Steerable antenna and receiver interface for terrestrial broadcast
First Claim
1. An apparatus for use with an antenna device having an electronically steerable antenna pattern, said antenna device supporting a plurality of antenna pattern positions, the apparatus comprising:
- an antenna control module for generating a plurality of multi-bit digital control signals to steer said antenna pattern as a function of at least one signal measurement value corresponding to a signal received by said antenna device, each multi-bit digital control signal including at least a first antenna device control value and a second antenna device control value, said first and second antenna device control values providing different antenna control information.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Antennas with steerable antenna patterns and techniques for using such antennas are described. In accordance with the invention, antenna patterns with one or more NULLs are used. Through the use of digital control signals the antenna pattern is steered so that a source of signal interference, e.g., a multipath signal, will be located in a NULL. In this manner the received signal'"'"'s S/N ratio can be maximized thereby facilitating demodulation. The techniques of the invention can be applied to television, computer devices, mobile devices and a wide range of other systems. Digital commands to control an antenna may include multiple information fields, e.g., a direction field, a channel field, a gain field and a polarity field. Antennas incapable of supporting the specified fields disregard information in fields which are not supported. Information in each supported field is decoded and used to adjust the corresponding antenna characteristic.
55 Citations
23 Claims
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1. An apparatus for use with an antenna device having an electronically steerable antenna pattern, said antenna device supporting a plurality of antenna pattern positions, the apparatus comprising:
an antenna control module for generating a plurality of multi-bit digital control signals to steer said antenna pattern as a function of at least one signal measurement value corresponding to a signal received by said antenna device, each multi-bit digital control signal including at least a first antenna device control value and a second antenna device control value, said first and second antenna device control values providing different antenna control information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15)
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13. The apparatus 2, wherein the antenna control module includes:
means for including channel information in at least some of said digital antenna control signals.
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16. A method of controlling an antenna device, the method comprising:
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receiving a signal from the antenna device; and
generating multi-bit antenna control signal used for controlling characteristics of an antenna, the control signal comprising;
a first signal component including one of;
a direction field including antenna pattern direction control information, a gain field including antenna gain information, a channel number field including a channel number, and a polarization field including antenna polarization information; and
a second signal component, said second signal component including a field which is different from the field included in said first signal component, said second signal component including one of;
a direction field including antenna pattern direction control information, a gain field including antenna gain information, a channel number field including a channel number, and a polarization field including antenna polarization information. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of controlling an antenna, the method comprising the steps of:
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generating at least one digital control signal including a direction information field and at least one of a gain information field, channel number field, and polarization information field; and
transmitting said digital control signal to an antenna. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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Specification