METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING BETWEEN A MULTI-SECTOR, OMNI-BASE STATION CONFIGURATION AND A MULTI-SECTOR BASE STATION CONFIGURATION

摘要

A base station (14) includes multiple sector antenna units (18). Each sector antenna unit has an antenna (10) for receiving a carrier signal associated with an antenna frequency in an available frequency band. The base station is converted between a multiple sector base station configuration and a multi-sector, omni-base station configuration. In a diversity base station implementation, each sector antenna unit receives a diversity signal from a first sector, and the second diversity antenna unit receives a diversity signal from a second different sector. If one sector antenna unit does not perform properly so that one of the sector diversity signals is lost or corrupted, the other sector diversity signal is still useable. The base station may be reconfigured to power-down the transmit side without having to power-down the receive side.