Patent ID: 8442468

Claim:
A method of operating a user equipment comprising a receiver coupled to a plurality of antennas, the method comprising: receiving a radiofrequency signal at each one of the antennas; converting the radiofrequency signal supplied by each of the antennas into a sequence of baseband signal samples to thereby produce a plurality of baseband signal sample sequences, wherein each of the baseband signal sample sequences is associated with a respective one of the antennas; storing each of the baseband signal sample sequences; and performing the following for each one of a plurality of spatial directions having a same point of origin: retrieving from storage each of the baseband signal sample sequences; weighting each of the retrieved baseband signal sample sequences by a respective one of a plurality of complex weights, and combining the weighted baseband signal sample sequences to produce a combined signal sample sequence representing a received beam pointed in the spatial direction; processing the combined signal sample sequence to arrive at a result for the spatial direction; and using the result for the spatial direction to control a further action performed by the user equipment, wherein the result for the spatial direction indicates whether a signal from a transmitter has been detected.