Abstract: A communications network is disclosed that includes one or more microwave backhaul nodes for routing communications between one or more near end mobile communications devices and one or more far end mobile communications devices. The communications network includes a central monitoring and control infrastructure, a remote monitoring and control infrastructure and/or a local monitoring and control infrastructure. The central monitoring and control infrastructure, the remote monitoring and control infrastructure and/or the local monitoring and control infrastructure can directly manage the one or more microwave backhaul nodes. Alternatively, the remote monitoring and control infrastructure and/or the local monitoring and control infrastructure can indirectly manage the one or more microwave backhaul nodes through the central monitoring and control infrastructure.

Abstract: An oscillator and method for generating a signal are provided. The oscillator comprises an electro-mechanical resonator and a reconfigurable oscillator driver. The reconfigurable oscillator driver starts the oscillator in single-ended mode to avoid latching and transitions the oscillator to differential mode in such a manner as to sustain oscillations therein. The reconfigurable oscillator driver may comprise two back-to-back banks of inverters and an adjustable feedback resistor. In single-ended mode, one bank is disabled and the other bank is enabled. To transition to differential mode and improve the quality of the signal, the number of enabled inverters is equalized in both banks.

Abstract: The continuous demand for capacity and the limited available spectrum in wireless and wired communication has led to reliance on advanced modulation techniques to dramatically increase the number of bits per hertz per second. This demand in capacity and using the higher order constellations shorten the link range, and as a result, system gain becomes an important characteristic. The modulation techniques described here improve the system gain by, e.g., as much as 2.5 dB in high order modulations such as 4096-QAM. The modulation techniques include reducing the peak to average ratio and adding shaping gain. These techniques dramatically improve the system capacity, system gain, power consumption and system cost.

Abstract: A 5G base station transmitter at least partially precodes data for beam forming, and generates digital precoded baseband signals. Cross product circuitry coupled to the digital precoder, generates digital cross products of the digital precoded baseband signals. Both the baseband signals and the cross products are put through digital-to-analog converters (DACs), then provided to an analog non-linear precoder. The analog non-linear precoder combines the analog baseband signals, the cross products, with pre-distortion and precoder coefficients to generate a signal that is pre-compensated for power amplifier non-linearity. The pre-compensated signal is amplified by the power amplifier and transmitted via a phased antenna array. The number of extra DACs required for inserting pre-distortion when a hybrid digital/analog precoder is used can be limited to approximately N RF ? ( N RF - 1 ) 2 , where NRF is the number of outputs of the digital precoder.

Abstract: A method and electronic circuit for changing the gain of a radio frequency signal. The apparatus is an electronic circuit comprising one or more variable gain electronic elements, and one or more adjustable phase shifting elements. The method comprises the steps of receiving a radio frequency signal, varying the gain of the variable gain electronic element while the variable gain electronic element changes the amplitude of the radio frequency signal, and adjusting an adjustable phase shifting element to generate a reverse phase shift in the radio frequency signal in response to the associated phase shift from the step of varying the gain.

Abstract: The peak level of a high frequency analog signal in an RF receiver is detected by a system which samples the signal and compares it against a static threshold, generating an above/below status. The system is implemented with a sampler of sufficient aperture bandwidth to capture the signal in question, operated at a clock frequency, dynamically chosen as a function of fLO (local oscillator frequency) and the desired fIF (intermediate frequency), to minimize in-band intermodulation products. The sampler produces kickback intermodulation products that are positioned out-of-band, or are of low enough power in-band so as to be inconsequential. Samples are taken for a statistically significant period of time, and the status is used to adapt the threshold to systematically determine the peak amplitude of the signal being observed.

Abstract: A system and method for calibrating a Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (VCO) having both fine-tuning control and coarse-tuning control. The VCO frequency can vary monotonically with changes in each of one or more operational conditions. The calibration method determines the coarse-tuning control setting for the VCO at system start-up. The method comprises generating frequency characterization data, generating a polynomial function from the characterization data, calculating the fine-tuning control voltage based on the polynomial function and a measurement of the operational conditions, and sweeping through all the coarse-tuning control settings to determine the coarse-tuning control setting that generates the closest VCO frequency to a target frequency when using the calculated fine-tuning control voltage.

Abstract: An analog front-end (AFE) circuit has at least one AFE stage to generate a conditioned analog signal, and a gain control block to set a gain of the AFE stages. A finite state machine (FSM) block sets the gain to a baseline set gain without gain compression, or a current set gain with gain compression. An amplitude block determines amplitudes of the inner and outer eyes of a signal eye of the conditioned analog signal at the baseline set gain and the current set gain. A compression calculation block determines a gain compression of the conditioned analog signal at the current signal gain based on the relative changes in the respective amplitudes of the inner and outer signal eyes between the baseline and current set gains. The FSM block increases the current set gain until the gain compression ratio reaches a predefined limit.

Abstract: A stacked synthesizer for wide local oscillator (LO) generation using a dynamic divider. The phase locked loop can include a plurality of voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs), and a selector that can be configured to select an output of one of the plurality of VCOs. The selected output of one of the plurality of VCOs can be provided to an on-chip dynamic divider and to an off-chip dynamic divider for LO sharing. The dynamic dividers can be configured to generate synthesizer outputs based on a multiplication of the selected output of one of the plurality of VCOs by a factor (1+1/M), where M is a variable number.

Abstract: A method and electronic circuit for changing the gain of a radio frequency signal. The apparatus is an electronic circuit comprising one or more variable gain electronic elements, and one or more adjustable phase shifting elements. The method comprises the steps of receiving a radio frequency signal, varying the gain of the variable gain electronic element while the variable gain electronic element changes the amplitude of the radio frequency signal, and adjusting an adjustable phase shifting element to generate a reverse phase shift in the radio frequency signal in response to the associated phase shift from the step of varying the gain.

Abstract: A voltage-controlled oscillator and a method for tuning oscillations. The oscillator comprises a resonator input connected to an oscillator core and a frequency tuning network. The oscillator core and resonator input are isolated from the frequency tuning network by inductors. The method comprises generating oscillations, tuning the frequency of the oscillations by varying a capacitance, and isolating one or more of noise sources or parasitic capacitances from the tuning network.