Smart antenna system and method for improving receiving performance thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9755321-B2
Application number	US-201615006283-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 26, 2016
Priority date	Jan 26, 2015
Publication date	Sep 5, 2017
Grant date	Sep 5, 2017

Abstract

A smart antenna system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention including a beam forming antenna which includes an active antenna and a plurality of parasitic antennas, the system including: a reactance load which is connected to the parasitic antenna; a transceiver which transmits and receives a signal to the beam forming antenna; and an antenna adjusting block which tracks a signal source in real time using a plurality of beam patterns having the largest signal size and forms a beam in a direction having the largest signal size.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A smart antenna system including a beam forming antenna which includes an active antenna and parasitic antennas, the system comprising:
a reactance load that is connected to one of the parasitic antennas;
a transceiver configured to transmit and receive a signal to the beam forming antenna; and
an antenna adjusting block configured to measure a strength of a signal of a beam pattern for every parasitic antenna, compare the strengths of the signals to fix the beam pattern of a signal having the strongest strength as a first beam pattern and sequentially perform the beam forming while fixing the first beam pattern to track a second beam pattern having the strongest strength of the signal.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna adjusting block forms a final beam pattern using the first beam pattern and the second beam pattern.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna adjusting block forms the first beam pattern and the second beam pattern to have the same size.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna adjusting block forms the first beam pattern and the second beam pattern to have different sizes.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna adjusting block further comprises:
a signal receiving unit configured to measure and compare the signal strengths; and
a parasitic antenna control unit configured to adjust the reactance load in accordance with the strength of the signal by being interworked with the signal receiving unit.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the parasitic antenna control unit sets the reactance load such that the signal has the strongest strength.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the signal receiving unit processes a signal in parallel with the transceiver.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the signal receiving unit comprises:
an amplifier configured to amplify a received signal;
a mixer configured to convert the signal amplified by the amplifier into a base band signal;
a low pass filter configured to perform low pass filtering on the signal which is converted into the base band signal by the mixer;
an analog to digital converter configured to convert the filtered signal into a digital signal;
a register configured to sequentially store the digital signal; and
a comparator configured to compare sizes of the digital signals which are sequentially stored.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna adjusting block performs beam forming during a receiving mode of the transceiver and tracks the signal source in real time.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reactance load comprises:
a switch that has one end connected to the parasitic antenna and is controlled by the antenna adjusting block so that the other end is connected to the variable inductor or the variable capacitor;
a first reactance matching circuit that is connected to the variable capacitor, configured to set a load value of the parasitic antenna; and
a second reactance matching circuit that is connected to the variable inductor, configured to set a load value of the parasitic antenna.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first and second reactance matching circuits comprise:
a variable inductor whose one end is connected to the ground voltage terminal; and
a variable capacitor whose one end is connected to the ground voltage terminal and the other end is connected to the variable inductor.

12. An improving method of a receiving performance of a smart antenna system, comprising:
sequentially performing primary beam forming when entering a receiving mode;
measuring strengths of signals for beam patterns formed by the primary beam forming and comparing the strengths of the signals of the beam patterns to determine and fix a first beam pattern having the strongest strength of the signal;
performing secondary beam forming in a state when the first beam pattern is fixed;
measuring strengths of signals for beam patterns formed by the secondary beam forming and comparing the strengths of the signals of the beam patterns to determine a second beam pattern having the strongest strength of the signal; and
determining a final beam pattern using the first beam pattern and the second beam pattern.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
determining the first beam pattern as a final beam pattern when the strength of the signal by the final beam pattern obtained by combining the first beam pattern and the second beam pattern is weaker than the strength of the signal of the first beam pattern.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein in the determining of a second beam pattern, the second beam pattern having the same size as the first beam pattern is formed.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein in the determining of a second beam pattern, the second beam pattern having different size from the first beam pattern is formed.

Assignees

• Electronics & Telecommunications Res Inst

Inventors

• Cho Young Kyun
• Park Bong Hyuk
• Oh Jung Hoon
• Lee Jung Nam
• Jo Gweon Do

Classifications

• H04B7/086

  using weights depending on external parameters, e.g. direction of arrival [DOA], predetermined weights or beamforming · CPC title

• H01Q19/32 Primary

  the primary active element being end-fed and elongated · CPC title

• H04B7/0814 Primary

  based on current reception conditions, e.g. switching to different antenna when signal level is below threshold · CPC title

• H04B7/088

  using beam selection · CPC title