Bidirectional iterative beam forming

• US 9,271,293 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2013
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Sutskover, Ilan, Kasher, Assaf, Li, Quinghua, Niu, Huaning
• Primary Examiner(s): AYOTUNDE, AYODEJI O
• Application Number:
  US13/784,333
• Publication Number:
  US 20130182666A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,086 Days
• Field of Search: 455/25, 455/69, 455/524, 455/525, 455/561, 455/562.1, 370/329
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus, 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 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, receive and send training signals over the HRP channel, and receive and send feedback information over the HRP channel.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising:

a display;

a processor; and

a memory coupled with the processor.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, the formation of the HRP channel comprising:

sending training signals to a peer device over the HRP channel;

receiving feedback information from the peer device over the LRP channel; and

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

4. The apparatus of claim 1, the antenna control module to send transmitting timing acquisition sequences over the HRP channel.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, the antenna control module to send transmitting delay selection sequences over the HRP channel.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, the antenna control module to send transmitter training signals to a peer device over the HRP channel, the transmitter training signals for use in forming a directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array.

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

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

9. The apparatus of claim 1, the antenna control module to receive feedback information from a peer device over the LRP channel using a directional receive beam pattern for the phased antenna array.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, the antenna control module to send feedback information to a peer device over the LRP channel using a directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array, the feedback information for use in determining antenna-array weight vectors (AWV) for a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the peer device.

11. The apparatus claim 1, the antenna control module 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.

12. A method comprising:

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

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.

13. The method of claim 12, the establishment of the HRP channel comprising:

sending, by the first device, training signals to the second device over the HRP channel;

receiving, by the first device, feedback information from the second device over the LRP channel; and

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

14. The method of claim 12, the establishment of the HRP channel comprising transmitting timing acquisition sequences.

15. The method of claim 12, the establishment of the HRP channel comprising transmitting delay selection sequences.

16. The method of claim 12, comprising sending transmitter training signals from the first device to the second device over the HRP channel to form a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the first device.

17. The method of claim 12, 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 a phased antenna array of the first device.

18. The method of claim 12, 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.

19. The method of claim 12, comprising:

receiving feedback information by the first device from the second device over the LRP channel using a directional receive beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the first device; and

determining antenna-array weight vectors (AWV) for a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the first device using the feedback information from the second device.

20. The method of claim 12, comprising sending feedback information from the first device to the second device over the LRP channel using a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the first device, the feedback information for use in determining antenna-array weight vectors (AWV) for a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the second device using the feedback information from the first device.

21. The method of claim 12, comprising communicating training signals and feedback information, and determining antenna-array vector weights (AWV) for a directional transmit beam pattern for a 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.

22. An article comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing a plurality of instructions that when executed enable a processor to:

initiate 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;

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

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

23. The article of claim 22, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable the processor to:

send training signals to the peer device over the HRP channel;

receive feedback information from the peer device over the LRP channel; and

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

24. The article of claim 22, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable the processor to transmit timing acquisition sequences to establish the HRP channel.

25. The article of claim 22, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable the processor to transmit delay selection sequences to establish the HRP channel.

26. The article of claim 22, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable the processor to send transmitter training signals to the peer device over the HRP channel to form a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array.

27. The article of claim 22, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable the processor to receive receiver training signals from the peer device over the HRP channel to form a directional receive beam pattern for a phased antenna array.

28. The article of claim 22, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable the processor to receive transmitter training signals from the peer device over the HRP channel to form a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the peer device.

29. The article of claim 22, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable the processor to:

receive feedback information from the peer device over the LRP channel using a directional receive beam pattern for a phased antenna array; and

determine antenna-array weight vectors (AWV) for a directional transmit beam pattern for the phased antenna array using the feedback information from the peer device.

30. The article of claim 22, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable the processor to send feedback information to the peer device over the LRP channel using a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array, the feedback information for use in determining antenna-array weight vectors (AWV) for a directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array of the peer device using the feedback information.

31. The article of claim 22, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable the processor to communicate training signals and feedback information, and determining antenna-array vector weights (AWV) for the directional transmit beam pattern for a phased antenna array using multiple iterations until a determined signal-to-noise ratio for data communications is reached or until a determined number of iterations is reached.