System and method for transmission parameter control for an antenna apparatus with selectable elements

• US 20060040707A1
• Filed: 07/12/2005
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ruckus IP Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Ruckus Wireless, Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kish, William S., Chanak, John
• Granted Patent: US 7,899,497 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/562.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/24 with feedback of measurements to the transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/061 using feedback from receiving side
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0689 using different transmission schemes, at least one of them being a diversity transmission scheme

Abstract

A system and method for improved data transmission on a wireless link to a remote receiving node includes a communication device for converting packets to RF at a physical data rate, an antenna apparatus having a plurality of antenna configurations for transmitting the RF, and a processor for selecting the antenna configuration and the physical data rate based on whether the remote receiving node indicated reception of the data transmission. The processor may determine a table of success ratios for each antenna configuration and may rank each antenna configuration by the success ratio. The processor may transmit with an unused antenna configuration to probe the unused antenna configuration and update the table of success ratios. Similarly, the processor may maintain a table of effective user data rates, rank each physical data rate by the effective user data rate and probe unused physical data rates to update the table.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an antenna apparatus having a plurality of antenna configurations, each antenna configuration corresponding to a radiation pattern;

a communication device configured to a plurality of physical data rates, the communication device coupled to the antenna apparatus; and

a processor configured to execute a program to perform a method comprising;

selecting a current antenna configuration of the antenna apparatus,

selecting a current physical data rate of the communication device,

transmitting a packet with the current antenna configuration to a remote receiving node at the current physical data rate,

determining whether the remote receiving node received the packet, and

changing the current antenna configuration based on the determination.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises determining a success ratio for each of the plurality of antenna configurations by comparing a number of packets transmitted to the remote receiving node and a number of packets indicated as received by the remote receiving node.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the method further comprises ranking each of the plurality of antenna configurations based on the success ratio.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein changing the current antenna configuration comprises selecting one of the plurality of antenna configurations having a higher ranked success ratio than the current antenna configuration.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises determining a link quality metric for each of the plurality of antenna configurations.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the link quality metric comprises a received signal strength indicator.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

selecting an unused antenna configuration;

transmitting a probe packet with the unused antenna configuration to the remote receiving node;

determining whether the remote receiving node received the probe packet; and

changing a ranking of the unused antenna configuration relative to the current antenna configuration based on the determination whether the remote receiving node received the probe packet.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises determining an effective user data rate for each of the plurality of physical date rates based on a number of packets transmitted to the remote receiving node, a number of packets indicated as received by the remote receiving node, and the physical data rate.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the method further comprises ranking each of the plurality of physical data rates based on the effective user data rate.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising changing the current physical data rate to one of the plurality of physical data rates having a higher ranked effective user data rate.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

selecting an unused physical data rate;

transmitting a probe packet to the remote receiving node at the unused physical data rate;

determining whether the remote receiving node received the probe packet; and

changing a ranking of the unused physical data rate relative to the current physical data date based on the determination whether the remote receiving node received the probe packet.

12. A method comprising:

selecting a current antenna configuration of an antenna apparatus having a plurality of antenna configurations;

selecting a current physical data rate from a plurality of physical data rates;

transmitting a packet with the current antenna configuration to a remote receiving node at the current physical data rate;

determining whether the remote receiving node received the packet; and

changing the current antenna configuration based on the determination.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining a success ratio for each of the plurality of antenna configurations by comparing a number of packets transmitted to the remote receiving node and a number of packets indicated as received by the remote receiving node.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising ranking each of the plurality of antenna configurations based on the success ratio.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining a link quality metric for each of the plurality of antenna configurations.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the link quality metric comprises a received signal strength indicator.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

selecting an unused antenna configuration;

transmitting a probe packet with the unused antenna configuration to the remote receiving node;

determining whether the remote receiving node received the probe packet; and

changing a ranking of the unused antenna configuration relative to the current antenna configuration based on the determination whether the remote receiving node received the probe packet.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining an effective user data rate for each of the plurality of physical date rates based on a number of packets transmitted to the remote receiving node, a number of packets indicated as received by the remote receiving node, and the physical data rate.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

selecting an unused physical data rate;

transmitting a probe packet to the remote receiving node at the unused physical data rate;

determining whether the remote receiving node received the probe packet; and

changing a ranking of the unused physical data rate relative to the current physical data rate based on the determination whether the remote receiving node received the probe packet.

20. A method comprising:

mapping each of a plurality of antenna configurations of an antenna apparatus to a logical antenna;

mapping each of a plurality of physical data rates to a logical data rate;

selecting a first logical antenna;

selecting a first logical data rate;

transmitting a packet to a remote receiving node with the first logical antenna at the first logical data rate;

determining whether the remote receiving node received the packet; and

changing the first logical antenna based on the determination.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

computing a first link quality metric for the first logical antenna;

selecting a second logical antenna;

transmitting a probe packet to the remote receiving node with the second logical antenna;

determining a second link quality metric based on a determination whether the remote receiving node received the probe packet; and

changing the first logical antenna to the second logical antenna based on the second link quality metric.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein each link quality metric comprise a success ratio computed by comparing a number of packets transmitted to the remote receiving node with the logical antenna and a number of the packets indicated as received by the remote receiving node.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein each link quality metric comprises a received signal strength indicator.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

computing a first effective user data rate for the first logical data rate;

selecting a second logical data rate;

transmitting a probe packet to the remote receiving node at the second logical data rate;

determining a second effective user data rate based on a determination whether the remote receiving node received the probe packet; and

changing the first logical data rate to the second logical antenna based on the second effective user data rate.

25. A system comprising:

an antenna apparatus having a plurality of antenna configurations;

a communication device configured to a plurality of physical data rates; and

means for transmitting a packet to a remote receiving node by a transmission combination comprising one the plurality of antenna configurations and one of the plurality of physical data rates; and

means for changing the transmission combination based on a determination whether the packet was indicated as received by remote receiving node.