Sectored antenna systems for WLAN

• US 20050146470A1
• Filed: 12/30/2003
• Published: 07/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Lin, Xintian E., Li, Qinghua
• Granted Patent: US 7,460,082 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 343/702
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1698 the I/O peripheral being a sending/receiving arrangement to establish a cordless communication link, e.g. radio or infrared link, integrated cellular phone details of antennas disposed inside a computer H01Q1/2266
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2258 used with computer equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2266 disposed inside the computer
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/28 Combinations of substantially independent non-interacting antenna units or systems multiple beam H01Q25/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0491 using two or more sectors, i.e. sector diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0671 using different delays between antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

An access point may use two omni-directional antennas or one omni-directional antenna and multiple sectored antennas in a communications network. The mobile stations may use sectored antennas. The omni-directional antennas may include two or more sectored antennas.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a mobile station; and

an access point that includes a first and second sectored antenna combined to form an omni-directional radiation pattern.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first sectored antenna transmits a first tone and the second sectored antenna transmits a second tone differing from the first tone.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first sectored antenna transmits a first signal and the second sectored antenna transmits the first signal delayed in phase from the first signal.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the access point further includes an omni-directional antenna.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile station includes first and second sectored antennas.

6. A communications network, comprising:

an access point having at least two omni-directional antennas, where the first omni-directional antenna is formed by the combination of multiple sectored antennas.

7. The communications network of claim 6, where the combination of multiple sectored antennas includes a first sectored antenna having a sector to cover a radiation pattern of substantially 0 to 90 degrees and another sector to cover a radiation pattern of substantially 180 to 270 degrees.

8. The communications network of claim 7, where the combination of multiple sectored antennas includes a second sectored antenna having a sector to cover a radiation pattern of substantially 90 to 180 degrees and another sector to cover a radiation pattern of substantially 270 to 360 degrees.

9. The communications network of claim 6, where the combination of multiple sectored antennas includes first and second sectored antennas, the first sectored antenna having a radiation pattern of substantially 0 to 180 degrees and the second sectored antenna having a radiation pattern of substantially 180 to 360 degrees.

10. The communications network of claim 9, wherein the first sectored antenna transmits a first signal and the second sectored antenna transmits the first signal delayed in phase from the first signal.

11. The communications network of claim 6, wherein the combination of multiple sectored antennas includes three sectored antennas having radiation patterns that combine to form the first omni-directional antenna.

12. The communications network of claim 11, wherein the three sectored antennas include a first sectored antenna having a radiation pattern of substantially 0 to 90 degrees, a second sectored antenna having radiation patterns to cover substantially 90 to 180 degrees and 270 to 360 degrees, and a third sectored antenna having a radiation pattern of substantially 180 to 270 degrees.

13. The communications network of claim 6, wherein the combination of multiple sectored antennas includes four sectored antennas having radiation patterns that combine to form the first omni-directional antenna.

14. The communications network of claim 13, wherein the four sectored antennas each cover a radiation pattern of about 0 degrees to 90 degrees and are appropriately positioned to form the first omni-directional antenna.

15. The communications network of claim 6, further including a mobile station that includes first and second sectored antennas.

16. A receiver system of an access point, comprising:

two omni-directional antennas coupled to a receiver of the access point, where at least one of the two omni-directional antennas is a combination of two complimentary placed sectored antennas.

17. The receiver system of claim 16, wherein the two omni-directional antennas allow Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD) techniques to be employed.

18. The receiver system of claim 16, wherein the at least one of the two omni-directional antennas includes a first sectored antenna to transmit a first signal and a second sectored antenna to transmit the first signal delayed from the first signal.

19. The receiver system of claim 18, wherein the first and second sectored antennas in a multiband system receive interleave symbols across sub-bands.

20. The receiver system of claim 18, wherein the first sectored antenna or the second sectored antenna is selected for receiving the best mobile station signal.

21. The receiver system of claim 16, wherein a first omni-directional antenna is placed in one corner of a display for a laptop computer and a second omni-directional antenna is placed in another corner.

22. The receiver system of claim 16, wherein a first omni-directional antenna is placed along one side of a display for a laptop computer and a second omni-directional antenna is placed along another side of the display.