Reducing location-dependent interference in distributed antenna systems operating in multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) configuration, and related components, systems, and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9258052-B2
Application number	US-201414487232-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2014
Priority date	Mar 30, 2012
Publication date	Feb 9, 2016
Grant date	Feb 9, 2016

Abstract

Components, systems, and methods for reducing location-based interference in distributed antenna systems operating in multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) configuration are disclosed. Interference is defined as issues with received MIMO communications signals that can cause a MIMO algorithm to not be able to solve a channel matrix for MIMO communications signals received by MIMO receivers in client devices. These issues may be caused by lack of spatial (i.e., phase) separation in the received MIMO communications signals. Thus, to provide phase separation of received MIMO communication signals, multiple MIMO transmitters are each configured to employ multiple transmitter antennas, which are each configured to transmit in different polarization states. In certain embodiments, one of the MIMO communications signals is phase shifted in one of the polarization states to provide phase separation between received MIMO communication signals. In other embodiments, multiple transmitter antennas in a MIMO transmitter can be offset to provide phase separation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) remote unit configured to wirelessly distribute MIMO communications signals to wireless client devices in a distributed antenna system, comprising:
a first MIMO transmitter comprising a first MIMO transmitter antenna configured to transmit MIMO communications signals in a first polarization and a second MIMO transmitter antenna configured to transmit MIMO communications signals in a second polarization different from the first polarization; and
a second MIMO transmitter comprising a third MIMO transmitter antenna configured to transmit MIMO communications signals in the first polarization and a fourth MIMO transmitter antenna configured to transmit MIMO communications signals in the second polarization;
the first MIMO transmitter configured to:
receive a first downlink MIMO communications signal in a first phase over a first downlink communications medium, and transmit the first downlink MIMO communications signal wirelessly as a first electrical downlink MIMO communications signal over the first MIMO transmitter antenna in the first polarization; and
receive a second downlink MIMO communications signal in the first phase over a second downlink communications medium, and transmit the second downlink MIMO communications signal wirelessly as a second electrical downlink MIMO communications signal over the second MIMO transmitter antenna in the second polarization;

the second MIMO transmitter configured to:
receive a third downlink MIMO communications signal in the first phase over a third downlink communications medium, and transmit the third downlink MIMO communications signal wirelessly as a third electrical downlink MIMO communications signal over the third MIMO transmitter antenna in the first polarization; and
receive a fourth downlink MIMO communications signal over a fourth downlink communications medium, and transmit the fourth downlink MIMO communications signal in a second phase shifted from the first phase, wirelessly as a fourth electrical downlink MIMO communications signal over the fourth MIMO transmitter antenna in the second polarization.

2. The MIMO remote unit of claim 1 , wherein:
the first MIMO transmitter is further configured to transmit the first and second downlink MIMO communications signals wirelessly to a line-of-sight (LOS) wireless client; and
the second MIMO transmitter is configured to transmit the third and fourth downlink MIMO communications signals wirelessly to the LOS wireless client.

3. The MIMO remote unit of claim 1 , further comprising at least one phase shifter configured to phase shift the fourth downlink MIMO communications signal to the second phase.

4. The MIMO remote unit of claim 1 , wherein the second MIMO transmitter is configured to receive the fourth downlink MIMO communications signal in the second phase as a result of a phase shift of the fourth downlink MIMO communications signal in a central unit.

5. The MIMO remote unit of claim 1 , wherein the second MIMO transmitter is configured to receive the fourth downlink MIMO communications signal in the second phase as a result of a phase shift of the fourth downlink MIMO communications signal in the fourth downlink communications medium.

6. The MIMO remote unit of claim 1 , wherein the third MIMO transmitter antenna is phase offset from the fourth MIMO transmitter antenna by positioning the third MIMO transmitter antenna in distance from the fourth MIMO transmitter antenna.

7. The MIMO remote unit of claim 5 , wherein the third MIMO transmitter antenna is phase offset from the fourth MIMO transmitter antenna by the third MIMO transmitter antenna being positioned in distance from the fourth MIMO transmitter antenna.

8. The MIMO remote unit of claim 1 , wherein the first MIMO transmitter antenna is position offset from the second MIMO transmitter antenna by positioning the first MIMO transmitter antenna in distance from the second MIMO transmitter antenna.

9. The MIMO remote unit of claim 1 , wherein:
the first downlink MIMO communications signal further comprises a first optical downlink MIMO communications signal;
the second downlink MIMO communications signal further comprises a second optical downlink MIMO communications signal;
the third downlink MIMO communications signal further comprises a third optical downlink MIMO communications signal; and
the fourth downlink MIMO communications signal further comprises a fourth optical downlink MIMO communications signal.

10. The MIMO remote unit of claim 9 , wherein:
the first MIMO transmitter further comprises:
a first optical-to-electrical (O/E) converter configured to convert the first optical downlink MIMO communications signal to the first electrical downlink MIMO communications signal; and
a second O/E converter configured to convert the second optical downlink MIMO communications signal to the second electrical downlink MIMO communications signal; and

the second MIMO transmitter further comprises:
a third O/E converter configured to convert the third optical downlink MIMO communications signal to the third electrical downlink MIMO communications signal; and
a fourth O/E converter configured to convert the fourth optical downlink MIMO communications signal to the fourth electrical downlink MIMO communications signal.

11. The MIMO remote unit of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first electrical downlink MIMO communications signal, the second electrical downlink MIMO communications signal, the third electrical downlink MIMO communications signal, and the fourth electrical downlink MIMO communications signal include a carrier frequency having an extremely high frequency (EHF) between 30 GHz and 300 GHz.

12. A method of transmitting multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications signals to wireless client devices in a distributed antenna system, comprising:
receiving a first downlink MIMO communications signal in a first phase over a first downlink communications medium;
transmitting the first downlink MIMO communications signal wirelessly as a first electrical downlink MIMO communications signal over a first MIMO transmitter antenna in a first polarization; and
receiving a second downlink MIMO communications signal in the first phase over a second downlink communications medium;
transmitting the second downlink MIMO communications signal wirelessly as a second electrical downlink MIMO communications signal over a second MIMO transmitter antenna in a second polarization;
receiving a third downlink MIMO communications signal in the first phase over a third downlink communications medium;
transmitting the third downlink MIMO communications signal wirelessly as a third electrical downlink MIMO communications signal over a third MIMO transmitter antenna in the first polarization;
receiving a fourth downlink MIMO communications signal over a fourth downlink communications medium; and
transmitting the fourth downlink MIMO communications signal in a second phase shifted from the first phase, wirelessly as a fourth electrical downlink MIMO communications signal over a fourth MIMO transmitter antenna in the second polarization.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
transmitting the first downlink MIMO communications signal wirelessly to a line-of-sight (LOS) wireless client;
transmitting the second downlink MIMO communications signal wirelessly to the LOS wireless client;
transmitting the third downlink MIMO communications signal wirelessly to the LOS wireless client; and
transmitting the fourth downlink MIMO communications signal wirelessly to the LOS wireless client.

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Assignees

• Corning Optical Comm Llc

Inventors

• George Jacob
• Ng Oma Anthony
• Yang Hejie

Classifications

• H04B7/0469 Primary

  taking special antenna structures, e.g. cross polarized antennas into account · CPC title

• H04B7/10 Primary

  Polarisation diversity; Directional diversity · CPC title

• H04B10/25753

  Distribution optical network, e.g. between a base station and a plurality of remote units · CPC title

• H04B7/024

  Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems · CPC title

• H04B7/06

  at the transmitting station · CPC title