Cellular base station augmentation system and method

摘要

A method and apparatus for augmenting an existing base station for cellular communications, especially when the existing base station includes a main antenna and a diversity antenna. The method comprising replacing the diversity antenna array with a new diversity antenna array comprising both receive and transmit elements; installing a switching matrix in the signal path between the base station and the transmit element of both the new diversity antenna array and the main antenna array; and switching the transmission of data between the transmit elements of the main antenna array and the diversity antenna array.