AUTOMATIC FREQUENCY CONTROL UNDER LOW SIGNAL-TO-NOISE CONDITIONS
First Claim
1. A method for determining a carrier frequency offset and a corresponding sample-to-sample phase shift present in a sampled digital signal from a radio of a wireless transceiver, said method comprising the steps of:
- a) uniformly dividing a carrier frequency offset (CFO) range [−
Δ
Ω
, Δ
Ω
) to be compensated, into ‘
N’
intervals of length, such that Δ
ω
=2·
Δ
Ω
/N<
δ
/(T·
L) where δ
<
1, T is the sampling period, L is the length of the preamble pattern in samples and the inequality sets the lower bound for the value of N, wherein δ
is the normalized length of the “
feasible range”
for direct phase calculation;
b) selecting midpoint values, Δ
ω
0 Δ
ω
1 . . . Δ
ω
N−
2 Δ
ω
N−
1, of the intervals determined in step a);
c) connecting a stream of samples of an I-Q format input signal . . . si si+L−
1 simultaneously to N “
rotate &
correlate”
units numbered from 0 to N−
1 and assigning each midpoint value computed in step b) to the like numbered rotate &
correlate unit;
d) connecting an A output of the N rotate &
correlate units sequentially to the inputs of the “
smooth &
select”
unit;
e) starting the rotate &
correlate units on an external trigger that indicates a preamble pattern boundary in the input signal stream;
f) running a complete rotate &
correlate cycle while the rotate &
correlate units consume L input samples and compute the correlation vectors Ai=a·
ejφ
i in polar coordinates
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Carrier frequency offset (CFO) is determined by sample-to-sample phase shifts of a digital radio signal. The CFO range is divided into a number of intervals and creates as many parallel derived streams as there are interval endpoints by pre-compensating (“back rotating”) the input by the sample-to-sample phase shift corresponding to the particular endpoint. Magnitude and phase values are computed of the correlation of a preamble pattern period with the preamble segment of each derived stream in parallel. The largest resulting magnitude value(s) are used to zoom in on the actual CFO present in the input stream. Improved accuracy in the presence of noise may be obtained by repeating the search for a shorter interval centered on the prior CFO value. Final CFO phase values from corresponding correlation computations then determine the actual CFO and corresponding sample-to-sample phase shift to be applied for pre-compensation (“back rotation”) in an open-loop AFC
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Citations
22 Claims
-
1. A method for determining a carrier frequency offset and a corresponding sample-to-sample phase shift present in a sampled digital signal from a radio of a wireless transceiver, said method comprising the steps of:
-
a) uniformly dividing a carrier frequency offset (CFO) range [−
Δ
Ω
, Δ
Ω
) to be compensated, into ‘
N’
intervals of length, such that Δ
ω
=2·
Δ
Ω
/N<
δ
/(T·
L) where δ
<
1, T is the sampling period, L is the length of the preamble pattern in samples and the inequality sets the lower bound for the value of N, wherein δ
is the normalized length of the “
feasible range”
for direct phase calculation;b) selecting midpoint values, Δ
ω
0 Δ
ω
1 . . . Δ
ω
N−
2 Δ
ω
N−
1, of the intervals determined in step a);c) connecting a stream of samples of an I-Q format input signal . . . si si+L−
1 simultaneously to N “
rotate &
correlate”
units numbered from 0 to N−
1 and assigning each midpoint value computed in step b) to the like numbered rotate &
correlate unit;d) connecting an A output of the N rotate &
correlate units sequentially to the inputs of the “
smooth &
select”
unit;e) starting the rotate &
correlate units on an external trigger that indicates a preamble pattern boundary in the input signal stream;f) running a complete rotate &
correlate cycle while the rotate &
correlate units consume L input samples and compute the correlation vectors Ai=a·
ejφi in polar coordinates
-
-
2. A method for determining a carrier frequency offset and a corresponding sample-to-sample phase shift present in a sampled digital signal from a radio of a wireless transceiver, said method comprising the steps of:
-
dividing a carrier frequency offset (CFO) range to be covered into a plurality of intervals; creating from a received signal as many parallel derived streams as there are intervals and pre-compensating (“
back rotating”
) signals received by the sample-to-sample phase shift corresponding to a midpoint of a particular one of the plurality of intervals;computing magnitude and phase resulting from a correlation of an expected preamble pattern period waveform with a preamble segment of each derived stream in parallel; applying if necessary, curve fitting (filtering) to resulting magnitude values in order to minimize noise effects; selecting a largest resulting magnitude value(s) to zoom in on an actual CFO present in an input stream of the signals received; repeating a search for a shorter interval centered on a CFO value located in a first run, if needed, in order to improve accuracy in the presence of noise and provided there is still input preamble left to work on; and determining an actual CFO from the CFO values belonging to the selected interval and the result of the corresponding computed correlation phase.
-
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3. A method for automatic frequency offset compensation under low signal-to-noise conditions, comprising the steps of:
-
a) detecting a preamble pattern boundary; b) initiating an automatic frequency control (AFC) coarse step once the preamble pattern boundary has been detected; c) determining whether the initiated AFC coarse step is a third AFC coarse step, wherein if the initiated AFC coarse step is not the third AFC coarse step then going to step d), and if the initiated AFC coarse step is the third AFC coarse step then going to step i); d) taking a plurality of signal samples over a plurality of offset interval ranges; e) averaging together the plurality of signal samples for each respective one of the plurality of offset interval ranges; f) determining which one of the plurality of offset interval ranges has the averaged signal sample with a largest magnitude; g) determining whether the largest magnitude is greater than an accept threshold, wherein if the largest magnitude is greater than the accept threshold then going to step j), and if the largest magnitude is not greater than the accept threshold then going to step h); h) determining whether the largest magnitude is greater than a reject threshold, wherein if the largest magnitude is greater than the reject threshold then returning to step a), and if the largest magnitude is not greater than the reject threshold then going to step i); i) rejecting the one of the plurality of offset interval ranges having the largest magnitude that is not greater than the reject threshold; j) selecting a portion of the one of the plurality of offset interval ranges having the largest magnitude; k) determining a first refined carrier offset estimate from the plurality of signal samples within the selected portion of the one of the plurality of offset interval ranges having the largest magnitude; l) determining a second refined carrier offset estimate from the plurality of signal samples within the selected portion of the one of the plurality of offset interval ranges having the largest magnitude; m) determining whether the AFC coarse step was a first or a second AFC coarse step, wherein if the AFC coarse step was the second AFC coarse step than going to step n), and if the AFC coarse step was the first AFC coarse step than going to step o); n) averaging the first and second refined carrier offset estimates to provide an averaged carrier offset estimate then going to step q); o) determining a third refined carrier offset estimate from the plurality of signal samples within the selected portion of the one of the plurality of offset interval ranges having the largest magnitude; p) averaging the first, second and third refined carrier offset estimates to provide an averaged carrier offset estimate then going to step q); and q) compensating a frequency offset from a carrier frequency with the averaged carrier offset estimate. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for automatic frequency offset compensation under low signal-to-noise conditions in a zero-intermediate frequency receiver, said method comprising the steps of:
-
receiving data signals having a preamble; converting the received data signals into in-phase (I) and quadrature phase (Q) data signals at a zero intermediate frequency (IF); sampling the I and Q data signals at the zero IF; converting the sampled I and Q data signals to digital representations thereof with I and Q analog-to-digital converters (ADCs); performing automatic frequency offset compensation of the received data signals, comprising the steps of; a) detecting a preamble pattern boundary; b) initiating an automatic frequency control (AFC) coarse step once the preamble pattern boundary has been detected; c) determining whether the initiated AFC coarse step is a third AFC coarse step, wherein if the initiated AFC coarse step is not the third AFC coarse step then going to step d), and if the initiated AFC coarse step is the third AFC coarse step then going to step h); d) averaging together the digital representations of the sampled I and Q data signals within each respective one of a plurality of offset interval ranges; e) determining which one of the plurality of offset interval ranges has the averaged digital representations of the sampled I and Q data signals with a largest magnitude; f) determining whether the largest magnitude is greater than an accept threshold, wherein if the largest magnitude is greater than the accept threshold then going to step i), and if the largest magnitude is not greater than the accept threshold then going to step g); g) determining whether the largest magnitude is greater than a reject threshold, wherein if the largest magnitude is greater than the reject threshold then returning to step a), and if the largest magnitude is not greater than the reject threshold then going to step h); h) rejecting the one of the plurality of offset interval ranges having the largest magnitude that is not greater than the reject threshold; i) selecting a portion of the one of the plurality of offset interval ranges having the largest magnitude; j) determining a first refined carrier offset estimate from the digital representations of the sampled I and Q data signals within the selected portion of the one of the plurality of offset interval ranges having the largest magnitude; k) determining a second refined carrier offset estimate from the digital representations of the sampled I and Q data signals within the selected portion of the one of the plurality of offset interval ranges having the largest magnitude; l) determining whether the AFC coarse step was a first or a second AFC coarse step, wherein if the AFC coarse step was the second AFC coarse step than going to step m), and if the AFC coarse step was the first AFC coarse step than going to step n); m) averaging the first and second refined carrier offset estimates to provide an averaged carrier offset estimate then going to step p); n) determining a third refined carrier offset estimate from the plurality of signal samples within the selected portion of the one of the plurality of offset interval ranges having the largest magnitude; o) averaging the first, second and third refined carrier offset estimates to provide an averaged carrier offset estimate then going to step p); and p) compensating a frequency offset from a carrier frequency of the received data signals with the averaged carrier offset estimate. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
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Specification