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- Nachgewiesen in: USPTO Patent Grants
- Sprachen: English
- Patent Number: 9,161,386
- Publication Date: October 13, 2015
- Appl. No: 14/459353
- Application Filed: August 14, 2014
- Assignees: Harris Corporation (Melbourne, FL, US)
- Claim: 1. A hybrid land mobile radio, comprising: a portable radio housing; an LMR transceiver, disposed in the portable radio housing, which facilitates communications using an LMR communications protocol on one or more LMR frequency bands; an LTE transceiver, disposed within the portable radio housing, which facilitates LTE communications using an LTE communications protocol on one more LTE frequency bands, the LTE transceiver configured to concurrently utilize a first and a second diversity antenna for achieving diversity gain during LTE communication operations; an external antenna disposed on an external portion of the portable radio housing at least a first embedded antenna which serves as the first diversity antenna disposed within the portable radio housing and coupled to the LTE transceiver; an RF signal routing network coupled to the LMR transceiver, the LTE transceiver, and the external antenna; and a control system which controls the RF signal routing network to selectively connect at least one of the LMR transceiver and the LTE transceiver to the external antenna in accordance with at least one operating condition to facilitate use of the external antenna by the LTE transceiver as the second diversity antenna; and wherein the external antenna is configured to facilitate LMR communications on the 700/800 MHz LMR frequency band, and the LTE transceiver communicates on at least one of LTE band 13 and LTE band 14 .
- Claim: 2. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 1 , wherein the LMR frequency bands on which the LMR transceiver communicates further include one or more selected from the group consisting of an LMRVHF band, and an LMR UHF band.
- Claim: 3. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 1 , wherein the control system is arranged to determine said operating condition based on at least one communication link metric which specifies a quality of a communication link implemented by at least one of said LMR transceiver and the LTE transceiver.
- Claim: 4. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 1 , wherein the control system determines the operating condition based on a particular LMR frequency band which is selected for implementing a communication when using said LMR transceiver.
- Claim: 5. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 1 , wherein the external antenna is a multi-band antenna designed to facilitate communications on the 700/800 MHz band, on LTE band 13 and LTE band 14 .
- Claim: 6. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 1 , further comprising a second embedded antenna disposed within the portable radio housing and coupled to the RF signal routing network, wherein the RF signal routing network selectively connects the second embedded antenna to the LTE transceiver for use as the second diversity antenna, in place of the external antenna, under a second predetermined operating condition.
- Claim: 7. A hybrid land mobile radio, comprising: a portable radio housing; an LMR transceiver, disposed in the portable radio housing, which facilitates communications using an LMR communications protocol on one or more LMR frequency bands; an LTE transceiver, disposed within the portable radio housing, which facilitates LTE communications using an LTE communications protocol on one more LTE frequency bands, the LTE transceiver configured to utilize two separate antennas; an external antenna disposed on an external portion of the portable radio housing a first embedded antenna disposed within the portable radio housing and coupled to the LTE transceiver; an RF signal routing network coupled to the LMR transceiver, the LTE transceiver, and the external antenna; a second embedded antenna disposed within the portable radio housing and coupled to the RF signal routing network and a control system which controls the RF signal routing network to selectively connect at least one of the LMR transceiver and the LTE transceiver to the external antenna in accordance with at least one operating condition and to selectively connect one of the LMR transceiver and the LTE transceiver to the second embedded antenna in accordance with said at least one operating condition.
- Claim: 8. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 7 , wherein the operating condition is determined based on a voltage standing wave ratio.
- Claim: 9. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 7 , wherein the operating condition is based on at least one sensor which detects a presence of the external antenna.
- Claim: 10. A hybrid land mobile radio, comprising: a portable radio housing; an LMR transceiver, disposed in the portable radio housing, which facilitates communications using an LMR communications protocol on one or more LMR frequency bands; an LTE transceiver, disposed within the portable radio housing, which facilitates LTE communications using an LTE communications protocol on one more LTE frequency bands, the LTE transceiver configured to utilize two separate antennas; an external antenna port disposed on an external portion of the portable radio housing a first embedded antenna disposed within the portable radio housing and coupled to the LTE transceiver; a second embedded antenna disposed within the portable radio housing; an RF signal routing network coupled to the LMR transceiver, the LTE transceiver, the second embedded antenna and the external antenna port; and a control system which controls the RF signal routing network to selectively connect the LMR transceiver exclusively to one of the external antenna port and the second embedded antenna, and concurrently connect the LTE transceiver to one of the external antenna port and the second antenna, in accordance with at least one operating condition.
- Claim: 11. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 10 , wherein the LMR transceiver communicates on the 700/800 MHz LMR frequency band, and the LTE transceiver communicates on at least one of LTE band 13 and LTE band 14 .
- Claim: 12. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 11 , wherein the LMR frequency bands on which the LMR transceiver communicates further include one or more selected from the group consisting of an LMRVHF band, and an LMR UHF band.
- Claim: 13. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 10 , wherein the control system is arranged to determine said operating condition based on at least one communication link metric which specifies a quality of a communication link implemented by at least one of said LMR transceiver and the LTE transceiver.
- Claim: 14. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 10 , wherein the control system determines the operating condition based on a particular LMR frequency band which is selected for implementing a communication when using said LMR transceiver.
- Claim: 15. The hybrid land mobile radio according to claim 10 , wherein the external antenna is designed to facilitate communications on the LMR 700/800 MHz band, and at least one of LTE band 13 and LTE band 14 .
- Claim: 16. A method for operating a hybrid land mobile radio, comprising: establishing an LMR communication link using an LMR transceiver disposed in a portable radio housing, the LMR communication link implemented using an LMR communications protocol on one or more LMR frequency bands; concurrently using a first and second diversity antenna to achieve diversity gain when communicating over an LTE communication link using an LTE transceiver disposed in the portable radio housing, the LTE communication link implemented using an LTE communication protocol on one more LTE frequency bands; selecting as the first diversity antenna a first embedded antenna disposed within the portable radio housing; using an RF signal routing network to selectively couple at least one of the LMR transceiver and the LTE transceiver to an external antenna port of the portable radio housing in accordance with at least one operating condition, the external antenna port coupled to an external antenna to facilitate selective use of the external antenna by the LTE transceiver as the second diversity antenna in accordance with the operating condition; and wherein the external antenna is operable to facilitate LMR communication on the 700/800 MHz LMR frequency band, and the LTE transceiver communicates on at least one of LTE band 13 and LTE band 14 .
- Claim: 17. The method according to claim 16 , further comprising concurrently connecting both the LMR transceiver and the LTE transceiver to the external antenna port using the RF signal routing network.
- Claim: 18. A method for operating a hybrid land mobile radio, comprising: establishing an LMR communication link using an LMR transceiver disposed in a portable radio housing, the LMR communication link implemented using an LMR communications protocol on one or more LMR frequency bands; using two or more separate antennas to establish an LTE communication link using an LTE transceiver disposed in the portable radio housing, the LTE communication link implemented using an LTE communication protocol on one more LTE frequency bands; selecting at least one of the separate antennas to include a first embedded antenna disposed within the portable radio housing; using an RF signal routing network to selectively couple at least one the LMR transceiver and the LTE transceiver to an external antenna port of the portable radio housing in accordance with at least one operating condition; and using the RF signal routing network to selectively connect one of the LMR transceiver and the LTE transceiver to a second embedded antenna in the portable radio housing in accordance with said at least one operating condition.
- Patent References Cited: 2006/0262800 November 2006 Martinez et al. ; 2015/0065186 March 2015 Mohd Mohdi et al. ; 2015/0180514 June 2015 Pavacic et al.
- Primary Examiner: Patel, Dhaval
- Attorney, Agent or Firm: Sacco, Esq., Robert J. ; Fox Rothschild LLP
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