Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Westinghouse Electric Company LLC

Jeffrey S Baird

Brian William Kroeger

Joseph B Bronder

Tod Andrew Oblak

A method and apparatus for synchronizing symbol timing for a QPSK demodulator. A matched filter pair outputs respective 'early-punctual-late' signals. The early and late signals are input to a symbol synchronizing estimator that produces an interpolation control signal used by the filters to synchronize the symbol timing to the sample timing. The punctual signal is output as an information bearing signal representing the received inphase and quadrature signals. The matched filters are interpolating matched filters. The symbol synchronizing estimator normalizes the early and late signals in a manner that allow the demodulator to 'flywheel' over signals having a low signal to noise ratio below a predetermined threshold.

Symbol synchronizer using modified early/punctual/late gate technique

A locally coherent Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) detector that uses a normalized fourth power weighting technique to generate an ambiguous local phase reference of a current symbol. A phase adjusted previous symbol reference is used to resolve the ambiguity using differentially coded data and yield current soft symbol information.

Locally coherent QPSK detection with differential decoding for a fading

A method and apparatus for estimating a frequency of a received carrier wave in a Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) system. The invention uses a combination of an FFT, DFT bins, and three point interpolation to estimate a frequency of the carrier wave. The system is robust and compensates for multipath fading and other types of signal degradation.

Carrier acquisition technique for mobile radio QPSK demodulator

A carrier tracking loop that uses a frequency locked loop (FLL) and incorporates synchronized matched filters to minimize complexity of the system. The synchronized matched filters eliminate out-of-band interference while minimizing computation. The carrier tracking loop has an improved error signal generation to extend a frequency range and by employing error signal normalization, which extends the dynamic range of the amplitude of the input signal and allows the frequency to flywheel when signal fading occurs.

Carrier tracking loop for QPSK demodulator

A QPSK demodulator symbol tracking loop including automatic noise normalization and reacquisition control enables improved symbol tracking and acquisition during fading or intermittent channel conditions. A noise variance estimate is determined and the symbol tracking loop flywheels when the signal level dips below a flywheel threshold relative to the noise variance estimate during fading or intermittent channel conditions. Determination in advance of an absolute power level of the thermal noise floor of analog front end components is dispensed with and precise control of the gain and noise level of the analog front end components is not needed, thus simplifying design. A reacquisition mode is declared upon determination of an abrupt increase in signal level indicative of emergence from a fading condition or upon detection of an excessive symbol tracking error signal. During the reacquisition mode, the loop gain of the symbol tracking loop is temporarily increased to improve reacquisition time.

Automatic noise normalization and reacquisition control for a QPSK

A numerically controlled oscillator that outputs a complex exponential value (sine and cosine). The numerically controlled oscillator inputs a scalar phase increment and uses the scalar phase increment to approximate a complex exponential phasor increment. A complex multiplier multiplies the exponential increment by an exponential value previously output from the oscillator to yield a multiplication result. A recursive amplitude normalizer, connected to the complex multiplier, normalizes the multiplication result to yield the complex exponential value.

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Baltimore, MD, United States of America

Jeffrey S Baird