Base station with interference monitoring circuit
A base station is disclosed, comprising: a processor; a memory coupled to the processor; a base station access radio coupled to the processor; a user equipment module, coupled to the processor, for providing a backhaul link for the base station; and a sniffing circuit coupled to the processor. The sniffing circuit further comprises: a radio receiver coupled to an amplifier and a filter, the amplifier and the filter both capable of being used across a plurality of frequencies; and a baseband processor coupled to the radio receiver, configured to convert a received signal from the radio receiver to a baseband frequency, to determine whether the received signal is one of a 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, or 5G signal, to measure a signal strength of the received signal, and to identify a synchronization signal within the received signal.
1. A base station, comprising:
a processor;
a memory coupled to the processor;
a base station access radio coupled to the processor;
a user equipment module, coupled to the processor, for providing a backhaul link for the base station; and
a sniffer circuit coupled to the processor, wherein the sniffer circuit further comprises:
a PHY processing layer for receiving in-phase and quadrature samples from a radio receive chain;
at least two radio access technology (RAT)-specific layer 1/physical layer (L1/PHY) processing modules supporting at least two of 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, WiMax, or 5G radio access technologies, for receiving the in-phase and quadrature samples from the PHY processing layer and for performing RAT-specific processing on the received samples; and
wherein the base station is a mobile base station providing access in a moving vehicle, the base station being configured to detect nearby radio frequency sources using the sniffer circuit, the base station being configured to turn itself on and off to avoid interference with other base stations in proximity of the vehicle and wherein the sniffer circuit is turned off or on based on a vehicle ignition status.
2. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the sniffer circuit is enabled to operate continuously and asynchronously and to report status to the processor periodically or based on a change in a monitored signal.
3. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the sniffer circuit is coupled to a wideband radio frequency filter.
4. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the sniffer circuit is coupled to a wideband radio frequency power amplifier.
5. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the sniffer circuit is coupled to a software-defined radio and is configured to retune the software-defined radio to receive signals in specific frequency bands, and wherein the specific frequency bands are selected from the set of global UMTS transmission bands.
6. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the sniffer circuit is configured to receive samples and process the samples using a CDMA algorithm, an OFDM algorithm, or a TDMA algorithm, sequentially or in parallel, thereby determining a signal type of the received samples.
7. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the sniffer circuit is configured to extract one or more of EARFCN, signal strength, Public Land Mobile Network Identifier (PLMN ID), Physical Cell Identifier (PCI), E-UTRAN Cell Global Identifier (ECGI), or other information found in typical UE measurement reports.
8. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the sniffer circuit is configured to identify specific signals and create a corresponding neighbor relations table.
9. The base station of claim 1 , wherein an output of the sniffer circuit is coupled to a self-organizing network (SON) module, enabling the SON module to perform one or more of:
maintaining a neighbor list; noting adjacent power; coordinating signal strength or power with neighbors; coordinating selection of RAT or standup of an access network; and providing analytics.
10. The base station of claim 1 , wherein an output measurement of the sniffer circuit is stored together with a positioning coordinate, or a timestamp, or both, in a database.
11. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the sniffer circuit is turned off or on based on a vehicle velocity.
12. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the base station is a mobile base station providing LTE access in a moving vehicle, the base station being configured to detect nearby radio frequency sources using the sniffer circuit.
13. The base station of claim 1 , further comprises a plurality of sniffer circuits, each of the plurality of sniffer circuits supports a single radio access technology, one or more of the plurality of sniffer circuits coupled via a bus to a radio frequency receiver circuit.
14. The base station of claim 1 , further comprises an RF switch, and the sniffer circuit further comprises a plurality of layer 1/physical layer (L1/PHY) processing modules, each of the plurality of L1/PHY processing modules supports one of 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, WiMax, or 5G radio access technology.
15. The base station of claim 14 , wherein the RF switch sends a single set of RF I/Q samples to the plurality L1/PHY processing modules.
16. The base station of claim 14 , wherein the RF switch is one of an Ethernet switch or common public radio interface (CPRI) switch.
17. The base station of claim 14 , wherein a L1/PHY processing module of the plurality of L1/PHY processing modules provides partial network processing, the partial network processing includes processing of one or more EARFCN, signal strength, Public Land Mobile Network Identifier (PLMN ID), Physical Cell Identifier (PCI), E-UTRAN Cell Global Identifier (ECGI), or other information found in typical UE measurement reports.
18. The base station of claim 1 wherein an EARFCN is used to identify a specific cell or network of an interferer.
19. The base station of claim 1 wherein the sniffer circuit includes at least one of:
a 2G partial UE including a 2G partial UE sniffer application and a 2G partial UE interface;
a 3G partial UE including a 3G partial UE sniffer application and a 3G partial UE interface;
a 4G partial UE including a 4G partial UE sniffer application and a 4G partial UE interface; and
a 5G partial UE including a 5G partial UE sniffer application and a 5G partial UE interface;
wherein at least one of the 2G partial UE sniffer application, 3G partial UE sniffer application, 4G partial UE sniffer application, and 5G partial UE sniffer application requests cell search or measurements reports.
20. A base station, comprising:
a processor;
a memory coupled to the processor;
a base station access radio coupled to the processor;
a user equipment module, coupled to the processor, for providing a backhaul link for the base station; and
a sniffer circuit coupled to the processor, wherein the sniffer circuit further comprises:
a PHY processing layer for receiving in-phase and quadrature samples from a radio receive chain;
at least two radio access technology (RAT)-specific partial user equipment modules, for receiving the in-phase and quadrature samples from the PHY processing layer and for performing RAT-specific processing on the received samples;
wherein the base station is a mobile base station providing access in a moving vehicle, the base station being configured to detect nearby radio frequency sources using the sniffer circuit; the base station being configured to detect nearby radio frequency sources using the sniffer circuit and to turn itself on and off to avoid interference with other base stations in proximity of the vehicle, and wherein the sniffer circuit is turned off or on based on a vehicle ignition status; and
an RF switch, and wherein the sniffer circuit further comprises a plurality of layer 1/physical layer (L1/PHY) processing modules supporting at least two of 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, WiMax, or 5G radio access technologies.