Method and apparatus for subband signal demodulation in a transponder satellite communication link containing a component of relayed interference

• US 8,553,805 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2011
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Datum Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Datum Systems, Inc., Peter Monsen
• Inventors: Monsen, Peter, Bagby, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Hirdepal
• Application Number:
  US13/101,652
• Publication Number:
  US 20110299572A1
• Time in Patent Office: 887 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 375/302
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18513 Transmission in a satellite or space-based system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2027/0053 Closed loops
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2027/0065 Frequency error detectors H04L2027/0067 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/03019 adaptive, i.e. capable of adjustment during data reception
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/0014 Carrier regulation of chaotic carriers H04L27/001; for multicarrier receivers H04L27/2657

Abstract

A method and apparatus at a local terminal are described for demodulating a remote-terminal signal located at a subband offset frequency in a frequency subband of relayed interference from a transponder satellite link. The demodulation of the remote-terminal signal is accomplished by transferring the digital data that produced the local-terminal transmit signal to the local-terminal receiver. The digital data is time-delayed and converted to a narrowband offset-constellation signal that cancels the relayed interference in an adaptive equalizer. Providing cancellation in the subband of the relayed interference produces larger interference cancellation factors than those obtained in conventional broadband cancellation systems. A phase-noise error signal is also generated and used to increase cancellation levels limited by phase noise generated in the satellite link frequency converters. Additionally the receiver converter frequencies are chosen such that errors in estimating the subband offset frequency do not affect cancellation in the adaptive equalizer.

Claims

1. A method for producing a demodulated subband signal in an asymmetrical point-to-multipoint radio link, that includes a satellite transponder, at a hub communication terminal that transmits a digital-data signal with a constellation alphabet in a transmitted signal to a plurality of remote terminals and that receives at a center frequency, equal to a carrier frequency and a carrier error frequency, a received signal, that contains a subband signal from a remote terminal, with a subband symbol waveform, and the subband signal is located, relative to the carrier frequency, at the sum of an offset frequency and an offset error frequency, and the received signal contains relayed interference corresponding to a modified version of the transmitted signal that has been relayed by the satellite transponder, comprising the steps of:

wideband baseband-converting the received signal by a wideband converter frequency to provide a wideband-received signal;

time-delaying the digital-data signal with a time-delay parameter that depends on the wideband-received signal to provide a delayed digital-data signal;

constellation modulating the delayed digital-data signal into a constellation signal with said constellation alphabet and an associated constellation clock;

multiplying the constellation signal and a shift signal that has a subcarrier at a constellation converter frequency to provide an offset-constellation signal;

interference-component matched filtering, with the subband symbol waveform, the offset-constellation signal to provide a narrowband offset-constellation signal;

offset baseband-converting the received signal by an offset converter frequency to provide an offset-received signal;

signal-component matched filtering, with the subband symbol waveform, the offset-received signal to provide a narrowband-received signal;

combining the product of the narrowband offset-constellation signal and a complex equalizer weight with the narrowband-received signal to provide the demodulated subband signal.

2. The method of claim 1 where the wideband converter frequency is equal to the sum of the carrier frequency and a carrier error frequency estimate, the constellation converter frequency is equal to the carrier error frequency estimate plus the negative of the sum of the offset frequency and an offset error frequency estimate, and the offset converter frequency is the sum of the carrier frequency, the offset error frequency estimate, and the offset frequency.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the complex equalizer weight in the combining step is updated by the estimated-gradient product of the narrowband offset-constellation signal and the demodulated subband signal.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiplying step further includes producing a sample-timing error signal, that is derived from in-phase and quadrature components of the wideband received signal, the constellation signal, and the time-derivative of the constellation signal, and adjusting the constellation clock by said sample-timing error signal.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein circuit delay compensation in the offset/converter filter is provided by adjusting an interpolated time-delay that depends on the sum of in-phase and quadrature products of the time derivative of the constellation signal and the demodulated subband signal.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein a magnitude measure of the transmitted signal is delayed by the time-delay parameter to produce a delayed magnitude measure that is used in the constellation modulating step to adjust the amplitude of the constellation signal.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the shift signal in the multiplying step includes subcarrier modulation by a phase-noise error signal that is the filtered product of the wideband received signal and the constellation signal.

8. A communication terminal comprising:

a transmitter with a digital-data signal that is used to produce a transmitted signal, with a constellation alphabet and wideband symbol waveform; and

a receiver that down-converts a received signal to a terminal intermediate frequency to provide a received IF signal, that contains relayed interference corresponding to a modified version of the transmitted signal at a center frequency, equal to the sum of a carrier frequency and a carrier error frequency, that is nominally equal to the terminal intermediate frequency and that further contains a subband signal, with a subband symbol waveform that has a bandwidth small compared to the wideband symbol waveform, and the subband signal is located relative to the carrier frequency at a frequency equal to the sum of an offset frequency and an offset error frequency, and the received IF signal is provided to a subband signal demodulator that processes a receiver-replica digital-data signal and the received IF signal to produce a demodulated subband signal,

said subband signal demodulator further comprising;

a wideband-baseband converter that converts the received IF signal from the terminal intermediate frequency by a wideband converter frequency to produce a wideband-received signal;

a buffer that time delays the receiver-replica digital-data signal by a time-delay parameter that depends on the wideband-received signal to produce a delayed digital-data signal;

a constellation modulator that converts the delayed digital-data signal into a constellation signal with said constellation alphabet and an associated constellation clock;

an offset converter/filter that multiplies the constellation signal by a shift signal that has a subcarrier at a constellation upconverter frequency and subsequently match filters the product with the subband symbol waveform to produce a narrowband offset-constellation signal;

an offset baseband-converter that converts the received IF signal by an offset converter frequency to produce an offset-received signal that is subsequently match filtered with the subband symbol waveform to produce a narrowband-received signal; and

a subband equalizer that combines the product of the narrowband offset-constellation signal and a complex equalizer weight with the narrowband-received signal to produce the demodulated subband signal.

9. The communication terminal of claim 8 where the wideband converter frequency is equal to the sum of the carrier frequency and a carrier error frequency estimate, the constellation converter frequency is equal to the carrier error frequency estimate plus the negative of the sum of the offset frequency and an offset error frequency estimate, and the offset converter frequency is the sum of the carrier frequency, the offset error frequency estimate, and the offset frequency.

10. The communication terminal of claim 9 wherein the subband equalizer provides weight updates of the complex equalizer weight by the estimated-gradient product of the narrowband offset-constellation signal and the demodulated subband signal.

11. The communication terminal of claim 8 wherein a time-frequency synchronizer provides a sample-timing error signal, that is derived from in-phase and quadrature components of the wideband received signal, the constellation signal, and the time-derivative of the constellation signal, and adjusting the constellation clock by said sample-timing error signal.

12. The communication terminal of claim 11 wherein the time-frequency synchronizer provides circuit delay compensation in the offset converter/filter by adjusting an interpolated time-delay that depends on the sum of in-phase and quadrature products of the time derivative of the constellation signal and the demodulated subband signal.

13. The communication terminal of claim 8 wherein the receiver-replica digital data is produced from a transfer of the digital-data signal from the transmitter to the receiver with broadcasts in a wired local area network.

14. The communication terminal of claim 13 wherein a magnitude measure of the transmitted signal is additionally provided to the buffer and the buffer time delays the magnitude measure by the time-delay parameter to produce a delayed magnitude measure that is provided to the constellation modulator where it is used to adjust the amplitude of the constellation signal.

15. The communication terminal of claim 8 wherein the receiver-replica digital data is produced from demodulation of the wideband-received signal.

16. The communication terminal of claim 8 wherein the shift signal in the offset converter/filter includes subcarrier modulation by a phase-noise error signal that is the filtered product of the wideband received signal and the constellation signal.