Adaptive array antenna

• US 20030016173A1
• Filed: 09/23/2002
• Published: 01/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Shuichi Obayashi
• Original Assignee: Shuichi Obayashi
• Inventors: Obayashi, Shuichi
• Granted Patent: US 6,750,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/372
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/2605 Array of radiating elements provided with a feedback control over the element weights, e.g. adaptive arrays

Abstract

An adaptive array antenna comprising array antenna elements, first and second phase control circuits for transmission data packet, a distributor distributing the transmission data packet to one of the first and second phase control circuits based on the destination, and phase shift amount control circuit controlling the phase shift amount of the first and second phase control circuits based on the destination.

Claims

1. An adaptive array antenna comprising:

array antenna elements;

first and second phase control circuits which control phase shift amount of a transmission data packet and supply the transmission data packet to the array antenna elements;

a distributor configured to distribute the transmission data packet to one of the first and second phase control circuits based on a destination user information of the data packet; and

a phase shift amount control circuit configured to control the phase shift amount of the first and second phase control circuits based on the destination user information of the data packet distributed to the first and second phase control circuits.

2. The adaptive array antenna according to claim 1, wherein each of said first and second phase control circuits comprises a local signal oscillator, a phase shifter configured to control a phase of a local signal output from the local signal oscillator, and a frequency converter configured to convert a frequency of the transmission data packet based on a phase controlled local signal output from the phase shifter.

3. The adaptive array antenna according to claim 2, wherein said phase shifter comprises a quadrature modulator.

4. The adaptive array antenna according to claim 1, wherein the phase shift amount control circuit controls the phase shift amount of the first and second phase control circuits before the data packet is distributed to the first and second phase control circuits.

5. The adaptive array antenna according to claim 1, wherein the distributor distributes a data packet to the first phase control circuit, distributes a succeeding data packet to the first phase control circuit if the destination user information of the data packet is identical to the destination user information of the preceding data packet, and distributes a succeeding data packet to the second phase control circuit if the destination user information of the data packet is different from the destination user information of the preceding data packet.

6. The adaptive array antenna according to claim 1, further comprising:

first and second transmission burst signal generation circuits which are connected between the distributor and the first and second phase control circuits and generate first and second transmission burst signals based on the data packet, the first and second transmission burst signals having ramp-up and ramp-down components at a trailing edge and a falling edge.

7. The adaptive array antenna according to claim 6, wherein said phase shift amount control circuit completes control of the phase shift amount until the first and second transmission burst signals are supplied to the first and second phase shift control circuits from the first and second transmission burst signal generation circuits.

8. A transmitter for supplying a data packet to array antenna elements, the transmitter comprising:

a distributor configured to receive the data packet and its destination user information and distribute the data packet to one of first and second paths based on the destination user information; and

first and second transmission signal generation circuits which receive the data packets distributed to the first and second paths and generate first and second transmission burst intermediate frequency signals;

first and second dividers which receive the first and second transmission burst intermediate frequency signals and divide the first and second transmission burst intermediate frequency signals into a number of signals which equals to the number of the array antenna elements;

first phase control circuits configured to receive outputs from the first divider;

second phase control circuits configured to receive outputs from the second divider;

a first phase shift amount control circuit configured to control phase shift amounts of the first phase control circuits based on the destination user information;

a second phase shift amount control circuit configured to control phase shift amounts of the second phase control circuits based on the destination user information;

adders configured to add outputs of the first phase control circuits and the second phase control circuits; and

frequency converters configured to convert outputs of the adders to radio signals to be supplied to the array antenna elements.

9. The transmitter according to claim 8, wherein the first and second phase shift amount control circuits control the phase shift amounts of the first and second phase control circuits such that the radio signals radiated from the array antenna elements are directed to the destination user.

10. The transmitter according to claim 8, wherein the distributor distributes a data packet to the first path, distributes a succeeding data packet to the first path if the destination user information of the data packet is identical to the destination user information of the preceding data packet, and distributes a succeeding data packet to the second path if the destination user information of the data packet is different from the destination user information of the preceding data packet.

11. The transmitter according to claim 10, wherein the distributor distributes the destination user information to the first path if the distributor distributes the data packet to the first path and distributes the destination user information to the second path if the distributor distributes the data packet to the second path.

12. The transmitter according to claim 8, wherein said first and second phase shift amount control circuits complete control of the phase shift amount of the first and second phase control circuits until the first and second transmission burst intermediate frequency signals corresponding to the data packet are supplied to the first and second phase shift control circuits.

13. The transmitter according to claim 8, wherein plural data packets are combined without a guard time between the packets to form a frame.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein said data packet is transmitted as a time division multiple frame.

14. A transmission method of an adaptive array antenna comprising:

receiving a data packet and destination user information of the data packet;

determining whether or not the destination user information of the data packet is identical to the destination user information of a preceding data packet;

distributing the data packet and the destination user information to a path which is different from a path to which the preceding data packet and the destination user information are distributed;

setting a phase control amount to a phase control circuit based on the destination user information;

activating the phase control circuit;

generating a transmission burst intermediate frequency signal based on the distributed data packet and supplying the generated transmission burst intermediate frequency signal to the phase control circuit; and

converting the transmission burst intermediate frequency signal output from the phase control circuit to a radio signal to be transmitted from the adaptive array antenna.