Method and Apparatus for Using Multicarrier Interferometry to Enhance optical Fiber Communications
Multicarrier spreading codes map data symbols to a sequence of orthogonal pulse shapes generated from a superposition of orthogonal subcarriers. The orthogonal subcarriers may include OFDM subcarriers, frequency-hopped subcarriers, or chirped subcarriers. Multicarrier spread spectrum may employ a combination of orthogonal frequency division multiple access, time division multiple access, and code division multiple access. Receivers configured to use multi-user detection may employ a combination of time-domain processing and frequency-domain processing.
This application is a Division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/703,202, filed Oct. 31, 2000, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application to Ser. No. 60/163,141, filed Nov. 2, 1999, and is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/022,950, filed Feb. 12, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,955,992.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wireless communications and specifically to multicarrier spread-spectrum transmission and receivers that employ multi-user detection.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the Optics Letters article “Broadband Continuous Wave Laser,” applicant described a laser design that utilizes a traveling-wave frequency-shifted feedback cavity (FSFC) to circulate light through a gain medium. Light circulating through the FSFC is frequency shifted by an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) upon each pass through the cavity. A unique characteristic of this cavity is that, unlike a Fabry-Perot cavity, it does not selectively attenuate signal frequencies. In the thesis “A New Method for Generating Short Optical Pulses,” applicant describes how an optical signal propagating through an FSFC is spread in frequency to generate broadband lasing. The amount of frequency spreading is proportional to the number of times that light circulates through the cavity. In the Applied Physics Letters article “Optical Pulse Generation with a Frequency Shifted Feedback Laser,” applicant describes an interference condition in which the broadband output of a laser produces short optical pulses characterized by a superposition of phase-aligned subcarriers with a frequency separation equal to the RF-shift frequency of an AOM.
In wireless multicarrier spread-spectrum, spreading is performed across orthogonal subcarrier frequencies to produce a transmit signal expressed by
x=F−1Sb,
where F−1 is an inverse DFT, S is a spread-OFDM code matrix, and b is the transmitted symbol vector. The inverse DFT typically employs an over-sampling factor, so its dimension is K×N (where K>N is the number of time-domain samples per OFDM symbol block), whereas the dimension of the spread-OFDM code matrix is N×N.
The received spread-OFDM signal is
r=HF−1Sb,
where H represents a channel matrix. Since the use of a cyclic prefix in OFDM changes the Toeplitz-like channel matrix into a circulant matrix, the received signal may be represented by
where the relationship H=F−1ΛHF is from the definition of a circulant matrix, wherein ΛH is a diagonal matrix whose diagonal elements correspond to the first column of the circulant channel matrix H. The receiver employs a forward DFT to produce y=ΛHSb.
In conventional multicarrier spread-spectrum, such as MC-CDMA and Spread-OFDM employing Hadamard-Walsh spreading codes, multipath distortions cause correlations between the spreading codes, resulting in loss of orthogonality in the code space. These correlations are substantially uniform across the entire code space, resulting in each code subspace contributing interference to all of the other code subspaces. Thus, a receiver that employs multi-user detection needs to estimate and cancel interference due to transmissions in all active code subspaces other than the code subspace for a signal of interest.
There is a need in the art for multicarrier spreading codes that localize code subspace correlations in the presence of multipath. Such codes would greatly simplify multi-user detection, which is a particularly effective technique for interference mitigation in received signals. In the trivial case, S=I, where I is the identity matrix, gives regular OFDM without spreading. In a more general case, it would be advantageous to identify a family of spreading code matrices S that commute with ΛH. The following relationship establishes the necessary conditions for S to commute with ΛH:
r=F−1ΛHFF−1(ΛCF)b,
where S=ΛCF, and C is a circulant matrix defined by C=F−1ΛCF, where ΛC is the circulant's diagonal matrix. Thus, the received signal r can be written as
r=F−1ΛHΛCFb=F−1ΛCΛHFb
and the despread signal, prior to equalization, is expressed by y=ΛC−1Fr.
In a particularly simple (but elegant) case, the spreading matrix S=ΛCF may be implemented with ΛC=I, such that the spreading matrix is just an N×N DFT matrix. This “Circulant-Identity” case is a simple form of Carrier Interferometry Multiple Access (CIMA). Since OFDM's over-sampled DFT is K×N, the basic CIMA spreading matrix is simply a sinc pulse-shaping filter, which maps each data symbol to a cyclically shifted (orthogonally positioned) superposition of OFDM subcarriers. The actual cyclic CIMA spreading matrix is expressed by C=F−1ΛCF. Other versions of CIMA, including other pulse shapes, may be produced by selecting different diagonal matrices ΛC.
In one embodiment of the invention, the CIMA protocol involves spreading data symbols across a plurality of carriers to provide a predetermined time-domain profile, such as a sequence of Nyquist pulses.
In a receiver, CIMA signals can be processed as both low-bandwidth multicarrier signals and a high-bandwidth pulse-stream, which enables different receiver structures to be used.
In another embodiment, direct-sequence spreading codes may be modulated onto CIMA pulse sequences to produce a type of Direct-Sequence CDMA (DS-CDMA) having a multicarrier signal basis.
Another embodiment of the invention provides a bandwidth-efficient communication protocol for both waveguide (e.g., optical fiber) and wireless communications. A transmission protocol that is common to optical fiber and wireless systems can facilitate local-access services and other applications that require transmissions to be converted from waveguide to free space and from free space to waveguide.
Other embodiments and features of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The following description is directed toward the implementation of an optical-fiber network having a wireless interface at each node. The implementation of the invention can be directed generally to waveguide and wireless applications.
A coupler (such as couplers 150A, 150B, 150C, and 150D) couples electromagnetic signals into the communication channel 99 or couples electromagnetic signals out of the communication channel 99. Couplers can include lenses, antennas, any type of electromagnetic-wave radiator, and any type of electromagnetic-wave receptor. A coupler may be a directional coupler.
The communication channel 99 is any type of transport medium for electromagnetic waves used for communications. Any kind of electromagnetic wave, such as optical (including infrared) and RF (including microwave), may be used for communication. The channel 99 may be a free-space propagation environment, a guided-wave environment, or both. The channel 99 may cause signal distortion and intersymbol (or intercode) interference.
The material through which the communication signals propagate, the shape and dimensions of the material, and the mode of transport defines a transport medium. The characteristics of the propagation environment can be represented by electrical characteristics, such as resistance, inductance, and capacitance. Different types of waveguides represent different transport mediums. Different modes of transport, such as guided wave and free space (i.e., wireless), define different transport mediums.
The communication channel 99 shown in
Each coupler 150A, 150B, 150C, and 150D in
The receivers 200B and 200C are each coupled to a transmitter 100E and 100F. The transmitters 100E and 100F are each coupled to a coupler 150E and 150F. The couplers 150E and 150F provide an interface to a wireless channel (not shown) and couple transmission signals provided by the transmitters 100E and 100F into the wireless channel (not shown). Each coupler 150E and 150F includes an antenna 158E and 158F. The couplers 150E and 150F receive signals from the wireless channel (not shown) and convey the received signals to a receiver 200E and 200F. The receivers 200E and 200F are coupled to the transmitters 100B and 100C, which couple the received wireless signals into the optical fiber 99.
The uniqueness of the present invention shown in
The signal generator 102 produces a multicarrier signal. A multicarrier signal is defined as a plurality of carrier signals having different orthogonalizing properties (also referred to as orthogonality parameters or diversity parameters), such as time, differential power, location, mode, frequency, polarization, phase space, directivity, spread-spectrum code, or any combination of orthogonalizing properties. An orthogonalizing property (such as polarization) may not be completely orthogonal. For example, polarized signals having less than 90-degrees separation between them have cross-polarization (interference) terms. A multicarrier signal may be defined by any signal property that affects propagation characteristics, such as velocity, reflections, and refraction. Each multicarrier signal may be defined by a different propagation mode.
A multi-frequency signal generator is a type of multicarrier-signal generator. A multi-frequency signal generator is any signal generator that generates electromagnetic signals having frequency-diverse characteristics, such as multiple signal frequencies. Frequency-diverse signals may have diversity according to other diversity parameters, such as time, location, mode, polarization, or diversity parameters resulting from any other orthogonalizing property. The multicarrier signals may have any frequency in the electromagnetic frequency spectrum. However, for optical waveguide applications it is assumed that the signals are optical. In free-space applications, the signals are assumed to be RF (including microwave) or optical (including infrared).
In this case, the signal generator 102 produces a plurality of carrier signals having a plurality of frequencies. The signal generator 102 includes a frequency-diverse transmission source (not shown). A frequency-diverse signal may be a multicarrier, broadband, frequency-hopped, or chirped signal. The transmission source (not shown) may be any type of frequency-diverse electromagnetic signal source, which may include mode-locked lasers, laser arrays, FSFCs, frequency-shifted feedback lasers, or broadband sources. A broadband source (not shown) may include a wavelength demultiplexer (not shown) for separating continuous-wave radiation into carriers having discreet frequencies or discreet frequency bands.
The signal generator 102 may include any type of multi-frequency optical source. Many optical sources disclosed in the prior art are appropriate for the signal generator 102 and are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,079 describes a laser cavity having a frequency-routing device comprising controllable frequency-selective pathways to allow multiple lasing frequencies to be supported. U.S. Pat. No. 5,936,752 describes a method of coupling light from a broadband source into a wavelength demultiplexer for creating discreet wavelengths. A broadband source may be provided by U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,683, which discloses a coherent source of white light. U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,525 describes a mode-locked laser for providing multiple signal wavelengths. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,450,427 and 5,923,686 describe mode-locked lasers used to create short pulses by either active or passive mode locking.
Mode-locking lasers have a modulator in the laser cavity to provide optical losses or gains at a frequency corresponding to the separation frequency between two adjacent longitudinal cavity modes. In active mode-locking lasers, the emitted pulse frequency depends on the excitation frequency of the modulator. A mode-locked laser may be a linear or ring-cavity laser. Active mode-locking systems can produce a large number of locked pulses that simultaneously travel through a ring cavity, and therefore enable the pulse frequency to be much higher than in passive-type devices.
Optical-fiber laser devices have an active electro-optical modulation device in an optical path forming a laser cavity. Harmonic mode locking occurs when the modulation frequency of the device is an integer-valued multiple of the intermode separation frequency. Harmonic mode locking is particularly useful in fiber lasers because it enables shorter pulses to be produced.
The composite signal 130 may be a CIMA signal, which is a signal comprised of carrier signals having predetermined frequency and phase relationships.
CIMA supports both orthogonal and pseudo-orthogonal waveforms. Basic forms of CIMA can be used to double capacity in traditional TDMA systems and simultaneously improve system performance in a multipath environment. CIMA allows systems to achieve the benefits of frequency diversity in which they previously could only benefit from path diversity. Similarly, CIMA allows conventional DS-CDMA systems to achieve the performance benefits of MC-CDMA.
A CIMA signal corresponding to the superposition on N carriers uniformly spaced in frequency by fs has a waveform envelope according the equation:
The CIMA envelopes are periodic with a period of 1/fs. The mainlobe of the envelope has a width of 2/Nfs, and the N−1 sidelobe widths are 2/Nfs. Applying a phase shift of nΔφk to each nth carrier shifts the CIMA envelope in time by Δt=Δφk/2πfs. Therefore N signals can be positioned orthogonally in time. The phase shifts provide the necessary phase relationships to create the desired timing of the information signal received by at least one receiver (not shown).
The cross correlation between users is:
where τ is the time shift between envelopes. Zeros occur at k/Nfs, k=1,2, . . . ,N−1 and (2k−1)/2(N−1)fs, k=1,2, . . . ,N−1. CIMA can support N orthogonal users. If additional users or signals need to be accommodated, CIMA provides N−1 additional positions to place signals.
Modulated carriers may be combined in a combining step 109. The combined signals may be up converted in an up-conversion process 205, which may include mixing with a carrier signal having a frequency fc. The carrier signals are then coupled into a communication channel 99 by a coupling process 150.
A CIMA signal has a number of carrier signals that may each have a bandwidth that is less than the coherence bandwidth of the communication channel. The coherence bandwidth is the bandwidth limit in which correlated fading occurs. The total bandwidth of the CIMA signal preferably exceeds the coherence bandwidth.
CIMA signals may be spaced in frequency by large amounts to achieve a large system bandwidth relative to the coherence bandwidth. In this case, CIMA signals make use of the frequency diversity parameter to achieve uncorrelated fading. However, any diversity parameter or combination of diversity parameters may be used to achieve uncorrelated fading over the system bandwidth (or even between individual carriers). For example, the system bandwidth of a group of CIMA carriers may be defined by the coherence bandwidth of one or more subchannels, such as spatial subchannels. Carriers that are closely spaced in frequency may have uncorrelated fading if they are transmitted from different locations or have different values of directivity. CIMA carriers transmitted from different locations may have different fades over each spatial subchannel and therefore can benefit from diversity combining at a receiver (not shown).
A CIMA receiver is shown in
Signals output from the down converters 205A, 205n, and 205N may be sampled by a plurality of samplers 214A, 214n, and 214N before being combined in a combiner 109. A decision device 255 detects the combined signals. The decision device 255 may be part of the combiner 109. The decision device 255 may perform multi-user detection or multi-channel detection and may perform any combination of cancellation and constellation processes to determine the value(s) of received signals.
Unequally spaced carrier signals refer to any type of sparse or ultra-sparse spacing, such as referred to in array processing, but applied to frequency or wavelength spacing of the carriers. Unequal spacing includes random spacing, non-redundant spacing, or any type of spacing determined by a nonredundant mathematical relation, such as prime numbers, 2n relationships, or Fibonocci series.
The multicarrier-signal generator 102 or the modulator 104 may provide a frequency-versus-amplitude windowing function to the carrier signals. Windowing functions include spatially variant apodization, and any other methods of reducing sidelobes, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,955,992.
The modulator 104 may modulate the carrier signals with an information signal. The modulator 104 may use the carrier signals to modulate the information signal. The modulator 104 may use any type of modulation scheme, such as AM, FM, ASK, FSK, PSK, PAM, TOM, Pulse Position Modulation, and any type of differential modulation.
Information signals are communication signals that are unknown (or have at least one unknown characteristic) at a receiver prior to transmission. The information signal may be analog or digital. The information signal may be a baseband information signal, an information signal modulated with an intermediate frequency, or a coded information signal that has been encoded with any combination of encryption, error-correction, and spread-spectrum codes.
The modulator 104 may provide weights to each of the carriers according to a predetermined code. The coded weights may be applied to the carriers in order to generate a predetermined time-domain profile, such as a direct-sequence signal. A preferred embodiment of the invention includes a process of applying complex weights to a multicarrier signal in order to create a predetermined time-domain signal. A predetermined time-domain signal (or profile) is defined herein as a specific shape of at least one signal parameter, such as amplitude, frequency, polarization, and phase in the time domain. The time-domain shape may be characterized by any signaling protocol, such as TDMA and CDMA.
Although carriers may be modulated with respect to codes, or information signals may be modulated onto the carriers within multiple time intervals or having different time offsets, the carriers are redundantly modulated with at least one information signal. In this specification, redundantly modulated multicarrier signals describe any of a set of signals wherein at least one information signal is modulated onto a plurality of carrier signals having different values of at least one diversity parameter. A modulator may simultaneously modulate the carriers with the information signal, or it may modulate each carrier independently. The carrier signals may be modulated at different time intervals. The carriers may be modulated with an encoded information signal. The carriers may be modulated non-redundantly or quasi-redundantly with spreading, error-correction, or encryption codes in addition to being redundantly modulated with the information signal(s).
A code generator 114 provides the N chips ckn to a serial-to-parallel converter 107 that arranges the chips ckn to parallel modulate each of a plurality of carrier signals generated by a carrier-signal generator 102. If the carriers are multi-frequency carriers, the carrier-signal generator 102 may be represented by the operation or implementation of a digital method for generating multi-frequency carriers, such as an inverse Discreet Fourier Transform or an inverse Fast Fourier Transform. Each chip ckn may be applied to a frequency bin of a transform process. The chips ckn may have binary, real, or complex values. The modulated carriers are optionally coupled to an output processor 112, which processes the carriers prior to coupling them into a communication channel (not shown).
The code generator 114 can be used as an information-signal encoder or a carrier encoder. An information signal may be used to modulate at least one code sequence. The code generator 114 may be a multi-stage code generator. Code generators may include one or more N-point transforms. N-point transforms include Discrete Fourier Transforms (DFT), Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT), Walsh Transforms (WT), Hilbert Transforms (HT), Randomizer Transforms (RT), Permutator Transforms (PT), Inverse DFTs, Inverse FFTs, Inverse WTs, Inverse HTs, Inverse RTs, Inverse PTs, and any other reversible transform.
The output processor 112 may combine the carriers and/or provide additional processing, such as filtering, interleaving, up converting, down converting, coding, weighting, amplifying, and mixing. A multicarrier signal may appear as a continuous broadband signal (in the frequency domain) if the carriers are modulated by a signal that has a large bandwidth with respect to carrier-frequency separation.
A direct-sequence time-domain signal is produced by an appropriate selection of chip values ckn. Therefore, the generation of the periodic time-domain chip sequence does not require any time-domain processing. The only time-domain processing involves the modulation of the time-dependent information signals sn(t) onto the carriers. This multicarrier method of generating CDMA signals enables ultra-wideband CDMA to be deployed without the high-speed processing requirements of conventional direct-sequence chip generation.
An information-signal source 101 provides information signals sn(t) to an encoder 108, which may digitize and code the signals sn(t) to create bits of information sn(k). Signal coding may include spread-spectrum, error-correction, or encryption coding. Information bits sn(k) are represented as one form of the information signal sn(t). The bits sn(k) are provided to a modulator 104 which produces a plurality of modulated symbols.
The modulated symbols are coupled to a predistortion device 111, which adjusts signal parameters (such as power, gain-profile, and phase) in order to compensate for distortion resulting from network components (such as the channel, amplifiers, and receivers). The predistortion device 111 is an optional part of the transmitter 100. The modulated symbols may be processed in a carrier-signal generator 102, which may be a digital signal processor. The signal generator 102 performs an inverse Fourier Transform, and may perform other digital processing methods, such as filtering and pulse shaping. A low-pass filter 113 may filter the output of the signal generator 102. The modulated symbols may be mixed with a carrier signal from a local oscillator 203. The local oscillator 203 may be used to either up convert or down convert modulated carrier signals that are coupled into a communication channel by a coupler 150.
A combiner, such as the combiner 109 is any device or process that has an input of a plurality of signals and an output representing a superposition of the signals. A combiner may be a physical device, such as a wavelength multiplexer, splitter, voltage divider, a summer, or a difference amplifier. A combiner may be a combining process performed by a computer processor. A combiner may provide phase shifts to one or more input signals, filtering, inversion, interleaving, de-interleaving, or amplitude adjustment prior to combining the input signals.
Any of the modulators 104 used in the invention may include a selective modulation unit, such as the modulator disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,925 that operates on each carrier signal individually.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,765 (which is incorporated herein by reference) describes a mode-locked laser used to control an optical switch. The laser has an intracavity modulator that is repetitively modulated at an integer multiple of the cavity round-trip time. Output pulses are in bit positions that correspond to the signal input to the modulator. This method could be used to switch the transmission of a CIMA signal output to an optical fiber. This laser could also be used to generate the CIMA signals, and in the process control the timing of the CIMA signals. U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,302 discloses a high-speed frequency-modulation signal source.
Pulsed signals may be digital or analog modulated. The modulator 104 may be a Mach-Zender modulator made of lithium niobate (LiNbO3). Lithium niobate external modulators are typically used to provide amplitude-shift key or phase-shift key modulation. Frequency-shift keying may be accomplished by modulating the drive current of a transmitter diode laser. The modulation may include multi-level keying formats.
Information modulated onto carriers may be coded, such as according to a multiple-access, error-correction, or encryption code. Interleaving may be employed to reduce distortion effects caused by the channel 99. The carriers may be phase-shift (or delay) coded or otherwise coded with a multiple-access or encryption code. Modulators may provide a modulation signal to each of the carriers, or they may modulate a composite transmit signal formed from the superposition of the carriers. The modulator 104 may include a clock having a frequency that determines the modulation frequency imparted to the data.
The modulator 104 may include a delay or phase-shift device that delays or phase shifts one or more of the carriers before insertion into the fiber. The delay may be applied by a timing switch or delay device that adds a delay or phase-shift to each of the carriers separately or combined. The delay device may consist of one or more delay paths that provides a variable delay to the carriers, such as a delay that depends on carrier wavelength or polarization. The modulator 104 may provide a windowing function to lower sidelobes. Windowing functions include spatially variant apodization and any other methods that reduce sidelobes, such as Hamming, Hanning, Gaussian, triangular (Bartlett), Kaiser, Chebyshev and raised-cosine filtering.
A modulation scheme, such as pulse amplitude modulation may be performed on the individual carriers or on the composite signal 130 shown in
Although the composite signal 130 may have substantially zero amplitude in time intervals where there is a non zero-phase relationship between the carriers, the carriers still exist and therefore, the information signal represented by the constructive interference that occurs at zero phase exists in non zero phase. Recovery of the information signal from a non zero-phase sampling of the carriers (such as may be required due to chromatic dispersion in the propagation channel) may be achieved by phase shifting (or delaying) the carrier signals in order to construct a zero-phase relationship.
In a wireless channel, the redundantly modulated multicarrier protocols provide substantial improvements in performance over all other protocols. CIMA provides superior bandwidth efficiency compared to any other protocol, and it allows a seamless conversion from orthogonal coding to quasi-orthogonal coding. CIMA provides substantial improvements to interference rejection and signal degradation due to multipath. Frequency diversity in CIMA reduces transmission-power and power-control requirements. CIMA enables simplified transmitter and receiver designs, and it enables the implementation of ultra-wideband CDMA by using slow parallel processing. The implementation of redundantly modulated multicarrier protocols in antenna arrays introduces new array-processing capabilities. Frequency diversity in redundantly modulated protocols introduces new types of spatial processing that do not require antenna arrays.
The CIMA protocol also enables a seamless transition from orthogonal operating conditions to quasi-orthogonal operating conditions. A detailed discussion of the operation of a basic CIMA system is described in “Introduction of Carrier Interference to Spread Spectrum Multiple Access,” Nassar et. al. (Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE Emerging Technologies Symposium on Wireless Communications and Systems, Apr. 12-13, 1999), which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Time-division multiple access may be achieved by assigning one or more time intervals to each transmitter. A transmission system may include at least two transmitters generating modulated multicarrier signals offset in time. Another type of multiple access may be achieved by assigning one or more time-dependent phase spaces to each transmitter. The phase spaces may be sampled in multi-user detection processes or in other processes that can enhance the signal quality of received signals. Multiple access may be achieved by generating and processing spread-spectrum signals (such as CDMA) produced by setting or adjusting (such as weighting or hopping) characteristics of multicarrier signals. In another form of multiple access, coded multicarrier signals are processed in the frequency domain using a multi-user type of processing, such as cancellation or constellation methods for separating interfering information signals.
One aspect of the present invention includes the use of a redundantly modulated multicarrier protocol in waveguides. An optical-fiber communication system that uses the multicarrier protocol is illustrated in
An optical-fiber path may include at least one amplifier to compensate for fiber attenuation and component loss. Either equalization or pre-emphasis may be used in the optical system to compensate for non-uniform amplifier gain. U.S. Pat. No. 5,847,862 (which is incorporated by reference) describes a method of shaping amplifier outputs to offset depletion of high-frequency channels.
In an optical fiber (or any type of waveguide), differences in carrier velocity may result from dispersion. Dispersion includes intramodal (group velocity) dispersion, such as material and waveguide dispersion, and intermodal dispersion, such as modal dispersion. In the preferred embodiments, it is assumed that the optical fiber has a dispersion that increases with increasing signal wavelength.
At another location in the waveguide 99, dispersion causes a group of different-frequency waves 71C and 81C to be in phase. The composite signal 130C resulting from the superposition of the waves 71C and 81C includes a constructive-interference pulse that is easily detectable. The duration of the composite signal 130C is shorter than the duration of the other composite signals 130B and 130A. The duration of the detectable portion of signal 130C may be substantially shorter than the actual duration of the signal 130C.
Dispersion will cause the waves 71C and 81C to move out of phase at other locations past the location where the waves 71C and 81C combine in phase. Matching dispersion profiles and phase relationships enables signals to be enhanced by dispersion. As matched signal components travel through a waveguide, the duration of composite signals is reduced and the detectability of the composite signals is increased. The duration and detectability of a composite signal may be optimized at one or more locations along a waveguide.
A phase relationship applied to a multicarrier (or frequency-diverse) signal matches a dispersion profile of a waveguide for a specific distance if the carriers have a predetermined phase relationship after traveling that distance through the waveguide. The predetermined phase relationship at the specific distance along the waveguide may be a zero-phase or a non zero-phase relationship.
A virtual address is the phase relationship of a transmitted multicarrier (or frequency-diverse) signal required to produce a predetermined phase relationship at a predetermined receiver along a waveguide. A virtual address may be represented as one or more phase spaces, such as the phase spaces 123, 125, 127, and 129 shown in
Virtual switching includes a process of addressing a transmitted signal such that it has a predetermined phase relationship upon reception by at least one receiver. The addressing is a type of dispersion compensation. The phase relationship of the addressed signals is selected such that as the signals propagate through the waveguide and distort due to dispersion, the phase relationships mutate to create a predetermined phase relationship at a specific receiver location along the waveguide. At other locations along the waveguide, the signals may have phase relationships that cause them to be disregarded or undetected by receivers at those locations.
The transmitter 100 may include an address applicator (not shown) or the modulator 104 may perform address application to the transmission signals. The address applicator (not shown) selects at least one relative phase relationship between a plurality of carrier signals having different values of at least one orthogonalizing property (such as frequency). The relative phase relationship corresponds to at least one address. The address applicator (not shown) produces at least one packet of carriers having the relative phase relationship(s). Transmission signals having at least one virtual address arrive at one or more predetermined nodes (such as nodes 161A and 161B) with at least one predetermined phase relationship.
The address applicator (not shown) may use a relative phase selector (not shown) to match a virtual address to a transmission signal based on its intended destination(s). The address applicator (not shown) may include a packet generator (not shown) to produce a PAM section of a multicarrier signal having a desired phase relationship.
In the addressing process shown in
In this case the channel provides a distortion to the nth carrier by an amount of eiΦndk. Φn is a linear (with respect to distance) delay factor associated with a carrier frequency in the channel 99 and dk is the distance that the wave travels between the transmitter and the receiver 200. The factor Φn may depend on nonlinear channel effects, such as dispersion.
The weights ank have values of e−iΦndk to compensate for the channel distortion affecting each carrier. Therefore the weights ank provide a type of addressing to the transmitted signals. The weights ank may include windowing weights and/or weight values that facilitate signal separation by the receiver 200. The modulation steps 104A, 104B, and 104C may be performed in any order and may be combined. The transmitted signals are coupled out of the channel 99 by a receiver coupler 151 coupled to the receiver 200.
The multicarrier signals are assigned at least one address in a phase-space addressing step 181. Adjustments to the carrier phases and/or the carrier frequencies may be performed in this step 181. The process of addressing is performed by selecting at least one set of relative phases of the multicarrier signals. The selection process may be performed by individually modulating a portion of each carrier or modulating a portion of the composite signal 130. The modulation may be any type of modulation including PAM, and it may involve modulating the carriers or composite signal 130 with at least one information signal. The phase-space addressing step 181 may adjust or control the carrier phases and/or the orthogonalizing properties. A coupling step 182 couples the addressed signals into the channel 99.
Adjusting multicarrier signal frequencies may be performed at the transmitter 100 in order to provide a phase relationship that matches a dispersion profile of the waveguide 99. This is done in order to provide a specific phase relationship between the carriers at the transmitter 100 (such as to facilitate PAM of the superposition signal). The signal frequencies may also be adjusted in order to adjust the phase relationship of signals received by one or more receivers (not shown) along the waveguide 99. If the multicarrier signals are non-uniformly spaced, then dispersion shifting of the carriers is unlikely to generate multiple primary-interference zones associated with a single address.
Receivers described in this specification are considered to be any system that processes transmitted signals coupled out of (received from) a communication channel. The processing achieves recovery of one or more information signals modulated on the transmitted signals. The receiver 200 may include a coupler to couple signals from the communication channel 99. The receiver 200 may provide decoding of encrypted, error-coded, or spread-spectrum coded signals. Signal processing may involve use of a phase-lock loop to track phases of received signals in order to compensate for phase variations (such as jitter).
The receiver 200 may use discreet components or digital signal processing methods in a CPU. The receiver 200 may include one or more discreet components or methods including envelope detectors, filters, decoders, level controllers, amplifiers, phase-lock loops, de-interleavers, demodulators, mixers, windows (such as frequency-domain or time-domain windows), analog-to-digital converters, circulators, samplers, phase shifters, weight-and-sum processors, delay lines, pulse-stretching processors, electrical signal generators, signal storage processors, cancellers, and frequency converters. The receiver 200 may change the frequency of received signals before, during, or after processing to recover the information signal(s). The receiver 200 may convert received signals into electrical signals and the electrical signals may be processed in a CPU using analog or digital signal processing.
A time-domain receiver receives and processes transmitted time-domain signals to recover one or more information signals modulated on the transmitted signals. The time-domain receiver may receive a time-domain signal and apply a signal-processing method to facilitate reception of a pulse. Many types of signal processing may be used to stretch a received pulse. RF pulse-stretching methods are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,317, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Time-domain receivers may include envelope detectors, peak detectors, and the like. Time-domain receivers may also include any type of decimation-in-frequency system, frequency analyzer, or frequency processor to assist in detection of the received time-domain signals.
A coupler 150 couples received signals from a communication channel 99 into a carrier isolator 201, such as a band-pass filter. A band-pass filter may include one or more filters of a filter bank (not shown). The isolated received signals may be down converted by mixing with a local oscillator 203 signal. Down conversion of the received signals is an optional process. The received signals may be sampled by a sampler 214 to produce a plurality of received information bits (or otherwise processed signals) that are processed in a processor 212. Processed signals are passed on to a demodulator/decoder 206 that outputs a recovered information signal sn(t).
The carrier isolator 201 separates or isolates at least one multicarrier signal. The carrier isolator 201 may provide filtering, diffraction, or coding (or a combination of methods) to achieve separation of multicarrier signals. The carrier isolator 201 may include a filter bank (not shown), which is defined as any device that separates multicarrier signals with respect to one or more orthogonality parameters that distinguish the multicarrier signals.
One type of filter bank is a frequency-filter bank. A frequency-filter bank is any device or method that performs separation-by-frequency of a frequency-diverse signal. A filter bank may be an array of filters or a signal-processing technique (such as a Fourier transform) that acts on a time-domain signal to separate it into spectral components. A filter bank may include a set of processors that spectrally decompose a time-domain signal into a set of frequency bins. A frequency bin represents the frequency band of each filter in a filter bank. The filter bank may provide weights to the bins.
A Fourier transform, as used herein is defined as any of the direct or inverse Fourier transform methods including Fourier transforms, Fourier series, discreet-time Fourier transforms, discreet Fourier transforms, and polynomial transforms. Fourier transforms may be implemented using any number of computational techniques, such as fast Fourier transforms, and they may be supported using additional mathematical relationships such as Laplace transforms.
A wavelength demultiplexer is a type of carrier isolator 201. Many different types of filters may be used in a carrier isolator 201. To separate individual carriers, the filters preferably have sharp roll-off characteristics to minimize cross talk between channels. The carrier isolator 201 may include wide-band filters for separating a plurality of channels into groups of channels for FDM. The carrier isolator 201 may also include multiple stages of wavelength demultiplexers.
A preferred embodiment of the carrier isolator 201 includes a monolithic optical-waveguide filter. Bandpass filters may be interferometric (such as thin-film interference filters), resonant cavities, or acousto-optic filters. A filter may comprise a Bragg grating in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Filters may be switchable or tunable. Another method of carrier isolation may include filtering after converting received electromagnetic signals to electrical signals. A star coupler with tunable filters on the receiving ends may also be used as a carrier isolator 201 for wavelength demultiplexing signals.
Another type of carrier isolator 201 is a decoder, which may be implemented in the demodulator/decoder 206 or in other decoders described in the specification. A decoder may be used to describe either or both an information decoder and a carrier decoder. The decoder may be a multi-stage or parallel decoder and may include at least one correlator and/or at least one matched filter.
An information decoder decodes an encoded information signal. The decoder may provide encryption, error-correction, or spread-spectrum decoding (or any combination of decoding) to decode an encoded information signal.
A carrier decoder provides decoding of an encoded multicarrier signal in which each carrier signal may be AM, FM, ASK, PSK, frequency-hop, time-hop, delay, time-offset, or phase-space encoded. Encoding may include differential modulation.
A spread-spectrum decoder can be used as an information decoder or carrier decoder. The decoder may decode an information or multicarrier signal according to a code sequence generated by a code generator. The decoder may include a multi-stage decoder. Decoders may generate one or more N-point transforms. N-point transforms include DFTs, FFTs, WTs, HTs, RTs, PTs, Inverse DFTs, Inverse FFTs, Inverse WTs, Inverse HTs, Inverse RTs, Inverse PTs, and any other reversible transform.
The sampler 214 may sample received signals with respect to one or more orthogonality parameters. A time-domain sampler collects samples during multiple time intervals. A phase-domain sampler takes at least one sample in at least one time interval, then adjusts the relative phases of the sampled signals to reconstruct time-domain signals occurring in other time intervals. A space-domain sampler receives samples from a plurality of spatially separated locations or directions of arrival. A polarization sampler takes samples from a plurality of samplers having different polarization sensitivities. A frequency-domain sampler includes a filter bank for separating received signals into a plurality of frequency components. The information signals are removed from the carriers and the complex-valued amplitude of the information signals is preserved. Frequency-domain processing may include the removal of redundant transform values. A sampler (such as sampler 214) may be used as a carrier isolator.
The processor 212 may include one or more discreet components or signal-processing methods including envelope detectors, filters, decoders, coders, level controllers, amplifiers, phase-lock loops, de-interleavers, demodulators, mixers, windows (such as frequency-domain and time-domain windows), analog-to-digital converters, digital-to-analog converters, circulators, samplers, phase shifters, weight-and-sum processors, delay lines, pulse-stretching processors, signal generators, local oscillators, signal-storage processors, cancellers, and frequency converters.
Components of the receiver 200 shown in
The detector 204 may include a multi-user detector (not shown). A multi-user detector (not shown) receives one or more signals from a plurality of user channels and processes those signals to estimate their values. The detector 204 can make either hard decisions or soft decisions. The detector 204 may perform diversity combining, which can consist of co-phasing, selective combining, maximal-ratio combining, equal-gain combining, maximal-selection combining, or any other type of diversity combining.
Any of the signal-processing operations associated with the processor 212 may be incorporated into the carrier isolator 201, the decoder 207, the detector 204, or the parallel-to-serial signal converter 255. The decoder 207, detector 204, and parallel-to-serial signal converter 255 may comprise one of a plurality of sets of receivers coupled to the carrier isolator 201. The carrier isolator 201 may separate received multicarrier signals into a plurality of groups. Each of the carrier groups may be coupled to a different receiver, such as receiver 200.
There are a large variety of receivers that can be used in a redundantly modulated multicarrier waveguide-communication system including the following:
- 1. An ordinary time-domain receiver that receives carriers having a zero-phase relationship.
- 2. A receiver coupled to a transmitter that retransmits the received signals into the same channel medium.
- 3. A transport-medium interface: (such as an optical-to-RF converter) for retransmitting received signals into a different channel.
- 4. An optical-to-electrical converter (which may include a digital signal processor for processing electrical signals) and/or detector.
- 5. A multi-user detector or multi-channel detector.
- 6. An address adjuster that uses phase-domain sampling to produce a predefined phase relationship between multicarrier signals. The address adjuster may apply phase adjustments to compensate for non zero phase space signals.
Combinations of these receiver designs may be used in any waveguide or wireless receiver.
A receiver for an optical system, such as an optical-fiber communication system, is shown in
A detector 204 may receive signals directly coupled from the communication channel 99. The detector 204 may receive down-converted signals from the down converter 205. In an optical version of the detector 204, optical signals are converted to electrical signals by one or more photodetectors having high quantum efficiency in the relevant spectral range of the received or down converted signals. The detector 204 may be an electrical or RF detector that is responsive to baseband or intermediate-frequency signals output from the down converter 205. Detectors (such as the detector 204) may include signal processing systems (not shown), such as phase-lock loops, digital signal processors, filters, phase-shifters, amplitude adjusters, multi-user detectors, feedback loops, synchronizers, pilot-signal processors, combiners, and the like. Signals output from the detector 204 may optionally be demodulated and/or decoded by a demodulator/decoder 206.
A detector of the present invention for a multicarrier optical-fiber system may have one of the following designs:
- 1. A single photodetector sensitive to all received wavelengths.
- 2. A wavelength demultiplexer to separate wavelengths, a received-carrier adjuster (phase or amplitude), and a photodetector.
- 3. A wavelength demultiplexer and a plurality of photodetectors. Electrical outputs of the photodetectors may be processed and combined.
The down converter 205 includes a local oscillator 203 and a combiner 202. A detector 204 receives the carrier signals (which may be down-converted or up-converted carrier signals). The detected signals may be subjected to further processing by a demodulator/decoder 206 that performs either or both demodulation and decoding of the detected signals.
Demultiplexing systems (as well as multiplexers) may include diffraction gratings and multi-layer interference filters. Mach-Zender or Fabry-Perot interferometers may be used for filtering the desired channel. The demodulator/decoder 206 may include a square-law demodulator to demodulate received ASK signals. The receiver 200 may include a phase-diversity receiver.
The receiver 200 may receive multiple transmissions from at least one transmitter. The received signals are preferably separable through a multiple-access technique based on at least one diversity parameter, such as spread-spectrum code, frequency, time, differential power, polarization, or phase space.
The preprocessors 211A and 211B may include an address separator to demultiplex received signals with respect to at least one diversity parameter. If at least one of the diversity parameters is phase space, the preprocessors 211A and 211B may include one or more phase processors (not shown) for decoding multicarrier signals having different phase-spaces. A phase processor (not shown) applies phase adjustments to a plurality of carrier signals to provide at least one predetermined phase relation. A phase processor (not shown) may include a plurality of phase processors (not shown) for applying a plurality of phase adjustments to compensate for a plurality of different phase relationships. The preprocessors 211A and 211B may provide other digital signal processing techniques to the signals, such as filtering, phase adjustment, phase stabilization, amplitude adjustment, and decoding.
The separated signals may be demodulated and/or decoded. Interference in the signals may be removed by an optional interference canceller 256. The receiver 200 may include at least one phase-locked loop.
An alternative embodiment of a receiver 200 that performs address separation is shown in
A reference source 217 produces a plurality of reference beams that are coupled into each nonlinear transmission medium 215A to 215B. A nonlinear process (such as second-harmonic generation) may be used to generate an information signal resulting from the interaction of the multicarrier signals and the reference beams. Other techniques for generating an information signal may be used instead, such as a threshold-power detection technique in which signals output from the preprocessors may excite a gain medium if the carriers are in phase. A detector, such as detectors 204A and 204B receives each of the information signals. The detected signals may be demodulated, decoded, and/or acted upon by an interference canceller (not shown).
The down converter 205 may include any type of optical-to-RF converter (not shown). An optical-to-RF converter is a device or method that down converts an electromagnetic signal to a signal having a lower frequency. This includes mixers, optical-heterodyne, and optical-homodyne devices. The down converter 205 may include a homodyne device if the optical carriers are modulated with RF signals. The down converter 205 may be any device that has an input of at least one information signal modulated on at least one optical carrier and that outputs at least one RF carrier that is modulated with the information signal(s). The down converter 205 may perform an intermediate process of converting an input electromagnetic signal into an electrical signal, which can be used to modulate one or more RF output signals. A processor (not shown) may perform one or more signal processing steps on an input signal, such as filtering, amplifying, windowing, phase shifting, encoding, decoding, storing, duplicating, inverting, and weighting.
Redundantly modulated multicarrier signals may be used as a multiple-access communication protocol such as CIMA, MC-CDMA, or an OFDM protocol that transmits data over multiple carriers. CIMA signals have advantageous transmission characteristics in a wireless environment. CIMA signals can be used to construct many different wireless protocols including GSM, other TDMA protocols, and CDMA. CIMA provides substantial improvements to system capacity, simplicity, and signal quality, and it greatly increases diversity benefits of conventional multiple-access protocols. CIMA also enables a simple transport-medium interface between optical-fiber and wireless transmissions because a wireless protocol constructed from multiple carriers does not require a protocol change at the interface.
The transport-medium interface may be designed to couple received signals from the free-space channel 99B to the waveguide 99A. The transport-medium interface may include a RF-to-optical converter (not shown) for converting received wireless RF signals into optical signals that are inserted into the waveguide 99A.
If the signal is a multicarrier signal having a phase relationship that matches the phase profile of the waveguide 99, then the signal may be undetectable at node 150B. However, if the carriers are uniformly spaced in frequency, then a detectable constructive-interference signal will be detectable at more than one location in the waveguide 99. The carrier signals may have a mode relationship that causes a plurality of detectable constructive-interference signals to occur at multiple locations in the waveguide 99.
At least one cancellation channel 199 is coupled between node 150A and 150B. The cancellation channel 199 couples the receiver 200A to the transmitter 100B. A desired signal received at node 150A may be coupled from the receiver 200A to the transmitter 100B. Thus, node 150B receives two versions of node 150A's desired signal. One version is the wave that propagates through the communication channel 99 to provide a channel-shifted version of node 150A's desired signal. The second version is received from the cancellation channel 199 and inserted into the node 150B by the transmitter 100B. Preferably, the second version is a cancellation signal that is an inverse or out-of-phase replica of the channel-shifted version. Canceling node 150A's desired signal at a later stage in the waveguide 99 network enables reuse of node 150A's address space in other parts of the network.
The cancellation channel 199 may be a waveguide or wireless channel. A received signal at node 150A may be inverted or otherwise adjusted by either the receiver 200A or the transmitter 100B. The channel 199 may also provide signal processing (such as phase adjustment that naturally results from dispersion in a nonlinear medium). The channel paths of both the communication channel 99 and the cancellation channel 199 may each be oriented to provide an equal amount of delay to the signals received by receiver 200A.
The cancellation-channel 199 may include a separate waveguide or it may include a wireless channel. The cancellation channel 199 may be represented by one or more signals that have higher velocities than the signal(s) in the communication channel 99. The cancellation-channel 199 may consist of signals having a predetermined polarization, mode, and/or wavelength. Although not shown, one or more cancellation channels may connect nodes 150A and 150B to other nodes (not shown).
The receiver 200A receives the desired signal and processes it to create a cancellation signal having at least one different signal characteristic (such as polarization, mode, or wavelength). Other processing steps (such as, but not limited to, phase shifting, delay, amplitude adjustment, and filtering) may be performed by the receiver 200A and/or the transmitter 100A. The transmitter 100A transmits the cancellation signal into the channel 99. The cancellation signal may be coupled into the channel 99 at a different node than node 150A.
The receiver 200B preferably receives the cancellation signal before it receives receiver 200A's desired signal. The cancellation signal is processed by either or both the receiver 200B and the transmitter l OOB to ensure that the cancellation signal will cancel receiver 200A's desired signal. This processing may include steps to return the cancellation signal to the same frequency, mode, and/or polarization as receiver 200A's desired signal received at the node 150B or any other node (not shown) where the cancellation signal may be inserted.
A process for canceling communication signals from in a communication channel is shown in
Redundantly modulated multicarrier signals, such as CDMA-CIMA signals, enable signal differentiation in both time and frequency domains. CDMA-CIMA codes that are unique in the time domain also have unique frequency-versus-amplitude profiles. The DS-CDMA signals are determined by weights applied to each carrier. Therefore, frequency diversity as well as code diversity can be used to achieve multiple access.
The weighted signals are processed in a coding process 444. The coding process 444 may include the weighting process 440. The coding process 444 may include one or more N-point transforms. The variable N in an N-point transform does not necessarily correspond to the number N of information signals or other variables used throughout this specification. N-point transforms include DFT, FFT, WT, HT, RT, PT, Inverse DFTs, Inverse FFTs, Inverse WTs, Inverse HTs, Inverse RTs, Inverse PTs, and any other reversible transform. The coding process 444 can be regarded as a multicarrier-generation process. M coded signals are coupled into a communication channel 99, which may operate on the signals. Coded signals coupled out of the channel 99 are decoded in a decoding process 244. The decoding process 244 may include at least one M-point transform. A decoding process, such as decoding process 244, can be regarded as a multicarrier-separation process. A separator (not shown) may perform the decoding process 244.
A set of M decoded signals are coupled into an interference-cancellation process 250 that separates the desired signals sn(t) from interference and outputs the separated desired signals sn(t). The interference-cancellation process 250 may include cancellation and/or constellation processes. Throughout this specification, the term “interference” is meant to convey any interfering signals including other desired signals sn(t). The interference-cancellation process 250 or the decoding process 244 may separate the modulated desired signals sn(t) from the carrier signals, or reduce the received carriers to a carrier having a common diversity parameter. The interference-cancellation process 250 is a signal-separation process. Any type of signal-separation process may be used. The interference-cancellation process 250 may include any type of multi-user or multi-channel detection processes.
The diversity-based cancellation process shown in
The interference-cancellation process 250 may perform signal analysis using a different diversity parameter than the one or more diversity parameters that define the carriers. For example, frequency-diverse carriers may be summed and evaluated in the time-domain to separate information signals sn(t) encoded on the carriers. Weight-and-sum processes (or other types of cancellation) may be performed on the time-domain signals in order to remove interference and separate the desired signals sn(t).
Different diversity parameters may be combined to increase capacity and/or diversity benefits in a communication system.
Coded signals are coupled out of the communication channel 99 and decoded by a plurality of decoding processes 244.1 to 244.P. The decoded signals are coupled to a plurality of signal-separator processes 256.1 to 256.P. Each of the signal-separator processes 256.1 to 256.P generates a plurality of signals representing equations having a number N′ of unknowns. A plurality of the signal-separator processes 256.1 to 256.P generates a number of equations that does not equal or exceed the number N of unknowns. However, the number of equations generated by all of the signal-separator processes 256.1 to 256.P equals or exceeds the number N of unknowns. A second-stage signal-separator process 257 may be implemented to combine the equations generated by the signal-separator processes 256.1 to 256.P and determine explicitly the values of the information signals sn(t). A signal-separator process (such as the signal-separator processes 256.1 to 256.P) may be any interference-cancellation process (using either or both cancellation and constellation processes), such as multi-user detection or multi-channel detection.
One or more of the signal-separator processes 256.1 to 256.P and 257 may perform quasi-orthogonal signal separation in an alternative diversity-parameter domain. For example, one or more of the signal-separator processes 256.1 to 256.P and 257 may include combining received signals and processing the superposition of the signals in the time domain.
Coded signals are coupled out of the communication channel 99 and decoded by a plurality of decoding processes 244.1 to 244.P. The decoded signals from each decoding process are coupled into a plurality of signal-separator processes 256.1 to 256.P. Outputs from the signal-separator processes 256.1 to 256.P may be coupled to a second-stage signal-separator process 257.
Signal coding (described throughout the specification) with respect to transmitter-side coding can involve encoding carrier signals with weights according to a signal profile (such as a spatial gain distribution at a receiver) that facilitates the separation of multiple received information signals having the same carriers. The weights may be deterministic or adaptive. The weights may be complex. A weight coder may include at least one phase shifter and/or delay device. Decoding processes may include cancellation or constellation methods of signal estimation.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/862,859 describes spatial gain variations of signals transmitted in free space. The spatial gain of a received signal is the complex-valued amplitude of the signal relative to at least one signal space. A signal space is defined by at least one diversity parameter. PCT Appl. No. WO95/03686, entitled “Active Electromagnetic Shielding” describes how receivers that are spatially separated receive different proportions of signals from spatially separated transmitters. The Active Electromagnetic Shielding application also describes cancellation circuits that can be used to separate desired signals from interfering signals.
Spatial gain distributions describe all effects that result in the complex amplitude or other characteristic of a signal varying with respect to a diversity parameter (or signal space). Spatial gain distributions result from propagation effects including, but not limited to multipath fading, shadowing, absorption, scattering, path loss, and diffraction. Spatial gain distributions may also be determined by either or both transmitter- and receiver-related parameters, such as directivity, masking, diffraction, polarization, phase space, and coding.
Both wireless and guided-wave signals have spatial gain variations. In free space, spatial gain variations result from many environmental effects such as shadowing, multipath, absorption, scattering, and path loss. Spatial gain variations can also be affected by the transmission system, which can control beam shape, directionality, and polarization. Dispersion, reflections, attenuation, and amplification can affect spatial gain in a waveguide.
Frequency gain variations can result from the frequency-dependent nature of spatial gain variations. Frequency gain is the complex amplitude-versus-frequency distribution of a frequency-diverse signal. Differences in the amplitudes of each frequency component of frequency-diverse signals transmitted from different transmitters enable multiple access via cancellation or constellation processing methods. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/347,182 describes the use of frequency diversity as a spatial processing technique that does not require an antenna array. Another benefit of the frequency-diversity method compared to spatial diversity methods is that it does not rely on the fast-fading environment of the communication channel. Frequency diversity multiplexing can be performed in any multipath environment.
Frequency-diversity processing is illustrated by a vertical bar 22 that spans multiple frequencies f1, f2, and f3. Information is redundantly transmitted on each of the frequency bands. Using the cancellation or constellation methods described in the '182 application, multiple redundantly transmitted information signals can be separated. Frequency-diversity processing may be performed at multiple receiver locations (such as S1, S2, and S3) in order to achieve the optimal bandwidth efficiency.
Frequency-diversity processing benefits systems that have a small number of antennas by providing frequency reuse and mitigating signal loss due to deep fades. Although it is counter-intuitive to redundantly modulate carrier signals when attempting to increase capacity, redundant-modulation techniques (such as frequency-diversity processing and CIMA) can provide improved capacity as well as diversity. A unique aspect of the invention is that redundant modulation with respect to a diversity parameter achieves an increase in bandwidth efficiency.
Either of the diversity parameters shown in
Each carrier-signal generator 102.1 to 102.M generates a plurality of carrier signals. Each of the carrier signals is distinguished by values of one or more diversity parameters. In this case, the carrier signals are distinguished by different frequencies (f1, f2, . . . fn). It is assumed that each of the signal generators 102.1 to 102.M generates a similar set of carrier signals. Each set of carrier signals is modulated by a plurality of carrier codes (cmn) from its respective carrier-code generator 106.1 to 106.M. The codes generated by the carrier-code generator 106.1 to 106.M appear unique when observed by the receiver 200. Each set of coded carrier signals is modulated by one of the information-signal modulators 104.1 to 104.M. Each of the modulated carriers is coupled into the communication channel 99. The channel 99 may be wireless, waveguide, or a combination of both.
Transmitted signals are coupled out of the communication channel 99 and received by the receiver 200. The receiver 200 demultiplexes the received signals into wavelength (or frequency) components. Wavelength demultiplexing may include converting the received signals to electrical signals and performing digital signal processes, such as Fourier transforms. Demultiplexing may also be performed using conventional optical demultiplexing techniques. The demultiplexed signals are down converted to a common frequency band. The frequency band may be the baseband information signal or some intermediate frequency. The down converting process may be performed during wavelength demultiplexing. The down converted signals are coupled into a canceller 256, which separates the interfering signals using a cancellation method, such as weight and sum. The canceller 256 may also perform a constellation method in addition to, or instead of the cancellation method.
Separation (i.e., an explicit solution) of the information signals depends on receiving a number of algebraically unique proportions of the signals by the receiver. Separation quality (e.g., signal to noise, signal to interference, or signal to noise plus interference) depends on the proportions of the received signals. The proportions are determined by the carrier codes applied to carrier signals and the effect of the channel on the transmitted carriers.
Optimizing the separation quality of the received signals can be achieved by adjusting the carrier codes and the channel characteristics. Carrier codes are adjusted by any of the carrier-code generators 106.1 to 106.M. The channel 99 can be adjusted by adjusting transmission characteristics that affect the channel 99. In a wireless system, the directionality of a transmitting antenna determines the channel through which transmitted signals propagate. In either of these cases, a known training sequence may be used to optimize the separation quality. The training sequence may be performed in a predetermined orthogonal channel, such as a time interval, spread-spectrum code, frequency band, directivity, phase space, or polarization.
Coded transmission signals that are coupled into the channel 99 have an amplitude-versus-frequency profile that depends on the coding of the carrier signals. As the signals propagate through the channel 99, their amplitude-versus-frequency profile can change. Signals may exhibit different amplitude-versus-frequency profiles at different locations in the channel 99. Signals in the channel 99 are expressed by the following equation:
C1(x)s1(t)+C2(x)s2(t)+ . . . +CN(x)sn(t)
Cn(x) is the amplitude-versus-frequency profile associated with the nth transmitted information signal sn(t). The value of the amplitude-versus-frequency profile Cn(x) depends on the nth code applied to the signal sn(t) and a channel parameter x. The channel parameter x describes the state of the communication channel at a specific location in the channel relative to the location of the transmitter(s). Signals Rk(t) received by a kth receiver are given by the following equation:
Rk(t)=C1(xk)s1(t)+C2(xk)s2(t)+ . . . +CN(xk)sN(t)
The amplitude-versus-frequency profile Cn(xk) of signals received by the kth receiver may depend on the relative location (and in some cases, the absolute location) of the kth receiver with respect to the transmitter(s).
The received signals Rk(t) are wavelength demultiplexed (e.g., separated into their component wavelengths or frequencies) into M component signals. The information signals sn(t) are removed from the component signals or otherwise converted to signals having a common carrier frequency. The demultiplexing and down-conversion processes produce a plurality M of component signals Rkm(t) representing combinations of the information signals sn(t). The component signals Rkm(t) may represent either linear or nonlinear combinations of the information signals sn(t). Preferably, the combinations are algebraically unique.
An expression for a particular component signal Rkm(t) that consists of a linear combination of information signals sn(t) is represented by:
Rkm(t)=(α1k+α2k+ . . . +αNk)s1(t)+(β1k+β2k+ . . . +βNk)s2(t) + . . . +(ζ1k+ζ2k+ . . . +ζNk)sN(t)
Each of the information signals sn(t) has a series of scaling factors αmk, βmk, . . . , ζmk that depends on the amplitude-versus-frequency profile Cn(x) applied to the carrier signals. The values of the scaling factors also depend on the effect of the communication channel 99 on the profile. The number N of scaling factors in each series is the number of signals sn(t) transmitted by different transmitters. Because there are M component signals Rkm(t) (which represent M equations of N unknowns), it is preferable that M be greater or equal to the number N of unknowns if there is only one receiver.
If there are K receivers, the number of component signals (equations) Rkm(t) presented to the canceller 256 is K·M. If the number of algebraically unique equations input to the canceller exceeds the number of unknowns (information signals sn(t)), the unknowns can be solved explicitly. The output of the canceller 256 includes the information signals sn(t) or estimates of the information signals sn(t).
A first transmitter 100A includes a signal modulator 104A that receives at least one information signal s1(t) and provides a plurality of weights α1 and α2 to the information signal sn(t) to generate a plurality of weighted information signals. The weighted information signals may be used to modulate a plurality of spread-spectrum signals produced by a multicarrier-signal generator 102A wherein each of the spread-spectrum signals is considered a carrier. The spread-spectrum signals may be CDMA, Frequency Hopped, Time Hopped, hybrid spread spectrum, N-point transform, or any type of multicarrier spread-spectrum signals. The weighted information signals may be input to the multicarrier-signal generator 102A and processed to produce a plurality of spread-spectrum signals that are information coded. The information-coded signals are coupled into the communication channel 99 by a coupler 150A. In this case, the communication channel 99 is a wireless channel and the coupler includes an antenna 158A. The signals that are coupled into the channel 99 by the first transmitter 100A are represented by the following expression:
C1(α1s1(t))+C2(α2s1(t))
A second transmitter 100B that has the same general design as the first transmitter 100A couples a plurality of spread-spectrum carrier signals into the channel 99. Each spread-spectrum carrier signal is modulated with at least one weighted (β1, β2) information signal s2(t). The signals that are coupled into the channel 99 by the second transmitter 100B are represented by the following expression:
C1(β1s2(t))+C2(β2s2(t))
Spread-spectrum signals C1 and C2 represent different coded spread-spectrum signals. The spread-spectrum signals have characteristics that depend on their coding and the signals that they encode. Although two or more spread-spectrum signals (such as C1(α1s1(t)) and C1(β1s1(t))) use the same code, the coded signals have values that depend on their arguments (α1s1(t) and β1s1(t)). A coupler 150C that includes at least one antenna 158C couples the transmitted signals out of the channel 99 for providing received signals to the receiver 200.
The values of the coded signals are realized upon decoding the spread-spectrum signals C1(α1s1(t)) and C1(β1s2(t)) and separating interfering signals. A decoder 222 decodes the received signals using a plurality of inverse spreading codes. If multiple information signals had been encoded with the same spread-spectrum code, the process of decoding those signals produces multiple interfering information signals. The interfering signals are input to an interference canceller 256 that separates the signals using cancellation or constellation techniques.
The values α1, α2, β1, and β2 applied to the transmitted information signals s1(t) and s2(t) represent any method of adjusting the information signals s1(t) and s2(t) to allow differentiation between decoded received signals. The step of adjusting the information signals s1(t) and s2(t) may result from the signals propagating in the channel 99. Differentiation may be achieved by any combination of interference cancellation, constellation techniques, filtering, and demodulation.
A transmitter 100 receives a plurality of information signals s1(t), s2(t), and s3(t), which are split by a plurality of splitters 210A, 210B, and 210C. The split signals are coded by a modulator 104 that acts upon a plurality of carrier signals produced by a carrier-signal generator 102. Carrier signals that are coded and modulated with the information signal are coupled into a communication channel 99 by a plurality of couplers 150A, 150B, and 150C.
At least one receiver 200 receives the coded and modulated carrier signals. At least one coupler 151 couples the carriers out of the channel 99 to a carrier separator 221 that separates the received carrier signals. In this case, the carriers are defined by their wavelength (or frequency). The carrier separator 221 may be a wavelength demultiplexer (not shown). The separated carriers are input to a weight compensator 222 that applies inverse coded signals with respect to the codes applied to the carriers by the modulator 104. The weight compensator 222 may compensate for variations of the code values resulting from distortion in the channel 99, the coupler(s) 150 and 151, the transmitter 100, and the receiver 200.
A plurality of carrier signals having different wavelengths are combined in each of a plurality summing devices 255A, 255B, and 255C. The summed signals are time-domain representations of the transmitted information signals s1(t), s2(t), and s3(t). The summing devices 255A, 255B, and 255C may include signal processors to shape the summed signals or filter the resulting sums to remove interference and/or noise. Signals output from each summing device 255A, 255B, and 255C may include one information signal. The outputs of the summing devices 255A, 255B, and 255C may be coupled to a multi-user detector (not shown) for removing interference in signals output from the summing devices 255A, 255B, and 255C.
One of the benefits of the receiver 200 shown in
A receive step 303 describes the process of coupling the modulated carriers out of the channel. The method of receiving the carriers depends on the channel and the characteristics of the modulated carriers. For example, polarized carriers may be received by receivers having at least one predetermined polarization. The receive step 303 may involve coupling signals out of the channel from multiple couplers. The couplers may be spatially separated or otherwise separated with respect to at least one diversity parameter.
The received carriers are separated in a carrier-separation step 304 that separates the carrier signals with respect to at least one diversity parameter. Separation of the received carriers may be performed by at least one demultiplexer, such as a wavelength demultiplexer, a bank of frequency filters, a polarization device, a spread spectrum decoder, or a time-domain sampler. Each of the carriers is down-converted to a predetermined frequency band in a down-convert step 305. Down-conversion may be a heterodyne or homodyne process. The down-conversion step 305 may involve the removal of the carrier signal(s) from the information signal(s). The predetermined frequency band may be the information baseband or an intermediate-frequency signal. The down-converted signals are combined in an information-signal separation step 306. The separation step 306 may involve at least one cancellation method (such as a weight-and-sum cancellation), at least one constellation method, or a combination of cancellation and constellation methods. The separation step 306 may involve a method of nonlinear processing as part of a method combining cancellation and constellation processing.
An optimization technique involves any kind of dynamic process for adjusting weights in an interference-cancellation system/process or other channel-inversion system/process. Optimization may involve an iterative update process that causes convergence of the weight values. An optimization process may include the use of an update processor that computes a rate of change for each time-varying weight or channel parameter. The update processor may adjust weights of a canceller or channel inverter (such as an inverse filter) in response to a rate of change associated with the channel. The optimization technique may involve any optimal control technique including maximum or minimum functions, finite-element optimizations, and calculus of variations.
Modulated carriers may experience spatial gain variations (spatially dependent variations of their complex amplitudes) due to propagation effects (such as multipath, shadowing, path loss, absorption, and scattering) or transmitter 100 parameters (such as beam shape, carrier weights, information-signal weights, and scanning). Modulated carrier signals are coupled out of the channel by a plurality of couplers, such as antennas 158C and 158D. A receiver 200 separates and processes the information signals sn(t) modulated on the carriers. The receiver 200 may include a multi-user detector and/or a diversity combiner. The receiver 200 may have a design similar to the receiver design shown in
One benefit of the communication system shown in
In spatial interferometry multiplexing, weights in a spatial demultiplexer are set according to training sequences. Transmitted signals having predetermined values are received and used to calibrate the spatial demultiplexer. In a flat-fading environment, the spatial demultiplexer needs to be calibrated frequently.
Frequency diversity mitigates flat fading. Information signals sn(t) transmitted on different carriers are combined in the receiver 200 to generate a plurality of composite information signals s′n(t). Because frequency-selective fading has a minimal impact on the gain of the composite information signals s′n(t), large-scale fading effects (such as shadowing and path loss) may be relied upon to provide the composite information signals s′n(t) with predetermined spatial gains. For example, reflector 160 may provide a large-scale slowly varying effect, such as shadowing. The reflector 160 blocks the direct path of a transmission from the transmit antenna 150B to the receive antenna 158D.
Large-scale fading effects require less-frequent updates of the weights in the receiver 200 than small-scale flat fading. Frequency diversity can reduce the effects of the channel 99 on transmitter-controlled and receiver-controlled spatial gain distributions of the signals s′n(t). The spatial gain distributions may be controlled by either or both the transmitter 100 and the receiver 200 using relative positions of couplers, coupler directionality, masking, polarization, or various combinations of transmitter and/or receiver control methods.
Although only two transmitter couplers 150A and 150B and two receiver couplers 158C and 158D are shown, the number of either set of couplers may be greater. The transmitter 100 may include a plurality of couplers 150A and 150B as shown in
The number of received signals that can be separated can be proportional to the number of receiver couplers. The number of received signals that can be separated is also related to the number of carriers and the techniques used to detect and separate signals. For example, in time-domain processing, the signals may overlap each other. A simple multi-user detector (included in the receiver 200) may separate the overlapping signals to provide a substantial increase in bandwidth efficiency. Similarly, spectral overlap of orthogonal carriers improves the spectral efficiency of the communication protocol. Spatial interferometry multiplexing is a type of multi-user detection that separates signals received by spatially diverse, angle-diverse, or polarization-diverse receivers by canceling interference from the desired signals. Combining spatial interferometry multiplexing and multi-user detection based on a different diversity parameter can enhance capacity, enhance diversity, or enhance both capacity and diversity benefits.
In a WDM system, the demultiplexers 210A, 210B, and 210C are wavelength demultiplexers. In a wireless multicarrier system where each carrier is defined by its frequency, the demultiplexers 210A, 210B, and 210C are filter banks or frequency-separation processes that spectrally decompose the received signals into a set of frequency bins. A frequency bin represents the frequency band of a filter in the filter bank. The demultiplexers 210A, 210B, and 210C may include down converters, such as heterodyne or homodyne systems (not shown) to recover modulated information signals from each carrier or to convert each carrier to a common carrier signal. A common carrier signal may be defined by an intermediate frequency. The demultiplexers 210A, 210B, and 210C may provide orthogonal outputs (such as separate carrier frequencies) or non-orthogonal outputs in which at least one separated carrier is not entirely separated from at least one other carrier.
Each of the separated carriers is coupled into at least one of a plurality of weight-and-sum systems 255A, 255B, and 255C. In this case, each separated carrier from each demultiplexer 210A, 210B, and 210C is coupled into different weight-and-sum systems 255A, 255B, and 255C. If the number of weight-and-sum systems 255A, 255B, and 255C exceed the number of carriers, then multiple carriers from at least one of the demultiplexers 210A, 210B, and 210C may be coupled into at least one weight-and-sum system 255A, 255B, and 255C. The weights applied by the weight-and-sum systems 255A, 255B, and 255C may be deterministic or adaptive. Delay or phase-alignment units (not shown) may be incorporated into the weight-and-sum systems 255A, 255B, and 255C. Signal outputs from each of the weight-and-sum systems 255A, 255B, and 255C include at least one substantially isolated information signal sn(t). The weight-and-sum systems 255A, 255B, and 255C may include filters (not shown) or digital signal processing systems (not shown) to enhance reception of desired signals and mitigate interference and noise. The signal outputs from the weight-and-sum systems 255A, 255B, and 255C may optionally be coupled into a multi-user detector 256.
The receiver shown in
Carrier signals shown in
Linear cancellation processes (e.g., weight-and-sum processes) require a number of algebraically unique equations that equals or exceeds the number of unknown values.
Many of the interferometry-multiplexing protocols (which use interference cancellation and other multi-user detection schemes) achieve increased bandwidth efficiency by indirectly exploiting the dimension of power. For example, differential modulation schemes require greater power levels to enhance capacity while maintaining the same BER or SNR as simple modulation. For example, the SNR of an M-ary amplitude modulation (AM) scheme (such as quadrature AM) depends on the difference between the AM steps. BER or SNR in a interferometry-multiplexing protocol depends on the difference between signal levels of the desired signal and the interference (which may be other desired signals). Also, the additional antennas used in spatial interferometry multiplexing cause increased noise levels.
M-ary AM requires an approximately doubling of the required system power for each increment in the number M. The system power ranges from proportions of 0 to 2m−1 depending on the transmitted data symbols. A multiple-access version of M-ary AM is differential-ASK modulation. The most basic implementation of differential ASK involves each of a plurality N of transceivers (such as transceivers 121A to 121G shown in
Differential-modulation techniques may be used in array systems where multipath fading, shadowing, and other channel effects can assist in the differential qualities of the received signals to optimize power conservation. A more complex version of the differential-ASK protocol uses more than two signal levels for each transceiver.
In waveguide and/or wireless communications, a remote transceiver may communicate a desire to initiate communications to a central unit or another transceiver. The central unit or other transceiver may respond with information indicating phase shifts or delays to be applied to the transmitted signals to synchronize the transmissions with respect to other transmissions that the transceiver is receiving.
A similar type of feedback may be used to optimize either or both transmitter and receiver parameters.
Known training signals are received in a receiving step 313, which is followed by an optimization step 314. In the optimization step 314, an optimization technique (defined previously) is used to adjust the weights based on one or more criteria that are balanced or optimized.
A looped optimization process is shown in
Training sequencers may be used in transmitters to transmit training sequences consisting of predetermined signals. The training sequences are processed by receivers (as described in
Although the signal space shown in
Multiple forms of diversity may be included in the communication systems described in this specification. These forms of diversity may be used for either or both signal enhancement and capacity increases. Each diversity parameter may be dedicated to one particular use of diversity, or the diversity parameters may be adjusted to provide an optimal combination of both signal-enhancement benefits and capacity improvements. In cancellation and constellation systems, the number of samples representing linear and nonlinear combinations of unknown signals is increased by providing additional diversity dimensions. One example shown in the specification describes an addition of spatially separated frequency-diversity cancellation systems. However, many other types of diversity-parameter combining may be used to increase the number of algebraically unique combinations of unknown signals or to improve signal quality.
A benefit of generating more samples of unknown signals in a cancellation system includes enabling the values of the unknowns to be determined explicitly. In a constellation system, generating more samples improves the BER of the decision processes. A benefit of constellation methods is that they can be used to obtain signal estimates without the hardware and processing requirements of cancellation methods. A constellation system is scalable to increased numbers of unknowns. Under high demand, a constellation system (like quasi-orthogonal CDMA) enables a graceful degradation of signal quality resulting from increased higher BER. Constellation processing may also be performed in addition to cancellation processing to help determine processing accuracy and to indicate when recalibration is necessary.
In the preferred embodiments, several kinds of interferometry multiplexing are demonstrated to provide a basic understanding of diversity reception and spatial demultiplexing. With respect to this understanding, many aspects of this invention may vary. For example, signal spaces and diversity parameters may include redundantly modulated signal spaces. The antenna arrays may be arrays of individual antennas, a lens system, or a multiple-feed single-dish antenna where each feed is considered to be an individual antenna element. Although only two- and three-element cancellers are shown, cancellation processes may be performed on a larger number of inputs. The complexity of the cancellation process typically increases for larger numbers of inputs. A CPU may be used to perform the weight-and-sum operations or equivalent types of cancellation processes that result in separation of the signals. Although the wireless interface in the invention is described with regard to RF and microwave frequencies, the principles of operation of the invention apply to any frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum. Additionally, a demultiplexer may include combinations of space, frequency, time, phase space, mode, code, and polarization-diversity combining methods. Furthermore, constant-modulus signals may be transmitted in the communication system. Constant-modulus transmissions can simplify the demultiplexing of received signals. In this regard, it should be understood that such variations as well as other variations fall within the scope of the present invention, its essence lying more fundamentally with the design realizations and discoveries achieved than merely the particular designs developed.
This invention claims the methods of controlling signal parameters in multiple diversity dimensions to achieve specific signal processing capabilities (such as diversity benefits and capacity enhancement) in other diversity dimensions. For example, PCT Pat. Appl. No. WO99/41871 describes how different-frequency carriers transmitted from different spatial locations cause a time-varying superposition beam pattern (and a time-varying spatial gain distribution). This enables time-domain processing to yield either or both diversity and capacity benefits.
The foregoing discussion and the claims that follow describe the preferred embodiments of the present invention. With respect to the claims, it should be understood that changes could be made without departing from the essence of the invention. To the extent such changes embody the essence of the present invention, each naturally falls within the breadth of protection encompassed by this patent. This is particularly true for the present invention because its basic concepts and understandings are fundamental in nature and can be broadly applied.
Claims
1. A multicarrier receiver, comprising:
- a sampler configured for sampling a plurality of received multicarrier signals to produce a plurality of multicarrier signal values,
- a combiner configured for combining the plurality of multicarrier signal values to produce at least one information signal and at least one interference signal, and
- a multi-user detector configured to separate the at least one information signal from the at least one interference signal.
2. The multicarrier receiver recited in claim 1, wherein the sampler comprises a filter bank.
3. The multicarrier receiver recited in claim 1, wherein the combiner is adapted to reconstruct time-domain signals occurring in a plurality of time intervals.
4. The multicarrier receiver recited in claim 1, wherein the multi-user detector comprises a phase-space decoder.
5. The multicarrier receiver recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of received multicarrier signals comprises at least one multicarrier frequency-hopped signal, and the sampler is configured to sample the at least one multicarrier frequency-hopped signal.
6. A method of receiving a multicarrier signal, comprising:
- providing for sampling a plurality of received multicarrier signals to produce a plurality of multicarrier signal values,
- providing for combining the plurality of multicarrier signal values to produce at least one information signal and at least one interference signal, and
- providing for performing multi-user detection to separate the at least one information signal from the at least one interference signal.
7. The method recited in claim 6, wherein providing for sampling comprises filtering.
8. The method recited in claim 6, wherein providing for combining comprises reconstructing time-domain signals occurring in a plurality of time intervals.
9. The method recited in claim 6, wherein providing for performing multi-user detection comprises performing phase-space decoding.
10. The method recited in claim 6, wherein the plurality of received multicarrier signals comprises at least one multicarrier frequency-hopped signal, and providing for sampling is configured to sample the at least one multicarrier frequency-hopped signal.
11. A system, comprising:
- a sampling means configured for sampling a plurality of received multicarrier signals to produce a plurality of multicarrier signal values,
- a combining means configured for combining the plurality of multicarrier signal values to produce at least one information signal and at least one interference signal, and
- a multi-user detection means configured to separate the at least one information signal from the at least one interference signal.
12. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the sampling means comprises a filter bank.
13. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the combining means is adapted to reconstruct time-domain signals occurring in a plurality of time intervals.
14. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the multi-user detection means comprises a phase-space decoder.
15. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the plurality of received multicarrier signals comprises at least one multicarrier frequency-hopped signal, and the sampling means is configured to sample the at least one multicarrier frequency-hopped signal.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 14, 2006
Publication Date: Feb 1, 2007
Inventor: Steve Shattil (Boulder, CO)
Application Number: 11/424,176
International Classification: H04B 1/00 (20060101); H04K 1/10 (20060101);