Methods and apparatus for high data rate transmission in narrowband mobile radio channels

Claim 2

An adaptive high speed data transmission system suitable for use in both fast and slow fading communications channels, said system employing joint antenna diversity with frequency offsets, coding and feedback, said system comprising: a base station having a transmitter having: (i) a plurality of transmit antennas, at least one transmit antenna having a controllable frequency offset adapted to convert a fading characteristic of at least one transmission channel from slow fading to periodic fast fading; (ii) a signal coding unit; and (iii) a transmitter processor for adaptively controlling operation of the transmitter; and a mobile unit having a receiver having: (i) a plurality of receive antennas; (ii) a signal decoding unit; and (iii) a receiver processor for adaptively controlling operation of the receiver and monitoring a fading characteristic of a plurality of transmission channels including said at least one transmission channel between the transmitter and the receiver.

Claim 3

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the signal decoding unit further comprises a weighting matrix for combining signals received by the plurality of receive antennas.

Claim 4

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the mobile unit further comprises a transmitter and the base station further comprises a receiver and the transmitter of the mobile unit sends a feedback signal indicative of the fading characteristics of the plurality of transmission channels to the receiver of the base station.

Claim 5

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transmitter of the base station further comprises an equalizer circuit.

Claim 6

An adaptive high speed data transmission method suitable for use in both fast and slow fading communications channels, said method employing joint antenna diversity with frequency offsets, coding and feedback, said method comprising: coding a signal to be transmitted from a base station transmitter utilizing a signal coding unit; transmitting the coded signal utilizing a plurality of transmit antennas and applying a controllable frequency offset adapted to convert a fading characteristic of at least one transmission channel from slow fading to periodic fast fading to at least one of said plurality of transmit antennas; receiving the transmitted signal at a mobile unit receiver utilizing a plurality of receive antennas; decoding the received signal utilizing a signal decoding unit; monitoring a fading characteristic of a plurality of transmission channels including said at least one transmission channel between the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas; and adaptively controlling the transmitter and receiver operation based upon the results of said step of monitoring a fading characteristic.

Claim 7

An adaptive high speed data transmission method suitable for use in both fast and slow fading communications channels, said method employing joint antenna diversity with frequency offsets, coding and feedback, said method comprising: coding a signal to be transmitted from a base station transmitter utilizing a signal coding unit; transmitting the coded signal utilizing a plurality of transmit antennas and applying a controllable frequency offset adapted to convert a fading characteristic of at least one transmission channel from slow fading to periodic fast fading to at least one of said plurality of transmit antennas; receiving the transmitted signal at a mobile unit receiver utilizing a plurality of receive antennas; decoding the received signal utilizing a signal decoding unit; monitoring a fading characteristic of a plurality of transmission channels including said at least one transmission channel between the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas; and adaptively controlling the transmitter and receiver operation based upon the results of said step of monitoring a fading characteristic.

Claim 8

The method of claim 5 further comprising the step of combining signals received by the plurality of receive antennas utilizing a weighting matrix.

Claim 9

The method of claim 5 further comprising the step of sending a feedback signal indicative of the fading characteristics of the plurality of transmission channels from the mobile to the base station.

Claim 12

An adaptive high speed data transmission system suitable for use in both fast and slow fading communications channels, said system employing joint antenna diversity with frequency offsets, coding and feedback, said system comprising: a base station having a transmitter having: (i) a plurality of transmit antennas, at least one transmit antenna having a controllable frequency offset; (ii) a signal coding unit; and (iii) a transmitter processor for adaptively controlling operation of the transmitter; and a mobile unit having a receiver having: (i) a plurality of receive antennas; (ii) a signal decoding unit, the signal decoding unit further comprising a weighting matrix for combining signals received by the plurality or receive antennas; and (iii) a receiver processor for adaptively controlling operation of the receiver and monitoring a fading characteristic of a plurality of transmission channels between the transmitter and the receiver, the receiver further comprising a memory connected to the receiver processor for storing information concerning the controllable offset of said at least one transmit antenna.

Claim 13

An adaptive high speed data transmission system suitable for use in both fast and slow fading communications channels, said system employing joint antenna diversity with frequency offsets, coding and feedback, said system comprising: a base station having a transmitter having: (i) a plurality of transmit antennas, at least one transmit antenna having a controllable frequency offset; (ii) a signal coding unit; and (iii) a transmitter processor for adaptively controlling operation of the transmitter; and a mobile unit having a receiver having: (i) a plurality of receive antennas; (ii) a signal decoding unit, the signal decoding unit further comprising a weighting matrix for combining signals received by the plurality or receive antennas; and (iii) a receiver processor for adaptively controlling operation of the receiver and monitoring a fading characteristic of a plurality of transmission channels between the transmitter and the receiver, the receiver further comprising a memory connected to the receiver processor for storing information concerning the controllable offset of said at least one transmit antenna.

Claim 14

The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the receiver processor utilizes the information concerning the controllable offsets to periodically sample the fading characteristics of the plurality of transmission channels.

Claim 15

The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor utilizes its periodically sampled samples of the fading characteristics to control adjustments of weightings in the weighting matrix.

Claim 16

An adaptive high speed data transmission system suitable for use in both fast and slow fading communications channels, said system employing joint antenna diversity with frequency offsets, coding and feedback, said system comprising: a base station having a transmitter having: (i) a plurality of transmit antennas, at least one transmit antenna having a controllable frequency offset; (ii) a signal coding unit; and (iii) a transmitter processor for adaptively controlling operation of the transmitter; and a mobile unit having a receiver having: (i) a plurality of receive antennas; (ii) a signal decoding unit; and (iii) a receiver processor for adaptively controlling operation of the receiver and monitoring a fading characteristic of a plurality of transmission channels between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the mobile unit further comprises a transmitter and the base station further comprises a receiver and the transmitter of the mobile unit sends a feedback signal indicative of the fading characteristics of the plurality of transmission channels to the receiver of the base station, and wherein the base station processor controls said controllable offset to turn it off if the fading characteristics are faster than a first threshold.

Claim 17

An adaptive high speed data transmission system suitable for use in both fast and slow fading communications channels, said system employing joint antenna diversity with frequency offsets, coding and feedback, said system comprising: a base station having a transmitter having: (i) a plurality of transmit antennas, at least one transmit antenna having a controllable frequency offset; (ii) a signal coding unit; and (iii) a transmitter processor for adaptively controlling operation of the transmitter; and a mobile unit having a receiver having: (i) a plurality of receive antennas; (ii) a signal decoding unit; and (iii) a receiver processor for adaptively controlling operation of the receiver and monitoring a fading characteristic of a plurality of transmission channels between the transmitter and the receiver, wherein the mobile unit further comprises a transmitter and the base station further comprises a receiver and the transmitter of the mobile unit sends a feedback signal indicative of the fading characteristics of the plurality of transmission channels to the receiver of the base station, and wherein the base station processor controls said controllable offset to turn it off if the fading characteristics are faster than a first threshold.

Claim 18

An adaptive high speed data transmission method suitable for use in both fast and slow fading communications channels, said method employing joint antenna diversity with frequency offsets, coding and feedback, said method comprising: coding a signal to be transmitted from a base station transmitter utilizing a signal coding unit; storing information concerning the controllable offset of at least one of a plurality of transmit antennas; transmitting the coded signal utilizing the plurality of transmit antennas and applying the controllable frequency offset to at least one of said plurality of transmit antennas; receiving the transmitted signal at a mobile unit receiver utilizing a plurality of receive antennas; combining signals received by the plurality of receive antennas utilizing a weighting matrix; decoding the received signal utilizing a signal decoding unit; monitoring a fading characteristic of a plurality of transmission channels between the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas; and adaptively controlling the transmitter and receiver operation based upon the results of said step of monitoring a fading characteristic.

Claim 19

An adaptive high speed data transmission method suitable for use in both fast and slow fading communications channels, said method employing joint antenna diversity with frequency offsets, coding and feedback, said method comprising: coding a signal to be transmitted from a base station transmitter utilizing a signal coding unit; storing information concerning the controllable offset of at least one of a plurality of transmit antennas; transmitting the coded signal utilizing the plurality of transmit antennas and applying the controllable frequency offset to at least one of said plurality of transmit antennas; receiving the transmitted signal at a mobile unit receiver utilizing a plurality of receive antennas; combining signals received by the plurality of receive antennas utilizing a weighting matrix; decoding the received signal utilizing a signal decoding unit; monitoring a fading characteristic of a plurality of transmission channels between the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas; and adaptively controlling the transmitter and receiver operation based upon the results of said step of monitoring a fading characteristic.

Claim 20

The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of utilizing the stored offset information to determine a periodic sample rate to sample the fading characteristics of the plurality of transmission channels.

Claim 21

The method of claim 14 further comprising the steps of sampling the fading characteristics at said determined periodic rate and utilizing the samples generated thereby to control said weighting matrix.

Claim 22

An adaptive high speed data transmission method suitable for use in both fast and slow fading communications channels, said method employing joint antenna diversity with frequency offsets, coding and feedback, said method comprising: coding a signal to be transmitted from a base station transmitter utilizing a signal coding unit; transmitting the coded signal utilizing a plurality of transmit antennas and applying a controllable frequency offset to at least one of said plurality of transmit antennas; receiving the transmitted signal at a mobile unit receiver utilizing a plurality of receive antennas; decoding the received signal utilizing a signal decoding unit; monitoring a fading characteristic of a plurality of transmission channels between the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas; sending a feedback signal indicative of the fading characteristics of the plurality of transmission channels from the mobile to the base station; determining if the fading characteristics are faster than a first threshold and ceasing said step of applying a controllable offset if it is determined that the fading characteristics are faster than a first threshold; and adaptively controlling the transmitter and receiver operation based upon the results of said step of monitoring a fading characteristic.

Claim 23

An adaptive high speed data transmission method suitable for use in both fast and slow fading communications channels, said method employing joint antenna diversity with frequency offsets, coding and feedback, said method comprising: coding a signal to be transmitted from a base station transmitter utilizing a signal coding unit; transmitting the coded signal utilizing a plurality of transmit antennas and applying a controllable frequency offset to at least one of said plurality of transmit antennas; receiving the transmitted signal at a mobile unit receiver utilizing a plurality of receive antennas; decoding the received signal utilizing a signal decoding unit; monitoring a fading characteristic of a plurality of transmission channels between the plurality of transmit antennas and the plurality of receive antennas; sending a feedback signal indicative of the fading characteristics of the plurality of transmission channels from the mobile to the base station; determining if the fading characteristics are faster than a first threshold and ceasing said step of applying a controllable offset if it is determined that the fading characteristics are faster than a first threshold; and adaptively controlling the transmitter and receiver operation based upon the results of said step of monitoring a fading characteristic.