METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SWITCHED BEAM ANTENNA COMMUNICATIONS

摘要

A system for processing an RF signal received via a plurality of antenna elements includes a connection arrangement (6) for selecting a sub-set of a given number of RF signals (r i , r j) received from the antenna elements as well as a processing arrangement (8) for combining the received RF signals of the selected subset (r i , r j) into a single RF signal for demodulation. The system includes a RF phasing circuit (18) for producing selective combinations of the received RF signals (r i , r j) by applying relative RF phase shift weights to the RF signals (r i , r j) that are combined; each combination includes RF signals received from a number of adjacent antenna elements equal to the number of the RF signals in the sub-set to be selected. A radio performance estimator (14) generates for each said selective combination of RF signals at least one non-RF radio performance indicator (RPI) representative of the quality of the RF signals in the combination. A decision block (16) identifies the sub-set of received RF signals (r i , r j) to be selected as a function of the one radio performance indicator (RPI) generated for the selective combinations of said received RF signals (r i , r j). This arrangement facilitates the selection of the signals/antennas to be used for reception e.g. in a WLAN device by avoiding that the selection process may involve all the possible combinations.