DEVICE AND METHOD FOR DETECTING UNUSED TV SPECTRUM FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
First Claim
1. A white space spectrum sensor for enabling implementation of a secondary service application from a wireless device, comprising:
- a spectrum detector/analyzer for identifying a piece of white space spectrum of a specified width;
a spectrum manager for establishing the specified width based on requirements of the secondary service application and reserving the piece of white space spectrum for the secondary service application; and
a configurable interface for enabling integration of the sensor with the wireless device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
TV white space spectrum sensors and methods for detecting and managing the white space are provided. The sensor is provided with a spectrum detector/analyzer, which senses and analizes the wireless signals present in a spectrum of interest, identifies white space, and assigns the white space to secondary services. For reducing the white space detection time, the sensor uses a group detection method whereby multiple channels are sensed simultaneously. For reducing the sensor cost, the dynamic range of the sensor is reduced by operating the sensor in saturation for signals with the energy higher than a threshold. The sensor is also provided with a spectrum manager/planner capable of understanding a plurality of air interface standards, reserving and providing the right amount of white space spectrum to each application, based on the respective standard requirements. The particular architectures used by the sensor result in an affordable addition to any wireless device.
281 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A white space spectrum sensor for enabling implementation of a secondary service application from a wireless device, comprising:
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a spectrum detector/analyzer for identifying a piece of white space spectrum of a specified width; a spectrum manager for establishing the specified width based on requirements of the secondary service application and reserving the piece of white space spectrum for the secondary service application; and a configurable interface for enabling integration of the sensor with the wireless device.
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2. A white space spectrum sensor for enabling implementation of a secondary service application at a wireless device, comprising:
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a spectrum detector/analyzer for analyzing a piece of spectrum of a specified width to confirm that the piece of spectrum is not occupied; a spectrum manager for establishing the specified width based on requirements of the secondary service application and reserving the piece of spectrum for the secondary service application; and a configurable interface for enabling integration of the sensor with the wireless device. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4)
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5. A spectrum detector/analyzer for detecting and analyzing signals present in the spectrum of a band B allocated to the TV broadcast, comprising:
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an antenna unit for acquiring wireless signals present in band B; a sampler for digitizing the signals acquired by the antenna unit to provide digitized samples; and a baseband (BB) processor for analyzing the digitized samples and identifying a piece of unused spectrum in the bandwidth allocated to the TV broadcast by detecting a known signal sequence present in the DTV broadcast according to a DTV standard pertinent to the respective TV broadcast. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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8. A spectrum detector/analyzer for detecting and analyzing signals sensed over a spectrum of width B allocated to the TV broadcast, comprising:
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an antenna unit for acquiring wireless signals present in n sub-bands established over the spectrum allocated to the TV broadcast, a sub-band SBk having a certain width Bk where k ε
[1,n] and n≧
1;a down-conversion unit for down-converting the signals received from the antenna unit in each sub-band SBk to low-band signals extending over a low-band of width Bk; a sampler for sampling the low-band signals in each sub-band to provide digitized samples from the low-band signals; and a baseband processor for analyzing the digitized samples received from the sampler and identifying a piece of unused spectrum in the bandwidth allocated to the TV broadcast. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A spectrum detector/analyzer for detecting and analyzing signals sensed over a spectrum of width B allocated to the TV broadcast, comprising:
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an antenna unit for acquiring wireless signals present over the spectrum allocated to the TV broadcast; a sampler for sampling the signals acquired by the antenna unit to provide digitized samples, the sampler being operated so as to achieve a saturated state for signals stronger than a specified value; and a baseband (BB) processor for analyzing the digitized samples received from the sampler and identifying a piece of unused spectrum in the bandwidth allocated to the TV broadcast by detecting the saturation state of the sampler. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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16. A method of detecting and analyzing signals present in the spectrum allocated to the TV broadcast, comprising:
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a) acquiring wireless signals present in the band allocated to the TV broadcast; b) sampling the signals acquired in step a) to provide digitized samples, using a sampler operated in a operating point selected to achieve a saturated state for signals stronger than a specified value; and c) analyzing the digitized samples received from the sampler and identifying a piece of unused spectrum in the bandwidth allocated to the TV broadcast by detecting the saturation state of the sampler. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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18. A method of detecting and analyzing signals present in a spectrum of width B allocated to the TV broadcast, comprising:
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a) establishing n sub-band over the band B of the spectrum allocated to the TV broadcast, a sub-band SBk having a certain width Bk where k ε
[1,n] and n≧
1;b) acquiring wireless signals present in the sub-band SBk; c) down-converting the signals acquired in the sub-band SBk to low-band signals in a low band of a width Bk; d) sampling the low-band signals in each sub-band SBk to provide digitized samples of the low-band signals; e) analyzing the digitized samples received from the sampler to measure the energy of the sampled low-band signals; and f) repeating steps c) to e) until a piece of unused spectrum is identified in the bandwidth allocated to the TV broadcast. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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22. A method for detecting and analyzing signals sensed over a spectrum of width B allocated to the TV broadcast, comprising, comprising:
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a) acquiring any wireless signals present in the spectrum allocated to the TV broadcast; b) sampling the signals acquired by the antenna unit to provide digitized samples from the low-band signals; and c) analyzing the digitized samples received from the sampler; and d) identifying a piece of unused spectrum in the bandwidth allocated to the TV broadcast by detecting a known signal sequence present in the DTV broadcast according to a respective DTV standards pertinent of the TV broadcast. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method of detecting and analyzing signals present in the spectrum allocated to the TV broadcast, comprising:
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a) identifying from a white space database a group of TV channels which are free to use for implementing a secondary service; b) acquiring wireless signals present in the group of TV channels, while down-converting any detected signal to a pre-selected frequency f0; c) summing the signals acquired at b) to obtain a digitized composite signal; d) reducing noise in the composite signal using a wavelet noise reduction procedure; e) analyzing the composite signal to determine if the energy of the composite signal is higher than a threshold; and f) if the energy of the composite signal is less than the threshold analyzing the composite signal to identify presence of a wireless microphone operation; and g) reserving any of the channels of the group of TV channels for the secondary service if no wireless microphone operation is detected at step f). - View Dependent Claims (28)
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Specification