Noise reduction system and method thereof

• US 7,522,877 B1
• Filed: 08/01/2008
• Issued: 04/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Anuvu IP Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: EMC Satcom Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Jayasimha, Sriram, Paladugula, Jyothendar, Avellan, Abel, Godoy, Sergio
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Duc
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rego; Dominic E
• Application Number:
  US12/185,030
• Time in Patent Office: 263 Days
• Field of Search: 455/63.1, 455/67.11, 455/67.13, 455/139, 455/278.1, 455/276.1, 455/283, 455/284, 455/285, 330/149, 375/296, 375/297
• US Class Current: 455/12.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18517 Transmission equipment in earth stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18528 Satellite systems for providing two-way communications service to a network of fixed stations, i.e. fixed satellite service or very small aperture terminal [VSAT] system

Abstract

The reduction of echo noise in satellite communications includes receiving an aggregate signal from multiple remote stations, where the aggregate signal includes a transmit signal, whose bandwidth is in the range of 0.1 MHz to 66 MHz, is previously sent from a hub to the multiple receiving stations, computing a scaled, delayed and distorted replica of the transmit signal and using the replica to compensate for satellite transponder nonlinearities and reduce echo noise interference from a received aggregate signal received by the hub from the multiple remote stations.

Claims

1. A method for reducing echo noise in satellite communications in which a hub communicates with multiple remote stations via a satellite having a nonlinear satellite transponder, the method comprising the steps of:

transmitting a transmit signal from the hub to the multiple remote stations, where the transmit signal contains at least one carrier;

providing, at the hub, a replica of the transmit signal to a buffer that provides an integer sample delay;

distorting, at the hub, the replica of the transmit signal according to nonlinearities of the satellite transponder to provide a distorted replica of the transmit signal;

determining, at the hub, a scaled, fractional-sample time-delayed, frequency-shifted, and attenuated version of the distorted replica of the transmit signal to provide a compensated distorted replica of the transmit signal; and

using, at the hub, the compensated distorted replica to represent the nonlinearities of the satellite transponder and reduce echo noise from a received aggregate signal received by the hub from the multiple remote stations via the satellite transponder;

wherein the distorting step further comprises applying a block conversion to the transmit signal to form the distorted replica occupying a predetermined frequency range and the determining step further comprises tracking the integer sample closest to a weight vector centroid of an adaptive filter to provide fractional-sample delay of the distorted replica.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of applying the block conversion comprises reformulating the replica such that it occupies a 70 MHz frequency.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the compensated distorted replica further comprises decimating the received aggregate signal through a series of filters that are dependent on the bandwidth of the received aggregate signal.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the transmit signal is present in the aggregate signal; and

performing the determining a scaled, delayed and distorted replica step when it is determined that the transmit signal is present.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the distorting step further comprises matching echo noise distortion in the aggregate signal by determining normalized gain and phase error in the aggregate signal to compute the distortion.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step further comprises performing Doppler tracking by determining a conjugate of the aggregate signal to determine a Doppler shift and applying the Doppler shift to compute the replica.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining a delay in the aggregate signal step further comprises performing a two step delay evaluation by determining a coarse timing delay and then a finer timing delay to provide the delay.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the transmitting a transmit signal step comprises transmitting a transmit signal having a bandwidth between 0.1 MHz to 66 MHz.

9. A system for reducing echo noise in satellite communications in which a hub communicates with multiple remote stations via a satellite having a nonlinear satellite transponder, the system comprising:

transmitting a transmit signal from the hub to the multiple remote stations, where the transmit signal contains at least one carrier;

a buffer at the hub for storing a replica of the transmit signal sent from the hub to the multiple receiving stations, the buffer having an integer sample delay;

distorting means at the hub for distorting the replica of the transmit signal according to nonlinearities of the satellite transponder to provide a distorted replica of the transmit signal;

receiving means for receiving an aggregate signal from the multiple remote stations, where the aggregate signal includes a distorted version of the transmit signal previously sent from the hub to the multiple receiving stations;

determining means at the hub for determining a scaled, fractional-sample time-delayed, frequency-shifted, and attenuated version of the distorted replica of the transmit signal to provide a compensated distorted replica of the transmit signal; and

echo noise reduction means for using the compensated distorted replica to represent the nonlinearities of the satellite transponder and reduce echo noise from a received aggregate signal received by the hub from the multiple remote stations via the satellite transponder;

wherein the distorting means further comprises means for applying a block conversion to the transmit signal to form the distorted replica occupying a predetermined frequency range and the determining means further tracks the integer sample closest to a weight vector centroid of an adaptive filter to provide factional-sample delay of the distorted replica.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the means for applying the block conversion is configured to reformulate the replica such that it occupies a 70 MHz frequency.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the echo noise reduction means further comprises decimating means for decimating the received aggregate signal through a series of filters that are dependent on the bandwidth of the received aggregate signal.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the distorting means further comprises matching means for matching distortion in the aggregate signal by determining normalized gain and phase error in the aggregate signal to compute the distortion of the echo noise signal.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the determining means further comprises Doppler tracking means for performing Doppler tracking by determining a conjugate of the aggregate signal to determine a Doppler shift and applying the Doppler shift to compute the replica of the echo noise signal.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the determining means further comprises second means for determining a delay in the aggregate signal by computing a least mean square fractional sample of the aggregate signal and tracking changes therein to determine the delay.

15. An article of manufacture, comprising a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for echo noise in satellite communications in which a hub communicates with multiple remote stations via a satellite having a nonlinear satellite transponder, said instructions which, when performed by a processor, cause the processor to execute the steps comprising the steps of:

transmitting a transmit signal from the hub to the multiple remote stations, where the transmit signal contains at least one carrier;

storing in a buffer at the hub, a replica of the transmit signal sent from the hub to the multiple receiving stations, the buffer having an integer sample delay;

distorting, at the hub, the replica of the transmit signal according to nonlinearities of the satellite transponder to provide a distorted replica of the transmit signal;

receiving an aggregate signal from multiple remote stations, where the aggregate signal includes a distorted version of the transmit signal previously sent from the hub to the multiple receiving stations;

determining, at the hub, a scaled, fractional-sample time-delayed, frequency-shifted, and attenuated version of the distorted replica of the transmit signal to provide a compensated distorted replica of the transmit signal; and

using, at the hub, the compensated distorted replica to represent the nonlinearities of the satellite transponder and reduce echo noise from a received aggregate signal received by the hub from the multiple remote stations via the satellite transponder;

wherein the distorting step further comprises applying a block conversion to the transmit signal to form the distorted replica occupying a predetermined frequency range and the determining step further comprises tracking the integer sample closest to a weight vector centroid of an adaptive filter to provide a fractional-sample delay of the distorted replica.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the step of applying the block conversion comprises reformulating the replica such that it occupies a 70 MHz frequency.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the step of using the compensated distorted replica further comprises decimating the received aggregate signal through a series of filters that are dependent on the bandwidth of the received aggregate signal.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 15, further comprising instructions which, when performed by a processor, cause the processor to execute the steps of:

determining whether the transmit signal is present in the aggregate signal; and

performing the determining a scaled, delayed and distorted replica step when it is determined that the transmit signal is present.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the distorting step further comprises matching echo noise distortion in the aggregate signal by determining normalized gain and phase error in the aggregate signal to compute the distortion of the echo noise signal.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the determining step further comprises performing Doppler tracking by determining a conjugate of the aggregate signal to determine a Doppler shift and applying the Doppler shift to compute the replica of the echo noise signal.