Communication apparatus

• US 20080161035A1
• Filed: 08/01/2007
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Horiguchi, Tomoya, Tomioka, Tazuko, Yamaguchi, Keiichi
• Granted Patent: US 7,974,654 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/550.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365

Abstract

A communication apparatus, includes unit extracting a reception key feature of a temporal change in received power in each frequency band contained in a received signal, unit storing, in correspondence with one another, a system name of a system which uses the frequency band, event information indicating that a communication apparatus belonging to the system starts or stops transmission, and a transmission key feature of a temporal waveform change shape of a transmission signal from a communication apparatus belonging to the system, a transmission key feature corresponding to the event information, unit determining whether there is any transmission key feature matching the reception key feature, by comparing the reception key feature with the transmission key feature, and unit selecting, when the determination unit determines that there is a matched transmission key feature, the event information and the system name which correspond to the transmission key feature from the storage unit.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus, comprising:

an extraction unit configured to extract a reception key feature of a temporal change in received power in each frequency band contained in a received signal;

a storage unit configured to store, in correspondence with one another, a system name of at least one system which uses the frequency band, event information indicating that a communication apparatus belonging to the system starts or stops transmission, and at least one transmission key feature of a temporal waveform change shape of a transmission signal from a communication apparatus belonging to the system, at least one transmission key feature corresponding to the event information;

a determination unit configured to determine whether there is any transmission key feature matching the reception key feature, by comparing the reception key feature with the transmission key feature; and

a selection unit configured to select, when the determination unit determines that there is a matched transmission key feature, the event information and the system-name which correspond to the transmission key feature from the storage unit.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit contains the event information indicating that a communication apparatus belonging to a self system detects transmission from another communication apparatus belonging to another system and stops transmission, and a corresponding key feature of a temporal waveform change shape of a transmission signal from the communication apparatus belonging to the self system.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the extraction unit extracts a temporal waveform change shape of the received power as the reception key feature, and

the determination unit calculates a correlation value between the extracted temporal waveform change shape and the stored temporal waveform change shape in a predetermined period, and determines whether the correlation value is not less than a threshold.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the extraction unit extracts a derivative of a temporal waveform change shape of the received power as the reception key feature,

the storage unit stores a threshold corresponding to the temporal waveform change shape of the transmission signal corresponding to the event information, and

the determination unit compares the extracted derivative with the stored threshold with reference to signs and magnitudes, and determines that key features match, if a sign of the extracted derivative equals to a sign of the stored threshold match and a magnitude of the extracted derivative is larger than a magnitude of the stored threshold.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the extraction unit extracts, as the reception key feature, an average received power value for each transmission period of a time slot defined by a communication system to which the apparatus belongs,

the storage unit stores the temporal waveform change shape of the transmission signal corresponding to the event information as a shape of an average transmitted power value for the time slot, and

the determination unit determines whether there is any transmission key feature matching the reception key feature by comparing the shape of the average received power value with the shape of the average transmitted power value.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising:

a generating unit configured to generate a control signal for controlling a gain by using received power information, and

a control unit configured to control the gain in accordance with the control signal, and wherein

the extraction unit detects the average received power value in the time slot by using the received power information.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit has a plurality of kinds of key features as the transmission key features, and stores a combination of the key features and one piece of the event information in correspondence with each other.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if it is determined that there is the transmission key feature which matches the reception key feature in a frequency band, the determination unit compares a reception key feature corresponding to a frequency band other than the matching-achieved frequency band with the transmission key feature.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the extraction unit includes:

a calculation unit configured to extract a slow change in key feature measured during a predetermined past period of time from a current point of time in a given frequency band;

a prediction unit configured to predict a change in key feature after a lapse of a predetermined period of time on the basis of the extracted slow change; and

a correction unit configured to generate a corrected key feature by correcting the reception key feature by subtracting the predicted change from the reception key feature detected at a time corresponding to the lapse of the predetermined period of time, and wherein

the determination unit compares the corrected key feature with the transmission key feature.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit stores, as the transmission key feature, a key feature of the temporal waveform change shape when a transmitter of a system having priority of use in the each frequency band starts transmission.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit stores, as the transmission key feature, a first key feature of the temporal waveform change shape when a transmitter of a system having no priority of use in the each frequency band starts transmission.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising a notification unit configured to notify the communication apparatus belonging to a self system of a request to cancel transmission stop, if the determination unit determines that the reception key feature matches the first key feature and matches a key feature of a temporal waveform change shape when the communication apparatus belonging to the self system detects transmission from a communication apparatus belonging to another system and stops transmission.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a demodulation unit configured to demodulate the received signal, and wherein

when determining that the reception key feature extracted in a first frequency band matches a key feature of a temporal waveform change shape when the communication apparatus belonging to the self system detects other transmission and stops transmission, the demodulation unit stops to demodulate a signal in a time slot including a time when the key features matching is detected in the first frequency band.

14. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an instructing unit configured to generate an instruction to change a likelihood used for error correction decoding, and

a decoding unit configured to perform error correction decoding after changing a likelihood in accordance with the instruction, and wherein

if it is determined that the reception key feature extracted in a second frequency band matches a key feature of a temporal waveform change shape of a transmission signal when a communication apparatus of another system which uses each frequency band which a communication apparatus belonging to a self system receives starts transmission, the instructing unit decreases a likelihood corresponding to a time slot including a time when it is determined that the key feature of the signal matches the key feature of a signal received in the second frequency band.

15. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a requesting unit configured to issue a retransmission request to a communication apparatus belonging to a self system for each block constituting the signal,

a correction unit configured to perform error correction of the signal, and

a block selection unit configured to select a block for which a retransmission request is to be issued, on the basis of an error correction result obtained by the correction unit and event information and a system which are selected by the selection unit, and wherein

the requesting unit issues a retransmission request for the block for which the retransmission request is to be issued.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising:

a block error detection unit configured to perform error detection with respect to the block,

a packet error detection unit configured to perform error detection for each packet constituted by a plurality of blocks, and

a block selection unit configured to, when an error is detected in the packet, select a block for which a retransmission request is to be issued, on the basis of an error detection result on a block contained in the packet which is obtained by the block error detection unit and event information and a system which are selected by the selection unit, and wherein

the requesting unit issues the retransmission request for the block selected by the block selection unit.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising:

a packet error detection unit configured to perform error detection for each packet constituted by a plurality of blocks, and

a block selection unit configured to, when an error is detected in the packet, select a block for which a retransmission request is to be issued, on the basis of likelihood information used for error correction by the correction unit and event information and a system which are selected by the selection unit.