METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING TRANSMIT DIVERSITY USING SWITCHED ANTENNAS

摘要

A method and apparatus for providing diversity transmissions to a receiving unit. A transmitting station used to communicate with the receiving unit may have a first and second antenna (34, 36) and repeatedly switch between the two antennas (34, 36) during the transmission of information to the receiving unit. Transmission of information may be initiated from a first antenna (34), and when terminated, transmission of information from a second antenna (36) is initiated. Likewise, after transmission of information from the second antenna (36) is terminated, transmission of information from the first antenna (34) continues. This "swapping" of antennas continues until the information transfer ends. Antenna swapping results in diversity transmissions that improve the ability of the receiving unit to receive a coded and interleaved information transmitted from the transmitting station. The interleaver may disperse the encoded symbols in each antenna dwell period such that decoder decisions are based on a mix of symbols from each antenna.