Patent ID: 8170088

Claim:
A method for utilizing at least one reference signal in an antenna system, said reference signal determined at any location along a transmission media, comprising the steps of: sensing at a first location along the transmission media a first signal propagated over the transmission media in a forward direction and a second signal propagated over the transmission media in a reverse direction opposed from the forward direction, the second signal being a reflected version of the first signal; adjusting a gain of at least one of the first and second signals so that the first and second signals have equal arbitrarily defined amplitudes; determining a first sum signal by adding the first and second signals together and a first difference signal by subtracting the second signal from the first signal; determining a first exponentiation signal by raising the first sum signal to a second power and a second exponentiation signal by raising the first difference signal to the second power; determining a first reference signal by subtracting the first exponentiation signal from the second exponentiation signal; performing closed loop operations using the first reference signal to determine at least one weight useful for controlling beam steering of the antenna system; and controlling beam steering of the antenna system by using the weight to modify a transmit signal, whereby beam steering errors caused by an error in a phase of the transmit signal are counteracted.