Frequency hopping synchronization and tracking in a digital communication system
First Claim
1. A digital communications system, comprising:
- a transmitter for transmitting a digital data signal via a noisy transmission path, said digital data signal having a phasing signal portion and a framing signal portion; and
a receiver responsive to said transmitted signal, said receiver comprising;
a detector responsive to incoming data samples representative of said phasing signal portion of said digital data signal, said detector partitioning said incoming data samples into alternating first and second sample sequences and correlating said sequences against a hop frequency modulation code reference sequence to provide an output signal indicative of correlated data samples and of a data signal detection;
a post-detector responsive to said output signal and to said hop frequency modulation code reference sequence for correlating said incoming data samples and comparing a spectral power of said correlated data samples to a threshold value to provide a sync output signal indicative of frequency hop synchronization of said digital data signal;
a tracker responsive to said sync output signal and said digital data signal for periodically providing histograms of data bit transitions for producing an error signal indicative of the difference of the transmitted clock rate and the sampling position of a received bit; and
a clock responsive to said error signal to provide a clock signal according to said error signal to drive sampling of received data bits toward the center of each bit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
There is disclosed an improved frequency hopping synchronization and tracking system for bit syncing and frame syncing a digital data signal as transmitted by a radio transmitter. A detection means responsive to incoming data samples representative of the phasing signal portion of the digital data signal partitions the data samples into alternating first and second sample sequences and correlates the samples against a frequency hop modulation code reference sequence to provide an initial data signal detection. A post-detection means responsive to the initial detection and to the frequency hop modulation code reference sequence correlates the incoming data samples and compares the spectral power of the correlated data samples to a threshold value to provide bit sync of the detected data signal. Tracking means responsive to the bit sync and to the input samples captures a frame signal and generates histograms of data bit transitions for producing an error signal indicative of the difference of the transmitted clock rate and the sampling position of the received bit. A clock means responsive to the error signal produced by the histogram process can be adjusted according to the error signal to enable sampling of each received data bit to occur relatively at the center of each bit to ensure reliable decoding or detection of a digital data signal in a noisy channel at the receiver.
45 Citations
42 Claims
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1. A digital communications system, comprising:
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a transmitter for transmitting a digital data signal via a noisy transmission path, said digital data signal having a phasing signal portion and a framing signal portion; and a receiver responsive to said transmitted signal, said receiver comprising; a detector responsive to incoming data samples representative of said phasing signal portion of said digital data signal, said detector partitioning said incoming data samples into alternating first and second sample sequences and correlating said sequences against a hop frequency modulation code reference sequence to provide an output signal indicative of correlated data samples and of a data signal detection; a post-detector responsive to said output signal and to said hop frequency modulation code reference sequence for correlating said incoming data samples and comparing a spectral power of said correlated data samples to a threshold value to provide a sync output signal indicative of frequency hop synchronization of said digital data signal; a tracker responsive to said sync output signal and said digital data signal for periodically providing histograms of data bit transitions for producing an error signal indicative of the difference of the transmitted clock rate and the sampling position of a received bit; and a clock responsive to said error signal to provide a clock signal according to said error signal to drive sampling of received data bits toward the center of each bit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of detecting a phasing signal pattern and a framing signal in a transmitted digital data signal for using said transmitted digital data signal to synchronize a clock at a receiver, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving incoming data samples representative of said digital data signal at a predetermined sampling rate R; sampling every other said received incoming data samples and alternately partitioning said every other said sampled incoming data sample into a first odd and second even sample sequences, whereby said first odd and second even sample sequences sampling rates are one-fourth of said predetermined sampling rate R; correlating said odd and even sample sequences against a hop frequency modulation reference code sequence to obtain odd and even correlation values; summing the magnitudes of said odd and even correlation values; computing a power measurement during a predetermined period representative of the spectral energy of said odd and even correlated values; comparing said power measurement with a stored signal energy estimate to provide an output signal if the comparison exceeds a given threshold value, wherein said output signal includes an indication of the start and end points of correlated samples; merging said odd and even sample sequences into a unified sample sequence; generating first odd and second even reference sample sequences from a combination of preamble bit pattern samples of a known preamble bit pattern and the hop frequency modulation reference code sequence; correlating said odd and even reference sample sequences against said unified sample sequence to provide multiple hop-width correlation samples having multiple hop-width correlation values; computing a post-detection power measurement during a predetermined period representative of the spectral energy of said hop-width correlation values; comparing said post-detection power measurement with a second stored signal energy estimate to provide a sync output signal if the comparison exceeds a given post-detection threshold value; decoding said hop frequency modulation reference code sequence to determine a hop-time offset clock drift; and adjusting the receiver clock to remove phase error resulting from said hop-time offset clock drift. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. In a receiver of a digital communication system, a method of achieving synchronization with a digital signal received by the receiver and modulated in accordance with a modulation code known to the receiver, in order to allow the receiver to time align the sampling of the digital signal to a timing of the digital signal, the digital signal having a synchronization portion and a data portion, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) accumulating at the receiver a sequence of samples of the synchronization portion of the digital signal; (b) detecting and coarsely estimating the timing of the digital signal by correlating samples in the sequence of samples with a modulation reference code sequence; (c) finely estimating the timing of the digital signal by correlating samples of the sequence of samples with a refined reference sequence at a plurality of different correlation timings offset by predetermined durations from the coarsely estimated timing of the digital signal, a finely estimated timing of the digital signal being determined from correlations at the plurality of different correlation timings; and (d) adjusting a timing of a clock of the receiver in accordance with the finely estimated timing of the digital signal to synchronize sampling of the digital signal at the receiver to the timing of the digital signal. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. A digital communication system, comprising:
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a transmitter adapted to transmit a digital signal modulated in accordance with a modulation code and having a synchronization portion and a data portion; a receiver adapted to detect the digital signal and synchronize sampling of the digital signal with a bit timing of the digital signal, said receiver comprising; an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter that samples the digital signal to produce a sequence of samples of the synchronization portion of the digital signal; a pre-detector adapted to detect and coarsely estimate a timing of the digital signal by correlating samples in the sequence of samples with a modulation reference code sequence; a post-detector that finely estimates the timing of the digital signal by correlating samples of the sequence of samples with a refined reference sequence at a plurality of different correlation timings offset by predetermined durations from the coarsely estimated timing of the digital signal, said post-detector determining a finely estimated timing of the digital signal from correlations at the plurality of different correlation timings; and an adjustable clock that provides a timing reference for sampling the digital signal, the timing of said adjustable clock being adjusted in accordance with the finely estimated timing of the digital signal to synchronize sampling of the digital signal at said receiver to the timing of the digital signal. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification