Signal pulse detection scheme for use in real-time spectrum analysis
First Claim
1. A method for detecting signal pulses from received radio frequency (RF) energy, comprising:
- a. storing data for one or more spectral peaks of RF energy;
b. analyzing the data over multiple time intervals to identify one or more signal pulses, a signal pulse comprised of a sequence of spectral peaks having similar spectral characteristics over multiple time intervals;
c. storing signal pulse data describing one or more identified signal pulses based on said analyzing; and
d. updating the stored signal pulse data with data for a spectral peak that has spectral characteristics that matches data in the stored signal pulse data to thereby extend a duration of a signal pulse, add data for a new signal pulse to the stored signal pulse data for a spectral peak associated with a time interval, or terminate a signal pulse in the stored signal pulse data.
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Abstract
A spectrum analysis engine (SAGE) that comprises a spectrum analyzer component, a signal detector component, a universal signal synchronizer component and a snapshot buffer component. The spectrum analyzer component generates data representing a real-time spectrogram of a bandwidth of radio frequency (RF) spectrum. The signal detector detects signal pulses in the frequency band and outputs pulse event information entries output, which include the start time, duration, power, center frequency and bandwidth of each detected pulse. The signal detector also provides pulse trigger outputs which may be used to enable/disable the collection of information by the spectrum analyzer and the snapshot buffer components. An alternative pulse detection module is provided that tracks signal pulses by comparing peak data from successive FFT cycles with existing signal pulse data that is derived from comparing peak data for prior FFT cycles. Peaks for new FFT cycles are matched to data associated with signal pulses determined to be occurring over many FFT intervals.
204 Citations
49 Claims
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1. A method for detecting signal pulses from received radio frequency (RF) energy, comprising:
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a. storing data for one or more spectral peaks of RF energy; b. analyzing the data over multiple time intervals to identify one or more signal pulses, a signal pulse comprised of a sequence of spectral peaks having similar spectral characteristics over multiple time intervals; c. storing signal pulse data describing one or more identified signal pulses based on said analyzing; and d. updating the stored signal pulse data with data for a spectral peak that has spectral characteristics that matches data in the stored signal pulse data to thereby extend a duration of a signal pulse, add data for a new signal pulse to the stored signal pulse data for a spectral peak associated with a time interval, or terminate a signal pulse in the stored signal pulse data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 46, 47)
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24. A signal pulse detector that detects signal pulses from received radio frequency (RF) energy, comprising:
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a. a peak calculation module that computes data for one or more spectral peaks of RF energy that exceed a power threshold and a minimum bandwidth threshold during each of a plurality of time intervals; b. a first memory that stores an incoming peak list comprising data for one or more spectral peaks detected for a current time interval; and c. a pulse comparison module coupled to the first memory, and which compares the data in the incoming peak list with existing pulse data to determine whether to (1) extend an existing pulse;
(2) terminate an existing pulse;
or (3) add data for a new pulse to the existing pulse data. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. A spectrum analysis system comprising:
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a. a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) block that receives as input a digital signal representing received RF energy and computes FFT values spanning a plurality of frequency bins for a time interval; b. a power calculation block coupled to the FFT block that computes the power at each frequency bin for a each time interval; c. a peak detector that receives as input an output of the power calculation block for successive time intervals, detects one or more peaks in the output of the power calculation block and outputs data describing spectral peaks of RF energy for each time interval; d. a signal pulse detector coupled to receive as input the output of the peak detector; i. a peak calculation module that computes data for one or more spectral peaks that exceed a power threshold and a minimum bandwidth threshold; ii. a first memory that stores an incoming peak list comprising data for one or more spectral peaks detected for a current time interval; and iii. a pulse comparison module coupled to the first memory, and which compares the data in the incoming peak list with existing pulse data to determine whether to extend or terminate an existing pulse, or to add a new pulse to the existing pulse data; and e. a statistics computation module coupled to the power calculation module that computes one or more of a running sum of the power at each frequency bin over time intervals;
a duty count comprising a running sum at each time interval of the number of times the power at each frequency bin exceeds the power threshold;
a maximum power for each frequency bin for the current and prior time intervals; and
a running count of the number of time intervals in which a certain number of spectral peaks have been detected. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45)
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48. A processor readable medium storing instructions, that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform functions comprising:
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a. storing data for one or more spectral peaks detected from received RF energy; b. analyzing the data over multiple time intervals to identify one or more signal pulses, a signal pulse comprised of a sequence of spectral peaks having similar frequency location and bandwidth characteristics over multiple time intervals; and c. storing signal pulse data describing one or more identified signal pulses based on said analyzing; d. wherein the instructions for said analyzing comprise instructions for comparing frequency location and bandwidth of one or more spectral peaks for a time interval with frequency location and bandwidth of signal pulses in the stored signal pulse data so as to update the stored signal pulse data with data for a spectral peak that matches data in the stored signal pulse data to thereby extend a duration of a signal pulse, add data for a new signal pulse to the stored signal pulse data, or (c) terminate a signal pulse in the stored signal pulse data. - View Dependent Claims (49)
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Specification