Methods and apparatus for constant-power loading asymmetric antenna configuration

A method and system for constant-power loading for asymmetric antenna configurations. The sounding packet, the sounding bit in HT-SIG field, and the HT-LTF field in the PLCP protocol data unit (PPDU) are used to determine the number of transmit antennas and the number of data streams, wherein if the number of transmission streams is the same as the number of data streams, then a first set of power loading level (fixed uneven power loading) is applied, otherwise a second set of power loading level is applied. Alternatively, one additional bit in the HT-SIG filed of PLCP protocol data unit (PPDU) signaling field is used to signal the set of power loading level used.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to data communication, and more particularly, to data communication in multi-channel communication system such as multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication system employs multiple transmit antennas in a transmitter and multiple receive antennas in a receiver for data transmission. A MIMO channel formed by the transmit and receive antennas may be decomposed into independent channels, wherein each channel is a spatial sub-channel (or a transmission channel) of the MIMO channel and corresponds to a dimension. The MIMO system can provide improved performance (e.g., increased transmission capacity) if the additional dimensionalities created by the multiple transmit and receive antennas are utilized.

MIMO increases system link robustness and spectral efficiency. To optimize spectral efficiency for MIMO system, many efforts have been made, which can be broadly classified into two categorists: open-loop approaches and closed-loop approaches. The open-loop approaches include spatial multiplexing, space-time coding and the tradeoff therebetween them. The closed-loop approaches focus on maximizing the link capacity, which results in a “water-filling” solution, and on minimizing the weighted MMSE which provides an “inverse water-filling” solution.

In an open-loop MIMO system, the MIMO transmitter has no prior knowledge of the channel condition (i.e., channel state information). As such, space-time coding techniques are usually implemented in the transmitter to combat fading channels. In a closed-loop system, the channel state information (CSI) can be fed back to the transmitter from the receiver, wherein some pre-processing can be performed at the transmitter in order to separate the transmitted data streams at the receiver side.

Such techniques are referred to as beamforming techniques, which provide better performance in desired receiver's directions and suppress the transmit power in other directions. Beamforming techniques are considered for IEEE 802.11n (high throughput WLAN) standard. Closed-loop eigen-beamforming generally provides higher system capacity compared with the closed loop solution, assuming the transmitter knows the down-link channel. Singular value decomposition (SVD) based eigen-beamforming decomposes the correlated MIMO channel into multiple parallel pipes.

When applying the closed loop approach to MIMO-OFDM, the optimal solution requires a bit loading and power loading per OFDM subcarrier, i.e., adapting the transmitted signal x and the power loading matrix P simultaneously per subcarrier. In order to simplify the complexity, conventional approaches propose: (1) adapting coding/modulation and power level across all subcarriers (described in S. A. Mujtaba, “TGn Sync Proposal Technical Specification”, a contribution to IEEE 802.11, 11-04-889rl, November 2004 (incorporated herein by reference)), (2) fixing coding/modulation for all data streams and only adjusting the power level, and (3) fixing coding/modulation and the power loading level (unequal) for all OFDM symbols. The first approach provides the highest throughput with the most implementation complexity. In the second approach above, different levels of power quantization with auto-detection have been evaluated, with 2 level quantization recommended. Such methods are robust for different antenna configurations, channel condition etc., but result in higher cost due to receiver complexity (auto-detection is required). In order to further simplify the receiver complexity, the third approach above proposes 1-bit (const) power loading has been utilized. Since constant power loading is used, no auto-detection is needed. However, such an approach only works well when transmitter and receiver antennas are symmetric. In case of asymmetric transmission, constant power loading leads to performance degradation.

An uneven power loading detection approach, wherein auto-detection at the receiver is not necessary with adaptive power loadings, has also been proposed. However, the receiver must implement an Upper-triangular Decomposition (UD) in addition to the MMSE MIMO detection. Therefore, this approach cannot be used for dummy receivers without beamforming capability. A dummy receiver is the receiver with minimum complexity and only support basics MIMO detection. For example, only general MMSE linear detection, not SVD or UD kind of particular matrix operation.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method and system for constant-power loading for asymmetric antenna configurations. The sounding packet, the sounding bit in HT-SIG field, and the HT-LTF field in the PLCP protocol data unit (PPDU) are used to determine the number of transmit antennas (Ntx) and the number of data streams (Nss), wherein if Ntx=Nss, then a first set of constant power loading levels (e.g., fixed uneven power loading) is selected; otherwise, (i.e., Ntx>Nss), the eigen-modes with the Nss largest eigenvalues are selected, whereby a second set of constant power loading levels (e.g., a different fixed power loading level) is selected. Such a method and system is simple and flexible, without requiring additional bits and auto-detection.

In another embodiment, the present invention provides a method and system for constant-power loading for asymmetric antenna configurations, which utilizes one additional bit to be transmitted in the HT-SIG field of PLCP protocol data unit (PPDU). The codebook of the power level is redesigned and the selection is signaled in the HT-SIG field. In one example, a codebook with “0” is utilized to represent one level of uneven power loading (e.g., 0.3:1.7) and “1” to represent another level of slightly uneven power loading (e.g., 0.7:1.3). This information is signaled in the HT-SIG field, wherein the receiver uses this information to perform the corresponding power loading and packet detection.

Accordingly, the present invention provides constant-power loading for asymmetric antenna configurations in MIMO systems. The power loading approaches according to the present invention work well for both Ntx>Nss and Ntx=Nss scenarios. Two sets of power loading levels are provided without requiring auto-detection, thereby simplifying the complexity of the receiver. Further, by adopting two sets of power loading levels, system parameters of a MIMO system according to the present invention are more robust compared to conventional constant power loading approaches. In addition, for receivers without the capabilities of performing SVD/UD, the present invention provides an alternative to auto-detection to determine uneven power loadings at the receiver.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Singular value decomposition (SVD) based eigen-beamforming decomposes the correlated MIMO channel into multiple parallel pipes.FIG. 1shows a block diagram of an example MIMO system100having a transmitter TX and a receiver RX, in which the present invention is implemented. As described further below, the system100implements different power loading values than the conventional approaches. In the system100the transmitter TX includes a forward error correction (FEC) encoder102, a parser104, multiple modulation units106, a power loading unit108, a precoder unit110, RF unit112and transmit antennas114. The receiver RX includes receive antennas120, RF unit122, linear decoder124, inverse power loading unit126, multiple demodulation units128, a de-parser130and a FEC decoder132.

For the transmitter TX, in the unit102the source bit stream is encoded by a channel encoder and a puncturer punctures the bits to change the coding rate. The spatial parser104separates the data stream into several (two or more) spatial streams105. The constellation mapper106groups/maps the bits into symbols using a Gray Mapping Rule. The power loading unit108loads different power in each spatial stream according to the power loading algorithm. The precoder110provides steering the packet using V matrix. In the RF modulator102, the signal is RF modulated and transmitted through the strongest channel via antennas.

In the receiver RX, the receiving antennas120receive the signals, and the received signals are sampled and down-converted to base-band digital signal in the unit122. The decoder124performs linear MIMO detection. The unit126applies inverse power loading according to the power loading algorithm. The multiple demodulators128perform constellation de-mapping, demap the constellation point to soft bit information. The deparser130de-multiplex multiple data streams back to one decoding stream for Viterbi decoding. And the decoder132performs the Viterbi decoding.

The example system100has Nss data streams, Nt transmit antennas114and Nr receive antennas120(Nss<Min(Nr, Nt)), and implements a transmission model according to relation (1) below:
y=HVPx+n(1)
wherein x is the Nss×1 transmitted signal vector, P is a Nss×Nss diagonal matrix with loading power αialong the diagonal, V is the Nt×Nss right singular vector matrix corresponding to the Nss largest eigen values, H is a Nr×Ntchannel response which can be factored using SVD as H=U D VH, and n is Nr×1 additive noise vector in the channel.

As shown inFIG. 1, in the transmitter TX, the information bit stream is parsed into Nss streams by the parser104. At the receiver RX, the received signal y is multiplied by the left singular vector matrix UHin the linear decoder unit124, followed by multiplication of the inversed power level (DP)−1in the inverse power loading unit126such that the received signal after processing, Xp, can be expressed according to relation (2) below:
Xp=(DP)−1UHy=x+(DP)−1UHn(2)

When applying the closed-loop approach to MIMO-OFDM, the optimal solution for maximizing the transmission capacity requires a bit loading and power loading per OFDM subcarrier, i.e., adapting x and P simultaneously per subcarrier. The third conventional approach above addresses symmetric transmission, wherein the transmitter and receiver antennas are symmetric. In case of asymmetric transmission, such approach leads to performance degradation. For example, when Ntx is greater than Nss, conventionally the eigen-modes with the largest Nss eigenvalues are selected. Because in this case the difference of the eigenvalues is much smaller compared with the case where Ntx=Nss case, applying the same set of uneven power loading degrades the performance for asymmetric transmission.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, different power loading values are used in the power loading unit108of system100than the conventional approaches. In one example implementation of the present invention, a constant-power loading approach for asymmetric antenna configurations is utilized. Such an approach is simple and flexible, without requiring additional bits and power loading auto-detection. In another example implementation of the present invention, a constant-power loading approach for asymmetric antenna configurations is utilized wherein one additional bit is transmitted in the HT-SIG field. HT-SIG is the signal field defined for high rate IEEE 802.11n transmission. Transmission parameters such as the length of the packet, the coding and modulation used, etc., are signals in the HT-SIG field known to those of ordinary skill in wireless local area networking (WLAN).

An example of constant-power loading according to an embodiment of the present invention involves applying a first set of power loading for symmetric transmission, and applying a second set of power loading for asymmetric antenna configuration. Two example implementations described below provide ways to let the receiver know the power loading used in transmitting a packet received by the receiver, such that the receiver can correctly decode the received packet.

First Embodiment

In the first example implementation according to the present invention, antenna information is based on the beamforming protocol, where sounding is performed before the start of the beamforming transmission.

In the following description AP represents a WLAN access point, and STA represents a WLAN client. In general, as shown by example inFIG. 4, the beamforming protocol includes a Calibration Protocol401and a Beamforming Transmission Protocol402. The AP needs to be calibrated first before any beamforming transmission. The details of the Calibration Protocol401are diagrammatically shown by example in the event diagram500ofFIG. 5between an AP and an STA, wherein first, the AP sends a request for calibration to the STA. Then, the STA performs calibration training and send sounding packet to the AP. Then, the AP estimates the unlink channel, performs calibration training and sends a sounding packet to the STA. The, STA estimates the downlink channel and sends the downlink channel back to the AP.

The details of the Beamforming Transmission Protocol402are also shown by example in the event diagram550ofFIG. 5between an AP and a STA, wherein first, the AP sends a timing request (TRQ) to the STA. Then, the STA sends a sounding packet to the AP. Then, the AP sends a beamformed packet to the STA. Then, the AP sends an acknowledgment (ACK) to the AP.

Further, as shown inFIG. 4, the calibration step401is performed regularly, with large time intervals. Multiple beamforming transmissions402can be performed after each calibration401. As such, the STA (e.g., receiver RX inFIG. 1) obtains the number of transmit antennas based on the sounding packet that AP (e.g., the transmitter TX inFIG. 1) transmitted for calibration. The STA also obtains the number of transmitted spatial data streams based on current packet transmission in the data transmission stage. If the number of transmit antennas is the same as the number of spatial data streams, then a first set of power loading level (e.g., power level 1) is utilized in transmitting data packets, otherwise, a second set power loading level (e.g., power level 2) is utilized in transmitting data packets.

The sounding packet, the sounding bit in HT-SIG field, and the HT-LTF field in the PLCP protocol data unit (PPDU) format in S. A. Mujtaba, “TGn Sync Proposal Technical Specification”, a contribution to IEEE 802.11, 11-04-889rl, November 2004, are used to determine the Ntx and Nss, wherein if Ntx=Nss, then a first set of power loading level (e.g., fixed uneven power loading) is selected; otherwise if Ntx>Nss, then the eigen-modes with the Nss largest eigenvalues are selected, whereby a second set of power loading level (e.g., a different fixed power loading level) is selected. Such a method and system is simple and flexible, without requiring additional bits and power loading auto-detection.

FIG. 2shows the TGn Sync PLCP protocol data unit (PPDU) format (TGn Sync specification is described in publication by S. A. Mujtaba etc, “TGn Sync Proposal Technical Specification”, doc.: IEEE 802.11-04/0889r7, draft proposal, July 2005, incorporated by reference). The HT-LTF fields in the PPDU are used to estimate the steered channel information. The number of HT-LTF fields is equal to Ntx in a sounding packet (where the sounding bit in HT-SIG is set to 1), and equals Nss during packet transmission (where the sounding bit in HT-SIG is set to 0).

The HT-SIG field is specified inFIG. 3, which supports the usage of the sounding packet by setting the sounding bit in the HT-SIG field to 1. Since the sounding packet is transmitted at the beginning of any beamforming operation by the transmitter TX, the receiver RX will know the number of the transmit antennas (which is the same as the number of HT-LTF).

Because during data transmission, the number of HT-LTF fields is equal to Nss, the receiver RX can compare Ntx and Nss. Depending on the comparison of Nss and Ntx, different sets of uneven power loading levels are applied by the inverse power loading unit126in the receiver RX. The appropriate power loading level depends on the channel condition and the antenna spacing. In one example, the appropriate power loading level is determined by computing the mean of the power loading level for each transmitter-receiver Ntx and Nss configuration. Examples of such calculations are provided in commonly-assigned patent application Ser. No. 11/110,346, filed Apr. 19, 2005, titled “Power Loading Method and Apparatus for Throughput Enhancement in MIMO systems”; and “Constant uneven power loading in beamforming systems for high throughput WLAN communications”, (incorporated herein by reference). Once the power level is specified, the receiver RX just needs to choose one out of the two choices based on Nss and Ntx.

Second Embodiment

In the second example implementation according to the present invention, the power level information is obtained using an extra bit in the signaling field.FIG. 6shows flowchart600of example steps601-604for transmitter operation on power loading, and example flowchart610of steps611-618for receiver operation on power loading. The power level information is obtained using an extra bit in the signaling field (i.e., extra bit in the HT-SIG field of PLCP protocol data unit (PPDU)), wherein if the extra bit is 0, a first set of power loading level is used (e.g., power level 1), and if the extra bit is 1, then a second set of power loading level (e.g., power level 2) is used.

The codebook of the power level is redesigned such as described by example in the above-mentioned commonly assigned patent applications. The selection of power level is signaled in the HT-SIG field. In one example, a codebook with “0” is utilized to represent the first set of power loading (e.g., 0.3:1.7) and “1” to represent the second set of power loading (e.g., 0.7:1.3). This information is signaled in the HT-SIG field, wherein the receiver RX uses this information to perform the corresponding detection in the inverse power loading unit126in the receiver RX.

Both the transmitter TX and the receiver RX inFIG. 1determine and use power loading information. In the transmitter TX, the power loading unit108performs power loading, and in the receiver RX, the inverse power unit126performs inverse of the power loading effect. Accordingly, as shown in the flowchart600FIG. 6, the transmitter TX operation on power loading includes the steps of: choosing one set of power loading levels based on the channel matrix from the available two sets of power loading levels (step601), specifying the power loading level bit in HT-SIG field corresponding to the selected power loading set (step602), and applying the power loading in the power loading unit108(step604). As shown in the flowchart610ofFIG. 6, the receiver RX operation on power loading includes the steps of: decoding the HT-SIG field (step611), determining if the power loading level bit in the HT-SIG field is 0 or 1 (step612), if the power loading level bit is 0 then select power level 1 (step614), otherwise if the power loading level bit is 1 then select power level 2 (step616), and applying inverse power loading using in the unit126using the selected power level (step616).

The second implementation above can manage not only the case where Ntx>Nss, but also the case where the access point has large antenna separations and full scattering environment (i.e., almost uncorrelated fading channel), at the cost of an additional signal bit in the HT-SIG field. However, additional bits in the HT-SIG field are available due to the change of the definition of HTLENGTH in the unit of OFDM symbols (instead of the previous octets).

Further, for receivers without the capabilities of performing SVD/UD, the present invention provides an alternative to auto-detection to determine uneven power loadings at the receiver. Specifically, Ntx information is also exchanged during association between AP and STA (i.e., AP is a WLAN access point, and STA is a WLAN client). If the STA does not have the capability to obtain the Ntx information from the sounding packet, then the STA needs to remember the Ntx during association.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a method and system for constant-power loading for asymmetric antenna configurations. The power loading approaches according to the present invention work well for both Ntx>Nss and Ntx=Nss scenarios. The present invention uses a table of two sets of power loading levels which depend on the actual environment and the optimal number that can be found by experiment (e.g., following the method of the two above-mentioned commonly assigned patent applications) without requiring auto-detection of power loading, thereby simplifying the complexity of the receiver RX. Further, by adopting two sets of power loading levels, system parameters of a MIMO system according to the present invention are more robust compared to conventional constant power loading approaches. In addition, for receivers without the capabilities of performing SVD/UD, the present invention provides an alternative to auto-detection to determine uneven power loadings at the receiver.

The present invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain preferred versions thereof; however, other versions are possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the preferred versions contained herein.