Low cost broadband wireless communication system

• US 20050124307A1
• Filed: 12/06/2004
• Published: 06/09/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Reveal Imaging, LLC
• Original Assignee: Xytrans, Inc.
• Inventors: Ammar, Danny F., Bills, David M.
• Application Number:
  US11/005,626
• Publication Number:
  US 20050124307A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/183.200
• 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

Abstract

This present invention includes an indoor unit (IDU) and compact outdoor unit (ODU) having an intermediate frequency/modem circuit, millimeter wave transceiver circuit, and digital interface between the IDU and the ODU capable of up to about 100 MBps data rate over at least about a 300 meter cable. The system uses a conversion to the polar coordinate system completes calculations in the polar coordinate system, reducing the computational requirements, and therefore, the size and cost of the system.

Claims

1. A system for millimeter wave communications, which comprises:

an indoor unit;

an outdoor unit in communication with the indoor unit and receiving and/or transmitting millimeter wave communications signals and including an intermediate frequency/modem circuit that processes the millimeter wave communications signals using a polar coordinate system of calculations.

2. A system according to claim 1, and further comprising a single coaxial connection extending between the indoor unit and outdoor unit.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein said outdoor unit comprises a millimeter wave transceiver board comprising microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) chips.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein said outdoor unit further comprises a housing and an intermediate frequency/modem board, a frequency synthesizer board and a millimeter wave transceiver board contained within the housing.

5. A system according to claim 4, wherein said millimeter wave transceiver board comprises a ceramic board.

6. A system according to claim 1, and further comprising a millimeter wave transceiver board comprising a transmit circuit chain, a receive circuit chain and a local oscillator circuit chain.

7. A system according to claim 6, and further comprising a mixer circuit operatively connected to said transmit circuit chain for down converting millimeter wave transmitter coupled signals back to an intermediate frequency.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein said intermediate frequency/modem circuit further comprises a modulator circuit and demodulator circuit that support quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).

9. A system according to claim 1, wherein said intermediate frequency/modem circuit comprises a multiplexer/demultiplexer circuit that separates transmit, receive, and command and control data that had been time multiplexed together.

10. A system according to claim 1, wherein said outdoor unit further comprises a processor that computes predistortion coefficients used to correct amplifier nonlinearity based on detected power and phase.

11. A system according to claim 1, wherein said intermediate frequency/modem circuit is operative for transmitting and/or receiving a packet of data having a preamble that is independent of data modulation.

12. A system according to claim 11, wherein the preamble has a first stop symbol that corresponds to an absence of a carrier or zero amplitude and a second start symbol that is fixed in amplitude and phase for allowing amplitude and phase offset calibration.

13. An outdoor unit for millimeter wave communication, which comprises:

a millimeter wave transceiver board comprising microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) chips; and

an intermediate frequency/modem board operable with the millimeter wave transceiver board and operable for processing millimeter wave communications signals using a polar coordinate system of calculations.

14. An outdoor unit according to claim 13, and comprising a connector adapted for connecting to a single coaxial connection for connecting to an indoor unit.

15. An outdoor unit according to claim 13, and further comprising a housing in which the millimeter wave transceiver board and intermediate frequency/modem board are contained.

16. An outdoor unit according to claim 13, wherein said millimeter wave transceiver board comprises a ceramic board.

17. An outdoor unit according to claim 13, wherein said millimeter wave transceiver board comprises a transmit circuit chain, a receive circuit chain and a local oscillator circuit chain.

18. An outdoor unit according to claim 17, wherein said millimeter wave transceiver board comprises a mixer circuit operatively connected to said transmit circuit chain for down converting millimeter wave transmitter coupled signals back to an intermediate frequency.

19. An outdoor unit according to claim 13, wherein said intermediate frequency/modem board further comprises a modulator circuit and a demodulator circuit that support quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).

20. An outdoor unit according to claim 13, wherein said intermediate frequency/modem board further comprises a multiplexer/demultiplexer circuit that separates transmit, receive, and command and control data that had been time multiplexed together.

21. An outdoor unit according to claim 13, and further comprising a frequency synthesizer board operable to generate local oscillator signals for MMIC chips on the millimeter wave transceiver board.

22. An outdoor unit for millimeter wave communications, which comprises:

a housing;

a millimeter wave transceiver board contained in the housing and comprising microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) chips;

an intermediate frequency/modem board contained within the housing and operable with the millimeter wave transceiver board for processing millimeter wave communications signals; and

a circuit operable for detecting power and phase and computing predistortion coefficients for correcting any amplifier nonlinearity.

23. An outdoor unit according to claim 22, and further comprising a connector adapted for connecting to a single coaxial connection and to an indoor unit.

24. An outdoor unit according to claim 22, wherein said millimeter wave transceiver board comprises a ceramic board.

25. An outdoor unit according to claim 22, wherein said millimeter wave transceiver board comprises a transmit circuit chain, a receive circuit chain and a local oscillator circuit chain.

26. An outdoor unit according to claim 25, wherein said millimeter wave transceiver board comprises a mixer circuit operatively connected to said transmit circuit chain for down converting millimeter wave transmitter coupled signals back to an intermediate frequency.

27. An outdoor unit according to claim 22, wherein said intermediate frequency/modem board further comprises a modulator circuit and a demodulator circuit that support quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).

28. An outdoor unit according to claim 22, wherein said intermediate frequency/modem board further comprises a multiplexer/demultiplexer circuit that separates transmit, receive, and command and control data that had been time multiplexed together.

29. An outdoor unit according to claim 22, and further comprising a frequency synthesizer board operable to generate local oscillator signals for MMIC chips on the millimeter wave transceiver board.

30. A method for millimeter wave communications using an outdoor unit and indoor unit in communication with each other, which comprises:

transmitting and/or receiving a millimeter wave communications signal within an intermediate frequency/modem circuit that is operative for communicating with a millimeter wave transceiver circuit; and

processing the communications signal within the intermediate frequency/modem circuit using a polar coordinate system of calculations.

31. A method according to claim 30, which further comprises transmitting a packet of data having preamble that is independent of data modulation.

32. A method according to claim 31, which further comprises modulating payload data with either quadrature phase shift keying or quadrature amplitude modulation.

33. A method according to claim 31, wherein the preamble has a first stop symbol that corresponds to an absence of a carrier or zero amplitude and a second start symbol that is fixed in amplitude and phase for allowing amplitude and phase offset calibration.

34. A method according to claim 33, which further comprises calibrating any Cartesian offsets by the stop symbol.

35. A method according to claim 33, which further comprises determining angular rotation of a symbol phase and predicting average phase offset for a duration of a frame by consecutive frame-to-frame phase offsets.

36. A method according to claim 33, which further comprises calibrating the timing of symbols during a preamble and maintaining during the symbol frame by the clocking.

37. A method according to claim 33, which further comprises transmitting a continuous signal at a fixed amplitude but at a continuously changing phase.

38. A method according to claim 37, which further comprises following an angular rotation in the positive direction with an angular rotation in the negative direction.

39. A method according to claim 30, which further comprises duplicating forward error correction blocks at least once to allow errors in a serial coaxial connection at the indoor unit and outdoor unit to be isolated from errors in the intermediate frequency/modem circuit.

40. A method according to claim 30, which further comprises communicating between the indoor unit and outdoor unit by inserting digital command data into the payload data.

41. A method according to claim 40, which further comprises establishing a fixed reference value as a zero value and a one value as offset either positive or negative from the reference level.

42. A method according to claim 30, which further comprises transferring signals along a single coaxial connection extending between the outdoor unit and indoor unit.

43. A method according to claim 30, which further comprises detecting power and phase and computing any predistortion coefficients used in the intermediate frequency/modem circuit for correcting amplifier nonlinearity.

44. A method according to claim 30, wherein the millimeter wave transceiver circuit includes a transmit circuit chain, a receive circuit chain and a local oscillator circuit chain.

45. A method according to claim 44, which further comprises coupling an output from the transmit circuit chain to a mixer circuit for down converting millimeter wave transmitter coupled signal back to an intermediate frequency.