Ge Marquette Medical Systems, Inc.

James Patrick Hurley

Ralph Thomas Hoctor

A system and a method for switching antenna fields without waiting until data packets containing errors are detected. This is accomplished by monitoring the signal power for each antenna field immediately after receipt of data packets via the currently active antenna field and then switching to another antenna field having greater signal power. A communications channel is provided which has a capacity greater than that required by the data to be transmitted. This extra capacity is used to introduce time periods when no data is being transmitted. During these time periods, known bit patterns are transmitted, and the signal power during receipt of each of these blank packets is estimated for each antenna field. The receiver then switches to the most appropriate antenna field based on highest signal power (e.g., based on a weighted average for the N-th most recent sample periods) and continues to receive the transmitted data without interruption.

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Waukesha, WI, United States of America

James Patrick Hurley