Circuits, architectures, methods, algorithms, software, and systems for improving the reliability of data communications having time-dependent fluctuations

• US 9,001,921 B1
• Filed: 04/12/2013
• Issued: 04/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marvell International Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Marvell International Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: He, Runsheng, Yu, Zhan
• Primary Examiner(s): Burd, Kevin M
• Application Number:
  US13/861,964
• Time in Patent Office: 725 Days
• Field of Search: 375/316, 375/340, 375/341, 375/130, 375/140, 375/147, 375/259, 375/285
• US Class Current: 375/285
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/54 Systems for transmission via power distribution lines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0042 Encoding specially adapted to other signal generation operation, e.g. in order to reduce transmit distortions, jitter, or to improve signal shape H04L1/0067 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/08 by repeating transmission, e.g. Verdan system H04L1/1858 and H04L1/189 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/20 using signal quality detector

Abstract

Circuits, architectures, methods, algorithms, software, and systems for increasing reliability of data communications using time diversity coding are disclosed. An association circuit is configured to associate a first reliability factor with a first copy of the communicated data and a second reliability factor with a second copy of the communicated data, wherein the first reliability factor is different from the second reliability factor and has a value that is a predetermined function of a known characteristic of the data communications channel at a time that the communicated data passed through the channel. A decoder is configured to recover a reliable value for the communicated data from the first copy, second copy, first reliability factor, and second reliability factor.

Claims

1. A circuit for increasing a reliability of communicated data received from a cyclostationary data communication channel, the circuit comprising:

an association circuit configured to (i) rearrange the communicated data; and

(ii) associate a first reliability factor with a first copy of the communicated data and a second reliability factor with a second copy of the communicated data, wherein the first reliability factor is different from the second reliability factor and has a value that is a predetermined function of a known characteristic of the cyclostationary data communication channel at a time that the communicated data passed through the cyclostationary data communication channel, and wherein the communicated data has a period that substantially equals an integer divisor of a period of the cyclostationary data communication channel wherein the integer divisor is greater than one; and

a decoder configured to recover a reliable value for the communicated data, wherein any reliable value recovered by the decoder is based on at least the first copy, the second copy, the first reliability factor, and the second reliability factor, and wherein the decoder is configured to wait until the first copy and the second copy are received before decoding either the first copy or the second copy.

2. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the known characteristic of the cyclostationary data communication channel comprises a time-dependent characteristic.

3. The circuit of claim 2, wherein the communicated data is communicated at a predetermined rate and each of the first copy and the second copy of the communicated data is communicated sequentially in a time period defined by the predetermined rate.

4. The circuit of claim 2, wherein the time-dependent characteristic comprises a noise parameter, a power parameter, and/or an attenuation parameter of the cyclostationary data communication channel.

5. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the association circuit is further configured to (i) align the first reliability factor with the first copy of communicated data, and (ii) align the second reliability factor with the second copy of the communicated data.

6. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the decoder further comprises a buffer having a sufficient number of rows to store each of the first copy of the communicated data and the second copy of the communicated data.

7. The circuit of claim 6, wherein the decoder further comprises a multiplexer configured to select one of the rows to store each of the first copy of the communicated data and the second copy of the communicated data.

8. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the decoder is further configured to (i) generate a decision metric by operating mathematically on the first copy, the second copy, the first reliability factor, and the second reliability factor and to (ii) recover the reliable value from the decision metric.

9. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the decoder is configured to recover the reliable value by:

multiplying the first copy by the first reliability factor to obtain a first product;

multiplying the second copy by the second reliability factor to obtain a second product; and

summing the first product and the second product.

10. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the communicated data is permuted prior to entering the cyclostationary data communication channel.

11. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the association circuit rearranges the communicated data by depermuting the communicated data.

12. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the integer divisor of the period of the cyclostationary data communication channel is two where the first copy of the communicated data is passed in a half-period of the cyclostationary data communication channel.

13. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the first copy of the communicated data and the second copy of the communicated data are passed through the cyclostationary data communication channel during successive half periods of the cyclostationary data communication channel.

14. A method of increasing a reliability of communicated data, the method comprising:

reading a first copy and a second copy of the communicated data from a cyclostationary data communication channel over a predetermined period of time, wherein the first copy and the second copy are consecutively transmitted over the cyclostationary data communication channel;

rearranging the communicated data;

associating the first copy of the communicated data with a first reliability factor and the second copy of the communicated data with a second reliability factor, wherein the first reliability factor is different from the second reliability factor and has a value that is a predetermined function of a known characteristic of the cyclostationary data communication channel at a time that the communicated data passed through the cyclostationary data communication channel, and wherein the communicated data has a period that substantially equals an integer divisor of a period of the cyclostationary data communication channel wherein the integer divisor is greater than one; and

recovering a reliable value for the communicated data, wherein any reliable value recovered is based on at least the first copy, the second copy, the first reliability factor, and the second reliability factor.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the known characteristic of the cyclostationary data communication channel comprises a time-dependent characteristic.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the communicated data is communicated at a predetermined rate and each of the first copy and the second copy of the communicated data is communicated sequentially in a time period defined by the predetermined rate.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the time-dependent characteristic comprises a noise parameter, a power parameter, and/or an attenuation parameter.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising aligning the first reliability factor with the first copy of the communicated data and aligning the second reliability factor with the second copy of the communicated data.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein recovering the reliable value comprises calculating a data-reliability product from the first copy, the second copy, the first reliability factor, and the second reliability factor, comparing the data-reliability product to a predetermined value, and outputting the reliable value depending on whether the data-reliability product is greater than or less than the predetermined value.

20. The method of claim 19, comprising outputting a first digital data value as the reliable value when the data-reliability product is greater than the predetermined value, and outputting a second digital data value as the reliable value when the data-reliability product is less than the predetermined value.

21. The method of claim 14, further comprising taking a sample of each of the first copy and the second copy of the communicated data as the first copy and second copy of the communicated data pass through the cyclostationary data communication channel.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein recovering the reliable value comprises:

multiplying the ample of the first copy of the communicated data by the first reliability factor to obtain a first product;

multiplying the sample of the second copy of the communicated data by the second reliability factor to obtain a second product; and

summing the first product and the second product.

23. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one computer processor, causes a computer system to perform a method of increasing a reliability of communicated data, the method comprising:

reading a first copy and a second copy of the communicated data from a cyclostationary data communication channel over a predetermined period of time, wherein the first copy and the second copy are consecutively transmitted over the cyclostationary data communication channel;

rearranging the communicated data;

associating the first copy of communicated data with a first reliability factor and the second copy of the communicated data with a second reliability factor, wherein the first reliability factor is different from the second reliability factor and has a value that is a predetermined function of a known characteristic of the cyclostationary data communication channel at a time that the communicated data passed through the channel, and wherein the communicated data has a period that substantially equals an integer divisor of a period of the cyclostationary data communication channel wherein the integer divisor is greater than one; and

recovering a reliable value for the communicated data, wherein any reliable value recovered is based on at least the first copy, second copy, first reliability factor, and second reliability factor.