Enhanced OFDM by use of alternating polarization states

摘要

An Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexer (OFDM) transmitter and receiver apparatus consistent with certain embodiments of the present invention receives data to be transmitted and maps (204) a first portion of the data to a first polarization state and a second portion of the data to a second polarization state. A first transmitter (216) transmits the first portion of the data as a set of first OFDM subcarriers using an antenna (230) exhibiting a first polarization. A second transmitter (234) transmits the second portion of the data as a set of second OFDM subcarriers using an antenna (240) exhibiting a second polarization, wherein the first polarization is orthogonal to the second polarization. A receiver apparatus uses a first antenna (302) exhibiting the first polarization and a second antenna (306) exhibiting the second polarization. A first OFDM receiver (310) receives a first set of polarized OFDM subcarriers from the first antenna (302) while a second OFDM receiver (324) receives a second set of polarized OFDM subcarriers from the second antenna (306). A decoder (330) decodes the first and second sets of OFDM subcarriers and combines them into a stream of data.