Nxp USA, Inc.

Freescale Semiconductor,inc.

Raja Venkatesh Tamma

Khurram Waheed

Kevin B Traylor

Mihai-Ionut Stanciu

Claudio Gustavo Rey

Jianqiang Zeng

Steven M Bosze

Justin A Fritz

Oghenekome Oteri

Jayesh H Kotecha

Leo G Dehner

Samuel Becqué

Jose Santiago Lopez Ramirez

A wireless ranging system () estimates a distance () between wireless devices () by calibrating the devices through exchanging calibration packets () to adjust transceiver settings for performing phase measurements at the wireless devices, and then transmitting a measurement packet () from a first wireless device to a second wireless device to synchronize the first and second wireless devices and to perform a two-way IQ data capture sequence at different carrier frequencies during processing of the measurement packet so that the first and second wireless devices each measure phase values for each of the plurality of different carrier frequencies, where the phase values at each of the first and second wireless devices are processed to generate a combined phase offset vector which is processed to determine a first estimated distance between the first and second wireless devices.

Method and technique of power-efficient two-way phase based distance estimation using packet synchronized data capture

Disclosed is receiver apparatus including a first input configured to receive a first signal, a second input configured to receive a second signal, a switching circuit configured to alternate between the first and second signal from the first and second inputs, a receiver configured to sample the input signal to produce a plurality of input samples, a reference sequence generator configured to generate a reference signal, and a correlator configured to correlate the first and second signals with the reference signal to detect a correlation event, the correlator including a first buffer configured to receive signals from the first input and a second buffer configured to receive signals from the second input, wherein the correlator is configured to process the first signal in the first buffer, while the second buffer receives the second signal.

Preamble detection in wireless systems with intermittent reception

An acquisition detector and method include a preamble detector configured to search in a plurality of symbols for a preamble match with a known preamble pattern when a power level of the input signal exceeds a determined noise threshold. The acquisition detector further includes a frame delimiter detector configured to search in the plurality of symbols for a frame delimiter match with a known frame delimiter pattern when the preamble match is identified and the power level of the input signal exceeds a determined noise threshold.

Acquisition of a data packet having a short preamble

A preamble detection system and method includes converting the phase domain input samples corresponding to the preamble into frequency domain input samples. An I/Q-formatted dot product is generated from a dot product process between the frequency domain input samples and a reference pattern indicative of an expected preamble. The I/Q-formatted dot product is averaged with at least one previously generated I/Q-formatted dot product to generate an I/Q-formatted averaged dot product. The I/Q-formatted averaged dot product is converted into a polar-formatted averaged dot product, wherein the polar-formatted averaged dot product includes a magnitude of the polar-formatted averaged dot product and an angle of the polar-formatted averaged dot product. A preamble-found signal is then generated in response to the magnitude of the polar-formatted averaged dot product exceeding a preamble magnitude threshold.

Preamble detection during acquisition

A frame delimiter detection system and method includes a phase differentiator and buffering module, a phase-to-I/Q reformatting module, a dot product module, an I/Q-to-polar reformatting module, a dot product comparison module, and a frame delimiter detection module. The method may include receiving in-phase and quadrature-phase (I/Q) formatted frequency domain input samples configured as a frame delimiter in a communication packet. An I/Q formatted dot product may be generated from the I/Q formatted frequency domain input samples and a reference pattern indicative of an expected frame delimiter. Further, a frame delimiter detection signal may be generated based on a magnitude of the I/Q formatted dot product.

Frame delimiter detection

At least one embodiment of a correlator comprising a plurality of correlator taps is configurable to provide synchronization and symbol modulation for a plurality of modulation systems. Among other uses, at least one embodiment of the correlator can provide a coarse symbol timing value. In response to determining the coarse symbol timing value, a receiver can receive a signal. Among other uses, at least one embodiment of the correlator can provide a carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimate. In response to determining the CFO estimate, a receiver can receive a signal.

Configurable correlator for joint timing and frequency synchronization and demodulation

Methods and system for carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation are described. The method includes determining correlation values between a plurality of samples from a received signal and a plurality of reference signals corresponding to a plurality of CFO candidates. A set of correlation values which exceeds a threshold is determined and a corresponding CFO candidate for each correlation value in the set is selected. A CFO estimate based on an interpolation of selected CFO candidates is then calculated.

Carrier frequency offset estimation for wireless communication

A method and apparatus for identifying a search window of carrier-frequency-offset-corrected samples in which a first intermediate signal from a demodulator does not exceed a predetermined threshold, convolving a second intermediate signal from the demodulator within the search window with a predefined pattern to provide a convolution result, determining if an absolute peak of the convolution result exceeds a preamble pattern confirmation threshold, in response to the absolute peak of the convolution result exceeding the preamble confirmation threshold, confirming a preamble pattern detection event to provide a confirmed preamble pattern detection event of a confirmed preamble pattern, and receiving a signal including the confirmed preamble pattern to provide a received digital signal extracted from the signal.

Tone rejection during synchronization in frequency shift keyed modulation systems

A technique for detecting symbols includes performing an over-sized discrete Fourier transform (DFT) operation on a received signal that includes at least two repeated symbols. A sum of signal characteristics for subcarriers of one or more possible symbols are determined based on the DFT operation. A sum of signal characteristics for non-subcarriers of the one or more possible symbols is determined based on the DFT operation. Finally, a determination is made as to whether one or more of the one or more possible symbols is detected based on the sum of signal characteristics for the subcarriers and sum of signal characteristics for the non-subcarriers.

Detecting repeated preamble symbols using over-sized discrete fourier transforms

Methods and systems are disclosed for frequency-domain symbol and frame synchronization for multi-carrier communication systems. Received signals are sampled and converted into frequency components associated with subcarriers within the multi-carrier communication signals. Symbol synchronization is performed in the frequency domain by performing correlation(s) between frequency components of the received signal and frequency-domain synchronization symbol(s). After symbol synchronization, frame synchronization correlation is also performed in the frequency domain between frequency components of the received signal and frequency-domain synchronization symbol(s). The disclosed embodiments are particularly useful for symbol and frame synchronization in multi-carrier received signals for power line communication (PLC) systems and/or other harsh noisy communication environments.

Frequency-domain symbol and frame synchronization in multi-carrier systems

A technique for generating a bit log-likelihood ratio (LLR) in a communication system includes generating a demodulated signal based on a received symbol and a reference symbol. An input for a bit LLR generator is generated based on the demodulated signal and a normalization value that is based on the received symbol or the reference symbol. A bit LLR is generated for the received symbol, using the bit LLR generator, based on the input.

Techniques for generating bit log-likelihood ratios in communication systems using differential modulation

Methods and systems are disclosed for frequency-domain frame synchronization for multi-carrier communication systems. Received signals are sampled and converted into frequency domain components associated with subcarriers within the multi-carrier communication signals. A sliding-window correlation (e.g., two-dimensional sliding window) is applied to the received symbols represented in the frequency domain to detect frame boundaries for multi-carrier signals. The sliding-window frame synchronization can be applied by itself or can be applied in combination with one or more additional frame synchronization stages. The disclosed embodiments are particularly useful for frame synchronization of multi-carrier signals in PLC (power line communication) systems.

Frequency-domain frame synchronization in multi-carrier systems

Methods and systems are disclosed for frequency-domain amplitude normalization for symbol correlation in multi-carrier communication systems. Digital samples associated with input signals received from a communication medium are processed using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to generate complex frequency components. Each complex frequency component is normalized with respect to its amplitude, and the frequency-domain, amplitude-normalized frequency components are multiplied with frequency components for reference symbol(s) to generate frequency-domain correlation values. These frequency-domain correlation values are analyzed to determine if a correlation exists between the amplitude-normalized frequency components and the predetermined reference frequency components. A correlation detection output is then generated that indicates whether or not a symbol synchronization was achieved. The disclosed embodiments are particularly useful for symbol correlation in received signals for power line communication (PLC) systems.

Frequency-domain amplitude normalization for symbol correlation in multi-carrier systems

A transmitter and method for processing a digitally modulated communication signal, which may reduce peak-to-average-power-ratio (PAPR) while maintaining acceptable error rates is disclosed. After subcarrier mapping, a first digital representation of the signal is upsampled into a second digital representation, which is transformed into a first time domain representation. Samples whose magnitudes exceed a magnitude limit are limited to that limit to produce a second time domain representation. The second time domain representation is transformed to a third frequency domain representation, which is downsampled into a fourth frequency domain representation. In addition to the in-band subcarriers, some out-of-band subcarriers adjacent to the frequency band are preserved while the remaining out-of-band subcarriers are eliminated to produce a fifth frequency domain representation. The fifth frequency domain representation is then transformed to a third time domain representation, which is converted to an analog signal to be transmitted.

Growing community of inventors

Leander, TX, United States of America

Raja Venkatesh Tamma