Spread spectrum communications method and apparatus
First Claim
1. A spread spectrum communications system for use with a communications network having a wide bandwidth linear repeater channel comprisinga transmitting element havingmeans for repetitively generating a plural binary digit message signal for a sequence of binary input data, different input data resulting in different message signals andmodulation means for generating from said message signal a spread spectrum transmission signal, said transmission signal being adapted to be transmitted as a pseudo-noise signal simultaneously with a plurality of nonspread spectrum communications signals over said wide bandwidth repeater channel, said channel being dedicated to receiving and retransmitting said plurality of nonspread spectrum communication signals unrelated to said spread spectrum signal, anda receiver station for receiving said spread spectrum transmission signal, as retransmitted by said repeater channel, and for reconstructing said input data from said received retransmitted transmission signal.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus employing spread spectrum techniques in a wide bandwidth communications system is disclosed. A plurality of transmitting stations are each equipped to provide a transmission signal representing a pseudo-random coded, phase modulated, message signal. The transmission signal is directed through a bandwidth which encompasses otherwise dedicated, relatively narrow bandwidth repeater channels, employed in connection with a communications satellite, to a generally fixed receiver station. At the receiving station, the incoming signal is (a) code acquired and tracked, (b) carrier acquired and tracked, (c) phase locked to the receiver local oscillator and (d) coherently demodulated to extract the desired data. The receiving station advantageously employs plural receiving elements each having a pseudo-random sequence code matched filter which significantly reduces code acquisition time by obviating the necessity of exhaustively correlating the incoming signal with a replica of the pseudo-random code word at the receiver station.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A spread spectrum communications system for use with a communications network having a wide bandwidth linear repeater channel comprising
a transmitting element having means for repetitively generating a plural binary digit message signal for a sequence of binary input data, different input data resulting in different message signals and modulation means for generating from said message signal a spread spectrum transmission signal, said transmission signal being adapted to be transmitted as a pseudo-noise signal simultaneously with a plurality of nonspread spectrum communications signals over said wide bandwidth repeater channel, said channel being dedicated to receiving and retransmitting said plurality of nonspread spectrum communication signals unrelated to said spread spectrum signal, and a receiver station for receiving said spread spectrum transmission signal, as retransmitted by said repeater channel, and for reconstructing said input data from said received retransmitted transmission signal.
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6. In a spread spectrum system having a carrier signal angle modulated by a message to be transmitted, and wherein the transmitted message comprises plural message bits synchronously combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, a receiving method comprising the steps of
non-coherently acquiring and tracking said pseudorandom code sequence by employing non-coherent, recursive integration, and thereafter acquiring and tracking the transmitted carrier frequency and phase.
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7. In a spread spectrum system having a carrier signal angle modulated by a message to be transmitted, and wherein the transmitted message comprises plural message bits synchronously combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, a receiving method comprising the steps of
providing a plurality of receiving elements operating in substantially non-overlapping frequency ranges, non-coherently acquiring and tracking said pseudorandom code sequence using one of said receiving elements, and thereafter acquiring and tracking the transmitted carrier frequency and phase using said one of said receiving elements.
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8. A spread spectrum communication system for use with a communications network having a wide bandwidth repeater channel, comprising
a transmitting element having means for repetitively generating a binary message signal from a sequence of binary input data, said message signal comprising a synchronization word and a sequence of data message bits, each combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, and modulation means for generating from said message signal a spread spectrum transmission signal, said transmission signal being adapted to be transmitted as a pseudo-noise signal simultaneously with a plurality of communications signals over said wide bandwidth repeater channel, said channel being dedicated to receiving and retransmitting said plurality of communications signals, said communications signals being unrelated to said spread spectrum signal, and a receiver station for receiving said spread spectrum transmission signal, as retransmitted by said repeater channel, and for reconstructing said input data from said received retransmitted transmission signal, said receiver station comprising at least one receiver element, each element comprising means for forming first and second quadrature component signals of said received signal at a selected carrier frequency, a first and a second pseudorandom code matched filter, each filter being responsive respectively to said first and second component signals and each filter being matched to the selected pseudorandom code signal, and incoherent detection means responsive to outputs of said filters for providing an output signal representing the degree of correlation of the received signal and the selected pseudorandom code signal, said detection means comprising a code cycle accumulator for separately accumulating the sum of the squared values of the outputs of said code matched filters at each of a plurality of periodically occurring times, and means for resetting the stored contents of said accumulator in response to the occurrence of the first of a selected sampling time or an accumulated stored contents greater than a first threshold value.
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10. A spread spectrum communication system for use in a communications network having a wide bandwidth repeater channel, comprising
a transmitting element having means for repetitively generating a binary message signal from a sequence of binary input data, said message signal comprising a synchronization word and a sequence of data message bits, each combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, and modulation means for generating from said message signal a spread spectrum transmission signal, said transmission signal being adapted to be transmitted as a pseudo-noise signal simultaneously with a plurality of communications signals over said wide bandwidth repeater channel, said channel being dedicated to receiving and retransmitting said plurality of communications signals, said communications signals being unrelated to said spread spectrum signal, and a receiver station for receiving said spread spectrum transmission signal, as retransmitted by said repeater channel, and for reconstructing said input data from said received retransmitted transmission signal, said receiver station comprising at least one receiver element, each element comprising means for forming first and second quadrature component signals of said received signal at a selected carrier frequency, a first and second pseudorandom code matched filter, each filter being responsive respectively to said first and second component signals and each filter being matched to the selected pseudorandom code signal, and incoherent detection means responsive to outputs of said filters for providing an output signal representing the degree of correlation of the received signal and the selected pseudorandom code signal, and each said code matched filter comprising a low pass filter matched substantially to the shape of each pseudorandom code bit signal in the received signal, a tapped analog delay line charge transfer device responsive to said low pass filter output and having a number of equally time-spaced output lines at least equal to twice the number of bits in each pseudorandom code sequence, said delay line being responsive to a clock rate corresponding to at least twice the bit rate associated with generation of said pseudorandom code, and means for weighting said tapped outputs according to said selected pseudorandom sequence for providing output signals representing the degree of correlation of the selected pseudorandom sequence and the received signal.
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12. A spread spectrum communication system for use with a communications network having a wide bandwidth repeater channel, comprising
a transmitting element having means for repetitively generating a binary message signal from a sequence of binary input data, said message signal comprising a synchronization word and a sequence of data message bits, each combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, and modulation means for generating from said message signal a spread spectrum transmission signal, said transmission signal being adapted to be transmitted as a pseudo-noise signal simultaneously with a plurality of communication signals over said wide bandwidth repeater channel, said channel being dedicated to receiving and retransmitting said plurality of communications signals, said communications signals being unrelated to said spread spectrum signal, and a receiver station for receiving said spread spectrum transmission signal, as retransmitted by said repeater channel, and for reconstructing said input data from said received retransmitted transmission signal, said receiver station comprising at least one receiver element, each element comprising means for forming first and second quadrature component signals of said received signal at a selected carrier frequency, a first and second pseudorandom code matched filter, each filter being responsive respectively to said first and second component signals and each filter being matched to the selected pseudorandom code signal, incoherent detection means responsive to outputs of said filters for providing an output signal representing the degree of correlation of the received signal and the selected pseudorandom code signal, a first and a second synchronization word matched filter responsive respectively to the first and second code matched filter outputs, a first and a second data word matched filter responsive respectively to the first and second code matched filter outputs, and means responsive to said code and data word matched filter outputs for accurately determining the frequency of said transmission signal carrier.
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15. A spread spectrum communication system for use with a communication network having a wide bandwidth repeater channel, comprising
a transmitting element having means for repetitively generating a binary message signal from a sequence of binary input data, said message signal comprising a synchronization word and a sequence of data message bits, each combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, and modulation means for generating from said message signal a spread spectrum transmission signal, said transmission signal being adapted to be transmitted as a pseudo-noise signal simultaneously with a plurality of communication signals over said wide bandwidth repeater channel, said channel being dedicated to receiving and retransmitting said plurality of communications signals, said communications signals being unrelated to said spread spectrum signal, and a receiver station for receiving said spread spectrum transmission signal, as retransmitted by said repeater channel, and for reconstructing said input data from said received retransmitted transmission signal, said receiver station comprising at least one receiver element, each element comprising means for forming first and second quadrature component signals of said received signal at a selected carrier frequency, a first and second pseudorandom code matched filter, each filter being responsive respectively to said first and second component signals and each filter being matched to the selected pseudorandom code signal, incoherent detection means responsive to outputs of said filters for providing an output signal representing the degree of correlation of the received signal and the selected pseudorandom code signal, means for coherently detecting at each of a plurality of first frequencies, a plurality of short sequences of said message signal synchronization and data words and combining and accumulating using incoherent detection the coherent outputs at each first frequency, means for selecting from said accumulation of incoherently combined outputs a selected first frequency, means for coherently detecting up to an entire message at each of a plurality of closely spaced second frequencies, said second frequencies being more closely spaced than said first frequencies and being centered around said selected first frequency, and for combining and accumulating the coherent outputs for each said second frequencies, and means for selecting from said accumulation of second coherent outputs a selected second frequency, said selected first and second selected frequencies being increasingly accurate approximations of the transmission signal carrier frequency.
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16. A spread spectrum communication system for use with a communications network having a wide bandwidth repeater channel, comprising
a transmitting element having means for repetitively generating a binary message signal from a sequence of binary input data, said message signal comprising a synchronization word and a sequence of data message bits, each combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, and modulation means for generating from said message signal a spread spectrum transmission signal, said transmission signal being adapted to be transmitted as a pseudo-noise signal simultaneously with a plurality of communications signals over said wide bandwidth repeater channel, said channel being dedicated to receiving and retransmitting said plurality of communications signals, said communications signals being unrelated to said spread spectrum signal, and a receiver station for receiving said spread spectrum transmission signal, as retransmitted by said repeater channel, and for reconstructing said input data from said received retransmitted transmission signal, said receiver station comprising at least one receiver element, each element comprising means for forming first and second quadrature component signals of said received signal at a selected carrier frequency, a first and second pseudorandom code matched filter, each filter being responsive respectively to said first and second component signals and each filter being matched to the selected pseudorandom code signal, incoherent detection means responsive to outputs of said filters for providing an output signal representing the degree of correlation of the received signal and the selected pseudorandom code signal, a message cycle accumulation means responsive to said code, matched filter for repetitively accumulating said message data signals, synchronization word matched filter means responsive to said accumulator for providing a synchronization word output signal, controlled variable clock means responsive to said synchronization word output signal for providing message data clock synchronization signals, a data word matched filter responsive to said message accumulator for providing a data output signal, and means responsive to said message data clock synchronization signals and said data output signals for providing output message data.
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17. A spread spectrum communication system for use with a communications network having a wide bandwidth repeater channel, comprising
a transmitting element having means for repetitively generating a binary message signal from a sequence of binary input data, said message signal comprising a synchronization word and a sequence of data message bits, each combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, and modulation means for generating from said message signal a spread spectrum transmission signal, said transmission signal being adapted to be transmitted as a pseudo-noise signal simultaneously with a plurality of communications signals over said wide bandwidth repeater channel, said channel being dedicated to receiving and retransmitting said plurality of communications signals, said communications signals being unrelated to said spread spectrum signal, and a receiver station for receiving said spread spectrum transmission signal, as retransmitted by said repeater channel, and for reconstructing said input data from said received retransmitted transmission signal, said receiver station comprising a plurality of substantially indentical receiver elements, each element comprising means for forming first and second quadrature component signals of said received signal at a selected carrier frequency, a first and a second pseudorandom code matched filter, each filter being responsive respectively to said first and second component signals and each filter being matched to the selected pseudorandom code signal, incoherent detection means responsive to outputs of said filters for providing an output signal representing the degree of correlation of the received signal and the selected pseudorandom code signal, a voltage controlled carrier source for forming said quadrature components, and each source, prior to identifying a message, having a different carrier frequency output.
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18. In a spread spectrum communications system wherein the transmitted message comprises plural message bits synchronously combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, a receiver station comprising
at least one receiver element, each element comprising means for forming first and second quadrature component signals of a received signal at a selected frequency, and a first and a second pseudorandom code matched filter, each filter being responsive respectively to said first and second component signals, and each filter being matched to the selected pseudorandom code signal, each said code matched filter having a low pass filter matched substantially to the shape of each pseudorandom code bit received signal, and a tapped analog delay line responsive to said low pass filter output and having a number of equally time-spaced output lines at least equal to twice the number of bits in each pseudorandom code sequence, and means for weighting said tapped outputs according to said selected pseudorandom sequence for providing output signals representing the correlation of the selected pseudorandom code sequence and the received signal, and detection means responsive to outputs of the filters for providing a data output signal representing said message.
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19. In a spread spectrum communications system having a carrier signal angle modulated by a message to be transmitted, and wherein the transmitted message comprises plural message bits synchronously combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, a receiver station comprising
at least one receiver element, each element comprising means for forming first and second quadrature component signals of a received signal at a selected frequency, and a first and a second pseudorandom code matched filter, each filter being responsive respectively to said first and second component signals, and each filter being matched to the selected pseudorandom code signal, and detection means responsive to outputs of the filters for providing a data output signal representing said message said detection means having means for non-coherently acquiring and tracking said pseudorandom code sequence, and means for thereafter acquiring and tracking said carrier frequency and phase.
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20. In a spread spectrum communications system wherein the transmitted message comprises plural message bits synchronously combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, a receiver station comprising
a plurality of substantially identical receiver elements, each element comprising means for forming first and second quadrature component signals of a received signal at a selected frequency, a first and a second pseudorandom code matched filter, each filter being responsive respectively to said first and second component signals, and each filter being matched to the selected pseudorandom code signal, a variable frequency carrier source for forming said quadrature components, and detection means responsive to outputs of the filters for providing a data output signal representing said message, said sources operating in non-overlapping frequency ranges.
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21. In a spread spectrum system having a carrier signal angle modulated by a message to be transmitted, and wherein the transmitted message comprises plural message bits synchronously combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, the receiving method comprising the steps of
forming first and second quadrature component signals of the received signal at at least one selected carrier frequency, for each pair of quadrature signals, passing each quadrature component through a pseudorandom code matched filter, each filter being matched to the selected pseudorandom code signal, and processing the filter outputs to provide data output signals representing the message, acquiring and tracking the pseudorandom code signal, coherently detecting, at each of a plurality of first frequencies a plurality of short sequences of said message signal and accumulating the incoherently summed outputs at each first frequency as a function of time, selecting from said accumulation of incoherently summed outputs a selected first frequency, coherently detecting up to an entire message at each of a plurality of closely spaced second frequencies, said second frequencies being more closely spaced than said first frequencies and being centered around said selected first frequency, combining and accumulating the coherent outputs at said second frequencies, and selecting from said accumulation of second coherent outputs a selected second frequency, said selected first and second frequencies being increasingly accurate approximations of the transmission signal carrier frequency.
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23. In a spread spectrum system wherein the transmitted message comprises plural message bits synchronously combined with a repeating pseudorandom code sequence, the receiving method comprising the steps of
forming first and second quadrature component signals of the received signal at at least one selected carrier frequency, for each pair of quadrature signals, passing each quadrature component through a pseudorandom code matched filter, each filter being matched to the selected pseudorandom code signal, and processing the filter outputs to provide data output signals representing the message, non-coherently acquiring and tracking said pseudorandom code sequence, and thereafter acquiring and tracking the transmitted carrier frequency and phase.
Specification