Patent ID: 6894643

Claim:
Apparatus for receiving a transmission signal comprising: a beam former which receives respective signals from a plurality of antenna elements, the received signals representing the transmission signal and containing predetermined data, and which modifies the received signals in accordance with a receiver beam defined by control information input to the beam former; a processor which performs an iterative adaption algorithm to produce iterative control information for adjusting the receiver beam pattern so as to facilitate reception of the transmission signal; an estimator which produces an estimate of desired control information by combining the received signals with a replica of the predetermined data so as substantially to remove the effect of data modulation due to the predetermined data from the received signals; and a selector which selects as the control information input to the beam former either the iterative control information produced by the processor, or the estimate of the desired control information produced by the estimator, wherein the estimator is adapted to produce an estimate of the desired control information, and the selector is adapted to select the estimate of the desired control information, in response to a signal indicating that the quality of the received signals has decreased.