Block level space time transmit diversity in wireless communications
Space time transmit diversity (9, 14, 17, 19) is applied at the block level to an original block of bits (12) in order to reduce the effects of fading in wireless communication systems that use nonlinear modulation schemes (13, 33). At the receiving end, fading parameters (α1, α2) are estimated (αE1, αE2) and the properties of complex conjugates are utilized (28, 29, 201, 202) to produce a result (r1, r2) that is representative of the original block of bits.
Present telecommunication system technology includes a wide variety of wireless networking systems associated with both voice and data communications. An overview of several of these wireless networking systems is presented by Amitava Dutta-Roy, Communications Networks for Homes, IEEE Spectrum, pg. 26, December 1999. Therein, Dutta-Roy discusses several communication protocols in the 2.4 GHz band, including IEEE 802.11 direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) and frequency-hopping (FHSS) protocols. A disadvantage of these protocols is the high overhead associated with their implementation. A less complex wireless protocol known as Shared Wireless Access Protocol (SWAP) also operates in the 2.4 GHz band. This protocol has been developed by the HomeRF Working Group and is supported by North American communications companies. The SWAP protocol uses frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology to produce a data rate of 1 Mb/sec. Another less complex protocol is named Bluetooth after a 10th century Scandinavian king who united several Danish kingdoms. This protocol also operates in the 2.4 GHz band and advantageously offers short-range wireless communication between Bluetooth devices without the need for a central network.
The Bluetooth protocol provides a 1 Mb/sec data rate with low energy consumption for battery powered devices operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM (industrial, scientific, medical) band. The current Bluetooth protocol provides a 10-meter range and a maximum asymmetric data transfer rate of 723 kb/sec. The protocol supports a maximum of three voice channels for synchronous, CVSD-encoded transmission at 64 kb/sec. The Bluetooth protocol treats all radios as peer units except for a unique 48-bit address. At the start of any connection, the initiating unit is a temporary master. This temporary assignment, however, may change after initial communications are established. Each master may have active connections of up to seven slaves. Such a connection between a master and one or more slaves forms a “piconet.” Link management allows communication between piconets, thereby forming “scattemets.” Typical Bluetooth master devices include cordless phone base stations, local area network (LAN) access points, laptop computers, or bridges to other networks. Bluetooth slave devices may include cordless handsets, cell phones, headsets, personal digital assistants, digital cameras, or computer peripherals such as printers, scanners, fax machines and other devices.
The Bluetooth protocol uses time-division duplex (TDD) to support bi-directional communication. Frequency hopping permits operation in noisy environments and permits multiple piconets to exist in close proximity. The frequency hopping scheme permits up to 1600 hops per second over 79 1-MHZ channels or the entire 2.4 GHz ISM spectrum. Various error correcting schemes permit data packet protection by ⅓ and ⅔ rate forward error correction. Further, Bluetooth uses retransmission of packets for guaranteed reliability. These schemes help correct data errors, but at the expense of throughput.
The Bluetooth protocol is specified in detail in Specification of the Bluetooth System, Version 1.0A, Jul. 26, 1999, which is incorporated herein by reference.
In wireless communication systems such as described above, the well-known disadvantageous phenomenon of fading is encountered. Conventional transmit diversity techniques can provide several dB's of gain to thereby at least partially overcome the fading problem. Some known transmit diversity schemes require an estimate of the channel at the transmitter, which estimate can be made from previous receptions at the same frequency. However, because the operating environment is not totally static, such estimates are sometimes not very accurate.
Another known technique for overcoming fading is antenna space time transmit diversity. An example of this technique is disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 09/205,029 (Attorney Docket No. TI-28441), filed on Dec. 3, 1998 and incorporated herein by reference. The space time transmit diversity disclosed therein is bit level space time transmit diversity for use with linear modulation schemes such as QPSK modulation. However, bit level space time transmit diversity cannot be used in wireless communication systems that utilize non-linear modulation schemes, for example the GFSK modulation scheme utilized in Bluetooth systems.
It is therefore desirable to apply space time transmit diversity techniques in wireless communication systems that utilize nonlinear modulation.
The present invention applies space time transmit diversity to achieve diversity gains in wireless communication systems that utilize nonlinear modulation schemes. In particular, space time transmit diversity (STTD) is applied at the block level to an original block of bits advantageously to reduce the effects of fading in wireless communication systems that use nonlinear modulation schemes. At the receiving end, fading parameters are estimated and the properties of complex conjugates are utilized to produce a result that is representative of the original block of bits.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The two-part modulated block at 14 is input to an STTD encoder 15 which outputs at 9 a re-ordered two part block including a first part −b* which represents the negative of the complex conjugate of the second part b of the modulated block at 14, and also including a second part a* which is the complex conjugate of the first part a of the modulated block at 14. Complex conjugation as described herein can be performed in any desired conventional manner. For example, if m= cos (wcτ−φ(t)), then the complex conjugate m*= cos (wcτ−φ(t)). As another example, the part a* of
The block output at 9 from the STTD encoder 15 is applied to a transmit processing section 17, and the modulated block 14 output from the modulator 13 is applied to another transmit processing section 19. The transmit processing sections 17 and 19 utilize conventional transmit processing techniques to effect transmission of the blocks 9 and 14 across a wireless communication link 18 (e.g., a Bluetooth link) via respective antennas 10 and 16. In the example of
c=α1a−α2b* Equation 1
d=α1b+α2a*, Equation 2
-
- where the superscript “*” denotes the complex conjugate.
The receiving station can use conventional techniques to produce estimates αE1 and αE2 of the respective fading parameters αe1 and αe2. For example, a fading parameter estimater shown generally at 200 can be a conventional linear receiver, which provides fading parameter estimates in its normal operation. The fading parameter estimates αE1 and αE2 can be determined, for example, based on earlier transmissions received individually from the respective antennas 10 and 16, and can be stored in a suitable database (not explicitly shown). Using the estimated fading parameters, the following two signals can be formed:
r1=αE1*c+αE2d* Equation 3
r2=−αE2c*+α*E1d. Equation 4
In
r1=(|αE1|2+|αE2|2)a Equation 5
r2=(|αE1|2+|αE2|2)b Equation 6
As illustrated in
It will be evident to workers in the art that the embodiments of
Although exemplary embodiments of the invention are described above in detail, this does not limit the scope of the invention, which can be practiced in a variety of embodiments.
Claims
1. An antenna space time transmit diversity method, comprising:
- providing an original block of bits having first and second parts;
- modulating the original block of bits with a carrier signal to produce a modulated block of information having first and second parts that respectively correspond to said first and second parts of said original block of bits;
- producing a further block of information including first and second parts which respectively correspond to the first and second parts of the modulated block and which are respective complex conjugates of the first and second parts of the modulated block; and
- using first and second antennas to respectively transmit the modulated block and the further block over a wireless communication link such that the first part of the modulated block is transmitted in timewise correspondence with the second part of the further block and the second part of the modulated block is transmitted in timewise correspondence with the first part of the further block.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the parts of the further block is a negative complex conjugate of the corresponding part of the modulated block.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein said providing step includes providing the first and second parts of the original block in parallel, and wherein said modulating step includes modulating the first and second parts of the original block in parallel.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein said demodulating step includes one of FSK and GFSK demodulating.
5. A method of determining an original block of bits from first and second antenna signals received via a wireless communication link, comprising:
- producing a received block of information from the first and second antenna signals;
- complex conjugating first and second parts of the received block to produce first and second complex conjugate parts; and
- combining the first and second parts and the first and second complex conjugate parts and fading parameter information indicative of first and second estimated fading parameters respectively associated with the first and second antenna signals to produce a combined result that is representative of the original block of bits.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the fading parameter information includes a complex conjugate of the first estimated fading parameter and also includes the second estimated fading parameter.
7. The method of claim 5, wherein said combining step includes multiplying the first and second parts by a complex conjugate of the first estimated fading parameter to produce first and second products, respectively, and multiplying the first and second complex conjugate parts by the second estimated fading parameter to produce third and fourth products, respectively.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein said combining step includes adding the first product to the third product to produce a first received part, and subtracting the fourth product from the second product to produce a second received part, said combined result including the first and second received parts.
9. The method of claim 8, including demodulating the first and second received parts to produce a demodulated result, and making a determination that the demodulated result is the original block of bits.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein said demodulating step includes demodulating the first and second received parts in parallel to produce first and second constituent parts of the demodulated result.
11. The method of claim 9, including formatting the first and second received parts into a further block, said demodulating step including demodulating the further block to produce a demodulated block, said making step including making a determination that the demodulated block is the original block of bits.
12. The method of claim 9, wherein said demodulating step includes FSK demodulating.
13. The method of claim 9, wherein said demodulating step includes GFSK demodulating.
14. An antenna space time transmit diversity apparatus, comprising:
- an input for receiving an original block of bits having first and second parts;
- a modulator coupled to said input for modulating the original block of bits with a carrier signal to produce a modulated block of information having first and second parts that respectively correspond to said first and second parts of the original block of bits;
- an encoder coupled to said modulator for receiving the modulated block of information and producing therefrom a further block of information including first and second parts which respectively correspond to the first and second parts of the modulated block and which are respective complex conjugates of the first and second parts of the modulated block; and
- first and second antennas respectively coupled to said modulator and said encoder for respectively transmitting the modulated block and the further block over a wireless communication link such that the first part of the modulated block is transmitted in timewise correspondence with the second part of the further block and the second part of the modulated block is transmitted in timewise correspondence with the first part of the further block.
15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein one of the parts of the further block is a negative complex conjugate of the corresponding part of the modulated block.
16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said demodulator includes one of an FSK demodulator and a GFSK demodulator.
17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein a portion of said encoder is provided in said demodulator.
18. The apparatus of claim 14, provided as a Bluetooth device.
19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said modulator is operable for modulating the first and second parts of the original block in parallel.
20. A wireless communication apparatus, comprising:
- a wireless communication interface for receiving from a wireless communication link first and second antenna signals that represent an original block of bits, said wireless communication interface operable for producing a received block of information from said first and second antenna signals;
- a complex conjugator coupled to said wireless communication interface for complex conjugating first and second parts of the received block to produce first and second complex conjugate parts; and
- a combiner coupled to said complex conjugator and to said wireless communication interface and having an input for receiving fading parameter information indicative of first and second estimated fading parameters respectively associated with the first and second antenna signals, said combiner operable for combining the first and second parts and the first and second complex conjugate parts and the fading parameter information to produce a combined result that is representative of the original block of bits.
21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the fading parameter information includes a complex conjugate of the first estimated fading parameter and also includes the second estimated fading parameter.
22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein said combiner includes multipliers for multiplying the first and second parts by a complex conjugate of the first estimated fading parameter to produce respective first and second products and for multiplying the first and second complex conjugate parts by the second estimated fading parameter to produce respective third and fourth products.
23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein said combiner includes adders coupled to said multipliers for adding the first product to the third product to produce a first received part and for subtracting the fourth product from the second product to produce a second received part, said combined result including the first and second received parts.
24. The apparatus of claim 23, including a demodulator coupled to said adders for demodulating the first and second received parts to produce a demodulated result and for providing the demodulated result as a determination of the original block of bits.
25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein said demodulator is operable for demodulating the first and second received parts in parallel to produce first and second constituent parts of the demodulated result.
26. The apparatus of claim 24, including a formatter coupled between said demodulator and said adders for formatting the first and second received parts into a further block, said demodulator operable for demodulating the further block to produce a demodulated block and for providing the demodulated block as a determination of the original block of bits.
27. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein said demodulator includes one of an FSK demodulator and a GFSK demodulator.
28. The apparatus of claim 20, provided as a Bluetooth device.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 14, 2000
Publication Date: Mar 17, 2005
Inventors: Mohammed Nafie (Richardson, TX), Anand Dabak (Plano, TX)
Application Number: 09/737,070