SOFTWARE DEFINED COGNITIVE RADIO

• US 20090154534A1
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: HASSAN, AMER A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,036,240 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0009 by adapting the channel coding H04L1/1812 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0019 in which mode-switching is based on a statistical approach

Abstract

A computing device with a software defined radio. The software defined radio has an architecture with separate components to provide control functions and data processing functions. The control components configure the data processing components so that the software defined radio provides desired operating characteristics. Components in the data plane may derive information indicating operating conditions, which can be provided to one or more of the control components. In response, the control components can modify components in the data plane to adjust to operating conditions.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

at least one antenna;

a plurality of hardware components, coupled to the at least one antenna, adapted to generate signals to transmit through the at least one antenna or process signals received through the at least one antenna;

computer-readable media comprising computer executable modules, the computer-executable modules comprising;

a data generating or consuming module for generating data for inclusion in the signals to transmit or to operate on data extracted from the signals received through the at least one antenna;

software defined radio modules, comprising;

a plurality of data processing modules, the plurality of data processing modules collectively configured to process data exchanged between the hardware components and the data generating or consuming module, at least a portion of the data processing modules being configurable in response to control inputs, and at least a portion of the data processing modules having a status output, the status output being adapted to output a value indicating a condition associated with the transmission or processing signals through the at least one antenna; and

at least one control module, the at least one control module for receiving the status output and generating based on the condition control signals to the control inputs of the portion of the data processing modules.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the portion of the data processing modules comprises a demodulator.

3. The computing device of claim 2, wherein the demodulator is adapted to output at the status output of the demodulator a value (X, Y) representative of a distortion vector.

4. The computing device of claim 3, wherein:

the portion of the data processing modules comprises a modulator; and

the at least one control module comprises a cognitive module adapted and configured to specify a control input to the modulator based on the value of the distortion vector.

5. The computing device of claim 4, wherein the cognitive module is adapted and configured to specify the control input in response to a trend in the distortion vector.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the portion of the data processing modules comprises a decoder.

7. The computing device of claim 6, wherein the decoder is adapted to output at the status output of the decoder a value representative of a number of bit errors associated with a received signal.

8. A method of operating a computing device having software components implementing a software defined radio, the method comprising:

receiving signals representative of a plurality of wireless communications);

processing the signals with the software defined radio, the processing comprising generating status information about a difference between a received signal and a predefined state of the received signal;

collecting status information over a time interval; and

reconfiguring the software defined radio based on statistics of the status information over the time interval.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the status information comprises a distortion vector (X, Y).

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the software defined radio comprises a software demodulator and the generating comprises generating the status information in the software demodulator.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the status information comprises a number of bits difference between a received signal and a predefined bit pattern.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the software defined radio comprises a software decoder and the generating comprises generating at least a portion of the status information in the software decoder.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the software defined radio comprises a software demodulator and the generating further comprises generating at least a portion of the status information in the software demodulator.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the reconfiguring comprises reconfiguring the software defined radio based on the status information generated in the software demodulator and the software decoder.

15. A method of operating a computing device having software components implementing a software defined radio, the method comprising:

configuring the software defined radio according to a first profile, the first profile having associated therewith operating conditions;

receiving signals representative of a plurality of wireless communications;

processing the signals with the software defined radio, the processing comprising generating status information about a difference between a received signal and a state of a set of predefined states;

collecting the status information; and

when the state indicates that the software defined radio is operating in accordance with operating conditions associated with the first profile, configuring the software defined radio according to a second profile, the selecting being based on the status information.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

selecting the second profile based at least in part on status information stored following a prior reconfiguration of the software defined radio.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein generating status information comprises computing at a plurality of times a distortion vector (X, Y).

18. The method of claim 16, wherein generating status information comprises tracking a number of bit errors detected through the use of an error correcting code.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein generating status information comprises tracking a rate of symbols received that are within a threshold level of deviation from a nominal value.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the software defined radio comprises a plurality of components and the operating conditions associated with the first profile comprise status information generated by at least two of the plurality of components.