METHOD FOR DETECTING AN EXTERNAL ANTENNA CONNECTED TO A COMMUNICATION DEVICE

Abstract

The disclosure concerns a method for selecting an antenna of a communication device for exchanging data with a radio access node. In order to select which one of the antennas connected to the communication device should be used to communicate with the radio access node, detection mechanisms based on resistivity measurements are run by the communication devices. However, such detection mechanisms are not reliable for detecting the connection of capacitive antennas. According to an embodiment of the disclosure, an antenna is selected for exchanging data with the radio access node upon detection of the establishment of a radio connection between said antenna and said radio access node, said detection being triggered when it is determined that the said antenna provides a better reception of the radio signals than other antennas.

Claims

1. A method for selecting an antenna connected to a communication device for exchanging data with a radio access node, comprising: establishing a radio connection between a first antenna connected to a first radio interface of said communication device and said radio access node; retrieving a first set of parameters representative of radio signals emitted by said radio access node and received by said first radio interface through said first antenna; retrieving a second set of parameters representative of radio signals emitted by said radio access node and received by a second radio interface of said communication device; detecting if a second antenna is connected to said second radio interface by determining that the second radio interface provides a better reception of the radio signals than the first radio interface based on a comparison of the values of the first set of parameters and the values of the second set of parameters; and selecting said second antenna connected to said second radio interface for exchanging data with said radio access node.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein, when no connection between said first antenna and said radio access node is detected, the method further comprises: detecting the establishment of a radio connection between said second antenna and said radio access node.

3. The method according to claim 1 comprising: selecting the first antenna for exchanging data with said radio access node when the comparison between the values of the first set of parameters and the values of the second set of parameters determines that the first radio interface provides a better reception of the radio signals than the second radio interface.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein the first antenna is an internal antenna embedded in the communication device.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the second antenna is an external antenna to be connected to the second radio interface.

6. A communication device capable of selecting an antenna for exchanging data with a radio access node, comprising: a first and a second radio interface; a first antenna connected to the first radio interface; and at least a hardware processor configured to: establish a radio connection between said first antenna and said radio access node, retrieve a first set of parameters representative of radio signals emitted by said radio access node and received by said first radio interface through said first antenna; retrieve a second set of parameters representative of radio signals emitted by said radio access node and received by said second radio interface of said communication device; and select a second antenna connected to said second radio interface for exchanging data with said radio access node upon detection of the establishment of a radio connection between said second antenna and said radio access node, said detection being triggered when a comparison between values of the first set of parameters and values of the second set of parameters determines that the second radio interface provides a better reception of the radio signals than the first radio interface.

7. The communication device according to claim 6 wherein, when no connection between said first antenna and said radio access node is detected, the hardware processor is further configured to: detect the establishment of a radio connection between said second antenna and said radio access node.

8. The communication device according to claim 6 wherein the processor is configured to: select the first antenna for exchanging data with said radio access node when the comparison between the values of the first set of parameters and the values of the second set of parameters determines that the first radio interface provides a better reception of the radio signals than the second radio interface.

9. The communication device according to claim 6 wherein the first antenna is an internal antenna embedded in the communication device.

10. The communication device according to claim 6 wherein the second antenna is an external antenna to be connected to the second radio interface.

11. A processor readable medium having stored therein instructions for causing a processor to perform the method for selecting an antenna according to claim 1.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] Embodiments of the disclosure will now be described, by way of example only, and with reference to the following drawings in which:

[0038] FIG. 1 represents a system in which an embodiment of the disclosure may be implemented;

[0039] FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of the home gateway according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

[0040] FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining a process for determining if an external antenna is connected to the home gateway and to select which of the internal antenna or the external antenna is to be used to exchange data with the radio access node 110 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present principles can be embodied as a system, method or computer readable medium. Accordingly, aspects of the present principles can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, and so forth) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that can all generally be referred to herein as a circuit, module, or system. Furthermore, aspects of the present principles can take the form of a computer readable storage medium. Any combination of one or more computer readable storage medium(a) may be utilized.

[0042] FIG. 1 represents a system 1 in which an embodiment of the disclosure may be implemented. The system 1 comprises a gateway 100 and a radio access node 110.

[0043] In an embodiment of the disclosure, the home gateway 100 is a home gateway.

[0044] A home gateway is a network device interconnecting a broadband network, such as an operator network or the Internet, and a LAN (Local Area Network). The home gateway receives data from the broadband network and transmits them to a given communication device connected to the LAN. The home gateway also transmits data sent by at least one of the communication device to the broadband network.

[0045] As represented on FIG. 1, the home gateway 100 comprises at least two radio interfaces 120 and 130 for communicating with the broadband network. Such radio interface 120 and 130 are configured to receive and transmit data from and to the radio access node 110 through a radio connection. When the radio access node is an eNodeB (evolved Node B), then the radio connection between one of the radio interface 120, 130 of the home gateway 100 and the radio access node 110 is established in accordance with LTE specifications. A first antenna 1201, called internal antenna since it is embedded in the home gateway 100, is connected to the first radio interface 120.

[0046] A second antenna 1301, called external, may be connected to the second radio interface 130. Such an external antenna 1301 may be connected to the second radio interface 130 in order to improve the quality of radio communications between the home gateway 100 and the radio access node 110.

[0047] The radio interfaces 120, 130 are connected to a switch 140 embedded in the home gateway 100. The switch 140 is connected to a selection module 150 configured to detect the connection of antennae to the radio interfaces 120, 130 and to select an antenna through which data is to be exchanged between the home gateway 100 and the radio access node 110, as will be shown in more detail in FIG. 3.

[0048] FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of the home gateway according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0049] The home gateway 100 comprises at least one hardware processor 201, a storage unit 202, an input device 203, a display device 204, and an interface unit 205 which are connected by a bus 206. Of course, constituent elements of the home gateway 100 may be connected by a connection other than a bus connection.

[0050] The processor 201 controls operations of the home gateway 100. The storage unit 202 stores at least one program capable of selecting which antenna among the internal antenna 1201 and the external antenna 1301 connected to the home gateway 100 is to be used for exchanging data with the radio access node 110 to be executed by the processor 201, and various data, such as parameters used by computations performed by the processor 201, intermediate data of computations performed by the processor 201, and so on. The processor 201 may be formed by any known and suitable hardware, or software, or a combination of hardware and software. For example, the processor 201 may be formed by dedicated hardware such as a processing circuit, or by a programmable processing unit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that executes a program stored in a memory thereof.

[0051] The storage unit 202 may be formed by any suitable storage or means capable of storing the program, data, or the like in a computer-readable manner. Examples of the storage unit 202 include non-transitory computer-readable storage media such as semiconductor memory devices, and magnetic, optical, or magneto-optical recording media loaded into a read and write unit. The program causes the processor 201 to perform a process for selecting which antenna among the internal antenna 1201 and the external antenna 1301 connected to the home gateway 100 is to be used for exchanging data with the radio access node 110 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure as described hereinafter with reference to FIG. 3.

[0052] The input device 203 may be formed by a keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse, or the like for use by the user to input commands, to make user's selections of parameters used for selecting the transmission interface to be used. The display device 204 may be formed by a display device to display, for example, a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The input device 203 and the output device 204 may be formed integrally by a touchscreen panel, for example.

[0053] The interface unit 205 provides an interface between the home gateway 100 and an external apparatus. The interface unit 205 may be communicable with the external apparatus via cable or wireless communication. In an embodiment, the external apparatus may be an optical acquisition system such as an actual camera.

[0054] The switch 140, and the radio interfaces 120 and 130 are connected to the bus 206 as well.

[0055] FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining a process for determining if an external antenna 1301 is connected to the home gateway 100 and to select which of the internal antenna 1201 or the external antenna 1301 is to be used to exchange data with the radio access node 110 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0056] In a step 301, the processor 201 turns off the first radio interface 120 and the second radio interface 130. This enables to clear the storage unit 202 of data related to previous execution of the method according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0057] In a step 302, the switch 140 connects the first radio interface 120, to which the internal antenna 1201 is connected, to the selection module 150.

[0058] In a step 303, the processor 201 detects if a radio connection between the internal antenna 1201 and the radio access node 110 can be established. In order to detect if a radio connection is established between the internal antenna 1201 and the radio access node 110, an Attach Request is emitted by the internal antenna 1201 to the radio access node 110, id an Attach Complete message is received by the internal antenna 1201, then a radio connection is established between the internal antenna 1201 and the radio access node 110.

[0059] If the establishment of a radio connection between the internal antenna 1201 connected to the first radio interface 120 and the radio access node 110 is detected, then the selection module 150 retrieves a first set of parameters representative of radio signals emitted by the radio access node 110 and received by the first radio interface 120 through said internal antenna 1201 during a step 304. Those parameters represent values of the radio signal strength and the radio signal quality such as the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) when 3G or LTE techniques are used for establishing a radio connection between the gateway 100 and the access node 110, or the RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power) and/or the RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality) when LTE techniques are used for establishing a radio connection between the gateway 100 and the access node 110. This first set of parameters is stored on the storage unit 202.

[0060] In a step 305, the switch 140 connects the second radio interface 130 to the selection module 150. In an embodiment, connecting the second radio interface 130 to the selection module 150 implies disconnecting the first radio interface 120 from the selection module 150.

[0061] During a step 306, the selection module 150 retrieves a second set of parameters representative of radio signals emitted by the radio access node 110 and received by the second radio interface 130. Those parameters represent values of the radio signal strength and the radio signal quality such as the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) when 3G or LTE techniques are used for establishing a radio connection between the gateway 100 and the access node 110, or the RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power) and/or the RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality) when LTE techniques are used for establishing a radio connection between the gateway 100 and the access node 110. This second set of parameters is stored on the storage unit 202 as well. For example, an LTE module of the radio interface 130 transmits sets of parameters representative of received radio signals every five seconds.

[0062] In a step 307, the selection module 150 compares values of the first set of parameters and values of the second set of parameters stored in the storage unit 202 in order to determine which one of the first radio interface 120 and the second radio interface 130 provides the best reception of the radio signals.

[0063] If the second radio interface 130 provides a better reception of the radio signals than the first radio interface 120, then the processor 201 detects if a radio connection between an external antenna 1301 and the radio access node 110 can be established in a step 308.

[0064] If the establishment of a radio connection between the external antenna 1301 connected to the second radio interface 130 and the radio access node 110 is detected, then the selection module 150 detects that an external antenna 1301 is actually connected to the second radio interface 130 and selects the external antenna 1301 for exchanging data with said radio access node 110 in a step 309.

[0065] If during step 307, the selection module 150 determines that the first radio interface 120 provides the best reception of the radio signals, then in a step 310, the switch 140 connects the first radio interface 120 to the selection module 150 which selects the internal antenna 1201 for exchanging data with said radio access node 110. In this case, steps 308 and 309 are not executed. In an embodiment, connecting the first radio interface 120 to the selection module 150 implies disconnecting the second radio interface 130 from the selection module 150.

[0066] If during step 308 the processor 201 detects that no radio connection can be established between an external antenna 1301 and the radio access node 110, it means that no external antenna is connected to the second radio interface 130.

[0067] Then in step 311, an error and its cause is stored in the storage unit 202. Then the processor 201 executes step 301.

[0068] If during step 303 no radio connection between the internal antenna 1201 and the radio access node 110 can be detected by the processor 201, then in a step 312 an error and its cause is stored in the storage unit 202.

[0069] Then in step 313, the processor 201 turns the first radio interface 120 and the second radio interface 130 off. This enables to clear the storage unit 202 of data related to previous execution of the method according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0070] In a step 314, the switch 140 connects the second radio interface 130 to the selection module 150. Then step 308 is executed. In an embodiment, connecting the second radio interface 130 to the selection module 150 implies disconnecting the first radio interface 120 from the selection module 150.

[0071] Although the present disclosure has been described hereinabove with reference to specific embodiments, the present disclosure is not limited to the specific embodiments, and modifications will be apparent to a skilled person in the art which lie within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0072] Many further modifications and variations will suggest themselves to those versed in the art upon making reference to the foregoing illustrative embodiments, which are given by way of example only and which are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure, that being determined solely by the appended claims. In particular the different features from different embodiments may be interchanged, where appropriate.