Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for controlling communication beams within a cellular communication system

US6556809B1 · kind B1 · utility

27Cited by
6References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 22, 1999
Grant dateApr 29, 2003
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 22, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04B7/18532
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A beam control subsystem (200, FIG. 2) provides acquisition, synchronization, and traffic beams (142, FIG. 1) to communication devices (130) within a footprint (144) of a system node (110), where each beam comprises a set of beamlets (140). The subsystem (200, FIG. 2) first acquires (302, FIG. 3) and synchronizes (304, FIG. 3 and FIG. 6) with each communication device. Acquisition involves selecting (402, 416, FIG. 4) and combining (404) sets of beamlets (506, 510, FIG. 5), and determining whether any devices within the sets are attempting to acquire the system. If so, synchronization is performed by varying (604, FIG. 6) beamlet weighting coefficients to find, based on modem feedback, a combination of coefficients that yields a maximum signal-to-interference+noise ratio for multiple users within a beam. The communication device is then handed off (612, 614) to a traffic beam. The subsystem (200) continues, based on modem feedback, to adapt (802, 804, FIG. 8) beamlet weighting coefficients in order to track the traffic beam in a manner that provides the maximum SINR.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.