Enhanced base station downlink
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
InventorsAditya Chopra, Andrew Thornburg, Saeed Ghassemzadeh
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a base station that includes a phased array antenna system and a MIMO antenna system. The MIMO antenna system may receive sounding signals sent by user equipment (UE) and determine angular location information for each UE. The angular location information may be used by the phased array antenna system to create antenna beams. The angular location information may also be used to schedule communications with multiple UEs in common beams. Other embodiments are disclosed.
Claims20
A device, comprising:
- a processing system including a processor;
- and
- a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
- receiving, at a first antenna array, communications signals from a plurality of user equipments (UEs) from at least two different angular directions;
- performing digital beamforming on the communications signals to determine the at least two different angular directions;
- determining a plurality of phase shifts to be applied in an analog beamformer coupled to a second antenna array to form antenna beams in the at least two different angular directions;
- and
- applying the phase shifts in the analog beamformer to form the antenna beams in the at least two different angular directions to communicate with the plurality of UEs.
A non-transitory, machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
- receiving, at a first antenna array, communications signals from a plurality of user equipments (UEs) from at least two different angular directions;
- performing digital beamforming on the communications signals to determine the at least two different angular directions;
- determining a plurality of phase shifts to be applied in an analog beamformer coupled to a second antenna array to form antenna beams in the at least two different angular directions;
- and
- applying the phase shifts in the analog beamformer to form the antenna beams in the at least two different angular directions to communicate with the plurality of UEs.
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a processing system including a processor, at a first antenna array, communications signals from a plurality of user equipments (UEs) from at least two different angular directions;
- performing, by the processing system, digital beamforming on the communications signals to determine the at least two different angular directions;
- determining, by the processing system, a plurality of phase shifts to be applied in an analog beamformer coupled to a second antenna array to form antenna beams in the at least two different angular directions;
- and
- applying, by the processing system, the phase shifts in the analog beamformer to form the antenna beams in the at least two different angular directions to communicate with the plurality of UEs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.