Abstract: A method of delivering data to a vehicle including transmitting a request for the data from a vehicle to a database. The data stored in the database is tagged with location information. A location of the vehicle is determined. The data in the database tagged with location information within a predetermined distance of the determined location of the vehicle is determined. The data is delivered to the vehicle based on the determined location of the vehicle. The delivered data is displayed on a display disposed in the vehicle.

Abstract: The rod & reel carrier and utility box assembly is a storage box insert for a full-sized pickup bed, which is able to secure multiple rod and reels for transport, combined with a storage utility box with locking, hinged cover for storing any manner of fishing accessories, and items of use.

Abstract: In one example according to the teachings of the present invention, a hair brush has a brush head with a working surface, a plurality of monofilament bristles protruding from the working surface of the brush head, and a microfiber material exposed on a portion of the working surface of the brush head. In one example, the hair brush can also have a plurality of bristle tufts protruding from the working surface of the brush head. In one example, the hair brush can also have a bristle carrier connected to the brush head. The plurality of monofilament bristles can be attached to the bristle carrier.

Abstract: A soft symbol decoder for use in a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) system. The decoder generates soft symbol values for a digital signal that represents a number of source bits. The source bits are transmitted as symbols in corresponding to points in a signaling constellation. Soft metrics are determined by searching for all possible multi-dimensional symbols that could have been transmitted. The method includes transmitting a sample of the multi-dimensional symbol using K transmit antennas. The multi-dimensional symbol is represent-able as a complex, K-dimensional vector x. Each vector component of vector x represents a signal transmitted with one of the K transmit antennas. After transmission through a communication channel, a sample corresponding to the transmitted sample is received. The received sample is represented by a complex, N-dimensional vector y, where N is the number of receive antennas in the MIMO system.

Abstract: A decoder generates distance and label metrics associated with each label of a coset transmitted in a multi-input multi-output communication system having Mt transmit antennas and Mr receive antennas by performing 2(“u+n”)(Mt?1) searches, where n is the number of encoded bits used to identify one of 2u cosets at the transmitting end and u is the number of unencoded bits used to select one of 2u labels at the transmitting end. The decoder forms an intermediate vector quantity associated with one of the transmit antennas to compute the metrics associated with each of the remaining transmit antennas. The decoder then forms a second intermediate vector quantity to compute the metrics associated with the transmit antenna that was used to form the first intermediate variable. The metrics so computed are used by a Viterbi decoder to identify the coset and the most likely transmitted label in that coset.

Abstract: A receiver chain is provided for use in wireless data communication including a plurality of receive antennas and a vector Barker decoder or a CCK decoder. The vector Barker decoder operates on the plurality of received signals, preferably processed through a plurality of channel matched filters. The weightings of the plurality of channels can be done using a slicer variance, a PLL variance or another method.

Abstract: Methods and systems for signaling on a mixed-mode wireless network comprising a plurality of channels are provided. The mixed-mode wireless network includes high-throughput (HT) wireless devices and legacy wireless devices that use channels of the same width. The HT devices transmit data on at least two channels, while the legacy devices transmit on one channel. The distances between the HT channels and the distances between the legacy channels might differ, however, the channels used by the HT devices and the legacy devices may overlap. As a result, cooperation between the HT devices and legacy devices is provided to enable the devices to coexist on the same wireless network by minimizing collisions and interference. The HT devices are configured to send control information to the legacy devices to coordinate transmission by the HT devices with the legacy devices.

Abstract: A space-time signal processing system with advantageously reduced complexity. The system may take advantage of multiple transmitter antenna elements and/or multiple receiver antenna elements, or multiple polarizations of a single transmitter antenna element and/or single receiver antenna element. The system is not restricted to wireless contexts and may exploit any channel having multiple inputs or multiple outputs and certain other characteristics. Multi-path effects in a transmission medium cause a multiplicative increase in capacity.

Abstract: In a wireless network according to embodiments of the present invention, fast control messaging frames are used to signal control information. A fast control messaging (“FCM”) frame includes MAC layer control bits in a PLCP header, obviating the need for a PSDU. These frames can be used in 802.11n wireless networks as well as in other suitable 802.11x networks as well as non-802.11x networks to exchange control information while significantly reducing network overhead. In some embodiments, some information that might have been conveyed to a receiver's MAC layer in a PSDU is conveyed by including that information is a PLCP header and having logic within the receiver's PHY layer processing to process that information and convey that information up to the receiver's MAC layer in a simulated PSDU or other method. The indicator of an FCM frame can be a bit in a PLCP header, a modification of a CRC field of the PLCP header, or other indicator.

Abstract: A space-time signal processing system with advantageously reduced complexity. The system may take advantage of multiple transmitter antenna elements and/or multiple receiver antenna elements, or multiple polarizations of a single transmitter antenna element and/or single receiver antenna element. The system is not restricted to wireless contexts and may exploit any channel having multiple inputs or multiple outputs and certain other characteristics. Multi-path effects in a transmission medium cause a multiplicative increase in capacity.

Abstract: The invention provides solutions, including devices, systems, methods and software, for allowing interoperability between legacy stations and extended-range stations in a wireless network. Merely by way of example, an access point might be configured to transmit communications (such as beacon frames, broadcast frames, multi-cast frames, etc.) in a first mode and/or a second mode. The first mode might not employ extended-range technology, such that communications transmitted in the first mode can be received and/or interpreted by legacy stations, while the second mode might employ extended-range technology, such that communications transmitted in the second mode can be received by extended-range stations outside the range of basic-range communications.

Abstract: Circuits, methods, and apparatus that reduce overhead and channel bandwidth required for data reception acknowledgment. One such system uses an enhanced block acknowledgment that acknowledges frames received for different data streams. Another system sends an acknowledgment after the occurrence of a triggering event, such as the end of a duration, the reception of a number of frames, or the reception of a frame having a specific sequence number. Another removes the need for acknowledgment frames by including an acknowledgment field in a transmitted data frame. These block acknowledgments and acknowledgment fields may include an acknowledgement of frames received for each data stream having different traffic identifications, they may be for all received frames or for a specific class or groups of classes of traffic, for specific user priorities, or for other subgroups of received frames, and more that one acknowledgment may be included.

Abstract: Circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide high-throughput control fields that, among other functions, provide efficient TXOP handoffs in wireless networks. A handoff may be made by setting one or more bits in a field in a QoS frame, such as the HT control or other appropriate field. Various conditions may be placed on a handoff by a granting station. For example, conditions specifying where a station receiving a TXOP handoff may send data, what the receiving station may do with any remaining TXOP, or what types of data may be transmitted by the receiving station may be imposed. These various conditions may be combined or omitted in any logic combination.

Abstract: A modified preamble is used by extended devices that operate in mixed mode environments and green field environments, to accommodate beamforming of transmissions. In one process, an extended wireless device processes data for transmission of that data as a packet, wherein the extended wireless device is a device configured to communicate using a standard protocol understood by each node device and an extended protocol not understood by legacy node devices. If the packet is to be directed at an extended device, the extended wireless device sends a preamble of that packet that is usable in an extended mode at extended devices and usable at a receiving legacy device to determine that the receiving legacy device is not the destination of data to follow the preamble. Once the receiving legacy device is expected to be deferring the network, the extended wireless device can beamform its signal or otherwise vary from the legacy protocol in communications with extended devices.

Abstract: Systems and methods for estimating channel response in the presence of interference. Interference and/or noise present on received training symbols is estimated. Based on the measured noise and/or interference, a weighting among training symbols is developed. Channel response is then estimated based on a weighted least squares procedure.

Abstract: In a wireless transmitter having a plurality of spatial streams differentiable at a receiver, wherein data is encoded and transmitted over a communication channel with pilot tones to provide the receiver with information about the effects of the communication channel and/or transmitter impairments and/or receiver impairments on the spatial streams transmitted, the benefits can be provided by identifying a plurality of symbol periods within which symbols representing some of the encoded data are to be transmitted, identifying pilot tone values for the plurality of symbol periods, wherein the identified pilot tone values are such that the receiver, when receiving at least some of the pilot tones having the identified pilot tone values, is provided with signals enabling the receiver to characterize the communication channel and/or transmitter impairments and/or receiver impairments to obtain transmit stream diversity gain, and transmitting the symbols and the pilot tones over the plurality of spatial streams for

Abstract: A medium access contention protocol that is highly beneficial in wireless networks and particularly in wireless networks that employ a fixed minimum burst size such as OFDM wireless networks. In one embodiment, a MAC protocol is a demand-assigned protocol that maximizes utilization of the bus medium (the allocated frequency spectrum.) Each data communication device (DCD) in the network communicates with a central access point (AP). Multiple DCDs may request access from the AP in the same request access (RA) burst. Each of the multiple DCDs transmits its access request to the AP within a frequency domain channel in the RA burst that is orthogonal to the frequency domain channels used by the other DCDs requesting access. Each DCD includes channel training information in the access request burst to allow the AP and/or DCD to adapt to rapid variations in channel characteristics.

Abstract: A modified preamble is used by extended devices that operate at higher rates, MIMO or other extensions relative to strict 802.11a-compliant devices. The extended devices might use multiple antenna techniques (MIMO), where multiple data streams are multiplexed spatially and/or multi-channel techniques, where an extended transmitter transmits using more than one 802.11a channel at a time. Such extensions to IEEE 802.11a can exist in extended devices. The modified preamble is usable for signaling, to legacy devices as well as extended devices, to indicate capabilities and to cause legacy devices or extended devices to defer to other devices such that the common communication channel is not subject to unnecessary interference. The modified preamble is also usable for obtaining MIMO channel estimates and/or multi-channel estimates.

Abstract: To detect the number of transmit antennas, a fast Fourier transform operation is performed on the received samples of the transmitted long training symbols of a preamble. Next, each of the Fourier transformed results is multiplied with the reference frequency-domain representation of the long training symbol so as to remove the effect of the symbols and to maintain the channel information. Next, inverse Fourier transform or least squares operations is performed on the multiplied values to compute channel impulse response. The number of shifted impulse response in the channel impulse response represents the detected number of transmit antennas. Packets containing preambles of the present invention may be received by extended devices as well as by legacy receivers that are not configured to receive and interpret these preambles. The training symbols may be cyclically-shifted and transmitted on different transmit antennas.

Abstract: Systems and methods for optimally combining signals from multiple antennas to ameliorate the effects of noise and/or interference on OFDM communications are provided. In one embodiment, an initial spatial statistical characterization of interference and/or noise is based on training symbols received via each antenna. Because the transmitted values of the training symbols are already known, there is no need to estimate their transmitted value to form this initial statistical characterization. The data symbol values received via the multiple antennas are combined based on the initial spatial statistical characterization. The result of this combination step is then used to form a refined spatial statistical characterization of noise and/or interference. The received data symbol values are then recombined based on the refined spatial statistical characterization.