Antenna activity detection in multi-antenna communication

1. A method for antenna activity detection in multi-antenna communication devices, the method comprising:

computing a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value for each of a plurality of antennas based on a sampled data associated with each of the plurality of antennas;

identifying, from the plurality of antennas, an antenna having a highest RSSI value as a primary antenna and one or more antennas having the RSSI value less than the highest RSSI value as auxiliary antennas;

calculating an RSSI difference for each of the auxiliary antennas, wherein the RSSI difference corresponding to an auxiliary antenna is a difference between the RSSI value corresponding to the primary antenna and the RSSI value corresponding to the auxiliary antenna;

comparing the RSSI difference corresponding to each of the auxiliary antennas with a first threshold value to ascertain one or more potentially inactive antennas from among the auxiliary antennas; and

identifying, from the one or more potentially inactive antennas, one or more inactive antennas based at least in part on the RSSI value by

estimating a plurality of burst differences for each of the one or more potentially inactive antennas, wherein a burst difference for a potentially inactive antenna is a difference between RSSI values of two consecutive bursts of a signal received by the potentially inactive antenna;

determining, for each of the potentially inactive antennas, whether a variation in the plurality of burst difference is greater than a second threshold value; and

tagging each of the potentially inactive antennas having the variation in the burst differences less than the second threshold value as an inactive antenna and each of the potentially inactive antennas having the variation in the burst differences greater than the second threshold value as an active antenna.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a number of active antennas based on the tagging; and

initiating an equalizer based at least on the number of active antennas.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the computing the RSSI value comprises:

determining, for each of the plurality of antennas, an estimated signal strength based at least on the sampled data, wherein the sampled data includes inphase and quadrature phase signals associated with received signal corresponding to each of the plurality of antennas; and

compensating, for each of the estimated signal strength, a gain applied to the corresponding received signal to obtain the RSSI value for the antenna corresponding to the received signal.

4. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium, having thereon a computer program comprising program instructions, the computer program being loadable into a data-processing unit and adapted to cause execution of the method according to claim 1 when the computer program is run by the data-processing unit.

5. A method for dynamic selection of an equalizer in a multi-antenna communication device, the method comprising:

identifying, based on a received signal strength indicator value corresponding to each of a plurality of antennas, one or more potentially inactive antennas from the plurality of antennas;

tagging each of the potentially inactive antennas having a variation in burst differences less than a first threshold value as an inactive antenna and each of the potentially inactive antennas having the variation in the burst differences greater than the first threshold value as an active antenna, wherein a burst difference for a potentially inactive antenna is a difference between RSSI values of two consecutive bursts of a signal received by the potentially inactive antenna; and

initiating an equalizer based at least on a number of antennas tagged as active antenna.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the tagging comprises:

estimating a plurality of burst differences for each of the one or more potentially inactive antennas; and

determining, for each of the potentially inactive antennas, whether the variation in the plurality of burst differences is greater than the first threshold value.

7. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the identifying one or more potentially inactive antennas further comprises:

computing the RSSI value for each of the plurality of antennas based on a sampled data associated with each of the plurality of antennas;

identifying, from the plurality of antennas, an antenna having a highest RSSI value as a primary antenna and one or more antennas having the RSSI value less than the highest RSSI value as auxiliary antennas;

calculating an RSSI difference for each of the auxiliary antennas, wherein the RSSI difference corresponding to an auxiliary antenna is a difference between the RSSI value corresponding to the primary antenna and the RSSI value corresponding to the auxiliary antenna; and

comparing the RSSI difference corresponding to each of the auxiliary antennas with a second threshold value to ascertain the one or more potentially inactive antennas from among the auxiliary antennas.

8. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium, having thereon a computer program comprising program instructions, the computer program being loadable into a data-processing unit and adapted to cause execution of the method according to claim 5 when the computer program is run by the data-processing unit.

9. An antenna activity detector comprising:

a processor, wherein the processor is coupled to a memory that stores a computer program, which when executed by the processor causes the processor to

compute a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value for each of a plurality of antennas based on sampled data associated with each of the plurality of antennas;

identify, from the plurality of antennas, a primary antenna and one or more auxiliary antennas based on the RSSI values corresponding to each of the plurality of antennas, wherein the primary antenna is an antenna having a highest RSSI value, and wherein the auxiliary antennas are antennas having the RSSI value less than the highest RSSI value;

ascertain one or more potentially inactive antennas from the auxiliary antennas based on the RSSI values;

determine one or more inactive antennas from the one or more potentially inactive antennas, based at least in part on the RSSI values corresponding to each of the one or more potentially inactive antennas, wherein the determined one or more inactive antennas are faulty or grounded antennas;

determine a number of active antennas based at least on an indication of one or more inactive antennas; and

initiate an equalizer based at least on the number of active antennas.

10. The antenna activity detector as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the computer program further causes the processor to,

calculate an RSSI difference for each of the auxiliary antennas, wherein the RSSI difference corresponding to an auxiliary antenna refers to a difference between the RSSI value corresponding to the primary antenna and the RSSI value corresponding to the auxiliary antenna; and

identify all the auxiliary antennas having the RSSI difference greater than a first threshold value as a potentially inactive antenna.

11. A communication device comprising:

a processor, wherein the processor is coupled to a memory that stores a computer program, which when executed by the processor causes the processor to

identify, from a plurality of antennas, a primary antenna and one or more auxiliary antennas based on received signal strength indicator (RSSI) values corresponding to each of the plurality of antennas, wherein the primary antenna is an antenna having a highest RSSI value, and wherein the auxiliary antennas are antennas having the RSSI value less than the highest RSSI value;

ascertain one or more potentially inactive antennas from the auxiliary antennas based on the RSSI values;

determine one or more inactive antennas from the one or more potentially inactive antennas based on a variation in at least two burst differences, wherein a burst difference for a potentially inactive antenna is a difference between RSSI values of two consecutive bursts of a signal received by the potentially inactive antenna; and

select one of a single antenna equalization and a multi-antenna equalization based on the one or more inactive antennas.

12. The communication device as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the computer program further causes the processor to,

estimate the at least two burst differences for each of the one or more potentially inactive antennas and

determine, for each of the potentially inactive antennas, whether a variation in the at least two burst differences is greater than a second threshold value.

13. The communication device as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the computer program further causes the processor to compute the RSSI value for each of the plurality of antennas based on sampled data associated with each of the plurality of antennas.

14. The communication device as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the computer program further causes the processor to,

determine a number of active antennas based at least on an indication of one or more inactive antennas; and

initiate selection of one of the single antenna equalization and the multi-antenna equalization based at least on the number of active antennas.

15. The communication device as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the single antenna equalization equalizes sampled data associated with a received signal corresponding to the primary antenna.

16. The communication device as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the multi-antenna equalization equalizes sampled data associated with received signals corresponding to at least two antennas selected from the active antennas.

17. The communication device as claimed in claim 11 , comprising a receiver front-end configured to,

down-convert for each of the plurality of antennas a corresponding received signal to obtain a baseband received signal; and

sample the baseband received signal corresponding to each of the plurality of antennas to obtain the sampled data associated with each of the plurality of antennas.