Patent ID: 9118361
Filing Date: 2015-08-25
Classification: H04B

Abstract:
1. An antenna system comprising: an antenna assembly including a single antenna stack for providing a plurality of antenna beams with individually adjustable vertical angles of electrical tilt, wherein the antenna assembly comprises only passive elements, wherein the antenna system is configured to transmit data in groups of data channels via the antenna beams, wherein each of the groups comprises at least one data channel; coding means for applying a coding to the data in the data channels to implement a channelisation process and a scrambling process with the coding in at least one of the channelization process and the scrambling process differing between the groups of data channels to enable the data associated with individual data channels to be distinguished, wherein the coding means is arranged to apply like coding to the groups of data channels for the channelization process with a different coding to the groups of data channels for the scrambling process; and a tilt controller for separately adjusting the individually adjustable vertical angle of electrical tilt for each of the plurality of antenna beams relative to another one of the plurality of antenna beams, wherein each of the plurality of antenna beams is transmitted via a same set of antenna elements of the single antenna stack as other antenna beams of the plurality of antenna beams, wherein the single antenna stack is arranged to provide the antenna beams with mutually orthogonal polarisations, wherein the single antenna stack has a plurality of ports per polarisation, and wherein the tilt controller controls a time delay between signals applied to ports associated with like polarisation to provide antenna beam tilt control.