Radio to support channel plans of arbitrary width and/or spacing

• US 9,077,487 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2013
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Itron, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Itron, Inc.
• Inventors: Seely, Danny Ray, McNamee, Michael David
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayard, Emmanuel
• Application Number:
  US13/776,562
• Publication Number:
  US 20140241469A1
• Time in Patent Office: 862 Days
• Field of Search: 375/340, 375/144, 375/349, 375/347
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/14 Channel dividing arrangements , i.e. in which a single bit stream is divided between several baseband channels and reassembled at the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/0002 analog front ends; means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line duplex arrangements H04L5/143
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/0008 arrangements for allowing a transmitter or receiver to use more than one type of modulation negotiating modulation type for two-way transmission paths H04L5/1453
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/12 Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits

Abstract

A multichannel radio receiver may include a radio frequency (RF) subsystem and a digital subsystem. The digital subsystem may be configured to use an analog to digital converter (ADC) to sample input. A channelizer bank within the digital subsystem may include a plurality of channelizers. Each channelizer may receive and translate input into a plurality of channels, the channels having widths that are non-uniform and/or spacing (e.g., spacing center-to-center of adjacent channels) that is not regular. The translation may include re-sampling channels at a rate associated with a modulation scheme. A decoder bank may include a plurality of decoders operating in parallel, each to receive input from a channelizer and each associated with a particular modulation scheme. Thus, the multichannel radio may simultaneously receive on a plurality of channels of arbitrary location, arbitrary spacing and/or arbitrary bandwidth, wherein each channel is associated with one of a plurality of modulation schemes.

Claims

1. A radio receiver, comprising:

a digital subsystem to receive input associated with a radio band, wherein the digital subsystem comprises;

a channelizer bank having a plurality of channelizers;

a decoder bank having a plurality of decoders, wherein at least one channelizer in the channelizer bank is associated with at least two decoders in the decoder bank; and

an interface to allow services to be provided to channelizers and decoders within the channelizer bank and the decoder bank, respectively;

a channel assessment engine connected to the interface; and

wherein the digital subsystem is configured to;

receive simultaneously a plurality of channels defined within the radio band; and

utilize channels from among the received plurality of channels that support a targeted read reliability performance, based at least in part on output from the channel assessment engine.

2. The radio receiver of claim 1, additionally comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) subsystem to provide the input to the digital subsystem.

3. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein the digital subsystem additionally comprises:

a channelizer from among the plurality of channelizers to resample at least one channel within data sampled by an RF subsystem; and

a decoder from among the plurality of decoders to receive the re-sampled at least one channel, and to decode the at least one channel, wherein a rate of the resample is consistent with a modulation scheme of the decoder.

4. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein:

each channelizer is configured to define channels associated with a modulation scheme; and

the channelizer bank is extensible to allow addition or removal of channelizers.

5. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein:

each decoder is configured to decode a modulation scheme; and

the decoder bank is extensible to allow addition or removal of decoders.

6. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein the decoder bank comprises at least two decoders configured for parallel operation and not all associated with a same modulation scheme, each decoder configured to receive at least one channel and to decode the at least one channel according to a modulation scheme of that decoder.

7. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein the decoder bank comprises at least two decoders, the at least two decoders operating simultaneously and according to at least two modulation schemes, respectively, each decoder configured to receive at least one channel from at least one channelizer in the channelizer bank to which it is paired.

8. The radio receiver as recited in claim 1, wherein the channelizer bank is tuned to quiet channels, as indicated by the channel assessment engine.

9. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein the plurality of channels comprise a plurality of overlapping sub-channels, wherein each of the plurality of overlapping sub-channels is sized based at least in part on an intended signal to be received, wherein centers of two sub-channels are located on either side of a center of the intended signal to be received, and wherein the intended signal to be received is substantially within a sub-channel that overlaps the two sub-channels.

10. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein the digital subsystem is configured for dynamic change to add a desired channel plan and a desired modulation scheme by alteration of a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

11. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein the digital subsystem is configured for dynamic change to add a desired channel plan and a desired modulation scheme by alteration of software in a digital signal processor (DSP).

12. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein the digital subsystem is configured by operation of a logic device.

13. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein the digital subsystem comprises:

at least two channelizers, each channelizer configured to send data associated with at least one channel to at least two decoders, respectively;

wherein the at least two decoders operate simultaneously to decode data according to at least two modulation schemes.

14. The radio receiver of claim 1, wherein bandwidths of the plurality of channels are non-uniform.

15. A digital subsystem, comprising:

a channelizer bank, comprising a plurality of channelizers, each channelizer configured to tune at least one channel;

a decoder bank, comprising a plurality of decoders, each decoder associated with a modulation scheme and configured to receive channel information from a channelizer, wherein;

multiple decoders operate simultaneously to decode a plurality of channels defined at irregular intervals;

the decoding is performed according to multiple modulation schemes; and

at least one channelizer in the channelizer bank is associated with at least two decoders in the decoder bank;

an interface to provide services to channelizers and decoders within the channelizer bank and decoder bank, respectively; and

a channel assessment engine connected to the interface to indicate quiet channels for use by the channelizer bank having a required received signal strength indicator (RSSI) sufficient to achieve a targeted read reliability requirement (RRR).

16. The digital subsystem of claim 15, wherein each channelizer is configured to:

create a plurality of channels; and

define bandwidths of the plurality of channels to be non-uniform.

17. The digital subsystem of claim 15, wherein the channelizer bank is configured to create a plurality of overlapping sub-channels, wherein each of the plurality of overlapping sub-channels is sized based at least in part on an intended signal to be received, wherein collectively the plurality of overlapping sub-channels occupies spectrum associated with an expected frequency misalignment of the signal to be received, wherein centers of two sub-channels are located on either side of a center of the intended signal to be received, and wherein the intended signal to be received is substantially within a sub-channel that overlaps the two sub-channels.

18. A method of receiving data on a plurality of channels, comprising:

sampling a radio band into a digital representation;

scanning across the sampled radio band in a continuous and repetitive manner to find a required received signal strength indicator (RSSI) sufficient to achieve a targeted read reliability requirement (RRR);

channelizing data from the digital representation into channels by operation of a channelizer bank having a plurality of channelizers, wherein the channels have center-to-center spacing that is irregular; and

decoding the channels by operation of a decoder bank having a plurality of decoders, wherein at least one channelizer in the channelizer bank is associated with at least two decoders in the decoder bank, and wherein the decoders utilize modulation schemes indicated by the RSSI required to achieve the targeted RRR.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the channelizing comprises:

re-sampling data based in part on a modulation scheme to be decoded.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the channelizing comprises:

re-sampling data in each of a plurality of channelizers, wherein a rate of the re-sampling is based in part on a modulation scheme of a decoder paired to each of the plurality of channelizers, and wherein at least two channelizers resample at different rates.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein decoding the channels comprises:

decoding the channels according to a plurality of different modulation schemes, wherein the decoding is performed in a parallel manner.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the channelizing comprises defining overlapping filters, wherein each of the overlapping filters is sized based at least in part on an intended signal to be received, wherein centers of two filters are located on either side of a center of the intended signal to be received, and wherein the intended signal to be received is substantially within a filter that overlaps the two filters.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the channels have widths that are non-uniform.