Abstract

This publication describes systems and techniques to enable antenna switch diversity in dual-connectivity (DC) architectures without employing two switches along a main antenna path. DC can involve using two different wireless technologies, such as a first technology and a second technology. DC architectures include, for example, those that adhere to the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) – New Radio (NR) — Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) protocol. With EN-DC, Long-Term Evolution (LTE) connections under E-UTRA for a first technology are expected to abide by antenna switch diversity algorithms to provide access to each of the available antennas. Further, Fifth-Generation (5G) connections under NR for a second technology are expected to comport with requirements to use each of the available antennas for Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmissions. This disclosure describes including a pair of switches in a switching network that is disposed between multiple antennas and first and second modules of the first and second technologies, respectively. The switch pair is implemented with a crossover switching scheme. A loopback path, which facilitates use of a direct antenna path for the first module, includes two ends. A first end is coupled to one switch of the pair, and a second end is coupled to an auxiliary port of the first module. The second module is coupled to the antennas via the switch pair. The first module, however, is provided a direct path to a main antenna of the antennas. The direct path includes a single switch, which can be part of the first module. In implementations with an example four antennas, the single switch can be realized with a relatively low-loss dual-pole, dual-throw (DPDT) switch in the first module. The switch pair can be realized using two relatively higher-loss four-pole, four-throw (4P4T) switches.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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