Abstract: An automatic frequency control loop structure utilizes a dual selection automatic frequency control unit which is coupled to a differential phase unit and a coherent phase unit to provide a frequency corrected received signal output for efficient tracking of frequency offset drift and a much lower probability of loss of automatic frequency control loop lock. Thus, a signal from a coherent carrier recovery process provides additional benefit by utilization in adjusting frequency offset tracking performance.

Abstract: An automatic frequency control loop structure utilizes a dual selection automatic frequency control unit which is coupled to a differential phase unit and a coherent phase unit to provide a frequency corrected received signal output for efficient tracking of frequency offset drift and a much lower probability of loss of automatic frequency control loop lock. Thus, a signal from a coherent carrier recovery process provides additional benefit by utilization in adjusting frequency offset tracking performance.

Abstract: An automatic frequency control loop structure utilizes a dual selection automatic frequency control unit which is coupled to a differential phase unit and a coherent phase unit to provide a frequency corrected received signal output for efficient tracking of frequency offset drift; and a much lower probability of loss of automatic frequency control loop lock. Thus, a signal from a coherent carrier recovery process provides additional benefit by utilization in adjusting frequency offset tracking performance.

Abstract: The present invention provides for economical predictive symbol timing estimation in a digital receiver by reducing gate count and current drain. The invention also reduces the processing delay. The predictive symbol timing estimation method (300) and device (200) are applicable to any digital radio system which transmits on a continuous or semi-continuous basis.

Abstract: The process of the present invention computes the update to the least mean square channel estimator taps. The update coefficient for each tap is computed independently based on the power of each tap relative to the main tap power.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus is provided for decoding a communicated radio frequency signal containing a sequence of phase values. The method includes the steps of amplitude limiting the communicated signal and maximum likelihood decoding the amplitude limited signal.

Abstract: A radio communication unit for a digital communication system is provided in which an input information signal is protected from transmission errors by forward error correction encoding the information signal. In addition, the communication unit enhances subsequent processing of a transmitted form of the information signal by a hard-limiting receiver by inserting a predetermined synchronization sequence into the information signal. Further, a corresponding radio communication unit is provided which includes a hard limiting mechanism for removing the magnitude of each sample in a group of data samples of a signal received from over a radio communication channel. In addition, weighting coefficients of the hard-limited group of data samples for maximum likelihood decoding and diversity combining are generated by comparing the hard-limited group of data samples to a known predetermined synchronization sequence.

Abstract: In a receiver (101) that receives a signal (103) subsequent to transmission thereof by a transmitter on a communication channel, an apparatus and method for determining a point in time for detecting the signal, sampled at multiple points in time, to produce a detected signal (112). The communication channel is modeled, at the multiple points in time, responsive to the sampled signal (110) to produce signal and noise channel models (209) and (204), respectively. Signal and noise values (210) and (205) indicative of the quantity of signal and noise in the signal and noise channel models, respectively, are generated. A sampling point selector (203) selects, from among the multiple points in time, a point in time (111), corresponding to a determined minimum noise value (206) or a determined maximum signal to noise ratio value (213), for detecting the sampled signal (110) to produce the detected signal (112).

Abstract: In a communication unit (200) that coherently demodulates differentially-encoded modulated signals (201) to produce soft symbols (210) including first and second soft symbols, a method and associated apparatus, for use by the communication unit (200), converts the soft symbols (210) into soft bits (212). A quality measure (305) is determined for at least the first soft symbol (210) indicating when the quality for the first soft symbol (210) is favorable and when the quality for the first soft symbol (210) is unfavorable. The first and second soft symbols (210) are processed in a forward direction in time (208) to produce the soft bits (212) when the quality measure (305) for the first soft symbol (210) is favorable. The first and second soft symbols (210) are processed in a reverse direction in time (209) to produce the soft bits (212) when the quality measure (305) for the first soft symbol (210) is unfavorable.

Abstract: A system and method for correcting for Rayleigh interference of a signal transmitted upon a multi-path channel. The system adaptively calculates values of channel gain and noise variance of the channel upon which the signal is transmitted, and generates signals indicative of such calculations which are supplied to a decoder. The system may be utilized to form a portion of a coherent, or noncoherent receiver which receives encoded and differentially-encoded signals.

Abstract: In a communications device, two coherent detection algorithms (102 and 103), one of which has a decision feedback equalizer (103), and a detector selection algorithm (104) are used to dynamically select a detector depending on whether delay spread distortion is present. First the correlation of the detector without the equalizer (102) is measured. If this correlation is greater than a predetermined threshold, the data from that detector (102) is used by the communications device. If the correlation is less than the threshold, the correlation of the detector with the equalizer (103) is measured. If this is less than the correlation of the detector without the equalizer (102), the data from the detector without the equalizer (102) is used, otherwise the data is taken from the equalizer (103). In any case, if the detector without the equalizer is used, the detector with the equalizer is turned off.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for maximum likelihood sequence estimation. The method and apparatus includes a first maximum likelihood sequence estimator signal path for flat fading and an at least second maximum likelihood sequence estimator signal path for other than flat fading. The method and apparatus for further includes selecting the signal path with a least relative magnitude mean square error.

Abstract: The method of the present invention generates an optimal adaptive filter update coefficient by first generating three error signals using a signal input and three update coefficients (301-303). Mean Square Error (MSE) values are estimated (307 and 308) for the first and third error signals. The first MSE value (307) is subtracted (309) from the third MSE value (308) to generate a difference signal. The difference signal is used to generate (310) an update signal that is used to modify the update coefficients. The process of the present invention is repeated until the difference signal is substantially zero, thus optimizing the second update coefficient. This process enables an update coefficient for an adaptive filter to quickly adapt to a changing environment.

Abstract: A Viterbi equalizer for decoding a .pi./4 DQPSK modulated signal. Because symbol values of adjacent symbols of a .pi./4 DQPSK signal are offset in phase relative to one another, allowable values of succeeding states of a .pi./4 DQPSK signal are four in number. The signal paths of the Viterbi equalizer are thereby limited in number to four allowable next-states, and the Viterbi equalizer is operative to select certain ones of the paths connecting the states at the adjacent time intervals as survivor paths to form maximum likelihood paths thereby.

Abstract: The process of the present invention generates an optimum automatic frequency control signal in an apparatus that has a plurality of adaptive algorithms, each adaptive algorithm having a reference signal with an associated frequency dither. The process starts by comparing the performance of each of the plurality of adaptive algorithms. This difference is input to a comparator where it is compared to zero. This delta signal then modifies the numerically controlled oscillator frequency. After several iterations, the frequency offset is reduced to substantially zero.

Abstract: A communications system receiver (100) is disclosed which receives a transmitted signal over a radio channel. The transmitted signal includes data and a predetermined synchronization sequence. The receiver (100) includes a demodulator (215), and a stored replica (207) of the predetermined synchronization sequence. The receiver (100) further includes apparatus (102) for computing (308) a reconstructed signal, by using the channel impulse response characteristic and the stored replica (207) of the synchronization sequence. A feature of the invention is to estimate (310) a phase offset value between an incoming signal and the reconstructed signal, for a plurality of synchronization symbols. This serves to establish (315) a relationship between the phase offset and a synchronization symbol index. The receiver then employs this relationship to derive (317) at least one "previous" phase state (214) for initializing (314) the demodulator (215).

Abstract: The method of the present invention generates an optimal adaptive filter update coefficient by first generating three error signals using a signal input and three update coefficients (301-303). Mean Square Error (MSE) values are estimated (307 and 308) for the first and third error signals. The first MSE value (307) is substracted (309) from the third MSE value (308) to generate a difference signal. The difference signal is used to generate (310) an update signal that is used to modify the update coefficients. The process of the present invention is repeated until the difference signal is substantially zero, thus optimizing the second update coefficient. This process enables an update coefficient for an adaptive filter to quickly adapt to a changing environment.

Abstract: A system and method for correcting for Rayleigh interference of a signal transmitted upon a multi-path channel. The system adaptively calculates values of channel gain and noise variance of the channel upon which the signal is transmitted, and generates signals indicative of such calculations which are supplied to a decoder. The system may be utilized to form a portion of a coherent, or noncoherent receiver which receives encoded and differentially-encoded signals.

Abstract: System and method for determining an absolute phase value of a differentially-encoded, DQPSK signal. A stored set of sequences of an ID sequence is compared with a received ID-sequence of a differentially-encoded, DQPSK signal transmitted to the receiver. The stored and the received ID sequences are correlated, and the stored values of the ID sequence are adjusted by the value of the calculated correlation.

Abstract: In a communications device, two coherent detection algorithms (102 and 103), one of which has a decision feedback equalizer (103), and a detector selection algorithm (104) are used to dynamically select a detector depending on whether delay spread distortion is present. First the correlation of the detector without the equalizer (102) is measured. If this correlation is greater than a predetermined threshold, the data from that detector (102) is used by the communications device. If the correlation is less than the threshold, the correlation of the detector with the equalizer (103) is measured. If this is less than the correlation of the detector without the equalizer (102), the data from the detector without the equalizer (102) is used, otherwise the data is taken from the equalizer (103).