Patent ID: 11909125
Assignee: APPLE INC.
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 15:
16. A method of operating an electronic device having control circuitry and a phased antenna array to communicate with a wireless base station, the method comprising:
with a first set of antennas in the phased antenna array, transmitting uplink signals to the wireless base station at an output power level;
with the control circuitry, determining whether the output power level can be achieved using a second set of antennas with greater power savings for the electronic device than transmitting the uplink signals using the first set of antennas, wherein the second set of antennas includes a different number of antennas than the first set of antennas;
in response to determining that the output power level can be achieved using the second set of antennas with greater power savings for the electronic device than transmitting the uplink signals using the first set of antennas, transmitting a sounding reference signal (SRS) request to the wireless base station using the first set of antennas;
with the phased antenna array, receiving an SRS grant from the wireless base station; and
with the control circuitry, in response to receiving the SRS grant, controlling the second set of antennas to transmit an SRS to the wireless base station.