Antenna switching devices, systems, and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9680219-B2
Application number	US-201313838674-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	May 21, 2012
Publication date	Jun 13, 2017
Grant date	Jun 13, 2017

Abstract

This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus for antenna switching. In one embodiment, a wireless communication apparatus is provided. The wireless communication apparatus includes a plurality of antennas including a first antenna and a second antenna. The wireless communication apparatus further includes at least one receive circuit including a first receive circuit. The wireless communication apparatus further includes a controller configured to selectively switch the first receive circuit from receiving wireless communications via the first antenna to receive wireless communications via the second antenna if one or more performance characteristics of the first antenna are below a threshold in one or more measurement cycles, the one or more measurement cycles including a wake-up cycle outside of a predetermined wake-up cycle. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wireless communication apparatus, comprising:
a plurality of antennas including a first antenna and a second antenna;
at least one receive circuit including a first receive circuit; and
a controller configured to:
during a plurality of predetermined wake-up periods, receive a page channel via the first antenna, wherein the plurality of predetermined wake up periods are negotiated with a network for waking the apparatus from a sleep period according to a predetermined wake-up cycle;
wake up from the sleep period during a measurement period, to monitor one or more performance characteristics of the first antenna, wherein the measurement period comprises a period of time occurring outside of the plurality of predetermined wake-up periods; and
selectively switch to receive the page channel via the second antenna based on the one or more performance characteristics of the first antenna.

2. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more performance characteristics of the first antenna include one or more downlink performance metrics.

3. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the measurement period occurs immediately prior to one of the predetermined wake-up periods.

4. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the controller is further configured to selectively switch if the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna are below a threshold during the measurement period.

5. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
monitor the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna during the measurement period according to a comparison of the one or more downlink performance metrics to a threshold during a different measurement period; and
selectively switch based on the comparison.

6. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
monitor one or more downlink performance metrics of the second antenna during the measurement period;
compare the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna to the one or more downlink performance metrics of the second antenna; and
selectively switch based on the comparison.

7. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
monitor the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna and one or more downlink performance metrics of the second antenna during the measurement period;
compare the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna and the second antenna; and
selectively switch based on the comparison.

8. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the controller is further configured to serially monitor the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna and the second antenna, the serial monitoring including:
monitoring the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna using the first receive circuit; and
monitoring the one or more downlink performance metrics of the second antenna using the first receive circuit after the monitoring the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna.

9. The wireless communication apparatus of claim 2 ,
wherein the controller is further configured to selectively switch back from the second antenna to the first antenna if one or more downlink performance metrics of the second antenna in a different measurement period are lower than the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna during the different measurement period.

10. A method implemented in a wireless communication apparatus, the method comprising:
receiving wireless communications at a first receive circuit via a first antenna;
during a plurality of predetermined wake-up periods, receiving a page channel via the first antenna, wherein the plurality of predetermined wake-up periods are negotiated with a network for waking the apparatus from a sleep period according to a predetermined wake-up cycle;
waking up from the sleep period during a measurement period, to monitor one or more performance characteristics of the first antenna, wherein the measurement period comprises a period of time occurring outside of the plurality of predetermined wake-up periods; and
selectively switching to receive the page channel via a second antenna based on the one or more performance characteristics of the first antenna.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more performance characteristics of the first antenna include one or more downlink performance metrics.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the measurement period occurs immediately prior to one of the predetermined wake-up periods.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising selectively switching if the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna are below a threshold during the measurement period.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
monitoring the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna during the measurement period according to a comparison of the one or more downlink performance metrics to a threshold during a different measurement period; and
selectively switching based on the comparison.

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
monitoring one or more downlink performance metrics of the second antenna during the measurement period; and
comparing the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna to the one or more downlink performance metrics of the second antenna; and
selectively switching based on the comparison.

16. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
monitoring the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna and one or more downlink performance metrics of the second antenna during the measurement period;
comparing the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna and the second antenna; and
selectively switching based on the comparison.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising serially monitoring the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna and the second antenna, the serially monitoring including:
monitoring the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna using the first receive circuit; and
monitoring the one or more downlink performance metrics of the second antenna using the first receive circuit after the monitoring the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna.

18. The method of claim 11 , further comprising selectively switching back from the second antenna to the first antenna if one or more downlink performance metrics of the second antenna in a different measurement period-are lower than the one or more downlink performance metrics of the first antenna during the different measurement period.

19. A wireless communication apparatus, comprising:
a plurality of antennas including a first antenna and a second antenna;
at least one receive circuit including a first receive circuit; and
means for selectively switching configured to:
during a plurality of predetermined wake-up periods, receive a page channel via the first antenna, wherein the plurality of predetermined wake-up periods are negotiated with a network for waking the apparatus from a sleep period according to a predetermined wake-up cycle;
wake up from the sleep period during a measurement period, to monitor one or more performance characteristics of the first antenna, wherei

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Filipovic Daniel Fred
• Yan Hongbo
• He Ning

Classifications

• H04W72/542

  using measured or perceived quality · CPC title

• H04B7/0602 Primary

  using antenna switching (H04B7/0686 takes precedence; antenna beam directivity switching H01Q3/24) · CPC title

• H04B7/0608

  Antenna selection according to transmission parameters · CPC title

• H04B7/0404 Primary

  the mobile station comprising multiple antennas, e.g. to provide uplink diversity · CPC title

• H04B7/0802

  using antenna selection (H04B7/0868 takes precedence; antenna beam directivity switching H01Q3/24) · CPC title