Signal pulse detection scheme for use in real-time spectrum analysis
First Claim
1. A method for detecting signal pulses from received radio frequency (RF) energy, comprising steps of:
- a. storing peak data describing at least one of frequency, bandwidth and power for each of one or more peaks of RF energy;
b. comparing the peak data for one or more peaks detected for a current sampling cycle with the peak data for one or more peaks detected during a previous sampling cycle; and
c. based on the step of comparing, storing a list of signal pulses representing the occurrence of peaks having similar peak data over multiple sampling cycles.
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Abstract
A spectrum analysis engine (SAGE) that comprises a spectrum analyzer component, a signal detector component, a universal signal synchronizer component and a snapshot buffer component. The spectrum analyzer component generates data representing a real-time spectrogram of a bandwidth of radio frequency (RF) spectrum. The signal detector detects signal pulses in the frequency band and outputs pulse event information entries output, which include the start time, duration, power, center frequency and bandwidth of each detected pulse. The signal detector also provides pulse trigger outputs which may be used to enable/disable the collection of information by the spectrum analyzer and the snapshot buffer components. An alternative pulse detection module is provided that tracks signal pulses by comparing peak data from successive FFT cycles with existing signal pulse data that is derived from comparing peak data for prior FFT cycles. Peaks for new FFT cycles are matched to data associated with signal pulses determined to be occurring over many FFT intervals.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A method for detecting signal pulses from received radio frequency (RF) energy, comprising steps of:
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a. storing peak data describing at least one of frequency, bandwidth and power for each of one or more peaks of RF energy;
b. comparing the peak data for one or more peaks detected for a current sampling cycle with the peak data for one or more peaks detected during a previous sampling cycle; and
c. based on the step of comparing, storing a list of signal pulses representing the occurrence of peaks having similar peak data over multiple sampling cycles. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A signal pulse detector that detects signal pulses from received radio frequency (RF) energy, comprising:
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a. a peak calculation module that computes peak data describing at least one of frequency, bandwidth and power for each of one or more peaks of RF energy that exceed a power threshold and a minimum bandwidth threshold during each of a plurality of sampling cycles;
b. a first memory that stores an incoming peak list comprising peak data for one or more peaks detected for a current sampling cycle; and
c. a pulse comparison module coupled to the first memory, and which compares the peak data in the incoming peak list with existing pulse data to determine whether to (i) extend an existing pulse;
(2) terminate an existing pulse;
or (3) add a new pulse to the existing pulse data. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A spectrum analysis system comprising:
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a. a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) block that receives as input a digital signal representing received RF energy and computes FFT values for a plurality of frequency bins for a time interval;
b. a power calculation block coupled to the FFT block that computes the power at each frequency bin at each time interval;
c. a peak detector that receives as input an output of the power calculation block for successive time intervals, detects one or more peaks in the output of the power calculation block and outputs data describing peaks of RF energy for each time interval;
d. a signal pulse detector coupled to receive as input the output of the peak detector;
i. a peak calculation module that computes peak data describing at least one of frequency, bandwidth and power for each of one or more peaks of RF energy that exceed a power threshold and a minimum bandwidth threshold during each of a plurality of time intervals;
ii. a first memory that stores an incoming peak list comprising peak data for one or more peaks detected for a current time interval; and
iii. a pulse comparison module coupled to the first memory, and which compares the peak data in the incoming peak list with existing pulse data to determine whether to extend or terminate an existing pulse, or to add a new pulse to the existing pulse data; and
e. a statistics computation module coupled to the power calculation module that computes one or more of a running sum of the power at each frequency bin over time intervals;
a duty count comprising a running sum at each time interval of the number of times the power at each frequency bin exceeds the power threshold;
a maximum power for each frequency bin for the current and prior time intervals; and
a running count of the number of time intervals in which a certain number of peaks have been detected. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification