Marvell International Limited

Ying-Cheng Lee

Hongyuan Zhang

Timothy J Donovan

Ken Kinwah Ho

Rohit U Nabar

Tsunglun Yu

Dharmesh C Bhagatwala

Dharmesh B Bhagatwala

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with a hybrid beamforming architecture are described. According to one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a beamforming architecture including a baseband unit and a processor. The beamforming architecture is configured to determine a steering matrix based on at least the baseband unit and the processor; and wherein the beamforming architecture is configured to simultaneously support a plurality of beamformee client devices, each beamformee client device beamformed by a beamformer with at least one of a beamformer hardware mode and a beamformer software mode and with at least one of a beamformer explicit mode and a beamformer implicit mode.

Hybrid beamforming architecure

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with a hybrid beamforming architecture are described. According to one embodiment, a first wireless device includes a transmitter and a baseband beamforming processing unit. The baseband beamforming processing unit includes a steering matrix calculation unit and a steering matrix cache. The steering matrix calculation unit is configured to derive a steering matrix from channel related information in a first packet received from a second wireless device. The steering matrix includes weights. The steering matrix cache is configured to (i) store the steering matrix derived from the channel related information, and (ii) provide the weights from the steering matrix to the transmitter. The transmitter is configured to, based on the weights from the steering matrix, perform transmit beamforming on a second packet being transmitted to the second wireless device from the first wireless device.

Hybrid beamforming architecture

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with beamforming with steering submatrix selection are described. According to one embodiment, a method includes receiving a packet for transmit beamforming and identifying a first steering matrix. The first steering matrix includes weights, set forth in n rows and c columns, that are applicable to be applied to the packet in transmit beamforming of the packet. The method includes generating a second steering matrix having weights set forth in less than n rows or less than c columns. The weights of the second steering matrix are selected from the weights of the first steering matrix. The method includes providing the weights from the second steering matrix to a transmitter transmitting the packet for transmit beamforming of the packet.

Method and apparatus for generating a second steering matrix based on a first steering matrix for use in transmit beamforming of a packet in wireless communication

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with a hybrid beamforming architecture are described. According to one embodiment, an apparatus includes a beamforming mode detection logic configured to select a beamforming mode based, at least in part, on a packet received from a wireless device. The apparatus also includes a beamformee unit and a beamformer unit. The beamformee unit is configured to derive steering information from channel related information in the packet. The beamformer unit is configured to provide weights from a steering matrix to a transmitter performing transmit beamforming on a subsequent packet being transmitted to the wireless device. The beamforming mode detection logic routes at least part of the packet to one or both of the beamformee unit and the beamformer unit based, at least in part, on the selected beamforming mode.

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with beamforming with steering submatrix selection are described. According to one embodiment, an apparatus includes a steering matrix cache unit configured to store a steering matrix. The apparatus also includes a read control unit configured to select a steering submatrix from the steering matrix based, at least in part, on packet transmission instructions associated with a packet being processed for transmission. The read control unit is also configured to provide weights from the selected steering submatrix to a transmitter transmitting the packet.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Ying-Cheng Lee