US 8,787,248 B2Granted

Method in a wireless repeater employing an antenna array including vertical and horizontal feeds for interference reduction

AssigneeQUALCOMM Incorporated

InventorsJames Arthur Proctor, Jr., Kenneth M. Gainey, Steven J. Howard, Hakan Inanoglu

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Abstract

An echo cancellation wireless repeater with first and second antenna arrays having vertical and horizontal feed antenna elements selects a combination of antenna elements for reception and transmission to reduce interference and improve the quality of signal reception. In one embodiment, the antenna elements are switchably connected to transceiver circuits and a combination of antenna elements is selected based on the best desired performance result. In another embodiment, the antenna elements are each connected to its own transceiver circuit and the echo cancellation repeater performs beamforming in baseband to select a combination of antenna elements.

Claims45

Dependent claims

A method to reduce interference in an echo cancellation repeater for a wireless communication network, the repeater employing a first antenna array and a second antenna array, each antenna array including a first set of antenna elements for vertical feed mode and a second set of antenna elements for horizontal feed mode, the method comprising:

(a) selecting a combination of antenna elements from the first and second antenna arrays;
(b) receiving incoming receive signals on receiver circuits associated with the selected antenna elements;
(c) generating correlation energy measurements indicative of correlation of the receive signals and one or more reference signals;
(d) selecting a desired receive signal being a receive signal with a largest correlated energy level, excluding receive signals that are feedback signals of the repeater;
(e) calculating antenna weights for the selected antenna elements using one of an error minimizing algorithm or an adaptive metric optimization algorithm;
(f) determining a performance result associated with the selected combination of antenna elements;
(g) storing calculated antenna weights and the performance result associated with the selected combination of antenna elements;
(h) repeating steps (a) to (g) for one or more combinations of antenna elements from the first and second antenna arrays;
and
(i) selecting a combination of antenna elements from the first and second antenna arrays based on the stored performance results.

7 more elements

A repeater for a wireless communication network, the repeater comprising:

the repeater employing echo cancellation and employing a first antenna array and a second antenna array, each antenna array including a first set of antenna elements for vertical feed mode and a second set of antenna elements for horizontal feed mode, the repeater comprising:
one or more switches, each switch being coupled to two or more antenna elements in each of the first and second antenna arrays, the one or more switches being configured to select one of the two or more antenna elements coupled thereto;
receiver circuits coupled to the one or more switches to receive incoming receive signals associated with the selected antenna elements;
an antenna element selection module and an antenna weight computation module configured to select one or more combinations of antenna elements, to perform calculations of antenna weights for each selected combination of antenna elements, to determine a performance result associated with each selected combination of antenna elements, and to select a combination of antenna elements from the first and second antenna arrays based on the performance results;
and an antenna weight application module configured to apply the calculated antenna weight to condition the receive signals.

2 more elements

(a) receiving incoming receive signals on receiver circuits associated with the antenna elements;
(b) generating correlation energy measurements indicative of correlation of the receive signals and one or more reference signals;
(c) selecting a desired receive signal being a receive signal with the largest correlated energy level, excluding receive signals that are feedback signals of the repeater;
(d) calculating antenna weights for the antenna elements using one of an error minimizing algorithm or an adaptive metric optimization algorithm;
(e) determining a performance result associated with the antenna elements;
(f) performing beamforming in baseband to adjust the calculated antenna weights, the adjusted antenna weights selecting a combination of antenna elements from the first and second antenna arrays for receiving and transmitting signals;
and
(g) performing echo cancellation on the receive signal or on a weighted combined receive signal using the calculated antenna weights.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 13/155,292Filed 7 Jun 2011 · continuation in part
Priority: 14 Jul 2010
Published: US 2012/0015603 A119 Jan 2012
Granted: 22 Jul 2014
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

H04B 7/15571
Relay station antennae loop interference reduction: by signal isolation, e.g. isolation by frequency or by antenna pattern, or by polarization
H01Q 21/28
Antenna arrays or systems: combinations of substantially independent non-interacting antenna units or systems
H04B 7/0691
Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and simultaneous transmission: using subgroups of transmit antennas
H04B 7/0874
Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and combining: using subgroups of receive antennas

Family

Application12/836,493Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 14 Jul 2010
US 2012/0015603 A1Pre-grant publication · published 19 Jan 2012
US 8,477,665 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 2012/0015608 A1Published application
US 8,787,248 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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