Patent ID: 8744374

Claim:
A method for uplink data transmission in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) compliant communication system which comprises a base station and at least one wireless communication terminal, wherein the base station transmits individual power control signals to each of said at least one terminal to control uplink transmit power of the at least one terminal to a minimal power required for error-free detection of the uplink signal, and wherein said at least one terminal comprises a modem including an RF front-end, a baseband unit, and at least two antennas, said modem being adapted to support simultaneous reception over the at least two antennas, and said modem is further adapted to support simultaneous transmission over the at least two antennas, the method comprising: defining a first uplink transmission direction for transmitting traffic data; generating an uplink transmission signal; emitting said uplink transmission signal in a beam pattern with a beam directed towards said first uplink transmission direction by: feeding said uplink transmission signal as a first transmit signal Tx 1 to a first antenna of the at least one terminal, generating a second transmit signal Tx 2 as a phase shifted version of the first transmit signal and feeding said second transmit signal to a second antenna of the at least one terminal, wherein phase shift of the second signal is adapted such that the first and second signals emitted by the first and second antennas, respectively, combine constructively to form a beam pattern with the beam directed towards said first uplink transmission direction; defining a second uplink transmission direction; determining a transmission quality metric from performance characteristics for said first and said second uplink transmission directions; and evaluating said transmission quality metrics by the base station and/or by the at least one terminal in function of the uplink transmit power dictated by the base station, and if the metric for said second uplink transmission direction is better than the metric for said first uplink transmission direction, replacing said first uplink transmission direction by said second uplink transmission direction and starting to transmit traffic data towards said second uplink transmission direction.