Abstract: A receiver circuit suppresses effects of “benign” impairment from the calculation of received signal quality estimates, such that the estimate depends primarily on the effects of non-benign impairment. For example, a received signal may be subject to same-cell and other-cell interference plus noise, which is generally modeled using a Gaussian distribution, and also may be due to certain forms of self-interference, such as quadrature phase interference arising from imperfect derotation of the pilot samples used to generate channel estimates for the received signal. Such interference generally takes on a distribution defined by the pilot signal modulation, e.g., a binomial distribution for binary phase shift keying modulation. Interference arising from such sources is relatively “benign” as compared to Gaussian interference and thus should be suppressed or otherwise discounted in signal quality calculations.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus by which receiving stations or other communication network nodes can receive quick paging code words assigned by transmitting stations to the receiving stations. A receiving station can estimate the characteristics of the channel to the transmitting station based on a downlink-frame's preamble and use correlation to detect the presence of an assigned code word. The receiving station can suppress interference from other transmitting stations in the correlation operation based on the nature of the interference signal. When the receiving station knows an interfering signal from another transmitting station, the receiving station can subtract the interfering signal before carrying out the correlation operation.

Abstract: A mobile station for operating in a broadcast-centric cellular communication system. The system improves broadcast channel performance by exploiting the benefits of macro-diversity in a cellular communication system having a plurality of base stations that transmit signals within a plurality of associated cells. System-specific control information common to all cells is synchronously and simultaneously broadcast from multiple base stations using a broadcast channel that is identical across the entire system. Cell-specific control information is transmitted individually from each base station. The mobile station uses the broadcast information for initial synchronization to the system, and to obtain most relevant system information. After system synchronization, the mobile station identifies the connected cell through a physical layer characteristic, and performs initial access to the system.

Abstract: Transmission scheme for the uplink of FDMA systems that improves performance in an interference-dominated system by using a pilot scheme that provides enough information so that channel estimates can be obtained for a particular user, but which at the same time makes it possible to use pilot patterns that are different in different cells so that co-channel interference is mitigated. A codeword is used to position a set of pilot symbols within a set of subcarriers wherein each subcarrier has a first pilot time slot and a second pilot time slot associated with one or more data time slots. The set of subcarriers are identified on which to transmit the composite signal and the first pilot time slots and the second pilot time slots are filled with the pilot symbols in accordance with the codeword. The composite signal is then formatted as a combination of modulated data and pilot signals.

Abstract: A broadcast-centric cellular communication system improves broadcast channel performance by exploiting the benefits of macro-diversity in a cellular communication system having a plurality of base stations that transmit signals within a plurality of associated cells. System-specific control information common to all cells is synchronously and simultaneously broadcast from multiple base stations using a broadcast channel that is identical across the entire system. Cell-specific control information is transmitted individually from each base station. Mobile stations use the broadcast information for initial synchronization to the system, and to obtain most relevant system information. After system synchronization, the mobile stations identify the connected cell through a physical layer characteristic, and perform initial access to the system.

Abstract: A method and arrangement for estimating a DC offset for a signal received in a radio receiver. The received signal includes a digitally modulated signal component, a DC offset component, and a noise component. When the signal is of a known type, such as a Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK)-modulated signal with constant amplitude in a GSM/EDGE cellular radio system, the method exploits the known characteristics of the statistical distribution for the known type of signal to obtain a better estimate of the DC offset. The statistical distribution of the received digitally modulated signal component is first analyzed. That statistical distribution is then compared to the known statistical distribution for the known type of signal to identify differences. The differences are then used to estimate the DC offset. Additional iterations may be performed to further improve the DC estimate.

Abstract: In an orthogonal frequency division multiple access communication system, a base station transmits a quick paging signal simultaneously with a synchronization signal during the same transmission symbol time period. Even though these different signals are transmitted during the same transmission symbol time period, a periodicity of the synchronization signal is maintained to facilitate rapid and cost-effective synchronization by subscriber stations with the base station. The quick paging signal alerts subscriber stations about whether to stay awake for a subsequent page or to go into a power saving sleep mode.

Abstract: A system and method of selectively utilizing a feature with an email message. The method includes processing, by a mail client within a user's computer, a single email message for a plurality of recipients. The mail client receives a designated first set of recipients of the plurality of recipients for receiving the email message with a specific feature and a designated second set of recipients of the plurality of recipients for receiving the email message without the specific feature. In addition, a copy of the email message is generated without the specific feature. The email message is then sent with the specified feature to the first set of recipients and a copy of the email message without the specified feature is sent to the second set of recipients. The specific feature may be an attachment, an encryption of the message, or any other feature associated with the email message.

Abstract: A multi-pilot frame handler (36) of a radio access network node (28) is arranged to prepare a block of a frame of information to include a first pilot signal of a pilot signal first type and a first pilot signal of a pilot signal second type. The pilot signal of the pilot signal first type is expressed as a first Costas array base pattern of resource elements of the block; the pilot signal of the second type is expressed as a second Costas array base pattern of resource elements of the block. The multi-pilot frame handler (36) is arranged to prepare the block so that any pilot signal of the pilot signal first type is carried by at least some subcarriers of a first set of subcarriers of the block and any pilot signal of the pilot signal second type is carried by at least some subcarriers of a second set of subcarriers of the block.

Abstract: Code words are assigned to subscriber stations or groups of subscriber stations in a communication network for a quick paging mechanism in which the assigned code words are transmitted as quick paging signals over unused frequency resources to signal the subscriber stations. Subsets of multiple code words from a set of code words can be assigned to respective paging groups, and overlapping subsets can be assigned to multiple paging groups. This enables a single code word to be used to address either a single paging group or multiple paging groups.

Abstract: According to embodiments of the present invention, multiple frames or sub-frames on an uplink channel may be aggregated into one logical unit for demodulation and decoding to allow one data packet to span over multiple frames. Multi-frame aggregation is enabled by modifying the uplink resource allocation messages transmitted to the user terminals. The multi-frame resource allocation message includes a BEGIN FLAG field indicating whether a corresponding frame is the first frame in a multi-frame allocation and a REMAINING RESOURCES field to indicate the number of units (e.g., slots or frames) remaining in the multi-frame allocation.

Abstract: In a communication system, whether different transmitting stations use the same method or different methods of assigning quick paging code words to receiving stations, the receiving stations in a paging area assume that the same quick paging code words are used by all base stations in the paging area. To enable such operation by the receiving stations in a paging area covered by several base stations, those several base stations share information about the quick paging code words assigned to the various receiving stations known to the base stations.

Abstract: A receiver is described herein that is capable of receiving and processing a radio signal and further capable of using interpolation to initialize receiver parameters when there is a change in at least one delay associated with the received radio signal or when there is at least one new correlator position. For instance, the receiver parameters that can be initialized include: (1) channel coefficients; (2) AFC parameters; (3) tracking parameters; (4) noise statistics (noise correlations); (5) signal statistics (channel coefficient correlations); (6) data statistics (despread values or chip samples); or (7) combining weights.

Abstract: A communications network comprises a base station (28) and a wireless terminal (30) which communicates over an air interface (32) with the base station (28). The base station (28) makes an identification or categorization of the wireless terminal (30) during a ranging procedure. The identification or categorization concerns whether or not the wireless terminal (30) has an enhanced capability. The categorization is made on a basis of a transmission characteristic of the wireless terminal (30). The base station (28) can then communicate with the wireless terminal (30) in a manner to utilize the enhanced capability of the wireless terminal (30).

Abstract: Frames of information are communicated between a base station (28) of a radio access network (RAN) and plural types of wireless terminals (30). Frame handlers of the base station and of certain types of wireless terminals (30-2) process differing portions of the frame according to respective differing multiple access technologies. In differing embodiments and implementations, modulation techniques of the differing multiple access technologies can be apportioned to differing portions of the frame in various manners, such as (for example) to differing subframes of a multi-sub-framed frame or to differing burst fields or sections of an uplink (UL) burst.

Abstract: The present invention sends multiple versions of a multimedia packet to the base station, and, based on the radio channel and traffic characteristics, an appropriate version of the multimedia packet is selected to send to the mobile station at a given time. In this way, source transmission is improved to instantaneous conditions. The steps of the present invention are performed in conjunction with RTP used for multimedia transmission over internet protocol (IP) networks. In a first embodiment, the multiple versions are sent to the base station in the same RTP packet, and the base station strips out the extraneous versions. In a second embodiment, the base station receives multiple RTP packets having identical information in the packet header in many fields, and selects an appropriate one among these for transmission to the mobile station, discarding the rest.

Abstract: The technology provides a frame handler, a controller, and a frame structure design for a new radio communications system that provides backward compatibility with an existing or legacy radio communications system with lower signal bandwidth. Data to be transmitted to the new and legacy radio terminals is processed into a frame using a frame format that is compatible with both the new radio access technology system and the legacy radio access technology system so that both types of radio terminals may receive and extract data from the frame intended for each of those radio terminals. The format allows new and legacy radio terminal communications across the different bandwidths employed by the new and legacy systems.

Abstract: A radio access network (RAN) (20) comprise a base station (28) and a wireless terminal (30). The base station 28 comprises a transceiver (38) and a frame handler (40), the wireless terminal (30) comprises a transceiver (48) and a wireless terminal frame handler (50). The frame handlers (40, 50) handle a enhanced frame F having enhanced frame structure. At least a downlink portion of the frame is formatted and handled in a manner whereby the frame can be perceived as a first format type of frame if the wireless terminal is a first type of wireless terminal and perceived as an enhanced or second format type of frame if the wireless terminal is a second type of wireless terminal. The frame handler configures the frame as plural subframes, each subframe having a downlink burst followed by an uplink burst.

Abstract: The iterative decoding of blocks may be continued or terminated based on CRC checks. In an example embodiment, one iteration of an iterative decoding process is performed on a block whose information bits are covered by a CRC. The iterative decoding process is stopped if the CRC checks for a predetermined number of consecutive iterations. In another example embodiment, a decoding iteration is performed on a particular sub-block of multiple sub-blocks of a transport block, which includes a single CRC over an entirety of the transport block. The CRC is checked using decoded bits obtained from the decoding iteration on the particular sub-block and decoded bits obtained from previous decoding iterations on other sub-blocks of the multiple sub-blocks. The decoding iteration is then performed on a different sub-block if the CRC does not check. Also, the decoding iterations for the sub-blocks may be terminated if the CRC checks.

Abstract: A composite baseband signal includes a desired signal component modulated according to a first modulation scheme and an interfering signal component modulated according to a second modulation scheme. Information is recovered from the composite signal by applying a phase rotation associated with the second modulation scheme to the composite signal to generate a rotated signal. Based on the rotated signal, a channel model associated with the desired signal component and interference cancelling filter coefficients associated with the interfering signal component are generated. The rotated signal is filtered according to the interference cancelling filter coefficients to suppress the interfering signal component from the rotated signal. The filtered signal is equalized based on branch metrics derived from the channel model and symbol hypotheses rotated in accordance with a difference in phase rotations associated with the first and second modulations to recover information from the desired signal component.