Patent ID: 8442590
Filing Date: 2013-05-14
Classification: H04B

Abstract:
1. A method of determining a beamforming vector for use in wireless communication involving apparatus comprising a plurality of antennas, each being suitable for emitting a wireless signal, including determining said beamforming vector on the basis of a measure of transmission channel to a given receiver, said measure being expressible in the form of a channel matrix, the determining including determining an eigen-beamformer vector from said channel matrix and, for a number of iterations wherein the initial iteration is performed on a vector being said eigen-beamformer vector, rotating said eigen-beamformer vector into a reference direction in vector space to produce a rotated eigen-beamformer vector whose application would result in peak radiation being directed in said reference direction, sampling a radiation pattern associated with said rotated eigen-beamformer vector with respect to transmission direction, compressing the samples obtained from sampling the radiation pattern to reduce spatial directivity induced by said rotated eigen-beamformer vector, developing a rotated candidate beamformer on the basis of said compressed samples and returning said rotated candidate beamformer to the orientation of said eigen-beamformer vector before said rotating, thereby to produce a resultant vector and storing said resultant vector as a candidate vector; then comparing said candidate vectors for said iterations and selecting that for use which best meets one or more selection criteria.