Optimum scan for fixed-wireless smart antennas
First Claim
1. A smart antenna system for wireless communication between devices, comprising:
- a smart antenna subsystem adapted to be spatially steered and including an antenna array of a plurality of directional antenna elements, and further including a beam former;
a wireless communicator;
a baseband unit;
a performance monitor;
a memory;
a signal processing unit to scan configurations of and form a beam of the antenna subsystem;
said performance monitor measuring a bit error rate (BER) and/or received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and/or SNR; and
said memory having a machine readable media with a machine readable code representative of the measured BER and/or RSSI and/or SNR linked to different past configurations of the smart antenna subsystem.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Events determine the timing of when to change performance, for example when to scan or when to use a prior stored usually best-performance configuration or just a last configuration, for a smart antenna in a fixed or almost fixed usage like a wireless local area network and a television system. Thereby the system maintains unchanged the parameters, such as those that determine the beam form of the smart antenna until monitoring recognizes one or a combination of more than one of the following conditions or event occurrences; the device communicate with another device for the first time; reboot of the device or the device turns on; the received signal exceeds a predetermined bit error rate (BER); the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) is less than a determined RSSI; the received signal goes below a predetermined signal to noise ratio (SNR); and a user'"'"'s demand. The performance is changed by changing of the communication parameters, for example: the previous measured configuration data to reduce the scan area and reduces the scan time; control of the transmission power of the communicating device to maintain performance or quality; channel selection to minimize collision in the transmission; switching to the another antenna; change the data rate; and change the modulation scheme. Maintaining the communication with another antenna during the scan of one smart antenna is another key point.
319 Citations
33 Claims
-
1. A smart antenna system for wireless communication between devices, comprising:
-
a smart antenna subsystem adapted to be spatially steered and including an antenna array of a plurality of directional antenna elements, and further including a beam former;
a wireless communicator;
a baseband unit;
a performance monitor;
a memory;
a signal processing unit to scan configurations of and form a beam of the antenna subsystem;
said performance monitor measuring a bit error rate (BER) and/or received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and/or SNR; and
said memory having a machine readable media with a machine readable code representative of the measured BER and/or RSSI and/or SNR linked to different past configurations of the smart antenna subsystem.
-
-
2. A smart antenna system for wireless communication between devices, comprising:
-
a smart antenna subsystem unit adapted to be spatially steered and including an antenna array of a plurality of directional antenna elements, and a beam former;
a wireless communicator unit;
a performance monitor;
a memory;
a signal processing unit to scan configurations of and form a beam of the antenna subsystem;
said performance monitor measuring a bit error rate (BER) and/or received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and/or Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) during normal valid data wireless communication with said smart antenna subsystem;
said memory having a machine readable media with a machine readable code representative of performance reference values for BER and/or RSSI and/or SNR;
said performance monitor comparing the measured BER and/or RSSI and/or SNR with the performance reference values for BER and/or RSSI and/or SNR, respectively, on a substantially continuous basis during communication of valid data and producing a signal when the comparing indicates a predetermined degradation of performance; and
said performance monitor, coupled to at least one of said units, and being responsive to the signal to generate a command to said at least one of said units to change the beam form of said smart antenna subsystem. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. An antenna system for wireless communication between relatively fixed locations, comprising:
-
a smart antenna subsystem adapted to be spatially steered, including an array of antenna elements and a beam former to scan and shape the beam of the array;
a performance monitor coupled to said signal processor to measure wireless communication performance;
a memory storing a plurality of past configurations of said smart antenna subsystem; and
said monitor commanding said smart antenna subsystem to change to one of said past configurations upon the occurrence of a predetermined event. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
-
-
9. A wireless data communication system for a relatively fixed environment, comprising:
-
a smart antenna subsystem adapted to be spatially steered;
a monitor couple to continuously receive valid data during communication and continuously generate updated performance data; and
said monitor having a comparator generating a beam form change command in response to a comparison of the updated performance data with a predetermined performance reference indicating a predetermined degradation of performance. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A method performed by a machine for wireless communication with a smart antenna system in a relatively fixed environment, comprising the steps of:
-
performing a start operation for the system; and
in response to said start operation, configuring the smart antenna to a configuration stored into a memory prior to said start operation. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. A method performed by a machine for wireless communication with a smart antenna system in a relatively fixed environment, comprising the steps of:
-
wireless communicating valid data with a fixed smart antenna configuration having a beam shape;
monitoring said wireless communicating for a predetermined degradation of performance; and
in response to the predetermined degradation, changing the beam shape of the smart antenna. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
-
Specification