Novatel Communications Ltd.

Harris Canada, Inc.

Kenneth E Scott

Kiomars Anvari

Michael Kaube

Elizabeth B Olasz

A method and telecommunication system for tracking the carrier phase of a received signal includes the addition of a pilot signal to the data component of the signal prior to modulation and transmission. The pilot signal is specified to have a frequency equal to the inverse of twice a data symbol interval with zero crossings positioned at the midpoint of each symbol interval to avoid interference with the data. The received signal is demodulated to produce a complex data signal from which the pilot signal is detected to provide an estimate of the phase error in the complex data signal. The elimination of the phase error from the complex data signal is accomplished through a corrective phase shift that is equal and opposite to the estimated phase error. A sample timing estimate may also be obtained in a similar manner.

Method and apparatus for carrier phase tracking

A receiver (10) for extracting complex values by reference to a local frequency reference determines the frequency offset between a local oscillator (16) and the carrier by employing a circuit (40) for determining a 'phase rotation.' When a record of the input signal is determined to have resulted from a predetermined reference sequence of complex values, the phase-rotation circuit (40) compares the phases of complex values extracted from this record with corresponding symbols of the reference sequence. By comparing this difference for one part of the sequence with that for another, circuitry (38, 50, 52, 53, 54) in the receiver infers the frequency offset between the transmitter reference and the receiver reference, and a complex multiplier (34) compensates for this offset by multiplying the successive complex-valued samples by a complex exponential whose frequency is the negative of the frequency offset.

Frequency offset estimation using the phase rotation of channel estimates

A technique for correcting the sampling time and carrier frequency error in a receiver for digitally modulated signals. Discrete-time, complex-valued samples of the incoming signal are fed to a pair of non-linear operators such as correlators. The first correlator provides a signal having a first phase component related to the symbol timing error and a second phase component related to the carrier frequency error. The second correlator provides a signal having a first phase component related to the symbol timing error and a second phase component related to the negative of the carrier frequency error. The phase components are then separated and detected to extract an estimate of the symbol timing error and the carrier frequency error. In the preferred embodiment, the complex-valued samples are frequency-shifted, before being fed to the correlators, so that the phase components of interest appear at zero frequency. The invention satisfactorily demodulates transmitted digital signals in applications, such as cellular time-division multiple access (TDMA), where they are susceptible to multipath fading.

Growing community of inventors

Calgary, Canada

Kenneth E Scott