Base station system and communication apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9628139-B2
Application number	US-201514951776-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 25, 2015
Priority date	May 29, 2013
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

A base station system according to an aspect of the invention includes a baseband unit (BBU) and a radio frequency (RF) unit (RFU) connected to the BBU via a communication line. The RFU (BBU) measures the frequencies of occurrence of sampled values indicated by sampled data that is a digital signal corresponding to a baseband signal to be transmitted to the BBU (RFU), and generates a frequency distribution representing a relationship between the sampled value having occurred and the frequency of occurrence. Furthermore, the RFU (BBU) determines a plurality of thresholds for compressing the sampled data, which are used for quantization processing of the sampled value, in accordance with the generated frequency distribution, and compresses the sampled data by the quantization processing using the plurality of thresholds.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A base station system comprising a baseband unit and a radio frequency (RF) unit connected to the baseband unit via a communication line, the RF unit comprising:
a generation unit configured to generate, as sampled data, a digital signal corresponding to a baseband signal to be transmitted to the baseband unit;
a measurement unit configured to measure frequencies of occurrence of amplitudes indicated by the sampled data generated by the generation unit, and generate a frequency distribution representing a relationship between an amplitude having occurred and a frequency of occurrence;
a determination unit configured to determine a plurality of thresholds for compressing the sampled data, which are used for quantization processing of an amplitude, in accordance with the frequency distribution generated by the measurement unit; and
a compression unit configured to compress the sampled data by the quantization processing using the plurality of thresholds determined by the determination unit to generate compressed data to be transmitted to the baseband unit.

2. The base station system according to claim 1 , wherein the determination unit determines the plurality of thresholds so that, for each of a plurality of sections obtained by dividing, using the plurality of thresholds, a value range within which the amplitudes can fall, a width of the section becomes narrower as the frequency of occurrence of the amplitude included in the section is higher, and the width of the section becomes wider as the frequency of occurrence of the amplitude in the section is lower.

3. The base station system according to claim 1 , wherein the determination unit determines the plurality of thresholds so that integrated values of the frequencies of occurrence of the amplitudes in respective ones of a plurality of sections obtained by dividing, using the plurality of thresholds, a value range within which the amplitudes can fall, become equal with respect to the plurality of sections.

4. The base station system according to claim 1 , wherein the measurement unit calculates a mean and standard deviation of the frequencies of occurrence from the measured frequencies of occurrence of the amplitudes, and generates, as the frequency distribution, a normal distribution determined by the calculated mean and standard deviation.

5. The base station system according to claim 4 , wherein the determination unit generates a cumulative distribution function of the normal distribution generated as the frequency distribution, and determines the plurality of thresholds based on the generated cumulative distribution function.

6. The base station system according to claim 5 , wherein the determination unit determines, as the plurality of thresholds to be used for the quantization processing, a plurality of amplitudes corresponding to a plurality of thresholds for equally dividing a value range within which the cumulative distribution function can fall.

7. The base station system according to claim 1 , wherein
the RF unit further comprises a transmission unit configured to transmit the compressed data to the baseband unit together with control information indicating the plurality of thresholds determined by the determination unit, and
the baseband unit comprises a decompression unit configured to receive the control information and the compressed data transmitted by the transmission unit, and decompress the compressed data using the plurality of thresholds indicated by the control information.

8. The base station system according to claim 4 , wherein
the RF unit further comprises a transmission unit configured to transmit the compressed data to the baseband unit together with control information indicating the unit and standard deviation calculated by the measurement unit, and
the baseband unit comprises a decompression unit configured to receive the control information and the compressed data transmitted by the transmission unit, and decompress the compressed data using the plurality of thresholds determined based on the mean and standard deviation indicated by the control information.

9. The base station system according to claim 1 , wherein
the generation unit generates, as the sampled data, data of a first number of bits quantized using a plurality of thresholds with equal intervals, and
the determination unit determines a plurality of thresholds with unequal intervals for compressing the sampled data to data of a second number of bits smaller than the first number of bits.

10. The base station system according to claim 1 , wherein
the sampled data includes in-phase (I) channel data and quadrature (Q) channel data, and
the measurement unit, the determination unit, and the compression unit individually execute processing for each of the I channel data and the Q channel data which are included in the sampled data.

11. The base station system according to claim 1 , wherein the baseband unit and the RF unit are connected via an optical line.

12. The base station system according to claim 1 , wherein the generation unit generates the sampled data by down-converting, to a baseband signal, an analog signal received via an antenna connected to the RF unit, and converting the baseband signal into a digital signal.

13. A base station system comprising a baseband unit and a radio frequency (RF) unit connected to the baseband unit via a communication line, the baseband unit comprising:
a generation unit configured to generate, as sampled data, a digital signal corresponding to a baseband signal to be transmitted to the RF unit;
a measurement unit configured to measure frequencies of occurrence of amplitudes indicated by the sampled data generated by the generation unit, and generate a frequency distribution representing a relationship between an amplitude having occurred and a frequency of occurrence;
a determination unit configured to determine a plurality of thresholds for compressing the sampled data, which are used for quantization processing of an amplitude, in accordance with the frequency distribution generated by the measurement unit; and
a compression unit configured to compress the sampled data by the quantization processing using the plurality of thresholds determined by the determination unit to generate compressed data to be transmitted to the RF unit.

14. A communication apparatus for communicating with an opposing apparatus connected via a communication line in a base station system, comprising:
a generation unit configured to generate, as sampled data, a digital signal corresponding to a baseband signal to be transmitted to the opposing apparatus;
a measurement unit configured to measure frequencies of occurrence of amplitudes indicated by the sampled data generated by the generation unit, and generate a frequency distribution representing a relationship between an amplitude having occurred and a frequency of occurrence;
a determination unit configured to determine a plurality of thresholds for compressing the sampled data, which are used for quantization processing of an amplitude, in accordance with the frequency distribution generated by the measurement unit; and
a compression unit configured to compress the sampled data by the quantization processing using the plurality of thresholds determined by the determination unit to generate compressed data to be transmitted to the opposing apparatus.

15. The communication apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein
the communication apparatus is a radio frequency (RF) unit of the base station system, and
the opposing apparatus is a baseband unit of the base station s

Assignees

• Kddi Corp

Inventors

• Agata Akira
• Nanba Shinobu

Classifications

• H03M7/30

  Compression (speech analysis-synthesis for redundancy reduction G10L19/00; for image communication H04N); Expansion; Suppression of unnecessary data, e.g. redundancy reduction · CPC title

• H04W72/23

  in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal · CPC title

• H04W16/26 Primary

  Cell enhancers {or enhancement}, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow · CPC title

• H04W72/0453

  Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA · CPC title

• H04W16/24

  Cell structures · CPC title