Abstract: A receiver for pseudorandom noise (PRN) encoded signals consisting of a sampling circuit, multiple carrier and code synchronizing circuits, and multiple digital correlators. The sampling circuit provides digital samples of a received composite signal to each of the several receiver channel circuits. The synchronizing circuits are preferably non-coherent, in the sense that they track any phase shifts in the received signal and adjust the frequency and phase of a locally generated carrier reference signal accordingly, even in the presence of Doppler or ionospheric distortion. The multiple correlators in each channel correlates the digital samples with locally generated PRN codes having multiple offsets, to produce a plurality of correlation signals. The plurality of correlation signals are fed to a parameter estimator, from which the delay and phase parameters of the direct path signal, as well as any multipath signals, may be estimated, and from which a range measurement may be corrected.

Abstract: A cellular telephone system includes a packet-switched digital data communication subsystem overlaying a circuit-switched (e.g., voice) communication subsystem, with voice and data services sharing the same voice channels. The voice communication subsystem provides voice services independently of the operation of the data communication subsystem. On the other hand, the data communication subsystem monitors use of the voice channels for voice communication, and, in response thereto, temporarily allocates one or more of the available voice channels for data service. In a preferred embodiment, each data basestation transmits, from time to time, an available-channel signature to identify those, if any, of the data-allocated channels that are not then being used to transmit voice or data.

Abstract: A receiver for pseudorandom noise (PRN) encoded signals consisting of a sampling circuit, multiple carrier and code synchronizing circuits, and multiple digital autocorrelators. The sampling circuit provides digital samples of a received composite signal to each of the several receiver channel circuits. The synchronizing circuits are preferably non-coherent, in the sense that they track any phase shifts in the received signal and adjust the frequency and phase of a locally generated carrier reference signal accordingly, even in the presence of Doppler or ionospheric distortion. The autocorrelators in each channel form a delay lock loop (DLL) which correlates the digital samples of the composite signal with locally generated PRN code values to produce a plurality of (early, late), or (punctual, early-minus-late) correlation signals. Thus, during an initial acquisition mode, the delay spacing is relatively wide, on the order of approximately one PRN code chip time.

Abstract: A mobile telephone incorporating the invention includes in its transmitter circuitry a system for preventing unauthorized calls from being transmitted by the telephone. The system ensures that the telephone transmit only service and call requests that include the electronic serial number ("ESN") which is permanently stored in the telephone by the manufacturer, in an unalterable ESN memory. The system in one embodiment includes ESN detection circuitry which determines the bit position of an ESN in a service or call request and either compares the ESN in the request with the ESN stored in the ESN memory and transmit only requests that contain matching ESNs, or substitutes the ESN from the ESN memory directly into the requests as they are being transmitted. In an alternative embodiment, the system formats the requests using the ESN from the ESN memory and message information supplied to it by the user.

Abstract: A radio receiver's digital matched filter (52') is intended to match a pulse-shaping filter (23) in the transmitter whose signals it receives. However, the clock signal on which the matched filter's timing is based is generated by a receiver clock (58') that is independent of the transmitter clock (56) and that is subjected to no timing adjustment to bring the two clock signals into synchronism. So as to ensure that the matched and pulse-shaping filters work together as a Nyquist filter, therefore, a timing-recovery circuit (60') senses the timing offset in the matched filter's output, and a coefficient generator (80) adjusts the matched filter's coefficients in such a manner that the filter itself imposes the delay needed for the required timing relationship between the filters.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: An improved decision feedback equalizer for use with digital communications. The equalizer includes an error detector, a process controller, a parameter selector and a data buffer for temporarily storing a digital data signal received from a communication channel. The error detector determines whether the equalizer is accurately tracking changes in the communication channel's characteristics or is lost. When the error detector determines that the equalizer is lost, the process controller responsively generates control signals for initiating an optimal retraining/recovery method for the prevailing conditions. In some retraining/recovery methods, data is temporarily stored in the buffer. The stored data is later retrieved and processed once the equalizer is retrained. Retraining is performed using a retraining signal received via the communication channel or, if available, a portion of the data signal which is suitable for retraining, thereby permitting more rapid resumption of data reception.

Abstract: The channel-impulse-response estimator (44') in a maximum-likelihood-sequence-estimation receiver produces channel-model parameters for a model that produces outputs not only for symbol times but also for intermediate times between the symbol times. A symbol-sequence-derivation circuit (42') determines the most-likely sequence on the basis of metrics computed from the differences between the received signal and the responses of the model to candidate sequences not only at the symbol times but also at the intermediate times. An interpolator (100) receives the symbol decisions from the symbol-sequence-derivation circuit (42') and generates intermediate values from them by simulating the Nyquist filter formed by the concatenation of pulse-shaping filters (22 and 24) in the transmitter and matched filters (36 and 37) in the receiver. The channel-impulse-response estimator (44') uses these values together with the derived-symbol values as inputs to its updating process to maintain the model.

Abstract: An antenna for use with portable duplex radio transceivers, such as those found in hand-held cellular telephones, which includes a pair of co-planar radiating patch elements elevated above a conductive surface by a conductive bar. The surface and bar define a reference ground plane which inherently isolates the patches. The patches are shaped so that they operate in a desired frequency band as well as band-pass filters--one of the patches is tuned to the transmit band and serves a transmit structure, and the other patch is tuned to the receive band and serves as a receive structure. Switching devices such as positive-intrinsic negative (PIN) diodes can be disposed along the space between the patches and the ground plane to allow each structure to be tuned. The antenna is efficient, because of inherent isolation between the receive and transmit patches, and eases the front end filtering functions traditionally performed by a duplexer. It can be completely enclosed within the chassis of a hand-held telephone.

Abstract: A cellular-telephone transmitter (10) employs a vector modulator (14). An integrating circuit (52) generates the integral of the message signal and applies it to circuitry (54, 56) for generating in-phase and quadrature modulation signals representing the cosine and sine, respectively, of the integrating-circuit output. The vector modulator (14) produces the desired FM signal by adding together quadrature and in-phase versions of a carrier in proportion to the values that the quadrature and in-phase modulating signals represent.

Abstract: An antenna assembly comprises a dome-like substrate with a ground plane layer on the interior surface of the substrate and a radiative patch on the outer surface of the substrate. The cavity defined by the substrate is closed off by a base having a conductive layer that is connected to the ground plane layer, thereby to isolate the cavity and circuit elements that may be disposed therein. Preferably the substrate has a polyhedral form and the radiative patch is a polygon having apex portions that extend down over the side surface of the substrate to enhance the sensitivity of the antenna at low elevations.

Abstract: A digital oscillator generates pairs of sampled sinusoidal signals having precisely established phase relationships, e.g., in near-perfect quadrature. The digital oscillator has first and second, interconnected multiplying-integrating modules. Each module has a multiplier for multiplying an input signal by a first coefficient, and a digital integrator for integrating the product over a period of time and thereby generating a different one of the sampled sinusoidal signals. Setting the multiplier coefficients appropriately controls the amplitudes of the generated sinusoidal signals. Likewise, the frequencies and phases of the sinusoidal signals are controlled in response to the values of the multiplier coefficients and to the period of integration. In a preferred embodiment, the first module has a delay-free-forward-path ("DFEP") integrator, and the second module uses a delay-forward-path ("DFP") integrator.

Abstract: An amplifier circuit for providing precise linear control over the output of a nonlinear amplifier, including a nonlinear gain controllable amplifier and an output control circuit. The output control circuit is connected to sample the signal output by the nonlinear amplifier. The amplifier output signal may be a continuous or a discontinuous signal. The output control circuit also receives a baseband signal. The sampled amplifier output signal and the baseband signal are alternatively transmitted to a detector. The detector produces a signal representative of the power level of either the sampled amplifier output signal or the baseband signal. The signals produced by the detector are stored separately in a pair of sample-and-hold circuits. A difference amplifier determines the difference between the stored signals and transmits this difference signal to the gain control input of the amplifier. The output signal from the amplifier is thereby adjusted to linearly track the baseband signal.

Abstract: A diffuser for backlighting a display panel consists of a shell having a flat surface for positioning against the backside of the panel. The shell has a cavity with two sections. A reflection cavity section extending into the shell from the flat surface has highly reflective walls one of which opposite the mouth of the cavity defines a ramp. An illumination cavity section extending into the shell intercepts the reflection cavity section at a boundary near the foot of the ramp. When light propagates from the illumination cavity section into the reflection cavity section, the walls of the latter cavity section distribute that light by reflection and the ramp redirects that light to the mouth of the reflection cavity section from which the light propagates to the display panel as a uniform diffuse emanation.

Abstract: An active filtering mixer has a feedback arrangement, by means of which unwanted components in the output of the mixer are fed back, out of phase, to an input of the mixer for substantially canceling such components dynamically within the mixer, itself. In so doing, active filtering mixers in accordance with the invention largely avoid the undesirable effects these components can have on signal processing in downstream devices, and within the mixer. The feedback arrangement also stabilizes the mixer's DC operating point, and thereby can maintain the maximum dynamic range of the mixer. Preferably, the desired components of the output are also fed back, but to a substantially smaller degree than the unwanted components, thereby linearizing the in-band output of the mixer, and generallly improving the mixer's performance over the entire spectrum of its output.

Abstract: A receiver suitable for use in a radio-telephone system for recovering data from encoded, quadrature-modulated communication signals employs a feedback arrangement for suppressing cross-talk between the receiver's in-phase and quadrature channels to improve data recovery rates during decoding. The receiver converts in-coming analog communication signals into in-phase and quadrature digital signals, which may have cross-talk components. The receiver has an attenuator for subtracting feedback signals from the in-phase and quadrature digital signals to produce cross-talk-attenuated in-phase and quadrature digital signals, a decoder for decoding the cross-talk-attenuated in-phase and quadrature digital signals to generate first and second data output signals, and the above-mentioned feedback arrangement, which preferably employs a recoder and cross-correlation techniques, for generating the feedback signals.

Abstract: In a digital radio-telephone receiver, an open-loop arrangement for generating a received-signal-strength-indicating ("RSSI") value suitable for use in mobile assisted hand-off within a cellular telephone system. The receiver has an amplifier for amplifying a received signal with a gain controlled by a gain-control signal, and an automatic-gain-control circuit ("AGC") responsive to the amplitude of the amplifier output and coupled in a feedback-loop for applying an AGC signal to the amplifier as the gain-control signal. An RSSI value is generated by (i) opening the AGC feedback loop so that the AGC output signal is not applied to the amplifier, (ii) applying a ramp signal of increasing amplitude to the VGA while the AGC monitors the signal envelope, and (iii) when the signal envelope passes a pre-selected threshold, applying the then-occurring ramp-signal value to a calibrated look-up table to obtain the corresponding RSSI value stored therein.

Abstract: A radio telephone uses a signal indicating the strength of received communication signals as a measure of prevailing signal propagation conditions to control the gain of a power amplifier in its transmitter. Where conditions are favorable, the gain can be reduced without deleterious effects on transmitted signals, and with a resulting savings in power drain on the radio telephone's power supply (e.g., batteries). In this way, talktime on a single battery charge can be significantly lengthened. Where conditions are adverse, e.g., at outlying or fringe areas of a cellular telephone system of which the radio telephone is a station, the gain can be increased to produce stronger transmitted signals, at times extending the effective coverage area of such systems.

Abstract: An electrical signal filter composed of a pair of cascaded filter sections in which the group delays of the two filter sections are matched so that their non-linear effects cancel in the passband, resulting in an overall linear phase. In addition, the attenuation slope after the first null in one filter section's stopband response is complemented by the other filter's stopband attenuation. This prevents the overall stopband attenuation from falling to extremely low values as with some filters, which, in turn, limits the time domain overshoot. The passband group delay and stopband attenuation characteristics are controlled by appropriate selection of the passband ripple and filter order number parameters of the filter. In a preferred embodiment, the two filter sections are of the elliptic and Chebyschev type. The invention can be implemented as analog-component active filter circuit or as a digital filter.