Patent Description:
A large antenna array can overcome path loss of multipath transmission due to a high frequency and a high gain and meets requirements for scenarios such as backhaul and mobility in <NUM> communications. A larger quantity of array elements in a large array indicates a smaller beam width, more challenging beam alignment within a specified sweeping range, and a longer time for beam sweeping and beam alignment.

During array beam alignment, a single beam has small coverage, and a beam sweeping manner is required for frequent switching between beams. For a long-distance point-to-point communication (Point to Point communication, PTP), beam alignment between a transmit antenna and a receive antenna requires completion of a sector sweep (Sector Level Sweep, SLS) process, and beam sweeping needs to be performed once on each of a receive end and a transmit end. A transmit-end antenna array sequentially sends data including a sector number (sector ID, SID); and a receive end receives a signal through a quasi-omnidirectional antenna, determines information about a best sector number based on quality of the received signal, and feeds back the information about the best sector number to a transmit end. Similarly, a receive antenna sequentially sends data including a SID; and a transmit antenna receives a signal through a quasi-omnidirectional antenna, and feeds back information about a best sector number to the receive end. The transmit antenna and the receive antenna complete beam alignment through a feedback and a notification of sector sweep. In this case, a beam sweeping time is directly proportional to a quantity of beams. Assuming that a transmit array has X to-be-swept beams in total, a receive array has Y to-be-swept beams, and a time for each beam sweeping is T, a time for full-range sweeping is XxYxT.

In the foregoing beam alignment manner, for long-distance point-to-point communication, a long time is required to perform beam sweeping. Consequently, efficiency of beam alignment through sweeping is greatly reduced, and a requirement for an access scenario such as future <NUM> high-frequency high-speed mobility cannot be met.

<CIT> describes an apparatus with an antenna array including a plurality of antenna modules arranged along a first axis, an antenna module of the antenna modules including an antenna sub-array coupled to a Radio-Frequency (RF) chain, the antenna sub-array including a plurality of antenna elements arranged along a second axis, the second axis is perpendicular to the first axis, and the RF chain is to process RF signals communicated via the plurality of antenna elements.

Embodiments of the present invention provide an antenna apparatus.

Embodiments and examples not covered by the claims are meant to illustrate, and facilitate the understanding of, the claimed invention.

According to a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an antenna apparatus. The antenna apparatus may include an antenna array and a control unit, where.

In this embodiment of the present invention, based on a hardware structure of the antenna array in the prior art, the control unit in the antenna apparatus controls the phase shift increment change of the first antenna subarray in the antenna array, to generate the plurality of first beams. The first antenna subarray includes the X1 rows and Y1 columns of radiating elements, where X1 is greater than Y1. This indicates that a quantity of radiating elements of the antenna subarray in a column direction is greater than a quantity of radiating elements in a row direction. A smaller quantity of radiating elements indicates a wider beam, and a larger quantity of radiating elements indicates a narrower beam. A beam width of the first beam generated by the first antenna subarray in the row direction is greater than a beam width in the column direction. Therefore, the finally determined first aligned beam is also within a direction range that is relatively wide in the row direction and relatively narrow in the column direction. In conclusion, in this embodiment of the present invention, the first antenna subarray is controlled to form a beam that is relatively wide in the row direction and relatively narrow in the column direction. Therefore, a quantity of sweeping times in a wide beam direction (that is, the row direction) can be greatly reduced, and a direction range of an aligned beam in a narrow beam direction (that is, the column direction) can be effectively narrowed.

The control unit is further configured to: determine a second antenna subarray from the N rows and M columns of radiating elements, where the second antenna subarray includes X2 rows and Y2 columns of radiating elements, <NUM> ≤ X2 ≤ N, <NUM> ≤ Y2 ≤ M, and Y2 > X2; control a phase shift increment change of the second antenna subarray to generate a plurality of second beams, where different phase shift increments correspond to different second beams; and determine a second aligned beam from the plurality of second beams based on a feedback from the receive end.

In this embodiment of the present invention, based on the first aspect, the beam that is relatively wide in the row direction and relatively narrow in the column direction is generated by using a feature that a quantity of radiating elements in the column direction in the first antenna subarray is greater than a quantity of radiating elements in the row direction. Because the beam width in the row direction can directly cover a sweeping range in the row direction, a quantity of sweeping times in the row direction is greatly reduced. Further, a beam that is relatively wide in the column direction and relatively narrow in the row direction is generated by using a feature that a quantity of radiating elements in the row direction in the second antenna subarray is greater than a quantity of radiating elements in the column direction. Because the beam width in the column direction covers an original sweeping range in the column direction, a quantity of sweeping times in the column direction is greatly reduced. In conclusion, in this embodiment of the present invention, beam sweeping is respectively performed in a vertical direction and a horizontal direction by using the first beam (which is wide in the row direction and narrow in the column direction) and the second beam (which is wide in the column direction and narrow in the row direction), to obtain the first aligned beam and the second aligned beam, and a beam direction range that is relatively narrow in both the row direction and the column direction is finally determined based on a direction range in which the first aligned beam intersects with the second aligned beam. In this way, an alignment direction area with a relatively precise range can be determined through a relatively small quantity of beam sweeping times, thereby improving beam alignment efficiency.

In a possible implementation, the control unit may first determine the second antenna subarray to determine the second aligned beam, and then determine the first antenna subarray to determine the first aligned beam. In other words, in this embodiment of the present invention, sweeping in a vertical direction (the column direction) may be first performed, and then sweeping in a horizontal direction (the row direction) is performed. Alternatively, sweeping in a horizontal direction may be first performed, and then sweeping in a vertical direction is performed. This is not specifically limited in this application, and positions of N rows of radiating elements are perpendicular to positions of M columns of radiating elements in this application.

In a possible implementation, the control unit is further configured to perform Hanning window weighting processing on amplitudes controlled by power amplifiers in each column of radiating elements in the first antenna subarray. In this embodiment of the present invention, in a vertical coarse sweeping process, Hanning window processing is performed on radiating elements in the first antenna subarray in the column direction, to increase a width of the first beam in the column direction, thereby reducing a quantity of times of sweeping the first beam in the column direction, and reducing a sweeping time.

In a possible implementation, the control unit is further configured to perform Hanning window weighting processing on amplitudes controlled by power amplifiers in each row of radiating elements in the second antenna subarray. In this embodiment of the present invention, in a horizontal coarse sweeping process, Hanning window processing is performed on radiating elements in the first antenna subarray in the row direction, to increase a width of the second beam in the row direction, thereby reducing a quantity of times of sweeping the second beam in the row direction, and reducing a sweeping time.

In a possible implementation, the control unit is further configured to: determine a third antenna subarray from the N rows and M columns of radiating elements, where the third antenna subarray includes X3 rows and Y3 columns of radiating elements, X1 ≤ X3 ≤ N, and Y2 ≤ Y3 ≤ M; control the third antenna subarray to generate, based on different phase shift increments, a plurality of third beams with different directions, where centers of circles of projections of the plurality of third beams on the first plane are within an alignment area, and the alignment area is an area in which a projection of the first aligned beam on the first plane intersects a projection of the second aligned beam on the first plane; and determine a third aligned beam from the plurality of third beams based on a feedback from the receive end. In this embodiment of the present invention, based on a direction range of the aligned beam determined through beam sweeping in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction, a direction of the aligned beam is further determined in the direction range in a fine sweeping manner, to perform more precise beam alignment.

In a possible implementation, when Y1 is greater than or equal to <NUM>, a column spacing between any two adjacent columns of radiating elements in Y1 columns of radiating elements is d1, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d1 ≤ λ. In this embodiment of the present invention, in the first antenna subarray, a range of a spacing between columns of radiating elements is set to a range smaller than λ/<NUM> ≤ d1 ≤ λ, to prevent the first beam from forming a grating lobe in the row direction, and ensure a better waveform and better beam quality of the first beam.

In a possible implementation, each of the Y1 columns of radiating elements includes at least two first radiating elements, a row spacing between any two adjacent rows of first radiating elements in the at least two first radiating elements is d2, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d2 ≤ λ. In this embodiment of the present invention, in the first antenna subarray, a range of a row spacing between adjacent radiating elements in any column of radiating elements is set to a range smaller than λ/<NUM> ≤ d2 ≤ λ, to prevent the first beam from forming a grating lobe in the column direction, and ensure a better waveform and better beam quality of the first beam.

In a possible implementation, a line formed by connecting center points of projections of the plurality of first beams on the first plane is in a first direction, and the first direction is parallel to a column direction of the X1 rows and Y1 columns of radiating elements. In this embodiment of the present invention, because the first beam is a beam that is relatively wide in the row direction and relatively narrow in the column direction, a projection of the first beam on the first plane is similar to an ellipse, and the elliptical projection may cover, in the row direction, a plurality of projection circles of beams to be swept point by point in the prior art. Therefore, when the line formed by connecting the center points of the projections of the plurality of first beams on the first plane is parallel to the column direction, that is, the first direction, narrow beams to be swept point by point in the prior art may be covered by a minimum quantity of first beams within an area range. In this way, the first aligned beam can be obtained through a minimum quantity of sweeping times.

In a possible implementation, a line formed by connecting center points of projections of the plurality of second beams on the first plane is in a second direction, and the second direction is parallel to a row direction of the X2 rows and Y2 columns of radiating elements. In this embodiment of the present invention, because the second beam is a beam that is relatively wide in the column direction and relatively narrow in the row direction, a projection of the second beam on the first plane is similar to an ellipse, and the elliptical projection may cover, in the column direction, a plurality of projection circles of beams to be swept point by point in the prior art. Therefore, when the line formed by connecting the center points of the projections of the plurality of second beams on the first plane is parallel to the row direction, that is, the second direction, narrow beams to be swept point by point in the prior art may be covered by a minimum quantity of second beams within an area range. In this way, the second aligned beam can be obtained through a minimum quantity of sweeping times.

In a possible implementation, the third antenna subarray includes the N rows and M columns of radiating elements. In this embodiment of the present invention, a narrow beam may be formed by controlling a phase shift increment change of the N rows and M columns of radiating elements included in the antenna array, and more precise fine sweeping is performed within an alignment range determined through coarse sweeping.

In a possible implementation, a beam width of the first beam in the first direction is K, sweeping steps of the plurality of first beams are K/<NUM>, and the first direction is parallel to the column direction of the X1 rows and Y1 columns of radiating elements. In this embodiment of the present invention, in the vertical sweeping direction, the sweeping step is set to half of the width of the first beam in the first direction, to improve sweeping precision in the vertical direction and avoid missing sweeping an aligned beam.

In a possible implementation, a beam width of the second beam in the second direction is K, sweeping steps of the plurality of second beams are K/<NUM>, and the second direction is parallel to the row direction of the X2 rows and Y2 columns of radiating elements. In this embodiment of the present invention, in the horizontal sweeping direction, the sweeping step is set to half of the width of the second beam in the second direction, to improve sweeping precision in the horizontal direction and avoid missing sweeping an aligned beam.

In a possible implementation, the beam width of the first beam in the first direction is K, and/or the beam width of the second beam in the second direction is K; and a beam width of the third beam in the first direction or the second direction is L, the sweeping steps of the plurality of first beams are L/<NUM>, and L < K. In this embodiment of the present invention, in a fine sweeping process, a width of a to-be-finely-swept beam is set to be less than the width of the first beam or the second beam. In this way, a finer beam may be used to perform more precise sweeping after coarse sweeping. In addition, because the sweeping step is set to half of the width of the to-be-finely-swept beam, sweeping precision of fine sweeping can be improved, and finally, an aligned beam with higher precision is determined.

In a possible implementation, when X2 is greater than or equal to <NUM>, a row spacing between any two adjacent rows of radiating elements in X2 rows of radiating elements is d3, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d3 ≤ λ. In this embodiment of the present invention, in the second antenna subarray, a range of a spacing between columns of radiating elements is set to a range smaller than λ/<NUM> ≤ d3 ≤ λ, to prevent the second beam from forming a grating lobe in the row direction, and ensure a better waveform and better beam quality of the second beam.

In a possible implementation, each of the Y2 rows of radiating elements includes at least two second radiating elements, a column spacing between any two adjacent columns of second radiating elements in the at least two second radiating elements is d4, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d4 ≤ λ. In this embodiment of the present invention, in the second antenna subarray, a range of a row spacing between adjacent radiating elements in any column of radiating elements is set to a range smaller than λ/<NUM> ≤ d4 ≤ λ, to prevent the second beam from forming a grating lobe in the column direction, and ensure a better waveform and better beam quality of the first beam.

In a possible implementation, any two radiating elements in a same row in the first antenna subarray have an equal phase, and any two rows of adjacent radiating elements in the first antenna subarray have an equal phase difference at a same moment. In this embodiment of the present invention, a phase of each radiating element in the first antenna array and a phase difference between radiating elements are set by using a phase shift increment in a phased antenna array, to generate a plurality of first beams with different directions.

In a possible implementation, any two radiating elements in a same column in the second antenna subarray have an equal phase, and any two columns of adjacent radiating elements in the second antenna subarray have an equal phase difference at a same moment. In this embodiment of the present invention, a phase of each radiating element in the second antenna array and a phase difference between radiating elements are set by using a phase shift increment in a phased antenna array, to generate a plurality of second beams with different directions.

To describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or in the background more clearly, the following describes the accompanying drawings for describing the embodiments of the present invention or the background.

In the specification, claims, and accompanying drawings of this application, the terms "first", "second", "third", "fourth" and so on are intended to distinguish between different objects but do not indicate a particular order. In addition, the terms "including", "having", or any other variant thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, a method, a system, a product, or a device that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally further includes an unlisted step or unit, or optionally further includes another inherent step or unit of the process, the method, the product, or the device.

Mentioning an "embodiment" in this specification means that a particular characteristic, structure, or feature described with reference to the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of this application. The phrase shown in various locations in this specification may not necessarily refer to a same embodiment, and is not an independent or optional embodiment exclusive from another embodiment. It is explicitly and implicitly understood by a person skilled in the art that the embodiments described in this specification may be combined with another embodiment.

Terms such as "component", "module", and "system" used in this specification are used to indicate computer-related entities, hardware, firmware, combinations of hardware and software, software, or software being executed. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable file, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. As shown in figures, both a computing device and an application running on a computing device may be components. One or more components may reside within a process and/or a thread of execution, and the component may be located on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components may be executed from various computer readable media that store various data structures. For example, the components may communicate by using a local and/or remote process and based on, for example, a signal having one or more data packets (for example, data from two components interacting with another component in a local system, a distributed system, and/or across a network such as the internet interacting with other systems by using the signal).

Some terms in this application are first described, to help a person skilled in the art have a better understanding.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of a sector beam sweeping process according to an embodiment of the present invention. An implementation process of sector beam sweeping and alignment in a large antenna array may be as follows.

However, a larger quantity of radiating elements in the antenna array indicates a finer generated beam. Therefore, in an existing manner, because a scale of the antenna array increases, a beam is narrower, and a quantity of to-be-swept beams also sharply increases. For example, for an M x N array within specific coverage, a corresponding quantity Nsector of beams to be swept is in direct proportion to a size M x N of the array, and a sweeping time linearly increases with the quantity of beams to be swept.

In conclusion, storage and reading of a large quantity of beams requires more hardware, and a beam alignment time is long. Consequently, beam alignment efficiency of a large array in an existing sweeping manner is low, and a requirement for supporting a fast movement scenario and a requirement of a low latency in <NUM> high-frequency communication are not met. In addition, because power consumption of a front-end circuit of the antenna array is relatively large, a temperature may easily increase. After the temperature increases, performance of active components such as a power amplifier and a low-noise amplifier in the front-end circuit of the antenna array deteriorates. As a result, an antenna gain decreases, and a system link budget requirement is not met. This further results in a limited communication distance, a high bit error rate, and communication quality degradation.

To resolve the foregoing problem that determining a best transmit/receive beam by sweeping all narrow beams in a traversal manner consumes a long time and has low efficiency, a hierarchical sweeping policy is used, that is, sweeping is performed from wider beams to narrower beams, in this embodiment of the present invention. <FIG> is a schematic diagram of a procedure from sector beam coarse sweeping to fine sweeping according to an embodiment of the present invention. An implementation process is as follows.

In a first phase, coarse sweeping is performed. A transmit end, for example, a base station, uses a small quantity of wide beams to cover an entire cell, and sequentially sweeps alignment directions of the wide beams. In <FIG>, the base station uses wide beams tA and tB in this phase, and aligns only wide beams for a receive end. Alignment direction precision is not high, and quality of an established wireless communication connection is also relatively limited.

In a second phase, fine sweeping is performed. The base station sweeps, one by one by using a plurality of narrow beams, directions that have been covered by the wide beams in the first phase. For a single user (the receive end), although a to-be-swept beam becomes narrower in this case, a range within which sweeping needs to be performed is narrowed, and a quantity of sweeping times is correspondingly reduced. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of alignment of the wide beams in the first phase, the base station only needs to continue to finely sweep four narrow beams related to each user, for example, sweep beams t1 to t4 for a user <NUM> and sweep beams t5 to t8 for a user <NUM>. In this case, the base station improves precision of aligning a beam direction for each user, and quality of the established wireless communication connection is improved. Therefore, in a two-level beam management process shown in <FIG>, the base station only needs to perform sweeping for each user for six times, and does not need to sweep all eight narrow beams.

A larger quantity of radiating elements indicates a finer beam, and a smaller quantity of radiating elements indicates a wider beam. If a conventional beam increasing manner is used, for example, <NUM>*<NUM> radiating elements in an antenna array of N rows and M columns are used for coarse sweeping, to obtain a beam with same widths in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, and then sweeping is performed along a Z shape within a sweeping range. To be specific, a quantity of radiating elements in the antenna array is reduced for sweeping. In this way, a quantity of to-be-swept beams can be reduced, and a beam alignment time can be reduced. However, because the radiating elements are evenly arranged, beam widths are the same in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction in a coarse sweeping process. Therefore, a relatively complex beam sweeping manner (generally, a Z-shaped sweeping manner in which an array center is used as a center of a circle and a radius gradually changes) is needed to complete coarse sweeping with relatively many beam configurations (sector ID), and not only a quantity of sweeping times is large, but also a beam direction range with a smaller alignment range cannot be obtained. Therefore, a sweeping range in a subsequent fine sweeping process cannot be further reduced, and beam alignment efficiency cannot be effectively improved. In addition, if a beam width needs to meet a width range in the coarse sweeping process, a value of X in X*X radiating elements may be limited, to be specific, the value of X may need to be relatively small to meet a requirement that a to-be-coarsely-swept beam is relatively wide. However, when the value of X is relatively small, for example, when X = <NUM>, an equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) of the <NUM>*<NUM> radiating elements may be relatively low, and cannot meet a link requirement for long-distance communication between a transmit end and a receive end.

Therefore, this embodiment of the present invention further needs to resolve how to ensure beam sweeping quality, increase a beam alignment speed and improve alignment efficiency, and improve communication efficiency while further reducing a quantity of beam sweeping times in a beam alignment sweeping process of a large array.

Based on the foregoing descriptions, the following first describes an architecture of a communications system on which the embodiments of the present invention are based. <FIG> is an architectural diagram of a wireless communications system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The wireless communications system <NUM> may include one or more network devices <NUM> and one or more terminal devices <NUM>. The network device may be used as a transmit end or a receive end in a beam alignment system. Similarly, the terminal device <NUM> may be used as a receive end or a transmit end. This is not specifically limited in this application.

The network device <NUM> may be the antenna apparatus in this application, or may be configured as a device including the antenna apparatus in this application, and generates beams with different directions by using the antenna apparatus, to cover an entire cell <NUM>. For example, in a downlink communication process, the network device <NUM> may sequentially generate beams with different directions to transmit radio signals, to communicate with the terminal devices <NUM> in different directions. Optionally, the network device <NUM> may be a base station. The base station may be a base transceiver station (Base Transceiver Station, BTS) in a time division synchronous code division multiple access (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access, TD-SCDMA) system, an evolved NodeB (Evolutional Node B, eNB) in an LTE system, or a base station in a <NUM> system or in a new radio (NR) system. Alternatively, the base station may be an access point (Access Point, AP), a transmission node (Trans TRP), a central unit (Central Unit, CU), or another network entity, and may include some or all of functions of the foregoing network entity.

The terminal devices <NUM> may be distributed in the entire wireless communications system <NUM>, and may be static or mobile. In some embodiments of this application, the terminal device <NUM> may be a mobile device, a mobile station (mobile station), a mobile unit (mobile unit), an M2M terminal, a radio unit, a remote unit, a terminal agent, a mobile client, or the like. In a future communications system, the terminal device <NUM> may alternatively be the antenna apparatus in this application, or may be configured as a terminal device including the antenna apparatus in this application. For example, the terminal device <NUM> generates beams with different directions by using the antenna apparatus, and performs uplink communication with the network device <NUM>, or performs M2M communication with another terminal device <NUM>, or the like. In other words, in the wireless communications system <NUM>, both the network device <NUM> and the terminal device <NUM> may perform beam alignment and multi-beam communication by using the antenna apparatus in this application.

The wireless communications system <NUM> shown in <FIG> may operate on a high frequency band, and is not limited to a long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system, a future evolved 5th generation (the 5th Generation, <NUM>) mobile communications system, a new radio (NR) system, a machine-to-machine (Machine to Machine, M2M) communications system, or the like.

It may be understood that the architecture of the wireless communications system in <FIG> is only an example of an implementation in the embodiments of the present invention, and the architecture of the communications system in the embodiments of the present invention includes but is not limited to the foregoing architecture of the communications system.

Based on the foregoing wireless communications system and with reference to the embodiments of the antenna apparatus provided in this application, the following specifically analyzes and resolves the technical problem proposed in this application.

<FIG> is a structural diagram of an antenna apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in <FIG>, an antenna apparatus <NUM> includes an antenna array <NUM> and a control unit <NUM>, and the control unit <NUM> and the antenna array <NUM> may be connected through a bus or in another manner.

The antenna array <NUM> includes at least N rows and M columns of radiating elements. The antenna array in this application may alternatively be a triangular array, a hexagon array, a rhombus array, a circular array, or the like. Therefore, at least the N rows and M columns of radiating elements included in the antenna array in this application may be included in some of the foregoing arrays of various forms. Optionally, in the foregoing arrays of various forms, positions of N rows of radiating elements are perpendicular to positions of M columns of radiating elements in this application. <FIG> is a schematic structural diagram of a rectangular antenna array according to an embodiment of the present invention. The rectangular antenna array includes N rows and M columns of radiating elements.

A control unit <NUM> determines a first antenna subarray from the N rows and M columns of radiating elements, where the first antenna subarray includes X1 rows and Y1 columns of radiating elements, X1 and Y1 are integers greater than or equal to <NUM>, and X1 is greater than Y1; controls a phase shift increment change of the first antenna subarray to generate a plurality of first beams, where different phase shift increments correspond to different first beams; and determines a first aligned beam from the plurality of first beams based on a feedback from a receive end. For example, as shown in <FIG>, the first antenna subarray includes the sixth column in the middle of the rectangular antenna array. In this case, X1 = <NUM>, and Y1 = <NUM>. Alternatively, the first antenna subarray includes the sixth column and the seventh column of the rectangular antenna array. In this case, X1 = <NUM>, and Y1 = <NUM>. In the foregoing two cases, in the X1 rows and Y1 columns of radiating elements included in the first antenna subarray, X1 is far greater than Y1. Therefore, a beam that is relatively wide in a row direction and relatively narrow in a column direction can be generated. In a process in which the control unit <NUM> controls the phase shift increment (progressive phase shift) change of the first antenna subarray, the first antenna subarray has a same phase shift increment change at a same moment, in other words, the first antenna subarray jointly generates a first beam under a condition of the same phase shift increment. It may be understood that the first antenna subarray may be at an edge position or a middle position in the antenna array, and a specific position of the first antenna subarray in the antenna array is not specifically limited.

In a possible implementation, when Y1 is greater than or equal to <NUM>, a column spacing between any two adjacent columns of radiating elements in Y1 columns of radiating elements is d1, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d1 ≤ λ. For example, as shown in <FIG>, when the first antenna subarray includes the sixth column and the seventh column of the rectangular antenna array, X1 = <NUM>, and Y1 = <NUM>. When a spacing between two antenna subarrays is greater than one time a wavelength, a grating lobe in a direction is generated. Therefore, in this embodiment of the present invention, in the first antenna subarray, a range of a spacing between columns of radiating elements is set to a range smaller than λ/<NUM> ≤ d1 ≤ λ, to prevent the first beam from forming a grating lobe in the row direction, and ensure a better waveform and better beam quality of the first beam.

In a possible implementation, each of the X1 columns of radiating elements in the first antenna subarray includes at least two first radiating elements, a spacing between any two adjacent first radiating elements in the at least two first radiating elements is d1, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d1 ≤ λ. As shown in <FIG>, for example, when the first antenna subarray includes the sixth column of radiating elements (<NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>), a row spacing between adjacent radiating elements such as <NUM> and <NUM> in the sixth column of radiating elements is d1, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d1 ≤ λ. As shown in <FIG>, for example, when the first antenna subarray includes the sixth column (<NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>) and the seventh column (<NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>) of radiating elements in the antenna array, in the sixth column and the seventh column of radiating elements, a row spacing between adjacent radiating elements <NUM> and <NUM> and a row spacing between adjacent radiating elements <NUM> and <NUM> are d1, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d1 ≤ λ. In other words, in this embodiment of the present invention, in the first antenna subarray, a range of a spacing between rows in each column of radiating elements is set to a range less than λ/<NUM> ≤ d1 ≤ λ, to ensure quality of the first beam. When the spacing d1 is less than <NUM>/<NUM> of the wavelength, the radiating elements are connected together. Excessively strong antenna coupling is unfavorable to radiation. If the spacing is greater than one time the wavelength, a grating lobe occurs. Therefore, λ/<NUM> ≤ d1 ≤ λ can ensure that a grating lobe is not formed on the first beam in a first direction, and ensure that a waveform and beam quality of the first beam are better.

In a possible implementation, any two radiating elements in a same row in the first antenna subarray have an equal phase, and any two rows of adjacent radiating elements in the first antenna subarray have an equal phase difference at a same moment. For example, as shown in <FIG>, the first antenna subarray includes the sixth column (<NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>) and the seventh column (<NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>) of radiating elements. In this embodiment of the present invention, phases of <NUM> and <NUM> are equal. Similarly, phases of <NUM> and <NUM> are also equal. The rest can be deduced by analogy. In other words, at a same moment, radiating elements in each row have an equal phase. In addition, a phase difference between <NUM> and <NUM>, a phase difference between <NUM> and <NUM>, a phase difference between <NUM> and <NUM>, and the like are equal at a same moment. Similarly, a phase difference between <NUM> and <NUM> and a phase difference between <NUM> and <NUM> are equal. The rest can be deduced by analogy. In other words, any two rows of adjacent radiating elements in the first antenna subarray have an equal phase difference at a same moment. Because to-be-swept beams with a plurality of directions are generated according to a principle of a phased array in this embodiment of the present invention, a phase of each radiating element in the first antenna array and a phase difference between radiating elements are set by using a phase shift increment in a phased antenna array, to generate the plurality of first beams with different directions.

In a possible implementation, the antenna array is located on a first plane; and a line formed by connecting center points of projections of the plurality of first beams on the first plane is in the first direction, and the first direction is parallel to a column direction of the X1 rows and Y1 columns of radiating elements. <FIG> is a schematic diagram of projections of a plurality of first beams on a first plane according to an embodiment of the present invention. In <FIG>, for example, <NUM>*<NUM> projection circles are projections of to-be-finely-swept beams on the first plane in the prior art, eight ellipses in the figure are projection circles of eight first beams in this embodiment of the present invention. Each first beam may cover an entire row of projection circles for fine sweeping, that is, cover a sweeping range of one row. It may be understood that the first beam is not an ellipse in a strict sense, but is similar to an ellipse in shape. Therefore, for ease of description, the ellipse is used for description. A line formed by connecting center points of projections of the plurality of first beams on the first plane is in a first direction, and the first direction is parallel to a column direction of Y1 columns of radiating elements. It can be learned from <FIG> that because each first beam is a wide beam in a row direction, a projection of each first beam on the first plane is an ellipse (similar to an ellipse) including a plurality of circles, and the elliptic projection may cover, in the row direction, a plurality of (eight in <FIG>) projection circles of beams to be swept point by point in the prior art. Therefore, when the line formed by connecting the center points of the projections of the plurality of first beams on the first plane is parallel to the column direction, that is, the first direction, narrow beams to be swept point by point in the prior art may be covered by a minimum quantity of first beams within an area range. In this way, the first aligned beam can be obtained through a minimum quantity of sweeping times.

In a possible implementation, the control unit <NUM> is further configured to perform Hanning window weighting processing on amplitudes controlled by power amplifiers in each column of radiating elements in the first antenna subarray. <FIG> is a schematic diagram of projections, on a first plane, of a plurality of first beams on which Hanning window weighting has been performed according to an embodiment of the present invention. In <FIG>, a width of the first beam in a vertical direction of a first direction, that is, in a second direction may be increased after Hanning window weighting processing is performed. Therefore, a quantity of to-be-coarsely-swept beams in a range may be further reduced, and sweeping efficiency is improved. In this embodiment of the present invention, in a vertical coarse sweeping process, Hanning window processing is performed on radiating elements in the first antenna subarray in the column direction, to increase a width of the first beam in the column direction, thereby reducing a quantity of times of sweeping the first beam in the column direction, and reducing a sweeping time.

After coarse sweeping is performed in the vertical direction, a rough range corresponding to an aligned beam, that is, a range corresponding to a first aligned beam, for example, a sweeping range corresponding to a projection ellipse in <FIG> or <FIG>, may be roughly determined. After the range of the first aligned beam is obtained, further fine sweeping may be directly performed. For example, fine sweeping may be directly performed in a coarse sweeping ellipse range corresponding to <FIG> or <FIG>, so that a to-be-finely-swept aligned beam with a same granularity as that in the prior art can be determined. Further, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a solution in which coarse sweeping continues to be performed in a horizontal direction based on coarse sweeping in the vertical direction, to further reduce a range of an aligned beam.

In a possible implementation, the control unit <NUM> is further configured to: determine a second antenna subarray from the N rows and M columns of radiating elements, where the second antenna subarray includes X2 rows and Y2 columns of radiating elements, <NUM> ≤ X2 ≤ N, <NUM> ≤ Y2 ≤ M, and Y2 > X2; control a phase shift increment change of the second antenna subarray to generate a plurality of second beams, where different phase shift increments correspond to different second beams; and determine a second aligned beam from the plurality of second beams based on a feedback from the receive end. <FIG> is a schematic structural diagram of another rectangular antenna array according to an embodiment of the present invention. For example, the second antenna subarray includes the seventh row (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>) in the middle of a rectangular antenna array, or includes the seventh row (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>) and the eighth row (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>). In a process in which the phase shift increment change of the second antenna subarray is controlled, the second antenna subarray has a same phase shift increment change at a same moment, in other words, the second antenna subarray jointly generates a second beam under a condition of the same phase shift increment. In this embodiment of the present invention, based on the first aspect, the beam that is relatively wide in the row direction and relatively narrow in the column direction is generated by using a feature that a quantity of radiating elements in the column direction in the first antenna subarray is greater than a quantity of radiating elements in the row direction. Because the beam width in the row direction can directly cover a sweeping range in the row direction, a quantity of sweeping times in the row direction is greatly reduced. Further, a beam that is relatively wide in the column direction and relatively narrow in the row direction is generated by using a feature that a quantity of radiating elements in the row direction in the second antenna subarray is greater than a quantity of radiating elements in the column direction. Because the beam width in the column direction covers an original sweeping range in the column direction, a quantity of sweeping times in the column direction is greatly reduced. In conclusion, in this embodiment of the present invention, beam sweeping is respectively performed in a vertical direction and a horizontal direction by using the first beam (which is wide in the row direction and narrow in the column direction) and the second beam (which is wide in the column direction and narrow in the row direction), to obtain the first aligned beam and the second aligned beam, and a beam direction range that is relatively narrow in both the row direction and the column direction may be finally determined based on a direction range in which the first aligned beam intersects with the second aligned beam. In this way, an alignment direction area with a relatively precise range can be determined through a relatively small quantity of beam sweeping times, thereby improving beam alignment efficiency.

It may be understood that there may be an overlapping radiating element between the first antenna subarray and the second antenna subarray, or there may be no overlapping radiating element between the first antenna subarray and the second antenna subarray.

In a possible implementation, when X2 is greater than or equal to <NUM>, a row spacing between any two adjacent rows of radiating elements in X2 rows of radiating elements is d3, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d3 ≤ λ. For example, as shown in <FIG>, when the second antenna subarray includes the seventh row (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>) and the eighth row (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>), a spacing between <NUM> and <NUM> is d3, and a spacing between <NUM> and <NUM> is d3, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d3 ≤ λ. The rest can be deduced by analogy. In this embodiment of the present invention, in the second antenna subarray, a range of a spacing between columns of radiating elements is set to a range smaller than λ/<NUM> ≤ d3 ≤ λ, to prevent the second beam from forming a grating lobe in the row direction, and ensure a better waveform and better beam quality of the second beam.

In a possible implementation, each of the Y2 rows of radiating elements includes at least two second radiating elements, a column spacing between any two adjacent columns of second radiating elements in the at least two second radiating elements is d4, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d4 ≤ λ. As shown in <FIG>, for example, when the second antenna subarray includes the seventh row (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>), a spacing between <NUM> and <NUM> is d4, and a spacing between <NUM> and <NUM> is d4, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d4 ≤ λ. In this embodiment of the present invention, in the second antenna subarray, a range of a row spacing between adjacent radiating elements in any column of radiating elements is set to a range smaller than λ/<NUM> ≤ d4 ≤ λ, to prevent the second beam from forming a grating lobe in the column direction, and ensure a better waveform and better beam quality of the first beam.

In a possible implementation, any two radiating elements in a same column in the second antenna subarray have an equal phase, and any two columns of adjacent radiating elements in the second antenna subarray have an equal phase difference at a same moment. For example, as shown in <FIG>, the second antenna subarray includes two rows, the seventh row (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>) and the eighth row (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>), of radiating elements. Phases of <NUM> and <NUM> are equal, and similarly, phases of <NUM> and <NUM> are also equal. The rest can be deduced by analogy. In other words, at a same moment, any two radiating elements in a same column have an equal phase. In addition, a phase difference between <NUM> and <NUM> and a phase difference between <NUM> and <NUM> are equal at a same moment. Similarly, a phase difference between <NUM> and <NUM> and a phase difference between <NUM> and <NUM> are equal. The rest can be deduced by analogy. In other words, any two columns of adjacent radiating elements in the second antenna subarray have an equal phase difference at a same moment.

In a possible implementation, the antenna array is located on a first plane; and a line formed by connecting center points of projections of the plurality of second beams on the first plane is in a second direction, and the second direction is parallel to a row direction of the X2 rows and Y2 columns of radiating elements. <FIG> is a schematic diagram of projections of a plurality of second beams on a first plane according to an embodiment of the present invention. In <FIG>, for example, <NUM>*<NUM> projection circles are projections of to-be-finely-swept beams on the first plane in the prior art, eight transverse ellipses in <FIG> are eight first beams in this embodiment of the present invention. Each first beam may cover an entire row of projection circles for fine sweeping, that is, cover a sweeping range of one row. Eight longitudinal ellipses in <FIG> are eight second beams in this embodiment of the present invention. Each second beam may cover an entire column of to-be-finely-swept projection circles, that is, cover a sweeping range of one column. It may be understood that the second beam is not an ellipse in a strict sense, but is similar to an ellipse in shape. Therefore, for ease of description, the ellipse is used for description. A line formed by connecting center points of projections of the plurality of second beams on the first plane is in a second direction, and the second direction is parallel to a row direction of X2 rows of radiating elements. It can be learned from <FIG> that because each second beam is a wide beam in a column direction, a projection of each second beam on the first plane is an ellipse (similar to an ellipse) including a plurality of circles, and the elliptic projection may cover, in the row direction, a plurality of (eight in <FIG>) projection circles of beams to be swept point by point in the prior art. Therefore, when the line formed by connecting the center points of the projections of the plurality of second beams on the first plane is parallel to the row direction, that is, the second direction, narrow beams to be swept point by point in the prior art may be covered by a minimum quantity of first beams within an area range. In this way, the first aligned beam can be obtained through a minimum quantity of sweeping times.

In a possible implementation, the control unit <NUM> is further configured to perform Hanning window weighting processing on amplitudes controlled by power amplifiers in each row of radiating elements in the second antenna subarray. <FIG> is a schematic diagram of projections, on a first plane, of a plurality of second beams on which Hanning window weighting has been performed according to an embodiment of the present invention. In <FIG>, a width of the second beam in a vertical direction of a second direction, that is, in a first direction may be increased after Hanning window weighting is performed. Therefore, a quantity of to-be-coarsely-swept beams in a range may be further reduced, and sweeping efficiency is improved. In this embodiment of the present invention, in a horizontal coarse sweeping process, Hanning window processing is performed on radiating elements in the first antenna subarray in a row direction, to increase a width of the second beam in the row direction, thereby reducing a quantity of times of sweeping the second beam in the row direction, and reducing a sweeping time.

Coarse sweeping in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction may further reduce a range of an aligned beam, for example, a sweeping range corresponding to an area in which a projection ellipse in the vertical direction intersects a projection in the horizontal direction in <FIG> and <FIG>. After the range of the aligned beam is further reduced, a finely swept beam with a same granularity as that in the prior art may be used for sweeping, to finally determine an aligned narrow beam. Therefore, in this embodiment of the present invention, after coarse sweeping in the vertical direction and coarse sweeping in the horizontal direction are performed, fine sweeping is performed by using a narrow beam with a finer granularity, to obtain a final direction range of an aligned narrow beam.

In a possible implementation, the control unit <NUM> is further configured to: determine a third antenna subarray from the N rows and M columns of radiating elements, where the third antenna subarray includes X3 rows and Y3 columns of radiating elements, X1 ≤ X3 ≤ N, and Y2 ≤ Y3 ≤ M; control the third antenna subarray to generate, based on different phase shift increments, a plurality of third beams with different directions, where centers of circles of projections of the plurality of third beams on the first plane are within an alignment area, and the alignment area is an area in which a projection of the first aligned beam on the first plane intersects a projection of the second aligned beam on the first plane; and determine a third aligned beam from the plurality of third beams based on a feedback from the receive end. To be specific, fine sweeping is performed on the third beams through to-be-finely-swept beams in an area range determined in the first coarse sweeping and the second coarse sweeping. A specific rule may be that projections of all the third beams on the first plane are within the alignment area, or centers of projection circles of all the third beams are within the alignment area. In this embodiment of the present invention, based on a direction range of the aligned beam determined through wide beam sweeping in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction, a direction of the aligned beam is further determined in the direction range in a fine sweeping manner, to perform more precise beam alignment.

In a possible implementation, the third antenna subarray includes the N rows and M columns of radiating elements. Because a larger quantity of radiating elements indicates a finer beam, in this embodiment of the present invention, a narrow beam may be formed by controlling phase shift increment changes of the N rows and M columns of radiating elements included in the antenna array, and more precise fine sweeping is performed within a coarse sweeping range.

In a possible implementation, a beam width of the first beam in the first direction is K, and sweeping steps of the plurality of first beams are K/<NUM>. Optionally, a beam width of the second beam in the second direction is K, and sweeping steps of the plurality of second beams are K/<NUM>. In this embodiment of the present invention, in the vertical and/or horizontal sweeping direction, the sweeping step is set to half of a width of an equivalent wide beam, to improve sweeping precision in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction and avoid missing sweeping an aligned beam.

In a possible implementation, a beam width of the third beam in the first direction or the second direction is L, the sweeping steps of the plurality of first beams are L/<NUM>, and L < K. In this embodiment of the present invention, in a fine sweeping process, the sweeping step is set to half of the beam width, so that sweeping precision of fine sweeping can be improved. In addition, because a width of the to-be-finely-swept beam is less than the width of the first beam or the second beam, a finer beam may be used to perform more precise sweeping after coarse sweeping, and finally, an aligned beam with higher precision is determined.

Next, with reference to a specific structure of the control unit <NUM>, how the antenna apparatus in this application implements first coarse sweeping and then fine sweeping is described by using an example. Beam sweeping includes four steps: initial beam sweeping setting, beam sweeping in a vertical (or horizontal) direction, beam sweeping in a horizontal (or vertical) direction, and narrow beam fine sweeping.

Step <NUM>: Perform initial beam sweeping setting.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of an antenna array in which a first antenna subarray is turned on according to an embodiment of the present invention. The antenna array is located in the antenna apparatus (for example, a base station) in the embodiments of the present invention. When the base station serves as a transmit end, an antenna array on one substrate of the base station includes N rows*M columns of radiating elements. To be specific, each row in a horizontal direction has M radiating elements, each column in a vertical direction has N radiating elements. A spacing between every two adjacent antennas is d. In other words, in either the horizontal direction or the vertical direction, a spacing between radiating elements is <MAT>, where λ<NUM> represents an antenna wavelength. In <FIG>, X1 = <NUM>, and Y1 = <NUM>.

Step <NUM>: Perform beam sweeping in the vertical direction (beam sweeping first in the vertical direction is used as an example). This step includes (<NUM>) initial beam setting in the vertical direction and (<NUM>) beam sweeping in the vertical direction.

<FIG> is a schematic structural diagram of a front-end circuit of a control unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. In a possible implementation, the front-end circuit of the control unit <NUM> may specifically include a variable gain amplifier (Variable gain amplifier, VGA) <NUM>, a phase shifter (Phase shifter, PS) <NUM>, a power amplifier (Power Amplifier, PA) <NUM>, and an antenna hardware interface (Antenna Hardware Interface, ANT) <NUM>. It may be understood that each radiating element corresponds to one PS, one PA, and one ANT.

The variable gain amplifier <NUM> is an electronic amplifier that controls a gain by adjusting a voltage, and is used in a plurality of remote detection and communications devices. A variable gain is used to enhance dynamic performance in applications such as ultrasonic waves, radar, laser radar, wireless communication, and speech analysis.

The phase shifter <NUM> may control a signal phase of each radiating element, to change a direction in which signals of an entire antenna array are superposed and strengthened in space, thereby implementing electronic sweeping of a beam in this application.

The power amplifier <NUM> is used in a power amplifier, and is referred to as "power amplifier" for short. The power amplifier <NUM> is an amplifier that can generate, at a given distortion rate, a maximum power output to drive a load.

The antenna hardware interface <NUM> is configured to connect to the antenna array in the embodiments of the present invention.

First, front-end circuits of the radiating elements <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> to <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM> included in the first antenna subarray in the vertical direction are turned on, power amplifiers <NUM> and phase shifters <NUM> in front-end circuits in columns in which radiating elements <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> are located are in an off state, power amplifiers <NUM> do not feed, and the phase shifters <NUM> set a codeword of <NUM>. In <FIG>, dark gray represents turned-on radiating elements (such as <NUM> and <NUM>), and white represents turned-off radiating elements (such as <NUM> and <NUM>).

Weighting of the element in the array: As shown in <FIG>, input powers of the power amplifiers <NUM> in the front-end circuits of the turned-on radiating elements (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> to <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>) in the vertical direction are HWn = [W<NUM>, W<NUM>, W<NUM>. WN], phases of the phase shifters <NUM> are HWθn = [θ<NUM>, θ<NUM>, θ<NUM>. θN], and an input power HWn of the antenna array is configured according to a Hanning window function in the following formula (<NUM>).

In the formula (<NUM>), W<NUM>, W<NUM>, W<NUM>. WN represent input powers of the power amplifiers <NUM>, and K<NUM>, K<NUM>, K<NUM>. Kn represent weighting coefficients of a Hanning window function. A main purpose of weighting is to increase a beam width, to reduce a quantity of to-be-swept beams during beam sweeping. A specific weighting amplitude is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present invention. Based on the phase HWθ of the antenna array, all the phase shifters <NUM> are set to have <NUM>-degree phase configurations. Input powers of power amplifiers <NUM> in front-end circuits of turned-on elements in a horizontal direction (radiating elements <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>) are HWm = [W<NUM>, W<NUM>], phases of the phase shifters <NUM> are HWθm = [θ<NUM>, θ<NUM>], where W<NUM> = W<NUM>, and θ<NUM> = θ<NUM>. In other words, radiating elements in the horizontal direction have a same input power amplitude and an equal phase.

In this case, a beam width, in the vertical direction, of each first beam formed in the antenna array due to Hanning window weighting is <MAT>, and may be increased by approximately <NUM> times compared with a beam width of a common rectangular window function (which is unweighted).

(<NUM>) Beam sweeping in the vertical direction: A transmit antenna side sets, through the phase shifter <NUM>, different delays between radiating elements corresponding to the vertical direction, to change a direction of a generated beam. Then, beam sweeping in the vertical direction starts.

In the formula (<NUM>), θd represents a progressive phase difference of a digital phase shifter, d represents an antenna spacing, θs represents a direction angle of an antenna beam, and λ<NUM> represents an antenna wavelength. When a spacing between the radiating elements is given, for example, <MAT>, a direction angle θs of antenna beam sweeping is in direct proportion to a phase difference θd of the digital phase shifter. A phase configuration on the phase shifter <NUM> is as the following formula (<NUM>).

In the formula (<NUM>), θ<NUM>, θ<NUM>, θ<NUM>. θN represent input phases of digital phase shifters, that is, radiating elements. θn represents an input phase of an Nth radiating element in the vertical direction, θN-<NUM> represents an input phase of an (N-<NUM>)th radiating element in the vertical direction, and θd represents a phase difference between the Nth radiating element and the (N-<NUM>)th radiating element.

Beam direction angles of the antenna array are different in different application scenarios. Usually, a radio base station needs to meet a requirement of sector coverage of a beam sweeping range Φ = [-<NUM>,<NUM>] of a transceiver antenna, and a beam sweeping step θs of the antenna is related to a beam width. Usually, when <MAT>, the beam sweeping step of the antenna meets a precision requirement. A beam width of a wide beam formed through Hanning window weighting is <MAT>, and a quantity of to-be-swept beams in the entire vertical direction is Ns.

In the formula (<NUM>), Ns represents the quantity of to-be-swept beams, Φ represents the beam sweeping range, θBW represents the beam width in the vertical direction, and N represents the quantity of radiating elements in the vertical direction. Therefore, it can be learned from the formula (<NUM>) that the quantity Ns of to-be-swept beams is <NUM> x N, and the quantity is <NUM> times less than a quantity of to-be-swept beams in a conventional manner. A sector ID corresponding to each generated beam is stored in a register, and a beam direction is logically controlled by using an FPGA and the like.

Step <NUM>: Perform initial beam configuration in the horizontal direction, including (<NUM>) initial beam setting in the horizontal direction and (<NUM>) beam sweeping in the horizontal direction.

First, front-end circuits of radiating elements <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> to <NUM>, and <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM> in the horizontal direction are turned on, power amplifiers <NUM> and phase shifters <NUM> in front-end circuits of radiating elements corresponding to rows in which horizontal radiating elements <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> are located are in an off state, power amplifiers <NUM> do not feed, and the phase shifters <NUM> set a codeword of <NUM>. In <FIG>, dark gray represents turned-on radiating elements (such as <NUM> and <NUM>), and white represents turned-off radiating elements (such as <NUM> and <NUM>).

(<NUM>) Weighting of the element in the array: As shown in <FIG>, input powers of the power amplifiers <NUM> in the front-end circuits of the turned-on radiating elements (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> to <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> to <NUM>) in the horizontal direction are HWm = [W<NUM>, W<NUM>, W<NUM>. WM], phases of the phase shifters <NUM> are HWθm = [θ<NUM>, θ<NUM>, θ<NUM>. θM], and an input power HWm of the antenna array is configured according to a Hanning window function in the formula (<NUM>) (a specific weighting amplitude is not specifically limited), to increase a beam width. Based on a phase HWθ of an antenna, all the phase shifters <NUM> are set to have <NUM>-degree phase configurations. Input powers of power amplifiers <NUM> in front-end circuits of turned-on elements in the vertical direction (radiating elements <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>) are HWn =
[W<NUM>, W<NUM>], phases of the phase shifters <NUM> are HWθn = [θ<NUM>, θ<NUM>], where W<NUM> = W<NUM>, and θ<NUM> = θ<NUM>. In other words, radiating elements in the vertical direction have a same input power amplitude and an equal phase.

In this case, a beam width, in the horizontal direction, of each second beam formed in the antenna array due to Hanning window weighting is <MAT>, and is increased by <NUM> times compared with a beam width of a common rectangular window function (which is unweighted).

A manner of beam sweeping in the horizontal direction is similar to that in the vertical direction. A transmit antenna side sets, through the phase shifter <NUM>, different delays between radiating elements corresponding to the horizontal direction, to change a direction of a generated beam. Then, beam sweeping in the horizontal direction starts. A phase configuration in the phase shifter <NUM> is as the following formula (<NUM>).

In the formula (<NUM>), θ<NUM>, θ<NUM>, θ<NUM>. θM represent input phases of digital phase shifters, that is, radiating elements.

In the formula (<NUM>), θM represents an input phase of an Mth radiating element in the horizontal direction, θM-<NUM> represents an input phase of an (M-<NUM>)th radiating element in the horizontal direction, and θd represents a phase difference between the Mth radiating element and the (M-<NUM>)th radiating element.

Beam direction angles of the antenna array are different in different application scenarios. Usually, a radio base station needs to meet a requirement of sector coverage of a beam sweeping range Φ = [-<NUM>,<NUM>] of a transceiver antenna, and a beam sweeping step θs of the antenna is related to a beam width. Usually, when <MAT>, the beam sweeping step meets a precision requirement. A beam width of a wide beam formed through Hanning window weighting is <MAT>, and a quantity of to-be-swept beams in the entire horizontal direction is Ns.

In the formula (<NUM>), Ns represents the quantity of to-be-swept beams, Φ represents the beam sweeping range, θBW represents the beam width in the horizontal direction, and M represents the quantity of radiating elements in the horizontal direction. Therefore, it can be learned from the formula (<NUM>) that the quantity Ns of to-be-swept beams is <NUM> x M, and the quantity is <NUM> times less than a quantity of to-be-swept beams in a conventional manner. A sector ID corresponding to each generated beam is stored in a register, and a beam direction is logically controlled by using an FPGA and the like.

After a previous-level coarse sweeping process, a power detector in a front-end circuit of a receive antenna array detects a maximum power obtained after wide beam sweeping in the vertical or horizontal direction, and notifies the maximum power to a base station at a transmit end. The transmit end performs, in a determined local area corresponding to the maximum power, fine sweeping in a nine-grid form shown in <FIG>. In <FIG>, the phase shifters <NUM> and the power amplifiers <NUM> in transceiver components of the front-end circuits of the antenna array are all turned on, and all units in the antenna array <NUM> are active units. Phases of the phase shifters <NUM> in the front-end circuits are Φn = [Φ<NUM>, Φ<NUM>. ΦN-<NUM>, ΦN], and input powers of the power amplifiers <NUM> are PDn = [P<NUM>, P<NUM>. PN-<NUM>, PN]. The phase shifters <NUM> are configured to Φ<NUM> = Φ<NUM> = ΦN-<NUM> = ΦN, and the power amplifiers are configured to P<NUM> = P<NUM> = PN-<NUM> = PN. In other words, the antenna array <NUM> is fed in an equi-amplitude in-phase feeding manner. In this case, all radiating elements of the array are turned on, to form a high-gain narrow beam shown in <FIG>. A beam width ΦBW, of the narrow beam is the same as a width θBW of a to-be-vertically-or-horizontally-swept beam, that is, ΦBW = θBW. A peak gain of the narrow beam is approximately δ dB higher than a gain of the to-be-vertically-or-horizontally-swept beam.

In the formula (<NUM>), M represents a quantity of units in the horizontal direction, N represents a quantity of units in the vertical direction, and K represents a constant. When Hanning window weighting is performed, K = <NUM>. Therefore, a larger antenna array scale indicates a higher peak gain of a formed narrow beam. When nine-grid sweeping is performed on the narrow beam, an EIRP can be improved, and beam alignment can be more accurately implemented. The fine sweeping process is essentially the same as the wide beam sweeping manner, but narrow beam sweeping can be completed by performing only S<NUM> (S = <NUM>) times of beam sweeping. In this case, overall beam sweeping and alignment are completed. A total quantity of to-be-swept beams is reduced from original Nsector ∝ F(M × N) to Nsector ∝ F(M + N), thereby greatly reducing a beam alignment time in a large array.

<FIG> shows a network device <NUM> provided in some embodiments of this application. As shown in <FIG>, the network device <NUM> may include one or more network device processors <NUM>, a memory <NUM>, a communications interface <NUM>, a transmitter <NUM>, a receiver <NUM>, a coupler <NUM>, and an antenna <NUM>. These components may be connected through a bus <NUM> or in another manner. In <FIG>, an example in which the components are connected through the bus is used.

The communications interface <NUM> may be used for communication between the network device <NUM> and another communications device, for example, a terminal device or another network device. Specifically, the terminal device may specifically be a terminal <NUM> shown in <FIG>. Specifically, the communications interface <NUM> may be a long term evolution (LTE) (<NUM>) communications interface, or a communications interface in <NUM> or future new radio. A wireless communications interface is not limited thereto, and the network device <NUM> may be further configured with a wired communications interface <NUM> to support wired communication. For example, a backhaul connection between the network device <NUM> and another network device <NUM> may be a wired communication connection.

The transmitter <NUM> may be configured to transmit a signal output by the network device processor <NUM>, for example, implement directional sending through beamforming. The receiver <NUM> may be configured to receive a mobile communication signal received by the antenna <NUM> (which may be an antenna array), for example, implement directional receiving through beamforming. In some embodiments of this application, the transmitter <NUM>/receiver <NUM> may include a beamforming controller, configured to multiply a transmitted signal/a received signal by a weight vector, to control directional sending/receiving of the signal.

In some embodiments of this application, the transmitter <NUM> and the receiver <NUM> may be considered as a wireless modem. The network device <NUM> may include one or more transmitters <NUM> and one or more receivers <NUM>. The antenna <NUM> may be configured to convert electromagnetic energy in a transmission line into an electromagnetic wave in free space, or convert an electromagnetic wave in free space into electromagnetic energy in a transmission line. The coupler <NUM> may be configured to: divide the mobile communication signal into a plurality of signals, and distribute the plurality of signals to a plurality of receivers <NUM>.

The memory <NUM> is coupled to the network device processor <NUM>, and is configured to store various software programs and/or a plurality of sets of instructions. Specifically, the memory <NUM> may include a high-speed random access memory, or may include a nonvolatile memory, for example, one or more disk storage devices, a flash memory device, or another nonvolatile solid-state storage device. The memory <NUM> may store an operating system (referred to as a system below), for example, an embedded operating system such as uCOS, VxWorks, or RTLinux. The memory <NUM> may further store a network communications program. The network communications program may be used to communicate with one or more additional devices, one or more terminal devices, and one or more network devices.

The network device processor <NUM> may be configured to manage a radio channel, establish and disconnect a call and communications link, provide cell handover control for a terminal in a local control area, and the like. Specifically, the network device processor <NUM> may include: an administration module/communication module (Administration Module/Communication Module, AM/CM) (a center for speech channel switching and information exchange), a basic module (Basic Module, BM) (configured to implement call processing, signaling processing, radio resource management, radio link management, and circuit maintenance functions), a transcoder and sub-multiplexer (Transcoder and SubMultiplexer, TCSM) (configured to implement multiplexing/demultiplexing and transcoding functions), and the like.

In this embodiment of this application, network device processor <NUM> may be configured to read and execute a computer-readable instruction. Specifically, the network device processor <NUM> may be configured to invoke a program stored in the memory <NUM>, for example, a program for implementing, on the side of the network device <NUM>, the signal transmission method provided in one or more embodiments of this application, and execute an instruction included in the program.

It may be understood that the network device <NUM> may be the network device <NUM> in the wireless communications system <NUM> shown in <FIG>, and may be implemented as a base transceiver station, a wireless transceiver, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), a NodeB, an eNodeB, an access point, a TRP, or the like.

It should be noted that the network device <NUM> shown in <FIG> is only an implementation of the embodiments of this application. In actual application, the network device <NUM> may alternatively include more or fewer components, and this is not limited herein.

<FIG> shows a terminal <NUM> provided in some embodiments of this application. As shown in <FIG>, the terminal <NUM> may include one or more terminal processors <NUM>, a memory <NUM>, a communications interface <NUM>, a receiver <NUM>, a transmitter <NUM>, a coupler <NUM>, an antenna <NUM>, and a terminal interface <NUM>, and an input/output module (including an audio input/output module <NUM>, a key input module <NUM>, a display <NUM>, and the like). These components may be connected through a bus <NUM> or in another manner. In <FIG>, an example in which the components are connected through the bus is used.

The communications interface <NUM> may be used for communication between the terminal <NUM> and another communications device, for example, a network device. Specifically, the network device may be a network device <NUM> shown in <FIG>. Specifically, the communications interface <NUM> may be a long term evolution (LTE) (<NUM>) communications interface, or a communications interface in <NUM> or future new radio. A wireless communications interface is not limited thereto, and the terminal <NUM> may be further configured with a wired communications interface <NUM>, for example, a local area network (Local Access Network, LAN) interface.

The transmitter <NUM> may be configured to transmit a signal output by the terminal processor <NUM>, for example, implement directional sending through beamforming. The receiver <NUM> may be configured to receive a mobile communication signal received by the antenna <NUM> (which may be an antenna array), for example, implement directional receiving through beamforming. In some embodiments of this application, the transmitter <NUM>/receiver <NUM> may include a beamforming controller, configured to multiply a transmitted signal/a received signal by a weight vector, to control directional sending/receiving of the signal.

In some embodiments of this application, the transmitter <NUM> and the receiver <NUM> may be considered as a wireless modem. The terminal device <NUM> may include one or more transmitters <NUM> and one or more receivers <NUM>. The antenna <NUM> may be configured to convert electromagnetic energy in a transmission line into an electromagnetic wave in free space, or convert an electromagnetic wave in free space into electromagnetic energy in a transmission line. The coupler <NUM> is configured to: divide the mobile communication signal received by the antenna <NUM> into a plurality of signals, and distribute the plurality of signals to a plurality of receivers <NUM>.

In addition to the transmitter <NUM> and the receiver <NUM> shown in <FIG>, the terminal device <NUM> may further include other communications components such as a GPS module, a Bluetooth (Bluetooth) module, and a wireless fidelity (Wireless Fidelity, Wi-Fi) module. The foregoing described wireless communication signal is not limited thereto, and the terminal <NUM> may further support other wireless communication signals, for example, a satellite signal and a short-wave signal. Wireless communication is not limited thereto, and the terminal <NUM> may be further configured with a wired network interface (for example, a LAN interface) to support wired communication.

The input/output module may be configured to implement interaction between the terminal <NUM> and a terminal/an external environment, and may mainly include the audio input/output module <NUM>, the key input module <NUM>, the display <NUM>, and the like. Specifically, the input/output module may further include a camera, a touchscreen, a sensor, and the like. The input/output module communicates with the terminal processor <NUM> through the terminal interface <NUM>.

The memory <NUM> is coupled to the terminal processor <NUM>, and is configured to store various software programs and/or a plurality of sets of instructions. Specifically, the memory <NUM> may include a high-speed random access memory, or may include a nonvolatile memory, for example, one or more disk storage devices, a flash memory device, or another nonvolatile solid-state storage device. The memory <NUM> may store an operating system (which is referred to as a system below), for example, an embedded operating system such as ANDROID, iOS, WINDOWS, or LINUX. The memory <NUM> may further store a network communications program. The network communications program may be used to communicate with one or more additional devices, one or more terminal devices, and one or more network devices. The memory <NUM> may further store a terminal interface program. The terminal interface program may be used to vividly display content of an application program in a graphical operation interface, and receive, by using an input control such as a menu, a dialog box, or a key, a control operation performed by a terminal on the application program.

In some embodiments of this application, the memory <NUM> may be configured to store a program for implementing, on the side of the terminal <NUM>, the signal transmission method provided in one or more embodiments of this application. For an implementation of the signal transmission method provided in one or more embodiments of this application, refer to the following embodiments.

The terminal processor <NUM> may be configured to read and execute a computer-readable instruction. Specifically, the terminal processor <NUM> may be configured to invoke a program stored in the memory <NUM>, for example, a program for implementing, on the side of the terminal device <NUM>, the signal transmission method provided in one or more embodiments of this application, and execute an instruction included in the program.

It may be understood that the terminal <NUM> may be the terminal <NUM> in the wireless communications system <NUM> shown in <FIG>, and may be implemented as a mobile device, a mobile station (mobile station), a mobile unit (mobile unit), a radio unit, a remote unit, a terminal agent, a mobile client, or the like.

It should be noted that the terminal device <NUM> shown in <FIG> is only an implementation of the embodiments of this application. In actual application, the terminal device <NUM> may further include more or fewer components, and this is not limited herein.

<FIG> is a schematic structural diagram of an antenna apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The antenna apparatus <NUM> may include a first determining unit <NUM>, a first sweeping unit <NUM>, and a first alignment unit <NUM>. Optionally, the antenna apparatus may further include a second determining unit <NUM>, a second sweeping unit <NUM>, a second alignment unit <NUM>, a third determining unit <NUM>, a third sweeping unit <NUM>, a third alignment unit <NUM>, a first weighting unit <NUM>, and a second weighting unit <NUM>. Details of the units are described as follows.

The first determining unit <NUM> is configured to determine a first antenna subarray from the N rows and M columns of radiating elements, where the first antenna subarray includes X1 rows and Y1 columns of radiating elements, <NUM> ≤ X1 ≤ N, <NUM> ≤ Y1 ≤ M, and X1 > Y1.

The first sweeping unit <NUM> is configured to control a phase shift increment change of the first antenna subarray to generate a plurality of first beams, where different phase shift increments correspond to different first beams.

The first alignment unit <NUM> is configured to determine a first aligned beam from the plurality of first beams based on a feedback from a receive end.

In a possible implementation, the antenna apparatus further includes:.

In a possible implementation, the antenna apparatus further includes:
the first weighting unit <NUM>, configured to perform Hanning window weighting processing on amplitudes controlled by power amplifiers in each column of radiating elements in the first antenna subarray.

In a possible implementation, the antenna apparatus further includes:
the second weighting unit <NUM>, configured to perform Hanning window weighting processing on amplitudes controlled by power amplifiers in each row of radiating elements in the second antenna subarray.

In a possible implementation, when Y1 is greater than or equal to <NUM>, a column spacing between any two adjacent columns of radiating elements in Y1 columns of radiating elements is d1, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d1 ≤ λ.

In a possible implementation, each of the Y1 columns of radiating elements includes at least two first radiating elements, a row spacing between any two adjacent rows of first radiating elements in the at least two first radiating elements is d2, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d2 ≤ λ.

In a possible implementation, a line formed by connecting center points of projections of the plurality of first beams on the first plane is in a first direction, and the first direction is parallel to a column direction of the X1 rows and Y1 columns of radiating elements.

In a possible implementation, a line formed by connecting center points of projections of the plurality of second beams on the first plane is in a second direction, and the second direction is parallel to a row direction of the X2 rows and Y2 columns of radiating elements.

In a possible implementation, the third antenna subarray includes N rows and M columns of radiating elements.

In a possible implementation, a beam width of the first beam in the first direction is K, sweeping steps of the plurality of first beams are K/<NUM>, and the first direction is parallel to the column direction of the X1 rows and Y1 columns of radiating elements.

In a possible implementation, a beam width of the second beam in the second direction is K, sweeping steps of the plurality of second beams are K/<NUM>, and the second direction is parallel to the row direction of the X2 rows and Y2 columns of radiating elements.

In a possible implementation, the beam width of the first beam in the first direction is K, and/or the beam width of the second beam in the second direction is K; and a beam width of the third beam in the first direction or the second direction is L, the sweeping steps of the plurality of first beams are L/<NUM>, and L < K.

In a possible implementation, when X2 is greater than or equal to <NUM>, a row spacing between any two adjacent rows of radiating elements in X2 rows of radiating elements is d3, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d3 ≤ λ.

In a possible implementation, each of the Y2 rows of radiating elements includes at least two second radiating elements, a column spacing between any two adjacent columns of second radiating elements in the at least two second radiating elements is d4, and λ/<NUM> ≤ d4 ≤ λ.

In a possible implementation, any two radiating elements in a same row in the first antenna subarray have an equal phase, and any two rows of adjacent radiating elements in the first antenna subarray have an equal phase difference at a same moment.

In a possible implementation, any two radiating elements in a same column in the second antenna subarray have an equal phase, and any two columns of adjacent radiating elements in the second antenna subarray have an equal phase difference at a same moment.

It should be noted that, for functions of the functional units in the antenna apparatus <NUM> described in this embodiment of the present invention, refer to related descriptions of the control unit in the antenna apparatus in <FIG>.

In the foregoing embodiments, the descriptions of each embodiment have respective focuses.

It should be noted that, for brief description, the foregoing method embodiments are represented as a series of actions. However, a person skilled in the art should appreciate that this application is not limited to the described order of the actions, because according to this application, some steps may be performed in other orders or simultaneously. It should be further appreciated by a person skilled in the art that the embodiments described in this specification all belong to example embodiments, and the involved actions and modules are not necessarily required for this application.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatuses may be implemented in another manner. For example, the described apparatus embodiments are merely examples. For example, division into the units is merely logical function division and may be other division in an actual implementation. In addition, the displayed or discussed mutual couplings or direct couplings or communication connections may be implemented through some interfaces. The indirect couplings or communication connections between the apparatuses or units may be implemented in electric or another form.

The foregoing units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one position, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected based on actual requirements to achieve the objectives of the solutions in the embodiments.

When the foregoing integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, the integrated unit may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such an understanding, the technical solutions of this application essentially, or the part contributing to the prior art, or all or some of the technical solutions may be implemented in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for instructing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, or the like, and which may be specifically a processor in a computer device) to perform all or some of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of this application. The foregoing storage medium includes: any medium that can store program code, such as a USB flash drive, a removable hard disk, a magnetic disk, an optical disc, a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM for short), or a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM for short).

Claim 1:
An antenna apparatus (<NUM>), comprising an antenna array (<NUM>) and a control unit (<NUM>), wherein
the antenna array comprises at least N rows and M columns of radiating elements;
the control unit is configured to:
determine a first antenna subarray from the N rows and M columns of radiating elements, wherein the first antenna subarray comprises X1 rows and Y1 columns of radiating elements, <NUM> ≤ X1 ≤ N, <NUM> ≤ Y1 ≤ M, and X1 > Y1;
control a phase shift increment change of the first antenna subarray to generate a plurality of first beams, wherein different phase shift increments correspond to different first beams; and
determine a first aligned beam from the plurality of first beams based on a feedback from a receive end; and
the control unit is further configured to:
determine a second antenna subarray from the N rows and M columns of radiating elements, wherein the second antenna subarray comprises X2 rows and Y2 columns of radiating elements, <NUM> ≤ X2 ≤ N, <NUM> ≤ Y2 ≤ M, and Y2 > X2;
control a phase shift increment change of the second antenna subarray to generate a plurality of second beams, wherein different phase shift increments correspond to different second beams;
determine a second aligned beam from the plurality of second beams based on a feedback from the receive end; and
determine a beam direction range based on a direction range in which the first aligned beam intersects with the second aligned beam.