Patent ID: 8520784

Claim:
A method for performing coherent beam combining of independently faded signals, the method comprising: a) receiving a desired signal at an input of at least two receive elements, b) generating an output signal at each of said at least two receive elements responsive to said received input signals, c) digitizing each output signal from each receive element into an independent signal stream, wherein each independent signal stream represents a different receive path having independent thermal noise, and d) processing the independent signal streams in pairs, comprising: selecting one of the first or second signal streams of the signal stream pair for identification as a reference signal stream, identifying the non-selected signal stream as an auxiliary signal stream, dividing the reference signal stream into an off-line reference sub-stream and an in-line reference sub-stream, dividing the auxiliary signal stream into an off-line auxiliary sub-stream and an in-line auxiliary sub-stream, processing the off-line reference sub-stream and off-line auxiliary sub-stream in an adaptive process to calculate a weighting value for the off-line auxiliary sub-stream that forms a null in a combined spatial pattern of the off-line auxiliary sub-stream and the off-line reference sub-stream when subtracted from the off-line reference signal sub-stream, weighting the in-line auxiliary sub-stream using the phase of said calculated weighting value to form a weighted in-line auxiliary sub-stream, summing the in-line reference sub-stream and the weighted in-line auxiliary sub-stream in a correlated manner to form a beam-formed signal stream, and tracking a desired signal using the beam-formed signal stream as the desired signal changes in relative angle of arrival at the input of said at least two receive elements by continuously tracking the null and applying resultant weights in a beam-forming system.