Patent Description:
Mobile communication systems have been developed and deployed in multiple generations. More and more features and functionalities are introduced into new releases of mobile communication systems. Inter-vehicular communication is one of the features recently introduced and it allows vehicles communicating with each other with the purpose traffic control and coordination. There are multiple coexistent systems for this purpose. The <NUM>rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specified a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) modus for their standard. The Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers specified a wireless interface under <NUM>. 11p for car-to-car communication.

Document <CIT> describes a concept using spatial multiplexing and de-multiplexing for users of a mobile communication system. Document <CIT> describes a determination of whether an SDMA-component (Spatial Division Multiple Access) of a mobile communication system is activated or deactivated. <CIT> discloses a virtual multi-antenna method for a communication system. A combination of Multi-User Detection (MUD) and SDMA is described in <CIT>. Document <CIT> discloses a switched beamforming concept for downlink transmission and an adaptive beamforming concept for uplink transmission.

Document <CIT> describes a vehicle, which includes a wireless communication unit configured to form a beam pattern for performing wireless communication with a target vehicle, a camera module configured to obtain an image of at least one peripheral vehicle, and a display unit configured to display the image. When the target vehicle is selected based on the displayed image, the beam pattern is formed toward the selected target vehicle.

Document <CIT> describes a hybrid concept of digital and analog beamforming.

Document <CIT> describes systems and methods for mapping Virtual Radio Instances (VRIs) into physical volumes of coherence in a Multiple Antenna System (MAS) with Multi-User (MU) transmissions ("MU-MAS"). These mapping methods enable communications through simultaneous non-interfering data streams in the same frequency band between the MU-MAS and multiple users, within their own volume of coherence. As the users move, their VRIs follow their respective volumes of coherence via teleportation to adjacent MU-MAS networks, thereby eliminating the need for handoffs as in conventional cellular systems and unnecessary control data overhead.

Document <CIT> reveals a user device for wireless communication with a plurality of wireless network elements. For this purpose the user equipment comprises multiple antennas. The plurality of antennas is configured to form a plurality of spatial or directional beams. Thus, the user device can provide simultaneously a plurality of independent wireless communication links using the plurality of spatial or directional beams. The user device is further configured to provide connections using different radio access technologies.

<CIT> falls within the terms of Art. <NUM>(<NUM>) EPC and discloses a method of using different beams for communicating with different protocols in a vehicle.

There is a demand for an improved concept for vehicular communication. The independent claims provide an improved concept for vehicular communication.

Embodiments are based on the finding that adaptive antennas can be used in vehicles to separate signals impinging from different directions. Particularly in case of inter vehicle direct communication spatial separation of signals can be used to distinguish different vehicles, which may as well use different access technologies. More efficient use may be made of the spectrum in case multiple access technologies coexist, e.g. V2X and <NUM>. 11p, in the same spectrum. Embodiments provide an apparatus for a vehicle communicating in multiple mobile communication systems. The apparatus comprises one or more interfaces configured to communicate in the mobile communication systems using an adaptive antenna. The apparatus further comprises a control module configured to control the one or more interfaces. The control module is further configured to determine a setting for the adaptive antenna to obtain spatially separated signals using the same time and frequency resources, and to detect different messages from the spatially separated signals. Embodiments may provide improved spectral efficiency for vehicular communication through spatial multiplexing.

In some embodiments the spatially separated signals are based on at least two different radio access technologies. Embodiments may reduce inter system interference by spatial separation. For example, the control module may comprise at least two signal processing paths according to two different radio access technologies in embodiments, which may enable standard processing components in series to spatial separation of signals of the different access technologies. The control module may be configured to spatially de-multiplex and assign signals to the at least two signal processing paths according to the two different radio access technologies in some embodiments. Embodiments may enable simultaneous vehicular communication in multiple access technologies using the same frequency band. In some embodiments the at least two mobile communication systems may comprise a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system according to 3rd Generation Partnership Project specifications and a <NUM>. 11p system according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers specifications. Embodiments may reduce <NUM>. 11p and V2V interference in a coexistence scenario.

In further embodiments the adaptive antenna may comprise multiple antenna elements and the control module may be configured to obtain the spatially separated signals using beamforming and/or spatial interference cancellation techniques. Embodiments may improve inter vehicle communication through spatial processing. The control module may be configured to form at least <NUM> angular sections around the vehicle to spatially separate the signals. Embodiments may provide efficient spatial processing by using fixed beams or sectorization. In further embodiments the control module may be configured to use adaptive beamforming in a base band to separate the signals. Embodiments may provide enhanced system capacity through adaptive beamforming. The control module may be configured to estimate an angular direction of a signal using predefined pilot or synchronization signal settings of a radio access technology. Embodiments may enable radio access technology detection using correlation analysis of system characterizing signals.

In some embodiments the control module may be configured to extract a signal based on the estimated angular direction. Embodiments may enable efficient angular signal detection through estimation of an arrival angle of a signal. The control module may be further configured to apply a further interference cancellation or multi-user detection algorithm to a spatially separated signal. A vehicle comprising an embodiment of the apparatus described herein is a further embodiment. In some embodiments the control module may be configured to utilize antenna elements at different positions on the vehicle as adaptive antenna.

A further embodiment is a method for a vehicle communicating in multiple mobile communication systems. The method comprises determining a setting for the adaptive antenna to obtain spatially separated signals using the same time and frequency resources. The method further comprises detecting different messages from the spatially separated signals.

Embodiments further provide a computer program having a program code for performing one or more of the above described methods, when the computer program is executed on a computer, processor, or programmable hardware component. A further embodiment is a computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer, processor, or programmable hardware component, cause the computer to implement one of the methods described herein.

It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit example embodiments to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, example embodiments are to cover all modifications and alternatives falling within the scope of the invention.

As used herein, the term, "or" refers to a non-exclusive or, unless otherwise indicated (e.g., "or else" or "or in the alternative").

It will be further understood that the terms "comprises," "comprising," "includes" or "including," when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components or groups thereof.

<FIG> illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus <NUM> for a vehicle <NUM>. <FIG> further illustrates a embodiments of a vehicle <NUM> comprising an embodiment of the apparatus <NUM>. An embodiment of a system <NUM> is further shown in <FIG> comprising an embodiment of the vehicle <NUM> and further vehicles <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>.

The embodiment of the apparatus <NUM> for the vehicle <NUM> is configured to communicate in multiple mobile communication systems <NUM>. The apparatus <NUM> comprises one or more interfaces <NUM> configured to communicate in the mobile communication systems <NUM> using an adaptive antenna. The apparatus <NUM> further comprises a control module <NUM>, which is configured to control the one or more interfaces <NUM>. The control module <NUM> is further configured to determine a setting for the adaptive antenna to obtain spatially separated signals using the same time and frequency resources. The apparatus <NUM> is further configured to detect different messages from the spatially separated signals. The spatially separated signals may be based on at least two different radio access technologies.

In embodiments the one or more interfaces <NUM> may correspond to any means for obtaining, receiving, transmitting or providing analog or digital signals or information, e.g. any connector, contact, pin, register, input port, output port, conductor, lane, etc. which allows providing or obtaining a signal or information. An interface may be wireless or wireline and it may be configured to communicate, i.e. transmit or receive signals, information with further internal or external components. The one or more interfaces <NUM> may comprise further components to enable according communication in the mobile communication system <NUM>, such components may include transceiver (transmitter and/or receiver) components, such as one or more Low-Noise Amplifiers (LNAs), one or more Power-Amplifiers (PAs), one or more duplexers, one or more diplexers, one or more filters or filter circuitry, one or more converters, one or more mixers, accordingly adapted radio frequency components, etc. The one or more interfaces <NUM> use an adaptive antenna and may hence be coupled to one or more antennas or antenna elements, which may correspond to any transmit and/or receive antennas, such as horn antennas, dipole antennas, patch antennas, sector antennas etc. The antennas may be arranged in a defined geometrical spacing, e.g. half-wavelength spacing, and setting, such as a uniform array, a linear array, a circular array, a triangular array, a uniform field antenna, a field array, combinations thereof, etc. The one or more interfaces <NUM> or the adaptive antenna may further comprise components to implement a spatially adaptive or adjustable antenna beam pattern.

For example, the adaptive antenna may enable to steer an antenna beam in different angular directions. In some embodiments such a beam may have a maximum achievable antenna gain and the adaptive antenna may allow pointing said beam in different directions. The direction may be discrete and in some embodiments beams for different directions may be switchable, e.g. in terms of a fixed beam switching concept. In further embodiments antenna diagrams may be adaptively processed and may have any arbitrary form. For example, depending on the scenario it may be more beneficial to direct spatial nulls in certain directions of strong interferers rather than directing a maxim antenna gain, e.g. in terms of spatial mulling or spatial interference cancellation. Embodiments may realize any antenna concept that may allow spatially separating signals arriving from different angular directions to a certain extent.

In some embodiments such antenna concepts may be based on estimating an angle of arrival (AoA) or direction of arrival (DoA) for certain signals, e.g. using MUSIC (Multiple Signal classification) or ESPRIT (Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Techniques). Based on the estimated AoA or DoA signals may be spatially filtered or separated. In some embodiments the one or more interfaces <NUM> may serve the purpose of transmitting or receiving or both, transmitting and receiving, information, such as information related to capabilities, application requirements, requests, message interface configurations, feedback, information related to control commands etc..

In embodiments the control module <NUM> may be implemented using one or more processing units, one or more processing devices, any means for processing, such as a processor, a computer or a programmable hardware component being operable with accordingly adapted software. In other words, the described functions of the control module <NUM> may as well be implemented in software, which is then executed on one or more programmable hardware components. Such hardware components may comprise a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a micro-controller, etc..

In at least some embodiments, the adaptive antenna may be implemented as antenna module, which may comprise one of more antennas and which may correspond to any transmit and/or receive antennas. The antenna module may comprise a phase array antenna, e.g. a circular array antenna and/or a roof antenna/an antenna suitable for a roof the vehicle. In some embodiments, antennas of the antenna module may be arranged at different sides of the vehicle. For example, the antenna module may comprise one or more elements of the group of a front-facing antenna, a back-facing antenna and a side-facing antenna. The directions (front facing, back facing, side facing) may be defined in relation to a direction of travel of the vehicle. <FIG> also shows an embodiment of a system <NUM> comprising embodiments of the apparatus <NUM>, the vehicle <NUM>, respectively. The other vehicles <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> may also be embodiments comprising other embodiments of the apparatus <NUM>. In embodiments, communication, i.e. transmission, reception or both, may take place among mobile transceivers/vehicles <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> directly and/or between mobile transceivers/vehicles <NUM>, <NUM><NUM>, <NUM> and a network infrastructure component (e.g. a base station, a network server, a backend server, etc.) Such communication may make use of a mobile communication system <NUM>. In other words such communication may be carried out directly, e.g. by means of Device-to-Device (D2D) communication, which may also comprise Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication in case of vehicles <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or Car-to-Car communication. Such communication may be carried out using the specifications of a mobile communication system <NUM>.

The mobile communication system <NUM> may, for example, correspond to one of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)-standardized mobile communication networks, where the term mobile communication system is used synonymously to mobile communication network. The mobile or wireless communication system may correspond to a mobile communication system of the 5th Generation (<NUM>) and may use mm-Wave technology. The mobile communication system may correspond to or comprise, for example, a Long-Term Evolution (LTE), an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), a Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) or a UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), an evolved-UTRAN (e-UTRAN), a Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) or Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) network, a GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN), or mobile communication networks with different standards, for example, a Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access (WIMAX) network IEEE <NUM> or Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) IEEE <NUM> (<NUM>. 11p in particular for car-<NUM>-car), generally an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) network, a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) network, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network, a Wideband-CDMA (WCDMA) network, a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) network, a Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA) network, etc..

A base station transceiver can be operable or configured to communicate with one or more active mobile transceivers/vehicles <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> and a base station transceiver can be located in or adjacent to a coverage area of another base station transceiver, e.g. a macro cell base station transceiver or small cell base station transceiver. Hence, embodiments may provide a mobile communication system <NUM> comprising two or more mobile transceivers/vehicles <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> and one or more base station transceivers, wherein the base station transceivers may establish macro cells or small cells, as e.g. pico-, metro-, or femto cells. A mobile transceiver may correspond to a smartphone, a cell phone, user equipment, a laptop, a notebook, a personal computer, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a Universal Serial Bus (USB) -stick, a car, a vehicle etc. A mobile transceiver may also be referred to as User Equipment (UE) or mobile in line with the 3GPP terminology. A vehicle <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> may correspond to any conceivable means for transportation, e.g. a car, a bike, a motorbike, a van, a truck, a bus, a ship, a boat, a plane, a train, a tram, etc..

A base station transceiver can be located in the fixed or stationary part of the network or system. A base station transceiver may correspond to a remote radio head, a transmission point, an access point, a macro cell, a small cell, a micro cell, a femto cell, a metro cell etc. A base station transceiver can be a wireless interface of a wired network, which enables transmission of radio signals to a UE or mobile transceiver. Such a radio signal may comply with radio signals as, for example, standardized by 3GPP or, generally, in line with one or more of the above listed systems. Thus, a base station transceiver may correspond to a NodeB, an eNodeB, a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), an access point, a remote radio head, a relay station, a transmission point etc., which may be further subdivided in a remote unit and a central unit.

A mobile transceiver <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> can be associated with a base station transceiver or cell. The term cell refers to a coverage area of radio services provided by a base station transceiver, e.g. a NodeB (NB), an eNodeB (eNB), a remote radio head, a transmission point, etc. A base station transceiver may operate one or more cells on one or more frequency layers, in some embodiments a cell may correspond to a sector. For example, sectors can be achieved using sector antennas, which provide a characteristic for covering an angular section around a remote unit or base station transceiver. In some embodiments, a base station transceiver may, for example, operate three or six cells covering sectors of <NUM>° (in case of three cells), <NUM>° (in case of six cells) respectively. A base station transceiver may operate multiple sectorized antennas. In the following a cell may represent an according base station transceiver generating the cell or, likewise, a base station transceiver may represent a cell the base station transceiver generates.

Mobile transceivers <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> may communicate directly with each other, i.e. without involving any base station transceiver, which is also referred to as Device-to-Device (D2D) communication. An example of D2D is direct communication between vehicles, also referred to as Vehicle-to-Vehicle communication (V2V). In order to do so radio resources are used, e.g. frequency, time, code, and/or spatial resources, which may as well be used for wireless communication with a base station transceiver. The assignment of the radio resources may be controlled by the base station transceiver, i.e. the determination which resources are used for D2D and which are not. Here and in the following radio resources of the respective components may correspond to any radio resources conceivable on radio carriers and they may use the same or different granularities on the respective carriers. The radio resources may correspond to a Resource Block (RB as in LTE/LTE-A/LTE-unlicensed (LTE-U)), one or more carriers, sub-carriers, one or more radio frames, radio sub-frames, radio slots, one or more code sequences potentially with a respective spreading factor, one or more spatial resources, such as spatial sub-channels, spatial precoding vectors, any combination thereof, etc..

For example, direct Cellular Vehicle-to-Anything (C-V2X), where V2X includes at least V2V, V2-Infrastructure (V2I), etc., transmission according to 3GPP Release <NUM> can be managed by infrastructure (so-called mode <NUM>) or run in a User Equipment (UE) Autonomous mode (UEA), (so-called mode <NUM>). In embodiments the two or more mobile transceivers in vehicles <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> as indicated by <FIG> may be registered in the same mobile communication systems <NUM>. In other embodiments one or more of the mobile transceivers <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> may be registered in different mobile communication systems <NUM>. The different mobile communication systems <NUM> may use the same access technology but different operators or they may use different access technologies as outlined above. In at least some embodiments, the one or more interfaces12 are configured to communicate via a vehicular communication network, e.g. via a Car-to-Car (C2C), Car-to-X (C2X), Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) or Vehicle-to-X (V2X) communication network. The one or more interfaces <NUM> may be configured to communicate directly with other vehicles, i.e. without involving any base station transceiver, which is also referred to as Device-to-Device (D2D) communication. In some embodiments, the communication may be aided by a base station transceiver, e.g. in terms of resource management or assignment.

In further embodiments the control module <NUM> comprises at least two signal processing paths according to two different radio access technologies. Embodiments may enable spatial de-multiplexing of coexisting radio technologies. Embodiments may hence enable to operate multiple radio technologies in the same frequency band simultaneously. Although the different radio access technologies may interfere each other, the corresponding messages may be decoded using spatial separation of the signals.

<FIG> shows an embodiment of an apparatus <NUM>, in which the control module <NUM> comprises a spatial filter 14a for processing antenna signals from the one or more interfaces <NUM>. After spatial filtering 14a the signals of different radio access technologies (RAT <NUM>, RAT <NUM>) are processed in different (parallel) paths 14b, 14c, these paths may be transmit signal paths, receive signal paths, or both. As indicated in <FIG> in some embodiments the control module <NUM> is configured to spatially de-multiplex and assign signals to the at least two signal processing paths 14b, 14c according to the two different radio access technologies. The adaptive antenna may comprise multiple antenna elements and the control module <NUM> may be configured to obtain the spatially separated signals using beamforming and/or spatial interference cancellation techniques.

In embodiments the control module <NUM> may be configured to use adaptive beamforming in a base band to separate the signals. In other embodiments other techniques are conceivable, e.g. a BUTLER matrix may be used in the transmission band to implement a fixed beam switching or a sectorization approach, which may be implemented statically and may therefore use less complex processing. Such concepts may as well be realized in the complex base band. For example, the control module <NUM> may be configured to estimate an angular direction of a signal using predefined pilot or synchronization signal settings of a radio access technology. Each radio access technology may have characteristic signals, which may be used for detection and spatial separation. Such signals may comprise reference signals or symbols, pilot signals or symbols, synchronization signals or symbols, etc. The control module <NUM> may be configured to extract a signal based on the estimated angular direction, where ESPRIT and MUSIC are potential algorithms to be used for this purpose. At least in some embodiments, the control module <NUM> is additionally configured to apply a further interference cancellation or multi-user detection algorithm to a spatially separated signal. These techniques may provide additional benefits, for example with respect to a signal-to-interference ratio. For example, non-orthogonal access methods may also be applied in terms of such processing. In some embodiments, when a signal of one radio access technology is detected in one path, the signal may be subtracted from a signal of the other path, thereby improving detection quality. Based on such interference cancellation techniques there may be different parallel, serial or iterative processing implementations.

For example the at least two mobile communication systems <NUM> comprise a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system according to 3rd Generation Partnership Project specifications and a <NUM>. 11p system according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers specifications. <FIG> shows a traffic scenario and an embodiment of a vehicle <NUM> is located in the center of the traffic scenario on a three lane highway. As shown in <FIG> the vehicle <NUM> is surrounded by a number of further road users <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>. As an example it is assumed that vehicle <NUM> communicates using <NUM>. 11p and vehicle <NUM> communicates using V2V using the same frequency band, e.g. <NUM>. In this embodiment the control module <NUM> is configured to form at least <NUM> angular sections around the vehicle to spatially separate the signals. As shown in <FIG>, one constellation could be to have beams or sectors covering <NUM>° angular sections around the vehicle. There are different options for achieving such a pattern. Examples are sectorized antennas, fixed beam forming, transmission band or base band beamforming, directional antennas, etc. Another option is to use antennas located on different sides or positions on the vehicle. The control module <NUM> may be configured to utilize antenna elements at different positions on the vehicle <NUM> as adaptive antenna.

In further embodiments there could be multiple RATs, e.g. <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. using the same time and frequency resources. The spatial separation could then be carried out with respect to the multiple RATs. <FIG> illustrates an embodiment in a scenario with multiple coexistent RATs. <FIG> shows a vehicle <NUM> at the top. Signals of multiple RATs (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>) are impinging from different angles or directions <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>. DoA estimation is used and <FIG> shows at the bottom an angular sweep from the perspective of the vehicle <NUM>. The view graph at the bottom of <FIG> shows the angle φon the abscissa and power p on the ordinate. The three peaks corresponding to the directions <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> can clearly be seen for the different RATs at the different directions. The different RATs use the same frequency and are hence coexistent. The sensitivity for the different signals is altered by the co-existence effect. Using the adaptive antenna spatial inter-RAT interference cancellation can be carried out. For example, array processing for spatial separation of the different RATs can be used. The RATs may be distinguished or detected using pilot or reference symbols. As described above, the decoding of each radio technology may then be carried out in parallel.

In embodiments different radios may be operated in different frequency bands. Especially important may be the case when different radios, which are aimed for the same purposes, are assumed to use to same frequency band, e.g. IEEE-<NUM>. 11p and C-V2X on the <NUM> band. Embodiments may provide a concept, which allows for the operation of different radios on the same frequency bands simultaneously. For example, spatial de-multiplexing for spatial separation of radio technologies in the complex baseband may be used.

To separate overlapped complex baseband signals of different radio technologies, phased array antennas are used in some embodiments. The separation of samples belonging to different radio technologies can be carried out as follows:.

Hence, embodiments may allow coexistence of difference RATs on the same frequency band simultaneously, potentially allowing for more effective usage of the frequency spectrum and resolving of the coexistence between different RATs.

<FIG> shows a block diagram of a flow chart of an embodiment of a method <NUM> for a vehicle <NUM>. The vehicle <NUM> is configured to communicate in multiple mobile communication systems <NUM>. The method <NUM> comprises determining <NUM> a setting for the adaptive antenna to obtain spatially separated signals using the same time and frequency resources, and detecting <NUM> different messages from the spatially separated signals.

As already mentioned, in embodiments the respective methods or processing may be implemented as computer programs or codes, which can be executed on a respective hardware. Hence, another embodiment is a computer program having a program code for performing at least one of the above methods, when the computer program is executed on a computer, a processor, or a programmable hardware component. A further embodiment is a computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer, processor, or programmable hardware component, cause the computer to implement one of the methods described herein.

The description and drawings merely illustrate the principles of the invention. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements that, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are included within its scope. Furthermore, all examples recited herein are principally intended expressly to be only for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor(s) to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions.

Furthermore, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, where each claim may stand on its own as a separate embodiment. While each claim may stand on its own as a separate embodiment, it is to be noted that - although a dependent claim may refer in the claims to a specific combination with one or more other claims - other embodiments may also include a combination of the dependent claim with the subject matter of each other dependent claim. Such combinations are proposed herein unless it is stated that a specific combination is not intended. Furthermore, it is intended to include also features of a claim to any other independent claim even if this claim is not directly made dependent to the independent claim.

Claim 1:
An apparatus (<NUM>) for a vehicle (<NUM>) communicating in multiple mobile communication systems (<NUM>), the apparatus (<NUM>) comprising:
one or more interfaces (<NUM>) configured to communicate in the mobile communication systems (<NUM>) using an adaptive antenna; and
a control module (<NUM>) configured to control the one or more interfaces (<NUM>), wherein the control module (<NUM>) comprises at least two signal processing paths according to two different radio access technologies and wherein the control module (<NUM>) is further configured to:
determine a setting for the adaptive antenna to obtain spatially separated signals using the same time and frequency resources;
detect different messages from the spatially separated signals, wherein the spatially separated signals are based on at least two different radio access technologies;
spatially de-multiplex and assign signals to the at least two signal processing paths according to the two different radio access technologies; and
estimate an angular direction of a signal using predefined pilot or synchronization signal settings of a radio access technology.