DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF TRANSCEIVERS AND FREQUENCY CHANNELS IN MIMO SYSTEMS

摘要

A communication system is provided that switches the communication of multi-antenna transmitter and receiver terminals between MIMO and frequency-bundle modes. In MIMO mode all transmitter and receiver antennas operate in the same frequency channel while in frequency-bundle mode each pair of one transmitter antenna and one receiver antenna is tuned to a different frequency channel. The communication system includes one or more control modules that collect, analyze, and apply configurations to the terminals and switch the operation of one or more transmit/receive terminal pairs between the MIMO and frequency-bundle modes based on the collected information and metrics. The monitored information and metrics include the availability of idle frequency channels in the available frequency band, propagation channel conditions, peak throughput demand by different users, power consumption budget and battery lives of different terminals, distance between transmitter and receiver antennas in each communicating transmitter/receiver pair, and overall traffic demand by terminals.

主权项

1. A method of configuring a communication system operating on a frequency band divided into a plurality of frequency channels, the communication system comprising a transmitter terminal comprising a plurality of antennas and a receiver terminal comprising a plurality of antennas, the method comprising:
monitoring a set of metrics for the communication system; configuring the transmitter and receiver terminals to communicate with each other in a first mode of operation when the set of metrics meet a first set of criteria, wherein in the first mode of operation all antennas of the transmitter terminal and all antennas of the receiver terminal operate over a first frequency channel in the plurality of frequency channels; and configuring the transmitter and receiver terminals to communicate with each other in a second mode of operation when the set of metrics meet a second set of criteria, wherein in the second mode of operation (i) at least one antenna of the transmitter terminal and at least one antenna of the receiver terminal to communicate with each other over the first frequency channel and (ii) at least one antenna of the transmitter terminal and at least one antenna of the receiver terminal communicate with each other over a second frequency channel in the plurality of frequency channels, wherein the first frequency channel is different than the second frequency channel.