Bidirectional iterative beam forming

• US 8,412,096 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2010
• Issued: 04/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Sutskover, Ilan, Kasher, Assaf, Li, Quinghua, Niu, Huaning
• Primary Examiner(s): GESESSE, TILAHUN
• Application Number:
  US12/939,417
• Publication Number:
  US 20110045785A1
• Time in Patent Office: 880 Days
• Field of Search: 455/562.1, 455/561, 455/560, 455/524, 455/525
• 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.

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 wherein the pair of communication channels includes a high rate physical (HRP) channel and a low rate physical (LRP) channel, the establishment of the HRP channel includes;

sending training signals to a peer device over the HRP channel and receiving feedback information from the peer device over the LRP channel;

determining antenna-array weight vectors (AWV) for a directional transmit beam pattern for a phase antenna array based on the feedback information;

receive training signals from the peer device over the HRP channel; and

send feedback information to the peer device over the HRP channel.

2. The wireless device of claim 1, the antenna control module operative to send transmitting timing acquisition sequences over the HRP channel.

3. The wireless device of claim 2, the antenna control module operative to send transmitting delay selection sequences over the HRP channel.

4. The wireless device of claim 1, the antenna control module operative to send transmitter training signals to the peer device over the HRP 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 receiver training signals from the peer device over the HRP to form a directional receive beam pattern for the phased antenna array.

6. The wireless device of claim 5, the antenna control module operative to receive feedback information from the peer device over the LRP channel using the directional receive beam pattern for the phased antenna array.

7. The wireless device of claim 1, the antenna control module operative to receive transmitter training signals from the peer device over the HRP to form a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the second device.

8. The wireless device of claim 1, the antenna control module operative to send feedback information to the peer device over the HRP 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.

9. The wireless device of claim method of claim 1, 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.

10. A method of beam forming in mmWave communication system comprising:

initiating beam formation operations using an iterative training scheme to establish a pair of communications channels for a wireless network wherein the pair of communication channels includes a high rate physical (HRP) channel and a low rate physical (LRP) channel, the establishment of the HRP channel includes;

sending, by a first device, training signals to a second device over the HRP channel and receiving, by the first device, feedback information from the second device over the LRP channel;

determining antenna-array weight vectors (AWV) for a directional transmit beam pattern for a phase antenna array based on the feedback information;

receiving, by the first device, training signals from the second device over the HRP channel; and

sending, by the first device, feedback information to the second device over the HRP channel.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein establishing the HRP channel comprising transmitting timing acquisition sequences.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein establishing the HRP channel comprising transmitting delay selection sequences.

13. The method of claim 10, comprising sending transmitter training signals from the first device to the second device over the HRP channel to form the directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device.

14. The method of claim 10, comprising receiving receiver training signals by the first device from the second device over the HRP channel to form a directional receive beam pattern for the phased antenna array of the first device.

15. The method of claim 10, comprising receiving transmitter training signals by the first device from the second device over the HRP channel to form a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the second device.

16. The method of claim 10, comprising:

receiving feedback information by the first device from the second device over the LRP 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.

17. The method of claim 10, comprising sending feedback information from the first device to the second device over the HRP 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.

18. The method of claim 10, 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.