Flexible software radio transceiver

• US 20040203709A1
• Filed: 11/08/2002
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lyrtech
• Original Assignee: Lyrtech
• Inventors: Luneau, Louis
• Granted Patent: US 7,203,488 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/422.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/38 Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion

Abstract

A method and apparatus is disclosed for receiving a wireless wideband signal and transmitting a converted signal to a transmitting unit. The transmitting unit may or not be wireless. The apparatus comprises a plurality of wireless wideband receiving units, a plurality of narrowband converters, a plurality of wireless wideband transmitting units, a plurality of wideband signal converters, a protocol converter and a switching unit.

Claims

1. A method for receiving a wireless signal and transmitting at least one part of the wireless signal using a plurality of wireless transmitting units, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a narrowband signal from a narrowband signal source unit;

selecting a suitable wideband signal converter from a plurality of wideband signal converters, each adapted to receive and convert a narrowband signal into a wideband signal;

providing the received narrowband signal to the selected suitable wideband signal converter;

receiving a wideband converted signal from the selected suitable wideband signal converter;

selecting a suitable wireless wideband transmitting unit from a plurality of wireless wideband transmitting units;

transmitting the wideband converted signal using the selected wireless wideband transmitting unit.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of selecting a suitable narrowband signal converter from a plurality of narrowband signal converters, each adapted to receive a wideband signal and provide a narrowband signal, the selected suitable narrowband signal converter providing the received narrowband signal.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising the step of selecting a suitable wireless wideband receiving unit from a plurality of wireless wideband receiving units, further comprising the step of receiving a wireless wideband signal using the selected suitable wireless wideband receiving unit and providing the received wideband signal to the selected suitable narrowband signal converter.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wideband signal converter is a digital up converter.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising the step of converting the wideband converted signal into an analog wideband converted signal.

6. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the narrowband signal converter is a digital down converter providing an I signal and a Q signal.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of selecting a protocol from a plurality of protocols for converting the received narrowband signal;

further comprising the step of converting the received narrowband signal according to the selected protocol.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of adding a suitable wideband signal converter to the plurality of suitable wideband signal converters.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of adding a wireless wideband transmitting unit to the plurality of wireless wideband transmitting units.

11. The method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising the step of adding a protocol to the plurality of protocols.

13. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising the step of selecting a first protocol from a plurality of protocols, further comprising the step of selecting a suitable narrowband signal converter from a plurality of narrowband signal converters, the selected suitable narrowband signal converter providing the received narrowband signal;

the selected suitable narrowband signal converter operating according to the first selected protocol.

16. The method as claimed in claim 13, further comprising the step of adding a narrowband signal converter to the plurality of narrowband signal converters.

18. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the narrowband signal providing unit comprises a plurality of narrowband signal converters, each adapted to receive a wideband signal and provide a narrowband signal, further wherein the switching unit is adapted to select a narrowband signal converter from the plurality of narrowband signal converters in accordance with a narrowband signal converter selection signal to provide the narrowband signal.

19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 18, further comprising a plurality of wireless wideband receiving units, each of the plurality of wireless wideband receiving units adapted to provide a wideband signal, further wherein the switching unit is adapted to select a wireless wideband receiving unit of the plurality of wireless wideband receiving units to provide the wideband signal in accordance with a wireless wideband receiving unit selection signal.

24. The apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein the plurality of narrowband signal converters comprise a plurality of digital down converters.

8. The method as claimed in claim 71 wherein the plurality of protocols comprises AMPS and IS136.

12. A method for forwarding a received signal to a transmitting unit operating under a second communication protocol, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a narrowband signal of a first protocol from a narrowband signal source unit;

selecting a second protocol from a plurality of protocols;

converting the narrowband signal into said second protocol;

selecting a transmitting unit from a plurality of transmitting units, each transmitting unit of the plurality of transmitting units adapted to receive and transmit a narrowband signal; and

transmitting the converted narrowband signal to the selected transmitting unit of the plurality of transmitting units.

14. The method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising the step of adding a protocol to the plurality of protocols.

15. The method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising the step of adding a transmitting unit to the plurality of transmitting units.

17. An apparatus for receiving a wireless signal and transmitting at least one part of the wireless signal using a plurality of wireless transmitting units, the apparatus comprising:

a narrowband signal providing unit;

a plurality of wideband signal converters, each adapted to receive a narrowband signal and provide a wideband signal;

a plurality of wireless wideband transmitting units receiving a wideband signal and transmitting a wireless wideband signal; and

a switching unit for connecting the narrowband signal providing unit to a selected wideband signal converter of the plurality of wideband signal converters in accordance with a wideband signal converter selection signal and to a selected wireless wideband transmitting unit from the plurality of wireless wideband transmitting units in accordance with a wireless transmitting unit selection signal.

20. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17, further comprising a protocol converter connected to the switching unit, the protocol converter receiving the narrowband signal from the narrowband signal providing unit and providing a converted narrowband signal to the selected wideband signal converter in accordance with a protocol selection signal.

21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein the protocol converter comprises a protocol processing unit implementing a protocol in accordance with the protocol selection data, the protocol converter further comprising a protocol database storing data related to each of the plurality of protocols, the protocol database receiving the protocol selection signal and providing data according to the protocol selection signal to the protocol processing unit.

22. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein the protocol database may be updated.

23. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20 wherein the protocol converter and the switching unit are comprised in an FPGA.

25. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein a wideband signal converter comprises a digital up converter.

26. An apparatus for forwarding a received signal to a transmitting unit operating under a second communication protocol, the apparatus comprising:

a narrowband signal providing unit;

a protocol converter receiving the narrowband signal and providing a protocol converted narrowband signal according to a protocol selection signal;

a plurality of transmitting units, each of the plurality of transmitting units adapted to receive a narrowband signal and to transmit the narrowband signal; and

a switching unit for connecting the narrowband signal providing unit to the protocol converter and further to a selected transmitting unit of the plurality of transmitting units in accordance with a transmitting unit selection signal and to the protocol selection signal.

27. The apparatus as claimed in claim 26, wherein the narrowband signal providing unit comprises a plurality of narrowband signal converters, each of the plurality of narrowband signal converters adapted to receive a wideband signal and to provide a narrowband signal, further wherein a narrowband signal converter is selected from the plurality of narrowband signal converters to provide the narrowband signal.