Signal detection and power measurement with multi-band filter to mitigate narrowband interference

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9935664-B1
Application number	US-201615297028-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Oct 18, 2016
Priority date	Oct 21, 2015
Publication date	Apr 3, 2018
Grant date	Apr 3, 2018

Abstract

Various aspects of this disclosure describe detecting a signal and measuring power with a multi-band filter. Examples include a signal detection and power measurement module in a receiver capable of detecting a training signal and calculating a reliable power measurement in the presence of narrowband interference. A received signal is filtered by a multi-band filter comprising a plurality of sub-band filters. For instance, sub-band filters may be bandpass filters with non-overlapping pass-bands. A training signal is detected by comparing powers of each of the outputs of the sub-band filters to a plurality of thresholds. For example, each sub-band may be assigned a different threshold value. Responsive to detecting a training signal, a power measurement is determined from at least one sub-band filter output. A gain is set based on the determined power measurement, and applied in the receiver.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of signal detection and power measurement, the method comprising:
receiving a communications signal with a receiver, the receiver including (i) an analog-to-digital converter and (ii) a plurality of sub-band filters;
sampling the communications signal with the analog-to-digital converter;
filtering the sampled communications signal using the plurality of sub-band filters to produce a corresponding plurality of filter outputs;
detecting a presence of a training signal within the communications signal by comparing a power of each of the filter outputs to a different one of a plurality of thresholds; and
responsive to detecting the presence of the training signal within the communications signal,
determining a power measurement from the plurality of filter outputs,
setting a gain based on the determined power measurement, and
applying the gain in the receiver.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the setting the gain comprises setting a first gain and a second gain, and wherein applying the gain comprises (i) applying the first gain to the received communications signal, and (ii) applying the second gain to the sampled signal.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising removing an echo from the sampled communications signal using a reference signal from a transmitter portion of a transceiver comprising the receiver, and wherein the filtering the sampled communications signal comprises filtering the sampled communications signal with the echo removed.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein the setting the gain comprises setting a first gain and a second gain, and the applying the gain comprises applying the first gain to the received communications signal and applying the second gain to the sampled signal with the echo removed.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the detecting the presence of the training signal is performed responsive to the power of each of the filter outputs being greater than the different one of the plurality of thresholds.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the determining the power measurement comprises averaging at least two power measurements each from a different filter output.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the determining the power measurement comprises determining a plurality of power measurements each from a different filter output and setting the determined power measurement to a lowest of the plurality of power measurements.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of thresholds is programmable and is set to a respective threshold value, at least two of the threshold values being different from each other.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising adapting equalizer coefficients responsive to the detecting the presence of the training signal.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the setting the gain comprises addressing a look-up table based on the power measurement to determine the gain.

11. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the sub-band filters comprise bandpass filters that do not have overlapping pass-bands.

12. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the setting the gain is further based on how many sub-band filters comprise the plurality of sub-band filters.

13. A device comprising:
a receiver configured to receive a communications signal;
an analog-to-digital converter configured to sample the communications signal;
a plurality of sub-band filters configured to filter the sampled communications signal to produce a corresponding plurality of filter outputs;
a detector configured to detect a presence of a training signal within the communications signal based on comparing a power of each of the filter outputs to a different one of a plurality of thresholds;
a power measurement module configured to determine a power measurement from the plurality of filter outputs responsive to the detector detecting the presence of the training signal;
a gain estimator configured to set a gain based on the determined power measurement; and
a gain module configured to apply the gain in the device.

14. The device as recited in claim 13 , wherein the power measurement module determines the power measurement from down-sampled versions of the plurality of filter outputs.

15. The device as recited in claim 13 , wherein the receiver, the analog-to-digital converter, the plurality of sub-band filters, the detector, the power measurement module, the gain estimator, and the gain module comprise a System-on-Chip (SoC).

16. The device as recited in claim 13 , wherein the communications signal originates in a vehicle, and the receiver, the analog-to-digital converter, the plurality of sub-band filters, the detector, the power measurement module, the gain estimator and the gain module comprise the vehicle.

17. The device as recited in claim 13 , wherein to detect the presence of the training signal is further based on the power of each of the filter outputs being greater than the different one of the plurality of thresholds.

18. The device as recited in claim 13 , further comprising a correlator configured to correlate the filter outputs, and wherein to detect the presence of the training signal is further based on the correlator determining each of the filter outputs are correlated with each other.

19. A system comprising:
a receiver configured to receive a sampled communications signal;
a transmitter configured to provide a reference signal for removing an echo from the sampled communications signal;
a plurality of sub-band filters configured to filter the sampled communications signal with the echo removed to produce a corresponding plurality of filter outputs;
a signal detection and power measurement module configured to detect a presence of a training signal within the communications signal based on a power of each of the filter outputs being greater than a different one of a plurality of thresholds, and, responsive to detecting the presence of the training signal, determine a power measurement from a filter output having a lowest power measurement among the plurality of filter outputs; and
a gain module configured to set a plurality of gains based on the determined power measurement and apply the plurality of gains in the system.

20. The system as recited in claim 19 , wherein each of the plurality of thresholds is programmable and is set to a respective threshold value, each of the threshold values being different one to another.

Assignees

• Marvell Int Ltd

Inventors

• Dai Shaoan
• Cheong Kok-Wui
• Gu Zhenzhong
• Sun Junqing

Classifications

• H04B1/082

  to be used in vehicles (H04B1/086 takes precedence; holding or mounting accessories B60R11/02) · CPC title

• H04B1/1027

  assessing signal quality or detecting noise/interference for the received signal · CPC title

• H04B17/327

  Received signal code power [RSCP] · CPC title

• H04L5/0048

  Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver (allocation of control signalling H04L5/0053; use of control signalling H04L5/0091) · CPC title

• H04B1/1036 Primary

  with automatic suppression of narrow band noise or interference, e.g. by using tuneable notch filters (H04B1/123 takes precedence; filter circuits H03H) · CPC title