Method and system of adaptive communication in the HF band

• US 9,008,594 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2011
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Lamy-Bergot, Catherine, Philippe, Crambert, Gilbert, Multedo, Dominique, Merel, Jean-Franois, Gaschi
• Primary Examiner(s): Urban, Edward
• Assistant Examiner(s): Justus, Ralph H
• Application Number:
  US13/308,174
• Publication Number:
  US 20120309330A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,231 Days
• Field of Search: 455/73, 455/383, 455/83, 370/302, 370/436, 370/437, 370/270, 370/526, 370/301, 370/312, 375/225, 375/358, 375/295, 375/316
• US Class Current: 455/101
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/06 the signals being represented by different frequencies combined with time-division multiplexing H04L5/26

Abstract

A method for adaptive communication in an HF frequency band includes at least one of the following steps: the determination of a payload subband S that is available for a transmission in the HF band, the selection in the payload subband S of a set of n frequency channels of identical width according to a frequency allocation plan and the quality of the link of each of said channels, or the simultaneous transmission on the n frequency channels of a signal complying with an HF waveform.

Claims

1. A method for adaptive communications in a High Frequency (HF) frequency band, comprising:

determining, at a receiver, a frequency band S that is available for a transmission by a transmitter in the HF band, depending on at least one of the following two criteria;

a number of frequencies allocated to a user included in the frequency band S according to a frequency allocation plan, and

a physical availability of the frequency band S evaluated as a function of a prediction of an interference induced on a signal by reflections off ionospheric layers;

selecting, dynamically at the receiver, in the frequency band S, a set of n frequency channels of identical width according to the frequency allocation plan and according to a quality score of a link of each of said n frequency allocation channels;

determining, dynamically at the receiver, a number of frequency channels in the set of n frequency channels for which the quality score of the link is greater than a minimum threshold required for the transmission on the determined number of frequency channels,

if said determined number of frequency channels having the quality score is less than a minimum number of the frequency channels required for the transmission, determining, dynamically in real time at the receiver, another available frequency band; and

communicating, from the receiver, results of said determining the number of frequency channels to the transmitter for simultaneously transmitting on the determined number of frequency channels, a signal complying with an HF waveform, if the determined number of frequency channels is equal to or more than the minimum number of the frequency channels meeting the quality score.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quality score of the link of each of said channels is estimated at least on the basis of:

a measurement of a power of the received signal, in an absence of communication, in each frequency channel contained in the frequency band S,

an attribution of the quality score to each of said frequency channels as a function of a comparison of said power with one or more predetermined thresholds, said quality decreasing with the increase in power, and

a selection of the n frequency channels having the highest quality scores.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the selection of said n frequency channels is updated periodically or when the quality score of a selected channel is degraded.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the quality score of the link of each of said n frequency channels is estimated with the aid of a measurement of an average power of the received signal over a period of elapsed time.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a width of a frequency channel is equal to 3 kHz.

6. A High Frequency (HF) band communication system comprising at least one HF transmitter and one HF receiver adapted to transmit and receive an HF waveform signal, wherein:

said HF receiver comprises means for determining a frequency band S that is available for a transmission by the at least one HF transmitter in the HF band, and means for selecting dynamically, in the frequency band S, a set of n frequency channels of identical width according to a frequency allocation plan and according to a quality score of a link of each of said n frequency channels and transmitting to said HF transmitter said set of n selected frequency channels, wherein said means for determining is further configured to;

determine a physical availability of the frequency band S evaluated as a function of a prediction of an interference induced on a signal by reflections off ionospheric layers,

determine a number of frequency channels in the set of n frequency channels for which the quality score of the link is greater than a minimum threshold required for the transmission on the determined number of frequency channels,

if said determined number of frequency channels having the quality score is less than a minimum number of the frequency channels required for the transmission, determining, dynamically in real time at the receiver, another available set of frequencies in the same frequency band; and

said HF transmitter comprises means for receiving the set of n selected frequency channels and simultaneously transmitting over the determined number of frequency channels a signal complying with said HF waveform, if the determined number of frequency channels is equal to or more than the minimum number of the frequency channels meeting the quality score.