Energy detection receiver for UWB

• US 8,014,468 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2004
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Coberly, Jenelle R., Hassan, Amer A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Liu; Shuwang
• Assistant Examiner(s): MCKIE, GINA M
• Application Number:
  US11/012,815
• Publication Number:
  US 20060126592A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,456 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 375/308
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/71637 Receiver aspects H04B1/7183 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/28 with simultaneous transmission of different frequencies each representing one code element

Abstract

The receiver portion of a UWB wireless device is altered by replacing analog-to-digital circuitry with a simple energy detection circuit. In embodiments of the invention, the coding methodology of a transmitter is altered to support the simplified receiver configuration. For example, instead of coding the data to be sent in the phase of the UWB signal, the data is encoded in a binary fashion in discrete frequency subbands of the UWB signal. Although this may reduce the usable bandwidth of the channel, it also decreases the complexity and power consumption of UWB devices. In another embodiment of the invention, a UWB device is able to select a transmission mode (BPSK or Energy Coding) based on its environment. Moreover, in a further embodiment of the invention, receiving devices may switch between coding modes based on the capabilities of a remote transmitter and/or a peer receiver.

Claims

1. A first wireless device for transmitting information to a second wireless device via a wireless communication medium having a frequency bandwidth, the first wireless device comprising:

a data source for providing data to be transmitted via the wireless communication medium to the second wireless device;

an encoder linked to the data source for receiving the data to be transmitted and for coding the data, wherein coding the data comprises energy coding the data in M frequency subbands of the frequency bandwidth, wherein the energy coding comprises encoding the data by assigning a binary value to each one of the frequency subbands, wherein a value of the encoded data is based on which of the frequency subbands has energy present at a single point in time and the binary values assigned to the frequency subbands that have energy present at said single point in time, wherein a number of possible values encoded using the energy coding is greater than M; and

an up converter for transmitting the coded data to the second wireless device via the wireless communication medium.

2. The first wireless device according to claim 1, wherein the encoder further comprises an encoding portion for encoding data via phase encoding.

3. The first wireless device according to claim 2, wherein the phase encoding comprises Binary Phase Shift Key coding.

4. The first wireless device according to claim 2, wherein the device further comprises a connection manager for selecting a coding mode for the encoder to use.

5. The first wireless device according to claim 4, wherein the coding mode is selected from a group consisting of (1) energy coding, (2) phase encoding, and (3) both energy coding and phase encoding.

6. The first wireless device according to claim 4, wherein the coding mode is selected based on a decoding mechanism used by the second wireless device.

7. The first wireless device according to claim 1, wherein the communication medium is an Ultra Wide Bandwidth protocol channel.

8. The first wireless device according to claim 1, wherein the communication medium is a WiMax protocol channel.

9. The first wireless device according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communication medium is part of a metropolitan area network.

10. The first wireless device according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communication medium is part of a network selected from a group consisting of wireless desktop device cluster, wireless consumer electronics network, and wireless home entertainment network.

11. A method for selecting an encoding method for transmission of data via a wireless network by a first wireless device to a group of one or more other wireless devices, the wireless network comprising a wireless medium having a frequency bandwidth, the method comprising:

(A) connecting from the first wireless device to the one or more other wireless devices, and receiving at the first wireless device from each of the one or more other wireless devices an indication of a respective receiver decoding mode;

(B) determining at the first wireless device whether the group of one or more other wireless devices comprise a plurality of devices; and

(C) setting the encoding mode of the first wireless device based upon the determination in the act (B), wherein the first wireless device is capable of encoding data using phase encoding and energy encoding, wherein the energy encoding comprises encoding the data in M frequency subbands of the frequency bandwidth by assigning a binary value to each one of the frequency subbands, wherein a value of the encoded data is based on which of the frequency subbands has energy present at a single point in time and the binary values assigned to the frequency subbands that have energy present at said single point in time, wherein a number of possible values encoded using the energy coding is greater than M, wherein the act of setting comprises;

(C1) setting the encoding mode of the first wireless device to the decoding mode of the group of one or more other wireless device if it is determined in act (B) that the group of one or more other wireless devices consists of a single device;

(C2) setting the encoding mode of the first wireless device to the decoding mode of the group of one or more other wireless devices if it is determined in the act (B) that the group of one or more other wireless devices comprises a plurality of other wireless devices and if it is determined that the receiver decoding modes of the plurality of other wireless devices are identical; and

,

(C3) setting the encoding mode of the first wireless device to employ multiple encoding types if it is determined in the act (B) that the group of one or more other wireless devices comprises a plurality of other wireless devices and if it is determined that the receiver decoding modes of the other wireless devices are not identical.

12. A computer-readable storage medium having thereon computer-executable instructions for performing a method of selecting an encoding method for transmission of data via a wireless network by a first wireless device to a group of one or more other wireless devices, the wireless network comprising a wireless medium having a frequency bandwidth, the computer-executable instructions comprising instructions for:

connecting from the first wireless device to the one or more other wireless devices, and receiving at the first wireless device from each of the one or more other wireless devices an indication of a respective receiver decoding mode;

determining at the first wireless device whether the group of one or more other wireless devices comprise a plurality of devices; and

determining whether the respective receiver decoding modes of the group of one or more other wireless devices are identical, and if the respective receiver decoding modes are not identical then setting the encoding mode of the first wireless device to employ multiple encoding types including phase encoding and energy encoding, wherein the energy encoding comprises encoding the data in M frequency subbands of the frequency bandwidth by assigning a binary value to each one of the frequency subbands, wherein a value of the encoded data is based on which of the frequency subbands has energy present at a single point in time and the binary values assigned to the frequency subbands that have energy present at said single point in time, wherein a number of possible values encoded using the energy coding is greater than M, wherein employing multiple encoding types comprises sending different code types sequentially.