Radio frequency control for communication systems

Abstract

A system and operation of the system for improvement of transmitter and receiver frequency accuracy for a local radio communication unit that communicates digital data with a remote communication unit. In the local unit, received signals are down-converted into complex baseband digital samples by A/D conversion. A downlink digital phase rotator applies a fine frequency shift in accordance with a receiver frequency offset command. The resultant baseband signal is used by the data demodulator and by a receiver frequency error estimator to obtain receiver frequency errors. A data modulator generates baseband complex samples which are shifted in carrier frequency by an integrated uplink digital phase rotator in accordance with a transmitter frequency offset command. The modulated samples are then converted by a D/A converter and upconverted in frequency for transmission to the remote unit. The local oscillator signals for both the upconverter and downconverter are phase locked to a reference frequency generated by a VCXO. An automatic frequency control (AFC) function nulls the transmitter and receiver frequency error by the frequency adjustment commands to the uplink and downlink phase rotators or to the VCXO D/A converter by feedback control principals based on measured frequency error. The AFC adjust VCXO frequency only during a preliminary acquisition mode prior to data communications, or to back out excessively large frequency offsets accumulated in the downlink and uplink phase rotators during track mode.