Abstract: To address the need for a base site and method for quickly establishing a CDMA dispatch call, the present invention provides for signaling mobile stations (e.g., 120-123) to inform them of the call and then starting the dispatch call without waiting for the call participants to request their inbound links. The dispatch call is first transmitted by base sites (e.g., 110-112) of all the service coverage areas (e.g., 101-103) that may have call participants, and then discontinued at those base sites where no inbound link requests are received within a period of time. Thus, the dispatch call is established while “call setup” effectively continues.

Abstract: To address the need for a base site and method for quickly establishing a CDMA dispatch call, the present invention provides for signaling mobile stations (e.g., 120-123) to inform them of the call and then starting the dispatch call without waiting for the call participants to request their inbound links. The dispatch call is first transmitted by base sites (e.g., 110-112) of all the service coverage areas (e.g., 101-103) that may have call participants, and then discontinued at those base sites where no inbound link requests are received within a period of time. Thus, the dispatch call is established while “call setup” effectively continues.

Abstract: A wireless communication device (100) can be handed off while operating in the slotted mode of a CDMA system. The wireless communication device (100) stores, prior to entering slotted mode, an Active Set including at least one active pilot and a Neighbor Set including a plurality of neighbor pilots. At least one receiver searcher (109) scans the at least one active pilot and at least one of the plurality of neighbor pilots prior to an assigned slot. A logic and control circuit (113) includes in the Active Set, prior to the assigned slot, at least two pilots of the at least one active pilot and the at least one of the plurality of neighbor pilots scanned prior the assigned slot. At least two of a plurality of receiver fingers (107) simultaneously monitor the Paging Channels of the at least two pilots during the assigned slot.

Abstract: Performance of a radiotelephone (104) in a CDMA communication system (100) is enhanced using a receiver searcher (114) that includes a matched filter (128) to capture the pilot energies of all receivable transmissions from a base station (102) and other nearby base stations. A detected PN sequence is compared with a predetermined PN sequence stored at the radiotelephone (104). The predetermined PN sequence includes, for example, the last 512 chips in the short PN sequence used for spreading the in-phase channel and the quadrature-phase channel.

Abstract: A wireless communication device (100) can be handed off while operating in the slotted mode of a CDMA system. The wireless communication device comprises a receiver searcher (109) that measures the signal strength of an active pilot prior to the assigned slot and at least one of a plurality of neighbor pilots during an assigned slot. Receiver fingers (107) demodulate a Paging Channel of the active pilot during an assigned slot and can also determine signal strength of pilots simultaneously with the receiver searcher. A Hot Neighbor List is used to prioritize the order in which neighbor pilots are scanned. A logic and control circuit (113) determines if neighbor pilots should be scanned beyond the assigned slot, if the Hot Neighbor List should be modified, and if the wireless communication device should be handed off to another pilot.

Abstract: A code division multiple access (CDMA) radio receiver (104) having gain receives a radio frequency (RF) signal (122) to produce a received signal (124). The quality (130) of the received signal (124) is determined (111). The quality (130) is preferably a ratio of an energy per chip of a desired signal (Ec) to a total power spectral density of the received signal (Io) (124). For alternative radio receivers (104) the quality (130) may be an error rate estimate of a demodulated signal (126). The gain of the radio receiver (104) is adjusted responsive to the quality (130) of the received signal (124) to optimize the quality (130) of the received signal (124).

Abstract: A method, performed by a mobile station (119), prevents an active call from being dropped when the mobile station (119) suddenly transitions from a first coverage area (121) to a second coverage area (122) in a code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular radiotelephone system (100). The active call is determined (601) to be in danger of being dropped responsive to the mobile station (119) suddenly transitioning from the first coverage area (121) to the second coverage area (122). The first base station (115) is notified (602) that the active call is in danger of being dropped responsive to the step of determining (601). The active call with the first base station (115) is determined (603) to be in the process of being dropped responsive to the step of notifying (602). The active call is established (604) with the second base station (116) in the second coverage area (122) before the active call with the first base station (115) is dropped responsive to the step of determining (603).

Abstract: The power of a first signal is measured and is compared with a threshold. If the first signal power meets a handoff threshold, the system enters the handoff procedure. Once in the handoff procedure, estimates of a first signal quality a signal would have, if transmitted from the first site to the subscriber, and a second signal quality a signal would have, if transmitted from the second site to the subscriber, are determined. If the estimated first signal quality meets a transmit threshold, the first will activate a traffic signal to the subscriber. If the estimated first or second signal quality fails to meet the transmit threshold, the first or second, respectively, will terminate its traffic signal to the subscriber, but the transmission resources will remain dedicated to the subscriber. If the estimated first or second signal quality fails to meet the handoff threshold, the first or second, respectively, will discontinue serving the subscriber.

Abstract: A channel bank speech synthesizer for reconstructing speech from externally-generated acoustic feature information without using externally-generated voicing or pitch information is disclosed. An N-channel pitch-excited channel bank synthesizer (340) is provided having a first low-frequency group of channel gain values (1 to M) and a second high-frequency group of channel gain values (+1 to N). The first group controls a first group of amplitude modulators (950) excited by a periodic pitch pulse source (920), and the second group controls amplitude modulators excited by a noise source (930). Both groups of modulated excitation signals are applied to the bandpass filters (960) to reconstruct the speech channels, and then combined at the summation network (970) to form a reconstructed synthesized speech signal. Additionally, the pitch pulse source (920) varies the pitch pulse period such that the pitch pulse rate decreases over the length of the word.

Abstract: The power control apparatus of the present invention is comprised of a local oscillator signal path coupled to a mixer (106) through a variable attenuator (107) and an IF signal path coupled to the mixer (106) through two variable attenuators (108 and 109) coupled in series. The IF signal path attenuators (108 and 109) are controlled by digital control circuitry (111) while the local oscillator path attenuator (107) is controlled by the control circuitry through a level shifter (110). The power level of the signal generated by the mixing of these two signals is less than the conducted output of the radiotelephone's power amplifier.

Abstract: An improved noise suppression system (800) is disclosed which performs speech quality enhancement upon the speech-plus-noise signal available at the input (205) to generate a clean speech signal at the output (265) by spectral gain modification. The improvements of the present invention include the addition of a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) threshold mechanism (830) to reduce background noise flutter by offsetting the gain rise of the gain tables until a certain SNR threshold is reached, the use of a voice metric calculator (810) to produce more accurate background noise estimates via performing the update decision based on the overall voice-like characteristics in the channels and the time interval since the last update, and the use of a channel SNR modifier (820) to provide immunity to narrowband noise bursts through modification of the SNR estimates based on the voice metric calculation and the channel energies.

Abstract: An improved hands-free user-interactive control and dialing system is disclosed for use with a speech communications device. The control system (400) includes a dynamic noise suppressor (410), a speech recognizer (420) for implementing voice-control, a device controller (430) responsive to the speech recognizer for controlling operating parameters of the speech communications device (450) and for producing status information representing the operating status of the device, and a speech synthesizer (440) for providing reply information to the user as to the speech communications device operating status. In a mobile radiotelephone application, the spectral subtraction noise suppressor (414) is configured to improve the performance of the speech recognizer (424), the voice quality of the transmitted audio (417), and the audio switching operation of the vehicular speakerphone (460).

Abstract: Improved speakerphones (120 and 130 in FIG. 1) for both radio (112) and landline (138) telephones are described. The improved speakerphones (120 and 130) each include a microphone (102 and 132), a speaker (104 and 134) and unique control circuitry (106 and 136). The control circuitry of the improved speakerphone (200 in FIG. 2) interfaces a microphone (250) to a transmit signal (220) and speaker (260) to a receive signal (222) of a duplex communication path, such as a radio channel or telephone line. Variable gain stages (212 and 202) amplify and attenuate the speaker and microphone audio paths, respectively, in response to a gain control signal (223) from control logic (230).

Abstract: An improved background noise estimator (320) is disclosed for use with a noise suppression system (300) for generating an estimate of the background noise power spectral density provided to noise suppressor (310), which performs speech quality enhancement upon the pre-processed speech-plus-noise signal available at the input to generate a clean post-processed speech signal at the output. Background noise estimator (320) utilizes an energy valley detector based upon post-processed speech to perform the speech/noise classification, and a noise spectral estimator based upon pre-processed speech to generate an estimate of the background noise power spectral density. As a result, the background noise estimate supplied to the noise suppressor is a more accurate measurement of the background noise energy, since it is performed during a more accurate determination of the occurrences of pauses in the speech.

Abstract: An automatic gain selector is disclosed for use with a noise suppression system which performs speech quality enhancement upon a noisy speech signal available at the input to generate a noise-suppressed speech signal at the output by spectral gain modification. The channel gain controller (240) of the present invention produces a modification signal (245), comprised of individual channel gain values, for application to a channel gain modifier (250). A particular gain table set is automatically selected from one of a plurality of gain tables (450) by a selector switch (470) and a noise level quantizer (440) in response to a multi-channel noise parameter, such as the overall average background noise level of the input signal. Then the individual channel gain values (455) are obtained from the particular gain table set in response to the individual channel signal-to-noise ratio estimate (235).

Abstract: A full duplex speakerphone employing adaptive filters and having application in radiotelephone systems is disclosed. To cancel acoustic feedback echo of the receive signal, a representation of the receive signal is subtracted from the transmit signal generated by the speakerphone microphone. The adaptive filter receive signal representation coefficents are modified when the receive signal is detected. Likewise, to cancel electronic echo of the transmit signal, a representation of the transmit signal is subtracted from the receive signal. The adaptive filter transmit signal representation coefficients are modified when the transmit signal is detected.

Abstract: An improved noise suppression system (400) is disclosed which performs speech quality enhancement upon speech-plus-noise signal available at the input (205) to generate a clean speech signal at the output (265) by spectral gain modification. The noise suppression system of the present invention includes a background noise estimator (420) which generates and stores an estimate of the background noise power spectral density based upon pre-processed speech (215), as determined by the detected minima of the post-processed speech energy level. This post-processed speech (255) may be obtained directly from the output of the noise suppression system, or may be simulated by multiplying the pre-processed speech energy (225) by the channel gain values of the modification signal (245). This technique of implementing post-processed signal to generate the background noise estimate (325) provides a more accurate measurement of the background noise energy since it is based upon much cleaner speech signal.

Abstract: Automatic power output control circuitry is disclosed in which the magnitude of a radio frequency signal is maintained at one of a plurality of magnitudes selected in response to control signals. The radio frequency signal output from a variable output amplifier is sampled and the sample is further amplified and the dynamic range compressed prior to being rectified. The rectified power magnitude signal, which is nonlinearly related to the radio frequency signal magnitude, is adjusted by an adjustment factor selected by the control signals and employed in varying the output of the variable output amplifier to produce a corresponding radio frequency signal output magnitude.

Abstract: A duplex FM communication transceiver 10 is disclosed in which a modulated transmit carrier signal is utilized as the receiver first mixer (32) injection signal. The receiver portion of the transceiver comprises dual conversion circuitry, and the transmit information signal used for modulating the transmit carrier signal is phase and amplitude adjusted and then utilized to modulate the receiver second injection local oscillator 41 which provides the input injection signal to the receiver second mixer 36. The second mixer substantially cancels all of the transmit information signal and provides just received information signals to a demodulator 43 which provides audio signals to a speaker 46.

Abstract: An improved speakerphone (120 and 130 in FIG. 1) for radio and landline telephones is described. The improved speakerphone (120 and 130) includes a microphone (102 and 132), a speaker (104 and 134) and unique control circuitry (106 and 136). The control circuitry of speakerphone (200 in FIG. 2) interfaces a microphone (250) to a transmit signal (220) and speaker (260) to a receive signal (222) of a duplex communication path, such as a radio channel or telephone line. An audio switch (212) opens or closes the speaker audio path in response to a control signal (224) from control logic (230), and another audio switch (202) opens or closes the microphone audio path in response to the binary complement of the control signal (224).