Diversity communication system with adaptably oriented multiple beam

Abstract

In a diversity communication system, groups of receive units are provided corresponding respectively to arrays of antennas to process incoming signals which are propagated over different paths from a transmitter. In order to orient the directivity patterns of the antenna arrays toward the transmitter, multiple diversity branches are provided corresponding respectively to the groups of receive units. Each diversity branch includes multiple complex multipliers for respectively multiplying the processed incoming signals from the corresponding receive units by weight coefficients. Delays are then introduced respectively to the processed incoming signals so that the delayed signals are time-coincident with a decision signal, and the weight coefficients of the complex multipliers are derived from correlations between the delayed signals and the decision signal. The outputs of the complex multipliers of each diversity branch are combined together to produce a sum signal, and the delay-dispersed components of the sum signal are converged and maximal-ratio combined in an adaptive matched filter according to the decision signals of the diversity branches. A diversity combiner combines the output signals of the diversity branches to produce a space-domain diversity-combined signal, which is then adaptively equalized by a decision feedback equalizer to produce the decision signal.