Method for Detecting Paths in Pulse Transmission and a Device for Carrying Out Said Method

• US 20090268851A1
• Filed: 11/07/2006
• Published: 10/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Original Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Inventors: Schwoerer, Jean, Miscopein, Benoit
• Granted Patent: US 8,175,195 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/340
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7183 Synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/719 Interference-related aspects

Abstract

The invention relates to method and device for detecting propagation paths in pulse transmission, wherein a received signal comprises pulses on each time symbol. After synchronising a pulse-based reception, the inventive method consists (A) in determining the arrival times of pulses of the same current time symbol, (B) in generating a path hypotheses by assigning an initial score to each dated pulse, (C) in determining the arrival times of pulses of the time symbol following the current symbol, (D) in relatively comparing the arrival times of pulses of the following time symbol with the arrival times of the path hypotheses and (E) in updating scores according to the relative comparison results. Said path detecting method is suitable for pulse information transmission, in particular in UWB.

Claims

1. A method for detecting propagation paths in pulse transmission, the signal received including pulses over symbol times, characterized in that, following the synchronization of the reception of said pulses to pulses with which a path is associated, said method includes at least the steps consisting in:

determining the arrival instants of at least part of said pulses of one and the same current symbol time;

generating path assumptions by assigning to the pulses dated on said current symbol time an initial score;

determining the arrival instants of at least part of said pulses of at least one symbol time following said current symbol time;

collating in a relative manner the arrival instants of said pulses of said following symbol time with the arrival instants of the path assumptions;

updating the scores as a function of the result of the relative collation.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determination of an arrival instant of said pulses consists at least in:

detecting the envelope of said pulses in relation to a threshold value; and

, on positive detection,

associating at least one arrival instant with a detected pulse.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said relative collation consists at least in:

establishing time windows of determined width about the arrival instants of the path assumptions;

verifying whether said pulses of the following symbol time are in at least one of said time windows.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said method includes at least the generation of a new path assumption, upon a relative inconsistency between the arrival instant of a pulse of the following symbol time and the arrival instants of the path assumptions by assigning an initial score to said pulse dated from the following symbol time.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the updating of the score assigned to each path assumption, after comparison over N following symbol times includes at least:

the merging of the path assumptions whose reception time windows overlap, the most recent arrival instant and the highest score being preserved.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein it consists in updating the path assumptions and their score by repeating the steps of path assumption generation and score assignment, by substituting said current symbol time with a symbol time following said current symbol time.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein it consists in replacing the symbol time with a temporal subdivision of the symbol time.

8. A reception method implementing the method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the reception method comprises:

selecting a determined number of path assumptions from among those whose score is the highest, to ensure reception.

11. A computer program recorded on a storage medium, wherein the computer program comprises a series of instructions allowing the implementation of the method for detecting paths as claimed in claim 1, when said program is executed by a processor.

9. A device for detecting propagation paths in pulse transmission, the signal received including pulses over symbol times, characterized in that, in addition to a module for synchronizing the reception of these pulses to pulses with which a path is associated, said device comprises at least:

means for determining the arrival instants of at least part of the pulses of one and the same current symbol time;

means for generating path assumptions, said generating means assigning to the pulses dated on the current symbol time an initial score;

means for determining the arrival instants of at least part of the pulses of at least one symbol time following this current symbol time;

means for relative collation of the arrival instants of the pulses of the following symbol time with the arrival instants of the path assumptions;

means for updating the scores as a function of the result of the relative collation.

10. A receiver of signals emitted by pulses, comprising at least one antenna for receiving pulses, characterized in that, in addition to the means for synchronizing reception to a pulse received, said receiver includes at least:

means for determining the arrival instants of pulses over a symbol time;

means for generating path assumptions;

said generating means thereby assigning an initial score to the dated pulses;

means for relative collation of the arrival instants of the pulses of a symbol time with the arrival instants of the path assumptions;

means for updating the scores as a function of the result of the relative collation.