Patent ID: 7653117
Filing Date: 2010-01-26
Classification: H04B,H04L

Abstract:
1. An improved method for decoding data in a frequency hopping communications system, comprising: receiving an incoming radio signal by a radio and demodulating the incoming radio signal to form a demodulated data stream; monitoring transition points between data bits in the demodulated data stream, where the data bits are transmitted to a receiver over different transmission frequencies; determining a reliability metric for each frequency over which data bits were transmitted by assessing whether the bit transitions are within an expected transition region as derived from a known bit rate of the data stream, computing a ratio between a number of bit transitions which fall inside of the expected transition region and a total number of bit transition which fall both inside and outside the expected transition region; classifying a given frequency over which data bits were received as reliable when the ratio for the given frequency is greater than or equal to a predefined threshold; classifying a given frequency over which data bits were received as unreliable when the ratio for the given frequency is less than the predefined threshold; and performing a decoding operation using the reliability metric for each frequency over which data bits were transmitted.