Method for mobile radio communication and communication device

• US 9,301,330 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2013
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Dochow, Gerhard, Lotz, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahn, Sam K
• Assistant Examiner(s): Murillo Garcia, Fabricio R
• Application Number:
  US14/380,773
• Publication Number:
  US 20150024764A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,127 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 Setup of multiple wireless link connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/19 Connection re-establishment

Abstract

A method for mobile radio communication between a communication partner device and a mobile communication device includes conducting a communication, at least temporarily, via at least two different mobile radio connections in two different mobile radio networks; evaluating the reception quality of receive signals of each mobile radio connection in the mobile communication device; selecting the mobile radio connection with the best reception quality for the mobile radio communication, at least in a receiving direction; deriving different audio signals from the receive signals of the different mobile radio connections; and feeding the derived different audio signals to a delay circuit, which aligns transit time differences and/or the amplitude differences of the derived different audio signals with respect to one another.

Claims

1. A method for mobile radio communication between a communication partner device and a mobile communication device, wherein one of the communication devices is a calling communication device and the other of the communication devices is a receiving communication device and wherein at least the mobile communication device has two communication facilities for setting up different mobile radio connections, the method comprising:

conducting a communication, at least temporarily, via at least two different mobile radio connections in two different mobile radio networks;

evaluating the reception quality of receive signals of each mobile radio connection in the mobile communication device;

selecting the mobile radio connection with the best reception quality for the mobile radio communication, at least in a receiving direction;

deriving different audio signals from the receive signals of the different mobile radio connections; and

feeding the derived different audio signals to a delay circuit, which aligns transit time differences and/or the amplitude differences of the derived different audio signals with respect to one another,

wherein the communication partner device of the mobile communication device is also equipped with two communication facilities configured to set up different communication connections, and

wherein the receiving communication device, after receiving a call to initially set up a communication via a first mobile radio connection of the first communication facility;

(a) actively sets up a parallel second mobile radio connection via the second communication facility to the calling communication device, and

(b) autonomously starts a callback to the calling communicating device via the parallel second mobile radio connection.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

conducting a first communication connection between the first communication facilities of the mobile communication device and the communication partner device; and

conducting a second communication connection between the second communication facilities of the mobile communication device and the communication partner device.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein, for setting up a communication, the method further comprises:

setting up a mobile radio connection in each case in parallel by the two communication facilities of the calling communication device; and

following establishment of each connection, evaluating the reception quality of the receive signals,

wherein a control decides, on the basis of the receive signal quality, which mobile radio connection is selected for the receive signals.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

the receiving communication device transmitting information relating to the reception quality of the receive signals in the receiving communication device to the calling communication device.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a communication device establishing, through comparison of the reception quality of the receive signals with a threshold value, whether the reception quality on one communication connection is so good that the other communication connection can be disconnected.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

following a disconnection of one mobile radio connection, re-establishing the other mobile radio connection as soon as the reception quality of the receive signals falls below a preset threshold value; and

feeding the different audio signals derived from receive signals of the different mobile radio connections to a delay circuit to align the transit time differences and/or the amplitude differences of the different audio signals with one another.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the delay circuit is a digital bucket brigade memory having a downstream correlator configured to determine the cross-power of the audio signals, wherein the delay is set such that the determined cross-power is maximum.

8. A communication device for mobile radio communication with a communication partner device, the communication device comprising:

a user interface,

a control having a computing unit; and

two communication facilities configured to set up different mobile radio connections in different mobile radio networks,

said two communication facilities being operable independently from one another,

wherein the control, for mobile radio communication between the communication partner device and a mobile communication device, wherein one of the communication devices is a calling communication device and the other of the communication devices is a receiving communication device and wherein at least the mobile communication device has the two communication facilities, is configured to;

conduct a communication, at least temporarily, via at least two different mobile radio connections in two different mobile radio networks;

evaluate the reception quality of receive signals of each mobile radio connection in the mobile communication device;

select the mobile radio connection with the best reception quality for the mobile radio communication, at least in a receiving direction;

derive different audio signals from the receive signals of the different mobile radio connections; and

feed the derived different audio signals to a delay circuit, which aligns transit time differences and/or the amplitude differences of the derived different audio signals with respect to one another,

wherein the communication partner device of the mobile communication device is also equipped with two communication facilities configured to set up different communication connections, and

wherein the receiving communication device, after receiving a call to initially set up a communication via a first mobile radio connection of the first communication facility;

(a) actively sets up a parallel second mobile radio connection via the second communication facility to the calling communication device, and

(b) autonomously starts a callback to the calling communicating device via the parallel second mobile radio connection.

9. The communication device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the user interface of the communication device has a microphone input, a loudspeaker output and a command input.

10. The communication device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the microphone input is connected to the two communication facilities for a voice signal output, and the loudspeaker output is connected to a signal switch of the control, via which the selected receive signal of one of the two mobile radio connections is output as the audio signal.