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Multi-signal, software-defined and staring cognitive communications system

  • US 8,233,412 B1
  • Filed: 06/30/2010
  • Issued: 07/31/2012
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A half-duplex, staring cognitive communications system, comprising:

  • a) a broadband antenna system, comprising;

    i. at least one broadband antenna;

    ii. an antenna interface unit operatively connected to said at least one broadband antenna, said antenna interface unit comprising;

    1. an isolation element operatively connected between a transmitter system and a staring receiver system for supporting short switch times between transmit and receive operations;

    2. a first RF harmonic filter bank operatively connected to said isolation element for providing suppression of transmit signal set harmonics in the RF power output; and

    ,3. a pre-select filter bank for receiving RF signals from said isolation element and for separating and isolating frequency block sets for further signal pre-processing;

    b) a staring receiver system operatively connected to said broadband antenna system for viewing and pre-processing input RF signals present in a plurality of channels at the same time, said staring receiver system comprising at least one staring receiver subsystem, said at least one staring receiver subsystem comprising;

    i. at least one block translator operatively switch connected to said pre-select filter bank for providing a frequency translation (down conversion) of a pre-selected frequency block;

    ii. at least one parallel channelization, automated gain control (AGC) and signal detection pre-processor system, each AGC and signal detection pre-processor system comprising;

    1. a fan-out element for replicating said input RF signals into a plurality of pre-process channels along an RF spectral block;

    2. a plurality of pre-process channel miniature RF filters, aligned in parallel, for continuous frequency coverage along said RF spectral block, for separating and isolating a set of comparatively narrow frequency channels on a substantially continuous basis;

    3. a plurality of gain control elements for providing automatic channelized level control, under intelligent process control, of said isolated channels;

    4. a plurality of RF signal detectors for receiving said isolated channels for detecting the presence of signals content, for further determining relative levels, center frequencies, and bandwidths; and

    ,5. a fan-in element for combining said plurality of level controlled, isolated channels to a common RF spectrum, thus providing a pre-processed receive RF output;

    iii. a set point summing amplifier for combining said pre-processed receive RF outputs and providing a combined output; and

    ,iv. a radio frequency-analog-to-digital converter (RF-ADC) for receiving said combined output and converting it to a digital output,wherein said at least one parallel channelization, automated gain control (AGC) and signal detection pre-processor system is configured to allow viewing and conversion of said plurality of channels on a substantially continuous basis without overloading said RF-ADC;

    c) a coordinated digital signal processing (DSP) array operatively connected to said staring receiver system for providing digital signal processing of the receive and transmit signal sets, on a real-time basis, as well as management of the software defined and staring cognitive communications system from the digital domain; and

    ,d) a transmitter system operatively connected to said DSP array and to said broadband antenna system, said transmitter system comprising at least one transmitter subsystem, said at least one transmitter subsystem comprising;

    i. a radio frequency-digital-to-analog converter (RF-DAC) for receiving at least one modulated RF signal from said DSP array, said at least one modulated RF signal having independent modulation from the other modulated RF signals for simultaneous transmission;

    ii. a second RF harmonic filter bank operatively connected to said RF-DAC for the suppression of sampling process artifacts, including signals harmonics;

    iii. an RF pre-amp system operatively connected to said second RF harmonic filter bank for the linear amplification of the RF signals to a working level for an RF power amplifier;

    iv. at least one block translator system operatively connected to said RF pre-amp system for providing a frequency translation of a pre-amplified frequency block to a final frequency band; and

    ,v. an RF power amplifier for linearly amplifying pre-amplified frequency blocks with transmit signal content from the pre-amp system, as well as translated frequency blocks with transmit signal content from said block translators;

    wherein a set of cognitive waveforms are generated within said DSP array for transmission from said antenna system and recovery processed within said DSP array for reception from the antenna system, and whereas orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) data packets are interleaved with short duration gaps, wherein said data packets are randomly distributed simultaneously over a subset of multiple unoccupied frequencies from an OFDM frequency set, and whereas the combination of the data packets in time and frequency provide a data message,i. said data packets being transmitted and received channels signals activity being monitored during the short duration gaps between data packets so as to maintain rapid response to the changes in the spectral environment;

    ii. said data packets further containing supervisory information and error correction coding, in both time and frequency, to allow for robust message data reception and recovery by users without prior time and frequency synchronization; and

    ,iii. said data packets being on subsets of the OFDM frequency set wherein the number of simultaneous packets can be increased to increase the overall message throughput and decreased to respond to currently reduced numbers of unoccupied frequencies.

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