Antennas with steerable antenna patterns and techniques for using such antennas are described. In accordance with the invention, antenna patterns with one or more NULLs are used. Through the use of digital control signals the antenna pattern is steered so that a source of signal interference, e.g., a multipath signal, will be located in a NULL. In this manner the received signal's S/N ratio can be maximized thereby facilitating demodulation. The techniques of the invention can be applied to television, computer devices, mobile devices and a wide range of other systems. Digital commands to control an antenna may include multiple information fields, e.g., a direction field, a channel field, a gain field and a polarity field. Antennas incapable of supporting the specified fields disregard information in fields which are not supported. Information in each supported field is decoded and used to adjust the corresponding antenna characteristic.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/257,219 filed Dec. 21, 2000 which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference.
Disclosed is a television tuner which receives television signals using a smart antenna. It includes an auto-scan unit which makes a channel storing section store receiving channel numbers and receiving directions for a plurality of receiving channels automatically. It also has a channel change unit whereby a receiving direction in which the state of a signal from a tuner section becomes a predetermined one is not stored. When a command to change channels is given, the smart antenna directivity is changed while the signal state is detected, and when the signal state becomes a predetermined one, the smart antenna directivity is retained. This increases the auto-scan processing speed.
A television receiving apparatus includes a tuner having an input port for image-representative signals, an input port for an external antenna, and an internal or associated external indoor antenna array including at least two electronically integrated antenna-WLNA elements. A processor includes a plurality of RF switches and at least one hybrid, for selectively generating a plurality of signals including sums and differences of signals from said elements. The sums and differences are compared with each other and with the external antenna signal to select the best signal, and that selected best signal is coupled to the input port of the tuner.
Disclosed is a television tuner for receiving television broadcast signals with a smart antenna, which is equipped with an auto-scan unit that causes a channel storing section to automatically stores a receiving channel and the corresponding receiving direction at the time when the signal condition from a tuner section matches the predetermined signal condition matches the predetermined signal condition. The auto-scan unit causes a directivity control section to perform a variable directivity control for every direction and to detect the signal condition for each direction, and switches the receiving channel in the tuner section when a receiving direction is stored. This improves the convenience in adjusting the antenna directivity for each receiving channel.
A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) infrastructure includes a wired backbone network, an air controller, and a plurality of wireless access points (WAPs). Each WAP includes a processor, a wired backbone interface, a first radio, a directional antenna, a second radio, and an antenna. The first radio and directional antenna service wireless terminals. The second radio and the antenna collect non-participatory WAP data. The first radio and directional antenna optionally collect participatory WAP data. Based upon the non-participatory WAP data (and optionally the participatory WAP data), the processor creates WAP operational reports and provides the WAPs operational reports to the air controller. The air controller creates directions based thereon and directs one or more of the WAPs to alter the gain pattern(s) of the directional antenna(s), alter the transmit power(s) of the first radio(s), and/or to alter the channel usage of the first radio(s). In another embodiment, the first radio collects non-participatory WAP data when not servicing communications with wireless units.
Disclosed is a digital TV smart antenna system and controlling method of the same, the system converges a smart antenna into an optimal reception by detecting a maximum signal power in a signal acquisition process for a fast acquisition performance and selectively assembling information such as signal power, multi-channel, SNR, and SER, and particularly, calculates signal power according to the antenna direction by fixing AGC as a specific value for detecting the maximum signal power.