Patent ID: 11870520
Assignee: SAFRAN ELECTRONICS & DEFENSE
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 5:
6. A device for selecting an antenna in a system comprising a first device and at least one second mobile device, the system forming a communication network wherein the first device communicates the at least one second device using a media-access technique of the time distribution multiple access type wherein each communication takes place in frames, each frame being divided into a plurality of timeslots comprising a first timeslot enabling the first device to send a first signal to the second device and enabling the second device to synchronise timewise on a time reference of the first device, and a second timeslot enabling the second device to send a second signal in response to the first signal to acknowledge its presence in the system, the first device sending and receiving the signals by means of an antenna system comprising at least a number N of sector antennas with N greater than or equal to four and an omnidirectional antenna, wherein the selection device is included in the first device and comprises:
means for obtaining, in an acquisition mode, for each antenna in the antenna system, a first item of information representing a quality of communication between the antenna and the second device;
means for selecting, from the obtained first items of information representing a communication quality, the antenna the first item of information of which representing the communication quality is the highest, to transmit and/or receive data with the mobile device,
means for obtaining, in a pursuit mode, if the selected antenna is a sectoral antenna, for the omnidirectional antenna and for each antenna in a group of M sectoral antennas comprising the selected sectoral antenna, with M strictly less than N, a second item of information representing a quality of communication between the antenna and the second device;
means for selecting, from the obtained second items of information representing a communication quality, the antenna the second item of information of which representing the communication quality is the highest, to transmit and/or receive data with the mobile device;
means for obtaining, in the pursuit mode, for each antenna of the antenna system, a third item of information representing a quality of communication between the antenna and the second device if the selected antenna is the omnidirectional antenna;
means for selecting, from the obtained third items of information representing a communication quality, the antenna the third item of information of which representing the communication quality is the highest, to transmit and/or receive data with the mobile device.