Millimeter-wave transceiver with coarse and fine beamforming with interference suppression and method

A millimeter-wave transceiver comprising:

• hardware processing circuitry configured to:
• estimate a channel with a highly-directional antenna pattern generated with a first sub-array antenna;
• cause the first sub-array antenna to provide the highly-directional antenna pattern in a direction associated with a signal of interest by phasing signals received through each of a plurality of antenna elements of the first sub-array antenna;
• estimate interference with a less directional more omnidirectional antenna pattern generated with a second sub-array antenna;
• cause the second sub-array antenna to provide the less directional more omnidirectional antenna pattern by phasing signals received through each of a plurality of antenna elements of the second sub-array antenna;
• apply a first set of weighting coefficients to first baseband signals of the first sub-array antenna, the first set of weighting coefficients based on the channel estimate;
• apply a second set of weighting coefficients to second baseband signals of the second sub-array antenna, the second set of weighting coefficients based on the interference estimate;
• and
• combine the weighted first and second baseband signals to generate an output signal with reduced interference that includes the signal of interest received through the first sub-array antenna.

A millimeter-wave transceiver configured for MIMO reception of multicarrier signals comprising:

• RF circuitry to receive multicarrier signals through two independently controllable sub-array antennas from first and second directions, the first direction being associated with received signals of a highest signal level and the second direction being associated with received signals of a next highest signal level;
• a channel-estimation block to generate sets of weighting coefficients for each sub-array antenna based on spatial channel characteristics of each MIMO subchannel determined from an associated sub-array antenna, the weighting coefficients generated for mutual interference mitigation between the MIMO subchannels;
• and
• interference-cancellation circuitry to apply each set of the weighting coefficients to baseband signals from each sub-array antenna and to combine the weighted baseband signals to generate combined basebands for each spatial channel.

A millimeter-wave transceiver configured for MIMO reception of multicarrier signals comprising:

• RF circuitry to receive multicarrier signals through two independently controllable sub-array antennas from first and second directions;
• a channel-estimation block to generate sets of weighting coefficients for each sub-array antenna based on spatial channel characteristics of each MIMO subchannel determined from an associated sub-array antenna, the weighting coefficients generated for mutual interference mitigation between the MIMO subchannels;
• and
• interference-cancellation circuitry to apply each set of the weighting coefficients to baseband signals from each sub-array antenna and to combine the weighted baseband signals to generate combined basebands for each spatial channel;
• wherein the first direction is associated with a first spatial channel and the second direction associated with a second spatial channel, the first and second spatial channels comprising the MIMO subchannels;
• wherein the interference cancellation circuitry is to apply either a minimum mean-square error (MMSE) or a zero-forcing (ZF) spatial processing algorithm, and
• wherein the sets of weighting coefficients for each sub-array antenna are generated for the MMSE or the ZF spatial processing algorithm.

A method for receiving millimeter-wave signals comprising:

• performing coarse beamforming to receive RF signals from first and second directions with independently controllable antenna sub-array antennas;
• and
• performing fine beamforming at baseband by applying sets of weighting coefficients for interference cancellation to baseband signals from each of the independently controllable antenna sub-array antennas;
• wherein performing coarse beamforming includes:
• performing a beam selection procedure that includes performing sector scans to identify the first and second directions based on signal levels of received signals;
• directing a first antenna beam in the first direction using a first of the independent controllable antenna sub-array antennas;
• and
• directing a second antenna beam in the second direction using a second of the independent controllable antenna sub-array antennas;
• and
• wherein the beam selection procedure includes:
• performing a sector scan to identify a most powerful ray associated with the first direction;
• and
• performing a second sector scan excluding a previously identified most powerful ray to identify a second most power ray associated with the second direction, and,
• wherein performing fine beamforming includes:
• generating a set of weighting coefficients for each sub-array antenna based on channel characteristics determined from each sub-array antenna, the weighting coefficients generated for inter-channel interference (ICI) suppression;
• and
• applying a set of the weighting coefficients to baseband signals from each sub-array antenna and combining the weighted baseband signals from each sub-array antenna to generate combined baseband signals that represent a single data stream.