Antenna apparatus for base station and operation method therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9761938-B2
Application number	US-201514850654-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 10, 2015
Priority date	Mar 19, 2013
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

An antenna apparatus for base station (BS) having at least one cell, includes: two or more antenna units to form antenna beams based on predetermined tilting angles for each of two or more different frequency bands with respect to the cell; and a tilting angle control unit to control tilting angles designated to the two or more antenna units, respectively, to be different from each other, so as to make coverages of the antenna beams of the two or more different frequency bands formed by the two or more antenna units different from each other with respect to the cell.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An antenna apparatus for base station (BS) having at least one cell, the antenna apparatus comprising:
two or more antenna units configured to transmit two or more antenna beams in a cell to form two or more different frequency bands in the cell, wherein the two or more antenna beams having predetermined tilting angles different from each other are each transmitted by the two or more antenna units to form the two or more different frequency bands within the cell;
a tilting angle control unit configured to respectively control the two or more tilting angles of the two or more antenna units so as to avoid overlapping between coverages of the two or more antenna beams of the two or more different frequency bands within the cell; and
an adjacent cell identification unit configured to identify one or more adjacent cells neighboring to the cell,
wherein when the adjacent cell identification unit identifies the adjacent cells, the tilting angle control unit is configured to vertically or horizontally control the two or more tilting angles of the two or more antenna beams to avoid overlapping the coverages of the two or more antenna beams of the two or more different frequency bands with coverages of adjacent cells.

2. The antenna apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the tilting angle control unit is configured to control the two or more tilting angles of the two or more antenna beams each transmitted by the two or more antenna units such that the coverages of the two or more antenna beams for the two or more different frequency bands do not overlap coverages of antenna beams of equal frequency bands formed in at least one of the adjacent cells.

3. The antenna apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the tilting angle control unit is configured to control a tilting angle of a particular antenna unit of the two or more antenna units to be different from a tilting angle of an antenna unit forming an antenna beam of a particular frequency band equal to that of the particular antenna unit in the adjacent cells.

4. The antenna apparatus of claim 3 , further comprising:
an adjacent cell grouping unit configured to group the adjacent cells with respect to the cell,
wherein the tilting angle control unit is configured to
identify a tilting angle most frequently designated to the particular frequency band in the adjacent cell group based on the tilting angle of the antenna unit forming the antenna beam of the particular frequency band in each of adjacent cells in the adjacent cell group, and
control the tilting angle of the particular antenna unit to be different from the identified tilting angle.

5. The antenna apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
a scheduling unit configured to sequentially perform radio resource scheduling in an order from a frequency band of an antenna unit having a largest tilting angle to a frequency band of an antenna unit having a smallest tilting angle among the two or more different frequency bands based on the tilting angles designated to the two or more antenna units.

6. The antenna apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the tilting angle control unit is configured to
a tilting angle control unit configured to respectively control the two or more tilting angles of the two or more antenna units in a vertical direction and/or a horizontal direction so as to avoid
overlapping the coverages of the two or more antenna beams of the two or more different frequency bands with coverages of different frequency bands in adjacent cells.

7. A method of operating an antenna apparatus for base station (BS) having at least one cell, the method comprising:
identifying two or more antenna units for transmitting two or more antenna beams in a cell to form two or more different frequency bands in the cell, wherein the two or more antenna beams having predetermined tilting angles different from each other are each transmitted by two or more antenna units to form the two or more different frequency bands within the cell; and
respectively controlling two or more tilting angles of the two or more antenna units so as to avoid
overlapping between coverages of the two or more antenna beams of the two or more different frequency bands within the cell,

The method further comprising:
identifying one or more adjacent cells neighboring to the cell; and
vertically or horizontally controlling, when the adjacent cell identification unit identify the adjacent cells, the two or more tilting angles of the two or more antenna beams to avoid overlapping the coverages of the two or more antenna beams of the two or more different frequency bands with coverages of adjacent cells.

8. The method of claim 7 ,
wherein the controlling of the tilting angles comprises
controlling the two or more tilting angles of the two or more antenna beams each transmitted by the two or more antenna units such that the coverages of the two or more antenna beams for the two or more different frequency bands do not overlap coverages of antenna beams of equal frequency bands formed in one or more of the adjacent cells.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the controlling of the tilting angles comprises
controlling a tilting angle of a particular antenna unit of the two or more antenna units to be different from a tilting angle of an antenna unit forming an antenna beam of a frequency band equal to that of the particular antenna unit in the adjacent cells.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising
grouping the adjacent cells of the cell,
wherein the controlling of the tilting angles comprising
identifying a tilting angle most frequently designated to the particular frequency band in the adjacent cell group based on the tilting angle of the antenna unit forming the antenna beam of the particular frequency band in each of adjacent cells in the adjacent cell group, and
controlling the tilting angle of the particular antenna unit to be different from the identified tilting angle.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the controlling of the tilting angles comprises respectively control the two or more tilting angles of the two or more antenna units in a vertical direction and/or a horizontal direction so as to avoid overlapping the coverages of the two or more antenna beams of the two or more different frequency bands with coverages of different frequency bands in adjacent cells.

12. The method of claim 7 , further comprising
sequentially performing radio resource scheduling in an order from a frequency band of an antenna unit having a largest tilting angle to a frequency band of an antenna unit having to a smallest tilting angle among the two or more frequency bands based on the tilting angles designated to the two or more antenna units.

Assignees

• Sk Telecom Co Ltd

Inventors

• Park Hae Sung
• Kim Duk Kyung

Classifications

• H01Q5/30

  Arrangements for providing operation on different wavebands · CPC title

• H01Q3/00 Primary

  Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system {(means for positioning H01Q1/125)} · CPC title

• H04W72/0453

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

• H04W16/28

  using beam steering · CPC title

• H01Q1/246

  specially adapted for base stations · CPC title