SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AN IMPROVED COMMUNICATION CHANNEL

• US 20190020521A1
• Filed: 07/17/2017
• Published: 01/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Inventors: FINKELSTEIN, JEFFREY L.
• Granted Patent: US 10,637,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/04 Control of transmission; Equalising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2627 Modulators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2646 using feedback from receiver for adjusting OFDM transmission parameters, e.g. transmission timing or guard interval length
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/34 Amplitude- and phase-modulated carrier systems, e.g. quadrature-amplitude modulated carrier systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0046 Determination of how many bits are transmitted on different sub-channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0062 Avoidance of ingress interference, e.g. ham radio channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic

Abstract

The systems and methods disclosed herein are generally directed to the real-time symbol rate of modulation modification based on noise and interference detection on a received signal during data transmission across a network. In one embodiment, a receiving device can measure the power of affected carriers, subcarriers, and/or tones. In one embodiment, adaptive bit loading can be used such that a lower order modulation scheme can be used to overcome through the noise and increase the Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the transmitted signal. In one embodiment, more throughput (for example, more bps/Hz) can be achieved in the network by using subcarriers that have a higher SNR. Further, the bit-loading can serve to maximize the data rate subject to power and bit-error ratio (BER) constraints of the network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

monitoring a transmission from a first device to a second device, over at least one channel;

determining, for a first predetermined period of time, one or more performance metrics for the transmission, the transmission being modulated using a first modulation technique at a first symbol rate;

comparing a performance metric from the one or more performance metrics to a first threshold;

determining, based on the comparison, that the performance metric meets the first threshold;

in response to determining that the performance metric meets the first threshold, determining a second symbol rate for the transmission based at least on part the determined performance metric;

changing the symbol rate of the transmission from the first symbol rate to the second symbol rate;

reducing a bit loading of a carrier, subcarrier, or tone adjacent to the at least one channel based on an adjacent channel interference (ACI) determination; and

transmitting data from the first device to the second device using the first modulation technique at the second symbol rate.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, for a second predetermined period of time, the transmission using the first modulation technique at the second symbol rate meets a second threshold different from the first threshold;

changing the symbol rate of the transmission from the second symbol rate to the first symbol rate; and

transmitting data from the first device to the second device using the first modulation technique at the first symbol rate.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, for a second predetermined period of time, the transmission using the first modulation technique at the second symbol rate fails to meet a second threshold different from the first threshold; and

continuing transmitting data from the first, device to the second device using the first modulation technique at the second symbol rate.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first modulation technique is Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technique.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first Modulation technique is Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technique.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first symbol rate is a 16K QAM and the second rate is 4K QAM.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first symbol rate is one of 16K QAM, 32K QAM, 64K QAM, 128K QAM, and 256K QAM and the second symbol rate is one of 16K QAM, 32K QAM, 64K QAM, 128K QAM, and 256K QAM.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein bits per symbol for the first symbol rate are larger than the bits per symbol for the second symbol rate.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein a bit rate associated with the first symbol rate is smaller than the second symbol rate.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a first power per symbol associated with the first symbol rate is less than a power per symbol associated with the second symbol rate.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a first pilot signal indicative of a condition of the at least one channel;

determining based on the first pilot signal the performance metric.

12. A system comprising:

a first device; and

a second device in communication with the first device;

wherein the first device is configured to;

monitor a transmission from the first device to the second device, over at least one channel;

determine, for a first predetermined period of time, one or more performance metrics for the transmission, the transmission being modulated using a first modulation technique at a first symbol rate;

compare a performance metric from the one or more performance metrics to a first threshold;

determine, based on the comparison, that the performance metric meets the first threshold;

in response to determining that the performance metric meets the first threshold, determine a second symbol rate for the transmission based at least on part the determined performance metric;

change the symbol rate of the transmission from the first symbol rate to the second symbol rate;

reduce a bit loading of a carrier, subcarrier, or tone adjacent to the at least one channel based on an adjacent channel interference (ACI) determination; and

transmit data from the first device to the second device using the first modulation technique at the second symbol rate.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first device is further configured to:

determine, for a second predetermined period of time, the transmission using the first modulation technique at the second symbol rate meets a second threshold different from the first threshold; and

change the symbol rate of the transmission from the second symbol rate to the first symbol rate;

transmit data from the first device to the second device using the first modulation technique at the first symbol rate.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the first device is further configured to:

determine, for a second predetermined period of time, the transmission using the first modulation technique at the second symbol rate fails to meet a second threshold different from the first threshold; and

continuing to transmit data from the first device to the second device using the first modulation technique at the second symbol rate.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the first modulation technique is Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technique.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the first modulation technique is Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technique.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the first symbol rate is a 16 QAM and the second rate is 4 QAM.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the first symbol rate is one of 16K QAM, 32K QAM, 64K QAM, 128K QAM, and 256K QAM and the second symbol rate is one of 16K QAM, 32K QAM, 64K QAM, 128K QAM, and 256K QAM.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein bits per symbol for the first symbol rate are larger than the bits per symbol for the second symbol rate.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein a bit rate associated with the first symbol rate is smaller than the second symbol rate.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein a first power per symbol associated with the first symbol rate is less than a power per symbol associated with the second symbol rate.

22. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a first pilot signal indicative of a condition of the at least one channel; and

determining based on the first pilot signal the performance metric.