Sub-sampling antenna elements

Abstract

An antenna apparatus for use in a wireless network and method of operating such an antenna apparatus are provided. The antenna apparatus has plural omnidirectional antenna elements and plural RF chains, where there are fewer RF chains than omnidirectional antenna elements. A subset of the plural omnidirectional antenna elements are coupled to the plural RF chains and sampling circuitry coupled tothe plural RF chains samples the signals received by the subset of the plural omnidirectional antenna elements. This forms part of a signal detection process in which different subsets of the plural omnidirectional antenna elements are iteratively coupled to the plural RF chains. A signal sample spatial covariance matrix for the plural omnidirectional antenna elements is constructed from the signals sampled by the sampling circuitry at each iteration and a beamforming algorithm applied to the signal sample spatial covariance matrix parameterises the signals received by the plurality of omnidirectional antenna elements.

Description

technical field [0001] This disclosure relates to wireless networks. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to sampling signals received by antenna elements in a wireless network. Background technique [0002] Wireless networks can be provided to serve a range of different functions, but one use of wireless networks is to perform backhaul in communication networks where user equipment devices, such as mobile phones, communicate with nodes of the wireless network, and the wireless network then enables these nodes Capable of communicating with other nodes of the wireless network, they are then connected (usually by wire) to the physical communication infrastructure and then on to a wired communication network such as the Internet. There are many different use cases and different types of backhaul technologies available to mobile network operators, but why in this context it would be desirable to provide end nodes of a wireless backhaul network that communicate only...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

While it would be advantageous to provide wireless networks operating in license-exempt frequency bands, the lack of official regulation in such unlicensed bands due to their free availability means that wireless networks must be able to cope with wireless networks from unsolicited and uncoordinated wireless sources. co-channel and adjacent channel interference, and furthermore, regardless of any initially well-planned deployment, if a wireless network is to be durable (in time), it must be able to rapidly adapt to static or dynamic, fixed or mobile radio communications from other sources quantity

One possible way to provide a wireless backhaul network in such an environment would be to use a contention-based protocol such as IEEE802.11 (WiFi), but then care must be taken to ensure that access does not occur by splitting the two air interfaces into separate without interfering with the backhaul, however other mobile devices or operators may still be using the same spectrum causing significant interference

Although the wide availability of WiFi may represent a cheaper approach, WiFi cannot quickly account for rapid spatial and temporal interference pattern variations, making it less suitable in practice for the stringent requirements of real-time backhaul services

Furthermore, the use of available anticipated WiFi requires careful engineering and is used in a narrow point-to-point mode that limits its deployment possibilities

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