DIGITAL TV RECEIVING SMART ANTENNA CONTROL SYSTEM AND CONTROLLING METHOD OF THE SAME

• US 20070236571A1
• Filed: 06/18/2007
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Tae Won
• Granted Patent: US 7,643,058 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/192
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/125 Means for positioning
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/02 using mechanical movement of antenna or antenna system as a whole
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 3/3036 in high-frequency amplifiers or in frequency-changers H03G3/3052, H03G3/32, H03G3/34 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4383 Accessing a communication channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896

Abstract

Disclosed is a digital TV smart antenna system and controlling method of the same, the system converges a smart antenna into an optimal reception by detecting a maximum signal power in a signal acquisition process for a fast acquisition performance and selectively assembling information such as signal power, multi-channel, SNR, and SER, and particularly, calculates signal power according to the antenna direction by fixing AGC as a specific value for detecting the maximum signal power.

Claims

1-34. -34. (canceled)

35. A digital television (DTV) receiver having an antenna, comprising:

an antenna system forming an optimal antenna pattern by adjusting a beam width, gain, and frequency characteristic of the antenna according to an antenna control signal;

a demodulator demodulating a digital television (DTV) signal received from the antenna system and generating channel data for an optimal antenna pattern; and

an antenna controller receiving the channel data from the demodulator and generating the antenna control signal using the channel data,

wherein the antenna controller acquires an antenna direction having a maximum signal power using a fixed auto gain control (AGC) value and tracks a direction of the antenna using the acquired antenna direction.

36. The digital television (DTV) receiver of claim 35, wherein the channel data comprise at least one of auto gain control information, demodulated I channel data, phase-tracked I channel data, forward error correction (FEC) error data, and a field sync signal.

37. The digital television (DTV) receiver of claim 35, wherein the demodulator comprises an auto gain controller directly controlling a gain of a radio frequency (RF) signal and a gain of an intermediate frequency (IF) signal.

38. The digital television (DTV) receiver of claim 35, wherein the antenna controller comprises:

a channel information detector receiving the channel data from the demodulator and generating channel information and channel condition information;

an antenna direction acquisition controller receiving the channel information and the channel condition information and acquiring the antenna direction having the maximum signal power using the channel information and the channel condition information; and

an antenna direction tracking controller generating the antenna control signal using the acquired antenna direction and tracking the direction of the antenna using the antenna control signal.

39. The digital television (DTV) receiver of claim 35, wherein the channel information detector comprises:

a signal power information calculator calculating a signal power by using one of a passband and baseband I-signal received from the demodulator;

a multi-channel signal power information calculator calculating multi-channel signal power information by using one of a field sync signal and equalized I-channel data in the channel data received from the demodulator;

a SNR information calculator calculating signal-to-noise (SNR) information from one of forward error correction (FEC) input I-channel data and the field sync signal in the channel data received from the demodulator; and

a SER information calculator calculating segment error rate (SER) information from FEC error data in the channel data received from the demodulator.

40. The digital television (DTV) receiver of claim 39, wherein the signal power information calculator receives and squares the one of a passband and baseband I-signal, accumulates the squared values according to a predetermined window size, and outputs signal power information according to accumulated values.

41. The digital television (DTV) receiver of claim 39, wherein the signal power information calculator receives the one of a passband and baseband I-signal, determines absolute values of the one of a passband and baseband I-signal, accumulates the absolute values according to a predetermined window size, and outputs signal power information according to accumulated values.

42. A digital television (DTV) receiver having an antenna, comprising:

an antenna system forming an optimal antenna pattern by adjusting a beam width, gain, and frequency characteristic of the antenna according to an antenna control signal;

a demodulator demodulating a digital television (DTV) signal received from the antenna system and generating channel data for an optimal antenna pattern; and

an antenna controller receiving the channel data from the demodulator and generating the antenna control signal using the channel data,

wherein the channel data comprise at least one of auto gain control (AGC) information, demodulated I-channel data, phase-tracked I-channel data, forward error correction (FEC) error data, and a field sync signal.

43. The digital television (DTV) receiver of claim 42, wherein the demodulator comprises an auto gain controller directly controlling a gain of a radio frequency (RF) signal and a gain of an intermediate frequency (IF) signal.

44. The digital television (DTV) receiver of claim 42, wherein the antenna controller comprises:

a channel information detector receiving the channel data from the demodulator and generating channel information and channel condition information;

an antenna direction acquisition controller receiving the channel information and the channel condition information and acquiring an antenna direction having the maximum signal power using the channel information and the channel condition information; and

an antenna direction tracking controller generating the antenna control signal using the acquired antenna direction and tracking the direction of the antenna using the antenna control signal.

45. An antenna system for use in a digital television (DTV) receiver, the antenna system comprising:

an antenna receiving a digital television (DTV) signal; and

an antenna phase and gain controller forming an optimal antenna pattern by adjusting a beam width, gain, and phase of the antenna according to an antenna control signal,

wherein the antenna control signal is generated by acquiring an antenna direction having a maximum signal power using a fixed auto gain control (AGC) value and by tracking a direction of the antenna using the acquired antenna direction.

46. The antenna system of claim 45, wherein the antenna control signal is generated using channel data of the DTV signal and the channel data comprise at least one of auto gain control (AGC) information, demodulated I-channel data, phase-tracked I-channel data, forward error correction (FEC) error data, and a field sync signal.

47. An antenna control system for controlling an antenna, comprising

a demodulator demodulating the signals received through the antenna and generating channel data from the received signals;

and

an antenna controller receiving the channel data from the demodulator, generating an antenna control signal using the channel data and controlling a direction of the antenna by using the antenna control signal,

wherein the channel data include at least one of auto gain control (AGC) information, demodulated I-channel data, phase-tracked I-channel data, forward error correction (FEC) error data, and a field sync signal.

48. The antenna control system of claim 47, wherein the demodulator comprises an auto gain controller directly controlling a gain of a radio frequency (RF) signal and a gain of an intermediate frequency (IF) signal.

49. The antenna control system of claim 47, wherein the antenna controller comprises:

a channel information detector receiving the channel data from the demodulator and generating channel information and channel condition information;

an antenna direction acquisition controller receiving the channel information and the channel condition information and acquiring a direction of the antenna having a maximum signal power using the channel information and the channel condition information; and

an antenna direction tracking controller generating the antenna control signal using the acquired antenna direction and tracking the direction of the antenna using the antenna control signal.

50. The antenna control system of claim 49, wherein the channel information detector comprises:

a signal power information calculator calculating a signal power by using one of a passband and baseband I-signal received from the demodulator;

a multi-channel signal power information calculator calculating multi-channel signal power information by using one of a field sync signal and equalized I channel data in the channel data received from the demodulator;

a SNR information calculator calculating signal-to-noise (SNR) information from one of forward error correction (FEC) input I-channel data and the field sync signal in the channel data received from the demodulator; and

a SER information calculator calculating segment error rate (SER) information from the FEC error data in the channel data received from the demodulator.

51. The antenna control system of claim 50, wherein the signal power information calculator receives and squares the one of a passband and baseband I-signal, accumulates the squared values according to a predetermined window size, and outputs signal power information according to accumulated values.

52. The antenna control system of claim 50, wherein the signal power information calculator receives the one of a passband and baseband I-signal, determines absolute values of the one of a passband and baseband I-signal, accumulates the absolute values according to a predetermined window size, and outputs signal power information according to accumulated values.

53. An antenna control method comprising:

receiving a digital television (DTV) signal through an antenna;

demodulating the received digital television (DTV) signal and generating channel data;

generating an antenna control signal using the channel data; and

continuously controlling an antenna direction according to the antenna control signal,

wherein the antenna control signal is generated by acquiring the antenna direction having a maximum signal power using the channel data according to a fixed auto gain control (AGC) value.

54. The antenna control method of claim 53, wherein the channel data comprise at least one of auto gain control (AGC) information, demodulated I-channel data, phase-tracked I-channel data, forward error correction (FEC) error data, and a field sync signal.