Adaptive antenna selection for interference mitigation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10135484-B2
Application number	US-201715651588-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 17, 2017
Priority date	Sep 30, 2015
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

This disclosure relates to performing antenna selection to reduce interference in a wireless device. According to some embodiments, it may be determined whether simultaneous communication according to first and second wireless communication technologies causes performance degradation to a third wireless communication technology. If the simultaneous communication according to first and second wireless communication technologies does cause performance degradation to the third wireless communication technology, selection of antenna(s) used for the communications may be based at least in part on the determination that the simultaneous communication according to the first and second wireless communication technologies causes performance degradation to the third wireless communication technology.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a processing element configured to:
determine that simultaneous communication of a first wireless communication technology and a second wireless communication technology causes performance degradation to a third wireless communication technology, wherein said performance degradation is a result of intermodulation products associated with the first and second wireless communication technologies; and
select two or more antennas used for the simultaneous communication of the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology based at least in part on determining that the simultaneous communication of the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology causes performance degradation to the third wireless communication technology, wherein the two or more antennas are selected to reduce the intermodulation products.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing element is further configured to:
determine that the third wireless communication technology is active; and
select the two or more antennas used for the simultaneous communication of the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology based at least in part on determining that the simultaneous communication of the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology causes performance degradation to the third wireless communication technology when the third wireless communication technology is active.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the first wireless communication technology comprises a wireless local area networking (WLAN) technology,
wherein the second wireless communication technology comprises a cellular communication technology,
wherein the third wireless communication technology comprises a global navigational satellite system (GNSS) technology).

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to select two or more antennas used for the simultaneous communication of the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology based at least in part on determining that the simultaneous communication of the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology causes performance degradation to the third wireless communication technology, the processing element is further configured to:
select the two or more antennas used for the simultaneous communication of the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology to reduce performance degradation with respect to the third wireless communication technology.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to select two or more antennas used for the simultaneous communication of the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology based at least in part on determining that the simultaneous communication the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology causes performance degradation to the third wireless communication technology, the processing element is further configured to:
select the two or more antennas used for the simultaneous communication of the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology to provide increased isolation for an antenna used by the third wireless communication technology.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to select two or more antennas used for the simultaneous communication of the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology based at least in part on determining that the simultaneous communication of the first wireless communication technology and the second wireless communication technology causes performance degradation to the third wireless communication technology, the processing element is further configured to:
switch at least one of the first wireless communication technology or the second wireless communication technology from a multi-antenna communication mode to a single-antenna communication mode.

7. A wireless user equipment (UE) device, comprising:
a plurality of antennas;
one or more radios coupled to the plurality of antennas; and
a processing element operably coupled to the one or more radios;
wherein the UE device is configured to:
determine whether an intermodulation product of cellular and Wi-Fi communication by the UE device is in a frequency band used by the UE device for global navigational satellite system (GNSS) communication;
select two or more antennas for cellular and Wi-Fi communication by the UE device based at least in part on determining that the intermodulation product of cellular and Wi-Fi communication by the UE device is in the frequency band used by the UE device for GNSS communication, wherein the two or more antennas are selected to reduce the intermodulation product; and
transmit Wi-Fi signals and cellular signals using the selected two or more antennas.

8. The UE device of claim 7 , wherein the UE device is further configured to:
select the two or more antennas for cellular and Wi-Fi communication in a first manner if no intermodulation product of cellular and Wi-Fi communication by the UE device is in the frequency band used by the UE device for GNSS communication; and
select the two or more antennas for cellular and Wi-Fi communication in a second manner if the intermodulation product of cellular and Wi-Fi communication by the UE device is in the frequency band used by the UE device for GNSS communication.

9. The UE device of claim 7 , wherein the UE device is further configured to:
determine whether a GNSS module of the UE device is active;
wherein selecting the two or more antennas for cellular and Wi-Fi communication by the UE device is further based at least in part on determining whether the GNSS module of the UE device is active.

10. The UE device of claim 9 , wherein the UE device is further configured to:
select the two or more antennas for cellular and Wi-Fi communication in a first manner if no intermodulation product of cellular and Wi-Fi communication by the UE device is in the frequency band used by the UE device for GNSS communication or if no GNSS module of the UE device is active; and
select the two or more antennas for cellular and Wi-Fi communication in a second manner if the intermodulation product of cellular and Wi-Fi communication by the UE device is in the frequency band used by the UE device for GNSS communication and the GNSS module of the UE device is active.

11. The UE device of claim 10 ,
wherein to select the two or more antennas for cellular and Wi-Fi communication by the UE device in the second manner, the UE device is further configured to:
select a single antenna mode for Wi-Fi communication; and
select an antenna for Wi-Fi communication with greatest isolation from a GNSS antenna.

12. The UE device of claim 7 , wherein to determine whether the intermodulation product of cellular and Wi-Fi communication by the UE device is in the frequency band used by the UE device for GNSS communication, the UE device is configured use one or more of:
a lookup table indicating intermodulation products of selected frequency combinations; or
one or more formulas for calculating intermodulation products of frequency combinations.

13. The UE device of claim 7 , wherein the UE device is further configured to:
select an antenna combination that causes a lowest amount of receiver desensitization to GNSS communication among possible antenna combinations if it is determi

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Jain Swapnil S
• Mcdonnell Nicholas M
• Zhao Wen
• Flynn Paul V

Classifications

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04B1/44

  Transmit/receive switching · CPC title

• H04W72/0453

  Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA · CPC title

• H04B1/401 Primary

  for selecting or indicating operating mode · CPC title

• H04W88/06

  adapted for operation in multiple networks {or having at least two operational modes}, e.g. multi-mode terminals · CPC title