Communication device and operating method therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11894905-B2
Application number	US-202118044334-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 1, 2021
Priority date	Nov 17, 2020
Publication date	Feb 6, 2024
Grant date	Feb 6, 2024

Abstract

A communication device includes a plurality of distributed units (DUs), each including an antenna; and a central unit (CU) which is arranged to be spaced from each of the plurality of DUs, and which is connected through each of the plurality of DUs and a plurality of DU links. The central unit measures the channel quality of each of the plurality of DU links, and the central unit can perform control so that power is cut off to the DU corresponding to the DU link if it is determined that the DU link is in an abnormal status during the operation time of a timer (TDU_link) associated with the connection to the DU link, and perform control so that power is supplied to the DU corresponding to the DU link if it is determined that the DU link has returned to a normal status.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication device comprising:
a plurality of distributed units (DUs) each comprising an antenna; and
a central unit (CU) disposed apart from each of the plurality of distributed units and configured to be connected to each of the plurality of distributed units through a plurality of DU links,
wherein the central unit measures a channel quality of each of the plurality of DU links, controls power to be cut off to a distributed unit corresponding to a DU link when it is determined that the DU link is in an abnormal status during an operation time of a timer T DU_link associated with a DU link connection in the central unit, and controls power to be supplied to the distributed unit corresponding to the DU link when it is determined that the DU link has returned to a normal status, and
wherein the distributed unit performs a hardware reset when a CU link is in an abnormal status before a third timer T CU_link determined by the distributed unit is terminated, and
wherein the operation time of the third timer T CU_link is set to be shorter than the operation time of the timer T DU_link associated with the DU link connection.

2. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the central unit cuts off the power of the distributed unit corresponding to the DU link when a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) error or a sequence number (SN) mismatch above a threshold value is detected in the DU link, and supplies the power of the distributed unit corresponding to the DU link when the CRC error or the SN mismatch is detected to be below the threshold value.

3. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the central unit determines whether activation of the distributed unit is completed during an operation time of a second timer T DU_act associated with the activation of the DU link after the DU link becomes a normal status, and controls power to be cut off to a distributed unit corresponding to the DU link or transmits a reset message to the distributed unit when it is determined that the activation of the distributed unit is not completed.

4. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein when a fault message is received from the distributed unit, the central unit determines whether a radio frequency (RF) module and a controller have a fault according to a type of the fault message.

5. The communication device of claim 4 , wherein the central unit controls the distributed unit to perform a hardware reset of the distributed unit when it is determined that the RF module has a fault, and controls the distributed unit to perform a software reset of the distributed unit when it is determined that the controller has a fault.

6. The communication device of claim 5 , wherein the central unit carries out a hardware reset of the distributed unit or cuts off the power of the distributed unit when the fault is not cleared after the software reset of the distributed unit is performed.

7. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the distributed unit transmits a fault message to the central unit and performs a hardware reset when a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) error or a sequence number (SN) mismatch above a threshold value is detected in the DU link.

8. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the distributed unit determines whether activation of the distributed unit is completed during an operation time of a second timer T DU_act associated with the activation of the DU link after the CU link becomes a normal status, and performs a software reset when it is determined that the activation of the distributed unit is not completed.

9. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the distributed unit performs a hardware reset or a software reset according to a type of a reset message when the reset message is received from the central unit.

10. The communication device of claim 9 , wherein the distributed unit transmits a fault message to the central unit when an error of a radio frequency (RF) module or the controller is detected, and performs a hardware reset or a software reset according to the type of a reset message received from the CU.

11. The communication device of claim 10 , wherein the distributed unit updates a watchdog timer to prevent a malfunction of the controller, transmits the fault message to the central unit and performs a software reset when the watchdog timer expires.

12. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the distributed unit controls a report message to be transmitted through the DU link or a DU link of another distributed unit when it is determined that the quality of the CU link is below a threshold value before the third timer T CU_link is terminated.

13. The communication device of claim 12 , wherein upon receiving the report message from a specific distributed unit, the central unit excludes resource allocation for the specific distributed unit and a DU link associated with the specific distributed unit.

14. The communication device of claim 12 , wherein the central unit is connected to each of the plurality of distributed units through a digital serial interface, and
wherein the central unit excludes resource allocation for a specific distributed unit from which the report message has been received and a DU link associated with the specific distributed unit, generates, as a Tx packet, a Tx data signal and an RF control signal which are input, by using a signal processing (SP) framer in each of one or more SP paths during transmission (Tx), selects one of the one or more SP paths, and provides the Tx packet through the selected SP path to a remaining distributed unit of a distribution path mapped to the selected SP path.

15. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the communication device is mounted on a vehicle, and
wherein when it is determined that the DU link is in an abnormal status, the central unit controls power to be cut off to a specific distributed unit corresponding to the DU link, excludes communication resource allocation for the specific distributed unit, measures the quality of each channel except for the DU link for a signal received through a 5G network, and determines at least one distributed unit to be used to transmit or receive data based on the measured channel quality.

16. A method of operating a communication device, the method comprising:
a channel quality measurement step of measuring channel quality for a plurality of DU links that are one-to-one coupled to each of a plurality of distributed units (DUs) each comprising an antenna;
a power cut-off control step of controlling power to be cut off to a distributed unit corresponding to a DU link when it is determined that the DU link is in an abnormal status during an operation time of a timer T DU_link associated with a DU link connection in a central unit;
a power supply control step of controlling power to be supplied to the distributed unit corresponding to the DU link when it is determined that the DU link has returned to a normal status;
a hardware reset execution step of performing a hardware reset of the distributed unit when a CU link is in an abnormal status before a third timer T CU_link determined by the distributed unit is terminated;
a DU activation determination step of determining whether activation of the distributed unit is completed during an operation time of a second timer T DU_act associated with the activation of the DU link after the CU link becomes a normal status; and
a software reset execution step of performing a software reset when it is determined that the activation of the distributed unit is not completed.

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Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Kim Jeongin
• Lee Dongsun

Classifications

• H04B7/0632 Primary

  Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI] · CPC title

• H04B7/022

  Site diversity; Macro-diversity (using two or more spaced independent antennas H04B7/04) · CPC title

• H04B17/18 Primary

  Monitoring during normal operation · CPC title

• H04W24/08 Primary

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title

• H04B17/40

  of relay systems · CPC title