In-band on-channel digital broadcasting method and system

• US 6,246,698 B1
• Filed: 11/24/1998
• Issued: 06/12/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: VuCast Media, Inc.
• Original Assignee: VuCast Media, Inc.
• Inventors: Kumar, Derek D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chau
• Assistant Examiner(s): HYUN, SOON D
• Application Number:
  US09/197,911
• Time in Patent Office: 931 Days
• Field of Search: 370/485, 370/486, 370/487, 370/527, 370/528, 370/529, 370/493, 370/494, 370/495, 375/267, 375/278, 375/299, 375/346, 375/347
• US Class Current: 370/487
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/22 Arrangements for broadcast of identical information via plural broadcast systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/33 by plural channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/183 FM digital or hybrid
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/20 digital audio broadcasting [DAB]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0066 Parallel concatenated codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0069 Puncturing patterns
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/007 Unequal error protection for format H04L1/0078; for codes per se H03M13/35
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0005 Time-frequency

Abstract

A method and system are provided for the. Transmission and reception of an In-band On-channel (IBOC) FM-band digital audio broadcast (DAB) signal. The IBOC DAB signal is generated in the transmitter to substantially occupy the upper and lower sideband frequency regions in the RF emission mask for the conventional broadcast analog FM-band. Redundant source bit information is transmitted in both the upper and lower sidebands so that the loss of information in either one but not both sidebands due to large amounts of interference or distortion, caused by, for example, first-adjacent interference, does not deleteriously affect the IBOC DAB receiver performance. The system exhibits both frequency-diversity and time-diversity. The receiver determines which codeword bit estimate, corresponding to either upper or lower sideband signals, is less likely to be erroneous. The receiver system selects between decoded estimates for each pair of demodulated ECC codewords or combines both ECC codeword estimates prior to decoding in certain embodiments.

Claims

1. A method of receiving a digitally modulated signal comprising the steps of:

receiving the digitally modulated signal which has source bit information duplicated in upper and lower sidebands relative to a predetermined center frequency, the upper and lower sidebands being non-mirror images relative to each other;

demodulating the received signals from both the upper and lower sidebands;

determining which of demodulated recovered source bit information from demodulation of one of the upper and lower sideband signals is less likely to be erroneous; and

selecting the sideband information from one of the demodulated upper or lower sideband signals, whichever was determined in said determining step as less likely to have errors in the demodulated or recovered source bit information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said receiving step further includes receiving the upper sideband signals at a different time than the corresponding modulated lower sideband signals having duplicated source bit information therein whereby the method is robust against certain deleterious effects which may affect both sideband signals at once.

3. A method of transmitting an IBOC DAB radio frequency (RF) signal in an IBOC DAB RF communication system which is robust to certain deleterious effects, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a source message which is to be transmitted to a corresponding receiver;

using the source message to generate codewords which are used to data-modulate a set of subcarrier signals in an upper sideband and a lower sideband of a predetermined RF mask over a plurality of baud intervals so that the resulting upper and lower sideband signals include redundant source bit information thus providing frequency diversity the upper and lower sideband signals being non-mirror images of each other;

time-delaying the codewords for one of the modulated upper and lower sideband signals relative to the corresponding codewords for the modulation of the other sideband in order to create time diversity in the upper and lower sidebands;

generating an analog FM-band signal to be transmitted; and

transmitting, via an antenna, the analog FM-band signal, and said sideband signals having redundant source bit information relative to each other, to an IBOC DAB receiver.