Systems and methods for providing improved cell-edge antenna performance are disclosed. The system can use various signal quality indicators (SQIs) for each user equipment (UE) on a particular wireless base station (WBS) or network. When one or more of these metrics reaches a first predetermined value for a particular UE, the WBS or the UE can decide to activate a diversity receive (Rx) antenna on the UE to improve reception. If one or more of these metrics continues to degrade to a second predetermined value, however, the WBS or the UE can deactivate the diversity Rx antenna and activate a primary Rx antenna. Deactivating the diversity antenna when signal quality/strength is poor can improve reception by reducing interference between the diversity Rx antennas. Disabling the diversity Rx antenna when signal quality/strength is poor can also decrease the number of retransmission requests from each UE, reducing traffic on the WBS.

This disclosure relates to techniques for opportunistically depowering receiver chains of a wireless device. Based on control information, a device may determine whether the current number of active receiver chains can be reduced while maintaining a target achievable code rate for a period of data reception associated with the control information. Additionally, the device may generate and use a lookup table to determine whether to depower receiver chains, and which receiver chains to depower.

An access node transmits, in a downlink signal having a series of subframes, a beam-formed reference signal in subframes, where the beam-formed reference signals are transmitted in fewer than all of the subframes of the downlink signal. A first subset includes beam-formed reference signals corresponding to a first frequency or first localized range of frequencies, and a second subset includes beam-formed reference signals corresponding to a second frequency or second localized range of frequencies. The second frequency or second localized range of frequencies is spaced apart from and differing from the first frequency or first localized range of frequencies. A user equipment, UE, receives, in the downlink signal, the beam-formed reference signal in each of a plurality of subframes. The UE performs mobility management measurements using at least the first subset of the received beam-formed reference signals and performs RLM using the second subset of the received beam-formed reference signals.

A multi-antenna wireless device is equipped with a plurality of selectively operable radio chains. In an active mode or during a listening period of an energy-saving mode, the wireless device measures a quality characteristic of a signal, which it receives from a network node. During a non-listening period of the energy-saving mode, the wireless deactivates all of the radio chains. After the non-listening period, the wireless device activates a selected subset of the radio chains to receive a signal from the network node in a first listening period. The selected subset is determined on the basis of the measured quality characteristic.

The disclosure relates to a method (20) performed in a network node (5, 9, 7) of a communication system (1) for muting antenna elements of an active antenna system (11). The method (20) comprises determining (22), based on a priori information relating to performance of the communication system (1), an antenna element separation between one or more pairs of active antenna elements of at least a subset of all active antenna elements of the active antenna system (11); and muting (24) at least one antenna element such that the determined antenna element separation is obtained between each of the one or more pairs of active antenna elements of at least the subset of all active antenna elements. A corresponding network node (5, 9, 7), computer programs and computer program products are also disclosed.

In certain aspects, a method for communications comprises outputting a first portion of a signal to a first one of a plurality of RF modules for transmission, determining a throughput of the first one of the plurality of RF modules during thermal throttling of the first one of the plurality of RF modules, comparing the determined throughput of the first one of the plurality of RF modules with a throughput of a second one of the plurality of RF modules, and outputting a second portion of the signal to the second one of the plurality of RF modules for transmission if the throughput of the second one of the plurality of RF modules is higher than the determined throughput of the first one of the plurality of RF modules.

Switching between and/or combining various multi-transceiver wireless communication techniques based on a determined characteristic of a network or a wireless link is described herein. As an example, a characteristic such as signal to noise ratio (SNR), multi-path scattering, available bandwidth, or the like, can be determined. The characteristic can then be compared with suitable thresholds for various multi-transceiver communication techniques, such as MIMO, multi-channel concatenation, channel diversity, and so on. Based on a comparison of the characteristic and the thresholds, a suitable multi-transceiver technique can be selected and implemented for the wireless link. Accordingly, a network can provide increased data rates and/or channel quality from a multi-transceiver technique that is most suited to prevailing conditions of the wireless network/link.

A method performed by a wireless communication device is described. The method includes determining at least one packet type for subsequent wireless personal area network (WPAN) communication. The method also includes determining at least one receive diversity setting based on the at least one packet type. The method further includes receiving at least one packet based on the at least one receive diversity setting.

A method and apparatus determine a transmission beam for downlink transmissions, and provides first beamforming instructions for forming the transmission beam to a transmission path. The method and apparatus also determine at least one receiving beam that is a first receiving beam, and at least one receiving beam that is a second receiving beam. A first antenna sub-array is configured to provide a first plurality of concurrent receiving beams and a second antenna sub-array is configured to provide a second plurality of concurrent receiving beams, providing second beamforming instructions, for forming at least the first receiving beam and at least the second receiving beams, to a first receiving path and a second receiving path, respectively.

A method includes: controllably configuring at least one antenna diversity switch in a wireless device to establish conductive paths between at least one transceiver of the wireless device and multiple antennas each disposed at a respective one of a multiple areas of a housing of the wireless device; and routing signals between the at least one transceiver and the multiple antennas, via the at least one antenna diversity switch, such that a signal is routed to either of at least two of the multiple antennas disposed at a first end area of the multiple areas of the housing of the wireless device or to either of at least two other antennas disposed at a second end area of the multiple areas of the housing of the wireless device.