Millimiter-wave antenna system for radiomobile communications in vehicles

An antenna system for radio mobile communications in a vehicle, the antenna system comprising;

• at least one remote antenna module connected by a cable to a central control unit, said at least one remote antenna module comprising:
• at least one radiant element adapted to receive and transmit an input data signal or an output data signal;
• an RF front end adapted to amplify and to dephase and to route the input data signal or the output data signal;
• a control interface connected to said RF front end and to the cable, wherein the central control unit comprises:
• a signal processor;
• and
• a control interface connected to said signal processor and to the cable, wherein said control interface of said at least one remote antenna module and said control interface of the central control unit transmit the input data signal or output data signal at a first intermediate frequency and a control signal at a second intermediate frequency over the cable so as to control said control interface of said at least one remote antenna module, wherein said at least one remote antenna module has a plurality of radiant elements with a variable beam that are configured to receive or transmit signals at millimeter waves of greater than 20 GHz, said RF front end being configured to receive the control signal from the central control unit and to execute a beamforming of the plurality of radiant elements of a single remote antenna module of said at least one remote antenna module, wherein said control interface of said at least one remote antenna module is a part of the at least one remote antenna module, the control interface comprising:
• a frequency converter that receives the input data signal at millimeter waves and converts the input data signal at the first intermediate frequency, the first intermediate frequency being less than a frequency of the millimeter waves so as to be transmitted over the cable, wherein said frequency converter receives the output data signal at a frequency less than a frequency of the millimeter waves, said frequency converter converting the output data signal into millimeter waves so as to be transmitted to a radiant element of the plurality of radiant elements;
• and
• a control device configured to receive the control signals from a control device of the central control unit, wherein the control signals are different than either the input data signals or the output data signals, the control signals being transmitted on the cable at the second intermediate frequency, the second intermediate frequency being different than the first intermediate frequency of the input data signals and the output data signals, wherein the cable is a coaxial cable that simultaneously transmits the input data signals and the output data signals and the control signals and a power supply signal.