Method and system for feedback of antenna beamforming

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#[Not Applicable]

#Multiple antennas can be used to i) increase the antenna gain by beamforming; ii) provide diversity gain through some form of antenna combining; iii) increase the data rate by spatial multiplexing; and iv) suppress spatial interference by null steering. However, a system with multiple antennas may be unable to take advantage of all of these benefits if the system cannot accurately estimate and track a wireless communications channel.

#FIG. 1 is an illustration of an exemplary system for antenna beamforming in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

#FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method for antenna beamforming in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention.

#Aspects of the present invention relate to antenna beamforming and more specifically, to steady state parameter feedback systems and methods. Although the following description may refer to particular wireless communication standards, many other standards may also use these systems and methods.

#Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques take advantage of multiple transmit and/or receive antennas for communication. For example, the UMTS/W-CDMA standard specifies transmit diversity, and the 802.11n wireless local area network (WLAN) standard specifies spatial division multiplex. Spatial multiplexing and spatial diversity are two categories of MIMO systems.

#Spatial division multiplexing (SDM) occurs when several streams are transmitted simultaneously from the multiple transmit antennas to multiple receive antennas to boost the spectral efficiency of the transmission. SDM may be fully exploited if the number of antennas is, at both sides, equal to or greater than the number of parallel streams.