Method and device for maintaining the performance quality of a communication system in the presence of narrow band interference

• US 9,031,509 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2014
• Issued: 05/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ISCO International Inc.
• Original Assignee: ISCO International Inc.
• Inventors: Jagger, Charles E., Willetts, Mark N., Tobia, Micolino
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, THANH C
• Application Number:
  US14/314,674
• Publication Number:
  US 20140308900A1
• Time in Patent Office: 321 Days
• Field of Search: 455/423, 455/424, 455/63.1, 455/67.11, 455/67.13, 455/226.1, 455/296, 375/346, 375/349
• US Class Current: 455/63.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/10 Means associated with receiver for limiting or suppressing noise or interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/1036 with automatic suppression of narrow band noise or interference, e.g. by using tuneable notch filters H04B1/123 takes precedence; filter circuits H03H
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/71 the interference being narrowband interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7103 the interference being multiple access interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 15/00 Suppression or limitation of noise or interference by means associated with receiver H04B1/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/1063 using a notch filter
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2201/709709 Methods of preventing interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2201/709718 Determine interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/005 Control of transmission; Equalising
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 Error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/20 Negotiating bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/243 taking into account interferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/245 taking into account received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 : using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 : using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method for analyzing a wide frequency band with respect to signal power levels in specified narrow frequency bands, detecting narrow band signal power levels received in the specified narrow frequency bands, determining an average composite wideband power level from the narrow band signal power levels, and determining an adaptive threshold from the narrow band signal power levels for detecting narrow band interferers in the wide frequency band. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device comprising executable instructions which, responsive to being executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

detecting signal power levels for narrow frequency bands;

determining an average wideband power level from the signal power levels;

selecting a subset of signal power levels of the signal power levels, wherein the selecting of the subset of signal power levels is based on a number of notch modules being utilized by a filter for filtering the narrow band interferers; and

determining an adaptive threshold from the signal power levels for detecting narrow band interferers in a wide frequency band, wherein the adaptive threshold is determined without utilizing the subset of signal power levels of the signal power levels.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the number of notch modules being utilized by the filter is a subset of a group of notch modules available to the filter for the filtering of the narrow band interferers.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the subset of signal power levels includes a group of highest power levels.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

selecting the number of notch modules to be utilized by the filter from among a group of notch modules according to a signal degradation contributed to by the number of notch modules.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise detecting the narrow band interferers according to the adaptive threshold and the average wideband power level.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable of claim 1, wherein the detecting of the signal power levels is performed in a sequential order of the narrow frequency bands.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable of claim 1, wherein the adaptive threshold has a power level that exceeds the average wideband power level.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise deassigning notch modules of the number of notch modules from the narrow band interferers based on a hysteresis function.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable of claim 1, wherein the narrow frequency bands are selected based on an interference probability determined from historical information associated with the narrow frequency bands.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise detecting a plurality of narrow band interferers having power levels that exceed the adaptive threshold, wherein the detecting of the signal power levels includes applying frequency shifting to a portion of the wide frequency band to generate RSSI measurements.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable of claim 1, wherein the detecting of the signal power levels, the determining of the average wideband power level, and the determining of the adaptive threshold are performed by a base station.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable of claim 11, wherein the base station is a cellular base station.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable of claim 1, wherein an order of channel scanning for the detecting of the signal power levels is selected based on an interference probability determined from historical information associated with the narrow frequency bands.

14. A device, comprising:

a radio frequency receiver;

a circuit coupled to the radio frequency receiver, wherein execution of instructions by the circuit causes the circuit to perform operations comprising;

measuring signal power levels in narrow frequency bands;

determining a threshold from the measuring of the signal power levels, wherein the threshold is calculated without utilizing a subset of signal power levels of the signal power levels, wherein the subset of signal power levels are selected based on a number of notch modules being employed by a filter for filtering narrow band interference; and

detecting the narrow band interference according to the threshold.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the number of notch modules is a subset of a group of notch modules available to the filter.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a wideband power level from the measuring of the signal power levels; and

selecting the number of notch modules to be employed from among the group of notch modules according to a signal degradation contributed to by the number of notch modules.

17. The device of claim 14, wherein each of the notch modules includes first and second mixers and a notch filter block, wherein each of the first and second mixers receive inputs from a phase locked loop, and wherein the subset of signal power levels is a group of highest power levels of the narrow frequency bands.

18. The device of claim 14, wherein the device is a cellular base station, wherein the narrow frequency bands are selected based on an interference probability determined from historical information associated with the narrow frequency bands, wherein the subset of signal power levels corresponds to a number of channels that equals the number of notch modules being employed by the filter for filtering the narrow band interference, and wherein the operations further comprise:

scanning, via the radio frequency receiver, a wide frequency band; and

deassigning the notch modules from narrow band interferers according to hang time for a hysteresis function.

19. A method comprising:

determining, by a system including a processor, signal strengths in narrowband channels of a wideband communication signal;

selecting, by the system, a number of notch modules to be employed by a filter for filtering narrow band interference;

selecting, by the system, a subset of signal power levels based on the number of notch modules;

determining, by the system, a threshold based on the signal strengths, wherein the threshold is calculated without utilizing the subset of signal power levels of the narrowband channels; and

detecting, by the system, the narrow band interference in the wideband communication signal according to the threshold.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the number of notch modules is a subset of a group of notch modules available to the filter, wherein the selecting of the number of notch modules from among the group of notch modules is according to a signal degradation contributed to by the number of notch modules, and further comprising:

deassigning the notch modules from narrow band interferers according to hang time for a hysteresis function, wherein the subset of signal power levels includes a group of highest power levels of the narrowband channels.