Tri-band single chain radio receiver for concurrent radio

The bandwidth available for improving throughputs to future mobile devices at sub-6 GHz frequencies can be increased through aggregating multiple non-contiguous bands, which may be using the same or different radio access technologies to transmit information. However, with conventional radio technology, a complete radio frequency (RF) chain is required for each band, limiting the possible increase due to space and energy consumption restraints in the mobile station (MS). This paper presents and measures a single RF chain radio for concurrent reception of three non-contiguous bands transmitting 16-QAM LTE signals, using a tunable analogue front-end and software defined radio (SDR) techniques. The receiver sensitivity is degraded by only 6dB under worst-case concurrent reception, compared with reception of a single band. This demonstrates that complex signaling techniques can be received concurrently with a single radio chain while meeting the 3GPP standards, opening the way to compact, efficient, multiband receivers for future standards.