Dynamic variation of power per antenna to facilitate beamforming of antenna array
Methods and systems are provided for dynamically adjusting the beamform of an antenna array. A first beamform produced by an emission from a first antenna and an emission from a second antenna are determined, each of the first antenna and the second antenna having separate power supplies. Positions of user devices served by the cell of the antenna array are determined and compared to the first beamform. If it is determined that a second beamform would provide better coverage to any one or more of the user devices served by the cell, any one or more of the power supplies to individual antennas may be modified. Any one or more power supplies may utilize changes in the phase and/or amplitude of the power supplied to an antenna to change the emission of at least one antenna, producing a second beamform. The second beamform, in particular, may permit dynamic targeting of various vertical distributions of user devices within the cell.
1. A method for dynamically adjusting a beamform in one or more wireless communications networks, the method comprising:
determining that a first antenna of an antenna array is supplied with a first power supply and a second antenna of the antenna array is supplied with a second power supply, wherein an emission from the first antenna and an emission from the second antenna produces a first beamform;
determining positions of a plurality of UE in a cell served by the antenna array;
comparing the positions of the plurality of UE in the cell to an area served by the first beamform; and
adjusting one or more of the first power supply and the second power supply to produce a second beamform.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second beamform is different than the first beamform, the second beamform providing better throughput to one or more of the plurality of UE in the cell than the first beamform.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the second beamform has different gain characteristics in vertical space than the first beamform, without physically changing the position of the first antenna and the second antenna.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first antenna and the second antenna are disposed in different rows of the antenna array.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein prior to adjusting one or more of the first power supply and the second power supply, the channel quality of the plurality of UE is determined in addition to the positions of the plurality of UE in the cell and compared to the area served by the first beamform.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more wireless communications network communicates with the plurality of UE using time division duplex (TDD).
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the channel quality of the plurality of UE is determined utilizing any one or more of: uplink pilot time slot, sounding resource signal, sounding reference signal, channel quality indicator, tonnage, number UE connected in the cell, uplink throughput rate, and downlink throughput rate.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the positions of a plurality of UE in a cell is estimated based on historical distributions of UE in the cell.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the antenna array comprises 64 dipole antennas, each of the dipole antennas comprising two conductive elements, the dipole antennas of the array arranged in a pattern eight dipole antennas wide by eight dipole antennas tall.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first power supply comprises a first power amplifier and a first power controller and the second power supply comprises a second power amplifier and second power controller.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the second beamform is produced by adjusting the phase of the one or more of the first power supply using the first power amplifier and the second power supply using the second power amplifier.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the second beamform is produced by adjusting the amplitude of the one or more of the first power supply using the first power amplifier and the second power supply using the second power amplifier.
13. A non-transitory computer storage media storing computer-usable instructions that, when used by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
determine that a first antenna of an antenna array is supplied with a first power supply and a second antenna of the antenna array is supplied with a second power supply, wherein an emission from the first antenna and an emission from the second antenna produces a first beamform;
estimate positions of a plurality of UE in a cell served by the antenna array based on historical locations of UE in the cell;
compare the likely positions of the plurality of UE in the cell to the area served by the first beamform; and
provide instructions to adjust one or more of the first power supply and the second power supply to produce a second beamform.
14. The non-transitory computer storage media of claim 13 , wherein the second beamform is different than the first beamform, the second beamform providing better throughput to one or more of the plurality of UE in the cell than the first beamform.
15. The non-transitory computer storage media of claim 14 , wherein the second beamform has different gain characteristics in vertical space than the first beamform, without physically changing the position of the first antenna and the second antenna.
16. A system for dynamically adjusting a beamform in one or more wireless communications networks, the system comprising:
one or more processors;
an antenna array comprising a first antenna and a second antenna; and
one or more non-transitory computer storage media storing computer-usable instructions that, when used by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
determine that the first antenna of the antenna array is supplied with a first power supply and the second antenna of the antenna array is supplied with a second power supply, wherein an emission from the first antenna and an emission from the second antenna produces a first beamform;
determine the positions of a plurality of UE in a cell served by the antenna array;
compare the positions of the plurality of UE in the cell to an area served by the first beamform; and
provide instructions to adjust one or more of the first power supply and the second power supply to produce a second beamform.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the first power supply is controlled by a first power amplifier and the second power supply is controlled by a second power amplifier.
18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the one or more of the first supply and the second power supply is adjusted by the one or more of the first power amplifier and the second power amplifier changing the amplitude of one or more of the first emission and the second emission.
19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the second beamform is different than the first beamform, the second beamform providing better throughput to one or more of the plurality of UE in the cell than the first beamform.
20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the second beamform has different gain characteristics in vertical space than the first beamform, without physically changing the position of the first antenna and the second antenna.