Method and system for a distributed receiver

• US 10,142,042 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2017
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Radioxio, LLC
• Original Assignee: Radioxio, LLC
• Inventors: Ling, Curtis, Gallagher, Timothy, Chang, Glenn
• Primary Examiner(s): Tieu, Janice
• Application Number:
  US15/833,305
• Publication Number:
  US 20180109341A1
• Time in Patent Office: 356 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 40/90 specially adapted for satellite broadcast receiving
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0048 in conjunction with detection of multiuser or interfering signals, e.g. iteration between CDMA or MIMO detector and FEC decoder for spatial equalizer H04L25/03286
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/061 providing hard decisions only; arrangements for tracking or suppressing unwanted low frequency components, e.g. removal of dc offset removal of dc offset in coupling arrangements H04L25/029, H04L25/0296
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/067 providing soft decisions, i.e. decisions together with an estimate of reliability H04L25/068 and H04L25/069 take precedence; sequence estimation techniques H04L25/03178
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/38 Demodulator circuits; Receiver circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42607 for processing the incoming bitstream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/455 Demodulation-circuits

Abstract

A first semiconductor die may comprise an interface circuit and a demodulation circuit. The interface circuit may be operable to receive an externally generated signal and recover decisions of a symbol de-mapper carried in the externally generated signal. The demodulation circuit may be operable to recover one or more transport streams based on the decisions of the symbol de-mapper. The first semiconductor die may comprise circuitry operable to combine a plurality of signals from a plurality of second semiconductor dice, where each of the plurality of signals comprises decisions of a respective one of a plurality of symbol de-mappers.

Claims

1. A first semiconductor die comprising:

an interface receiver circuit operable to;

receive an externally-generated signal that carries decision outputs of a symbol de-mapper that is external to the first semiconductor die, the externally-generated signal comprising a plurality of time stamps, each one of the plurality of time stamps corresponding to one of the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper, and

process the externally-generated signal to recover the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper carried in the externally-generated signal; and

a demodulation circuit operable to recover one datastreams based on the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper.

2. The first semiconductor die of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry operable to combine a plurality of signals from a plurality of second semiconductor dice, each of the plurality of signals comprising decision outputs of a respective one of a plurality of symbol de-mappers that are external to the first semiconductor die.

3. The first semiconductor die of claim 2, wherein:

the first semiconductor die resides in a baseband unit of a cellular basestation; and

each of the plurality of second semiconductor dice resides in a respective one of a plurality of remote radio units of a satellite basestation.

4. The first semiconductor die of claim 1, wherein the first semiconductor die resides in a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) indoor unit and each of the plurality of second semiconductor dice resides in a respective one of a plurality of DBS reception assemblies.

5. The first semiconductor die of claim 1, wherein the first semiconductor die resides in cable television customer premise equipment.

6. The first semiconductor die of claim 1, wherein the interface receiver circuit is further operable to recover equalizer settings carried in the externally-generated signal.

7. The first semiconductor die of claim 1, wherein the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper are formatted as log-likelihood ratios.

8. The first semiconductor die of claim 1, wherein the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper are hard decision outputs when a corresponding signal-to-noise ratio is below a determined threshold and are soft decision outputs when the corresponding signal-to-noise ratio is above the determined threshold.

9. A method comprising:

recovering, via an interface receiver circuit in a first semiconductor die, decision outputs of a symbol de-mapper carried in an externally-generated signal, wherein the symbol de-mapper is external to the first semiconductor die, the externally-generated signal comprising a plurality of time stamps, each one of the plurality of time stamps corresponding to one of the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper; and

recovering, via a demodulation circuit in the first semiconductor die, one or more datastreams based on the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising combining, via circuitry of the first semiconductor die, a plurality of signals from a plurality of second semiconductor dice, each of the plurality of signals comprising decision outputs of a respective one of a plurality of symbol de-mappers that are external to the first semiconductor die.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the first semiconductor die resides in a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) indoor unit; and

each of the plurality of second semiconductor dice resides in a respective one of a plurality of direct broadcast satellite (DBS) reception assemblies.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the first semiconductor die resides in cable television customer premise equipment.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the first semiconductor die resides in a baseband unit of a cellular basestation;

and

each of the plurality of second semiconductor dice resides in a respective one of a plurality of remote radio units of a satellite basestation.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising recovering, via the interface receiver circuit, equalizer settings carried in the externally generated signal.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper are formatted as log-likelihood ratios.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper are hard decision outputs when a corresponding signal-to-noise ratio is below a determined threshold and are soft decision outputs when the corresponding signal-to-noise ratio is above the determined threshold.

17. A semiconductor die comprising:

an interface receiver circuit operable to;

receive an externally-generated signal that carries decision outputs of a symbol de-mapper that is external to the first semiconductor die, the externally-generated signal comprising a plurality of time stamps, each one of the plurality of time stamps corresponding to one of the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper, and

process the externally-generated signal to recover the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper carried in the externally-generated signal, wherein the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper are selected to be one of a plurality of hard symbols and a plurality of soft symbols; and

a demodulation circuit operable to recover one datastreams based on the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper.

18. The semiconductor die of claim 17, wherein the demodulation circuit is further operable to recover timing of the externally-generated signal, equalize the externally-generated signal, and slice the externally-generated signal according to a determined symbol constellation.

19. The semiconductor die of claim 18, wherein the demodulation circuit is further operable to perform forward error correction decoding based on the decision outputs of the symbol de-mapper.

20. The semiconductor die of claim 17, wherein the semiconductor die is operable to select between outputting the plurality of hard decisions and the plurality of soft decisions based on characteristics of the externally-generated signal.