System and method for characterizing undesirable noise of a signal path within a selected frequency band
First Claim
1. A test system for characterizing an impairment affecting a signal path comprising:
- a signal path output with a vacant frequency band;
a filter passing said vacant frequency band;
a filter input;
a filter output;
a digital time trace acquisition unit;
a digital time trace acquisition unit input;
a digital time trace acquisition unit trigger input;
a time trace, said filter input connected to the signal path output, said filter output connected to the digital time trace acquisition unit trigger input and said signal path output connected to said digital time trace acquisition unit input, andwherein impairments from the signal path pass through the filter and trigger said digital time trace acquisition unit and said digital time trace acquisition unit acquires said time trace of said impairments upon triggering.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A test (600) system for characterizing the nature and the severity of the impairments affecting a radio frequency signal path (148) which may be an upstream or a downstream channel in a cable system. Testing is done by monitoring the output of an unused signal path (614) with a filter (608) and a totaling counter (612). The filter passes impairment energy from the signal path to the counter in a frequency band of interest, thereby increasing the count value on the counter. The bandpass filter limits the ability of impairments or signals from other frequency bands to increase the counter'"'"'s count value. The counter'"'"'s input threshold voltage level (404) is set to trigger on impairments that are sufficiently strong to cause data errors. The count value may be used to determine the time duration of an impairment by dividing the count accumulated in one second by the center frequency of the filter. An optional digital time trace acquisition unit (710), connected to the broadband signal path output (614), may be employed to capture time traces (734) to help identify the source and the nature of the impairment. The time traces can be stored, retrieved, and analyzed by conversion into the frequency domain, by digital filtering, by plotting as a histogram, and by plotting as a waterfall display.
50 Citations
31 Claims
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1. A test system for characterizing an impairment affecting a signal path comprising:
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a signal path output with a vacant frequency band; a filter passing said vacant frequency band; a filter input; a filter output; a digital time trace acquisition unit; a digital time trace acquisition unit input; a digital time trace acquisition unit trigger input; a time trace, said filter input connected to the signal path output, said filter output connected to the digital time trace acquisition unit trigger input and said signal path output connected to said digital time trace acquisition unit input, and wherein impairments from the signal path pass through the filter and trigger said digital time trace acquisition unit and said digital time trace acquisition unit acquires said time trace of said impairments upon triggering. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A test system for characterizing impairments affecting a signal path with a vacant frequency band comprising:
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a filter connected to said signal path and passing said vacant frequency band; a totaling counter connected to the output of said filter, said totaling counter having a threshold value, and wherein signal path impairments having a value in excess of said threshold value increment said totaling counter. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A system for characterizing impairments affecting a signal path comprising:
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a filter connected to said signal path via a frequency converter providing a frequency converted and filtered output of said impairments; a totaling counter which maintains a count value representative of the number of times said filtered output traverses a predetermined threshold value during a test duration time, and wherein said count value characterizes said impairment. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A test system for characterizing undesirable energy of a signal path within a selected frequency band comprising:
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a signal path comprising a plurality of data channels and at least one test channel wherein said test channel is in said frequency band; a filter for selecting said test channel from the plurality of said data channels; a counter responsive to the test channel signal amplitude which maintains a count of the number of times said test channel amplitude traverses a threshold value, and wherein said test channel signal consists substantially of said undesirable energy and said threshold value is the value at which said undesirable energy could cause a data error in a signal.
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31. A method for characterizing undesirable energy of a signal path within a frequency band comprising:
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determining a threshold value at which said undesirable energy could cause a data error; selecting a test channel within said frequency band wherein said test channel consists primarily of said undesirable energy, and maintaining a count of the number of times said undesirable energy traverses said threshold value during a test duration.
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Specification