Wireless communication with interference mitigation

A method for processing a desired signal by a wireless, satellite communication terminal, comprising:

• receiving signals with an antenna array having a plurality of m antenna elements arranged linearly and displaced from one another such that the displacement between each pair of adjacent antenna elements within the antenna array is substantially equal, wherein m is a number representing the plurality of antenna elements, and wherein each of the antenna elements include transmit/receive modules;
• accessing a first set of complex weights to be applied to the signals received by m−1 of the antenna elements;
• applying the first set of complex weights to the signals received by the m−1 antenna elements to generate complex-weighted versions of the corresponding signals received by the m−1 antenna elements;
• for each pair of adjacent antenna elements within the antenna array, combining the signal received by a first one of the pair of adjacent antenna elements with the complex-weighted version of the signal received by the second one of the pair of adjacent antenna elements to generate m−1 output signals;
• accessing a second set of complex weights to apply to the output signals;
• applying the second set of complex weights to the output signals to generate complex-weighted versions of the output signals;
• combining the complex-weighted versions of the output signals to generate an interference-mitigated output signal;
• and
• wherein the signals received by the antenna elements, the complex-weighted versions of the signals received by the antenna elements, the output signals generated by the first-stage signal combiners, the complex-weighted versions of the output signals, and the interference-mitigated output signal for the antenna array all are RF signals;
• wherein accessing a first set of complex weights to be applied to the signals received by m−1 of the antenna elements comprises setting a first set of complex weights to be applied to the signals received by m−1 of the antenna elements to minimize the power in the m−1 output signals generated by combining, for each pair of adjacent antenna elements within the antenna array, the signal received by a first one of the pair of adjacent antenna elements with the complex-weighted version of the signal received by the second one of the pair of adjacent antenna elements;
• and
• wherein accessing a second set of complex weights comprises setting a second set of complex weights to steer a main beam of the antenna array to facilitate reception of a desired signal.

A wireless, satellite communications terminal comprising:

• a multi-element antenna having a plurality of antenna elements, wherein each of the antenna elements include transmit/receive modules;
• a plurality of preliminary signal combiners, each preliminary signal combiner configured to combine received signals output by a corresponding pair of two antenna elements, wherein:
• the signal output by a first one of the pair of antenna elements provides a model of interference present in the received signal output by the second one of the pair of antenna elements, and
• the preliminary signal combiner is configured to combine the signal output by the first antenna element with the signal output by the second antenna element to produce an initial interference-mitigated signal;
• a plurality of phase shifters configured to apply complex weights to corresponding interference-mitigated signals to produce complex-weighted versions of the corresponding interference-mitigated signals and effectively steer a main beam of the multi-element antenna to facilitate reception of a desired signal;
• another signal combiner configured to combine the complex-weighted versions of the interference-mitigated signals to produce an interference-mitigated output signal;
• and
• a controller to set the complex weights applied by the plurality of phase shifters to steer the main beam of the multi-element antenna array to facilitate reception of the desired signal;
• wherein the wireless communications terminal is a wireless satellite communications terminal;
• and
• wherein the antenna array is configured to transmit signals in addition to receiving signals and individual antenna elements are configured to transmit signals in addition to receiving signals.