System and method for providing a smart antenna
First Claim
1. A smart external antenna module system for retrofitting an existing wireless system, comprising:
- a plurality of antennas, said plurality of antennas receiving input signals;
means for performing beamforming by generating weights for combining said input signals received from said plurality of antennas;
means for receiving a signal to be transmitted from said smart antenna system;
means for operating said smart antenna system in a receive mode until receipt of said signal to be transmitted from said smart antenna system;
means for operating at least one of said antennas in a transmit mode after receipt of said signal to be transmitted; and
means for coupling said smart antenna system to a single external port of a single transceiver wherein said means for coupling said smart antenna system to a single external port of a single transceiver comprises a physical connection wherein said physical connection is a single coaxial cable connection, whereby an antenna array can attach to an external port of a transceiver without any modification of the transceiver;
wherein the transceiver is a wireless LAN access point (AP) wherein said means for performing beamforming is at least one of the following;
means for using maximal ratio combining wherein each signal is weighted and combined to maximize the output signal-to-noise ratio by computing beamforming weights wherein beamforming weights are the complex conjugate of the channel transfer characteristics whereby the smart external antenna module will maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of any received signal and demodulation of the received signal is not required;
means for equal gain combining, whereby the signals are co-phased but the gain is the same for each antenna; and
means for maximizing the output power with normalized weights, and wherein the smart external antenna module system further comprises;
a filter coupled to each said plurality of antennas, each of said filters receiving signals from one of said plurality of antennas.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A smart external antenna module is proposed for wireless systems. The module allows the advantages of smart antennas to be easily added to existing wireless systems without any modification to the transceiver. Specifically, the smart antenna module weights and combines the signals received by multiple antennas to improve the received signal quality, and then when it detects that there is a signal to be transmitted by the transceiver, it turns off the receiver, turns on the transmitter and uses the receive weights to transmit the signal out of the multiple antennas to improve signal reception at the desired user. Such a module can be added to the external antenna port of an existing transceiver with no change to that transceiver.
70 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A smart external antenna module system for retrofitting an existing wireless system, comprising:
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a plurality of antennas, said plurality of antennas receiving input signals; means for performing beamforming by generating weights for combining said input signals received from said plurality of antennas; means for receiving a signal to be transmitted from said smart antenna system; means for operating said smart antenna system in a receive mode until receipt of said signal to be transmitted from said smart antenna system; means for operating at least one of said antennas in a transmit mode after receipt of said signal to be transmitted; and means for coupling said smart antenna system to a single external port of a single transceiver wherein said means for coupling said smart antenna system to a single external port of a single transceiver comprises a physical connection wherein said physical connection is a single coaxial cable connection, whereby an antenna array can attach to an external port of a transceiver without any modification of the transceiver; wherein the transceiver is a wireless LAN access point (AP) wherein said means for performing beamforming is at least one of the following; means for using maximal ratio combining wherein each signal is weighted and combined to maximize the output signal-to-noise ratio by computing beamforming weights wherein beamforming weights are the complex conjugate of the channel transfer characteristics whereby the smart external antenna module will maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of any received signal and demodulation of the received signal is not required;
means for equal gain combining, whereby the signals are co-phased but the gain is the same for each antenna; andmeans for maximizing the output power with normalized weights, and wherein the smart external antenna module system further comprises;
a filter coupled to each said plurality of antennas, each of said filters receiving signals from one of said plurality of antennas. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for operating smart antenna system comprising the steps methods of:
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receiving input signals at a plurality of antennas; performing beamforming by generating weights for combining said input signals received from said plurality of antennas; receiving a signal to be transmitted from said smart antenna system; operating said smart antenna system in a receive mode until receipt of said signal to be transmitted from said smart antenna system; operating one or more of said antennas in a transmit mode after receipt of said signal to be transmitted; and coupling said smart antenna system to a transceiver wherein said method of generating weights comprises one of maximal ratio combining comprising performing an analog computation of the complex conjugate of the channel transfer characteristics of each antenna and weighting and combining signals to maximize the output signal-to-noise ratio whereby the smart external antenna module will maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of any received signal and demodulation of the received signal is not required and maximizing the output power with normalized weights; and wherein the transceiver is a wireless LAN access point (AP) wherein said means for performing beamforming is at least one of the following; means for using maximal ratio combining wherein each signal is weighted and combined to maximize the output signal-to-noise ratio by computing beamforming weights wherein beamforming weights are the complex conjugate of the channel transfer characteristics whereby the smart external antenna module will maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of any received signal and demodulation of the received signal is not required;
means for equal gain combining, whereby the signals are co-phased but the gain is the same for each antenna; andmeans for maximizing the output power with normalized weights, and wherein the smart external antenna module system further comprises;
a filter coupled to each said plurality of antennas, each of said filters receiving signals from one of said plurality of antennas. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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Specification