Method for detecting the eventual presence of an interferer, for example a radar signal, adapted to interfere with a wireless device, for example an UWB device, and corresponding device

• US 8,259,879 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2008
• Issued: 09/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: STMicroelectronics International N.V. (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Original Assignee: STMicroelectronics NV
• Inventors: Berens, Friedbert, Achkar, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Ometz, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Garcia, Santiago
• Application Number:
  US12/145,610
• Publication Number:
  US 20090036084A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,532 Days
• Field of Search: 375/346
• US Class Current: 375/346
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/1027 assessing signal quality or detecting noise/interference for the received signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/719 Interference-related aspects

Abstract

The method is for detecting the eventual presence of an interferer that is adapted to interfere with a wireless device. The wireless device is provided with at least one receiving chain including an analog to digital conversion stage. The method includes receiving on the receiving chain an incident signal, and delivering to the ADC stage an analog signal from the incident signal. The method further includes elaborating or determining a binary information from a binary signal delivered by the ADC stage and representative of the level of the analog signal, analyzing a temporal evolution of the binary information and detecting the presence of the interferer from the analysis.

Claims

1. A method for detecting the presence of an interferer capable of interference with a wireless device, the wireless device including at least one receiving chain and an associated analog to digital conversion (ADC) stage, the method comprising:

receiving an incident signal on the receiving chain;

delivering to the ADC stage an analog signal generated from the incident signal and providing a binary signal representative of the level of the analog signal;

determining binary information from the binary signal provided by the ADC stage, the binary information including a first value and a second value; and

analyzing a temporal evolution of the binary information to detect the presence of the interferer and comprising detecting the occurrences of the first value and generating an analysis information representative of a temporal evolution of the occurrences, and comparing the analysis information with reference information representative of the interferer;

wherein generating the analysis information comprises counting the amount of successive first values and determining an occurrence frequency of successive packets including successive first values.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ADC stage performs the analog to digital conversion at a sampling frequency, and the binary signal is provided at the sampling frequency.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ADC stage performs the analog to digital conversion at a sampling frequency, the binary signal is provided at the sampling frequency, and determining the binary information comprises down-sampling the binary signal.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the ADC stage delivers at the sampling frequency a digital signal corresponding to the analog signal and defining a digital word;

and wherein the binary signal comprises the digital signal including a Most Significant Bit (MSB) of the digital word.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the ADC stage delivers at the sampling frequency an overflow signal defined by the binary signal.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first value comprises at least one of a logical value representative of an overflow of the ADC stage and a logical value equal to 1 for a Most Significant Bit (MSB).

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the interferer is defined by a radar signal;

and wherein the reference information is a radar signature including a pulse duration and a pulse repetition frequency.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the interferer is defined by a radar signal.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the interferer comprises a WIMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) device.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one receiving chain includes a variable gain amplifier upstream from the ADC stage;

and wherein delivering the analog signal further comprises increasing a gain of the variable gain amplifier.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein delivering the analog signal comprises performing a frequency transposition of the incident signal in a base frequency band.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the incident signal comprises a UWB (Ultra Wide Band) signal.

13. A method for detecting the presence of an interferer capable of interference with a wireless device, the wireless device including an analog to digital conversion (ADC) stage, the method comprising:

receiving an incident signal;

delivering to the ADC stage an analog signal generated from the incident signal and providing a binary signal representative of the level of the analog signal;

determining binary information from the binary signal provided by the ADC stage, the binary information including a first value and a second value; and

analyzing the binary information to detect the presence of the interferer and comprising detecting the occurrences of the first value and generating an analysis information representative of a temporal evolution of the occurrences, and comparing the analysis information with reference information representative of the interferer;

wherein generating the analysis information comprises counting the amount of successive first values and determining an occurrence frequency of successive packets including successive first values.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the ADC stage performs the analog to digital conversion at a sampling frequency, and the binary signal is provided at the sampling frequency.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the ADC stage delivers at the sampling frequency an overflow signal defined by the binary signal.

16. A wireless device comprising:

at least one receiving chain to receive an incident signal and to deliver an analog signal;

an analog to digital conversion (ADC) stage to receive the analog signal and to deliver a binary signal representative of a level of the analog signal;

a first unit to determine binary information from the binary signal, the binary information including a first value and a second value;

a second unit to analyze a temporal evolution of the binary information and comprising a detection unit to detect the occurrences of the first value and an elaboration unit to generate an analysis information representative of a temporal evolution of the occurrences; and

a third unit to detect the presence of an interferer from the analysis and comprising a memory to store reference information representative of the interferer, and a comparison unit to compare the analysis information with the reference information;

wherein the elaboration unit comprises a counter for counting the amount of successive first values and calculation unit to determine an occurrence frequency of successive packets including successive first values.

17. The wireless device according to claim 16, wherein the ADC stage performs an analog to digital conversion at a sampling frequency, the first unit delivering the binary signal at the sampling frequency.

18. The wireless device according to claim 16, wherein the ADC stage performs an analog to digital conversion at a sampling frequency, the first unit delivering the binary signal at the sampling frequency and comprising a down-sampling unit to down-sample the binary signal, the binary information being defined by the down-sampled binary signal.

19. The wireless device according to claim 18, wherein the ADC stage delivers at the sampling frequency a digital signal corresponding to the analog signal and defining a digital word;

and wherein the binary signal comprises the digital signal including the Most Significant Bit (MSB) of the digital word.

20. The wireless device according to claim 17, wherein the ADC stage delivers at the sampling frequency an overflow signal defined by the binary signal.

21. The wireless device according to claim 16, wherein the first value comprises at least one of a logical value representative of an overflow of the ADC stage and a logical value equal to 1 for a Most Significant Bit (MSB).

22. The wireless device according to claim 16, wherein the third unit detects the presence of a radar signal;

and wherein the reference information comprises a radar signature including a pulse duration and a pulse repetition frequency.

23. The wireless device according to claim 16, wherein the third unit detects the presence of a radar signal.

24. The wireless device according to claim 16, wherein the third unit detects the presence of a WIMAX device.

25. The wireless device according to claim 16, wherein the receiving chain comprises an automatic gain control unit.

26. The wireless device according to claim 16, wherein the receiving chain comprises a transposition unit to perform a frequency transposition of the incident signal in a base frequency band.

27. The wireless device according to claim 16, wherein the incident signal comprises a UWB (Ultra Wide Band) signal and the device operates in a UWB communication system.