This relates generally to wireless communications circuitry, and more particularly, to electronic devices that have wireless communications circuitry.
Electronic devices such as portable computers and cellular telephones are often provided with wireless communications capabilities. For example, electronic devices may use long-range wireless communications circuitry such as cellular telephone circuitry to communicate using cellular telephone bands. Electronic devices may use short-range wireless communications circuitry such as wireless local area network communications circuitry to handle communications with nearby equipment. Electronic devices may also be provided with satellite navigation system receivers and other wireless circuitry.
Antenna performance affects the ability of a user to take advantage of the wireless capabilities of an electronic device. If antenna performance is not satisfactory, calls may be dropped, data transfer rates may become undesirably low, or the time to acquire satellite navigation system fixes may be unacceptably long. To ensure that antenna performance meets design criteria, it may sometimes be desirable to provide an electronic device with multiple antennas. In some situations, control circuitry within a device may be able to switch between antennas to ensure that an optimum antenna is being used to handle call traffic.
Electronic devices with multiple antennas may be used to handle different types of wireless communications in parallel. For example, consider a scenario in which a multi-antenna device is attempting to use the long-range wireless communications circuitry to communicate in a first communications band while attempting to use the short-range wireless communications circuitry to communicate in a second communications band. In this scenario, it is possible that signals transmitted in the first communications band generate interference that degrades signal reception in the second communications band. High levels of interference among the different wireless communications circuitries can adversely impact wireless performance.
It may therefore be desirable to provide ways for characterizing the wireless performance of electronic devices in scenarios in which multiple wireless communications circuitries coexist.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds