DUAL RECEIVER FOR MILLIMETER WAVE COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20170222852A1
• Filed: 01/26/2017
• Published: 08/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: EITAN, Alecsander Petru, SANDEROVICH, Amichai
• Granted Patent: US 10,972,324 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0686 Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and simultaneous transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0868 Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and combining
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2602 Signal structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation

Abstract

Certain aspects relate to methods and apparatus for wireless communication. Particularly, aspects relate to techniques for wireless communications by an apparatus including a receive processing chain configured to process frames of a first type obtained via an omnidirectional antenna and frames of a second type obtained via an antenna array, a detector configured to detect a preamble portion of a frame of the first type, and a processing system configured to switch an input path of the receive processing chain from the antenna array to the omnidirectional antenna after the detection. Other aspects relate to wireless communications by an apparatus including a processing system that generates a frame of a first type having an indication that the apparatus can switch between outputting omnidirectional frames and outputting beamforming frames for transmission independent of channel reservation signaling, and a first interface configured to output the frame of the first type for transmission.

Claims

1. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

an interface configured to obtain one or more frames of a first type via an omnidirectional antenna and one or more frames of a second type obtained via an antenna array; and

a processing system configured to switch an input path of a receive processing chain of the apparatus from the antenna array to the omnidirectional antenna in response to a detection of a preamble portion of the one or more frames of the first type.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the one or more frames of the first type comprise a control frame having a preamble portion longer than a preamble portion of the one or more frames of the second type.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the processing system is further configured to decode the preamble portion of the one or more frames of the first type and to process another portion of the one or more frames of the first type, based on information in the preamble portion.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the processing system is further configured to signal at least one detector that performed the detection to temporarily stop attempting to detect a preamble portion of the one or more frames of the first type, after obtaining one of the one or more frames of the second type.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the processing system is further configured to switch the input path of the receive processing chain back to the antenna array and to process the one or more frames of the second type after processing the one or more frames of the first type.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the interface is further configured to obtain an indication that a transmitting entity is to switch between transmitting omnidirectional frames and beamforming frames, and further wherein

the switch occurs after obtaining the indication.

7. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a processing system configured to generate a frame of a first type having an indication that the apparatus is configured to switch between outputting omnidirectional frames and outputting beamforming frames for transmission independent of channel reservation signaling; and

a first interface configured to output the frame of the first type for transmission.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the omnidirectional frames comprise control frames and the beamforming frames comprise data frames.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein:

the processing system is configured to generate a frame of a second type having an indication that the apparatus is configured to use channel reservation signaling to switch between outputting omnidirectional frames and outputting beamforming frames for transmission; and

the first interface is configured to output the frame of the second type for transmission.

31. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein:

the apparatus comprises a wireless station; and

the first interface comprises a transmitter configured to transmit the frame of the first type.

10-27. -27. (canceled)

28. A wireless station, comprising:

a receive processing chain configured to process one or more frames of a first type obtained via an omnidirectional antenna and one or more frames of a second type obtained via an antenna array;

at least one detector configured to detect a preamble portion of the one or more frames of the first type; and

a processing system configured to switch an input path of the receive processing chain from the antenna array to the omnidirectional antenna after the detection.

29. The wireless station of claim 28, wherein the at least one detector is configured to:

detect the preamble portion of the one or more frames of the first type by distinguishing the preamble portion of the one or more frames of the first type from a preamble portion of the one or more frames of the second type; and

generate a signal, in response to the detection, to cause the processing system to switch the input path of the receive processing chain from the antenna array to the omnidirectional antenna.

30. The wireless station of claim 28, wherein the receive processing chain:

is configured to obtain a radio frequency (RF) signal via either the antenna array or the omnidirectional antenna; and

further comprises a downconverter that generates an intermediate frequency (IF) signal from the RF signal.

32-33. -33. (canceled)