Wireless communication device and antenna search method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9654612-B2
Application number	US-201514957624-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 3, 2015
Priority date	Jan 27, 2015
Publication date	May 16, 2017
Grant date	May 16, 2017

Abstract

A wireless communication device for linking to an electronic device and including at least one antenna array and a control circuit is provided. The control circuit groups the at least one antenna array to obtain a plurality of test groups. In a scanning operation, the control circuit selects one of the test groups to be a specific test group. In a setting operation, the control circuit groups the specific test group, and re-obtains the plurality of test groups according to the grouped specific test group. The control circuit searches at least one optimal antenna for linking to the electronic device from the at least one antenna array through the scanning operation and the setting operation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wireless communication device, for linking to an electronic device, and the wireless communication device comprising:
R antenna arrays, R being an integer greater than 1; and
a control circuit, coupled to the antenna arrays, the control circuit dividing each of the antenna arrays into two antenna groups and combining the divided antenna groups of the antenna arrays into 2 R test groups, each of the test groups comprising one of the two antenna groups of each of the antenna arrays, wherein in a scanning operation, the control circuit selects one of the test groups to be a specific test group, and in a setting operation, the control circuit groups the specific test group and re-obtaining the test groups according to the grouped specific test group, wherein the control circuit searches at least one optimal antenna for linking to the electronic device from the antenna arrays through the scanning operation and the setting operation.

2. The wireless communication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein, in the scanning operation, the control circuit links to the electronic device sequentially through the test groups to obtain a plurality of quality parameters in response to each of the test groups, and the control circuit selects one of the test groups to be the specific test group according to the quality parameters.

3. The wireless communication device as claimed in claim 2 , wherein, in the setting operation, the control circuit selects one of the two antenna groups of each of the antenna arrays to be a specific antenna group according to the specific test group, the control circuit divides the specific antenna group of each of the antenna arrays into two sub-antenna groups, and re-establishes the two antenna groups of each of the antenna arrays by the two sub-antenna groups of each of the antenna arrays, and the control circuit combines the divided sub-antenna groups of the specific antenna groups into a plurality of sub-test groups, and re-establishes the test groups by the sub-test groups.

4. The wireless communication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the control circuit determines whether a grouping process for the specific test group is completed according to a number of antennas in the specific test group and a number of the antenna arrays, when the grouping process for the specific test group is not completed, the control circuit performs the scanning operation and the setting operation repeatedly, when the grouping process for the specific test group is completed, the control circuit sets at least one antenna of the specific test group to be the at least one optimal antenna.

5. The wireless communication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the control circuit comprises a processor and a transceiver, the antenna arrays comprises at least one switch, the transceiver selects the test groups one by one through the at least one switch for linking to the electronic device through the test groups one by one, and the processor reads signals from the transceiver to select one of the test groups to be the specific test group.

6. An antenna search method, adapted to a wireless communication device and comprising:
grouping R antenna arrays by a control circuit of the wireless communication device, wherein R is an integer greater than 1, and the step of grouping the antenna arrays comprises:
dividing each of the antenna arrays into two antenna groups by the control circuit; and
combining the divided antenna groups of the antenna arrays into 2 R test groups by the control circuit, wherein each of the test groups comprises one of the two antenna groups of each of the antenna arrays;
performing a scanning operation by the control circuit to select one of the test groups to be a specific test group;
performing a setting operation by the control circuit to group the specific test group and re-obtain the test groups according to the grouped specific test group; and
searching at least one optimal antenna from the antenna arrays through the scanning operation and the setting operation performed by the control circuit.

7. The antenna search method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the step of performing the scanning operation by the control circuit to select one of the test groups to be the specific test group comprises:
linking to an electronic device sequentially through the test groups to obtain a plurality of quality parameters in response to each of the test groups; and
selecting one of the test groups to be the specific test group according to the quality parameters.

8. The antenna search method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the quality parameters comprises connection rates and received signal-strength indicator values when the test groups link to the electronic device.

9. The antenna search method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the step of performing the setting operation by the control circuit to group the specific test group and re-obtain the test groups according to the grouped specific test group comprises:
selecting one of the two antenna groups of each of the antenna arrays to be a specific antenna group according to the specific test group;
dividing the specific antenna group of each of the antenna arrays into two sub-antenna groups, and re-establishing the two antenna groups of each of the antenna arrays by the two sub-antenna groups of each of the antenna arrays; and
combining the divided sub-antenna groups of the specific antenna groups into a plurality of sub-test groups, and re-establishing the test groups by the sub-test groups.

10. The antenna search method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the step of searching the at least one optimal antenna through the scanning operation and the setting operation performed by the control circuit comprises:
determining whether a grouping process for the specific test group is completed according to a number of antennas in the specific test group and a number of the antenna arrays;
performing the scanning operation and the setting operation repeatedly when the grouping process for the specific test group is not completed; and
setting at least one antenna of the specific test group to be the at least one optimal antenna when the grouping process for the specific test group is completed.

Assignees

• Wistron Neweb Corp

Inventors

• Kang Fu-Ming
• Wang Chia-Hsiang

Classifications

• H04M1/72412 Primary

  using two-way short-range wireless interfaces · CPC title

• H04M1/7253

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W40/06

  based on characteristics of available antennas · CPC title

• H04M1/72527 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04M1/24

  Arrangements for testing · CPC title