Spatial division multiple access wireless communication systems

A wireless communication system for receiving signals transmitted by spatially distributed users, said system comprising:

• receiving means, including a plurality of spatially distributed receiving antennas for making measurements of received signals, said received signals resulting from signals transmitted by said users, said measurements made by each said antenna comprising different combinations of said transmitted signals;
• processing means including statistical analysis means for estimating the number of said received signals by statistical analysis, and parameter estimating means for estimating parameters of said received signals;
• characterized in that said received signals result from signals transmitted by said users in a common communication channel;
• in that said parameter estimating means is arranged to estimate parameters of said received signals using predetermined or learnt information on said receiving antennas;
• and by spatial demultiplexing means for obtaining said transmitted signals from said measurements using said estimated number of received signals and said estimated parameters of said received signals by associating respective said received signals with respective said users.

A wireless communication system for transmitting signals to and receiving signals from spatially distributed users, said system comprising:

• receiving means, including a plurality of spatially distributed receiving antennas and a plurality of receivers for at least one receive channel and for making measurements of received signals in each of said receive channels, said received signals resulting from signals transmitted by said users, said measurements made by each said antenna comprising different combinations of said transmitted signals in each of said receive channels;
• processing means including statistical analysis means for estimating the number of said received signals by statistical analysis, and parameter estimating means for estimating parameters of said received signals;
• characterized in that said received signals result from signals transmitted by said users in a common communication channel;
• in that said parameter estimating means is arranged to estimate parameters of said received signal using predetermined information on said receiving antennas;
• and by:
• spatial demultiplexing means for obtaining said transmitted signals in each of said receive channels from said measurements said number of received signals and said parameters by associating respective said received signals with respective said users;
• spatial multiplexing means for spatially multiplexing signals to be transmitted to said users in at least one transmit channel using said parameters, to form a plurality of different signal combination for each said transmit channel;
• and
• transmitting means including plural transmitting antennas and plural multichannel transmitters for transmitting said spatially multiplexed signals to said users, said transmitting means having one said multichannel transmitter for each said transmitting antenna, with one channel of said multichannel transmitter for each said transmit channel, each said transmit channel being arranged to receive a different said signal combination such that said signals in each said channel are transmitted to said users in a spatially directive manner;
• said system being arranged such that reception of multiple signals in multiple channels from said users and transmissions of multiple signals in multiple channels to said users take place simultaneously, thus establishing plural full-duplex communication links, one for each of said users.