Method and apparatus for multi-band UWB communications

• US 20050254554A1
• Filed: 04/29/2005
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lightwaves Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Lightwaves Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Melick, Bruce D., Baych, Leslie D., Snyder, David M., Kennedy, Philip T., Probst, Gregory P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,270,452 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/130
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/71632 Signal aspects H04B1/7172 and H04B1/7176 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7176 Data mapping, e.g. modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation

Abstract

A method and device for transmitting information over a first medium include allocating for signal transmission, each of a plurality of frequency sub-bands of an ultra-wide band spectrum and sending over the first medium an ultra-wide band transmission including the information. The ultra-wide band transmission is performed by sending a signal over each of the plurality of frequency sub-bands. Each signal may be encoded, modulated and/or multiplexed. The information which is transmitted may be obtained from a second signal transmission received over a second medium.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting information over a first medium, comprising:

allocating for signal transmission, each of a plurality of frequency sub-bands of an ultra-wide band spectrum;

sending over the first medium an ultra-wide band transmission including the information;

wherein the ultra-wide band transmission is formed by sending a signal over each of the plurality of frequency sub-bands.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of sending is sending over the first medium is sending over air in a wireless transmission.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of sending is sending over a guided medium.

4. The step of claim 3 wherein the guided medium is an electrically conductive guided medium.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the electrically conductive guided medium is selected from the set consisting of an un-bonded telephone twisted pair medium, a bonded telephone twisted pair medium, a coaxial cable medium, a power line medium, a shielded pair wire medium, a metallic vehicle body medium, a structural steel medium, a railroad rail medium, a reinforcing bar medium, a metallic pipe medium, a metal desk medium, and a computer backplane medium.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of frequency sub-bands includes at least three bands.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of frequency sub-bands includes at least six bands.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of frequency sub-bands includes at least twelve bands.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a second signal transmission over a second medium the information prior to the step of allocating for signal transmission.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the second signal transmission is a second ultra-wide-band transmission.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the second medium is of a type different from the first medium.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the second medium is a guided media and the first medium is a non-guided medium.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the second medium is a non-guided media and the first medium is a guided medium.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the first medium is an electrically conductive medium and the second medium is air.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the first medium is air and the second medium is an electrically conductive medium.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the UWB transmission comprises UWB pulses modulated on subcarriers using a modulation technique.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the modulation technique is QPSK.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the signal over each of the plurality of frequency sub-bands is multiplexed using a multiplexing technique.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the multiplexing technique is time division multiplexing.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the time division multiplexing is synchronous time division multiplexing.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the time division multiplexing is asynchronous time division multiplexing.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein the multiplexing technique is code division multiplexing.

23. The method of claim 18 wherein the multiplexing is orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.

24. A method for transmitting information over a first medium, comprising:

sending over the first medium an ultra-wide band transmission including the information;

wherein the ultra-wide band transmission comprises a multiplexed signal.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the step of sending is sending over the first medium is sending over air in a wireless transmission.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the step of sending is sending over a guided medium.

27. The step of claim 26 wherein the guided medium is an electrically conductive guided medium.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the electrically conductive guided medium is selected from the set consisting of an un-bonded telephone twisted pair medium, a bonded telephone twisted pair medium, a coaxial cable medium, a power line medium, a shielded pair wire medium, a metallic vehicle body medium, a structural steel medium, a railroad rail medium, a reinforcing bar medium, a metallic pipe medium, a metal desk medium, and a computer backplane medium.

29. The method of claim 24 wherein the ultrawideband transmission comprises a plurality of frequency sub-bands.

30. The method of claim 24 further comprising receiving a second signal transmission over a second medium the information prior to the step of allocating for signal transmission.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the second signal transmission is a second ultra-wide-band transmission.

32. The method of claim 30 wherein the second medium is of a type different from the first medium.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the second medium is a guided media and the first medium is a non-guided medium.

34. The method of claim 32 wherein the second medium is a non-guided media and the first medium is a guided medium.

35. The method of claim 32 wherein the first medium is an electrically conductive medium and the second medium is air.

36. The method of claim 32 wherein the first medium is air and the second medium is an electrically conductive medium.

37. The method of claim 24 wherein the UWB transmission comprises UWB pulses modulated on subcarriers using a modulation technique.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the modulation technique is QPSK.

39. The method of claim 24 wherein the multiplexed signal is multiplexed using time division multiplexing.

40. The method of claim 24 wherein the multiplexed signal is multiplexed using synchronous time division multiplexing.

41. The method of claim 24 wherein the multiplexed signal is multiplexed using asynchronous time division multiplexing.

42. The method of claim 24 wherein the multiplexed signal is multiplexed using code division multiplexing.

43. The method of claim 24 wherein the multiplexed signal is multiplexed using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.

44. A device for providing multi-band ultra-wideband communications over a first medium, comprising:

an ultra-wideband transmitter adapted for sending over the first medium an ultra-wideband communication comprised of a plurality of frequency sub-bands of an ultra-wideband spectrum; and

an intelligent control operatively connected to the ultra-wideband transmitter and adapted for preparing data for incorporation into the ultrawide band communication.

45. The device of claim 44 futher comprising an ultra-wideband receiver operatively connected to the intelligent control and adapted for receiving over the first medium a second ultra-wideband communication comprised of a plurality of frequency sub-bands of an ultra-wideband spectrum.

46. The device of claim 44 wherein the ultra-wideband communication comprises ultra-wideband pulses modulated on subcarriers using a modulation technique.

47. A device for providing a first communication link over a first medium and a second communication link over a second medium, comprising:

a first transceiver adapted for communication of a first type of transmission over the first medium;

a second transceiver adapted for communication of a second type of transmission over the second medium;

an interface operatively connected to the first transceiver and the second transceiver and adapted for translating information between the first type of transmission and the second type of transmission; and

wherein at least one of the first type of transmission and the second type of transmission is a UWB transmission.

48. The device of claim 47 wherein the first type of transmission is a UWB transmission, the first transceiver is a wireless transceiver, and the first medium is air.

49. The device of claim 48 wherein the second type of transmission is a UWB transmission and the second medium is a guided medium.

50. The device of claim 48 wherein the second type of transmission is a UWB transmission and the second medium is an electrically conductive medium.

51. The device of claim 47 wherein the first type of transmission is a UWB transmission comprising a plurality of signals each on a frequency sub-band of an ultra-wide band spectrum.

52. The device of claim 51 wherein the signal over each of the plurality of frequency sub-bands is multiplexed using a multiplexing technique.

53. The method of claim 47 wherein the UWB transmission comprises UWB pulses modulated on subcarriers using a modulation technique.

54. The method of claim 53 wherein the multiplexing is orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.

55. The method of claim 51 wherein each of the plurality of signals is encoded using an encoding technique.