Patent · US Expired

Method for steering smart antenna beams for a WLAN using signal and link quality metrics

US7236759B2 · kind B2 · utility

8Cited by
9References
24Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 15, 2005
Grant dateJun 26, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 20, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04B7/086
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An antenna steering algorithm for a smart antenna uses signal quality metrics and link quality metrics for selecting a preferred antenna beam. The link quality metrics supplement the signal quality metrics for improving the antenna steering decision. The link quality metrics are based on information available from existing counters operating in the media access control (MAC) layer. Separate estimates of the frame error rates in the receive links and in the transmit links are obtained. One estimate is the downlink quality metric (DLQM) and another estimate is the uplink quality metric (ULQM). Alternative link quality metrics are based on throughput and data rates of the exchanged data.

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