Narrow beam antenna systems with angular diversity
First Claim
1. A transmission system comprising:
- a plurality of substantially collocated antennas each having a narrow beam associated therewith, said antennas disposed to provide angular diversity among said beams wherein said beams are substantially non-overlapping;
a transmit signal for broadcasting over a selected subset of said antennas;
means for creating at least a second signal from said transmit signal, said second signal delayed from said transmit signal; and
means for changeably directing said transmit signal to a first selected one of said subset of antennas, and for changeably directing said second delayed signal to a second selected other of said subset of antennas.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A transmitting system (80) is disclosed which includes several antennas (801-803) providing a plurality of antenna beams. The transmit signal from transmitter 81 is sent to the plurality of antennas via routing circuitry (82). The transmit signal is divided into two or more identical signals, each delayed by a selected amount. The particular antenna to which the undelayed signal, the first delayed signal and each other delayed signal is sent is selected for any instant depending on control signals provided by control (83). Control (83), in turn, could operate from a number of factors, one being the relative strengths of the received signals at each of the antennas for that particular channel. The amount of delay could, if desired, also be controlled by control (83).
48 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A transmission system comprising:
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a plurality of substantially collocated antennas each having a narrow beam associated therewith, said antennas disposed to provide angular diversity among said beams wherein said beams are substantially non-overlapping; a transmit signal for broadcasting over a selected subset of said antennas; means for creating at least a second signal from said transmit signal, said second signal delayed from said transmit signal; and means for changeably directing said transmit signal to a first selected one of said subset of antennas, and for changeably directing said second delayed signal to a second selected other of said subset of antennas. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A transmission method comprising the steps of:
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accepting a transmit signal for delivery over an antenna system including a plurality of substantially non-overlapping antenna beams having a substantially collocated source; creating at least a second signal from said transmit signal, said second signal delayed from said transmit signal; and switchably directing said transmit signal to a first selected one of said antenna beams and said second delayed signal to a second selected other of said antenna beams. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A cellular antenna site comprising:
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a plurality of substantially collocated antennas disposed to provide substantially non-overlapping beams for accepting signals and delayed components of said signals from a plurality of single point transmission sites; means for determining relative signal strengths among a signal and its delayed components for a particular signal emanating from a single site; means for accepting transmit signals from a transmitter for delivery to selected ones of said transmission sites over said plurality of antennas; means for directing said transmit signal for a particular single point site to a subset of said antennas including at least two of said antennas having the strongest relative signal strengths for signals incoming from said particular single point site; and means, operable with said determining means, for changing which subset of antennas said transmit signal is directed to depending upon relative signal strengths from said particular single point site at any given point in time. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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Specification