Patent ID: 11902005
Assignee: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 4:
5. A relay method using an array antenna in which a spacing between adjacent ones of antenna elements is constant, each of combinations of two of the antenna elements in positions symmetrical relative to a center of an array is connected by wire connections in two paths, and a path length between the antenna elements in the combination of two antenna elements is the same in all of the combinations, the method comprising:
a phase adjustment amount calculation step of, when any one of the wire connections is predefined as a reference wire connection serving as a reference, calculating a phase adjustment amount for each of the wire connections aside from the reference wire connection on the basis of an arrival direction of a wireless signal received by one of the antenna elements in the combination of two antenna elements and a re-radiation direction of a wireless signal transmitted as a re-radiated wave by another of the antenna elements corresponding to the one of the antenna elements, taking into account a phase difference between a signal transmitted by the wire connections connected to the one of the antenna elements and a signal transmitted by the reference wire connection; and
a phase adjustment step of, for each of the wire connections aside from the reference wire connection, applying phase rotation to the signal transmitted by the wire connection in accordance with the phase adjustment amount calculated in the phase adjustment amount calculation step,
wherein the wireless signal contains a plurality of frames that are time-divided,
the phase adjustment amount calculation step calculates, for each of the wire connections aside from the reference wire connection, the phase adjustment amount for each of the frames contained in the wireless signal received by the one of the antenna elements, on the basis of an arrival direction of the wireless signal containing the frame and a re-radiation direction of the wireless signal containing the frame, taking into account the phase difference between the signal transmitted by the wire connections connected to the one of the antenna elements and the signal transmitted by the reference wire connection, and the phase adjustment step detects the frame from the signal transmitted by the wire connection, and applies phase rotation to the phase of the detected frame in accordance with the phase adjustment amount corresponding to the detected frame.