the base station antenna is increased (namely, higher harmonics relative to the working frequency of the base station antenna are generated due to the nonlinear characteristics of passive devices in the base station antenna, and are mixed with the working frequency of the base station antenna to generate a new frequency combination, and in this case, the base station antenna finally generates a useless set of frequency spectrum components to influence the normal working of the base station antenna), and network performance of the base station antenna is reduced.
To solve the above-described problem, fig. 3 exemplarily shows an internal structure diagram of another base station antenna, as shown in fig. 3, in which one duplexer (B), two phase-shift feed networks (i.e., phase-shift feed network 1 and phase-shift feed network 2), and two antenna arrays (i.e., antenna array 1 and antenna array 2) may be included in the base station antenna. Wherein, the combining end (Q of the duplexer B 33 ) An antenna port corresponding to the base station antenna (e.g. the combining end Q of the duplexer B 33 I.e. the antenna port of the base station antenna, or the combining end Q of the duplexer B 33 Through an antenna port of a line-connected base station antenna), the output terminal (Q 31 ) The input end of the phase-shifting feed network 1 is connected, and the output end of the phase-shifting feed network 1 is connected with the antenna array 1; input terminal (Q of duplexer B 32 ) The output end of the phase-shifting feed network 2 is connected, and the input end of the phase-shifting feed network 2 is connected with the antenna array 2. The remote radio unit in this example is the same as the remote radio unit illustrated in fig. 2 and also includes a radio transmission port T X Radio frequency receiving port R X And a duplexer A, RF transmitting port T X Is connected to the input terminal (Q of the duplexer A 21 ) Radio frequency receiving port R X Is connected to the output terminal (Q of the duplexer A 22 ) The combining end (Q of the duplexer a 23 ) And an antenna port connected to the base station antenna. During downlink transmission, the radio frequency transmission port T is used for transmitting data X Sequentially via input terminal Q of duplexer a 21 Combiner Q of duplexer A 23 Combining terminal Q of antenna port and duplexer B 33 To the duplexer B and then to the output Q of the duplexer B 31 The output is transmitted to the phase-shifting feed network 1, and the phase-shifting feed network 1 performs phase-shifting feed processing on the transmission signal and then transmits the transmission signal to the antenna array 1 for radiation. In uplink transmission, the antenna array 2 receives a received signal and transmits the received signal to the phase-shifting feed network 2, and the phase-shifting feed network 2 performs phase-shifting feed processing on the received signal and sequentially passes through the input end Q of the duplexer B 32 Combiner Q of duplexer B 33 Combining end Q of antenna port and duplexer A 23 And output terminal Q of duplexer A 22 To the radio frequency receiving port R X 。
As shown in fig. 3, the base station antenna receives and transmits signals, which are fed through respective dedicated phase-shifting feed networks and radiated or received through respective dedicated antenna arrays, and because the receiving and transmitting signals use different phase-shifting feed networks, the receiving and transmitting signals can be independently electrically adjusted through different phase-shifting feed parameters, thereby realizing mutual isolation of the receiving and transmitting signals. Although the uplink and downlink transmission is decoupled in this way, so that the base station antenna can be suitable for occasions requiring different beams in uplink and downlink transmission, the respective phase-shifting feed network and respective antenna arrays are required to be respectively arranged for the transmission signal and the reception signal in this way, so that a larger layout space is required for installing the phase-shifting feed network and the antenna arrays by the base station antenna, and the base station antenna cannot be suitable for occasions with limited base station space.
In view of this, the present application provides a base station antenna for implementing independent electric tuning of uplink and downlink transmission by using a limited layout space, so as to improve the performance of the base station antenna on the basis of saving the layout space.
The internal architecture of the base station antenna in the embodiments of the present application will now be described by way of example. Fig. 4 is an exemplary schematic diagram illustrating an internal architecture of a base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application, where, as shown in fig. 4, the base station antenna may include a first signal feeding unit, a signal processing unit, and an antenna array, where the first signal feeding unit, the signal processing unit, and the antenna array are typically disposed in a radome, and the radome has good electromagnetic wave penetration characteristics in electrical performance, and is mechanically capable of withstanding the action of an external harsh environment, and is isolated from the external environment by the radome, so as to help protect the components from the external harsh environment. The base station antenna may also include an antenna port, which is typically placed outside of the radome to effect plugging with the transceiver. The base station antenna can comprise at least one antenna array formed by a plurality of radiating units and a metal reflecting plate, wherein the radiating units are usually arranged on the front surface of the metal reflecting plate, and the metal reflecting plate can reflect and gather antenna signals which are incident into the front surface of the metal reflecting plate to a receiving point (namely the radiating units) so as to improve the receiving sensitivity of the antenna signals and strengthen the receiving capability of the antenna. The other electrical components in the base station antenna are typically disposed on the back side of the metal reflector plate, as opposed to the radiating element, so that the metal reflector plate can also block or shield the electric waves emitted from the other electrical components on the back side thereof to reduce interference of the other electric waves with the received signal. The metal reflective plate may also be referred to as a chassis, an antenna panel, a reflective surface, or the like. The frequencies of the radiating elements in the same antenna array may be the same or different. The base station antenna can also comprise a transmission or calibration network connected with the first signal feed unit, wherein the transmission or calibration network is used for adjusting phase-shifting feed parameters in the first signal feed unit according to the deviation of the actual phase and the target phase of the antenna array so as to gradually adjust the actual phase of the antenna array to the target phase and realize accurate transceiving operation.
It should be noted that fig. 4 is only an exemplary illustration, and the present application does not limit the base station antenna to only such an architecture. In another example, a multi-frequency signal processor may be further disposed before the first signal feeding unit and the antenna port, so that each transmission signal is combined into one path through the multi-frequency signal processor and then fed through the first signal feeding unit, and finally transmitted to the antenna array through the signal processing unit, or the reception signal is transmitted to the first signal feeding unit through the signal processing unit to be fed, and then divided into multiple paths through the multi-frequency signal processor and then transmitted to the antenna port. The specific implementation of this portion will be described in detail in the following examples, which are not described here.
Further description of some of the terms involved in the following examples of this application:
(1) A radiation unit: is a unit constituting the basic structure of an antenna for radiating or receiving radio waves. The radiating unit in the base station antenna mainly comprises two kinds of oscillator units and patch units. The element unit is also called an antenna element or an oscillator, and is mainly used for a dual-polarized antenna, a low-frequency antenna, a high-frequency antenna and the like. The patch unit is mainly used for a narrow-band antenna, a single-band antenna, an indoor antenna and the like. The radiating element in the present application may be used for a single-band antenna, or may be used for a multi-band antenna, or may be used for a monopole antenna, or may be used for a multi-polarization antenna, which is not specifically limited in this application.
(2) And a feed network: the feed network is typically formed by a controllable impedance transmission line and may include a phase shifter (Phaser) and/or a Power Divider (PD), such as a phase shifter only, a power divider only, or both. The phase shifter is a device capable of adjusting the phase of a signal and can comprise a digital phase shifter and an analog phase shifter. The power divider is a device capable of dividing one input signal into two or more output signals according to energy, and the energy of the two or more output signals can be equal or unequal. When the power divider is used in reverse, the power divider can also synthesize two or more input signals into one output signal according to energy, and the energy of the output signal is equal to the sum of the energy of the two or more input signals. The power divider used in reverse may also be referred to as a combiner. When the feed network comprises only phase shifters, the feed network may feed the transmit signal to the radiating element in a certain phase or transmit the receive signal to the remote radio frequency unit in a certain phase. When the feed network comprises only the power divider, the feed network may feed the transmit signal to the radiating element with a certain amplitude or transmit the receive signal to the remote radio frequency unit with a certain amplitude. When the feed network comprises both a power divider and a phase shifter, the feed network may feed the transmit signal to the radiating element with a certain amplitude and phase or transmit the receive signal to the remote radio frequency unit with a certain amplitude and phase.
(3) Phase-shift feed network: refers to a feed network comprising phase shifters, e.g. comprising phase shifters only, or both phase shifters and power splitters.
(4) And (3) a filter: the frequency selecting device can effectively filter out frequency bands with specific frequencies or frequencies except for a certain frequency band, so that signals with specific frequencies in signals can pass through and attenuate signals with other frequencies, and the frequency selecting device has the functions of filtering interference noise or carrying out frequency spectrum analysis. The filter may be provided in the feed network or the phase-shifting feed network, in other components, or as a separate component.
(5) Communication system: the present application refers to a communication system as the maximum frequency range that can be carried by a radio frequency communication port of a remote radio unit. The transmitting signal and the receiving signal in a communication system correspond to different frequencies in the same frequency band, and the same frequency band is the maximum frequency band range corresponding to the communication system. Thus, in other descriptions of the present application, a transmission signal and a reception signal located in the same communication system may also be referred to as a transmission signal and a reception signal carried in the same frequency band.
(6) A diplexer: the device can realize the branching and combining functions of the receiving and transmitting signals in the same communication system, and the duplexer can isolate the transmitting signals from the receiving signals so as to ensure that the transmitting operation and the receiving operation in the same communication system are performed normally at the same time.
(7) And a combiner: means a device capable of combining two or more radio frequency signals located in two or more communication systems into one radio frequency signal while avoiding the interaction between signals in the respective communication systems. A splitter: means a device capable of dividing a radio frequency signal into two or more radio frequency signals corresponding to two or more communication systems, while avoiding the mutual influence between signals in the respective communication systems.
(8) Combiner/divider: means a device capable of combining two or more radio frequency signals in two or more communication systems into one radio frequency signal and dividing one radio frequency signal into two or more radio frequency signals corresponding to the two or more communication systems, and capable of avoiding the mutual influence between signals in each communication system.
The specific structure of the base station antenna in the present application will be described in the following in specific embodiments. Illustratively, an FDD system is described below as an example in which a base station antenna may perform uplink and downlink transmissions on separate channels of two symmetric frequencies to protect a transmission signal and a reception signal by separating the uplink channel and the downlink channel.
It should be noted that in the following description, the names of the ports are only exemplary, and in other alternative embodiments, the ports may have other names. For example, other names of ports may refer to common names such as: the other names of the input terminals may be the first communication terminal, and the other names of the output terminals may be the second communication terminal. For another example, other names of ports may also refer to names related to functions implemented by the ports, such as: the input terminal is used to refer to a port having a receiving function, so that other names of the input terminal may be the receiving terminal, and the output terminal is used to refer to a port having a transmitting function, so that other names of the output terminal may be the transmitting terminal. The naming modes of the ports are numerous, so long as the ports with the same or similar functions as the ports in the application can be realized, even if the port names are different from the port names in the application, the port names are also within the protection scope of the application, and the application will not be repeated.
In the following description, ports have a corresponding relationship, which may mean that the two ports are the same port, or that the two ports are connected by a line, which is not specifically limited in this application.
It should be understood that the terms "system" and "network" in embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably. "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or plural.
And, unless otherwise specified, references to "first," "second," etc. in the embodiments herein are for distinguishing between multiple objects and not for defining the order, timing, priority, or importance of the multiple objects. For example, the first duplexer and the second duplexer are only for distinguishing between different duplexers, and do not represent the difference in priority or importance of the two duplexers.
Example 1
Fig. 5 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of a base station antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 5, the base station antenna may include a first signal feeding unit, a signal processing unit, and an antenna array. Wherein the first signal feed unit may comprise a signal transmitting port (T), a signal receiving port (R), a first phase-shifting feed network and a second phase-shifting feed network, the signal transmitting port T being connected to an input of the first phase-shifting feed network, an output of the first phase-shifting feed network being connected to an input (Z 1 ) The signal receiving port R is connected with the output end of the second phase-shifting feed network, and the input end of the second phase-shifting feed network is connected with the output end (Z 2 ) The combining end (Z of the signal processing unit 3 ) An antenna array is connected. The signal transmitting port T and the signal receiving port R of the base station antenna can be connected with a remote radio frequency unit. For downlink transmission, after receiving a transmission signal (e.g., a downlink radio frequency signal) from a remote radio frequency unit, the signal transmitting port T transmits the transmission signal to a first phase-shifting feed network, and the first phase-shifting feed network may perform phase-shifting feed processing on the transmission signal and transmit the transmission signal to the signal processing unit, and then the signal processing unit passes through the combining end Z thereof 3 And transmitting the phase-shifted and fed transmission signals to an antenna array, and radiating the phase-shifted and fed transmission signals by the antenna array. For uplink transmission, the same antenna array receives a received signal (such as an uplink radio frequency signal) and then sends the received signal to the signal processing unit, and the signal processing unit outputs the received signalOutlet end Z 2 And the signal is sent to a second phase-shifting feed network, and the second phase-shifting feed network can perform phase-shifting feed on the received signal and send the received signal to a signal receiving port R so as to be transmitted to a remote radio frequency unit.
By adopting the base station antenna shown in fig. 5, the receiving and transmitting signals are respectively fed through respective phase-shifting feed networks, which is not only beneficial to realizing the functions of independently feeding the transmitting signals and receiving signals by the base station antenna, but also beneficial to reducing nonlinear interference between uplink and downlink transmission and reducing the risk of PIM (personal information management) generated by the base station antenna. After decoupling uplink and downlink transmission, the base station antenna can realize different beams of uplink and downlink transmission through independent phase-shifting feeds of receiving and transmitting signals, for example, the uplink transmission feed can be changed into a narrow beam to improve transmission gain, and the downlink transmission feed can be changed into a wide beam to improve signal coverage. Furthermore, the same antenna array is used for radiating the transmitting signal and receiving the receiving signal, and different antenna arrays are not arranged for the transmitting signal and the receiving signal, so that the number of the antenna arrays required by the base station antenna is reduced, the layout space occupied by the base station antenna can be saved, and the mutual influence (such as mutual coupling) among the antenna arrays can be reduced.
In an alternative embodiment, the transmit signal and the receive signal may be carried at different frequencies in the same frequency band. In this case, the transmission signal and the reception signal actually belong to the same communication system, i.e. the transmission signal and the reception signal correspond to downlink transmission and uplink transmission between the base station antenna and the same remote radio unit, respectively. In this way, the receiving and transmitting signals of the same communication system are placed in the same signal feeding unit to carry out feeding processing, so that the base station antenna can manage uplink and downlink transmission of each communication system independently. The signal processing unit may specifically include a duplexer, where the duplexer is used to isolate a transmission signal and a reception signal in the same frequency band, so the duplexer may also be referred to as a transmit-receive separation filter. By providing the diplexer between the first signal feeding unit and the antenna array, even if the line between the first signal feeding unit and the antenna array is used for transmitting both the transmission signal and the reception signal, the transmission signal and the reception signal can be accurately distinguished by the diplexer and transmitted to the respective corresponding phase-shift feeding network or antenna array, which can reduce the possibility of the transmission signal and the reception signal interfering with each other, and contribute to the normal and accurate operation of the base station antenna.
In a specific scheme design, when a transmission signal and a reception signal are carried in the same frequency band:
fig. 6 schematically illustrates a connection between a base station antenna and a remote radio unit, as shown in fig. 6, in which the remote radio unit may have two radio communication ports, namely a radio transmit port T X And a radio frequency receiving port R X . The base station antenna may also have two antenna ports, namely an antenna transmit port T Y And an antenna receiving port R Y . Wherein, the antenna sends the port T Y Can correspond to a signal transmitting port T, e.g. an antenna transmitting port T Y I.e. signal transmission port T, or antenna transmission port T Y The signal transmitting port T is connected by a line. Antenna receiving port R Y Corresponding to signal receiving ports R, e.g. antenna receiving ports R Y I.e. signal receiving port R, or antenna receiving port R Y The signal receiving port R is connected by a line. In this case, the connection of the base station antenna and the remote radio unit may include: radio frequency transmission port T X Connection antenna transmitting port T Y Radio frequency receiving port R X Connection antenna receiving port R Y . During downlink transmission, the remote radio unit may pass through the radio transmission port T X Transmitting the downlink radio frequency signal to be transmitted to an antenna transmitting port T Y Antenna-based transmit port T Y And the corresponding relation between the signal transmission port T, the downlink radio frequency signal can be received by the signal transmission port T, and then is transmitted to the antenna array for radiation after sequentially passing through the first phase-shifting feed network and the duplexer. During uplink transmission, the received signals received by the antenna array sequentially pass through the duplexer and the second shiftThe phase feed network is transmitted to a signal receiving port R, and the signal is received based on the antenna receiving port R Y Corresponding relation with signal receiving port R, the uplink radio frequency signal can be received by antenna receiving port R Y Received and then transmitted to the RF receiving port R of the remote RF unit X 。
The port configuration in the remote radio unit shown in fig. 6 is only one possible example, and in other examples, the remote radio unit may have only one radio communication port as shown in fig. 2 or 3. In this case, fig. 7 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of another base station antenna provided in the embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 7, in which the signal processing unit may specifically include a duplexer C, and the base station antenna may further include an antenna port (TR Y ) The first signal feeding unit may further include a first signal transceiving port (TR) and a duplexer D (i.e., a first duplexer), the antenna port TR Y Corresponding to the first signal-receiving/transmitting port TR, e.g. antenna port TR Y I.e. the first signal receiving/transmitting port TR, or the antenna port TR Y The first signal receiving and transmitting port TR is connected to the combining end (Q 43 ) The output of the diplexer D (Q 41 ) Is connected to the signal transmission port T, and the input terminal (Q 42 ) The signal receiving port R is connected. In this case, the connection of the base station antenna and the remote radio unit may include: radio frequency communication port TR of remote radio frequency unit X Antenna port TR for connecting base station antenna Y . In downlink transmission, the remote radio unit may pass through the radio communication port TR X Transmitting downlink radio frequency signals to an antenna port TR Y Based on antenna port TR Y And the first signal receiving and transmitting port TR, the downlink RF signal can be along the antenna port TR Y And a combiner Q of the duplexer D 43 The link between the two signals is transmitted to a duplexer D which has the isolation function of receiving and transmitting signals and can pass through an output end Q thereof 41 Outputting the downlink RF signal to make the downlink RF signalThe signal is received by the signal transmitting port T, and then sequentially transmitted to the antenna array for radiation after passing through the first phase-shifting feed network and the duplexer C. During uplink transmission, the received signals received by the antenna array sequentially pass through the duplexer C and the second phase-shifting feed network and then are transmitted to the input end Q of the duplexer D 42 The duplexer D has an isolation function for receiving and transmitting signals, and the duplexer D can pass through the combining end Q thereof 43 Outputting the uplink RF signal to be received by the first signal receiving and transmitting port TR based on the first signal receiving and transmitting port TR and the antenna port TR Y The uplink RF signal is transmitted to the RF communication port TR of the remote RF unit X 。
In the above embodiment, the base station antenna shown in fig. 6 may be applied to a remote radio unit having two radio communication ports (i.e., a radio transmission port and a radio reception port), and the base station antenna shown in fig. 7 may be applied to a remote radio unit having one radio communication port. By arranging different base station antennas for the remote radio units with different forms, the universality of the signal feeding scheme in the application is improved.
In another alternative embodiment, the transmit signal and the receive signal may be carried in different frequency bands. In this case, the signal processing unit may particularly comprise a multi-frequency signal processor, such as a combiner, a splitter or a combiner/splitter. The combiner is provided with a plurality of input ends and an output end, and can combine radio frequency signals in different frequency bands from the plurality of input ends into one path and output the path through the output end. The splitter is provided with a plurality of output ends and an input end, and can divide the radio frequency signals from the input end into radio frequency signal branches corresponding to different frequency bands respectively and then output the radio frequency signals through the plurality of output ends. The combiner/divider is provided with a plurality of input ends, a plurality of output ends and a combining end, when the plurality of input ends of the combiner/divider receive radio frequency signals in different frequency bands, the combiner/divider can combine the radio frequency signals in different frequency bands into one path and then output the path through the combining end, and when the combining end of the combiner/divider receives the radio frequency signals, the combiner/divider can divide the radio frequency signals into radio frequency signal branches corresponding to different frequency bands respectively and then output the radio frequency signals through the plurality of output ends. In addition, the ports of the multi-frequency signal processor are isolated from each other, and signals received by the ports or signals transmitted by the ports do not interfere with each other. Therefore, when the ports respectively correspond to the radio frequency signals of different frequency bands, the radio frequency signals of the frequency bands are combined or split through the multi-frequency signal processor, and the mutual interference among the radio frequency signals of the frequency bands can be reduced as much as possible.
In a specific scheme design, when a transmission signal and a reception signal are carried in different frequency bands:
fig. 8 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of still another base station antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 8, in this example, the signal processing unit may specifically include a combiner/divider, and the first signal feeding unit may include M signal transmitting ports (e.g. T 1 、T 2 、……、T M ) M signal receiving ports (e.g. R 1 、R 2 、……、R M ) A combiner and a splitter, the combiner may comprise M inputs and one output (Q 51 ) The splitter may include an input (Q 52 ) And M output ends, M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2. Wherein M input ends of the combiner can be respectively connected with M signal transmission ports T 1 ～T M Output terminal Q of combiner 51 An input of the first phase-shifting feed network may be connected. M signal transmission ports T 1 ～T M M frequency bands are respectively corresponding, and during downlink transmission, the combiner receives signals from M signal transmission ports T 1 ～T M After M frequency bands of the transmission signals, the M frequency bands of the transmission signals can be combined into one path and then transmitted to a first phase-shifting feed network, then the first phase-shifting feed network carries out phase-shifting feed processing on the combined path of the transmission signals and then transmits the resultant signal to a combiner/divider, and the combiner/divider passes through a combining end Z thereof 3 And transmitting the phase-shifted and fed transmission signal to an antenna array for radiation. Correspondingly, M output ends of the splitter can be respectively connected with M signalsNumber receiving port R 1 ～R M Input terminal Q of splitter 52 An output of the second phase-shifting feed network may be connected. M signal receiving ports R 1 ～R M Respectively corresponding to M frequency bands, and the combiner/divider can pass through the output end Z thereof during uplink transmission 2 The receiving signals from the antenna array are sent to a second phase-shifting feed network, the second phase-shifting feed network carries out phase-shifting feed processing on the receiving signals and then sends the receiving signals to a splitter, and the splitter can divide the receiving signals after phase-shifting feed into M paths of receiving signals corresponding to M frequency bands respectively and send the M paths of receiving signals to M signal receiving ports R corresponding to the M frequency bands respectively 1 ～R M 。
It should be noted that, when the base station antenna performs downlink transmission, there may be a certain or some transmission signal ports that do not receive the transmission signal, in this case, the number of transmission signals in the M frequency bands of transmission signals may be smaller than M, for example, only one transmission signal. When the base station antenna performs uplink transmission, only one or more frequency bands of received signals may exist in the received signals after phase-shifting feeding, in this case, one or more paths of received signals may exist in the M paths of received signals obtained by splitting, that is, no received signal exists, or one or more paths of received signals do not pass through.
By adopting the base station antenna shown in fig. 8, the receiving signals or transmitting signals of a plurality of frequency bands can share the phase-shift feed network to perform electric modulation, and the antenna array can be shared to perform radiation and reception, so that the mode can be realized without arranging a respective special phase-shift feed network and antenna array for the transmitting and receiving signals of each frequency band, thereby effectively reducing the quantity of the phase-shift feed networks and antenna arrays deployed in the base station antenna and being beneficial to saving the layout space of the base station antenna. And in this way, as much as possible, more frequency-band receiving and transmitting signals are integrated on the same antenna array, which is also helpful for realizing multiplexing of the antenna arrays and reducing mutual interference between the antenna arrays. Furthermore, the mode electrically adjusts the transmission signals of a plurality of frequency bands by using the same set of phase-shifting feed parameters, and electrically adjusts the receiving signals of a plurality of frequency bands by using the same set of phase-shifting feed parameters, so that the purpose of receiving and transmitting independent electric adjustment can be realized.
The above embodiments describe the possibility that the base station antenna comprises only one signal feed unit. In this embodiment, the base station antenna may also include a plurality of signal feeding units, where the structures of the plurality of signal feeding units may be the same as the first signal feeding units described in the foregoing embodiment, and the structures of different signal feeding units in the plurality of signal feeding units may also be the same as the first signal feeding units with two or more different structures described in the foregoing embodiment. Taking the first signal feed unit illustrated in fig. 4 as an example, a possible structure of a base station antenna including a plurality of signal feed units is exemplarily described as follows:
Structure one
Fig. 9 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of another base station antenna provided in the embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 9, the base station antenna may include an antenna array, a signal processing unit, and K first signal feeding units, such as a first signal feeding unit 1, first signal feeding units 2, … …, and a first signal feeding unit K, where each first signal feeding unit has a structure identical to that of the first signal feeding unit illustrated in fig. 4, and K first signal feeding units may respectively correspond to K frequency bands, where K is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2. In this case, the signal processing unit may include a combiner/divider, which may include K inputs (e.g., Z 11 、Z 12 、……、Z 1K ) K outputs (e.g. Z 21 、Z 22 、……、Z 2K ) And a combining end Z 3 The output ends of the K first phase-shifting feed networks (such as the first phase-shifting feed network 1, the first phase-shifting feed networks 2 and … … and the first phase-shifting feed network K) corresponding to the K first signal feed units are respectively connected with the K input ends Z of the combiner/divider 11 ～Z 1K The input ends of K second phase-shifting feed networks (such as second phase-shifting feed network 1, second phase-shifting feed networks 2, … …, and second phase-shifting feed network K) corresponding to the K first signal feed units are respectively connected with K outputs Z of the combiner/divider 21 ～Z 2K Combining end Z of combiner/divider 3 An antenna array is connected. In downlink transmission, after receiving the transmission signals after phase-shifting feeding of K frequency bands from the K first phase-shifting feeding networks, the combiner/divider may combine the transmission signals after phase-shifting feeding of the K frequency bands into one path and send the combined transmission signals to the antenna array for radiation. The number of the transmission signals in the transmission signals after the phase-shifting feeding of the K frequency bands may be smaller than K, if the first signal feeding unit corresponding to a certain or some frequency bands does not receive the transmission signals. In uplink transmission, after receiving the received signals from the antenna array, the combiner/divider may divide the received signals into K paths of received signals corresponding to K frequency bands respectively and send the K paths of received signals to K second phase-shifting feed networks respectively. The number of received signals in the K paths of received signals obtained by splitting may be smaller than K, for example, signals in a certain frequency band or some frequency bands do not exist in the received signals received by the combiner/splitter, and in this case, the combiner/splitter may not send the received signals to the second phase-shifting feed network corresponding to the frequency bands that do not exist.
By adopting the base station antenna in the structure I, each signal (such as a transmitted signal or a received signal) can be independently phase-shifted and fed, and each signal is radiated or received through one antenna array, the mode can realize the flexibility of phase-shifting and feeding the signal to the greatest extent, and is beneficial to enabling each uplink and downlink transmission to have different beams so as to maximize the utilization of the antenna aperture, and simultaneously, the layout space occupied by the base station antenna can be reduced as much as possible. Furthermore, as each signal is independently subjected to phase shifting feed, the base station antenna also supports the network optimization equipment to optimize a certain frequency band or certain frequency bands by taking the frequency band as a reference.
Structure II
Fig. 10 schematically illustrates a structure of still another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application, where, as shown in fig. 10, the base station antenna may include an antenna array, a signal processing unit, a first signal feeding unit and a second signal feeding unit, where the structure of the first signal feeding unit is as shown in fig. 4The first signal feed unit shown is identical and the second signal feed unit is similar in structure to the base station antenna shown in fig. 2, e.g. comprising only one signal transceiving port (TR) and one third phase-shifting feed network, the signal transceiving port TR being connected to the first end (1) of the third phase-shifting feed network. In this case, the signal processing unit may comprise in particular a combiner/divider, which may comprise an input (Z 1 ) An output (Z 2 ) A communication terminal (Z 4 ) And a combining end Z 3 Input Z of combiner/divider 1 An output terminal Z of the combiner/divider connected to an output terminal of the first phase-shifting feed network in the first signal feed unit 2 The communication terminal Z of the combiner/divider is connected with the input terminal of the second phase-shifting feed network in the first signal feed unit 4 A second end (2) connected to the third phase-shifting feed network, a combining end Z of the combiner/divider 3 An antenna array is connected.
During downlink transmission, the first phase-shifting feed network may perform phase-shifting feed on the transmission signal from the signal transmission port T and then send the transmission signal to the combiner/divider, the third phase-shifting feed network may perform phase-shifting feed on the transmission signal from the signal receiving and transmitting port TR and then send the transmission signal to the combiner/divider, and the combiner/divider may combine the phase-shifting fed transmission signal from the first phase-shifting feed network and the phase-shifting fed transmission signal from the third phase-shifting feed network into one path and then send the combined signal to the antenna array, so as to radiate by the antenna array. The combiner/divider may receive only the phase-shifted transmission signal from the first phase-shifted feed network or only the phase-shifted transmission signal from the third phase-shifted feed network, where the combining operation performed by the combiner/divider may include combining the received signal and an empty signal into one path. During uplink transmission, after receiving the received signals sent by the antenna array, the combiner/divider may divide the received signals into one path of received signals in a frequency band corresponding to the first signal feeding unit and another path of received signals in a frequency band corresponding to the second signal feeding unit, then send one path of received signals in the frequency band corresponding to the first signal feeding unit to the second phase-shifting feeding network, and send the other path of received signals in the frequency band corresponding to the second signal feeding unit to the third phase-shifting feeding network, so that the second phase-shifting feeding network and the third phase-shifting feeding network respectively perform phase-shifting feeding processing on the received signals, and then send the signals to the signal receiving port R and the signal receiving/transmitting port TR respectively. In this case, the combiner/divider may only transmit the received signal to the signal feeding unit in the existing frequency band.
It should be noted that fig. 10 only illustrates a possible structure of the base station antenna by taking an example that the base station antenna includes a first signal feeding unit and a second signal feeding unit. In other alternative embodiments, the base station antenna may also include a plurality of first signal feed units or a plurality of second signal feed units. For example, fig. 11 illustrates a schematic structural diagram of still another base station antenna provided in the embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 11, in this example, the base station antenna may include P first signal feeding units (such as a first signal feeding unit 1, first signal feeding units 2, … …, and a first signal feeding unit P), F second signal feeding units (such as a second signal feeding unit 1, second signal feeding units 2, … …, and a second signal feeding unit F), a combiner/divider, and an antenna array, p+f is equal to or greater than 3, and F, P is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1. In this case, the combiner/divider may include P inputs (e.g. Z 11 、Z 12 、……、Z 1P ) P outputs (e.g. Z 21 、Z 22 、……、Z 2P ) F communication terminals (e.g. Z 41 、Z 42 、……、Z 4F ) And a combining end Z 3 P inputs Z of the combiner/divider 11 ～Z 1P Respectively connect P first phase-shifting feed networks (e.g. first phase-shifting feed network 1, first phase-shifting feed networks 2, … …, first phase-shifting feed networks) P) outputs, P outputs Z of the combiner/divider 21 ～Z 2P Respectively connected with the input ends of P second phase-shifting feed networks (such as the second phase-shifting feed network 1, the second phase-shifting feed networks 2, … … and the second phase-shifting feed network P) in the P first signal feed units, F communication ends Z of the combiner/divider 41 ～Z 4F Second ends (12-F2) of F third phase-shifting feed networks (such as a second phase-shifting feed network 1, second phase-shifting feed networks 2, … … and a second phase-shifting feed network F) in F second signal feed units are respectively connected, and a combining end Z of the combiner/divider is connected 3 An antenna array is connected. The combiner/divider may combine any plurality of phase-shifted transmission signals from any plurality of phase-shifted feed networks (e.g., any plurality of first phase-shifted feed networks and/or any plurality of third phase-shifted feed networks) into one path and transmit the combined signal to the antenna array, and may divide a received signal from the antenna array into multiple paths of received signals according to a frequency band and transmit the multiple paths of received signals to the respective corresponding first phase-shifted feed network or third phase-shifted feed network. For the specific implementation process of combining and splitting, please refer to the above description, and the detailed description is not repeated here.
By adopting the base station antenna in the second structure, part of the receiving and transmitting signals can be independently electrically adjusted by using different phase-shifting feed parameters, and the other part of the receiving and transmitting signals can share the same set of phase-shifting feed parameters for simultaneous electric adjustment. On the one hand, the structure is characterized in that the phase-shifting feed networks corresponding to the receiving and transmitting signals needing independent electric modulation are respectively arranged, and the same phase-shifting feed network is shared by the receiving and transmitting signals not needing independent electric modulation, so that the layout space of the base station antenna can be reduced as much as possible on the basis of meeting the requirement of independent electric modulation. On the other hand, the structure can also be directly combined with the traditional antenna structure, and the traditional antenna structure does not need to be directly replaced, so that the flexibility of deploying the base station antenna is further improved.
It should be understood that any of the first signal feeding units illustrated in fig. 9 to 11 may be replaced by the first signal feeding unit illustrated in fig. 7 or 8, and any solution of the base station antenna obtained through a simple replacing operation is within the scope of protection of the present application, which is not described in detail herein.
The structure of the signal feeding unit will now be further described based on the technical scheme corresponding to the base station antenna illustrated in fig. 10 in the above embodiment. It should be noted that, in the second embodiment, the structure of the signal feeding unit is described by taking the base station antenna structure of fig. 10 as an example, and the structure of the signal feeding unit is also applicable to the signal feeding unit in any of the base station antennas described above.
Example two
Fig. 12 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of another base station antenna provided in this embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 12, in this example, the first phase-shifting feed network may include a first power splitter and a first digital phase shifter, where an input end of the first power splitter corresponds to an input end of the first phase-shifting feed network (for example, the input end of the first power splitter is an input end of the first phase-shifting feed network, or the input end of the first power splitter is connected to the input end of the first phase-shifting feed network through a line), and an output end of the first power splitter is connected to an input end of the first digital phase-shifting feed network, and an output end of the first digital phase-shifting feed network corresponds to an output end of the first phase-shifting feed network (for example, an output end of the first digital phase-shifting feed network is an output end of the first phase-shifting feed network, or an output end of the first digital phase-shifting feed network is connected to an output end of the first phase-shifting feed network through a line). When the first power divider receives the transmission signal from the signal transmission port T, the first power divider may divide the transmission signal into a plurality of transmission sub-signals according to a pre-configured weight and then transmit the transmission sub-signals to the first digital phase shifter, and the first digital phase shifter may shift the phase of the plurality of transmission sub-signals after power division and transmit the phase-shifted signals to the combiner/splitter. The preconfigured weights may be preconfigured in the first power splitter by a person skilled in the art according to needs, if the preconfigured weights are corresponding to 0.3, 0.5 and 0.2, the first power splitter may distribute the power of the transmission signal according to the three weights to obtain a transmission sub-signal 1, a transmission sub-signal 2 and a transmission sub-signal 3, where the power of the transmission sub-signal 1 accounts for 30% of the total power of the transmission signal, the power of the transmission sub-signal 2 accounts for 50% of the total power of the transmission signal, and the power of the transmission sub-signal 3 accounts for 20% of the total power of the transmission signal. By distributing power to the transmission signal, the transmission signal can be transmitted in parallel by a plurality of links, so as to improve the transmission efficiency of the transmission signal. Further, by shifting the phase of the transmission signal, the beam radiation direction of the antenna array for radiating the transmission signal can be changed.
In an alternative embodiment, with continued reference to fig. 12, the second phase-shifting feed network may include a second power splitter and a second digital phase shifter, where the output end of the second power splitter corresponds to the output end of the second phase-shifting feed network (e.g., the output end of the second power splitter is the output end of the second phase-shifting feed network, or the output end of the second power splitter is connected to the output end of the second phase-shifting feed network through a line), and the input end of the second power splitter is connected to the output end of the second digital phase-shifting feed network, and the input end of the second digital phase-shifter corresponds to the input end of the second phase-shifting feed network (e.g., the input end of the second digital phase-shifter is the input end of the second phase-shifting feed network, or the input end of the second digital phase-shifter is connected to the input end of the second phase-shifting feed network through a line). When the second digital phase shifter receives the received signal from the combiner/divider, the second digital phase shifter may shift the phase of the received signal and send the shifted received signal to the second power divider, and the second power divider may weight the phase-shifted received signal according to a pre-configured weight and send the weighted phase-shifted received signal to the signal receiving port R. If the preconfigured weights correspond to 0.3, 0.5 and 0.2, after the second power divider receives the received signal 1, the received signal 2 and the received signal 3, the power of the received signal 1, the power of the received signal 2 and the power of the received signal 3 may be weighted and combined according to the weights of 0.3, 0.5 and 0.2 to obtain a weighted received signal.
In an alternative embodiment, with continued reference to fig. 12, the third phase-shifting feed network may include a third power splitter and an analog phase shifter, where a first end of the third power splitter corresponds to a first end of the third phase-shifting feed network (e.g., the first end of the third power splitter is the first end of the third phase-shifting feed network, or the first end of the third power splitter is connected to the first end of the third phase-shifting feed network through a line), a second end of the third power splitter is connected to the first end of the analog phase-shifting feed network, and a second end of the analog phase-shifting feed network corresponds to the second end of the third phase-shifting feed network (e.g., the second end of the analog phase-shifting feed network is the second end of the third phase-shifting feed network, or the second end of the analog phase-shifting feed network is connected to the second end of the third phase-shifting feed network through a line). When the third power divider receives the transmission signal from the signal receiving and transmitting port TR, the third power divider may divide the transmission signal into a plurality of transmission sub-signals according to a pre-configured weight and then transmit the transmission sub-signals to the analog phase shifter, the analog phase shifter may shift the phase of the plurality of transmission sub-signals after power division and transmit the phase of the transmission sub-signals to the combiner/divider, or when the analog phase shifter receives the reception signal from the combiner/divider, the analog phase shifter may shift the phase of the reception signal and transmit the reception signal to the third power divider, and when the phase-shifted reception signal is plural, the third power divider may weight the phase-shifted reception signal according to the pre-configured weight and transmit the weighted reception signal to the signal receiving and transmitting port TR.
Illustratively, the digital phase shifter and the analog phase shifter in the embodiments of the present application may both implement phase shifting by microwave switching. In this manner, the base station antenna may further include a control interface, and a switch control circuit may be further disposed in any phase shifter (including the first digital phase shifter, the second digital phase shifter, and the analog phase shifter), and a control end of the switch control circuit is connected to the control interface. As shown in fig. 12, a switch control circuit C1 is disposed in the first digital phase shifter, a switch control circuit C2 is disposed in the second digital phase shifter, a switch control circuit C3 is disposed in the analog phase shifter, and a control interface is connected to the control end of the switch control circuit C1, the control end of the switch control circuit C2, and the control end of the switch control circuit C3. When a certain phase shifter is needed to realize phase shifting, the control interface can input driving voltage and control flow (such as digital control flow or analog control flow) to a switch control circuit arranged in the phase shifter, so that the phase shifter can shift phase according to phase shifting parameters indicated by the control flow under the action of the driving voltage. The driving voltage may be a voltage provided by an antenna interface standard organization (antenna interface standard organization, AISG), or may be a voltage provided by another standard protocol.
Illustratively, in the embodiments of the present application, the phase shifter and the switch control circuit provided thereon may be disposed on the back surface of the metal reflective plate. Thus, the phase shifter and the radiating unit are distributed on the two sides of the metal reflecting plate, so that the influence of the phase shifting operation on the radiating unit can be reduced by utilizing the isolation function of the metal reflecting plate.
In an alternative design, the phase shifter and the switch control circuit provided thereon may be integrated on a printed circuit board (printed circuit board, PCB), so that the distance between the phase shifter and the switch control circuit provided thereon can be shortened, and the control command of the switch control circuit can be more quickly transmitted to the phase shifter, thereby improving the control efficiency of phase shifting. Alternatively, in another alternative design, the phase shifter and the switch control circuit provided thereon may be independently designed as needed, which is not particularly limited in this application.
In an alternative design, two connected components in either phase shifting feed network may be provided as an integrated design, a jumper connection or a radio frequency cable connection, or other connection means as desired. The two connecting components may be referred to as a phase shifter and a power divider, or may be referred to as a phase shifter and a combiner/divider. For example, when the integrated design or the jump piece connection is set, signals can be directly transmitted between the two adjacent components without being transmitted through radio frequency cables, so that the number of the radio frequency cables is reduced, the cost is reduced, the insertion loss is reduced, and the signal stream transmission speed is improved.
In an alternative design, the diplexer may be implemented in a suspended strip line manner to effectively reduce insertion loss. Of course, other implementations, such as an integrated design, may be employed as desired.
It should be noted that fig. 12 is only an example given for convenience of description of the function of the phase shift feed network. It should be understood that the phase shifter capable of performing the phase shifting function is within the scope of the present application, and the present application is not limited to the kind, form and implementation of the phase shifter. For example, the phase shifters in different signal feed units or the phase shifters in different phase shifting feed networks of the same signal feed unit may be the same type or may be different types, which is not limited in this application.
Based on the first embodiment and the second embodiment, a possible configuration of the signal processing unit is further described below with the third embodiment.
Example III
Fig. 13 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of still another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 13, in this example, a plurality of radiating elements in an antenna array are divided into N groups of radiating elements (such as radiating element group 1, radiating element groups 2, … …, and radiating element group N), where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2. In this case, the signal processing unit may include N duplexers (i.e., second duplexers) corresponding to the N groups of radiating units one by one, such as the duplexer 1, the duplexers 2, … …, the duplexer N, each of the N duplexers may include an input terminal, an output terminal and a combining terminal, such as the duplexer 1 includes an input terminal E 11 Output end E 12 And a combining end E 13 The diplexer 2 includes an input E 21 Output end E 22 And a combining end E 23 … … the diplexer N comprises an input E N1 Output end E N2 And a combining end E N3 . Correspondingly, the first phase-shifting feed network may include N output ends and one input end, where the N output ends of the first phase-shifting feed network are respectively connected to the input ends E of the N diplexers 11 ～E N1 The input end of the first phase-shifting feed network is connected with the signal transmitting port T. The second phase-shifting feed network can comprise N input ends and an output end, wherein the N input ends of the second phase-shifting feed network are respectively connected with the output ends E of the N diplexers 12 ～E N2 The output end of the second phase-shifting feed network is connected with the signal receiving port R. Combining end E of N diplexers 13 ～E N3 Respectively connect eachFrom the corresponding N groups of radiating elements. In downlink transmission, after the first phase-shifting feed network receives a transmission signal from the signal transmission port T, the transmission signal may be processed into N transmission sub-signals and sent to N diplexers through N output ends, where the N diplexers may send the N transmission sub-signals received by each of the N diplexers to the connected N groups of radiation units, where the N groups of radiation units radiate the N transmission sub-signals, respectively. During uplink transmission, any one of the N groups of radiating elements may send the received signal to a connected duplexer, and any one of the N duplexers may send the received signal to a second phase-shifting feed network, where the second phase-shifting feed network may weight each received signal and send the received signal to the signal receiving port R. The second phase-shifting feed network may receive greater than or equal to one and less than or equal to N received signals.
In the above embodiment, the first phase-shifting feed network supports processing a received transmission signal and transmitting N transmission sub-signals, and the second phase-shifting feed network supports processing a received N reception signals and transmitting a weighted reception signal, and the structures of the first phase-shifting feed network and the second phase-shifting feed network capable of realizing such a function are possible. For example, when the first signal feeding unit is shown in fig. 12, fig. 14 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of another base station antenna provided in the embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 14, in this example, the first power divider may include one input end and N output ends, the first digital phase shifter may include N input ends and N output ends, the input end of the first power divider corresponds to the input end of the first phase-shifting feed network, the N output ends of the first power divider are respectively connected to the N input ends of the first digital phase shifter, and the N output ends of the first digital phase shifter correspond to the N output ends of the first phase-shifting feed network. Correspondingly, the second power divider may include an output end and N input ends, the second digital phase shifter may include N output ends and N input ends, the output end of the second power divider corresponds to the output end of the second phase-shifting feed network, the N input ends of the second power divider are respectively connected to the N output ends of the second digital phase shifter, and the N input ends of the second digital phase shifter correspond to the N input ends of the second phase-shifting feed network. In downlink transmission, the first power divider may divide the transmission signal from the signal transmission port T into N transmission sub-signals according to a pre-configured weight, and then transmit the N transmission sub-signals to N input terminals of the first digital phase shifter through N output terminals of the first power divider, respectively. The first digital phase shifter can respectively carry out phase shift feeding on the N sending sub-signals to obtain required phases, then respectively send the N sending sub-signals after phase shift feeding to N diplexers through N output ends of the first digital phase shifter, after the N diplexers respectively transmit the N sending sub-signals to N groups of radiation units, N beams corresponding to the N sending sub-signals are singly radiated by the N groups of radiation, and different beams in the N beams can cover different ranges. During uplink transmission, the N diplexers may respectively send the received signals from the N groups of radiating elements to N input ends of the second digital phase shifter, the second digital phase shifter may respectively perform phase shift feeding on the N received signals, and then respectively send the N received signals after phase shift feeding to the second power divider through N output ends of the second digital phase shifter, where the second power divider weights the N received signals after phase shift feeding according to a preset weight, and then sends the N received signals to the signal receiving port R.
It should be noted that the foregoing embodiment actually shifts N signals by N input terminals and N output terminals of the digital phase shifter, which is only an alternative embodiment. In other alternative embodiments, the first digital phase shifter may also include N first digital phase shifting units, where each of the N first digital phase shifting units includes an input end and an output end, the N output ends of the first power divider are respectively connected to the N input ends of the N first digital phase shifting units, the N output ends of the N first digital phase shifting units are respectively connected to the input ends of the N diplexers, and the N first digital phase shifting units are respectively used to phase shift respective received transmission sub-signals and send the phase shifted signals to the connected diplexers. Correspondingly, the second digital phase shifter may also include N second digital phase shifting units, where each second digital phase shifting unit in the N second digital phase shifting units includes an input end and an output end, the N input ends of the second power divider are respectively connected to the N output ends of the N second digital phase shifting units, the N input ends of the N second digital phase shifting units are respectively connected to the output ends of the N diplexers, and the N second digital phase shifting units are respectively used to phase shift respective received signals and send the phase shifted signals to the second power divider.
The above is merely illustrative of two possible configurations of the phase-shifting feed network. It should be understood that, as long as a first phase-shifting feed network with N inputs can be implemented, or a second phase-shifting feed network with N inputs can be implemented, all are within the protection scope of the present application, and this application will not be repeated here.
As an example, as shown in fig. 14, each group of radiating elements may include a plurality of radiating elements (e.g., each pattern "x" in fig. 14 is one radiating element), where the antenna array may further include N power splitters (i.e., short for power splitters) corresponding to N groups of radiating elements (or N diplexers), such as power splitter 1, power splitters 2, … …, and power splitter N, respectively. Each of the N power splitters may include a first end and a plurality of second ends, where the number of second ends is the same as the number of radiating elements included in a group of radiating elements corresponding to the power splitter. The first end of each power divider may be connected to the combining end of the corresponding duplexer, and the second ends of each power divider may be respectively connected to a plurality of radiating elements included in the corresponding group of radiating elements. As shown in fig. 14, it is assumed that the radiating element groups 1 to N each include X 1 、X 2 、……、X N Radiating element (X) 1 、X 2 、……、X N Positive integer), the power divider 1 may include a first end D 1 And X 1 Second ends 11, 12, … …, 1X 1 First end D of power divider 1 1 Combining terminal E for connecting diplexer 1 13 Second ends 11-1X of the power divider 1 1 Respectively connect corresponding X 1 A plurality of radiating elements; the power divider 2 may comprise a first end D 2 And X 2 Second ends 21, 22, … …, 2X 2 First end D of power divider 2 2 Combining terminal E for connecting diplexer 1 23 Second ends 21-2X of the power divider 2 2 Respectively connect corresponding X 2 A plurality of radiating elements; … …; the power divider N may include a first end D N And X N Second ends N1, N2, … …, NX N First end D of power divider N N Combining terminal E for connecting diplexer 1 N3 Second ends N1-NX of the power divider N 1 Respectively connect corresponding X N And a radiation unit. When the N power splitters respectively receive the N transmit sub-signals from the N diplexers, the N power splitters may respectively perform power distribution on the respective received transmit sub-signals to obtain a plurality of transmit sub-signals, and then feed the plurality of transmit sub-signals into a plurality of radiating elements in a corresponding group of radiating elements, and respectively radiate the plurality of transmit sub-signals through the plurality of radiating elements. When any one of the N power splitters receives multiple received signals from the connected multiple radiating elements, the power splitter may weight the received multiple received signals and send the weighted multiple received signals to the connected diplexer.
In this example, since the first power splitter, the second power splitter, and the third power splitter are disposed between the base station antenna and the remote radio unit, belonging to devices closer to the baseband processing unit, the first power splitter, the second power splitter, and the third power splitter may also be referred to as a first front-end power splitter, a second front-end power splitter, and a third front-end power splitter. The power splitters 1 to N are disposed between the antenna array and the terminal device, and belong to devices far away from the baseband processing unit, so that the power splitters 1 to N may also be referred to as post-power splitters 1 to N.
Possible configurations of the signal processing unit are further described below based on the first signal feeding unit shown in fig. 14. It should be noted that, for ease of understanding, the drawings referred to below simplify the above-described first signal feeding unit and part of the ports in the antenna array, and do not refer to the names of these ports again.
Fig. 15 schematically illustrates a structural schematic diagram of still another base station antenna provided in the embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 15, in this example, the base station antenna includes K first signal feed units (as shown in fig. 9), the signal processing unit may include k×n duplexers (that is, the duplexers 11, the duplexers 12, … …, the duplexers 1N, the duplexers 21, the duplexers 22, … …, the duplexers 2N, … …, the duplexers K1, the duplexers K2, … …, and the duplexers KN), each N of the k×n duplexers may correspond to one first signal feed unit of the K first signal feed units, for example, the duplexers 11 to 1N correspond to the first signal feed unit 1, the duplexers 21 to 2N correspond to the first signal feed unit 2, … …, the duplexers K1 to the first signal feed unit K, and the connection relationship between each first signal feed unit and the corresponding N duplexers may be referred to above (as shown in fig. 14), which is not repeated here. In this case, the signal processing unit may further include N first multi-frequency signal processors, which may be specifically N combiners/splitters, such as combiner/splitter 1, combiners/splitters 2, … …, and combiner/splitter N. Each of the N combiners/splitters includes a combining end and K splitting ends, e.g., combiner/splitter 1 includes combining end G 10 And K branching ends G 11 ～G 1K The combiner/divider 2 includes a combining terminal G 20 And K branching ends G 21 ～G 2K … … the combiner/divider N comprises a combining terminal G N0 And K branching ends G N1 ～G NK . The combining ends of the N duplexers corresponding to each first signal feeding unit are respectively connected with one splitting end of the N combiners/splitters, such as N combining ends E of the diplexer 11-1N corresponding to the first signal feeding unit 1 113 ～E 1N3 Splitting ends G respectively connected to the combiner/splitter 1 11 Splitting end G of combiner/splitter 2 21 … …, splitting end G of combiner/splitter N N1 The N combining ends E of the diplexer 21 to the diplexer 2N corresponding to the first signal feeding unit 2 213 ～E 2N3 Splitting ends G respectively connected to the combiner/splitter 1 12 Splitting end G of combiner/splitter 2 22 … …, splitting end G of combiner/splitter N N2 … … N combining ends E of the diplexer K1-diplexer KN corresponding to the first signal feed unit K K13 ～E KN3 Splitting ends G respectively connected to the combiner/splitter 1 1K Splitting end G of combiner/splitter 2 2K … …, splitting end G of combiner/splitter N NK . Combining end G of N combiners/splitters 10 ～G N0 And N groups of radiation units are respectively connected.
As shown in fig. 15, in the base station antenna, in downlink transmission, after receiving K transmission signals from K signal transmission ports connected to the K first phase-shift feed networks, the K transmission signals may be processed into N transmission sub-signals and transmitted to N diplexers connected to the K first phase-shift feed networks, respectively. Each of the kxn diplexers sends the received transmit sub-signal to the connected combiner/divider, and thus the kxn transmit sub-signal is sent to the N combiners/splitters. When any one of the N combiners/splitters receives K transmission sub-signals transmitted by the connected K diplexers, the K transmission sub-signals may be combined into one path and transmitted to the connected radiation unit for radiation. In uplink transmission, after any one of the N combiners/splitters receives a received signal sent by the connected radiation unit, the received signal may be divided into K paths of received sub-signals and sent to K duplexers connected to K splitting ends of the combiners/splitters, so that the N received signals are divided into k×n paths of received sub-signals and sent to k×n duplexers respectively. Each of the kxn diplexers sends the received receive sub-signal to the connected second phase-shifting feed network, so that the kxn transmit sub-signal is sent to the K second phase-shifting feed networks. Any one of the K second phase-shifting feed networks carries out phase-shifting feed processing on the N received sub-signals and then sends the N received sub-signals to the signal receiving port R.
Fig. 16 schematically illustrates a structure of another base station antenna provided in the embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 16, in this example, the base station antenna includes a first signal feeding unit and a second signal feeding unit as shown in fig. 10, and the signal processing unit may include N duplexers (such as a duplexer 1, a duplexer 2, a … …, a duplexer N) and N second multi-frequency signal processors (i.e., N combiners/splitters), such as a combiner/splitter 1, a combiner/splitter 2, a … …, and a combiner/splitter N. Wherein each of the N diplexers may include one input, one output and one combining terminal, e.g., diplexer 1 includes input E 11 Output end E 12 And a combining end E 13 The diplexer 2 includes an input E 21 Output end E 22 And a combining end E 23 … … the diplexer N comprises an input E N1 Output end E N2 And a combining end E N3 . Each of the N combiners/splitters may include two splitting ends and one combining end, e.g., combiner/splitter 1 includes splitting end G 11 Branching end G 12 And a combining terminal G 10 The combiner/divider 2 includes a dividing end G 21 Branching end G 22 And a combining terminal G 20 … … the combiner/divider N comprises a dividing end G N1 Branching end G N2 And a combining terminal G N0 . N output ends of the first phase-shifting feed network in the first signal feed unit are respectively connected with the input ends E of N diplexers 11 ～E N1 N input ends of the second phase-shifting feed network in the first signal feed unit are respectively connected with the output ends E of N diplexers 12 ～E N2 Combining end E of N diplexers 13 ～E N3 Branching ends G respectively connected with N combiners/splitters 11 ～G N1 . The third phase-shifting feed network in the second signal feed unit may include a first end and N second ends, the first end of the third phase-shifting feed network is connected to the signal receiving/transmitting port TR, and the N second ends of the third phase-shifting feed network are respectively connected to the other splitting end G of the N combiner/splitters 12 ～G N2 . Combining end G of N combiners/splitters 10 ～G N0 And N groups of radiation units are respectively connected.
As shown in fig. 16, in the base station antenna, during downlink transmission, the first phase-shifting feed network receives the first transmission signal from the signal transmission port T, processes the first transmission signal into N first transmission sub-signals and sends the N first transmission sub-signals to N diplexers, respectively, where the N diplexers send the N first transmission sub-signals to N combiner/splitters, respectively. The third phase-shifting feed network receives the second transmission signal from the signal receiving/transmitting port TR, processes the second transmission signal into N second transmission sub-signals, and transmits the N second transmission sub-signals to the N combiner/splitters, respectively. Each of the N combiners/splitters combines the received one first transmit sub-signal and one second transmit sub-signal into one path and transmits the combined signal to the connected radiating element for radiation. During uplink transmission, the N groups of radiation units respectively receive N received signals and respectively send the N received signals to N combiner/splitters, each combiner/splitter in the N combiners divides the received signals into one path of received sub-signals in a frequency band corresponding to the first signal feed unit and the other path of received sub-signals in the frequency band corresponding to the second signal feed unit, and the two paths of received sub-signals are respectively sent to a duplexer and an analog phase shifter connected with two splitting ends of the combiner/splitter. The N diplexers send the received N received sub-signals to the second phase-shifting feed network, and the second phase-shifting feed network processes the N received sub-signals into a received signal and sends the received signal to the signal receiving port R. The analog phase shifter processes the received N received sub-signals into one received signal and transmits the received signal to the signal transmitting/receiving port TR.
Illustratively, with continued reference to fig. 16, the third phase-shifting feed network may include a third power splitter and an analog phase shifter as shown in fig. 12, the third power splitter may include one first end and N second ends, the analog phase shifter may include N first ends and N second ends, the first end of the third power splitter corresponds to the first end of the third phase-shifting feed network, the N second ends of the third power splitter are connected to the N first ends of the analog phase shifter, and the N second ends of the analog phase shifter correspond to the N second ends of the third phase-shifting feed network. In downlink transmission, after the third power divider receives the transmission signal from the signal receiving and transmitting port TR, the transmission signal may be divided into N transmission sub-signals according to a pre-configured weight and sent to N first ends of the analog phase shifters, respectively. The analog phase shifter may perform analog phase shifting on the N transmit sub-signals, and then transmit the N transmit sub-signals to the N combiner/splitters through N second ends of the analog phase shifter. In uplink transmission, after the second digital phase shifter receives the N received sub-signals sent from the N combiners/splitters, the N received sub-signals may be phase-shifted and fed to the third power splitter, where the third power splitter weights the N received sub-signals according to a pre-configured weight and sends the N received sub-signals to the signal transceiver TR.
It should be understood that fig. 16 only illustrates a possible configuration of the signal processing unit by taking the base station antenna including a first signal feeding unit and a second signal feeding unit as an example. In other alternative embodiments, the base station antenna may also include a plurality of first signal feeding units and a plurality of second signal feeding units at the same time, and include P first signal feeding units and F second signal feeding units as shown in fig. 11. In this case, each of the N combiner/splitters may include p+f splitting ends and one combining end, the combining ends of the N diplexers corresponding to each of the P first signal feeding units are respectively connected to one splitting end of the N combiner/splitters, the N second ends of each of the F second signal feeding units are respectively connected to one splitting end of the N combiner/splitters, and the combining ends of the N combiner/splitters are respectively connected to the N sets of radiation units. In this base station antenna, the structures of the units or devices other than the N combiners are the same as those of fig. 16, and the operations performed by the units or devices are the same as or similar to those of fig. 16, so that the description thereof will not be repeated here.
Through the base station antenna in the third embodiment, the transmission signal may be divided into N transmission sub-signals and then transmitted to the antenna array in parallel, and the reception signal may be divided into N reception signals and then transmitted to the signal receiving/transmitting ports in parallel.
In the first to third embodiments, although the transmission signal and the reception signal are separately transmitted and electrically modulated on the uplink transmission link and the downlink transmission link, respectively, the isolation of the uplink and downlink transmission depends on the distance between the uplink and downlink transmission links, and when the layout space of the base station antenna is limited, interference may exist between the uplink and downlink transmission, and in order to further optimize the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, a filter may also be set in the base station antenna. In the following, based on each of the first to third embodiments, several possible configurations of a base station antenna provided with a filter are exemplarily described in the fourth embodiment.
Example IV
In an alternative embodiment, the filter may be provided as a separate component, for example:
fig. 17 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of still another base station antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 17, in this example, the base station antenna may include a first signal feeding unit, a signal processing unit, a filter, and an antenna array. Wherein the first signal feeding unit, the signal processing unit and the antenna array may be arranged with reference to any of the embodiments described above. The filter may include a first end (W 1 ) And a second end (W 2 ) First end W of the filter 1 Combining terminal Z connected with signal processing unit 3 Second end W of the filter 2 An antenna array is connected. When the filter receives the phase-shifted transmission signal from the signal processing unit, the filter can transmit the transmission signal (packet) of the frequency band other than the frequency band corresponding to the first signal feeding unitIncluding but not limited to other frequency bands in FDD systems, satellite frequency bands, etc.), but only the transmission signals of the frequency band corresponding to the first signal feed unit are reserved, and then the transmission signals of the frequency band corresponding to the first signal feed unit are transmitted to the antenna array. When the filter receives the received signals from the antenna array, the filter can filter the received signals except the frequency band corresponding to the first signal feeding unit from the received signals, only the received signals of the frequency band corresponding to the first signal feeding unit are reserved, and then the received signals of the frequency band corresponding to the first signal feeding unit are sent to the second phase-shifting feeding network.
In this embodiment, by cascading the filter between the signal processing unit and the antenna array, not only can the impurity in the transmission signal be filtered before the transmission signal is sent to the antenna array, so that the transmission signal sent to the antenna array is purer, and the quality of the transmission signal radiated by the antenna array is improved, but also the impurity in the reception signal can be filtered before the reception signal is sent to the signal processing unit and the first signal feeding unit, so as to avoid that the signal processing unit and the first signal feeding unit perform excessive processing operation on the useless impurity signal, and waste the processing resource of the base station antenna. Furthermore, in the embodiment, the filter is arranged independently of the first signal feed unit, the signal processing unit and the antenna array, and can also directly send the adjusting instruction to the filter when the filtering frequency band of the filter needs to be adjusted, so that the convenience of adjusting the filtering is improved.
In another alternative embodiment, the filter may also be provided as a component in other units, which may be signal processing units, signal feeding units or antenna arrays. For example, when the filter is provided in the signal processing unit:
fig. 18 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of still another base station antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 18, in this example, the base station antenna may include K first signal feeding units, a signal processing unit, and an antenna array. Wherein the K first signal feeding units, the signal processing unit and the antenna array can be specifically described with reference to fig. 15Row arrangement, differing in that: the signal processing unit may further include N filters corresponding to the N combiners, for example, filter 1, filter 2, … …, and filter N, where each of the N filters may include a first end and a second end, the first ends of the N filters are respectively connected to the combining ends of the N combiners, and the second ends of the N filters are respectively connected to the N sets of radiation units. For example, the filter 1 includes a first end W 11 And a second end W 12 First end W of filter 1 11 Combining end G of coupling/branching unit 1 10 The second end W of the filter 1 12 A connection radiating element group 1; the filter 2 comprises a first end W 21 And a second end W 22 A first end W of the filter 2 21 Combining end G of coupling/branching unit 2 20 A second end W of the filter 2 22 A group of connection radiating elements 2; … …; the filter N comprises a first end W N1 And a second end W N2 First end W of filter N N1 Combining end G of connecting joint/branching unit N N0 Second end W of filter N N2 The radiating element group N is connected. When any filter receives the transmission signals from the connected combiner/divider, the filter can filter out impurity signals of other frequency bands except the K frequency bands corresponding to the K first signal feed units from the transmission signals, only the transmission signals of the K frequency bands corresponding to the K first signal feed units are reserved, and then the transmission signals of the K frequency bands corresponding to the K first signal feed units are transmitted to the connected radiation unit. When any filter receives the received signals from the connected radiation units, the filter can filter out impurity signals of other frequency bands except the K frequency bands corresponding to the K first signal feed units from the received signals, only the received signals of the K frequency bands corresponding to the K first signal feed units are reserved, and then the received signals of the K frequency bands corresponding to the K first signal feed units are sent to the connected combiner/divider.
Fig. 19 schematically illustrates a structural diagram of still another base station antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 19, in which the base station antenna may include a first signal feeding unit, a second signal feeding unit, a signal processing unit, and an antenna array. Wherein, the first signal feeding unit, the second signal feeding unit, the signal processing unit and the antenna array can be specifically set with reference to fig. 16, and the difference is that: the signal processing unit may further include N filters corresponding to the N combiners/splitters, for example, filter 1, filter 2, … …, and filter N, where each of the N filters may include a first end and a second end, the first ends of the N filters are respectively connected to the combining ends of the N combiners/splitters, and the second ends of the N filters are respectively connected to the N sets of radiation units (the connection relationship is referred to fig. 18, and will not be repeated here). When any filter receives the transmission signal from the connected combiner/divider, the filter can filter out impurity signals of other frequency bands except for 2 frequency bands corresponding to the first signal feeding unit and the second signal feeding unit from the transmission signal, only the transmission signals of 2 frequency bands corresponding to the first signal feeding unit and the second signal feeding unit are reserved, and then the transmission signals of 2 frequency bands corresponding to the first signal feeding unit and the second signal feeding unit are transmitted to the connected radiating unit. When any filter receives the received signal from the connected radiating element, the filter can filter out the impurity signals except for 2 frequency bands corresponding to the first signal feeding element and the second signal feeding element from the received signal, but only retains the received signals of 2 frequency bands corresponding to the first signal feeding element and the second signal feeding element, and then sends the received signals of 2 frequency bands corresponding to the first signal feeding element and the second signal feeding element to the connected combiner/divider.
It should be noted that the above is only an exemplary description of two possible arrangements of the filter in the signal processing unit. When the signal processing unit includes the duplexer, the combiner/divider and the filter, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the order of setting the duplexer, the combiner/divider and the filter in the signal processing unit, for example, the three components may be sequentially set in the order of the duplexer, the combiner/divider and the filter described in the foregoing, may be sequentially set in the order of the duplexer, the filter and the combiner/divider, may also be partially set in the order of the duplexer, the combiner/divider and the filter, and another partially set in the order of the duplexer, the filter and the combiner/divider, and so on. When the signal processing unit includes the diplexer, the combiner/divider and the filter, the diplexer, the combiner/divider and the filter may be disposed on the same physical unit, may be disposed on different physical units, or may be disposed at will in a manner that a part of the components are combined in one physical unit and a part of the components are disposed separately.
In this embodiment, by packaging the filter in other units, a space may not be reserved for the filter alone in the base station antenna, contributing to further reducing the waste of layout space for the base station antenna. And the filter with out-of-band rejection capability is cascaded behind the signal processing unit, so that out-of-band interference can be effectively suppressed, and coexistence of multi-system receiving and transmitting signals is realized. Furthermore, the embodiment also sets the filters corresponding to the frequency bands respectively, so that different filtering rules can be set for different frequency bands respectively, and the network optimization equipment can optimize a certain frequency band conveniently.
It should be noted that the various embodiments in this application can also be combined with each other to form new embodiments. For example:
fig. 20 schematically illustrates a structure of another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 20, where the base station antenna in this embodiment is a new base station antenna obtained by combining the base station antenna illustrated in fig. 7 and the base station antenna illustrated in fig. 14. In this example, the base station antenna may have only one antenna port in its external appearance, and thus the base station antenna may be adapted for use with a remote radio unit having only one radio communication port. When the signal receiving and transmitting port TR receives a transmission signal from the radio frequency communication port, the signal receiving and transmitting port TR transmits the transmission signal to the duplexer D, the duplexer D transmits the transmission signal to the first power divider, the first power divider distributes power to the transmission signal to obtain N transmission sub-signals, then transmits the N transmission sub-signals to the first digital phase shifter, the first digital phase shifter respectively phase-shifts and feeds the N transmission sub-signals to the diplexer 1-duplexer N, the diplexer 1-duplexer N can respectively transmit the N transmission sub-signals after phase-shifting and feeding to the N power dividers, and each of the N power dividers distributes the received phase-shifted and fed transmission sub-signals to a plurality of transmission sub-signals and then respectively transmits the N transmission sub-signals to a plurality of radiation units connected to radiate. When any power divider receives a plurality of received signals sent by a plurality of connected radiating units, the power divider can weight the plurality of received signals and send the signals to the connected duplexer, the duplexer 1-the duplexer N respectively send the received N weighted received signals to a second digital phase shifter, the second digital phase shifter carries out phase-shifting feed on the N weighted received signals and then sends the N weighted received signals to a second power divider, the second power divider secondarily weights the N phase-shifting fed received signals and sends the N weighted received signals to the duplexer D, and the duplexer D sends the weighted received signals to a signal receiving and sending port TR and then sends the weighted received signals to a radio frequency communication port of a remote radio frequency unit.
Fig. 21 schematically illustrates a structure of another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 20, where the base station antenna in this embodiment is a new base station antenna obtained by combining the base station antenna illustrated in fig. 7 and the base station antenna illustrated in fig. 19. In this example, the base station antenna has two antenna ports in the external appearance, and thus the base station antenna may be adapted for a remote radio unit having only two radio communication ports. Further, since the base station antenna is further provided with a filter, the base station antenna can also filter the uplink transmission signal and the downlink transmission reception signal.
Fig. 22 schematically illustrates a structure of another base station antenna according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 22, the base station antenna in this embodiment is a new base station antenna obtained by combining the base station antenna illustrated in fig. 8, the base station antenna illustrated in fig. 14, and the base station antenna illustrated in fig. 17. In this example, the base station antenna can not only perform separate phase-shifting feeding on the transmission signal and the reception signal, but also share N diplexers to perform phase-shifting feeding processing on the multi-band signals, thereby contributing to saving of layout space of the base station antenna. And the base station antenna is also provided with N independent filters, so that the base station antenna can also independently filter signals on links where N groups of radiation units are located.
In an alternative example of fig. 22, in order to enable each group of radiating elements to individually process the transceiving signals in the same frequency band, the value of M may be the same as the value of N. In this case, from N signal transmission ports T 1 ～T M The method comprises the steps that N frequency band transmission signals are combined into one path through a combiner and then are transmitted to a first phase-shifting feed network, the first phase-shifting feed network processes the combined transmission signals into N different frequency band transmission signals according to the frequency band, the N different frequency band transmission signals are respectively transmitted to a duplexer 1-a duplexer N, the duplexer 1-the duplexer N respectively transmit the N received different frequency band transmission signals to a filter 1-a filter N for filtering, and the filter 1-the filter N respectively transmit the N groups of radiation units for radiation. Or, the N frequency bands of the received signals from the N groups of radiating elements are filtered by the filters 1 to N and then sent to the diplexer 1 to N, the diplexer 1 to N send the filtered N different frequency bands of the received signals to the second phase-shifting feed network, the second phase-shifting feed network processes the N different frequency bands of the received signals into a weighted received signal and sends the weighted received signal to the splitter, and the splitter divides the weighted received signal into N different frequency bands of the received signal according to the frequency bands and then sends the N different frequency bands of the received signal to the N signal receiving ports R 1 ～R M . It can be seen that each filter in this example can filter out impurity signals in other frequency bands except the frequency band of the corresponding radiation unit in the transceiver signal, and only keep the signals in the frequency band of the corresponding radiation unit.
It should be noted that the foregoing embodiments of the present application merely describe a possible structure of a base station antenna by taking an antenna as an example. In practical applications, the base station antenna may also include multiple antennas, where one or more antennas may exist to implement independent phase-shifting feeding of the transmit/receive signals by using the scheme in the present application, which will not be described in the present application.
It should be understood that each component in the above embodiments of the present application refers to a functional device, and the present application is not limited to a specific implementation manner of these functional components.
Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the application also provides base station equipment, which comprises the base station antenna provided by the embodiment of the application and one or more transceivers, wherein the one or more transceivers can be respectively connected with a plurality of antenna ports in the base station antenna one by one.
Illustratively, the transceiver in the base station apparatus may be a remote radio unit.
In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a high-density digital video disc (digital video disc, DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.
As used in this specification, the terms "component," "module," "system," and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computing device and the computing device can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. Furthermore, these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components may communicate by way of local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from two components interacting with one another in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the internet with other systems by way of the signal).
Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks (illustrative logical block) and steps (steps) described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.
It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.
In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.
The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.
In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit.
The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (random access memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.
While some of the possible embodiments of the present application have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. It is therefore intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications as fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present application without departing from the spirit or scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims and the equivalents thereof, the present application is intended to cover such modifications and variations.

Claims (14)

  1. A base station antenna, which is characterized by comprising a first signal feed unit, a signal processing unit and an antenna array; the first signal feed unit comprises a signal transmission port, a signal receiving port, a first phase-shifting feed network and a second phase-shifting feed network, wherein the signal transmission port is connected with the input end of the first phase-shifting feed network, and the output end of the first phase-shifting feed network is connected with the input end of the signal processing unit; the signal receiving port is connected with the output end of the second phase-shifting feed network, and the input end of the second phase-shifting feed network is connected with the output end of the signal processing unit; the combining end of the signal processing unit is connected with the antenna array;
    the first phase-shifting feed network is used for carrying out phase-shifting feed on the transmission signal from the signal transmission port and then transmitting the transmission signal to the signal processing unit;
    The signal processing unit is used for sending the sending signal after phase-shifting feeding to the antenna array or sending the receiving signal from the antenna array to the second phase-shifting feeding network;
    the second phase-shifting feed network is used for carrying out phase-shifting feed on the received signal and then sending the received signal to the signal receiving port;
    the antenna array is used for radiating the sending signal after phase-shifting feeding, or receiving the receiving signal and sending the receiving signal to the signal processing unit.
  2. The base station antenna of claim 1, wherein the transmit signal and the receive signal are carried in the same frequency band.
  3. The base station antenna according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first signal feed unit further comprises a first signal receiving and transmitting port and a first duplexer, a combining end of the first duplexer is connected to the first signal receiving and transmitting port, an output end of the first duplexer is connected to the signal transmitting port, and an input end of the first duplexer is connected to the signal receiving port;
    the first duplexer is configured to send the transmission signal received by the first signal receiving and sending port to the signal sending port, or send the reception signal after phase-shifting feeding to the first signal receiving and sending port.
  4. The base station antenna according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first signal feed unit includes M signal transmission ports, M signal reception ports, a combiner and a splitter, the combiner includes M input terminals and one output terminal, the splitter includes one input terminal and M output terminals, and M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;
    the M input ends of the combiner are respectively connected with the M signal transmission ports, and the output end of the combiner is connected with the input end of the first phase-shifting feed network; the combiner is used for combining the transmission signals from the M signal transmission ports into one path and transmitting the combined signal to the first phase-shifting feed network;
    the M output ends of the splitter are respectively connected with the M signal receiving ports, and the input end of the splitter is connected with the output end of the second phase-shifting feed network; and the splitter is used for splitting the received signal subjected to phase-shifting feed into M paths and then respectively transmitting the M paths of signals to the M signal receiving ports.
  5. The base station antenna of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first phase-shifting feed network comprises a first power splitter and a first digital phase shifter; the input end of the first power divider corresponds to the input end of the first phase-shifting feed network, the output end of the first power divider is connected with the input end of the first digital phase shifter, and the output end of the first digital phase shifter corresponds to the output end of the first phase-shifting feed network;
    The first power divider is configured to perform power division on the transmission signal and send the transmission signal to the first digital phase shifter;
    the first digital phase shifter is used for shifting the phase of the transmission signal after power distribution and transmitting the transmission signal to the signal processing unit.
  6. The base station antenna of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the second phase-shifting feed network comprises a second power splitter and a second digital phase shifter, the output of the second power splitter corresponding to the output of the second phase-shifting feed network, the input of the second power splitter being connected to the output of the second digital phase shifter, the input of the second digital phase shifter corresponding to the input of the second phase-shifting feed network;
    the second digital phase shifter is used for shifting the phase of the received signal and then sending the shifted phase to the second power distributor;
    the second power divider is configured to weight the phase-shifted received signal and send the weighted signal to the signal receiving port.
  7. The base station antenna according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the base station antenna includes K first signal feeding units, the signal processing unit includes K inputs and K outputs, K is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;
    The output ends of the K first phase-shifting feed networks corresponding to the K first signal feed units are respectively connected with the K input ends of the signal processing unit, and the input ends of the K second phase-shifting feed networks corresponding to the K first signal feed units are respectively connected with the K output ends of the signal processing unit;
    the signal processing unit is configured to combine the K phase-shifted transmission signals sent by the K first phase-shifted feed networks into one path and send the combined path to the antenna array, or divide the received signal into K paths and send the K paths to the K second phase-shifted feed networks respectively.
  8. The base station antenna according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the signal processing unit further comprises a communication terminal, the base station antenna further comprises a second signal feed unit including a second signal transceiving port and a third phase-shifting feed network, a first terminal of the third phase-shifting feed network being connected to the second signal transceiving port, a second terminal of the third phase-shifting feed network being connected to the communication terminal of the signal processing unit;
    the third phase-shifting feed network is configured to phase-shift and feed a transmission signal from the second signal receiving and transmitting port and then send the signal to the signal processing unit, or phase-shift and feed a reception signal received through the second end and then send the signal to the second signal receiving and transmitting port.
  9. The base station antenna according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the signal processing unit comprises N second diplexers, the antenna array comprising N groups of radiating elements; the N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;
    the first phase-shifting feed network comprises N output ends which are respectively connected with the input ends of the N second duplexers; the second phase-shifting feed network comprises N input ends which are respectively connected with the output ends of the N second duplexers; the combining ends of the N second duplexers are respectively connected with the N groups of radiation units;
    the first phase-shifting feed network is further configured to process the transmission signal into N transmission sub-signals and then send the N transmission sub-signals to the N second duplexers respectively;
    the N second duplexers are configured to send the N sending sub-signals to the N groups of radiating units respectively, or send N receiving signals from the antenna array to the second phase-shifting feed network;
    the second phase-shifting feed network is further configured to weight the N received sub-signals;
    the N groups of radiation units are configured to radiate the N transmit sub-signals respectively, or transmit the N receive signals to the N second duplexers respectively.
  10. The base station antenna of claim 9, wherein the base station antenna comprises K first signal feed units, the signal processing unit comprises K x N second diplexers, N second diplexers corresponding to each of the K first signal feed units; k is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;
    the signal processing unit further comprises N first multi-frequency signal processors, each of the N first multi-frequency signal processors comprises a combining end and K splitting ends, the combining ends of N second duplexers corresponding to each first signal feeding unit are respectively connected with one splitting end of the N first multi-frequency signal processors, and the combining ends of the N first multi-frequency signal processors are respectively connected with the N groups of radiation units;
    the first multi-frequency signal processor is used for synthesizing the transmission sub-signals received by the K branching ends respectively into one path and then transmitting the path to the connected radiation unit, and dividing the received signals received by the combining end of the first multi-frequency signal processor into K paths and transmitting the K paths to the K second duplexers respectively connected with the K branching ends of the first multi-frequency signal processor.
  11. The base station antenna of claim 8 or 9, wherein the third phase-shifting feed network comprises N second ends; the signal processing unit further comprises N second multi-frequency signal processors, and each of the N second multi-frequency signal processors comprises a combining end, a first splitting end and a second splitting end;
    the combining ends of the N second multi-frequency signal processors are respectively connected with the N groups of radiation units, the first branching ends of the N second multi-frequency signal processors are respectively connected with the combining ends of the N second diplexers, and the second branching ends of the N second multi-frequency signal processors are respectively connected with the N second ends of the third phase-shifting feed network;
    the third phase-shifting feed network is configured to phase-shift and feed the transmission signal from the second signal receiving/transmitting port, split the transmission signal into N paths, and send the N paths to the N second multi-frequency signal processors, or weight N reception signals received by the second end and send the N reception signals to the second signal receiving/transmitting port;
    the second multi-frequency signal processor is configured to synthesize a path of transmission sub-signals received by the first and second branching ends of the second multi-frequency signal processor and then send the synthesized signal to the connected radiation unit, or divide a received signal received by the combining end of the second multi-frequency signal processor into two paths and then send the divided signal to a second duplexer connected with the first branching end of the second multi-frequency signal processor and a third phase-shifting feed network connected with the second branching end.
  12. The base station antenna according to any of claims 1 to 11, further comprising a filter, a first end of the filter being connected to a combining end of the signal processing unit, a second end of the filter being connected to the antenna array;
    the filter is configured to filter the transmission signal after phase-shifting feeding from the signal processing unit and send the filtered transmission signal to the antenna array, or filter the reception signal and send the filtered reception signal to the signal processing unit.
  13. A base station device comprising a base station antenna as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 12 and one or more transceivers;
    the one or more transceivers are connected to the base station antenna.
  14. The base station apparatus of claim 13, wherein the transceiver is a remote radio unit.
CN202080106495.XA 2020-12-11 2020-12-11 Base station antenna and base station equipment Pending CN116438717A (en)

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CN117996437A (en) * 2022-10-27 2024-05-07 维沃移动通信有限公司 Mobile terminal
CN117374593B (en) * 2023-12-07 2024-04-12 四川九洲电器集团有限责任公司 Same-frequency high-isolation receiving-transmitting reciprocal feed network

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US7538740B2 (en) * 2006-03-06 2009-05-26 Alcatel-Lucent Usa Inc. Multiple-element antenna array for communication network
CN101051860B (en) * 2007-05-24 2010-08-04 华为技术有限公司 Feed network device, aerial feed subsystem and base station system
US9014068B2 (en) * 2010-10-08 2015-04-21 Commscope Technologies Llc Antenna having active and passive feed networks
EP2860822B1 (en) * 2012-06-11 2017-04-12 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Base station antenna and base station antenna feed network
CN105811105B (en) * 2014-12-29 2019-02-26 中国电信股份有限公司 Active Arrays, base station and Transmission system
CN108092001A (en) * 2017-12-07 2018-05-29 南京乾波通信技术有限公司 The antenna that a kind of satellite communication mechanical scanning is combined with phase controlling
WO2020027914A1 (en) * 2018-08-03 2020-02-06 Commscope Technologies Llc Multiplexed antennas that sector-split in a first band and operate as mimo antennas in a second band
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