Base transceiver station with radiation beam steering and active antenna

1. A base transceiver station for a mobile communications network for communicating with a plurality of subscriber devices within a coverage area, comprising:

an active antenna array, the active antenna array comprising a vertical tilt adaption arrangement adapted to electronically adjust a tilt angle of an antenna beam in dependence of beam tilting control data thereby dynamically change the coverage area served by the base transceiver station and reflect location of ones of the plurality of subscriber devices;

a beam control device for evaluating the distance of the ones of the subscriber devices to the active antenna array and calculating from the distances the beam tilting control data, and

wherein distance data that is used by the beam control device to evaluate the distance of the ones of the subscriber devices to the active antenna array is extracted from data which the base transceiver station is forwarding to other entities in the mobile communications network,

wherein the beam control device is adapted to evaluate at least one of geo-location data received from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, round-trip delay data of signals to and from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, or positioning data received from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, and

wherein the active antenna array is adapted to exchange payload signals and control signals with the base transceiver station in digital form.

2. The base transceiver station according to claim 1 wherein the antenna beam is an antenna beam for transmitting signals to the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices.

3. The base transceiver station according to claim 1 wherein the antenna beam is an antenna beam for receiving signals from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices.

4. The base transceiver station according to claim 3 wherein the beam control device calculates power modification factors for reducing transmit power.

5. The base transceiver station according to claim 1 wherein radio signals are transceived in time slots and wherein the vertical tilt adaption arrangement generates the beam tilting control data for one or more of the time slots.

6. The base transceiver station according to claim 5 wherein the beam control device provides power reduction parameters for reducing the transmit power individually for the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices.

7. An active antenna array for a mobile communications network for communicating with a plurality of subscriber devices within a coverage area, the active antenna array comprising tilt adaption arrangements to electronically adjust a vertical tilt angle of an antenna beam in dependence of beam tilting control data, and thereby dynamically change the coverage area served by the active antenna array to reflect location of ones of the plurality of subscriber devices; wherein the active antenna array comprises an interface to receive beam tilting control data from a remote beam control device, the beam tilting control data being based on the distance of the ones of the subscriber devices to the active antenna array and calculating, from these distances, the beam tilting control data, and wherein distance data that is used by the beam control device to evaluate the distance of the ones of the subscriber devices to the active antenna array is extracted from data which the base transceiver station is forwarding to other entities in the mobile communications network and wherein the beam control device is adapted to evaluate at least one of geo-location data received from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, round-trip delay data of signals to and from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, or positioning data that is received from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, wherein the active antenna array is adapted to exchange payload signals and control signals with a base transceiver station in digital form.

8. The active antenna array of claim 7 wherein the active antenna array is an active antenna array comprising radio units for transceiving radio signals, wherein the beam control device is located in the active antenna array.

9. A chipset for a mobile communications network for communicating with a plurality of subscriber devices within a coverage area, comprising:

a tilt adaption arrangement to electronically adjust a vertical tilt angle of an antenna beam in dependence of beam tilting control data, thereby dynamically changing the coverage area served by the base transceiver station to reflect location of ones of the plurality of subscriber devices;

a beam control device for evaluating the distance of the ones of the subscriber devices to the active antenna array and calculating from the distances the beam tilting control data;

wherein distance data that is used by the beam control device to evaluate the distance of the ones of the subscriber devices to the active antenna array is extracted from data which the base transceiver station is forwarding to other entities in the mobile communications network, wherein the active antenna array is adapted to exchange payload signals and control signals with a base transceiver station in digital form; and

wherein the beam control device is adapted to evaluate at least one of geo-location data received from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, round-trip delay data of signals to and from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, or positioning data that is received from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices.

10. Method for manufacturing a chipset for a base transceiver station for a mobile communications network for communicating with a plurality of subscriber devices within a coverage area comprising:

electronically adjusting a vertical tilt angle of an antenna beam in dependence of beam tilting control data, and thereby dynamically changing the coverage area served by the base transceiver station to reflect location of ones of the plurality of subscriber devices;

extracting distance data from data which the base transceiver station is forwarding to other entities in the mobile communications network

evaluating the distance of the ones of the subscriber devices to the active antenna array based on the extracted distance data and calculating from the distances the beam tilting control data;

evaluating at least one of geo-location data received from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, round-trip delay data of signals to and from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, or positioning data that is received from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices,

wherein the active antenna array is adapted to exchange payload signals and control signals with a base transceiver station in digital form.

11. A method for operating a base transceiver station for a mobile communications network for communicating with a plurality of subscriber devices within a coverage area via an active antenna array comprising

collecting distance data from ones of the plurality of subscriber devices by extracting distance data from data which the base transceiver station is forwarding to ones of the plurality of subscriber devices in the mobile communications network by evaluating at least one of geo-location data received from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, round-trip delay data of signals to and from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices, or positioning data that is received from the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices;

calculating the distance of ones of the plurality of subscriber devices to the active antenna array from the distance data;

calculating beam tilting control data based on the calculated distance of the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices; and

adjusting a vertical tilt angle of an antenna beam in dependence of the beam tilting control data and thereby changing the coverage area to reflect location of the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices,

exchanging payload signals and control signals between the active antenna array and the base transceiver station in digital form by fibre optic means.

12. The method for operating a base transceiver station of claim 11 further comprises calculating power modification factors for reducing transmit power of the antenna beam.

13. The method for operating a base transceiver station of claim 11 in a TDMA-system with a plurality of time slots, further comprising separately for ones of the plurality of time slots

collecting distance data from ones of the plurality of subscriber devices;

calculating the distance of ones of the plurality of subscriber devices to the active antenna array from the distance data;

calculating beam tilting control data based on the calculated distance of the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices;

adjusting a vertical tilt angle of an antenna beam in dependence of the beam tilting control data, thereby changing the coverage area to reflect location of the ones of the plurality of subscriber devices; and

exchanging payload signals and control signals between the active antenna array and the base transceiver station in digital form by fibre optic means.