Adapting a downlink array from uplink measurements

In a frequency division duplex system, a transmitter adaptive antenna array can potentially improve the performance of a wireless downlink, but because the uplink and downlink channels have different wavelengths, and, therefore, different responses, direct downlink adaptation based on channel estimates of the uplink is generally not feasible, Instead, there has been some recent interest in adaptations that require only the second-order statistics of the uplink and downlink to be similar. These algorithms derive adaptive weights from the covariance of the received signal to apply to a downlink transmitter array. We make two contributions to this area. First, we introduce an array configuration employing M+1 elements with log-periodic sparing that comprises two overlapping subarrays, each with M elements, that are scaled versions of each other, with the scale factor equal to the ratio of the uplink wavelength to the downlink wavelength. This array has identical beampatterns at the two wavelengths, thus helping to fulfill the requirement that the uplink and downlink second-order statistics be the same. Second, we demonstrate that obtaining a good estimate of the uplink covariance matrix is not essential for the successful operation of the adaptive scheme. Even when the mobile is at rest and the uplink information comprises only a single snapshot from the receiver array, an adaptive scheme can improve the SNR.