BIDIRECTIONAL ITERATIVE BEAM FORMING

• US 20090233545A1
• Filed: 10/31/2008
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Niu, Huaning, Kasher, Assaf, Sutskover, Ilan, Li, Quinghua
• Granted Patent: US 8,626,080 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/25
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/26 varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture H01Q3/12, H01Q3/22, H01Q3/24 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0632 Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0682 using phase diversity (e.g. phase sweeping)
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams

Abstract

Bidirectional iterative beam forming techniques are described. An apparatus may include a wireless device having an antenna control module operative to initiate beam formation operations using an iterative training scheme to form a pair of communications channels for a wireless network, the antenna control module to communicate training signals and feedback information with a peer device via the transceiver and phased antenna array using partially or fully formed high rate channels, and iteratively determine antenna-array weight vectors for a directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array using feedback information from the peer device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A wireless device, comprising:

a phased antenna array;

a transceiver communicatively coupled to the phased antenna array; and

an antenna control module communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the phased antenna array, the antenna control module operative to initiate beam formation operations using an iterative training scheme to form a pair of communications channels for a wireless network, the antenna control module to communicate training signals and feedback information with a peer device via the transceiver and phased antenna array using at least a high rate channel for the feedback information, and iteratively determine antenna-array weight vectors for a directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array using feedback information from the peer device.

2. The wireless device of claim 1, the antenna control module operative to send training signals to the peer device over a downlink high rate channel.

3. The wireless device of claim 2, the antenna control module operative to send receiver training signals to the peer device over the downlink high rate channel, the receiver training signals for use in forming a directional receive beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the peer device.

4. The wireless device of claim 2, the antenna control module operative to send transmitter training signals to the peer device over the downlink high rate channel, the transmitter training signals for use in forming the directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array.

5. The wireless device of claim 1, the antenna control module operative to receive training signals from the peer device over an uplink high rate channel.

6. The wireless device of claim 5, the antenna control module operative to receive receiver training signals from the peer device over the uplink high rate channel to form a directional receive beam pattern for the phased antenna array.

7. The wireless device of claim 5, the antenna control module operative to receive transmitter training signals from the peer device over the uplink high rate channel to form a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the second device.

8. The wireless device of claim 6, the antenna control module operative to receive feedback information from the peer device over the uplink high rate channel using the directional receive beam pattern for the phased antenna array.

9. The wireless device of claim 1, the antenna control module operative to send feedback information to the peer device over a downlink high rate channel using the directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array, the feedback information for use in determining antenna-array weight vectors for a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the peer device.

10. The wireless device of claim method of claim 10, the antenna control module operative to continue beam forming operations using multiple iterations until a determined signal-to-noise ratio for data communications is reached or a determined number of iterations is reached.

11. A method comprising:

initiating beam formation operations using an iterative training scheme to form a pair of communications channels for a wireless network;

communicating training signals and feedback information between a first device and a second device using at least a high rate channel for the feedback information; and

determining antenna-array weight vectors for a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the first device using feedback information from the second device.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising sending training signals from the first device to the second device over a downlink high rate channel.

13. The method of claim 12, comprising sending receiver training signals from the first device to the second device over the downlink high rate channel to form a directional receive beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the second device.

14. The method of claim 12, comprising sending transmitter training signals from the first device to the second device over the downlink high rate channel to form the directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device.

15. The method of claim 11, comprising receiving training signals by the first device from the second device over an uplink high rate channel.

16. The method of claim 15, comprising receiving receiver training signals by the first device from the second device over the uplink high rate channel to form a directional receive beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device.

17. The method of claim 15, comprising receiving transmitter training signals by the first device from the second device over the uplink high rate channel to form a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the second device.

18. The method of claim 11, comprising:

receiving feedback information by the first device from the second device over an uplink high rate channel using a directional receive beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device; and

determining antenna-array weight vectors for the directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device using the feedback information from the second device.

19. The method of claim 11, comprising sending feedback information from the first device to the second device over a downlink high rate channel using a directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device, the feedback information for use in determining antenna-array weight vectors for a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the second device using the feedback information from the first device.

20. The method of claim 11, comprising communicating training signals and feedback information, and determining antenna-array vector weights for the directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device, using multiple iterations until a determined signal-to-noise ratio for data communications is reached or until a determined number of iterations is reached.

21. An article comprising a computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that if executed enable a system to:

initiate beam formation operations using an iterative training scheme to form a pair of communications channels for a wireless network;

send training signals from a first device to a second device over a downlink high rate channel;

receive feedback information by the first device from the second device over an uplink high rate channel; and

determine antenna-array weight vectors for a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the first device using feedback information from the second device.

22. The article of claim 21, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a system to send receiver training signals from the first device to the second device over the downlink high rate channel to form a directional receive beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the second device.

23. The article of claim 21, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a system to send transmitter training signals from the first device to the second device over the downlink high rate channel to form the directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device.

24. The article of claim 21, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a system to receive receiver training signals by the first device from the second device over the uplink high rate channel to form a directional receive beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device.

25. The article of claim 24, further comprising instructions that if executed enable a system to receive feedback information by the first device from the second device over an uplink high rate channel using the directional receive beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device.

26. A method comprising:

performing bidirectional beam formation operations using an iterative training scheme to form a bidirectional high gain channel for a wireless network; and

interleaving transmit and receive beam forming operations for a first device and a second device to allow feedback information received by the first device from the second device to be communicated over a high rate channel during the bidirectional beam formation operations.

27. The method of claim 26, comprising:

sending training signals to the second device over a downlink channel to subsequently form a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the first device;

receiving first feedback information from the second device over an uplink low rate channel;

determining antenna-array weight vectors for the directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device using the first feedback information;

sending training signals to the second device over the downlink channel to form a directional receive beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the second device;

receiving training signals from the second device over the uplink high rate channel to form a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the second device; and

sending second feedback information from the first device to the second device over a downlink high rate channel using a directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device, the second feedback information for use in determining antenna-array weight vectors for the directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the second device.

28. The method of claim 26, comprising sending transmitter training signals from the first device to the second device over a downlink high rate channel to form a directional transmit beam pattern for a subset of antenna elements of the phased antenna array of the first device.

29. The method of claim 26, comprising receiving modulation and coding scheme information for the feedback information.

30. The method of claim 26, comprising increasing an amount of feedback information for each iterative training.