Angle of arrival of wireless local area network devices using a switched beam antenna

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12228659-B2
Application number	US-202418770468-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 11, 2024
Priority date	Mar 22, 2023
Publication date	Feb 18, 2025
Grant date	Feb 18, 2025

Abstract

A method and apparatus for measuring the angle of arrival AOA of Wi-Fi packets, using a switched beam antenna SBA is described. Wide antenna beams, quadrants, are selected in turn and a burst of packets is transmitted on each quadrant. The quadrant with the highest average signals strength is selected. Then the narrow antenna beams that make up that selected quadrant are selected, in sequence, and the average signal strength for each narrow beam is recorded. The narrow beam with the highest average signal strength is returned as the AOA. Based upon which narrow beam recorded the highest signal strength, the next sequence of antenna beams is selected. When the SBA is mounted on a mobile platform, the parameters of the transmission bursts are chosen such that the angular error due to cornering of the platform is negligible.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method in a first wireless device (WD) configured with a switched beam antenna (SBA), for determining an angle of arrival (AOA) corresponding to communication between the first WD and a second WD, the method comprising:
identifying a first beam having a first width and a sector of beam coverage from which the first WD transmits ranging packets and the second WD returns response packets, the sector of beam coverage of the first beam comprising a plurality of second beams pointing in different directions, each second beam being narrower than the first beam;
transmitting in succession, via the first WD, a burst of ranging packets on each second beam;
for each transmission on a second beam:
receiving a burst of response packets transmitted by the second WD in response to the burst of ranging packets;
comparing each received response packet to a reference sequence to generate a plurality of correlation values corresponding to the burst of response packets; and
determining a first metric value based on the plurality of correlation values so that each second beam in the plurality of second beams is associated with a corresponding first metric value;

selecting a second beam from the plurality of second beams with a corresponding highest one of the first metric values; and
determining an AOA for the selected second beam.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of (i) a number of ranging packets in the burst of ranging packets, (ii) a time between ranging packets in the burst, and (iii) a gap between successive bursts of ranging packets is selected based on a limit on an error in determining the highest one of the first metric values.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the bursts of response packets transmitted by the second WD includes:
receiving, in succession, a burst of response packets in each beam of a first subset of the plurality of second beams; and
receiving, in succession, a burst of response packets in each of at least one beam of a second subset of the plurality of second beams, the at least one beam of the second subset being offset in direction from a direction of a beam of the first subset.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the offset in direction is selected based at least in part on a limit on an angular error in determining the AOA for the selected second beam.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first subset of the plurality of second beams are directed in a first set of directions and the offset in direction is selected to be in a direction of increasing first metric value as determined based at least in part on the first metric values associated with beams of the first subset of the plurality of second beams.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first subset of the plurality of second beams are associated with a first set of antennas of the first WD and the second subset of the plurality of second beams are associated with a subset of the first set of antennas.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a direction of each beam of a subset of the plurality of second beams is successively incremented in an angular direction until the first metric value of an associated beam of the subset exceeds a threshold.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first WD is positioned on a vehicle and configured to select at least one of (i) a number of ranging packets in a burst of ranging packets, (ii) a time between ranging packets in the burst, and (iii) a gap between successive bursts based at least in part on a velocity of the vehicle.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein a time between ranging packets in the burst and a gap between successive bursts is selected based at least in part on a limit on angular error in determining the AOA of the selected second beam.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the limit on angular error is less than half a beam selection accuracy of the SBA.

11. A first wireless device (WD) configured with a switched beam antenna (SBA), for determining an angle of arrival (AOA) corresponding to communication between the first WD and a second WD, the first WD comprising:
processing circuitry configured to identify a first beam having a first width and a sector of beam coverage from which the first WD transmits ranging packets and the second WD returns response packets, the sector of beam coverage of the first beam comprising a plurality of second beams pointing in different directions, each second beam being narrower than the first beam;
an RF transmitter configured to transmit, in succession, a burst of ranging packets on each second beam; and
an RF receiver configured to receive, for each transmission on a second beam, a burst of response packets transmitted by the second WD in response to the burst of ranging packets;
wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
for each transmission on a second beam:
compare each received response packet to a reference sequence to generate a plurality of correlation values corresponding to the burst of response packets; and
determine a first metric value based on the plurality of correlation values so that each second beam in the plurality of second beams is associated with a corresponding first metric value;

select a second beam from the plurality of second beams with a corresponding highest one of the first metric values; and
determine an AOA for the selected second beam.

12. The first WD of claim 11 , wherein at least one of (i) a number of ranging packets in the burst of ranging packets, (ii) a time between ranging packets in the burst, and (iii) a gap between successive bursts of ranging packets is selected based on a limit on an error in determining the highest one of the first metric values.

13. The first WD of claim 11 , wherein to receive by the RF receiver the bursts of response packets transmitted by the second WD comprises:
receiving, in succession, a burst of response packets in each beam of a first subset of the plurality of second beams; and
receiving, in succession, a burst of response packets in each of at least one beam of a second subset of the plurality of second beams, the at least one beam of the second subset being offset in direction from a direction of a beam of the first subset.

14. The first WD of claim 13 , wherein the offset in direction is selected based at least in part on a limit on an angular error in determining the AOA for the selected second beam.

15. The first WD of claim 13 , wherein the first subset of the plurality of second beams are directed in a first set of directions and the offset in direction is selected to be in a direction of increasing first metric value as determined based at least in part on the first metric values associated with beams of the first subset of the plurality of second beams.

16. The first WD of claim 13 , wherein the first subset of the plurality of second beams are associated with a first set of antennas of the first WD and the second subset of the plurality of second beams are associated with a subset of the first set of antennas.

17. The first WD of claim 11 , wherein a direction of each beam of a subset of the plurality of second beams is successively incremented in an angular direction until the first metric value of an associated beam of the subset exceeds a threshold.

18. The first WD of claim 11 , wherein the first WD is positioned on a vehicle and configured to select at least one of (i) a number of ranging packets in a burst of ranging packets, (ii) a time between ranging packets in the burst, and (iii) a gap between successive bursts based at least i

Assignees

• Sr Tech Inc

Inventors

• Busser Ryan
• Smith Graham K
• Passler Mark
• Roccapriore Phillip Louis

Classifications

• G01S13/74

  Systems using reradiation of radio waves, e.g. secondary radar systems; Analogous systems · CPC title

• G01S3/043 Primary

  Receivers · CPC title

• G01S3/18 Primary

  derived directly from separate directional antennas · CPC title