Apparatus and Method for Sensor-Based Wireless Receive Diversity

• US 20080112468A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Sheynblat, Leonid, Heshmati, Ardalan, Rowitch, Douglas N.
• Granted Patent: US 9,368,868 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/148
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/26 involving a sensor measurement for aiding acquisition or tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/36 relating to the receiver frond end
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/28 Combinations of substantially independent non-interacting antenna units or systems multiple beam H01Q25/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/24 varying the orientation by switching energy from one active radiating element to another, e.g. for beam switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0805 with single receiver and antenna switching H04B7/0822 takes precedence

Abstract

An apparatus and method are disclosed for achieving receiver diversity. A wireless unit includes a plurality of antennas, an antenna selector to select one or more antennas from the plurality of antennas, a processor with input data from an inertial sensor for monitoring the orientation of the wireless unit. Based on the input data, the processor commands the antenna selector to select one or more antennas. In one aspect, the processor is a diversity processor. Based on the input data from the inertial sensor, the diversity processor computes the combination of the received signals. In another aspect, the wireless unit further includes a baseband processor to process the output of the diversity processor for a particular unit application.

Claims

1. A wireless unit for implementing antenna selection comprising:

a plurality of antennas for receiving a signal;

an antenna selector for selecting one or more antennas from the plurality of antennas;

an inertial sensor for sensing the orientation of the wireless unit and generating an orientation information; and

a processor for processing the orientation information and commanding the antenna selector to select one or more antennas from the plurality of antennas based on the orientation information.

2. The wireless unit of claim 1 wherein the plurality of antennas includes one or more dual-polarized antennas.

3. The wireless unit of claim 1 wherein the plurality of antennas is implemented by one or more dual-polarized antenna.

4. The wireless unit of claim 1 wherein the plurality of antennas is two.

5. The wireless unit of claim 1 further comprising a receiver for receiving the signal from one of the plurality of antennas.

6. The wireless unit of claim 5 wherein the plurality of antennas is two.

7. The wireless unit of claim 5 wherein the receiver is a multi-channel receiver.

8. The wireless unit of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of receivers for receiving the signal from the plurality of antennas, wherein the plurality of antennas is greater than the plurality of receivers.

9. The wireless unit of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of receivers for receiving the signal from the plurality of antennas, wherein the plurality of antennas is equals than the plurality of receivers.

10. The wireless unit of claim 1 wherein the inertial sensor is an accelerometer.

11. A wireless unit for implementing receive diversity comprising:

a plurality of antennas for receiving a plurality of signals;

at least one receiver coupled to the plurality of antennas for converting the plurality of signals into a plurality of receiver outputs;

a diversity processor coupled to the at least one receiver for performing diversity processing on the plurality of receiver outputs; and

an inertial sensor coupled to the diversity processor for generating an orientation information to input to the diversity processor, wherein the orientation information affects the diversity processing on the plurality of receiver outputs.

12. The wireless unit of claim 11 wherein the diversity processor performs a weighted average processing on the plurality of receiver outputs.

13. The wireless unit of claim 11 wherein the diversity processor is in analog format and includes an analog phase rotator and diversity combiner.

14. The wireless unit of claim 13 further comprising a digital baseband processor coupled to the diversity processor for performing phase rotation and despreading to recover a baseband signal.

15. The wireless unit of claim 14 wherein the digital baseband processor further performs coherent accumulation to recover the baseband signal.

16. The wireless unit of claim 15 wherein the digital baseband processor further performs non-coherent accumulation to recover the baseband signal.

17. The wireless unit of claim 11 wherein the diversity processor is in digital format.

18. The wireless unit of claim 17 further comprising a digital baseband processor coupled to the diversity processor for performing phase rotation and despreading to recover a baseband signal, and wherein the diversity processor coherently samples and diversity combines the plurality of receiver outputs.

23. The wireless unit of claim 18 wherein the diversity processing is performed non-coherently.

19. A wireless unit for implementing receive diversity comprising:

a plurality of antennas for receiving a plurality of signals;

at least one receiver coupled to the plurality of antennas for converting the plurality of signals into a plurality of receiver outputs;

a first baseband processor coupled to the at least one receiver for performing baseband processing on the plurality of receiver outputs and generating a plurality of processor outputs;

a diversity processor coupled to the first baseband processor for performing diversity processing on the plurality of processor outputs to recover a baseband signal; and

an inertial sensor coupled to the diversity processor for generating an orientation information to input to the diversity processor, wherein the orientation information affects the diversity processing on the plurality of processor outputs.

20. The wireless unit of claim 19 wherein the baseband processing includes performing phase rotation and despreading on the plurality of receiver outputs.

21. The wireless unit of claim 19 wherein the diversity processing includes performing accumulation and diversity combining on the plurality of processor outputs.

22. The wireless unit of claim 21 wherein the diversity processing is performed coherently.

24. A method for implementing antenna selection comprising:

sensing orientation of a wireless unit;

generating an orientation information based on the orientation of the wireless unit;

processing the orientation information to command an antenna selector to select from a plurality of antennas;

selecting one or more selected antennas from the plurality of antennas; and

using the one or more selected antenna to receive a signal.

25. A method for implementing receive diversity comprising:

receiving a plurality of signals;

converting the plurality of signals into a plurality of receiver outputs;

performing diversity processing on the plurality of receiver outputs;

sensing orientation of a wireless unit; and

generating an orientation information based on the orientation of the wireless unit, wherein the orientation information affects the diversity processing on the plurality of receiver outputs.