Steerable antenna and receiver interface for terrestrial broadcast
First Claim
1. A system for receiving broadcast signals, comprising:
- a plurality of antennas, each antenna having an antenna pattern with a first region having a first gain and a second region having a second gain lower than said first gain, said second region of each of said plurality of antennas being oriented in a different direction from the second region of at least one other antenna in said plurality of antennas; and
a receiver coupled to said plurality of antennas, the receiver including a selection device for selecting an antenna signal, output by one of said plurality of antennas, as a function of a signal noise measurement.
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Abstract
Antennas with steerable antenna patterns and techniques for using such antennas are described. In accordance with the invention, antenna patterns with one or more NULLs are used. Through the use of digital control signals the antenna pattern is steered so that a source of signal interference, e.g., a multipath signal, will be located in a NULL. In this manner the received signal'"'"'s S/N ratio can be maximized thereby facilitating demodulation. The techniques of the invention can be applied to television, computer devices, mobile devices and a wide range of other systems. Digital commands to control an antenna may include multiple information fields, e.g., a direction field, a channel field, a gain field and a polarity field. Antennas incapable of supporting the specified fields disregard information in fields which are not supported. Information in each supported field is decoded and used to adjust the corresponding antenna characteristic.
54 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A system for receiving broadcast signals, comprising:
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a plurality of antennas, each antenna having an antenna pattern with a first region having a first gain and a second region having a second gain lower than said first gain, said second region of each of said plurality of antennas being oriented in a different direction from the second region of at least one other antenna in said plurality of antennas; and a receiver coupled to said plurality of antennas, the receiver including a selection device for selecting an antenna signal, output by one of said plurality of antennas, as a function of a signal noise measurement. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for receiving broadcast signals, comprising:
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receiving broadcast signals output by a plurality of different antennas, each of the different antennas having an antenna pattern with a first region having a first gain and a second region having a second gain lower than said first gain, said second region of each of said plurality of different antennas being oriented in a different direction from the second region of at least one other antenna in said plurality of different antennas; and operating an antenna selection device to select, as a function of a signal noise measurement, a broadcast signal output by a single one of said plurality of different antennas. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification