Scalable self-calibrating and configuring radio frequency head for a wireless communication system

A radio frequency (RF) head device for use in a wireless base station comprising:

• a calibration facility;
• processing logic and circuitry in the calibration facility that is configured to:
• automatically select a calibration configuration for performing antenna calibration from among:
• (a) a first configuration for magnitude and phase calibration of adaptive antennas;
• and (b) a second configuration for magnitude and phase calibration of antennas utilized with coherent combining of independent transmitter outputs;
• generate calibration coefficients via the calibration configuration selected;
• when the second configuration is selected, providing effective phase calibration for coherent combining of individual transmitter output signals with a passive combiner mechanism, wherein the passive combiner mechanism is coupled to the RF head;
• control an amplitude of a transmitter signal within the RF head via an individual power control mechanism;
• and
• when the first configuration is selected, enable null-steering and beam shaping via the adaptive antennas wherein the null-steering and beam shaping enables transmission of output signals in a direction of a receiving device, and enabled null-steering and beam shaping of adaptive antennas utilized with coherent combining by using corresponding calibration coefficients when the second configuration is selected.

A wireless communication system comprising:

• a first radio frequency (RF) head device comprising:
• a plurality of input/output ports, wherein an input/output port of the plurality of input/output ports is a calibration expansion input/output port;
• and
• a calibration transmitter capable of coupling to the calibration expansion input/output port and that sources a calibration reference signal;
• a second RF head device comprising a plurality of input/output ports, wherein an input/output port of the plurality of input/output ports is a calibration expansion input/output port;
• and
• wherein the calibration expansion input/output port of the first RF head device is coupled to the calibration expansion input/output port of the second RF head device and wherein the calibration transmitter of the first RF head device sources the calibration reference signal to the second RF head device via the calibration expansion input/output ports of the first RF head device and the second RF head device.