Calibrating an antenna by determining polarization

A system for calibrating an antenna, comprising:

• a singly polarized antenna system operable to detect a signal sent from a reference, the reference located within a region, the signal having a polarization within an expected polarization range;
• and
• a calibration module coupled to the antenna system and operable to:
• establish a plurality of polarization value sets in accordance with the expected polarization range, a polarization value set comprising one or more polarization values, a polarization value comprising a complex scalar component of a polarization vector;
• generate a plurality of polarization ratios from the plurality of polarization value sets;
• establish a minimum polarization ratio variance for the plurality of polarization ratios, the minimum polarization ratio variance describing a minimum variance of the polarization ratios over the region;
• identify a polarization value set corresponding to the minimum polarization ratio variance;
• and
• determine a calibration correction in accordance with the identified polarization value set.

Logic for calibrating an antenna, the logic embodied in a computer readable medium and operable to:

• receive a signal sent from a reference, the signal detected by a singly polarized antenna system, the reference located within a region, the signal having a polarization within an expected polarization range;
• establish a plurality of polarization value sets in accordance with the expected polarization range, a polarization value set comprising one or more polarization values, a polarization value comprising a complex scalar component of a polarization vector;
• generate a plurality of polarization ratios from the plurality of polarization value sets;
• establish a minimum polarization ratio variance for the plurality of polarization ratios, the minimum polarization ratio variance describing a minimum variance of the polarization ratios over the region;
• identify a polarization value set corresponding to the minimum polarization ratio variance;
• and
• determine a calibration correction in accordance with the identified polarization value set.

A system for calibrating an antenna, comprising:

• means for receiving a signal sent from a reference, the signal detected by a singly polarized antenna system, the reference located within a region, the signal having a polarization within an expected polarization range;
• means for establishing a plurality of polarization value sets in accordance with the expected polarization range, a polarization value set comprising one or more polarization values, a polarization value comprising a complex scalar component of a polarization vector;
• means for generating a plurality of polarization ratios from the plurality of polarization value sets;
• means for establishing a minimum polarization ratio variance for the plurality of polarization ratios, the minimum polarization ratio variance describing a minimum variance of the polarization ratios over the region;
• means for identifying a polarization value set corresponding to the minimum polarization ratio variance;
• and
• means for determining a calibration correction in accordance with the identified polarization value set.

A method for calibrating an antenna, comprising:

• receiving a signal sent from a reference, the signal detected by a singly polarized antenna system, the reference located within a region, the signal having a polarization within an expected polarization range, the antenna system comprising a plurality of radiators, the plurality of radiators having either a right-hand circular polarization or a left-hand circular polarization;
• establishing a plurality of polarization value sets in accordance with the expected polarization range, a polarization value set comprising one or more polarization values, a polarization value comprising a complex scalar component of a polarization vector;
• generating a plurality of polarization ratios from the plurality of polarization value sets by:
• selecting a polarization value set of the plurality of polarization value sets;
• obtaining a channel error estimate for the selected polarization value set;
• and
• establishing a polarization ratio in accordance with the channel error estimate;
• establishing a minimum polarization ratio variance for the plurality of polarization ratios, the minimum polarization ratio variance describing a minimum variance of the polarization ratios over the region, the minimum polarization ratio variance for the plurality of polarization ratios established by:
• generating a plurality of polarization ratio maps over the region, the plurality of polarization ratio maps comprising an x-form polarization ratio map and a y-form polarization ratio map;
• identifying a plurality of peaks of the plurality of polarization ratio maps;
• and
• selecting a peak from the plurality of polarization ratio maps, the selected peak corresponding to the minimum polarization ratio variance;
• and
• determining a calibration correction in accordance with the identified polarization value set by:
• obtaining a channel coefficient from the identified polarization value set;
• and
• determining the calibration correlation using the channel coefficient.