JP7573432B2 - Wireless relay device, wireless relay method, and program for wireless relay device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a wireless relay device, a wireless relay method, and a program for a wireless relay device.

When installing a wireless relay device, it is necessary to adjust the direction with the base station device. The wireless relay device needs to point the antenna directionality toward the base station. Up until 4G, the horizontal directivity of the base station antenna was wide, so radio waves could be received to a certain extent by pointing the relay device toward the base station. However, with 5G, the antenna beam on the base station side is narrow, so it is difficult to adjust the direction during installation, and the difficulty of installing the wireless relay device increases.

A 5G base station (gNB) swings a thin beam up, down, left, and right to communicate with a terminal using one beam. For example, in Figure 1, terminal A has a beam ID of #6 and terminal B has a beam ID of #2.
The advantages of narrowing the antenna beam include increasing the antenna gain, raising the EIRP and compensating for propagation loss, and efficiently communicating with the desired terminal by not pointing the beam in unnecessary directions.

5G base stations use beamforming technology to steer beams in the horizontal and vertical planes. Each beam has a beam ID as an identification code. Typically, the beam ID is uniquely set by the company that develops the equipment.
For ease of explanation, the following description will be given of steering in the horizontal direction only, but the same applies to steering in the vertical direction.

At high frequencies such as the 28 GHz band, radio waves tend to travel in a straight line, making it difficult for the radio waves to bend around buildings, etc. In Fig. 2, terminal C is in the shadow of building Z, so beam #4 does not reach terminal C.
As a method for solving the problem caused by the linearity of radio waves, a method of using a wireless relay device, as shown in FIG. 3, is considered. The wireless relay device is composed of a donor unit and a service unit. The donor unit and the service unit are connected by wire (e.g., coaxial cable). Of course, the donor unit and the service unit may be integrated. The donor unit receives radio waves from a 5G base station, and the service unit emits radio waves. For example, the donor unit receives radio waves #5 and transmits them from the service unit, so that terminal C can receive radio waves #5, that is, terminal C can be accommodated in the service area. In this case, the wireless relay device may relay radio waves #4 instead of radio waves #5.

As described above, a wireless repeater (here, a non-regenerative wireless repeater) is used as a technology for expanding a service area. The advantage of this is that it is easy to install because no communication medium such as a coaxial cable or an optical fiber cable is required between the base station device and the wireless repeater.
As a wireless relay device, a distributed antenna device as described in Patent Document 1 is known.
Patent Document 1 describes a parent unit having multiple beams and a child unit that relays wireless signals, but does not describe a method for controlling the child unit.

Patent No. 6691448 Patent Application No. 2020-175695

Generally, wireless repeaters up to 4G are equipped with a communication modem that operates at a frequency different from the frequency they are repeating. For example, a 2 GHz wireless repeater is monitored and controlled by an 800 MHz modem.
For example, when setting a wireless repeater, such as turning it on or off, a wireless system that uses a different frequency from the wireless frequency being relayed is used. In this case, the wireless repeater is set up from a remote control console via the wireless system, but this takes time. Also, if there are multiple repeaters, it is necessary to send commands to each one.
This is thought to be because there are generally standards for the signals of the relayed frequency (hereafter referred to as "communication signals"), and when communication conforms to these standards, all of the communication signal frequencies are used by the communication signals, leaving no room to embed signals such as settings for the wireless relay device.
In this way, the wireless relay device needs to use another communication system for control. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, even when used in 5G standalone (SA), another communication system such as 4G is required. Between the 5G base station and the 5G wireless relay device and between the 5G wireless relay device and the terminal, data for the terminal is exchanged in the 28 GHz band, but to control the 5G wireless relay device, another system such as a 2 GHz band 4G base station is used.
In this case, the 5G wireless repeater can only be installed in the communication area of the communication system used for control, which restricts where it can be installed.
Therefore, the present technology aims to provide a wireless relay device, a wireless relay method, and a program for a wireless relay device that can control a wireless relay device using only the frequency of communication signals such as 5G by utilizing the frequency of communication signals, such as controlling a wireless relay device using a setting signal that is included in but not used among communication line signals used in 5G.

The wireless relay device according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises:
A radio relay device having a donor antenna for communicating with a base station and a service antenna for communicating with a terminal,
The wireless repeater is characterized by comprising a repeater setting section that sets the wireless repeater using a radio frequency communication signal transmitted within the wireless repeater.

The radio relay device according to claim 2 of the present invention comprises:
The wireless relay device according to claim 1 , wherein the relay device setting unit sets the wireless relay device using at least a part of a beam ID included in the communication signal.

A radio relay device according to claim 3 of the present invention comprises:
3. The wireless relay device according to claim 2, wherein at least a part of the beam ID specifies the wireless relay device.

A wireless relay device according to a fourth aspect of the present invention comprises:
A wireless relay device as described in claim 2 or 3, characterized in that at least a portion of the beam IDs specify the beam direction of the base station, and the base station performs beam steering based on the specified beam direction of the base station.

A radio relay device according to claim 5 of the present invention comprises:
a beam steering period setting unit that sets a beam steering period for switching and steering the beam of the wireless relay device to a length equal to or longer than the base station steering period, the beam steering period being a period of steering the beam of the base station;
a base station side beam forming unit that assigns a number to the beam to be formed as a beam number and switches and steers the beam at the beam steering period;
a demodulation unit for demodulating signals received through each beam number;
a storage unit that stores reception power for each beam ID of a base station based on a result of demodulation by the demodulation unit;
A detection unit that detects a beam ID that has the maximum received power among all beam IDs; and
a beam setting unit that sets the donor antenna to a beam having a beam number corresponding to the beam ID detected by the detection unit;
5. The wireless relay device according to claim 4, further comprising:

A radio relay device according to claim 6 of the present invention comprises:
6. The radio relay device according to claim 4, wherein the beam steering period setting unit sets the beam steering period to a time period that is an integer multiple of the base station steering period.

A wireless relay device according to claim 7 of the present invention comprises:
7. The radio relay device according to claim 5, wherein the beam steering period setting unit has a base station steering period measuring unit for measuring the base station steering period.

A radio relay device according to claim 8 of the present invention comprises:
8. The wireless repeater according to claim 1, wherein a communication module for setting the wireless repeater other than that for communication is not provided separately, and the wireless repeater does not use any frequency other than the radio frequency of the communication signal.

A wireless relay device according to claim 9 of the present invention comprises:
8. The wireless repeater according to claim 1, further comprising a different frequency communication module that uses a frequency other than the radio frequency of the communication signal.

A radio relay device according to claim 10 of the present invention comprises:
A wireless relay device as described in any one of claims 2 to 9, characterized in that a portion of the communication signal that is specified for purposes other than setting the wireless relay device and is different from the beam ID is used for setting the wireless relay device, and a signal including a setting signal for the wireless relay device has the same length as a signal that does not include the setting signal for the relay device.

A wireless relay method according to claim 11 of the present invention comprises:
A wireless relay method implemented by using a wireless relay device, comprising:
In a radio relay device having a donor antenna for communicating with a base station and a service antenna for communicating with a terminal,
The wireless relay method further comprises a relay device setting step for setting the wireless relay device using a radio frequency communication signal transmitted within the wireless relay device.

A wireless relay method according to claim 12 of the present invention comprises:
12. The wireless relay method according to claim 11, wherein in the relay device setting step, the wireless relay device is set using at least a part of a beam ID included in the communication signal.

A wireless relay method according to claim 13 of the present invention comprises:
The wireless relay method according to claim 11, characterized in that in the relay device setting step, a portion of the communication signal that is specified for a purpose other than setting the wireless relay device is used for setting the wireless relay device, and a signal including a wireless relay device setting signal has the same length as a signal not including a relay device setting signal.

A wireless relay method according to claim 14 of the present invention comprises:
a period setting step of setting a beam steering period for switching and steering the beam of the wireless relay device to a period equal to or longer than the base station steering period, the period being a period for steering the beam of the base station;
a steering step performed after the cycle setting step, in which beams are numbered in advance as beam numbers, and then the beams of the donor antennas are steered in a predetermined order;
a demodulation and storage step of demodulating the signal received by each beam number in the steering step and storing the received power for each beam ID of the base station;
a detection step of detecting a beam ID having the maximum reception power among all the beam IDs stored in the demodulation storage step; and
a beam setting step of setting the donor antenna to a beam having a beam number corresponding to the beam ID detected in the detection step;
14. A wireless relay method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

A program for a wireless relay device according to claim 15 of the present invention comprises:
A program for a wireless relay device for carrying out the steps recited in claims 11 to 14.

With the above configuration, it becomes possible to configure the wireless relay device using wireless signals from a 5G base station device (gNB).
In addition, it can solve the conventional problem that 5G wireless repeater devices can only be installed in the communication area of the communication system used for control, limiting the installation location. In addition, when high frequencies are used, the directivity of the signal increases, so there are cases where the signal cannot be transmitted or received properly. However, as can be understood from the role of the wireless repeater, this problem of the directivity of the signal has already been solved, so there is no problem.

2 shows an example of communication between a base station and a terminal. 2 shows an example of communication between a base station and a terminal. 2 shows an example of communication between a base station and a terminal. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a conventional wireless relay device. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a wireless relay device. 2 shows an example of a communication signal used in a wireless repeater device. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a wireless relay device. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a wireless relay device. 1 illustrates an example of the configuration of a wireless relay device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 illustrates an example of the configuration of a control unit in an embodiment of the present invention. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a beam steering period setting unit in an embodiment of the present invention. 2 illustrates an example of the configuration of a base station side beam forming unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a demodulation unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 2 illustrates an example of the configuration of a control unit in an embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a detection unit in one embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 illustrates an example of the configuration of a storage unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of the configuration of a wireless relay device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of the configuration of a wireless relay device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of the configuration of a wireless relay device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 illustrates an example of the configuration of a wireless relay device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of a wireless relay device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The radio relay device 100 has a donor antenna 201 for communicating with a base station 2 and a service antenna 301 for communicating with a terminal 3 .
The wireless relay device 100 includes a relay device setting unit 150. The relay device setting unit 150 sets the wireless relay device 100 by using a radio frequency communication signal transmitted within the wireless relay device.

In one embodiment, the base station 2 is a 5G base station, and the wireless relay device 100 is a 5G wireless relay device.
Between base station 2 and wireless relay device 100, and between wireless relay device 100 and terminal 3, data for the terminal is exchanged in the 28 GHz band. At the same time, control signals for controlling wireless relay device 100 are also transmitted from base station 2 to wireless relay device 100 in the same 28 GHz band using the same system as for data communication for the terminal.

6 shows an example of a communication signal used in a wireless repeater in one embodiment of the present invention, where the vertical axis represents frequency and the horizontal axis represents time.
The communication signal includes an SS/PBCH block (SS/PBCH INDEX) in an SS burst set period. As shown in the figure, the SS/PBCH block includes, in chronological order, beam ID#0, beam ID#1, to beam ID#N-1 (N is, for example, 64).

In this embodiment, the SS/PBCH INDEX, i.e., the beam ID, contained in the radio signal from the base station 2 such as 5G is used.
The SS/PBCH INDEX is associated with a beam of the base station 2. When the base station 2 steers a beam using a beamforming technique, the SS/PBCH INDEX is uniquely assigned to each beam.

However, it is not necessary to use all the assigned beam IDs, and the development company can decide for each base station. Also, when a base station has a fixed beam, usually only one beam ID is used.
Therefore, by using this SS/PBCH INDEX, the radio relay device 100 can be configured from the base station 2 .

In the following, a beam ID will be used as an example; however, instead of a beam ID, a part of the signal standard that is linked to something other than the beam of base station 2 can also be used; this is referred to as the "part specified for uses other than the configuration of a wireless relay device."
The signal including the setting signal for the wireless relay device 100 may have the same length as the signal not including the setting signal for the wireless relay device 100. Alternatively, a signal for controlling the wireless relay device 100 may be embedded in the signal from the base station 2.
With this configuration, the wireless relay device can be configured within the signal standards, there is no need to add new equipment, and advance configuration can be simplified.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the configuration of a wireless relay device in one embodiment of the present invention.
In this embodiment, the relay device setting unit 150 sets the wireless relay device 100 using at least a part of the beam ID included in the communication signal.

This embodiment uses the SS/PBCH INDEX, i.e., the beam ID, contained in the radio signal from the base station 2, and is for the case where the base station 2 has a fixed beam, i.e., the beam from the base station 2 is not steered.
When the base station 2 has a fixed beam, for example, the beam ID is set to 0, and the remaining beam IDs are not used. The following description will be given for the case of eight beam IDs.

Since beam ID=0 is already being used by the beam of base station 2, the remaining seven beam IDs are beam IDs 1 to 7.
By predetermining the meaning of the beam ID, i.e., the command contents, in the wireless relay device 100, it is possible to set the wireless relay device 100 using a wireless signal from the base station 2. The remote control console only needs to issue commands to the base station 2, and does not need to issue commands to each wireless relay device individually.

In this embodiment, the wireless relay device 100 has a demodulation unit, and always detects and determines the beam ID from the base station 2 and operates in accordance with it.
If it is determined that beam ID=1 is to stop transmission of the service unit, it is possible to simultaneously stop transmission of the wireless relay devices 100 under the control of the base station 2. Similarly, if it is determined that beam ID=2 is to turn on transmission of the service unit, it is possible to simultaneously turn on transmission of the wireless relay devices 100 under the control of the base station 2. This is effective in an environment where the base station operates only at specific times, such as a factory, a mall, or a stadium that does not operate at night.

In addition, by turning off wireless relay devices 100 that are not in use or wireless relay devices 100 that have no terminals under them, it is possible to prevent interference adjustment in the downlink transmitted from the base station 2 and received by the terminal 3, and to prevent degeneration of the service area in the uplink transmitted from the terminal 3 and received by the base station 2.
Setting items may include mode changes such as standby mode, software reset, hardware reset, directivity change, beam steering, and the like.

In one embodiment of the present invention, at least a part of the beam IDs designates the wireless relay devices 100. This makes it possible to, for example, suppress interference between communication radio waves by turning off a specific wireless relay device 100.
In this embodiment, the SS/PBCH INDEX, that is, the beam ID, contained in the radio signal from the base station 2 is used, the base station 2 has a fixed beam, and each radio relay device 100 is assigned an ID.
Base station 2 has a fixed beam (beam ID=0) and there are 64 beam IDs.

For example, of the remaining 63, 1 to 9 are used for the identification ID of the wireless relay device 100, and 10 to 63 are used for settings.
A unique identification ID is set for the wireless relay devices 1001, 1002, and 1003 placed under the control of the base station 2.

In addition, the relationship between the identification ID and the beam ID is set. Here, the identification ID and the beam ID are assumed to have the same value, such as the wireless relay device 1001 having beam ID 1 and the wireless relay device 1002 having beam ID 2.
With this configuration, a specific wireless relay device can be set from the remote control console via the base station 2. If beam ID=10 is used to turn off transmission of the service unit of the wireless relay device, then to turn off transmission of the service unit of the wireless relay device 1001, the beam ID included in the wireless signal from the base station 2 should be set to 0, 1, or 10.

FIG. 8 shows the configuration of a wireless repeater in one embodiment of the present invention.
In this embodiment, at least a part of the beam ID specifies the beam direction of the base station 2, and the base station 2 performs beam steering based on the specified beam direction of the base station 2.
Using the SS/PBCH INDEX, i.e., the beam ID, contained in the radio signal from the base station 2, the base station 2 performs beam steering and further assigns IDs to the radio relay devices 1001, 1002, and 1003.

The beam IDs assigned to the beams of the base station 2 are 0 to 31. Furthermore, the total number of beam IDs is 64.
For example, of the remaining 32 beam IDs 32 to 63, 32 to 41 can be used as the identification ID of the wireless relay device 100, and 42 to 64 can be used for settings.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the configuration of a wireless relay device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
In this embodiment, within the wireless relay device, an RF signal from a base station such as a 5G base station is demodulated, beam information is obtained, and the beam of the donor antenna is directed in the desired direction.

The wireless relay device needs to point the donor unit antenna toward the 5G base station, which is a constraint when installing it. 5G base stations have narrow beams, making adjustments difficult.
In addition, there is the problem of changes in the radio wave environment due to obstacles such as trees, cars, buildings, etc. For example, if the radio wave environment changes due to these obstacles between the 5G base station and the donor unit, the wireless relay device must be re-installed.

Therefore, in the following embodiment, the object is to provide a wireless relay device that is easy to install and has improved installation performance by identifying the beam of a base station and directing the beam of the wireless relay device in the optimal direction.
Also, the following embodiment has an object to provide a wireless repeater that can flexibly respond to changes in the radio wave environment with a single installation.
In addition, in the following embodiments, the objective is to provide a wireless relay device that aims to expand the service area rather than maintain capacity, and that can maintain a single beam even when the number of MIMO layers is increased while improving installation ease.

This embodiment controls the antenna directivity of the wireless repeater and automatically directs the directivity toward the base station, and is expected to improve the ease of installation of the wireless repeater.
The specific details will be explained below.

The wireless relay device 100 includes a donor antenna 201 for communicating with a base station and a service antenna 301 for communicating with a terminal. The wireless relay device 100 further includes a beam steering period setting unit 111, a base station side beam forming unit 210, a demodulation unit 120, a storage unit 115, a detection unit 113, and a beam setting unit 114.
The beam steering period setting unit 111 sets the beam steering period for switching and steering the beam of the wireless relay device 100 to a length equal to or longer than the base station steering period, which is the period for steering the beam of the base station.

A base station usually switches between a maximum of 64 beams, with the period selected from 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, and 160 ms. Therefore, if the period of the base station is unknown, the beam steering period is set to 160 ms or more in advance. If the beam steering period is equal to or greater than the base station beam steering period, the base station steering period will certainly fall within the beam steering period, and the measurement of the received power for each beam ID, which will be described later, can be performed reliably.
When taking into account timing differences in equipment, the beam steering period can be set to at least twice the base station steering period to more reliably measure the received power for each beam ID, as described below.

The base station side beam forming section 210 assigns a beam number to each beam to be formed, and switches and steers the beams at a beam steering period.
Note that the numbers assigned to the beams and beam numbers are intended to store the received power for each beam as described below, and are not limited to actual numbers; as long as they can store the received power for each beam, they may include numbers based on, for example, the measured time or other methods.

The demodulation unit 120 demodulates the signal received through each beam number.
The memory unit 115 stores the received power for each beam ID of the base station based on the result of demodulation by the demodulator 120 .
The detector 113 detects the beam ID that has the maximum received power among all beam numbers.

The beam setting unit 114 sets the donor antenna 201 to a beam having a beam number corresponding to the beam ID detected by the detection unit 113 .
In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10 , relay device setting unit 150 , base station steering period measurement unit 112 , storage unit 115 , detection unit 113 , and beam setting unit 114 are integrally provided within control unit 110 .
The control unit 110 is connected to the base station side beam forming unit 210, the base station side transmission/reception switching unit 220, the base station side frequency calculation unit, and the terminal side gain control unit 350, the terminal side frequency conversion unit 240, the amplification unit 330, and the terminal transmission/reception switching unit 220.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the beam steering period setting unit 111 sets the beam steering period to an integer multiple of the base station steering period, which is the period of steering the beam of the base station. This allows the base station steering period to be performed exactly an integer number of times within the beam steering period, making it possible to efficiently measure the received power for each beam ID. Note that if the integer is 2 or more, the measurement of the received power for each beam ID can be performed with greater accuracy.
When taking into account timing deviations of equipment, etc., the beam steering period can be set to three or more times the base station steering period. This ensures that even if all measurements cannot be taken at the first and last base station steering periods due to deviations, the middle base station steering period will be included, making it possible to more reliably measure the received power for each beam ID.

In one embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 11, the beam steering period setting unit 111 has a base station steering period measurement unit 112 that measures the base station steering period, which is the period of steering the beam of the base station. This makes it easy to determine the base station steering period by measurement and set the beam steering period to an integer multiple of the base station steering period, even if the base station steering period is unknown in advance.

12 shows an example of the configuration of the base station side beam former 210. In the beam former 210 for base station, a transmission/reception switching unit 2101a, a receiving amplifier 2101a1, an amplitude adjuster 2101a2, a phase adjuster 2101a3, and a transmission/reception switching unit 2101b are connected in this order to a base station antenna (donor antenna) #1, and a transmission/reception switching unit 2101b, a phase adjuster 2101b1, an amplitude adjuster 2101b2, a transmission amplifier 2101b3, and a transmission/reception switching unit 2101a are connected in this order.
The same applies to the base station antennas #2 to #N. The transmission/reception switching units 1b to Nb are connected to a distributor/synthesizer 210c.

The base station side beam former 210 forms an antenna beam to the base station, and includes an amplifier, a phase adjuster, an amplitude adjuster, and a transmission/reception switch. A beam former can also be installed on the terminal side as a terminal side beam former 310.
The transmission/reception switching unit 220 switches between the transmission and reception paths based on a signal from the control unit 110.

For example, in the quasi-millimeter wave band such as 28 GHz, the cost and loss of amplifiers become high, making design difficult and reducing manufacturing yields, so the base station has a frequency conversion unit 240 that converts the frequency to a more manageable frequency such as a few GHz and also performs the reverse process.
The beam forming section in FIG. 12 is configured for time division duplex (TDD), but may also be configured for frequency division duplex (FDD).

13 shows an example of the configuration of the demodulation unit 120. In the demodulation unit 120, an in-demodulation gain control unit 1201, an in-demodulation frequency conversion unit 1202, an analog-to-digital conversion unit (AD conversion unit) 1203, and a digital signal processor 1204 are connected in this order, and the digital signal processor 1204 is connected to the MCU 1101 in the control unit 110.
The demodulation unit 120 converts the RF signal into a digital signal, demodulates the signal, and obtains beam information.
If the frequency of the RF signal input to the demodulation section can be directly acquired by the AD conversion section, the frequency conversion section can be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 14, the control unit 110 can have a configuration including a calculation device such as an MCU 1101 and a storage device 1102 connected to the calculation device.
The control unit 110 controls the beam forming unit based on the result from the demodulation unit 120. The control unit 110 may be provided within the demodulation unit 120.

In this embodiment, a wireless relay method is shown which is implemented using a wireless relay device.
The wireless relay method includes a wireless relay device setting step for setting up a wireless relay device having a donor antenna for communicating with a base station and a service antenna for communicating with a terminal, using a radio frequency communication signal transmitted within the wireless relay device.

In this embodiment, in the relay device setting step, the wireless relay device is set using at least a part of the beam ID included in the communication signal.
Assume that beam ID=1 is powered off, beam ID=2 is relay start, and beam ID=3 is on standby. However, when the power is off, the entire device is not turned off, but the receiving path from the antenna to the demodulator is turned on. The same applies below.

As shown in FIG. 15, when the power supply of the wireless relay device 100 is turned on (step S001), the wireless relay device 100 proceeds to a standby step S002.
When the wireless relay device 100 receives a communication signal from the base station 2, the process proceeds to step S003.
If a power OFF command is received in step S003, that is, if the received communication signal indicates that the beam ID is 1, the wireless relay device 100 turns off the power and ends the process. If a power OFF command is not received, the process proceeds to step S004.
If the start of relaying is instructed in step S004, that is, if the beam ID in the received communication signal is 2, the process proceeds to communication step S100. If the start of relaying is not instructed, the process proceeds to waiting step S002.

In the communication step S100, signals are exchanged with the base station 2, the terminal 3, etc., and communication is performed by relaying between the base station 2 and the terminal 3, etc.
After communication, when a communication signal is received from the base station 2, the process proceeds to step S006.
If a power OFF command is received in step S006, that is, if the received communication signal indicates that the beam ID is 1, the wireless relay device 100 turns off the power and ends the process. If a power OFF command is not received, the process proceeds to step S007.

If standby is instructed in step S007, that is, if the beam ID in the received communication signal is 3, the process proceeds to standby step S002. If standby is not instructed, the process proceeds to communication step S100.
Of the above steps, S003, S004, S006, and S007, which instruct power OFF, start of relaying, and standby, correspond to relay device setting steps.

Steps S003 and S004 can be performed simultaneously. That is, when a signal is received, if the beam ID is 1, the power is turned off, and if the beam ID is 2, the process proceeds to communication step S100 and relays the signal. Furthermore, if the beam ID is 3 or if the beam ID does not include 1 or 2, the process may be configured to return to standby step S002.
Similarly, after the communication step S100, steps S006 and S007 can be performed simultaneously.

Needless to say, the relay device setting step is not limited to the above example, and may include various instructions such as only instructing to start relaying and wait, or instructing to wait for a predetermined period of time.
In one embodiment, in the relay device setting step, a portion of the communication signal that is specified for a purpose other than the setting of the wireless relay device is used for setting the wireless relay device. The signal including the setting signal of the wireless relay device has the same length as a signal not including the setting signal of the wireless relay device.

FIG. 16 shows a wireless relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
In this embodiment, a period setting step of setting a beam steering period for switching and steering a beam of a wireless relay device to a period equal to or longer than the base station steering period, which is a period for steering a beam of a base station;

a steering step, which is performed after the cycle setting step, of assigning numbers to the beams in advance as beam numbers, and then steering the beams of the donor antenna in a predetermined order;
a demodulation and storage step of demodulating the signal received by each beam number in the steering step and storing the received power for each beam ID of the base station;
a detection step of detecting a beam ID that has the maximum reception power among all the beam IDs stored in the demodulation storage step; and
The method includes a beam setting step of setting the donor antenna to a beam having a beam number corresponding to the beam ID detected in the detection step.

In this embodiment, after step S004, in step S005, it is confirmed whether to start beam adjustment, and if it is started, the process proceeds to beam adjustment step S200, and if it is not started, the process proceeds to communication step S100, which is different from the previous embodiment.
For example, beam ID=1 can be power OFF, beam ID=2 can be relay start, beam ID=3 can be standby, and beam ID=4 can be beam adjustment start, but is not limited to this.

17 shows a beam adjustment step S200 performed in the wireless relay method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The wireless relay method can also be performed by the wireless relay device 100 described above.
The wireless relay method includes a beam adjustment step S200, which includes a period setting step, a steering step, a demodulation storage step, a detection step, and a beam setting step.

First, in the cycle setting step S220, the beam steering cycle for switching and steering the beam of the radio relay device 100 is set to a length equal to or longer than the base station steering cycle, which is the cycle for steering the beam of the base station.
Here, the period of the beam steering of the relay device may be set to an integer multiple of the base station steering period, which is the period of the beam steering of the base station. For example, a base station usually switches between a maximum of 64 beams, and the period is selected from 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, and 160 ms.
As a result, the donor antenna 201 switches its beam at a time that is an integer multiple of the base station steering period, and the steering of the beam of the donor antenna 201 is slower than the steering of the beam of the base station, allowing the measurement of the received power to be performed efficiently.

18, a base station period measurement step S210 may be performed before the beam period setting step, in which a base station steering period, which is a period of steering the beam of the base station, is measured. In the base station period measurement step S210, the base station steering period, which is a period of steering the beam of the base station, is measured, and the beam steering period of the wireless relay device 100 is set to an integer multiple of the base station steering period.
Next, the beams of the donor antenna 201 are steered in a predetermined order. At this time, the beams are numbered in advance as beam numbers. In addition, phase information and amplitude information for forming the beams are stored as a table. Alternatively, calculation formulas for phase and amplitude may be stored and the phase and amplitude may be calculated.
That is, in the steering step, the beams are assigned numbers in advance as beam numbers, and then the beams of the donor antenna 201 are steered in a predetermined order.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the wireless repeater 100 includes a steering range limiting unit 1130 that limits the steering range of the donor antenna 201 in advance before steering.
According to this configuration, the wireless relay device 100 can be roughly aligned with the base station when installed, so if the steering range of the donor antenna 201 is limited in advance, the donor antenna 201 will not steer a range greater than necessary, and the beam of the donor antenna 201 can be steered efficiently.
In one embodiment of the present invention, in steering the donor antenna 201, first, as a first direction steering step S232, steering is performed with a narrow beam in one direction and a wide beam in the other direction as shown in FIG. 19 to select the beam with the maximum received power, and then, as a second direction steering step S233, steering is performed with a narrow beam in the other direction as shown in FIG. 20.

As shown in Fig. 21, the detection unit 113 has a first direction detection unit 1131 and a second direction detection unit 1132. As shown in Fig. 22, the first direction detection unit 113 performs steering with a wide beam that is narrow in a first direction and wide in a second direction different from the first direction, and selects a beam with maximum received power. After the first direction detection unit 113 selects a beam with maximum received power, the second direction detection unit 113 performs steering with a narrow beam in the second direction. As shown in Fig. 19, a steering range limiting unit 1130 may be provided.
This configuration allows for shorter search times than steering a narrow beam up, down, left, and right.

For example, the beam of the donor antenna may be made wide in the horizontal plane and steered in the vertical plane, selecting the beam that maximizes the received power, and then narrowing that beam in the horizontal plane and steering it in the horizontal plane.
In the demodulation storage step, the signal received by each beam number in the steering step S230 is demodulated, and the received power for each beam ID of the base station is stored. The received power is, for example, R S2RP. For example, in the case of 5G NR, the value of SS/PBCH INDEX is used as the beam ID.
The beam number of the wireless relay device 100 and the beam ID of the base station are, for example, beam number 1, beam ID 7, -80 dBm in the first row of the table, beam number 2, beam ID 20, -70 dBm in the second row of the table, beam number n, beam ID 1, -75 dBm in the nth row of the table, etc.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the storage unit 115 is configured to store a base station ID that is uniquely assigned to each base station in addition to the beam ID. By using the base station ID, it is possible to select a beam even when there are multiple base stations.
For example, interference can be minimized by storing the received power for each beam ID of a base station A and the received power for each beam ID of a base station B that is different from the base station A, and selecting the beam number that maximizes the difference between the received power of base station A and the received power of base station B.

In one embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 23, the memory unit 115 has, in addition to a main memory unit 1151, a sub-memory unit 1152 which stores multiple beam numbers in order of largest received power for the beam ID with the largest received power, or for each beam ID.
According to this configuration, even if the reception level at the beam number with the highest reception power becomes lower than the reception level at the beam number with the next highest reception power due to a change in the communication environment, by switching beams automatically or by instruction from a higher-level device, even if communication is no longer possible using one beam number, communication can be made possible using another beam number, thereby responding to changes in the communication environment.

In the detection step S260, the beam ID with the maximum received power is detected from among all the beam IDs stored in the demodulation storage step S240.
24, in order to prevent the antenna beam directed to the terminal from including a plurality of beam IDs as much as possible, a threshold may be set, and a judgment condition may be set that one beam ID is greater than the other beam IDs by the threshold or more, and if the judgment condition is not satisfied, a judgment step S250 may be provided in which the process returns to the first stage and the beam of the donor antenna 201 is steered again in a predetermined order. For example, the detection unit 113 may be configured to set a beam ID with the maximum reception power when the reception power of one beam ID is greater than the reception power of the other beam IDs by the threshold or more, and to switch and steer the beams in the base station side beam forming unit 210 at a time that is an integer multiple of the base station steering period when the reception power of one beam ID is not greater than the reception power of the other beam IDs by the threshold or more.

In the beam setting step S270, the donor antenna 201 is set to a beam having a beam number corresponding to the beam ID detected in the detection step.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a configuration is adopted in which a beam with a side lobe level lowered in advance than that in normal use is used as the beam of donor antenna 201 so that the reception level of the beam ID on the main beam side is not large. For example, the base station side beam forming unit forms a beam with a side lobe level lowered in advance than that in normal communication and steers the beam to the base station.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the beam of the donor antenna 201 is configured to be narrower than the base station beam, that is, the base station side beam former forms a beam narrower than the base station beam emitted by the base station.
This configuration makes it possible to prevent the wireless relay device 100 from receiving multiple beam IDs.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the wireless repeater 100 has a non-regenerative repeating amplifier 330 connected between the donor antenna 201 and the service antenna 301 without passing through either an analog-to-digital conversion unit or a digital-to-analog conversion unit, and is configured to perform non-regenerative repeating.
In this configuration, it is possible to reduce delay by using only analog ICs.

25 shows an example of the configuration of a wireless repeater 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The wireless repeater 100 according to this embodiment is capable of forming beams on the terminal side after installation. Specifically, the terminal side is also provided with a terminal-side beam former 310 as a beam former, and has multiple terminal-facing antennas. That is, the terminal side has multiple service antennas 301, and a terminal-side beam former 310 provided for each service antenna (terminal-facing antenna) 301.
With this configuration, an optimal beam can be formed on the terminal side as well.

26 shows an example of the configuration of a wireless repeater 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the wireless repeater 100 does not have a frequency conversion unit 240 on a signal line such as an RF signal line.
"No frequency conversion unit on the signal line" means that the signal is transmitted from the donor antenna 201 to the service antenna 301 without passing through the frequency conversion unit 240, and in this embodiment, there is a line in which the donor antenna 201, the base station side beam forming unit 210, the base station side transmission/reception switching unit 220, the RF signal distribution unit, the gain control unit 110, the amplifier unit 330, the terminal side transmission/reception switching unit 320, and the service antenna 301 are sequentially connected. In other words, no frequency conversion is performed on the signal line such as RF, and the delay on the signal line such as RF can be further reduced.

27 shows a configuration example of a wireless relay device 100 in one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the wireless relay device 100 includes a donor unit side housing 290 and a service unit side housing 390. The donor unit side housing 290 has a donor antenna 201 and a donor unit side connection section 291, and the service unit side housing 390 has a service antenna 301 and a service unit side connection section 391 connectable to the donor unit side connection section 291.
The donor antenna 201 and the service antenna 301 are housed in separate housings, improving ease of installation. The donor unit 200 and the service unit 300 are connected by a coaxial cable or an optical fiber cable and a control cable. Instead of providing a control cable, a configuration may be adopted in which only a coaxial cable or an optical fiber cable is used and a control signal is superimposed on the coaxial cable or the optical fiber. In the case of a coaxial cable, a configuration may be adopted in which a DC voltage to the service antenna 301 is superimposed in addition to the control signal.

In the above embodiment, no separate communication module is provided for setting the wireless repeater 100 other than for communication, and no frequency other than the radio frequency of the communication signal is used.
28 shows an example of the configuration of a wireless repeater 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the wireless repeater 100 further includes a different frequency communication module that uses a frequency other than the radio frequency of the communication signal.
The wireless relay device 100 has a communication unit 140 as a different frequency communication module that uses a radio frequency such as a cellular frequency, WiFi, or Bluetooth that is different from the radio frequency transmitted by the wireless relay device 100, and communicates with an external device outside the wireless relay device 100, such as a higher-level device, via the communication unit 140.

This configuration can be used, for example, to monitor an abnormality in a relay device. Also, even if the steering period of the beam of the base station is changed, it is possible to send a command to the wireless relay device 100 from outside via communication to switch the beam at an integer multiple of the steering period of the beam of the base station.
Therefore, when configuring the wireless relay device, the same high frequency as the communication signal can be used, and when monitoring for abnormalities, communication from the wireless relay device to the base station can be carried out using low-cost equipment such as conventional communication devices.

As an embodiment of the present invention, a wireless relay device program for implementing the above steps will be described. Since the basic configuration is similar to the wireless relay method and example described above, some of the descriptions that overlap with the above example will be omitted.
In this embodiment, reference is again made to FIG.
The program for the wireless relay device is executed by using the wireless relay device.

The wireless medium-term storage device has a donor antenna for communicating with a base station and a service antenna for communicating with a terminal.
The program for the wireless relay device includes a communication step S100 for communicating with a base station and a terminal in the wireless relay device.
In addition, the wireless relay device has steps S003, S004, S006, and S007 as relay device setting steps for setting up the wireless relay device using a radio frequency communication signal transmitted within the wireless relay device, which steps include turning off the power, starting relaying, and issuing instructions to wait.

As already mentioned, steps S003 and S004 can be performed simultaneously. That is, when a signal is received, if the beam ID is 1, the power is turned off, and if the beam ID is 2, the process proceeds to communication step S100 and relays the signal. Furthermore, if the beam ID is 3 or if the beam ID does not include 1 or 2, the process may be configured to return to standby step S002.
Similarly, after the communication step S100, steps S006 and S007 can be performed simultaneously.

Needless to say, the relay device setting step is not limited to the above example, and may include various instructions such as only instructing to start relaying and wait, or instructing to wait for a predetermined period of time.
In one embodiment, in the relay device setting step, a portion of the communication signal that is specified for a purpose other than the setting of the wireless relay device is used for setting the wireless relay device. The signal including the setting signal of the wireless relay device has the same length as a signal not including the setting signal of the wireless relay device.

As shown in FIG. 16, the program for the wireless relay device in one embodiment of the present invention has a cycle setting step, a steering step, a detection step, and a beam setting step.
In the cycle setting step, a beam steering cycle for switching and steering the beam of the wireless relay device is set to a length equal to or longer than the base station steering cycle, which is a cycle for steering the beam of the base station.
In the steering step, which is performed after the cycle setting step, numbers are assigned to the beams in advance as beam numbers, and then the beams of the donor antennas are steered in a predetermined order.

In the demodulation and storage step, the signal received with each beam number in the steering step is demodulated, and the received power for each beam ID of the base station is stored.
In the detection step, a beam ID with the maximum received power is detected from among all the beam IDs stored in the demodulation storage step.
In the beam setting step, the donor antenna is set to a beam having a beam number corresponding to the beam ID detected in the detection step.

It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but includes various embodiments within the scope of the present invention.

100, 1001, 1002, 1003 Wireless relay device 110 Control unit 111 Beam steering period setting unit 112 Base station steering period measurement unit 113 Detection unit 1130 Steering range limiting unit 1131 First direction detection unit 1132 Second direction detection unit 114 Beam setting unit 115 Memory unit 1151 Main memory unit 1152 Sub-memory unit 120 Demodulation unit 1201 Gain control unit 1202 In-demodulation unit frequency conversion unit 1203 Analog-to-digital conversion unit 1204 Digital signal processor 130 RF signal distribution unit 140 Communication unit 150 Relay device setting unit

2 Base station 200 Donor unit 201 Donor antenna 210 Base station side beam forming section 2101a, 2102a, ..., 210na Transmission/reception switching section 2101a1, 2102a1, ..., 210na1 Receiving amplifier 2101a2, 2102a2, ..., 210na2 Amplitude adjuster 2101a3, 2102a3, ..., 210na3 Phase adjuster 2101b, 2102b, ..., 210nb Transmission/reception switching section 2101b1, 2102b1, ..., 210nb1 Phase adjuster 2101b2, 2102b2, ..., 210nb2 Amplitude adjuster 2101b3, 2102b3, ..., 210nb3 Transmission amplifier 210c Distribution/combiner 220 Base station side transmission/reception switching unit 240 Base station side frequency conversion unit 260 Base station side combining/distributing unit 290 Donor unit housing 291 Donor unit housing side connection unit

3 Terminal 300 Service unit 301 Service antenna 310 Terminal side beam forming section 320 Terminal side transmission/reception switching section 330 Amplification section 340 Terminal side frequency conversion section 350 Gain control section 360 Terminal side combining/distributing section 390 Service unit housing 391 Service unit housing side connection section

Claims (15)

A radio relay device having a donor antenna for communicating with a base station and a service antenna for communicating with a terminal,
a relay device setting unit that sets the wireless relay device using a radio frequency communication signal transmitted within the wireless relay device ;
11. A wireless relay device, wherein the setting includes at least one of a mode change, a software reset, and a hardware reset .
The wireless relay device according to claim 1 , wherein the relay device setting unit sets the wireless relay device using at least a part of a beam ID included in the communication signal.
The wireless relay device according to claim 2 , wherein at least a part of the beam ID specifies the wireless relay device.
A wireless relay device as described in claim 2 or 3, characterized in that at least a portion of the beam IDs specify the beam direction of the base station, and the base station performs beam steering based on the specified beam direction of the base station.
a beam steering period setting unit that sets a beam steering period for switching and steering the beam of the wireless relay device to a length equal to or longer than the base station steering period, the beam steering period being a period of steering the beam of the base station;
a base station side beam forming unit that assigns a number to the beam to be formed as a beam number and switches and steers the beam at the beam steering period;
a demodulation unit for demodulating signals received through each beam number;
a storage unit that stores reception power for each beam ID of a base station based on a result of demodulation by the demodulation unit;
A detection unit that detects a beam ID that has the maximum received power among all beam IDs; and
a beam setting unit that sets the donor antenna to a beam having a beam number corresponding to the beam ID detected by the detection unit;
5. The wireless relay device according to claim 4, further comprising:
6. The radio relay device according to claim 5, wherein the beam steering period setting unit sets the beam steering period to a time period that is an integer multiple of the base station steering period.
7. The radio relay device according to claim 5, wherein the beam steering period setting unit includes a base station steering period measurement unit that measures the base station steering period.
8. The wireless repeater according to claim 1, wherein a communication module for setting said wireless repeater other than for communication is not provided separately, and said wireless repeater does not use any frequency other than the radio frequency of said communication signal.
8. The wireless repeater according to claim 1, further comprising an alternative frequency communication module that uses a frequency other than the radio frequency of the communication signal.
A wireless relay device as described in any one of claims 2 to 9, characterized in that a portion of the communication signal that is specified for purposes other than setting up the wireless relay device and is different from the beam ID is used for setting up the wireless relay device, and a signal including a setting signal for the wireless relay device has the same length as a signal not including the setting signal for the relay device.
A wireless relay method implemented by using a wireless relay device, comprising:
In a radio relay device having a donor antenna for communicating with a base station and a service antenna for communicating with a terminal,
a repeater setting step for setting the wireless repeater using a radio frequency communication signal transmitted within the wireless repeater ;
The setting includes at least one of a mode change, a software reset, and a hardware reset .
A wireless relay method comprising:
12. The wireless relay method according to claim 11, wherein in the relay device setting step, the wireless relay device is set using at least a part of a beam ID included in the communication signal.
12. The wireless relay method according to claim 11, wherein in the relay device setting step, a portion of the communication signal that is specified for a purpose other than setting the wireless relay device is used for setting the wireless relay device, and a signal including a wireless relay device setting signal has the same length as a signal not including a relay device setting signal.
a period setting step of setting a beam steering period for switching and steering the beam of the wireless relay device to a period equal to or longer than the base station steering period, the period being a period for steering the beam of the base station;
a steering step performed after the cycle setting step, in which beams are numbered in advance as beam numbers, and then the beams of the donor antennas are steered in a predetermined order;
a demodulation and storage step of demodulating the signal received by each beam number in the steering step and storing the received power for each beam ID of the base station;
a detection step of detecting a beam ID having the maximum reception power among all the beam IDs stored in the demodulation storage step; and
a beam setting step of setting the donor antenna to a beam having a beam number corresponding to the beam ID detected in the detection step;
A method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, comprising the steps of:
A program for a wireless relay device that executes the steps recited in any one of claims 11 to 14.

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