Wireless communication apparatus with a plurality of antenna elements

1. A wireless communication apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of antenna elements for receiving orthogonal modulation signals as wireless signals;

a plurality of received signal conversion units for converting the wireless signals received by said antenna elements into baseband received signals;

a memory for storing a group of coefficient values necessary in processing of received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units;

a coefficient generation unit for temporarily storing specific received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units, detecting an offset value of reception timing of the specific received signals on the basis of a desired signal already known and the group of the coefficient values read out from said memory, compensating the group of coefficient values according to the detected offset value of the reception timing, and storing the compensated coefficient values in said memory; and

a signal processing unit for processing the received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units by applying the compensated coefficient values stored in said memory,

wherein said coefficient generation unit detects a phase shift value of said specific received signals, and identifies the offset value of the reception timing from the phase shift value; and

wherein said coefficient generation unit changes a phase shift value which is variable depending on the offset value of the reception timing, by a predetermined unit value within a predetermined range, compensates said group of coefficient values stepwise in accordance with the phase shift value, compares said desired signal with a candidate signal obtained by applying the compensated coefficient value to the specific received signals, and identifies the reception timing offset value of said specific received signals from the phase shift value at which an error between the desired signal and the candidate signal has a minimum value.

2. A wireless communication apparatus comprising:

a plurality of antenna elements for receiving orthogonal modulation signals as wireless signals;

a plurality of received signal conversion units for converting the wireless signals received by said antenna elements into baseband received signals;

a memory for storing a group of coefficient values necessary in processing of received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units;

a coefficient generation unit for temporarily storing specific received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units, detecting an offset value of reception timing of the specific received signals on the basis of a desired signal already known and the group of the coefficient values read out from said memory, compensating the group of coefficient values according to the detected offset value of the reception timing, and storing the compensated coefficient values in said memory; and

a signal processing unit for processing the received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units by applying the compensated coefficient values stored in said memory,

wherein said coefficient generation unit detects a phase shift value of said specific received signals, and identifies the offset value of the reception timing from the phase shift value; and

wherein said coefficient generation unit generates a test signal having been subjected to phase shift by applying said group of coefficient values to said specific received signals, compares the desired signal with a candidate signal obtained by compensating the phase shift value of the test signal stepwise by a predetermined unit value, and identifies the reception timing offset value of said specific received signals from the phase shift value at which an error between the desired signal and the candidate signal has a minimum value.

3. The wireless communication apparatus according to one of claims 1 and 2 ,

wherein said plurality of antenna elements form an adaptive array antenna (AAA),

said signal processing unit is an AAA combining unit for combining a plurality of signal sequences received by the plurality of the antenna elements, and

said group of coefficient values stored in said memory are weight values to be used in said AAA combining unit.

4. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein

said plurality of antenna elements form an adaptive array antenna (AAA),

said signal processing unit is an AAA combining unit for combining a plurality of signal sequences received by the plurality of the antenna elements,

said group of coefficient values stored in said memory are weight values to be used in said AAA combining unit, and

said coefficient generation unit compensates the phase shift value of said specific received signal by applying said group of the coefficient values having been compensated stepwise, and generates said candidate signal by modulating the compensated received signal.

5. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein

the plurality of the antenna elements form an adaptive array antenna (AAA),

said signal processing unit is an AAA combining unit for combining a plurality of signal sequences received by the plurality of the antenna elements,

the group of the coefficient values stored in said memory are weight values to be used in said AAA combining unit, and

said coefficient generation unit generates a demodulated signal by demodulating said specific received signal, generates said test signal having been subjected to phase shift by applying a group of weight values to the demodulated signal, and generates said candidate signal by compensating a phase shift value of the test signal stepwise by a predetermined unit value.

6. A wireless communication apparatus comprising:

a plurality of antenna elements for receiving orthogonal modulation signals as wireless signals;

a plurality of received signal conversion units for converting the wireless signals received by said antenna elements into baseband received signals;

a memory for storing a group of coefficient values necessary in processing of received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units;

a coefficient generation unit for temporarily storing specific received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units, detecting an offset value of reception timing of the specific received signals on the basis of a desired signal already known and the group of the coefficient values read out from said memory, compensating the group of coefficient values according to the detected offset value of the reception timing, and storing the compensated coefficient values in said memory; and

a signal processing unit for processing the received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units by applying the compensated coefficient values stored in said memory,

wherein said coefficient generation unit detects a phase shift value of said specific received signals, and identifies the offset value of the reception timing from the phase shift value; and

wherein said coefficient generation unit changes a phase shift value which is variable depending on the offset value of the reception timing, by a predetermined unit value within a predetermined range, compensates said group of coefficient values stepwise in accordance with the phase shift value, compares said specific received signal with a temporary received signal obtained by applying the compensated coefficient values to said desired signal, and identifies the reception timing offset value of said specific received signals from the phase shift value at which an error between the desired signal and the temporary received signal has a minimum value.

7. A wireless communication apparatus comprising:

a plurality of antenna elements for receiving orthogonal modulation signals as wireless signals;

a plurality of received signal conversion units for converting the wireless signals received by said antenna elements into baseband received signals;

a memory for storing a group of coefficient values necessary in processing of received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units;

a coefficient generation unit for temporarily storing specific received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units, detecting an offset value of reception timing of the specific received signals on the basis of a desired signal already known and the group of the coefficient values read out from said memory, compensating the group of coefficient values according to the detected offset value of the reception timing, and storing the compensated coefficient values in said memory; and

a signal processing unit for processing the received signals outputted from said received signal conversion units by applying the compensated coefficient values stored in said memory,

wherein said coefficient generation unit detects a phase shift value of said specific received signals, and identifies the offset value of the reception timing from the phase shift value; and

wherein said coefficient generation unit generates a temporary received signal having been subjected to phase shift by applying said group of coefficient values to said desired signal, compares said specific received signals with a candidate signal obtained by compensating the phase shift value of the temporary received signal stepwise by a predetermined unit value, and identifies the reception timing offset value of said specific received signals from the phase shift value at which an error between the specific received signal and the candidate signal has a minimum value.

8. The wireless communication apparatus according to one of claims 6 and 7 ,

wherein said plurality of antenna elements are MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antennas;

said signal processing unit is a channel estimation unit for a plurality of signal sequences received by the plurality of the antenna elements, and

said group of coefficient values stored in said memory are channel matrix values to be uses in said channel estimation unit.

9. The wireless communication apparatus according to one of claims 1 , 2 , 6 and 7 ,

wherein said orthogonal modulation signals received by said antenna elements are orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals, and

each of said received signal conversion units includes a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) unit corresponding to one of said antenna elements, and the received signal conversion unit outputs a complex OFDM baseband signal as said baseband received signal.

10. The wireless communication apparatus according to one of claims 1 , 2 , 6 and 7 ,

wherein each of said specific received signals is a pilot signal included at the head of a wireless communication frame transmitted as said orthogonal modulation signal.