Assessing Noise on a Communication Channel

• US 20090110131A1
• Filed: 08/26/2008
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Data Sciences U K Limited (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Transoma Medical, Inc.
• Inventors: Lindstedt, Brock, Lichtscheidl, Gregg, Bornhoft, Reid, Kunz, Matt, Brockway, Brian P., Mills, Perry A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,996,124 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/354
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/00 Measuring for diagnostic purposes radiation diagnosis A61B6/00; diagnosis by ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves A61B8/00; Identification of persons
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/07 Endoradiosondes
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 19/24 using time shift of pulses
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 14/026 using pulse time characteristics modulation, e.g. width, position, interval
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/4902 Pulse width modulation; Pulse position modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/493 by transition coding, i.e. the time-position or direction of a transition being encoded before transmission

Abstract

A system and method involve transceiving successive first and second synchronization signals defining endpoints of a frame. A digital signal is transceived by a modulating time interval between portions of the first and second synchronization signals. A first data pulse is transceived during the frame. A relative position in the frame of the first data pulse represents a first analog signal.

Claims

1. A data communication method including:

transceiving successive first and second synchronization signals defining endpoints of a frame, a modulating time interval between portions of the first and second synchronization signals representing a digital signal; and

transceiving at least one first data pulse during the frame, a relative position in the frame of the first data pulse representing a first analog signal.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the first and second synchronization signals each include first and second synchronization pulses defining endpoints of a synchronization interval.

3. The method of claim 2, further including defining a first data band to transceive the first data pulse therein, the first data band separated from each of the first and second synchronization signals by at least a first guard band that exceeds the synchronization interval.

4. The method of claim 2, in which transceiving first and second synchronization pulses includes transmitting the first and second synchronization pulses, and further including:

receiving the first and second synchronization pulses;

measuring a characteristic of the synchronization interval; and

determining the presence of noise based on the characteristic of the synchronization interval.

5. The method of claim 4, in which the measuring a characteristic of the synchronization interval includes measuring a variability of a duration of a plurality of the synchronization intervals.

6. The method of claim 5, in which the determining the presence of noise includes comparing a characteristic of the variability of the duration of a plurality of the synchronization intervals to a threshold value.

7. The method of claim 2, further including determining a signal strength associated with the at least one pulse selected from the first synchronization pulse, the second synchronization pulse, and the first data pulse.

8. The method of claim 1, in which the modulating time interval between the first and second synchronization signals includes at least three different values, which are comprised of different first, second, and third frame intervals.

9. The method of claim 8, in which the modulating time interval between the first and second synchronization signals represents a state of the digital signal during a present frame relative to the state during a previous frame.

10. The method of claim 9, further including transceiving:

the first frame interval, if the state of the digital signal during the present frame is unchanged from the previous frame;

the second frame interval, if the state of the digital signal changed from a first state value during the previous frame to a second state during the present frame; and

the third frame interval, if the state of the digital signal changed from the second state value during the previous frame to the first state value during the present frame.

11. The method of claim 1, further including transceiving at least one second data pulse during the frame, a relative position in the frame of the second data pulse representing a second analog signal.

12. The method of claim 11, further including:

defining a first data band to transceive the first data pulse therein, the first data band separated from the first and second synchronization signals by at least a first guard band that exceeds durations of the first and second synchronization signals; and

defining a second data band to transceive the second data pulse therein, the second data band separated from the first and second synchronization signals by at least a second guard band that exceeds durations of the first and second synchronization signals, the first and second data bands separated by at least a third guard band that exceeds durations of the first and second synchronization signals.

13. The method of claim 1, in which the modulating time interval between the first and second synchronization signals is modulated over a plurality of frames to represent the digital signal.

14. The method of claim 13, further including transceiving, via the digital signal, a digital synchronization command to initiate subsequent communication of digital data.

15. The method of claim 14, in which the digital synchronization command includes a predetermined start bit followed by a predetermined start bit followed by a predetermined sequence of following bits.

16. The method of claim 14, further including transceiving a header, via the digital signal, after the transceiving the digital synchronization command.

17. The method of claim 16, in which the header includes a predetermined start bit followed by a predetermined sequence of following bits.

18. The method of claim 16, in which the header includes system control information.

19. The method of claim 1, in which the first data pulse is selected from a radio-frequency (RF) pulse, a magnetic field coupling pulse, and electric field coupling pulse, an ultrasound pulse, a pressure pulse, a thermal pulse, an infrared (IR) pulse, a light pulse, an electromagnetic pulse, and a tissue conduction pulse.

20. A system including:

a transceiver circuit to transceiver at least a first analog signal and a digital signal; and

a controller circuit, coupled to the transceiver circuit for delivering at least one control signal thereto, the controller circuit including executable instructions defining a data frame for communication of the first analog signal and the digital signal, endpoints of the data frame defined by portions of successive first and second synchronization signals sand defining a corresponding frame interval, the data frame including a first data band for transceiving a first data pulse therein, a relative position in time of the first data pulse representing the first analog signal, and the frame interval modulating to represent the digital signal.

21-40. -40. (canceled)