Abstract: A method for providing wireless Ethernet connectivity over an UWB link includes providing an adapter coupled to an external network via an Ethernet port, monitoring, by the adapter, a plurality of communication channels in an UWB spectrum, establishing a wireless link on a preferred communication channel, and exchanging data between the adapter and a UWB-enabled device over the wireless link.

Abstract: The present invention generally to a multimode terminal including a wireless local area network (WLAN) system and a Bluetooth system that avoids radio interference between the two systems by collaborative coexistence methods that include time-sharing, combined frequency and time-sharing, and forward looking combined frequency and time-sharing between the WLAN system and the Bluetooth system. The coexistent multimode terminal and the method of coexistence provide WLAN transmission/receptions that are not impacted when there is no Bluetooth traffic, Bluetooth transmissions/receptions that are not impacted when there is no WLAN traffic, Bluetooth and WLAN transmissions/receptions that are provided fair access to the medium when both Bluetooth and WLAN traffic are present, and high priority Bluetooth traffic, for example, voice traffic, that has priority over non-high WLAN traffic.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for detecting interference in a wireless communications system. The invention compares the receiver FFT output of a received signal against known sequences such as the packet synchronization sequence, frame synchronization sequence, and channel estimation sequence. By comparing the reference signal to the known sequences, the invention estimates the instantaneous signal to noise ratio (SNR) for each tone of a wireless transmission. To improve the SNR estimate, the invention computes a weighted average across multiple OFDM symbols. The invention looks for significant increases (spikes) in the SNR as a way of distinguishing interfering signals from noise. The invention can store separate SNR estimates for each transmitter in a wireless network. One embodiment of the invention uses Viterbi branch metrics in conjunction with the estimated SNR to determine the presence of an interfering signal.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for encoding data for wireless transmission. The invention includes multi-level coding in which data is partitioned between two encoders, one for encoding Most Significant Bits (MSBs) and the other for encoding Least Significant Bits (LSBs). By partition bits separately for the MSBs and LSBs, the complexity of the decoder may be reduced. The MSBs and LSBs are interleaved such that each MSB is a function of just one LSB, simplifying branch metric selection during Viterbi decoding. This also allows parallel de-interleaving by the receiver, which reduces the interleaving latency of the receiver. A block interleaver jointly optimizes the symbol hamming distance of the symbols and the bit hamming distance of each constituent encoder for the MSBs and LSBs.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for controlling the data rate in packet based wireless communications. Then, using the probability of error, the invention calculates the throughput and drop probability for two or more data rates and selects the data rate with highest throughput. In one embodiment of the invention, the probability of error based on information passed back from the receiver regarding decoding errors. In another embodiment, the probability of error is based on acknowledgement packets returned by the receiver.

Abstract: The present invention provides a video display system that uses an Ultra Wideband connection to transmit digital video and audio signals from a source device to a wireless video display. The transmission is based on DVI, HDMI, or other suitable wired digital interface. The video source device may be a mobile computing device. The source device can adjust the refresh rate and/or interlacing mode in order to match the data rate to the current capacity of the wireless channel. In one embodiment, the source device only updates the portion(s) of the screen image that has changed. In another embodiment of the invention, the source device includes a lossless compression engine and the wireless display incorporates a corresponding decompression engine to enable more efficient operation and higher performance.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for increasing communication robustness between wireless communication devices by transmitting data on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) guard tones. In one embodiment, punctured bits are sent on the guard tones. In an alternate embodiment, the full bandwidth provided by the guard tones in used to determine the optimal puncture pattern. The present invention can also use guard tones to duplicate data from those tones which are experiencing channel interference. The receiver feeds back information about tones in interference, and the transmitter send the interfered data on the guard tones. Guard tones are used for sending feedback information to the transmitter in order to increase system robustness. This provides the transmitter with information on how to use the guard tones and adapt the transmission data rates to maximize system performance.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for enabling side channel communication between wireless devices. In one embodiment of the invention the guard tones in wireless OFDM signals are used for side channel communication. In another embodiment of the invention, unused bits in OFDM symbols are used as side channels instead of being padded with zeros or random bits.

Abstract: The convenience of a wireless network is tempered by the concern that a rogue device can listen in on the wireless communications. Determining the position of the home device and other devices within range allows the user of the home device to choose the specific wireless devices with which to communicate. The distance to the other devices within wireless communications range is helpful and allows the user to sort between safe and unsafe or rogue devices. Distance can be determined by a variety of methods including use of trusted references, signal strength, and error rate. Once the safe device is selected, the system will then establish a communications path with that device.

Abstract: Apparatus, and an associated method, for providing a hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) scheme for the Medium Access Control Layer of an IEEE 802.11n-compliant wireless local area network system, or other carrier sense multiple access communication system. When a packet delivered to a destination station is unable successfully to be decoded, a negative acknowledgement message is generated and returned to a sending station to identify the failed decoding. Selection is made at the sending station to send information, such as pursuant to a soft combining scheme are pursuant to an incremental redundancy scheme. A detector and selector embodied at the destination station detects whether the packet has been successfully delivered to the destination station and selects in what manner to respond to the sending station in response thereto.

Abstract: Coding apparatus, and an associated method, for forming punctured binary convolutional codes for use in a multi-band OFDM ultra wide band radio communication system. Input data to be communicated is provided to a convolutional coder that forms a ? rate code forming first-stage codes. The ? rate code is punctured by a puncture matrix to form resultant code words. The puncture matrix is of values that optimize code performance at various code rates.

Abstract: A wireless telephone handset (10) having an answer-and-wait operating mode is disclosed. When the answer-and-wait mode is activated, incoming calls have their caller ID information displayed and, in response to a key press or other input from the user, the call is answered and a wait message is transmitted to the caller, indicating that the call will be answered shortly. This permits the user to move to an appropriate location for the call; upon another key press or other input from the user, the call can then be taken and the conversation can take place. The activation of the answer-and-wait mode may be effected manually, or automatically through the use of a global positioning system (GPS) receiver (28) or in response to a signal from a wireless access point (50).

Abstract: System and method for scheduling messages in a digital communications system with reduced system resource requirements. A preferred embodiment comprises a plurality of traffic queues (such as traffic queue 410) used to enqueue message of differing traffic types and a first scheduler (such as priority scheduler 430). The first scheduler to select messages from the traffic queues and provide them to a plurality of priority queues (such as priority queue 455) used to enqueue messages of differing priorities. A second scheduler (such as priority scheduler 475) then selects messages for transmission based on message priority, transmission opportunity, and time to transmit.