Patents by Inventor Markku J. Heikkila

Markku J. Heikkila has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8908611
    Abstract: A semi-single frequency network (SFN) concept is presented. According to the SFN concept, the same data signal is transmitted from multiple base stations to a mobile terminal simultaneously on the same frequency band. Accordingly, the transmitted signals are combined in the radio channel and the mobile terminal experiences the transmitted signals as one signal propagated through a multipath channel. Additionally, each base station transmits a base station specific pilot signal. The mobile terminal carries out a channel estimation procedure for each received pilot signal and combines the channel estimates to obtain information how to equalize the received data signal. Then, the mobile terminal calculates equalization weights from the combined channel estimates and equalizes the received data signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2014
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventors: Kaj Jansen, Markku J. Heikkilä, Ulo Parts, Juha Heiskala, Zoltan Safar
  • Patent number: 8457188
    Abstract: An apparatus, including a detection unit configured to perform a non-linear detection on a receive signal, a first estimator configured to estimate a first quality measure based on the receive signal, and a second estimator configured to estimate a second quality measure dependent on the first quality measure and a performance measure of the detection unit is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2013
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventors: Karl Majonen, Markku J. Heikkilä
  • Patent number: 8213549
    Abstract: An apparatus for determining a symbol estimate includes a detection unit, an information storage, a channel decoder, and an estimator. One or more detectors of the detection unit is configured to detect a first data stream and the one or more detectors or one or more other detectors are configured to detect a second data stream when interference cancellation is carried out and when interference cancellation is not carried out parallel to detection of a first data stream to obtain results of detection. The information storage is configured to store the results of the detection of the second data stream, and the channel decoder is configured to channel decode a detected first data stream. The estimator is configured to determine a symbol estimate by using the stored results of the detection of the second data stream and based on the success of the channel decoding of the first data stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventor: Markku J. Heikkila
  • Patent number: 8111742
    Abstract: The invention is related to a communication terminal, comprising: means (618) for creating at least one channel matrix assuming predetermined interfering signals as a part of a desired signal; means (618) for dividing the at least one channel matrix into multiple sub-matrices; means (618) for diagonalizing the sub-matrices by using a transformation matrix; means (618) for forming at least one block-diagonalized matrix using diagonalized sub-matrices; means (618) for inverting the at least one block-diagonalized matrix; and means (618) for generating channel equalizer coefficients by using at least one inverted block-diagonalized matrix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2012
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventor: Markku J. Heikkila
  • Patent number: 7801210
    Abstract: The invention concerns methods and apparatus for performing channel equalization in a direct-sequence spread spectrum communications system. The methods and apparatus of the present invention are particularly applicable in situations where communication occurs over a channel experiencing multipath interference associated with paths having significantly different lengths. The impulse response-delay profile of such a channel is typically sparse, that is, dominated by a relatively few and widely spaced taps or clusters of closely spaced taps. In one aspect, equalization filter coefficients are calculated based on a channel estimate derived from a single cluster of closely-spaced channel taps collectively having the greatest percentage of energy as indicated by the impulse response-delay profile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2010
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventors: Jianzhong Zhang, Markku J. Heikkilä
  • Patent number: 7769117
    Abstract: A receiving method and a receiver of a telecommunication system are provided. The receiver comprises one or more antennas, a radio frequency unit connected to the antennas for receiving signals transmitted by one or more transmitters using a multitude of channels, and an estimator. The estimator is configured to select one or more channel pairs, each channel of each channel pair being a given distance from each other, determine symbol estimates for the signals of the channels of the channel pairs, remove the effect of data modulation from the signals of the channels of the channel pairs, obtain noise estimates by subtracting the signals of the channels of the channel pairs from each other, and determine a noise covariance matrix for the desired channel on the basis of the obtained noise estimates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2010
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventors: Markku J. Heikkila, Kari Majonen
  • Patent number: 7680222
    Abstract: A receiver includes a channel estimator for estimating a channel impulse response of a radio channel; an equalizer for generating linear minimum mean-square error equalizer coefficients and providing an equalized signal to a correlator; an estimating unit for forming an initial estimate of received data elements on the basis of an equalized signal; and a processing unit. The processing unit is configured to calculate a scaling factor by taking an inverse value, subtracted from a value of one, of a conjugate transpose of a linear minimum mean-square error equalizer coefficient vector multiplied by a channel impulse response vector, and to use the scaling factor for determining reliability of the initial estimate of the received data elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2010
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventor: Markku J. Heikkilä
  • Publication number: 20090285276
    Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus comprising: an estimator configured to estimate a channel response; a determiner configured to determine an equalizer coefficient vector; a calculator configured to calculate a symbol amplitude by using the equalizer coefficient vector and the estimated channel response; a determiner configured to determine a weighting factor by using the symbol amplitude; an estimator configured to estimate soft bits; and a weighter configured to weight the estimated soft bits by using the weighting factor for scaling the estimated soft bits to a predetermined dynamic range in a manner enabling their presentation using a predetermined limited numerical accuracy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 15, 2008
    Publication date: November 19, 2009
    Inventor: Markku J. Heikkila
  • Patent number: 7583723
    Abstract: A method is disclosed to obtain M final symbol decisions for signals received through N receive antennas that were transmitted in M parallel data layers, using a same spreading code from M transmit antennas. The method includes space-time equalizing the N received signals to generate M output signals from which at least inter-symbol interference is substantially removed and inter-layer interference is suppressed; despreading each of the M output signals for generating M soft symbol estimates; and processing the M soft symbol estimates to derive M final symbol decisions that are made in consideration of modeled residual inter-layer interference present in the space-time equalized M output signals. Processing includes operating a signal-plus-residual-interference (SPRI) detector that operates in accordance with a maximum likelihood (ML) technique, while space-time equalizing employs a linear minimum mean-square error (LMMSE) criterion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2009
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventor: Markku J Heikkilä
  • Publication number: 20090141820
    Abstract: An apparatus for determining a symbol estimate includes a detection unit, an information storage, a channel decoder, and an estimator. One or more detectors of the detection unit is configured to detect a first data stream and the one or more detectors or one or more other detectors are configured to detect a second data stream when interference cancellation is carried out and when interference cancellation is not carried out parallel to detection of a first data stream to obtain results of detection. The information storage is configured to store the results of the detection of the second data stream, and the channel decoder is configured to channel decode a detected first data stream. The estimator is configured to determine a symbol estimate by using the stored results of the detection of the second data stream and based on the success of the channel decoding of the first data stream.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 11, 2008
    Publication date: June 4, 2009
    Inventor: Markku J. Heikkila
  • Publication number: 20090052513
    Abstract: The invention is related to a communication terminal, comprising: means (618) for creating at least one channel matrix assuming predetermined interfering signals as a part of a desired signal; means (618) for dividing the at least one channel matrix into multiple sub-matrices; means (618) for diagonalizing the sub-matrices by using a transformation matrix; means (618) for forming at least one block-diagonalized matrix using diagonalized sub-matrices; means (618) for inverting the at least one block-diagonalized matrix; and means (618) for generating channel equalizer coefficients by using at least one inverted block-diagonalized matrix.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 7, 2005
    Publication date: February 26, 2009
    Inventor: Markku J. Heikkila
  • Publication number: 20080268887
    Abstract: A semi-single frequency network (SFN) concept is presented. According to the SFN concept, the same data signal is transmitted from multiple base stations to a mobile terminal simultaneously on the same frequency band. Accordingly, the transmitted signals are combined in the radio channel and the mobile terminal experiences the transmitted signals as one signal propagated through a multipath channel. Additionally, each base station transmits a base station specific pilot signal. The mobile terminal carries out a channel estimation procedure for each received pilot signal and combines the channel estimates to obtain information how to equalize the received data signal. Then, the mobile terminal calculates equalization weights from the combined channel estimates and equalizes the received data signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2008
    Publication date: October 30, 2008
    Inventors: Kaj Jansen, Markku J. Heikkila, Ulo Parts, Juha Heiskala, Zoltan Safar
  • Publication number: 20080260012
    Abstract: An apparatus, including a detection unit configured to perform a non-linear detection on a receive signal, a first estimator configured to estimate a first quality measure based on the receive signal, and a second estimator configured to estimate a second quality measure dependent on the first quality measure and a performance measure of the detection unit is provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2007
    Publication date: October 23, 2008
    Inventors: Kari Majonen, Markku J. Heikkila
  • Publication number: 20080231500
    Abstract: There is provided a receiver comprising: an estimator configured to estimate an initial noise-plus-interference covariance matrix on the basis of a received signal; a calculator configured to calculate a parameter using the received signal; and a calculator configured to decrease magnitude of off-diagonal values of the estimated initial covariance matrix relative to diagonal values of the same matrix based on the calculated parameter in order to estimate a final noise-plus-interference covariance matrix.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2007
    Publication date: September 25, 2008
    Inventors: Markku J. Heikkila, Tuomas Saukkonen
  • Publication number: 20080212722
    Abstract: A method is disclosed to obtain M final symbol decisions for signals received through N receive antennas that were transmitted in M parallel data layers, using a same spreading code from M transmit antennas. The method includes space-time equalizing the N received signals to generate M output signals from which at least inter-symbol interference is substantially removed and inter-layer interference is suppressed; despreading each of the M output signals for generating M soft symbol estimates; and processing the M soft symbol estimates to derive M final symbol decisions that are made in consideration of modeled residual inter-layer interference present in the space-time equalized M output signals. Processing includes operating a signal-plus-residual-interference (SPRI) detector that operates in accordance with a maximum likelihood (ML) technique, while space-time equalizing employs a linear minimum mean-square error (LMMSE) criterion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 7, 2008
    Publication date: September 4, 2008
    Inventor: Markku J. Heikkila
  • Patent number: 7356073
    Abstract: A method is disclosed to obtain M final symbol decisions for signals received through N receive antennas that were transmitted in M parallel data layers, using a same spreading code from M transmit antennas. The method includes space-time equalizing the N received signals to generate M output signals from which at least inter-symbol interference is substantially removed and inter-layer interference is suppressed; despreading each of the M output signals for generating M soft symbol estimates; and processing the M soft symbol estimates to derive M final symbol decisions that are made in consideration of modeled residual inter-layer interference present in the space-time equalized M output signals. Processing includes operating a signal-plus-residual-interference (SPRI) detector that operates in accordance with a maximum likelihood (ML) technique, while space-time equalizing employs a linear minimum mean-square error (LMMSE) criterion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2008
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventor: Markku J Heikkilä
  • Patent number: 6947403
    Abstract: A CDMA receiver (10) includes a receiver input for coupling to signal outputs of Nrx receive antennas (20A,20B), where the signal outputs are sampled at Ns samples per symbol or chip, a matched filter (14), such as a RAKE, and a whitening filter (20) for coupling the receiver input to an input of the matched filter. The whitening filter contains NsNrx parallel whitening filters wj,k (22A-22D), individual ones of the whitening filters wj,k receiving during each symbol interval i, NsNrx new signal samples via a signal connection matrix (28) such that a first individual whitening filter receives only one of the new samples, a second individual whitening filter receives the same sample as the first individual whitening filter, and one additional sample, and such that an nth individual whitening filter receives the same n?1 samples as the first n?1 individual whitening filters, plus one of the remaining samples.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2005
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventors: Markku J. Heikkila, Jorma Lilleberg
  • Publication number: 20040264417
    Abstract: A CDMA receiver (10) includes a receiver input for coupling to signal outputs of Nrx receive antennas (20A,20B), where the signal outputs are sampled at Ns samples per symbol or chip, a matched filter (14), such as a RAKE, and a whitening filter (20) for coupling the receiver input to an input of the matched filter. The whitening filter contains NsNrx parallel whitening filters wj,k (22A-22D), individual ones of the whitening filters wj,k receiving during each symbol interval i, NsNrx new signal samples via a signal connection matrix (28) such that a first individual whitening filter receives only one of the new samples, a second individual whitening filter receives the same sample as the first individual whitening filter, and one additional sample, and such that an nth individual whitening filter receives the same n-1 samples as the first n-1 individual whitening filters, plus one of the remaining samples.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2003
    Publication date: December 30, 2004
    Applicant: Nokia Corporation
    Inventors: Markku J. Heikkila, Jorma Lilleberg
  • Patent number: 6771690
    Abstract: A method is disclosed to minimize the mean-square-error of an estimate of an unknown parameter, such as a data symbol transmitted through a channel, such as a WCDMA channel. The method includes steps of (a) replacing a required multiplication of an input signal vector by an inverse covariance matrix, which is one of a total signal covariance matrix or an interference-plus-noise covariance matrix, by linear filtering, wherein directly computed or estimated filter elements of a row or a column of the inverse covariance matrix, corresponding to time instant i, are used as linear filter coefficients; (b) forming a vector g(i) from the filter outputs, the vector g(i) being estimated element by element using the linear filter; and (c) using the vector g(i) in place of a vector that would have been obtained by directly multiplying the signal vector by the inverse covariance matrix. The linear filter w(i) converges or closely converges to a row or column of the required inverse covariance matrix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2004
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventor: Markku J. Heikkila
  • Patent number: 6721293
    Abstract: A receiver for use in a CDMA telecommunications system is disclosed. The receiver includes at least one antenna for receiving signals from a CDMA channel, where the received signals include a desired user signal. The receiver also includes combining circuitry, for performing chip waveform filtering and maximal ratio combining, to produce mutually correlated chip estimates of the received signals. The receiver further includes an adaptive separator, for adaptively separating the mutually correlated chip estimates, and a correlator, for despreading the output of the adaptive separator to obtain an estimate for data symbols of the desired user signal. In addition, the receiver further includes estimating circuitry, coupled to the combining circuitry, for estimating a response of the channel, where the combining circuitry utilizes the channel response estimate as a reference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2004
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventors: Petri Komulainen, Markku J. Heikkila