Patent ID: 7844217

Claim:
A communication terminal, comprising: first and second antennas, for respectively communicating with first and second remote terminals; a single up-converter, which is arranged to up-convert an input signal to produce an RF transmit signal; a switching circuit, which is arranged to couple the single up-converter to the first antenna in order to transmit the RF transmit signal to the first remote terminal during first time intervals, and to couple the single up-converter to the second antenna in order to transmit the RF transmit signal to the second remote terminal during second time intervals, which do not overlap the first time intervals; a single down-converter, which is arranged to down-convert an RF receive signal received via the first and second antennas to produce an output signal, and wherein the switching circuit is arranged to couple the single down-converter to one of the first and second antennas during the first time intervals, and to the other of the first and second antennas during the second time intervals; and a modem, which is arranged to demodulate the output signal so as to extract inbound data that is transmitted to the terminal from the first and second remote terminals, and to modulate outbound data to be transmitted to the first and second remote terminals to produce the input signal, wherein the modem comprises first and second modem units, which are respectively arranged to demodulate first and second parts of the output signal so as to extract first and second parts of the inbound data that are transmitted from the first and second remote terminals, and to modulate first and second parts of the outbound data to be respectively transmitted to the first and second remote terminals.