Abstract: A capacitive liquid crystal (LC) biosensor for sensing a target biological agent includes a support board; a flow channel on the support board, the flow channel having an inlet port at a first end and an exit port at a second end; at least two electrodes, the at least two electrodes including a first electrode on a flow channel first surface and a second electrode on a flow channel second surface opposite the flow channel first surface; an electricity source connected to the first electrode and the second electrode; and an LC sensor array positioned within the flow channel. An LC sensor array includes a sensor support surface; wells positioned on the sensor support surface; an organic LC phase within each of the plurality of wells; and an aqueous phase having an analyte positioned above the organic LC phase within the wells.

Abstract: A capacitive liquid crystal (LC) biosensor for sensing a target biological agent includes a support board; a flow channel on the support board, the flow channel having an inlet port at a first end and an exit port at a second end; at least two electrodes, the at least two electrodes including a first electrode on a flow channel first surface and a second electrode on a flow channel second surface opposite the flow channel first surface; an electricity source connected to the first electrode and the second electrode; and an LC sensor array positioned within the flow channel. An LC sensor array includes a sensor support surface; wells positioned on the sensor support surface; an organic LC phase within each of the plurality of wells; and an aqueous phase having an analyte positioned above the organic LC phase within the wells.

Abstract: A technique (300) and apparatus for sharing frequency spectrum amongst cognitive radios, without the use of a centralized control, is provided. By determining open segments of available spectrum within a brokered spectrum (306), and determining costs associated with those available segments (307), a CR device can identify an optimal spectral portion (308) within which to transmit (314) and grow (342) a narrowband signal. The occupied bandwidth growth is monitored such that cost associated with the growth does not exceed a cost threshold (341).

Abstract: A method (300) and cognitive radio (CR) wireless device (102) are provided for dynamically accessing spectrum in an opportunistic spectrum access wireless communication system (100). The method includes: transmitting, from a CR wireless device, a signal (216) having a first bandwidth within an unoccupied portion of spectrum (206), and after a time interval (T3) following the transmitting, and upon determining that an adjacent spectral quantum is occupied, transmitting from the CR wireless device a signal (216) having a second bandwidth, the second bandwidth being less than the first bandwidth. The method doubles a rate of growth of bandwidth of a transmitted signal when a spectral quantum adjacent to one side of the signal is unoccupied and a spectral quantum adjacent to the other side of the signal is occupied. The method utilizes knowledge of location of the CR wireless device and of band-edges to intelligently use spectral fence quanta.

Abstract: During operation of a node in a secondary communication system (100) data enters a spreader (301) and is appropriately spread. The spread data is then modulated onto all available channels using a multi-carrier OFDM modulation technique. This entails the spread data being modulated onto those channels that are currently being used by the primary communication system (120). Finally, a transmitter (303) transmits the spread data only over carriers that will not interfere with the primary communication system.

Abstract: The application discloses a method and apparatus for advertising a spectrum in a wireless communication system. The method includes obtaining an address of a broker device authorized to negotiate access to the spectrum, and sending an inquiry message to the broker device for negotiating access to at least a portion of the spectrum. The method then includes receiving an agreement message including an advertisement text from the broker device when the first user device agrees to negotiating terms associated with the broker device. The advertisement text includes information related to the portion of the spectrum and the broker device. The method further includes transmitting a packet including the advertisement text to at least one other user device such that the at least one other user device communicates with the broker device for allocation of the portion of the spectrum.

Abstract: A method (300) and cognitive radio (CR) wireless device (102) are provided for dynamically accessing spectrum in an opportunistic spectrum access wireless communication system (100). The method includes: transmitting, from a CR wireless device, a signal (216) having a first bandwidth within an unoccupied portion of spectrum (206), and after a time interval (T3) following the transmitting, and upon determining that an adjacent spectral quantum is occupied, transmitting from the CR wireless device a signal (216) having a second bandwidth, the second bandwidth being less than the first bandwidth. The method doubles a rate of growth of bandwidth of a transmitted signal when a spectral quantum adjacent to one side of the signal is unoccupied and a spectral quantum adjacent to the other side of the signal is occupied. The method utilizes knowledge of location of the CR wireless device and of band-edges to intelligently use spectral fence quanta.

Abstract: A technique (300) and apparatus for sharing frequency spectrum amongst cognitive radios is provided. By maintaining an unoccupied spectral quantum between each CR device, the channel technique ensures that a device just beginning transmissions in the CR frequency band will have spectrum from which to start growing. The growth can continue up to the maximum the spectrum can support, when the bandwidth of each device has been reduced to one spectral quantum, and there are no available spectral quanta left.

Abstract: During operation of a node in a secondary communication system (100) data enters a spreader (301) and is appropriately spread. The spread data is then modulated onto all available channels using a multi-carrier OFDM modulation technique. This entails the spread data being modulated onto those channels that are currently being used by the primary communication system (120). Finally, a transmitter (303) transmits the spread data only over carriers that will not interfere with the primary communication system.

Abstract: To enable wireless applications which require the use of location information, a method and apparatus for transmitting location data within an ad-hoc communication system is provided herein. During operation, a portion of a packet payload is used to transmit location coordinate information along with an identifier of location estimation technique utilized for a node, as well as other parameters that may be needed for location estimation. Nodes in the communication system calculate their location coordinates using the said portion of packets received from other nodes in the communication system.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for reducing power consumption within a wireless receiver is provided herein. Particularly, the use of partial chip sequence correlation to reduce the average power consumption of a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) wireless transceiver is provided herein. During operation, the receiver will attempt to correlate, or de-spread, less than all chips that constitute a symbol. A partial correlation may be performed on M chips, where M may be much less than N, the number of chips that represent a whole symbol. In a preferred embodiment, the M chips are the first M chips in the symbol.

Abstract: A direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) receiver (100) consistent with certain embodiments has a frequency generator (112) that generates a local oscillator signal without use of a piezoelectric crystal. A frequency converter (108) receives the local oscillator signal and mixes the local oscillator signal with a received DSSS signal to produce a down-converted signal. The received DSSS signal is encoded using a first set of DSSS code. A differential chip detector (116) receives the down-converted signal and converts the down-converted signal to a differentially detected signal. A correlator (120) receives the differentially detected signal and correlates the detected signal with a set of DSSS codes that are time-shifted from the first set of DSSS codes. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.

Abstract: A method (500) and system for compensation of frequency offset between a first transceiver (102) and a second transceiver (104) in wireless communication are disclosed. The compensation of the frequency offset between two or more transceivers (102, 104) is achieved using frequency synchronization bursts. These bursts contain information about the frequency offset. The frequency synchronization bursts are transmitted by the first transceiver at a range of frequencies above and below its carrier frequency (502). A second transceiver that receives at least one of these bursts (504) determines the frequency offset (504), and adjusts its frequency to match the frequency of the first transceiver (508). Thereafter, the second transceiver may enter a low power sleep mode (510) in order to reduce its power consumption. The second transceiver returns to active mode (512) just before the start of the transmission of the data packets (514).

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining the location of a node within a communication system is provided herein. During operation, reference nodes (105) having known locations are utilized to locate “blind” nodes (104) whose location is to be determined. More particularly, a blind node (104) wishing to determine its location will measure a plurality of path losses between itself and a plurality of reference nodes (105). These reference nodes' locations will then be mathematically weighted by the path loss between these reference nodes (105) and the blind node (104). The location of the blind node (104) is a sum of the mathematically weighted reference nodes' locations.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for reducing power consumption within a wireless receiver is provided herein. Particularly, the use of partial chip sequence correlation to reduce the average power consumption of a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) wireless transceiver is provided herein. During operation, the receiver will attempt to correlate, or de-spread, less than all chips that constitute a symbol. A partial correlation may be performed on M chips, where M may be much less than N, the number of chips that represent a whole symbol. In a preferred embodiment, the M chips are the first M chips in the symbol.

Abstract: A system for compensating radio frequency (RF) receiver gain (400) by implementing both automatic gain control (AGC) and digital normalization where the receiver includes at least one front-end configurable gain stage (401) for providing selectable gain to the receiver. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) (407) for converting an analog input signal from the configurable gain stage (407) to a digital signal. An AGC controller (405) is then used to determine a level of gain of a received input signal and controlling the front-end configurable gain stage (401). A digital normalizer (411) then truncates the digital data from both the ADC (407) and subsequent digital stages for maximizing the dynamic range of the receiver. The invention offers advantages in controlling receiver gain when in crowded band conditions with many potentially interfering signals are present with a desired signal.

Abstract: A radio receiver circuit (200) is used for receiving a multi-level signal (201) that includes a plurality of symbols, wherein each level is representative of a symbol of data. Baseband samples are generated for each symbol, whereby each baseband sample has a phase and a signal level. The radio receiver circuit (200) measures the received signal environment. A digital circuit (212) selects a scan duration from a scan duration table (251) based on the measured signal environment and a combination of signal types used for classification of the received signal. The digital circuit tallies, by category, occurrences of the baseband samples, whereby each category is representative of one of a plurality of phases, and one of a plurality of signal level ranges.

Abstract: A method (100) of compressing a digital signal that is parametrically modeled and encoded includes the steps of storing (102) the digital signal in a memory in a plurality of frames having a plurality of parameters in each frame of the plurality of frames, wherein the digital signal was encoded at a higher rate and converting the digital signal to a lower rate by selecting (106) from each frame of the plurality of frames a subset of the plurality of parameters and discarding (108) the subset of the plurality of parameters within each frame of the plurality of frames.

Abstract: A selective call device (130) has a receiver (204) for receiving information at a first rate and a switch (229, 230) for selecting a streaming mode for providing the information. A processor (210) for determining when the streaming mode is selected, and in response thereto, creates a buffer (221, 222) for retaining the information. The processor (210) transfers the information from the buffer (221, 222) at a second rate for a display (228) to present the information that is transferred from the buffer (221, 222) as a continuous stream.