CN1913402B - Intelligent method for detecting antenna fault - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention relates to a method for testing intelligent antenna faults including: setting the TR switches of all antenna channels a receiving mode and that of the correcting channel a transmission mode, in which, the correcting antenna sends down-line signals to judge if the coupled network and feed lines connecting the array elements are normal by the tested emission signal power of the correcting antenna and the receiving signal power of the array element of the antennas, then to detect if the antenna element of the normal test state is disabled, which judges if the power defference of the measured receiving signal and emission signal is less than a throshld value designed by a fixed coupled relation to get the test result of the fault of intelligent antennas.

Description

A method for smart antenna fault detection

technical field

The invention relates to a fault detection method for a smart antenna by a base station adopting smart antenna technology in the communication field.

Background technique

The existing smart antenna technology is a new technology that is getting more and more attention in the field of mobile communication. Especially in the TDD working mode, the uplink and downlink channels use the same carrier frequency, so it can be considered that the uplink and downlink channels of the same user are completely symmetrical. , which is conducive to the use of smart antenna technology.

The smart antenna can adaptively adjust the direction of the beam according to the change of the user's position, so that the received power of the desired user is maximized, and at the same time, the interference of the undesired user is reduced, so as to achieve the purpose of improving the system capacity. However, when one or several elements of the smart antenna fail, it will directly affect the coverage of the cell and the call quality of the user. Therefore, it is very important to detect the failure of the smart antenna in the entire communication system. Once a failure is detected, the antenna should be replaced as soon as possible.

In practice, base station antennas for mobile communications are often installed on towers that are tens of meters high. If engineers climb up the towers, it will be very difficult and arduous to use instruments to detect whether the antenna elements are faulty. Therefore, the base station It is necessary to have the function of automatic detection of antenna failure.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for fault detection of a smart antenna. The technical problem to be solved is: automatically detect the fault of the smart antenna, and accurately locate the faulty feeder and antenna element.

Technical scheme of the present invention comprises:

A method for intelligent antenna fault detection, comprising the steps of:

A. Set the transmit and receive switches of all antenna channels to receive mode, and the transmit and receive switches of the calibration channel to transmit mode; the calibration antenna sends downlink signals, each antenna channel receives signals, and the detected calibration antenna transmits signal power and each antenna The received signal power of the array element judges whether the coupling network and the feeder connected to each array element are normal. The method for judging whether the coupling network and the feeder connected to each array element is normal includes: by judging whether the measured power difference between the received signal and the transmitted signal is less than The threshold value set by the fixed coupling relationship can judge whether the coupling network and the feeder connected to each array element are normal;

B. After the test is completed, check whether the antenna elements in the detection state are normal or not.

The method, wherein, the step A further includes: setting the transmit signal power of the calibration channel as P _ac , and the receive signal power of each antenna channel as P _ka , if

P _ka - P _ac < Th _{ka, ac}

Then it shows that the coupling network or feeder corresponding to the antenna ka has a fault, and the channel flag is set as abnormal, and the number of ErrNum is increased by one; the detection threshold Th _{ka, ac} = ε _{ka, ac} + l _ac + l _ka , ε _{ka, ac} are the attenuation values of the coupling network between the antenna ka and the correction port, l _ac and l _ka are the attenuation values of the antenna correction port feeder and the feeder of the antenna ka, respectively; where, Th _{ka, ac} is the detection threshold , ka is the antenna number, and ErrNum is the number of faulty coupling networks and feeders.

均在天线安装前实际测量得到，门限值Th_ka，根据这几个参数的测量结果通过操作维护中心配置下去。The method, wherein, the ε _{ka, ac} , l _ac , l _ka ,

are actually measured before the antenna is installed, the threshold value Th _ka , According to the measurement results of these parameters, it is configured through the operation and maintenance center.

The method, wherein the step A also includes:

According to the fault detection results of the coupling network and the feeder line, the following judgments are made: if 0≤ErrNum<Ka-1, it means that the coupling network and the cable connection with more than two antennas are normal, and then proceed to the next step for the normal array elements. One-step array element status detection, and report the abnormal array element number at the same time; if ErrNum=Ka-1, it means that the coupling network cable connection of only one antenna is normal, and the next step of detection cannot be performed, and the entire antenna fault detection is over; if ErrNum=Ka, then Explain that the entire detection is abnormal, and notify the engineering personnel to check the calibration cable, each array element feeder and coupling network in turn, and the entire antenna fault detection

Technical scheme of the present invention comprises:

A method for intelligent antenna fault detection, comprising the steps of:

A. Set the transmit and receive switches of all antenna channels to receive mode, and the transmit and receive switches of the calibration channel to transmit mode; the calibration antenna sends downlink signals, each antenna channel receives signals, and the detected calibration antenna transmits signal power and each antenna The received signal power of the array element judges whether the coupling network and the feeder connected to each array element are normal. The method for judging whether the coupling network and the feeder connected to each array element is normal includes: by judging whether the measured power difference between the received signal and the transmitted signal is less than The threshold value set by the fixed coupling relationship can judge whether the coupling network and the feeder connected to each array element are normal;

B. After the test is completed, check whether the antenna elements in the detection state are normal or not.

The method, wherein, the step A further includes: setting the transmit signal power of the calibration channel as P _ac , and the receive signal power of each antenna channel as P _ka , if

P _ka - P _ac < Th _{ka, ac}

Then it shows that the coupling network or feeder corresponding to the antenna ka has a fault, and the channel flag is set as abnormal, and the number of ErrNum is increased by one; the detection threshold Th _{ka, ac} = ε _{ka, ac} + l _ac + l _ka , ε _{ka, ac} are the attenuation values of the coupling network between the antenna ka and the correction port, l _ac and l _ka are the attenuation values of the antenna correction port feeder and the feeder of the antenna ka respectively; where, Th _{ka, ac} is the detection threshold , ka is the antenna number, and ErrNum is the number of faulty coupling networks and feeders.

根据这几个参数的测量结果通过操作维护中心配置下去。The method, wherein, the ε _{ka, ac} , l _ac , l _ka , are actually measured before the antenna is installed, the threshold value Th _ka ,

According to the measurement results of these parameters, it is configured through the operation and maintenance center.

The method, wherein the step A also includes:

According to the fault detection results of the coupling network and the feeder line, the following judgments are made: if 0≤ErrNum<Ka-1, it means that the coupling network and the cable connection with more than two antennas are normal, and then proceed to the next step for the normal array elements. One-step array element status detection, and report the abnormal array element number at the same time; if ErrNum=Ka-1, it means that the coupling network cable connection of only one antenna is normal, and the next step of detection cannot be performed, and the entire antenna fault detection is over; if ErrNum=Ka, then Explain the abnormality of the entire detection, and notify the engineering personnel to check the calibration cable, each array element feeder and coupling network in turn, the radio frequency unit for transmitting and receiving the entire antenna fault detection signal; the baseband processing unit for baseband signal processing of the base station; for base station maintenance and alarm display operation and maintenance center.

The method for detecting failure of a smart antenna array element according to the present invention comprises the following steps:

The first step is to set the transmit and receive switches of all antenna channels to receive mode, and set the transmit and receive switches of the calibration channel to transmit mode. The downlink signal is sent by the correction antenna, and each antenna channel receives the signal. The detected power of the signal transmitted by the correction antenna and the power of the signal received by each antenna element can be used to judge whether the coupling network and the feeder connected to each element are normal.

In the second step, after the first step of the test is completed, the detection status of the normal antenna element is detected whether the element is invalid.

The structure and peripheral interfaces of the antenna fault detection system of the present invention are shown in Figure 1. It consists of an array antenna, a power detector, a main control unit, a radio frequency unit, a baseband processing unit, and an operation and maintenance center. An array antenna is composed of each antenna array element and a coupling network for antenna correction. Among the feeder lines between the array antenna and the power detector, the middle line is the feeder line between the power detection device and the correction antenna port, and the rest are the feeder lines between the power detector and each array element from top to bottom. The power detector is composed of (number of array elements + 1) data acquisition and transceiver modules and a microcontroller (MCU), in which each antenna element and correction port corresponds to a data acquisition and transceiver module one by one.

The main control unit is the control center of the entire base station system. After receiving the antenna fault detection command, the antenna fault detection command can be initiated by the operation and maintenance center or periodically, and the main control unit will wake up the antenna fault detection process. The antenna failure detection process completes the processing of the entire antenna failure detection algorithm, downlink baseband signal transmission control and each channel transceiver mode control.

The main function of the MCU is to configure the data acquisition of each channel and the transceiver mode of the transceiver module according to the control commands of each channel transceiver mode given by the main control unit, the calculation of antenna reception and transmission power and the power calculation results to the main control unit. report, the MCU and the main control unit adopt a serial communication protocol.

The structure of described data acquisition and transceiver module is as shown in Figure 2, is made up of several parts of cavity filter, circulator, radio frequency switch, low noise amplifier, linear power amplifier and wave detector and analog/digital (A/D) converter . The main functions of this module are downlink transmission signal power amplification, uplink antenna signal reception, and digital signal acquisition for MCU to calculate transmission and reception power.

The data acquisition of each channel and the setting process of the transceiver mode of the transceiver module are as follows: first, the main control unit sends the control command of the transceiver mode of each channel to the MCU, and the MCU is configured with radio frequency switches A and B. Switch A is the channel's transceiver mode switching switch, and switch B is the uplink receiving power detection and low-noise amplifier mode switching switch. If a channel is set to transmit mode, switch A is set to power amplifier mode; if a channel is set to receive mode, switch A is set to low noise amplifier mode.

The flow of downlink signal transmission and power detection is as follows: firstly, set the channel to transmit mode, the main control unit controls the baseband processing unit to send downlink signals, the downlink signals are amplified by the radio frequency unit and power amplifier, and then divided into two paths by the two power splitters, one path passes through The cavity filter is sent, and the other channel is sent to the detector for detection and A/D conversion, and the MCU calculates the transmission signal power of the channel. In order to accurately detect the power of the transmitted and received signals, the power of the transmitted signal should be able to ensure that the detection error of the received power is within the allowable range of the power detection error.

The uplink signal reception and power detection process is as follows: firstly, set the channel to the transmission mode, switch B to the detection mode, and the signal received by the antenna is filtered by the cavity filter and sent directly to the detector for detection, and after A/D conversion, it is calculated by the MCU The received signal power of the channel.

The processing flow of the antenna fault detection algorithm is shown in Figure 3, and its specific implementation flow is as follows:

1. Fault detection of coupling network and feeder;

2. Carry out the state detection of each array element according to the state detection results of the coupling network and the feeder.

The fault detection process of coupling network and feeder is shown in Figure 4. In the figure, ka is the antenna number, Ka is the number of antennas, and ErrNum is the number of faulty coupling network and feeder. The detection results are sent from the main control unit to the operation and maintenance Reported by the center, the specific implementation process is as follows:

1. Set the calibration channel to transmit mode, each antenna channel to receive mode, the calibration channel transmits signals, and each antenna channel receives signals;

2. According to the power of the transmitted signal of the calibration channel and the power of the received signal of the receiving channel, it is judged whether the coupling network and feeder corresponding to each antenna are normal. Let the transmitted signal power signal of the calibration channel be P _ac , and the received signal of each antenna channel be P _ka , if

P _ka - P _ac < Th _{ka, ac}

It means that the coupling network or feeder corresponding to the antenna ka is faulty, and the channel flag is set as abnormal, and the number of ErrNum is increased by one. Among them, the detection threshold value Th _ka = ε _{ka, ac} + l _ac + l _ka , ε _{ka, ac} is the attenuation value of the coupling network between the antenna ka and the correction port, l _ac and l _ka are the antenna correction port respectively The attenuation value of the feed line and the feed line of the antenna ka. ε _{ka , ac} , l _ac , and l _ka can all be measured before the antenna is installed, and the threshold value Th _ka is configured through the operation and maintenance center according to the measurement results of these parameters. Based on the requirements for channel consistency correction of smart antennas, ε _{ka and ac} should be consistent with different array elements when the antenna leaves the factory, and l _ka should also be consistent when the antenna is installed.

3. According to the results of the fault detection of the coupling network and the feeder line, make the following judgments:

1) If 0≤ErrNum<Ka-1, it means that the coupling network and cable connection with more than two antennas are normal, and then the next step is to detect the status of the array elements marked as normal, and report the abnormal array element number at the same time;

2) If ErrNum=Ka-1, it means that the coupling network cable of only one antenna is connected normally, and the next step of detection cannot be performed, and the fault detection of the entire antenna is over;

3) If ErrNum=Ka, it means that the entire detection is abnormal, and the engineering personnel are notified to check the calibration cables, the feeders of each array element and the coupling network in turn, and the fault detection of the entire antenna is completed.

The array element state detection process is shown in Figure 5, and the detection result is reported by the main control unit to the operation and maintenance center. The processing flow of the array element state detection is as follows:

如果满足1. Select an array element k _a from the antenna to be detected to transmit, and other antennas receive it. The power detector detects that the transmit power of the array element k _a is P _ka , and the received power of the receiving antenna k′ _a is

if satisfied

${\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; P</span>}}_{{\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; k</span>}}_{\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; a</span>}}^{<span\; class="notranslate">\; \&prime;</span>}}<span\; class="notranslate">\; -</span>{\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; P</span>}}_{\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; ka</span>}}<span\; class="notranslate">\; <</span>{\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; Th</span>}}_{{\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; k</span>}}_{\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; a</span>}}^{<span\; class="notranslate">\; \&prime;</span>}<span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span>{\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; k</span>}}_{\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; a</span>}}}$

为阵元k′_a与k_a之间信号通过空口耦合衰减值，可由天线出厂参数得到；

与

分别为阵元k′_a与k_a的馈线的衰减值，可在天线安装时实测得到，

可通过操作与维护中心配置。Then it indicates that the receiving power of the antenna k' _a is abnormal, and its status flag is set as abnormal. Among them, the detection threshold

is the attenuation value of the signal between the array elements k' _a and k _a through the air interface coupling, which can be obtained from the factory parameters of the antenna;

and

are the attenuation values of the feeders of the array element k′ _a and k _a respectively, which can be obtained by actual measurement when the antenna is installed,

Configurable via the Operations and Maintenance Center.

2. According to the test results of the previous step, make the following judgments:

1) If the receiving power of all antennas is normal, it means that the status of each antenna is normal, and the fault detection of the entire antenna is over;

2) If the received power of some antennas is normal, it means that the state of the transmitting antenna k _a is normal, the antenna with abnormal received power is damaged, and the fault detection of the entire antenna is completed, and the abnormal element number is reported at the same time;

3) If the receiving power of all antennas is abnormal, there are two possibilities, one may be that the transmitting antenna ka _is damaged, and the other may be that all receiving antennas are damaged, so the final detection result cannot be obtained. It is also necessary to repeat steps 1 and 2 until the entire antenna fault detection ends.

The above method of the present invention starts from the coupling relationship between the smart antenna coupling network and each antenna array element, and obtains by judging whether the measured power difference between the received signal and the transmitted signal is less than the threshold value set by the fixed coupling relationship The detection result of the fault of the intelligent antenna is obtained, and the method of the invention realizes accurate measurement and small calculation amount.

However, it should be understood that the above descriptions of the present invention for specific embodiments are relatively specific, and cannot therefore be interpreted as the scope of protection of the patent of the present invention, and the scope of protection of the patent of the present invention should be based on the appended claims.

Claims (5)

1. the method for a smart antenna fault detect comprises the steps:

A, the transmit-receive switch of all antenna channels all is set to the receipts pattern, the transmit-receive switch of correction channel is set to the pattern of sending out; By proofreading and correct the antenna transmission downstream signal, each antenna channels received signal, judge by detected correction antenna transmit signal power and each bay received signal power whether coupling network and feeder line that each array element connects be normal, describedly judge whether normal method comprises for coupling network and feeder line that each array element connects: whether received signal of measuring by judgement and transmit signal power difference be less than the threshold value of being set by fixing coupled relation, and whether judge coupling network and feeder line that each array element connects normal;

B, after test is finished, the normal bay of detected state is carried out the detection whether array element lost efficacy.

2. method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, described steps A also comprises: the transmit signal power of establishing correction channel is P _Ac, the received signal power of each antenna channels is P _KaIf,

P _ka-P _ac＜Th _ka，ac

Coupling networking or feeder line that antenna ka correspondence then is described break down, and this gap marker is changed to unusually, and the ErrNum number adds one; Detection threshold value Th _{Ka, ac}=ε _{Ka, ac}+ l _Ac+ l _Ka, ε _{Ka, ac}Be the pad value at the coupling networking between antenna ka and the correction mouth, l _AcAnd l _KaBe respectively antenna and proofread and correct the pad value of the feeder line of mouthful feeder line and antenna ka; Wherein, Th _{Ka, ac}Be detection threshold value, ka is a day wire size, and ErrNum is coupling networking and the feeder line number that breaks down.

3. method according to claim 2 is characterized in that, described ε _{Ka, ac}, l _Ac, l _Ka,

All actual measurement obtains threshold T h before antenna is installed _Ka, Measurement result according to this Several Parameters disposes down by operation maintenance center.

4. method according to claim 2 is characterized in that, described steps A also comprises:

Result according to the fault detect of coupling networking and feeder line makes the following judgment: if 0≤ErrNum＜Ka-1, then explanation has the coupling network of two above antennas and cable to connect normal, then next step array element state-detection of carrying out to being masked as normal array element reports unusual array element number simultaneously; If ErrNum=Ka-1, it is normal to illustrate that the coupling network cable that has only an antenna connects, and can't carry out next step detection, and the entire antenna fault detect finishes; If ErrNum=Ka illustrates that then whole detection is unusual, to notify the engineering staff to need to check successively and proofread and correct cable, each array element feeder line and coupling network, the entire antenna fault detect finishes; Wherein, Ka is an antenna number.

5. method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, described step B also comprises, transmitting antenna k _aTransmitting power be P _Ka, reception antenna k ' _aReceived power be

If satisfy

$P_{k_a^{\&prime;}}-P_{\mathrm{ka}}<{\mathrm{Th}}_{k_a^{\&prime;},k_a}$

Antenna k ' then is described _aReceived power unusual, its Status Flag is set to unusually, wherein, detection threshold value

Be array element k ' _aWith k _aBetween signal by the coupling attenuation value of eating dishes without rice or wine;

With

Be respectively array element k ' _aWith k _aThe pad value of feeder line.

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