Patents Assigned to Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
  • Publication number: 20120114051
    Abstract: Performing wireless transmission of data over a wireless communication medium. A first data structure may be maintained which includes data rate information for transmission using a first number of streams. A second data structure may be maintained which includes data rate information for transmission using a second number of streams. Channel characteristics of the wireless communication medium may be determined. Channel characteristic information may be maintained based on the determined channel characteristics. Accordingly, a stream configuration and data rate may be determined based on the current channel characteristic information. Wireless transmission may be performed using the determined stream configuration and data rate. Determining channel characteristics, maintaining current channel characteristic information, determining a stream configuration and data rate, and performing wireless transmission may be dynamically performed a plurality of times during wireless data transmission.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 18, 2012
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros.Inc.
    Inventor: Paul Petrus
  • Patent number: 8175538
    Abstract: In a multiple-input, multiple-output system, the frequency of transmitted signals can be partitioned into some number of frequency bins. During an exchange of sounding signals, a first station can monitor the quality of the signals to select a second station that is qualified to participate in a calibration procedure. The first station can generate a first set of channel characteristics for a particular frequency bin based on the sounding signal it receives from the second station. The first station also receives channel state information from the second station which can be used to generate a second set of channel characteristics for the particular frequency bin. Then, the selected subsets of the first and second sets can be manipulated in order to determine a set of correction values for that frequency bin as well as for other frequency bins.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Chin-Hung Chen, Ning Zhang
  • Patent number: 8175190
    Abstract: Information is modulated onto frequency components of a signal. The resulting modulated signal includes at least some redundancy in frequency enabling a portion of the information modulated onto selected frequency components to be recovered from fewer than all of the selected frequency components. Controlling the spectrum of the modulated signal includes enabling the amplitude of at least some frequency components of the modulated signal to be set below a predetermined amplitude used for modulating the information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Lawrence W. Yonge, III
  • Patent number: 8170494
    Abstract: A transceiver including a transmit modulator and a receiver. The modulator may accept a channel selection input, a first modulation input, a second modulation input, and an amplitude input. During transmit time slots, the modulator may generate a modulated output having a carrier frequency selected by the channel selection input. The carrier frequency may be frequency modulated by the first modulation inputs, phase modulated by the second modulation input, and amplitude modulated by the amplitude input. During receive time slots, the modulator may generate a carrier frequency selected by the channel selection input and offset by the first modulation input. The modulator may alternate between providing modulated transmit signals during transmit time slots and providing a local oscillator for the receiver during receive time slots.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Paul J. Husted, Soner Ozgur, Xiaoru Zhang
  • Patent number: 8170160
    Abstract: Receivers typically detect the presence of a pilot tone, transmitted as part of an RF signal, and use the pilot tone as a reference to detect symbols in the received RF signal. However, improper synchronization between the transmitter and the receiver units can result in timing offset and carrier frequency offset in the digitized received RF signal, impair the orthogonality between OFDM sub-carriers, and cause inter-carrier interference. Phase offsets caused by carrier frequency offset and timing offset can also degrade receiver performance. Functionality can be incorporated to estimate the phase offset over multiple symbols. Estimating the phase offset over multiple symbols in the received RF signal can lower the error rate. Correcting the phase offset in the received RF signal can ensure accurate sampling of the received signal, accurate channel estimates, and accurate decoding of the digitized received signal. This can minimize receiver performance degradation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Kai Shi
  • Patent number: 8170051
    Abstract: Systems and methods for dynamic allocation of network bandwidth. In some examples, a guaranteed interval period, including a guaranteed interval start time and guaranteed interval end time, can be identified based upon policy. Network stations can then identify first interval start times and first interval end times different than the guaranteed start times and guaranteed end time provided by policy. An access network can thereby provide a first interval start time and a first interval end time to stations within the access network. An in-home network can determine an in-home interval period based upon the first interval start time and first interval end time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Lawrence W. Yonge, III, Srinivas Katar
  • Patent number: 8167722
    Abstract: A solution for managing communicative interactions between network elements is described herein. A system incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may include a processor module that monitors communications between a program resident on a user machine and a server program resident on a computing device remote from the user. The processor module may be utilized to effectively reduce the number of communications actually transmitted between the client program and the server program. For example, the processor module may intercept certain client initiated communications intended for the server program, process those communications without server program involvement, and respond to the client program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc
    Inventor: Harlan Titus Beverly
  • Publication number: 20120098621
    Abstract: Integrated circuits are disclosed including at least one inductor-capacitor component, where each of the inductor-capacitor components includes an inductor and a capacitor constructed between the inductor and a substrate. The inductor includes at least one metal loop over a shield pattern forming a first capacitor terminal over patterned oxide layer with a second capacitor layer between the patterned oxide layer and the substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2011
    Publication date: April 26, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Lalitkumar Nathawad
  • Patent number: 8160124
    Abstract: A discriminator for a code tracking block of a navigation satellite system (NSS) receiver is provided. This discriminator can advantageously use only four complex correlators, i.e. early (E), prompt (P), late (L), and one of very early (VE) and very late (VL), while providing optimized multipath mitigation. This NSS discriminator can be derived from the first-order derivative of a Teager-Kaiser (TK) operator. This differential TK (DiffTK) discriminator is more sensitive to multipath dispersions than other discriminators or correlators, thereby providing enhanced performance in the presence of multipath.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Elena Simona Lohan
  • Patent number: 8160509
    Abstract: A wireless communication device may be configured to transmit and receive data through a physical device, such as a cable. Relatively higher transmit radio frequency (RF) signals from the wireless communication device may be shifted to a relatively lower frequency, thereby enabling the relatively lower frequency signals to be carried by the physical device. Similarly, relatively lower frequency signals from the physical device may be shifted to relatively higher frequencies, thereby enabling the wireless communication device to receive the signals from the physical device. In one embodiment, the frequency of the RF signals may be between 2.3 and 2.7 GHz and the frequency of the relatively lower frequency shifted signals may be between 900 and 1100 MHz.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Arie Shor
  • Patent number: 8160515
    Abstract: A polar transmitter includes a phase monitoring unit for monitoring input modulating data. When a phase transition exceeds a phase transition threshold, the phase monitor unit can signal an amplitude negation unit to invert the amplitude data coupled to the polar amplifier. The phase monitoring unit can also add an offset to the phase data that is provided to a frequency synthesizer. In another embodiment, when the phase transition threshold is exceeded, the phase monitoring unit can trigger inverting differential frequency data coupled to the polar amplifier. In one embodiment, the phase offset and the amplitude negation are applied until a second phase transition value exceeding the phase transition threshold is detected. If such an event is detected, then the input amplitude data is no longer inverted and the phase offset value is no longer added to the modulating data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Paul J. Husted, David J. Weber, William J. McFarland, William W. Si
  • Patent number: 8159967
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for wirelessly transmitting real-time data streams is described. To ensure continuous data flow, fast diversity and slow diversity can be used. Fast diversity chooses a receive antenna based on received signal parameters, such as signal strength, during the transmission header and prior to information transfer. Slow diversity stores received signal parameters from previous packets, associates the parameters with a selected antenna, and uses the parameter history to denote a “default” antenna. Additionally, receive and/or transmit beam forming can be used to maintain continuous communication between stations. Beam forming, which combines antenna signals to maximize performance, is possible when at least two transmit/receive signal processing chains are available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: James Cho, Paul J. Husted
  • Publication number: 20120087288
    Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for efficiently sharing a single wireless channel and for providing improved power saving. Automatic beacon “sliding” establishes a round-robin contention-free channel schedule among multiple IBSSs. Entering an idle state immediately following communication after a beacon saves power. Further power savings occur when presumptions of pending traffic may be made.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2011
    Publication date: April 12, 2012
    Applicant: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Long Wang
  • Patent number: 8154361
    Abstract: A method for communicating over a coaxial cable network is described. The method includes identifying at least one port in the coaxial cable network that provides high mutual isolation among nodes of the coaxial cable network when the port is terminated with an impedance that matches a characteristic impedance of coaxial cable in the coaxial cable network. The method also includes terminating the identified port with an impedance that is substantially mismatched with the characteristic impedance of the coaxial cable, and transmitting a signal from a first node in the network to a second node in the network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Gregory Allen Magin
  • Patent number: 8155140
    Abstract: Determining if a packetized wireless signal is present on a wireless communication medium. A first signal may be received from the wireless communication medium. A correlation of the first signal may be performed using a delayed version of the first signal to produce a correlation result. The delayed version may be delayed by a time period corresponding to a packet structure of a wireless communication protocol used by signals transmitted on the wireless communication medium. It may be determined if the correlation result indicates presence of a packetized wireless signal in the first signal. The packetized wireless signal may have the packet structure of the wireless communication protocol. If the correlation result does not indicate presence of the packetized wireless signal in the first signal, wireless communication may be performed over the wireless communication medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventor: Paul J. Husted
  • Patent number: 8155612
    Abstract: A wireless device that can process signals according to multiple wireless protocols simultaneously and without signal loss. The wireless device may comprise an antenna and first and second wireless protocol circuitry. The first wireless protocol circuitry comprises a shared gain element that amplifies signals that are processed by each of the first and second wireless protocol circuitry. Since the third signals are amplified by the shared gain element prior to being split out to the respective protocol circuitry, the first and second portions of the amplified third signals do not have significant signal loss relative to the third signals provided by the antenna. Thus the wireless device can receive and process wireless signals according to both the first and second protocols simultaneously without any significant signal losses due to splitting of the receive signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Paul J. Husted, Srenik Mehta, Soner Ozgur
  • Patent number: 8155018
    Abstract: A set of global location signals, an SBAS (Satellite Based Augmentation System), or an ACI (ambient country identifier) signal can be used to automatically provide location awareness for a WLAN device. If one of the set of global location signals, the SBAS signal, or the ACI signal is detected, then the WLAN device can configure itself to comply with channel and power settings for the country/region having the detected signal(s). After configuration, the WLAN device can be “locked” to the country/region having the signal(s), thereby ensuring legal operation of the WLAN device even after subsequent restarts. If one of the signals is not detected, then the WLAN device can be configured in a default mode, e.g. an “open mode” in which end users can configure the WLAN device by entering a country of operation or a “common mode” in which the channel and transmit power settings meet global spectrum usage requirements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael R. Green, Yi-Hsiu Wang
  • Patent number: 8149703
    Abstract: In a powerline network, a power line node device coupled to a host bridge application detects a “jam packet” in response to an attempt to pass a frame to the host bridge application. The powerline node device uses internal logic to override a conventional ARQ response to this and subsequent frames, in particular, when such frames are of the type for which a response is expected, with an automatic FAIL response for a predetermined time interval.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Stanley J. Kostoff, II, Brian E. Markwalter, William E. Earnshaw, James Philip Patella
  • Patent number: 8149880
    Abstract: A system and method for synchronously transmitting media data is described. Synchronization data may be transmitted by a cycle master for receipt by one or more cycle slaves. A cycle slave may update an internal state based on the synchronization data received from the cycle master. The cycle master may transmit media data to multiple cycle slaves. The media data output by the cycle slaves may be determined, in part, by the internal state. In one embodiment, the media data may determine which cycle slave receives particular media data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: James Cho, William J. McFarland, Ning Zhang, Steven Kuhn
  • Patent number: 8149905
    Abstract: A method and apparatus in a multiple sub-carrier digital communication receiver estimates a Doppler frequency bandwidth. The Doppler frequency bandwidth is estimated by comparing a first set of channel estimates to a second set of channel estimates generated by Wiener filter interpolation of the first set of channel estimates. The Wiener interpolation filter coefficients are generated for various Doppler frequency bandwidths. Pre-determined transmit pilot symbols may be used to generate the first set of channel estimates in an OFDM communication system. A set of Wiener filter interpolation errors may be generated at one or more sub-carrier frequencies, for each of the different Doppler frequency bandwidths, and averaged across time and/or frequency. The Doppler frequency estimation method and apparatus may select a Doppler frequency estimate based on the set of Wiener filter interpolation errors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.
    Inventors: Hao-Ren Cheng, Gaspar Lee, Chih-Yuan Chu