Angle of arrival and/or range estimation within a wireless communication device
First Claim
1. An apparatus, comprising:
- a plurality of antennae to receive a signal transmitted from at least one additional apparatus;
a switching mechanism to dwell on each of the plurality of antennae for a respective period of time and to generate a multi-antenna signal there from;
a front-end circuitry, coupled to the switching mechanism, to generate a digital signal based on the multi-antenna signal;
a processing circuitry, coupled to the front-end circuitry, to process the digital signal, in accordance with at least one operational mode, selected from a plurality of operational modes based on at least one characteristic of the signal, to generate at least one of an estimate of an angle of arrival corresponding to the signal transmitted from at least one additional apparatus and a range estimate corresponding to a distance between the apparatus and the at least one additional apparatus; and
an operational mode selection circuitry adaptively to direct operation of the front-end circuitry and the processing circuitry in accordance with a first of the plurality of operational modes and a second of the plurality of operational modes; and
wherein;
the first of the plurality of operational modes corresponding to the signal including predetermined contents; and
the second of the plurality of operational modes corresponding to the signal including unknown contents.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Angle of arrival and/or range estimation within a wireless communication device. Appropriate processing of communications received by a wireless communication device is performed to determine the angle of arrival of the communication (e.g., with respect to some coordinate basis of the wireless communication device). Also, appropriate processing of the communications may be performed in accordance with range estimation as performed by the wireless communication device to determine the distance between the transmitting and receiving wireless communication devices. There are two separate modes of packet processing operations that may be performed: (1) when contents of the received packet are known, and (2) when contents of the received packet are unknown. The wireless communication device includes a number of antenna, and a switching mechanism switches from among the various antennae capitalizing on the spatial diversity of the antennae to generate a multi-antenna signal.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. An apparatus, comprising:
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a plurality of antennae to receive a signal transmitted from at least one additional apparatus; a switching mechanism to dwell on each of the plurality of antennae for a respective period of time and to generate a multi-antenna signal there from; a front-end circuitry, coupled to the switching mechanism, to generate a digital signal based on the multi-antenna signal; a processing circuitry, coupled to the front-end circuitry, to process the digital signal, in accordance with at least one operational mode, selected from a plurality of operational modes based on at least one characteristic of the signal, to generate at least one of an estimate of an angle of arrival corresponding to the signal transmitted from at least one additional apparatus and a range estimate corresponding to a distance between the apparatus and the at least one additional apparatus; and an operational mode selection circuitry adaptively to direct operation of the front-end circuitry and the processing circuitry in accordance with a first of the plurality of operational modes and a second of the plurality of operational modes; and
wherein;the first of the plurality of operational modes corresponding to the signal including predetermined contents; and the second of the plurality of operational modes corresponding to the signal including unknown contents. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatus, comprising:
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a plurality of antennae to receive a signal transmitted from at least one additional apparatus; a switching mechanism to dwell on each of the plurality of antennae for a respective period of time and to generate a multi-antenna signal there from; a front-end circuitry, coupled to the switching mechanism, to generate a digital signal based on the multi-antenna signal; an angle of arrival circuitry, coupled to the front-end circuitry, to generate an estimate of an angle of arrival corresponding to the signal transmitted from the at least one additional apparatus; a received signal strength indication (RSSI) circuitry, coupled to the front-end circuitry, to calculate an RSSI estimate corresponding to an estimate corresponding to a distance between the apparatus and the at least one additional apparatus; and an operational mode selection circuitry adaptively to direct operation of the front-end circuitry and the processing circuitry in accordance with a first operational mode and a second operational mode; and
wherein;the first operational mode corresponding to the signal including predetermined contents; and the second operational mode corresponding to the signal including unknown contents. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for operating a communication device, comprising:
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operating a plurality of antennae for receiving a signal transmitted from at least one additional communication device; operating a switching mechanism for dwelling on each of the plurality of antennae for a respective period of time and for generating a multi-antenna signal there from; generating a digital signal based on the multi-antenna signal; and processing the digital signal, in accordance with at least one operational mode, selected from a plurality of operational modes based on at least one characteristic of the signal, thereby generating at least one of an estimate of an angle of arrival corresponding to the signal transmitted from at least one additional communication device and a range estimate corresponding to a distance between the communication device and at least one additional communication device; and adaptively directing operation of the communication device in accordance with a first of the plurality of operational modes and a second operational modes; and
wherein;the first of the plurality of operational modes corresponding to the signal including predetermined contents; and the second of the plurality of operational modes corresponding to the signal including unknown contents. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification