Method and apparatus for determining a direction of arrival of a signal
US6421007B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 19, 2000 |
| Grant date | Jul 16, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 19, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01Q3/2652
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
The invention provides a method and apparatus for determining the direction of a signal such as for example a received radio signal in a cellular mobile communication system. At lest two antenna arrays (10, 12) are connected to associated processors (14, 16) for extracting the desired signal and two independent direction of arrival estimates are determined in associated direction estimators (18, 20). A similarity testing unit (22) determines the direction of arrival and the accuracy of this estimate from the difference between the two estimates. A feature of the invention is controlling the beam form of a downlink signal in response to the direction estimate and the determined accuracy.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.