Method and system for improving robustness of interference nulling for antenna arrays

1. A method comprising:

at a wireless communications device, receiving signals at an antenna array and generating a first interference spatial signature from an interference signal matrix derived from interference signals received by the antenna array;

deriving a second interference spatial signature from the first interference spatial signature based on differences between consecutive vectors of the interference signal matrix;

calculating a covariance matrix from the second interference spatial signature; and

generating a beamforming weighting vector from the covariance matrix, wherein the beamforming weight vector is for use with the antenna array of the wireless communication device to null interference represented by the first interference spatial signature.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein deriving the second interference spatial signature comprises:

generating two or more second vectors, each of which is a difference between two consecutive first vectors of the interference signal matrix;

calculating two or more norms of the two or more second vectors and an interference spatial signature norm which is an average of the two or more norms; and

generating the second interference spatial signature from the two or more norms of the two or more second vectors and the interference spatial signature norm.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a set of the second vectors has one fewer element than a set of the first vectors.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein one of the first vectors is the last interference spatial signature generated by the wireless communication device.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein selecting the set of third vectors that are most evenly spread over the two-dimensional space comprises selecting the set of third vectors with the maximum Euclidian distance between each vector and the rest of the two or more third vectors calculated as

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wnere V i represents the two or more third vectors.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein deriving the second interference spatial signature further comprises:

generating at least one set of two or more third vectors of interference derivative spatial signatures employing vector operations and forming a first matrix of two or more third vectors such that the norm of each third vector equals one and the norm of the difference between each third vector and one of the first vectors equals the interference spatial signature norm; and

selecting a set of third vectors which are most evenly spread over a two-dimensional space.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the beamforming weight vector comprises generating the beamforming weight vector to produce a beam pattern having a dominant beam rotated by a rotation angle such that a nulling angle of the beam pattern is sufficiently wide to ensure that a direction of arrival of the interference signals falls outside the dominant beam.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a receiver configured to receive signals detected at a plurality of antennas that are transmitted by a customer premises equipment over time;

a signal processing module coupled to the receiver, the signal processing module configured to:

calculate one or more first interference spatial signatures from an interference signal matrix derived from interference signals received at the plurality of antennas;

derive a second interference spatial signature from the first interference spatial signature based on differences between consecutive vectors of the interference signal matrix; and

calculate a covariance matrix from the second interference spatial signature and to compute a beamforming weight vector from the covariance matrix, wherein the beamforming weight vector is for use with the plurality of antennas to null interference represented by the first interference spatial signature.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the signal processing module is configured to generate the second interference spatial signature by generating two or more second vectors, each of which is a difference between two consecutive first vectors of the interference signal matrix, calculating two or more norms of the two or more second vectors and an interference spatial signature norm which is an average of the two or more norms, and generating the second interference spatial signature from the two or more norms of the two or more second vectors and the interference spatial signature norm.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the signal processing module is further configured to generate a set of the second vectors that has one fewer element than a set of the first vectors.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the signal processing module is further configured to generate a first vector representing a last interference spatial signature.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the signal processing module is configured to select the set of third vectors that are most evenly spread over the two-dimensional space by selecting the set of third vectors with the maximum Euclidian distance between each vector and the rest of the two or more third vectors calculated as

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where V i represents the two or more third vectors.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the signal processing module is configured to derive the second interference spatial signature by generating at least one set of two or more third vectors of interference derivative spatial signatures employing vector operations and forming a first matrix of two or more third vectors such that the norm of each third vector equals one and the norm of the difference between each third vector and one of the first vectors equals the interference spatial signature norm, and selecting a set of third vectors which are most evenly spread over a two-dimensional space.

14. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the signal processing module is configured to generate the beamforming weight vector to produce a beam pattern having a dominant beam rotated by a rotation angle such that a nulling angle of the beam pattern is sufficiently wide to ensure that a direction of arrival of the interference signals falls outside the dominant beam.

15. A method comprising:

at a wireless communications device, receiving signals at a plurality of antennas and generating a first interference spatial signature from an interference signal matrix derived from interference signals received by the plurality of antennas;

computing a second interference spatial signature from the first interference spatial signature based on differences between consecutive vectors of the interference signal matrix;

calculating a covariance matrix from the second interference spatial signature; and

generating a beamforming weighting vector from the covariance matrix for use with the plurality of antennas of the wireless communication device to produce a beam pattern having a dominant beam rotated by a rotation angle such that a nulling angle of the beam pattern is sufficiently wide to ensure that a direction of arrival of the interference signals falls outside the dominant beam.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein computing the second interference spatial signature comprises:

generating two or more second vectors, each of which is a difference between two consecutive first vectors of the interference signal matrix;

calculating two or more norms of the two or more second vectors and an interference spatial signature norm as an average of the two or more norms;

generating the second interference spatial signature from the two or more norms of the two or more second vectors and the interference spatial signature norm.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein selecting comprises selecting a set of third vectors which are most evenly spread over a two-dimensional space.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein selecting the set of third vectors that are most evenly spread over the two-dimensional space comprises selecting the set of third vectors with the maximum Euclidian distance between each vector and the rest of the two or more third vectors calculated as

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where V i represents the two or more third vectors.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein computing the second interference spatial signature further comprises:

generating at least one set of two or more third vectors of interference derivative spatial signatures employing vector operations and forming a matrix of two or more third vectors such that the norm of each third vector equals one and the norm of the difference between each third vector and one of the first vectors equals the interference spatial signature norm; and

selecting a set of third vectors based on one or more criteria derived from the norm of the two or more second vectors and the interference spatial signature norm.