Signal processing using multiple sources

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10700797-B2
Application number	US-201715643794-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2017
Priority date	Jul 7, 2017
Publication date	Jun 30, 2020
Grant date	Jun 30, 2020

Abstract

Aspects of the disclosure are directed to providing signals utilizing two or more sources. As may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments, a method and/or apparatus involves processing respective signals carrying broadcast data provided by different receiver circuits that respectively receive the same broadcast data. The signals received from the respective receiver circuits are equalized, and corresponding sets of the broadcast data from each of the equalized signals are selectively combined to provide a combined signal carrying the broadcast data. This approach may be used, for example, to generate broadcast data utilizing source data from two or more receivers, such as may be received on different signal mediums (e.g., over-the-air digital radio and Wi-Fi digital radio), and therein providing enhanced reception.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a first receiver circuit configured and arranged to receive a first type of signals carrying broadcast data via a first wireless communication medium, and to down-convert the first type of signals to a baseband frequency;
a second receiver circuit configured and arranged to receive a second type of signals carrying the broadcast data via a second wireless communication medium that is different than the first wireless communication medium in which the second type of signals are different than the first type of signals, and to down-convert the second type of signals to a baseband frequency; and
signal processing circuitry configured and arranged with the first receiver circuit and the second receiver circuit to
equalize the down-converted signals from the first and second receiver circuits, and
combine the equalized signals from the first and second receiver circuits, based on an assessed degree of confidence that a portion of the down-converted signals from the first receiver circuit and from the second receiver circuit is accurate, to provide a combined signal carrying the broadcast data, wherein the signal processing circuitry is to combine the equalized signals by combining bits of corresponding symbols or of corresponding frames for signals received at the first receiver circuit and at the second receiver circuit, based on the assessed degree of confidence.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuitry is further configured and arranged to temporally align bits in the down-converted signals received at the first receiver circuit to bits in the down-converted signals received at the second receiver circuit, and to combine the equalized signals by combining, for each bit in the combined signal, one of the temporally-aligned bits from each of the down-converted signals.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein
the first receiver circuit is configured and arranged to receive the first type of signals carrying the broadcast data using a first communication protocol set for the first wireless communication medium, and
the second receiver circuit is configured and arranged to receive the second type of signals carrying the broadcast data using a second communication protocol set for the second wireless communication medium that is different than the first communication protocol set.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuitry is configured and arranged to combine the equalized signals from the first and second receiver circuits to provide the combined signal by:
adding soft bit values of each bit in the equalized signals,
averaging the added soft bit values, and
providing the averaged soft bit values as respective bits of the combined signal.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuitry is configured and arranged to combine the equalized signals from the first and second receiver circuits to provide the combined signal by:
for each bit in the equalized signals:
adding amplitude values of the bit, and
averaging the added amplitude values to provide an averaged bit; and

providing the combined signal including the averaged bits.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuitry is configured and arranged to:
provide the respective down-converted signals as soft symbols in which data values of ‘1’ and ‘0’ are conveyed by varying amplitude, the amplitude being proportional to a confidence of deciding on the data values as being ‘1’ or ‘0’; and
for each bit in the broadcast data, adding and averaging the amplitude from each signal, and providing the combined signal with a bit corresponding to the averaged amplitude.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first receiver circuit is a digital radio receiver circuit configured and arranged to tune to a frequency via which the signals are broadcast, and the second receiver circuit is one of: a mobile telephone configured and arranged to receive the signals carrying the broadcast data via a mobile telephony signal that utilizes a mobile telephone communication protocol, and a Wi-Fi receiver configured and arranged to receive the signals carrying the broadcast data via a Wi-Fi signal that utilizes a Wi-Fi protocol.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuitry is further configured and arranged to:
decode data in the combined signal;
de-multiplex the decoded data into text data, audio data, and image data; and
provide the text, audio and image data as outputs.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the signal processing circuitry includes circuits in the first receiver circuit and circuits in the second receiver circuit, and includes:
a signal detector circuit configured and arranged to detect presence of a signal;
a frame timing detector circuit configured and arranged to detect timing of data frames communicated in the signal;
a frequency estimation and correction circuit configured and arranged to lock onto the frequency via which the signal is detected;
a channel estimator circuit configured and arranged to estimate channel gains for each of the first and second wireless communication mediums, by providing channel propagation strength and propagation delay information for each wireless communication medium;
an equalizer circuit configured and arranged to equalize the signal via the channel estimates of the channel estimator circuit;
a de-mapper circuit configured and arranged to receive the equalized signal from the equalizer circuit and to provide a de-mapped signal; and
a de-multiplexer circuit configured and arranged to receive and de-multiplex the de-mapped signal from the de-mapper circuit.

10. An apparatus comprising:
a first receiver circuit configured and arranged to receive a first type of signals carrying broadcast data via a first wireless communication medium, and to down-convert the first type of signals to a baseband frequency;
a second receiver circuit configured and arranged to receive a second type of signals carrying the broadcast data via a second wireless communication medium that is different than the first wireless communication medium in which the second type of signals are different than the first type of signals, and to down-convert the second type of signals to a baseband frequency; and
signal processing circuitry configured and arranged with the first receiver circuit and the second receiver circuit to
equalize the down-converted signals from the first and second receiver circuits, and
combine the equalized signals from the first and second receiver circuits, based on an assessed degree of confidence that a portion of the down-converted signals from the first receiver circuit and from the second receiver circuit is accurate, to provide a combined signal carrying the broadcast data, wherein the signal processing circuitry is configured and arranged with the first receiver circuit and with the second receiver circuit to combine the equalized signals based on a weighing factor that is proportional to a confidence metric for each of the respective down-converted signals, the confidence metric for each of the respective down-converted signals being indicative of a degree of confidence that data in each of the respective down-converted signals is accurate.

11. An apparatus comprising:
a first receiver circuit configured and arranged to receive a first type of signals carrying broadcast data via a first wireless communication medium, and to down-convert the first type of signals to a baseband frequency;
a second receiver circuit configured and arranged to receive a second type of signals carrying the broadcast data via a second wireless

Assignees

• Nxp Bv

Inventors

• Jacob Naveen

Classifications

• H04B1/126 Primary

  having multiple inputs, e.g. auxiliary antenna for receiving interfering signal (aerials in general H01Q) · CPC title

• H04L25/03019

  adaptive, i.e. capable of adjustment during data reception · CPC title

• H04H2201/12

  digital radio mondiale [DRM] · CPC title

• H04B7/0885

  with combination · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title