METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ADJUSTING A FIELD OF A SIGNAL TO MITIGATE INTERFERENCE

• US 20170018830A1
• Filed: 07/14/2015
• Published: 01/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Henry, Paul Shala, Bennett, Robert, Barzegar, Farhad, Gerszberg, Irwin, Barnickel, Donald J., Willis, Thomas M. III
• Granted Patent: US 9,847,566 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 27/32 in circuits having distributed constants , e.g. having very long conductors or involving high frequencies
• CPC Class Codes: H01P 1/222 Waveguide attenuators H01P1/23 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/52 Systems for transmission between fixed stations via waveguides
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/56 Circuits for coupling, blocking, or by-passing of signals

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a system that performs operations including detecting a signal degradation of guided electromagnetic waves bound to a transmission medium without utilizing an electrical return path, the guided electromagnetic waves having a non-optical frequency range, and adjusting an alignment of at least a portion of fields of the guided electromagnetic waves to mitigate the signal degradation. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a waveguide system, electromagnetic waves guided by an outer surface of a transmission medium without utilizing an electrical return path, the electromagnetic waves having a non-optical frequency range;

detecting, by the waveguide system, an attenuation of the electromagnetic waves; and

coordinating, by the waveguide system with a neighboring waveguide system, an adjustment of an orientation of at least a portion of electric fields of the electromagnetic waves to mitigate the attenuation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the coordinating comprises:

generating, by the waveguide system, updated electromagnetic waves having an adjusted orientation of at least the portion of electric fields of the electromagnetic waves;

inducing, by the waveguide system, propagation of the updated electromagnetic waves on the outer surface of the transmission medium; and

receiving, by the waveguide system, from the neighboring waveguide system a message indicating a quality of the updated electromagnetic waves.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the quality of the updated electromagnetic waves is based on a signal to noise ratio.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the message is received by the waveguide system as a wireless message.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the message is included in second electromagnetic waves generated by the neighboring waveguide system, the second electromagnetic waves guided by the outer surface of a transmission medium and received by the waveguide system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the coordinating comprises:

receiving, by the waveguide system, updated electromagnetic waves guided by the outer surface of the transmission medium, the updated electromagnetic waves having an adjusted orientation of at least the portion of electric fields of the electromagnetic waves, and the updated electromagnetic waves being generated by the neighboring waveguide system; and

sending, by the waveguide system, to the neighboring waveguide system a message indicating a quality of the updated electromagnetic waves.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the quality of the updated electromagnetic waves is based on a signal to noise ratio.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the message is sent to the neighboring waveguide system as a wireless message.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the message is included in second electromagnetic waves generated by the waveguide system, the second electromagnetic waves guided by the outer surface of a transmission medium and directed to the neighboring waveguide system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the coordinating further comprises submitting, by the waveguide system, a notification message to the neighboring waveguide system of the attenuation detected by the waveguide system.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting an object causing the attenuation of the electromagnetic waves.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the object comprises an accumulation of liquid on the outer surface of the transmission medium.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjustment of the orientation of at least the portion of electric fields of the electromagnetic waves comprises adjusting a polarization of the electric fields of the electromagnetic waves.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the polarization comprises an alignment of the electric fields of the electromagnetic waves that is approximately transversal to a direction of propagation of the electromagnetic waves.

15. A waveguide system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

receiving electromagnetic waves guided by an outer surface of a transmission medium that propagate on the outer surface of the transmission medium without utilizing an electrical return path; and

coordinating with a neighboring waveguide system an adjustment of a polarization of at least a portion of fields of the electromagnetic waves responsive to determining that the electromagnetic waves do not conform to a quality metric.

16. The waveguide system of claim 15, wherein the portion of fields of the electromagnetic waves comprises electric fields.

17. The waveguide system of claim 16, wherein the polarization comprises an alignment of the electric fields of the electromagnetic waves away from a direction of propagation of the electromagnetic waves.

18. The waveguide system of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise generating adjusted electromagnetic waves, and wherein the adjusted electromagnetic waves have a transverse mode.

19. The waveguide system of claim 15, wherein the quality metric comprises a signal to noise ratio metric.

20. A machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

detecting a signal degradation of guided electromagnetic waves bound to a transmission medium without utilizing an electrical return path, the guided electromagnetic waves having a non-optical frequency range; and

adjusting an alignment of at least a portion of fields of the guided electromagnetic waves to mitigate the signal degradation.

21. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the portion of fields of the guided electromagnetic waves comprises electric fields.

22. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the alignment comprises polarizing the electric fields of the guided electromagnetic waves away from a direction of propagation of the guided electromagnetic waves.

23. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the operations further comprise generating adjusted electromagnetic waves having a transverse mode.

24. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the detecting the signal degradation comprises:

determining a signal to noise ratio for the guided electromagnetic waves; and

determining that the signal to noise ratio is below a threshold.