Low power wireless communication utilizing OFDM backchannels

• US 9,419,838 B1
• Filed: 08/14/2015
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Board of Regents of the University of Michigan (University of Michigan)
• Original Assignee: Board of Regents of the University of Michigan (University of Michigan)
• Inventors: Kim, Hun Seok, Wentzloff, David D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Aghdam, Freshteh N
• Application Number:
  US14/826,799
• Time in Patent Office: 368 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/4902 Pulse width modulation; Pulse position modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/26362 Subcarrier weighting equivalent to time domain filtering, e.g. weighting per subcarrier multiplication arrangements for removing intersymbol interference at the transmitter end H04L25/03343
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0044 allocation of payload

Abstract

An innovative software-defined backchannel communication scheme is provided for use in ultra-low power devices. The technique enables interconnecting heterogeneous devices through a WiFi backchannel that can be realized with existing infrastructure without any hardware modifications. The backchannel communication scheme can also be extended to other OFDM based communication systems, such as cellular 4G LTE.

Claims

1. A method for encoding a message in a signal transmitted in accordance with an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), comprising:

identifying, by a transmitter, a subset of subcarrier symbols from which to create an OFDM symbol, where the subset of subcarrier symbols is selected from a finite symbol space for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing and produces a signal that is demodulated by a receiver that does not comply with OFDM;

receiving, by the transmitter, backchannel data to be transmitted in accordance with OFDM;

encoding, by the transmitter, the backchannel data using the subset of subcarrier symbols; and

transmitting, by the transmitter, the encoded backchannel data across a wireless network using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein encoding the data further comprises assigning a sequence of subcarrier symbols with a substantially constant phase rotation rate across subcarriers, thereby forming one or more pulses in time domain of the OFDM symbol.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein encoding the backchannel data further comprises adjusting the position of the one or more pulses within the OFDM symbol by selecting a particular phase rotation rate for the sequence of subcarrier symbols.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein encoding the backchannel data further comprises adjusting the phase of the one or more pulses in the OFDM symbol by selecting one of two or more starting subcarrier symbols having different phases.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein encoding the backchannel data further comprises adjusting the amplitude of the one or more pulses in the OFDM symbol by selecting one of two or more starting subcarrier symbols having different amplitudes.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein encoding the backchannel data further comprises adjusting pulse frequency in the OFDM symbol by using one or more phase rotation values for subcarrier symbol allocation.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein encoding the backchannel data further comprises assigning subcarrier symbols with varying amplitude across subcarriers, thereby modulating the frequency at which the energy of the OFDM symbol is concentrated.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein encoding the data further comprises assigning subcarrier symbol with varying amplitude across subcarriers as well as consecutive OFDM symbols, thereby modulation frequency chirp over consecutive OFDM symbols.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the subcarrier symbols are defined in accordance with quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).

10. The method of claim 2 wherein encoding the backchannel data further comprises:

generating a desired sequence of subcarrier symbols which corresponds to the backchannel data, where the subcarrier symbols for the desired sequence of subcarrier symbols are selected from the subset of subcarrier symbols;

converting the desired sequence of subcarrier symbols to an intermediate bit sequence using inverse operations of subcarrier mapping, interleaving, and puncturing; and

assigning values to an input bit sequence which results in the intermediate bit sequence after undergoing scrambling and convolutional encoding.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein encoding the backchannel data further comprises:

generating a desired sequence of subcarrier symbols which corresponds to the backchannel data, where the subcarrier symbols for the desired sequence of subcarrier symbols are selected from the subset of subcarrier symbols;

for each subcarrier, determining select subcarrier symbols from the subset of subcarrier symbols that can be assigned to a given subcarrier;

for each subcarrier, evaluating a cost function with a transmitter input bit value of zero and a transmitter input bit value of one, where the cost function is evaluated in part based on the select subcarrier symbols that can be assigned to the given subcarrier; and

assigning values to an transmitter input bit sequence based on the evaluation of the cost function.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the encoded backchannel data further comprises performing an Inverse Fourier transform operation on the encoded data.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the encoded backchannel data further comprises modulating each subcarrier with one of quadrature amplitude modulation or phase-shift keying.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprises receiving, by a receiver, the encoded backchannel data transmitted by the transmitter;

and decoding, by the receiver, the encoded backchannel data.

15. A method for encoding a message in a signal transmitted in accordance with an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), comprising:

receiving, by a transmitter, backchannel data to be transmitted in accordance with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing;

encoding, by the transmitter, the backchannel data by assigning quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) symbols with a substantially constant phase rotation rate across subcarriers of an OFDM symbol, thereby forming one or more the one or more pulses in time domain of the OFDM symbol;

transmitting, by the transmitter, the encoded backchannel data across a wireless network using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing;

receiving, by a receiver, the encoded backchannel data transmitted by the transmitter; and

decoding, by the receiver, the encoded backchannel data, wherein the receiver does not operate in accordance with OFDM.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein encoding the backchannel data further comprises adjusting position of the one or more pulses within the OFDM symbol by selecting a particular phase rotation rate for the sequence of QAM symbols.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein encoding the backchannel data further comprises adjusting phase of the one or more pulses in the OFDM symbol by selecting one of two or more starting QAM symbols having different phases.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein encoding the backchannel data further comprises adjusting amplitude of the one or more pulses in the OFDM symbol by selecting one of two or more starting QAM symbols having different amplitudes.

19. A method for encoding a message in a signal transmitted in accordance with an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), comprising:

receiving, by a transmitter, backchannel data to be transmitted in accordance with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing;

encoding, by the transmitter, the backchannel data by assigning quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) symbols with varying amplitude across subcarriers of an OFDM symbol, thereby modulating frequency of the OFDM symbol;

transmitting, by the transmitter, the encoded backchannel data across a wireless network using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing;

receiving, by a receiver, the encoded backchannel data transmitted by the transmitter; and

decoding, by the receiver, the encoded backchannel data, wherein the receiver does not operate in accordance with OFDM.