Mobile communication system

• US 5,889,488 A
• Filed: 02/27/1997
• Issued: 03/30/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Kosaki, Hitoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Hellner, Mark
• Application Number:
  US08/806,743
• Time in Patent Office: 761 Days
• Field of Search: 342/359, 342/17, 342/18, 342/19, 455/501, 455/504, 455/63, 455/296, 370/324, 375/346
• US Class Current: 342/17
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/1027 assessing signal quality or detecting noise/interference for the received signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/17 Detection of non-compliance or faulty performance, e.g. response deviations H04B17/18 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/309 Measuring or estimating channel quality parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0001 Systems modifying transmission characteristics according to link quality, e.g. power backoff adaptive data allocation for multicarrier modulation H04L5/0044; controlling transmission power for radio systems H04W52/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements

Abstract

A mobile communication system aiming at immediately recovering from radio disturbances which are frequently caused in a communication device mounted on a mobile unit. This mobile communication system is provided with an antenna for transmitting and receiving an electromagnetic wave, a tracking device for adjusting a pointing direction of the antenna to a direction in which an electromagnetic wave arrives, a receiving device for demodulating a received electromagnetic wave, a transmitting device for modulating information, which is to be transmitted, to an electromagnetic wave, a handset for displaying information to a user and for receiving an instruction from a user, and a control unit for controlling the tracking device, the receiving device, the transmitting device and the handset. Further, the control unit forming the heart of this system has a countermeasure device, a display unit and a fault inferring device. Moreover, the inference of a cause of a radio disturbance is performed by monitoring the variation in the signal level of a received signal and being based on a pattern of the obtained variation.

Claims

1. In a novel communication system comprising an antenna for transmitting and receiving an electromagnetic wave, receiving means for demodulating a received electromagnetic wave and producing a received signal, transmitting means for modulating information which is to be transmitted onto an electromagnetic wave, the improvement comprising:

control means for inferring a cause of a radio disturbance affecting the received signal and for selecting a counter measure corresponding to the inferred cause of the radio disturbance, said control means comprising storage means for storing a plurality of patterns, each pattern being indicative of response over a selected time period of the mobile communication system to a separate cause for radio disturbance, means for determining correspondence of the received signal with one of the plurality of patterns, countermeasure means for performing a selected one of a plurality of operations for recovery from the radio disturbance and means for selecting the one countermeasure in correspondence with said one pattern.

2. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein said means for determining receives a time varying pattern of the received signal from the receiving means.

3. The improvement according to claim 2 wherein said means for determining comprises means for measuring the level of the received signal.

4. The improvement according to claim 2 wherein said fault inferring means further comprises a further means for storing a time varying pattern of C/N of the received signal.

5. The improvement according to claim 2 wherein said fault inferring means further comprises means for measuring a time varying pattern of BER of the received signal.

6. The improvement according to claims 2 wherein said means for determining further comprises means for measuring a time varying pattern of PER of the received signal.

7. The improvement according to claim 3 wherein said mobile communication system further comprises tracking means for adjusting a pointing direction of the antenna to a direction in which an electromagnetic wave arrives and wherein said means for determining further comprises means for measuring a time varying pattern of the received signal and means for producing a tracking error signal.

8. The improvement according to claim 3 wherein the mobile positioning system further comprises a GPS antenna for receiving geographical positional information and wherein said receiving means comprises GPS receiving means and wherein said means for determining comprises means for responding to the time varying pattern of the level of the received signal and to the geographical positional information from said GPS receiving means.

9. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein said mobile communication system further comprises optical image input means for providing an optical image and wherein said means for determining further comprises means for measuring an optical image obtained from said optical image input means.

10. The improvement according to claim 9 wherein said optical image input means comprises means for pointing said optical input in a same direction as the antenna, means for resolving an obstacle in a receiving region, ratio determining means for determining a ratio of area of the obstacle and a remaining portion of said image and wherein said means for determining utilizes a signal indicative of the ratio from said ratio determining means.