Abstract:
A flexible method of error coding uses at least two generating polynomials to provide different degrees of error protection and to optionally superimpose a phantom channel on a primary channel, without the need for explicit signaling from transmitter to receiver. An encoded message is CRC decoded the on the receive side with at least two different generating polynomials. Based on the results of the twin decoding, the present method can determine which of the generating polynomials was used to encode the message and respond accordingly. For instance, if the a particular generating polynomial was used, then this may be use to indicate that a second channel has been superimposed onto the primary channel and that second channel may be extracted. On the other hand, it another generating polynomial, such as the default generating polynomial, was used, this may be used to indicate that no second channel has been superimposed. In some embodiments, the method may optionally be refined by adding additional steps to resolve potential ambiguities resulting from the use of a twin decoding scheme. In essence, the receiver deduces the transmitter&#39;s choice of CRC generating code, and thus the degree of redundancy and/or presence of the second channel, by analyzing the incoming bit stream rather than relying on explicit signaling information and, armed with that knowledge, responds accordingly.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to the field of error protection in communications systems, and more particularly to a method of cyclic redundancy check error protection that allows for varying degrees of protection, and optionally the inclusion of second channel data in a primary channel message.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Communications systems, such as a cellular telephone networks, routinely include error-control mechanisms intended to provide some degree of protection against transmission errors. Such transmission errors typically arise from external disturbances (e.g., “noise”) and have the undesired effect of altering the message received.  
           [0003]    Assuming a digital communications system, a plurality of bits to be communicated are typically collected and grouped into a packet. A packet header is typically appended to the beginning of the packet that includes various fields needed to enable and assist in the operation of various network functions. A packet trailer is typically appended to the end of the packet and typically includes, inter alia, parity bits. Together, the header, packet, and trailer is called a frame. The purpose of the parity bits carried by the frame trailer is to provide a means of detecting the presence of any bit errors introduced into the frame during the overall transmission process.  
           [0004]    One particular method of generating and processing parity bits is the cyclic redundancy check (CRC), whose operation can be envisioned most clearly as a series of multiplication and division operations among polynomials having modulo-2 coefficients in recognition of their representation of digital bits. In this representation, the contents of a partial frame (i.e., the frame excluding its trailer) can be thought of as an N-degree polynomial, where N is the number of bits in the partial frame. This polynomial is divided by a second polynomial known as the CRC generator polynomial. On completion of the division, the resulting remainder is incorporated into the packet trailer as the parity bits, and the frame is passed on for transmission.  
           [0005]    Upon receipt of the frame, the receiver again computes the polynomial division, and compares the resulting remainder with the received remainder. Transmission errors are indicated by any disagreement between the remainder as conveyed by the received frame and the remainder as re-computed by the receiver.  
           [0006]    The polynomial CRC model, as well as the limitations and capabilities inherent in CRCs derived from various generator polynomials in widespread commercial use, are described more fully by Boudreau, Bergman, and Irvin, in “Performance of a cyclic redundancy check and its interaction with a data scrambler” (IBM Journal of Research and Development, vol. 38, no. 6, November 1994, pp. 651-658).  
           [0007]    With the use of CRC encoding, it is necessary for the receiving station to be aware of which generating polynomial was used to produce the incoming message in order to properly process the message. Typically a standard or universal generating polynomial of appropriate degree is used. However, this approach, which is often designed to account for worst-case scenarios, may be inefficient in the majority of situations where noise is less than worst-case conditions. For instance, a given frame might need to be sent with sixteen-bit CRC protection in noisy situations, but only eight-bit CRC protection may be required when transmission conditions improve. However, under the prior art, the sixteen-bit CRC protection is used for all situations.  
           [0008]    In addition, it is sometimes useful to provide a low-bit-rate phantom second channel between the transmitter and the receiver, for example, for use in exchanging network-management information, as discussed further in U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,160. Here, the term “phantom channel” suggests that the organization of the fixed-length frame—in particular the frame length of the message protected by the CRC—does not vary as the result of providing the phantom channel. For proper functioning, it is necessary for the receiver to know when the second channel is present so that the second channel may be properly processed. One known approach is to always reserve space in the frame for this second channel. However, this approach is clearly an inefficient use of transmission capacity when the second channel is empty. Another approach is to provide an indicator flag explicitly. For example, a second-channel-present flag can be provided that explicitly tells the receiver when the second channel is not empty. However, the use of such an explicit flag approach likewise consumes transmission capacity that might otherwise be used productively.  
           [0009]    An alternative approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,160 to Irvin and Khayrallah, which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference. The &#39;160 patent describes a way in which a phantom secondary channel can be derived by deliberately inducing CRC errors. A mask that corresponds to the information to be carried by the secondary channel is exclusive-ORed (XOR) with the information to be carried by the primary channel after the CRC is computed for the primary channel information. On receipt of the altered message, the decoder detects an abnormality, as the CRC bits received do not correspond to the message received, due to the imposition of the mask. The decoder then finds the mask that unravels this imposition, and therefore restores the integrity of the CRC. That found mask then represents the intended text of the secondary channel. Although the method of the &#39;160 patent can be applied to some of the problems addressed by the present invention, the method of &#39;160 becomes prohibitively complex as the capacity of the secondary channel increases. For example, providing an eight-bit secondary channel would require the storage and processing of 256 masks.  
           [0010]    Therefore, there remains a need for a method that provides variable levels of CRC protection that is efficient in its use of transmission resources. In addition there is a separate need for an efficient method of CRC protection that allows for secondary channels of various capacities while being efficient in its use of storage, meaning that a large catalog of masks is not required for a multi-bit secondary channel, and universal, a meaning that the same method can provide both a single-bit phantom channel as well as a multi-bit secondary channel. Further, there is a need to provide these options within the context of existing systems and standards, so that their capabilities can expand and yet remain backwards-compatible.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    The present method uses at least two generating polynomials, or generating codes, to help determine when different degrees of error protection are being employed, and optionally to detect the presence of a phantom channel on the primary channel, without the need for explicit signaling from transmitter to receiver. In essence, the receiver deduces the transmitter&#39;s choice of CRC generating code by analyzing the incoming bit stream rather than relying on explicit signaling information and, armed with that knowledge responds accordingly.  
           [0012]    In contrast with prior art approaches that decode the CRC encoded message using only a single generating polynomial, the present method CRC decodes the encoded message on the receive side with at least two different generating polynomials. Based on the results of the twin decoding, the present method can determine which of the generating polynomials was used to encode the message and respond accordingly. For instance, if a particular generating polynomial was used, then this may be used to indicate that a second channel has been superimposed onto the primary channel and that second channel may be extracted. On the other hand, if another generating polynomial, such as the default generating polynomial, was used, this may be used to indicate that no second channel has been superimposed. In some embodiments, the method may optionally be refined by adding additional steps to resolve potential ambiguities resulting from the use of a twin decoding scheme. These steps may include deliberately altering the primary message by XOR adding known offset polynomials to the message prior to differentiate the CRC decoding results using the different generating polynomials. The alterations may then be removed at the receive end to reconstruct the original message.  
           [0013]    The present method increases processing overhead for at least the receiver, and typically the transmitter. Offsetting this, however, is an increase in transmission capacity. In the simplest embodiments, the present method allows the degree of redundancy in CRC encoding to be varied as necessary without the necessity of transmitting an explicit indicator flag bit or the like. In more complex embodiments, the present method allows a second channel to be phantomed onto the primary channel, once again without transmitting an explicit indicator flag bit or the like. Instead, the receiver deduces the transmitter&#39;s choice of CRC generating code, and thus the degree of redundancy and/or presence of the second channel, by analyzing the incoming bit stream rather than relying on explicit signaling information. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    [0014]FIG. 1 shows an encoded message frame of the prior art.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 2 shows one embodiment of a message frame of the present invention.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 3 shows the process flow on the transmit side for one embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 4 shows the process flow on the receive side for one embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0018]    For simplicity, the present invention will be described in the context of a digital cellular telephone communications network. However, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited thereby and encompasses a wide variety of communications systems, including both wired systems and wireless systems.  
         [0019]    As described above, transmit data is typically collected and grouped into a plurality of packets, called frames  10 . A representation of such a prior art frame  10  is shown in FIG. 1. For purposes of discussion herein, the frame  10  may be divided into two portions, a message portion  12  and a redundancy portion  14 . The sequence of the two portions is unimportant, but typically the redundancy portion  14  follows the message portion  12 . The message portion  12 , sometimes referred to as the protected text, includes message data, optionally encoded by any method known in the art. The redundancy portion  14  includes redundancy information (e.g., a CRC remainder). The frame  10  has an overall frame length, typically measured in bits. The frame  10  of FIG. 1 is shown as having a message portion  12  of K bits, with a sixteen bit redundancy portion  14 .  
         [0020]    An alternative frame configuration is shown in FIG. 2. The frame  10  of FIG. 2 likewise includes a message portion  12  and a redundancy portion  14 , but also includes a variable portion  16 . For simplicity, the message portion  12  is the same length, and contains the same information, as in FIG. 1. The redundancy portion  14  of FIG. 2 is only eight bits long and contains redundancy information. While this redundancy information is generally similar to the redundancy information of the FIG. 1 redundancy portion  14 , this redundancy information is different than that of the redundancy portion  14  of FIG. 1, as will be described later. The variable portion  16  shown in FIG. 2 is eight bits in length. In this example, the variable portion  16  may include redundancy information or may include secondary channel data, as will be described below. It should be noted that the overall frame length of the frame  10  shown in FIG. 2 is the same as that shown in FIG. 1 for simplicity of discussion.  
         [0021]    In the communications system, data is transmitted from a transmit station to a receive station. For purposes of illustration, the transmit station will be assumed to be a cellular radio base station while the receive station will be assumed to be a mobile cellular phone. The choice of these particular components is merely for the sake of convenience of description and because their details are well known in the art, except as elaborated on herein. Of course, any CRC encoding source may be substituted for the base station, whether composed of single or multiple components, and any CRC decoder may be substituted for the phone, likewise whether composed of single or multiple components, without departing from the scope of the present invention. In addition, the roles of the two stations may be reversed without departing from the scope of the present invention.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 3 shows the operation of the base station according to the present invention. The encoding portion of the base station collects the text to be protected (box  110 ), from either an internal or an external source. Applying the OSI reference model well known in the art, this step is typically accomplished by a first protocol stack passing down the text to the layer at which the present invention is carried out, which in practice would most likely be Layer  1 , Layer  2 , or an intermediate MAC layer. In addition, the encoding portion of the base station also collects auxiliary information (box  116 ), typically passed down along a second protocol stack. The auxiliary information may include an instruction that specifies which of a plurality of generator polynomials should be selected, as discussed below. In addition, the auxiliary information may include additional text to be carried over the secondary channel (second channel data).  
         [0023]    In order to compose the encoded message frame  10 , a CRC encoder associated with the base station is provided with first and second generating polynomials, G and H, respectively, which may have different degrees. When a frame  10  containing protected text is to be transmitted, the generating polynomial to be used by the encoder is selected (box  120 ), typically by the base station&#39;s main controller, but optionally by any other part of the base station. The selection between G or H may depend on observations concerning channel performance, such as estimates of bit-error ratios, the short-term average number of retries in an ARQ system, the confidence level of demodulated soft information, and so forth in any manner known in the art. Optionally, the selection of the generating polynomial may depend on the type of data being transmitted and/or on the presence, absence, or logical value of text to be transmitted on the secondary channel.  
         [0024]    Once the generating polynomial is selected (box  120 ), in this example H, the message portion  12  of the frame is composed (box  130 ) and the CRC encoder computes and appends the appropriate redundancy bits for the text in a manner well known in the art (box  140 ), typically by appending the redundancy bits to the main text. In addition, the base station also preferably decodes the composed frame  10  using the un-selected generating polynomial, G in this example (box  210 ). Equivalently, the base station may compute the appropriate redundancy bits for the text using the other (unselected) generating polynomial rather than decoding. In either case, the purpose of this additional computation is to detect ambiguity, which occurs when the text to be encoded has both G and H as a factor, and therefore decodes correctly according to both G and H. If the frame  10  decodes with a non-zero remainder (box  220 ), meaning ambiguity is not detected, the encoded text is transmitted conventionally (box  150 ). If, on the other hand, the frame  10  decodes with a zero remainder (box  220 ), indicating an ambiguity, further processing is needed to resolve this ambiguity prior to transmission.  
         [0025]    The ambiguity may be resolved by altering the frame  10  prior to transmission so as to remove the ambiguity. In the present invention, the ambiguity may be removed by adding, through an exclusive OR operation (XOR), a third or fourth polynomial to the frame  10  (box  230 ). For instance, if G was the selected generating polynomial, a third polynomial M—which is relatively prime with respect to G and H—is added (XOR) to the frame  10  (box  230 ). If, on the other hand, H was the selected generating polynomial, a fourth polynomial N—which is relatively prime with respect to G and H, and preferably with respect to M—is added to the frame  10  (box  230 ). Thus, when the generator polynomial G is used to encode, the frame  10  is altered by XOR with the polynomial M; when the generator polynomial H is used to encode, the frame  10  is altered by XOR with the polynomial N. After this further processing (box  230 ), the encoded message frame  10  is transmitted in a conventional fashion, such as by passing the encoded message down the protocol stack to the physical layer for transmission (box  150 ).  
         [0026]    At the receiving end, the phone receives the frame  10  (box  310 ), as shown in FIG. 4. The encoded frame  10  is then CRC decoded using both G and H (box  320 ). That is, the encoded message is CRC decoded with G, in a manner well known in the art (i.e., a remainder is computed according to conventional methods for CRC operation), to produce a first resulting remainder (R G ) (box  320 ). The encoded message is also CRC decoded with H to produce a second resulting remainder (R H ) (box  320 ). If both R G  and R H  are zero (box  330 ), the encoded message has decoded properly according to both G and H. Since, in the preferred embodiment, the transmitted message should never meet this condition (see boxes  220 - 230  of FIG. 3), transmission errors must have occurred, and the frame  10  is rejected (box  900 ). The rejected frame  10  is then processed according to known procedures, such as by requesting a retransmission.  
         [0027]    If R G  or R H , but not both, are non-zero (box  332 ), meaning that the encoded message decodes properly according to G or H, but not both, the frame  10  is deemed sound, and the message portion  12 , and optionally the variable portion  16 , are passed on for further processing as discussed below (box  800 ).  
         [0028]    If both R G  and R H  are non-zero (box  332 ), then the encoded message is processed further to potentially undo the M or N alterations made at the transmit end. To do so, polynomial M is added and the frame  10  and the M-augmented frame  10  is decoded using generator polynomial G (box  334 ). Further, polynomial N is added to the frame  10  and the N-augmented frame  10  is decoded using generator polynomial H (box  336 ). If the frame  10  does not decode properly in either of these cases (boxes  340 ,  344 ), or if it decodes properly in both cases (boxes  340 , 342 ), transmission errors have occurred, and the frame  10  is rejected (box  900 ). Otherwise, the augmented frame  10  (as unraveled by N or M) is deemed sound, and the message portion  12 , and optionally the variable portion  16 , are passed on for further processing as discussed below (box  810 ).  
         [0029]    In a simple embodiment, the processing of the decoded frame  10  (box  800  or  810 ) is rather straightforward. The message portion  12  of the encoded message, which is of constant length, is simply processed conventionally in a manner well known in the art. This scenario corresponds to a simple single channel transmission using varying degrees of redundancy error coding. For instance, assume that G is the sixteen bit generating polynomial used as a default in the communications system. Further, assume that H is an eight bit generating polynomial. If G is used as the generating polynomial, the degree of redundancy is effectively twice that of when H is used as the generating polynomial. It should be noted that the frame length in this simple embodiment may be fixed or may vary. If the frame length is variable, the frame  10  would include the message portion  12  and the redundancy portion  14 , but only include the variable portion  16  when the larger generating polynomial (G) is used. Thus, the variable portion  16 , when present, would include redundancy information that, when combined with the redundancy information in the redundancy portion  14 , would comprise the redundancy error coding data (e.g., the CRC remainder).  
         [0030]    In a more complex embodiment, the processing of the decoded frame  10  (box  800  or  810 ) branches depending on whether G or H was used as the generating polynomial, as determined by the phone. In the example given, H is used when there is a secondary channel “phantomed” onto the primary channel, and G is used when there is no secondary channel present. Continuing with the sixteen bit G and the eight bit H from above, the use of H frees up eight bits for use as a relatively low-bandwidth secondary channel, while the use of G allows for no such secondary channel. When the phone determines that G has been used, the phone processes the message portion  12  of the encoded message in a conventional fashion. In contrast, when the phone determines that H has been used, the phone processes the message portion  12  of the encoded message in a conventional fashion but also processes the variable portion  16  of the encoded message as a secondary channel. As can be seen in this embodiment, the variable portion  16  provides redundancy information when G is used, but includes secondary channel data when H is used. Further, it is preferable that the frame length remain constant using this embodiment, but this is not required.  
         [0031]    In the examples above, when the longer sixteen bit generating polynomial G is used, the message portion  12  of the frame  10  is CRC encoded, but the variable portion  16  is not encoded using G since it forms a portion of the redundancy information itself. On the other hand, when the shorter eight bit generating polynomial H is used, the variable portion  16  may or may not be encoded using H. For instance, the main protected text and the secondary channel data may be combined, and then the combination may be CRC encoded using H to produce the redundancy portion  14 . Or, the protected text may be CRC encoded using H to produce the redundancy portion  14  and then the variable portion  16  containing the secondary channel may be added.  
         [0032]    Continuing along those lines, the present invention may be used with a fixed frame length having a variable length message portion  12 . For instance, when using G to encode, the message length may be K bits, but when using H to encode, the message length may be K plus eight bits. With such an arrangement, the both the base station&#39;s and the phone&#39;s ambiguity resolution procedure would need to account for the variable length. For instance, K bits would be decoded with G and K plus eight bits would be decoded with H, and the two results compared to determine if there may be an ambiguity. Thus, the extra bits saved by using the shorter generating polynomial could be used to increase the number of bits dedicated to the primary channel message within a fixed length frame  10 .  
         [0033]    The examples above have assumed that the shorter generating polynomial, H, is half the degree of the default generating polynomial, G. However, this relationship in degree is not required. Indeed, H may be of less degree than G by one bit, two bits, up to the degree of G minus one. Thus, the “size” of the phantom secondary channel may be varied.  
         [0034]    Further, in some embodiments, the two generating polynomials, G and H, may be different polynomials of the of the same degree. Such a method may be used simply to provide varying degrees of redundancy error coding. Alternatively, the simple choice of which generating polynomial to be used may be used to convey information. For instance, if the primary channel data carries voice information, generating polynomial G is used, while if the primary channel data carries non-voice data, generating polynomial H is used. The phone could then process the data differently depending on which generating polynomial the phone determines has been used by the base station. Thus, the ability to use two different generating polynomials may be used to help convey information even though the generating polynomials are of the same degree.  
         [0035]    Additionally, although the invention is described above in terms of two generating polynomials, G and H, the approach can be extended in a straightforward way to more than two generating polynomials, and the invention is intended to encompass such situations.  
         [0036]    Clearly, the present method increases the processing overhead for the receiver, and typically the transmitter. Rather than CRC decoding using only one generating polynomial, the receiver must CRC decode using both at least first and a second generating polynomials (G and H in the example). Further, in some embodiments, additional CRC decoding steps are required to undo alterations made at the transmit end intended to resolve ambiguities. Thus, the present method is more computationally intensive than the prior art. However, the present method allows for greater flexibility and transmission capacity. Further, some optional embodiments allow for the transmission of a phantom second channel superimposed over a first channel without violating established protocols. That is, a device using the present invention may still receive and process messages from existing systems not employing this invention; the device will simply engage in some needless calculations. Thus, such a device would be backward compatible with the existing systems. This is a great advantage in systems where the slots in the relevant protocol for transmitting flag-type information are all used or otherwise unavailable.  
         [0037]    The present invention may, of course, be carried out in other specific ways than those herein set forth without departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of the invention. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended to be embraced therein.