Receiver for receiving data symbols having a symbol period

• US 8,189,715 B2
• Filed: 07/12/2006
• Issued: 05/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qorvo International Pte. Ltd. (Qorvo, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: GreenPeak Technologies BV (Qorvo, Inc.)
• Inventors: van Driest, Hans, van Puijenbroek, Cornelis Adrianus Henricus Maria
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, DHAVAL V
• Application Number:
  US12/373,243
• Publication Number:
  US 20100034326A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,148 Days
• Field of Search: 370/203, 370/204, 370/205, 370/206, 370/207, 370/208, 370/209, 370/210, 375/260, 375/262, 375/267, 375/343, 375/346, 375/347, 375/349
• US Class Current: 375/316
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0811 during preamble or gap period
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/06 using space diversity

Abstract

A receiver and method for receiving symbols having a symbol period with duration SP comprising. N antenna signals are selected equally in time over a symbol period to obtain a combined antenna signal. An autocorrelation is performed on the combined antenna signal to obtain a combined signal. The combined signal is split into the corresponding antenna signal parts and subjected to an integration function. The output of the integration function is used the select the antenna signal with the best signal quality. The invention enables to perform an efficient antenna diversity circuit, which can partially be used for simultaneously preamble detection and frequency offset estimation.

Claims

1. A receiver for receiving data symbols having a symbol period with duration SP, wherein SP is the symbol period duration, comprising:

N input terminals for retrieving N antenna signals, wherein in N≧

2;

a multiplexer having N inputs coupled to the N input terminals respectively, for selecting the N antenna signals one by one under control of a control signal so as to obtain a combined antenna signal;

a processing unit for performing an autocorrelation function on the combined antenna signal so as to obtain a combined signal;

a demultiplexer for splitting in dependence of the control signal the combined signal into N signals corresponding to the N antenna signals;

N first integrator units for integrating the N signals so as to obtain N integration signals;

a control signal generator for generating the control signal wherein the control signal generator is arranged to generate in a first mode a control signal which enables the multiplexer to select equally in time over a symbol period the N antenna signals and wherein at least one of the N antenna signals is selected more than one time in a symbol period, and wherein the control signal generator is arranged to generate in a second mode in dependence of the N integration signals a control signal which enables the multiplexer to select only one of the N antenna signals.

2. The receiver as claimed in claim 1 wherein the control signal generator is arranged to generate in the first mode a control signal which enables the multiplexer to select recurrently each of the N antenna signals for a period P, wherein P=SP/(N×

M) and M being an integer≧

2, wherein M represents a number of times during the SP at which the multiplexer selects each antenna for the period P.

3. The receiver as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the receiver switches to the second mode after receiving a predetermined number of symbols in the first mode.

4. The receiver as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit comprises a delay unit for delaying the combined antenna signal for a symbol period to obtained a delayed combined antenna signal;

and a multiplication unit for multiplying the combined antenna signal with the delayed combined antenna signal to obtain an autocorrelation signal to be supplied to an output of the multiplication unit, wherein the output of the multiplication unit is coupled an output of the processing unit for supplying the combined signal.

5. The receiver as claimed in claim 4 wherein the processing unit further comprises an integrator unit for integrating subsequent samples of the autocorrelation signal under control of the control signal.

6. The receiver as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit comprises an output for supplying an autocorrelation signal, wherein the receiver further comprises a preamble detection unit for detecting a preamble in the autocorrelation signal.

7. The receiver as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit comprises N autocorrelators for generating N autocorrelation signals, the N autocorrelators having frequency responses which are shifted with respect to each other, the receiver further comprises a fine frequency offset determining unit for determining a fine frequency offset in dependence of the N autocorrelation signals.

8. The receiver as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit comprises M code correlators for generating M correlation signals, the M code correlators having center frequencies which differ a multiple of the symbol rate, the receiver further comprises a coarse frequency offset determining unit for determining a coarse frequency offset in dependence of the M correlation signal.