ANTENNA SWITCHING SYSTEM WITH ADAPTIVE SWITCHING CRITERIA
First Claim
1. A method for using an electronic device that has at least two antennas of which one is selectively used to handle wireless communications traffic, comprising:
- with the antennas, obtaining difference measurements reflecting how much received antenna signal strength differs between the antennas;
applying first and second filters with different filtering speeds to the difference measurements to produce respective first and second filtered difference measurements; and
applying antenna switching criteria to the first and second filtered difference measurements to determine whether to switch a first of the antennas into use in handling the wireless traffic in place of a second of the antennas.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Electronic devices may be provided that contain wireless communications circuitry. The wireless communications circuitry may include radio-frequency transceiver circuitry coupled to multiple antennas. Signal strength measurements may be gathered using the antennas and corresponding signal strength difference measurements may be produced to reflect which of the antennas is exhibiting superior performing. The signal strength difference measurements may be filtered using time-based averaging filters with different speeds. Corresponding filtered difference measurements may be compared to antenna switching criteria such as antenna switching thresholds. An antenna switching threshold may be adjusted in real time based on computations of how much variation is exhibited as a function of time between the difference measurements filtered using the filters of different speeds. Information on device movement or other data may be used in making threshold adjustments.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method for using an electronic device that has at least two antennas of which one is selectively used to handle wireless communications traffic, comprising:
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with the antennas, obtaining difference measurements reflecting how much received antenna signal strength differs between the antennas; applying first and second filters with different filtering speeds to the difference measurements to produce respective first and second filtered difference measurements; and applying antenna switching criteria to the first and second filtered difference measurements to determine whether to switch a first of the antennas into use in handling the wireless traffic in place of a second of the antennas. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of operating an electronic device that has first and second antennas, wherein one of the antennas is selectively switched into use to serve as a currently active antenna that handles wireless communications traffic for the electronic device, the method comprising:
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measuring a first signal strength associated with receiving antenna signals through the first antenna; measuring a second signal strength associated with receiving antenna signals through the second antenna; producing difference measurements by computing differences between the first and second measured signal strengths; applying a first averaging filter to the difference measurements to produce first filtered difference measurements; applying a second averaging filter to the difference measurements to produce second filtered difference measurements; and applying antenna switching criteria to the first and second filtered difference measurements to determine which of the antennas is to serve as the currently active antenna. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An electronic device, comprising:
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wireless circuitry including at least first and second antennas and radio-frequency transceiver circuitry that is coupled to the first and second antennas; and control circuitry configured to control the wireless circuitry to switch a selected one of the first and second antennas into use to handle wireless communications traffic for the electronic device, wherein the control circuitry and wireless circuitry are configured to; obtain difference measurements reflecting how much received antenna signal strength differs between the antennas; apply first and second time-based averaging filters with different respective filtering speeds to the difference measurements to produce respective first and second filtered difference measurements; and apply antenna switching criteria to the first and second filtered difference measurements to determine whether to switch the first or the second antenna into use to handle the wireless communications traffic. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of operating an electronic device that has first and second antennas, wherein one of the antennas is selectively switched into use to serve as a currently active antenna that handles wireless communications traffic for the electronic device, the method comprising:
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measuring a first signal strength associated with receiving antenna signals through the first antenna; measuring a second signal strength associated with receiving antenna signals through the second antenna; producing difference measurements by computing differences between the first and second measured signal strengths; and applying antenna switching criteria to the difference measurements to determine which of the antennas is to serve as the currently active antenna, wherein applying the antenna switching criteria comprises computing a value indicative of how many times per unit time an antenna switching threshold is exceeded by the difference measurements. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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Specification