Spectrum scrubber

• US 9,692,468 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2015
• Issued: 06/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smartsky Networks Llc
• Original Assignee: Smartsky Networks Llc
• Inventors: Hayes, Gerard James, Takamizawa, Koichiro, Eskridge, Jr., Elbert Stanford, Klein, Joe
• Primary Examiner(s): Pan, Yuwen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen, Zhitong
• Application Number:
  US14/937,917
• Publication Number:
  US 20170134059A1
• Time in Patent Office: 594 Days
• 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 1/126 having multiple inputs, e.g. auxiliary antenna for receiving interfering signal aerials in general H01Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/1063 using a notch filter
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/20 for optimising the interference level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/322 by location data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/06 Airborne or Satellite Networks space-based or airborne stations H04B7/185

Abstract

A method of enhancing wireless communication performance includes receiving information indicative of a local interferer where the local interferer is identified based on dynamic position information indicative of a position of at least one mobile communication node, performing noise cancellation relative to a received signal by removing an interference signal associated with the local interferer to generate a scrubbed signal, and providing the scrubbed signal for additional signal processing.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to:

receive information indicative of a local interferer, the local interferer being identified based on dynamic position information indicative of a position of an aircraft;

perform noise cancellation relative to a received signal by removing an interference signal associated with the local interferer to generate a scrubbed signal; and

provide the scrubbed signal for additional signal processing,

wherein the local interferer is identified in an interference profile indicative of one or more interference signals associated with the position of the aircraft,

wherein the interference profile includes selected interferers from an interferer library including a plurality of known interferers associated with respective different locations, and

wherein the interferer library is dynamically updateable to include additional interference signals detected a threshold number of times or detected the threshold number of times within a given period, wherein the threshold number of times is an integer value greater than one.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the dynamic position information comprises a three dimensional position of the aircraft.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the interference profile is received at the aircraft from a network entity, and wherein the interference profile is received substantially in real time based on the three dimensional position of the aircraft.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the interference profile is received, from a network entity, at a fixed transmission site communicating with the aircraft, and wherein the interference profile is received substantially in real time based on the three dimensional position of the aircraft.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interference profile is received at the aircraft from a network entity, and wherein the interference profile is provided for a projected future position of the aircraft.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interference profile is received, from a network entity, at a fixed transmission site communicating with the aircraft, and wherein the interference profile is provided for a projected future position of the aircraft.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interference profile is provided to both the aircraft and a fixed transmission site communicating with the aircraft.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interference profile is provided to one of the aircraft or a fixed transmission site communicating with the aircraft, and a different interference profile is provided to the other of the aircraft or a fixed transmission site communicating with the aircraft.

9. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the selected interferers are selected based on the dynamic position information.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the interferer library is dynamically updateable to delete interference signals not detected for at least a given period.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein performing the noise cancellation comprises numerically removing the interference signal from the received signal.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein performing the noise cancellation comprises steering a null toward a location of the interference signal.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein performing the noise cancellation comprises tuning a notch filter to filter out the interference signal.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein receiving information indicative of the local interferer comprises receiving the information in advance of the aircraft being in a cell in which the local interferer is located, and wherein performing noise cancellation relative to the received signal comprises employing a noise cancellation technique selected in advance of the aircraft being in the cell in which the local interference is located.

14. A method of enhancing wireless communication performance, the method comprising:

receiving information indicative of a local interferer, the local interferer being identified based on dynamic position information indicative of a position of an aircraft;

performing noise cancellation relative to a received signal by removing an interference signal associated with the local interferer to generate a scrubbed signal; and

providing the scrubbed signal for additional signal processing,

wherein the local interferer is identified in an interference profile indicative of one or more interference signals associated with the position of the aircraft,

wherein the interference profile includes selected interferers from an interferer library including a plurality of known interferers associated with respective different locations, and

wherein the interferer library is dynamically updateable to include additional interference signals detected a threshold number of times or detected the threshold number of times within a given period, wherein the threshold number of times is an integer value greater than one.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein performing the noise cancellation comprises numerically removing the interference signal from the received signal.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein performing the noise cancellation comprises steering a null toward a location of the interference signal.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein performing the noise cancellation comprises tuning a notch filter to filter out the interference signal.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving information indicative of the local interferer comprises receiving the information in advance of the aircraft being in a cell in which the local interferer is located, and wherein performing noise cancellation relative to the received signal comprises employing a noise cancellation technique selected in advance of the aircraft being in the cell in which the local interference is located.