Antenna system capable of beam direction reconfiguration and adjustment and allowing shared use of radio-frequency integrated circuit units

An antenna system, comprising:

• an array antenna module, comprising a plurality of feed antenna units configured to produce at least one input signal;
• a plurality of radio-frequency integrated circuit units respectively electrically connected to the plurality of feed antenna units through a plurality of switching units, wherein a number of the plurality of radio-frequency integrated circuit units is smaller than a number of the plurality of feed antenna units;
• a microwave lens module, having a first side configured to receive the at least one input signal, configured to form at least one beam of electromagnetic waves corresponding to the at least input signal, and having a second side configured to radiate the at least one beam of electromagnetic waves in a particular direction;
• and
• a control module electrically connected to the plurality of switching units and configured to:
• control directly or indirectly each of the plurality of switching units to be switched on or off;
• receive at least one antenna configuration message;
• and
• control, based on the at least one antenna configuration message, at least one of the plurality of switching units to be switched on and rest of the plurality of switching units to be switched off, wherein at least one of the plurality of feed antenna units is electrically connected to the at least one of the plurality of switching units that is switched on, and the at least one of the plurality of feed antenna units is in a working state and configured to receive at least one signal from the plurality of radio-frequency integrated circuit units, and radiate the at least one input signal corresponding to the at least one signal received from the plurality of radio-frequency integrated circuit units to the microwave lens module,
• wherein the array antenna module has a total of a first number of rows of feed antenna unit sets, the rows of feed antenna unit sets are distributed along an axis, each of the rows of feed antenna unit sets has at least one of the plurality of feed antenna units, and the control module is configured to bring every feed antenna unit in a second number of rows of adjacent feed antenna unit sets of the first number of the rows of feed antenna unit sets into the working state according to the at least one antenna configuration message;
• and
• wherein the rows of feed antenna unit sets include a first plurality of rows of feed antenna unit sets not adjacent to each other and a second plurality of rows of feed antenna unit sets not adjacent to each other;
• each of the second plurality of the rows of feed antenna unit sets is adjacent to a corresponding one of the first plurality of the rows of feed antenna unit sets;
• a first one of the plurality of radio-frequency integrated circuit units is connected to the first plurality of the rows of feed antenna unit sets through a first plurality of the plurality of switching units, respectively;
• a second one of the plurality of radio-frequency integrated circuit units is connected to the second plurality of the rows of feed antenna unit sets through a second plurality of the plurality of switching units, respectively;
• and the control module is configured to:
• control, based on a first antenna configuration message, a first one of the first plurality of the switching units to be switched on, rest of the first plurality of switching units to be switched off, a first one of the second plurality of the switching units to be switched on, and rest of the second plurality of switching units to be switched off, so that a first row of the first plurality of the rows of feed antenna unit sets that is connected to the first one of the first plurality of the switching units, and a row of the second plurality of the rows of feed antenna unit sets that is adjacent to the first row of the first plurality of the rows of feed antenna unit sets and connected to the first one of the second plurality of the switching units are in the working state;
• and
• control, based on a second antenna configuration message, a second one of the first plurality of the switching units to be switched on, the first one of the first plurality of switching units to be switched off, so that a second row of the first plurality of the rows of feed antenna unit sets that is connected to the second one of the first plurality of the switching units, and the row of the second plurality of the rows of feed antenna unit sets are in the working state.