METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PARTITIONING AN ANTENNA ARRAY AND APPLYING MULTIPLE-INPUT-MULTIPLE-OUTPUT AND BEAMFORMING MECHANISMS

摘要

A system and method are provided for configuring an antenna array having a predetermined number of antennas. After providing an antenna correlation matrix for all antennas with regard to a mobile terminal, the antenna array is virtually partitioned into two or more sub-arrays based on the antenna correlation matrix such that correlations among antennas within each sub-array are higher than correlations among antennas belonging to different sub-arrays. One or more beamforming weights are generated corresponding to each antenna within the sub-arrays for applying to one or more signals transmitted therefrom, and at least one predetermined multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) mechanism is further applied among the sub-arrays by treating each sub-array as a virtual antenna.